Deern's 1001 list

I love writing and maintaining lists… so it was just a matter of time until I’d give in to the temptation of starting my own 1001 thread. My personal goal is to read at least 250 books from that list.
Reviews of those recently read can be found in my 75 thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/87066

Reviews after posting #60 here are to be found in this thread:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/97981

Reviews after #84:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/116275

Reviews after #108:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/121752

Reviews after #118:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/129529

Reviews after #122:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/133498

Reviews after #124:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/136499

Reviews in #132:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/142952

The books marked with (1001) were picked from the list, the others were read earlier.

I remember that I was terribly embarrassed at the low figure I reached after half a lifetime of reading, but on the other hand I was surprised at how many ‘easy’ books had made their way onto the list. I’d never have expected Isabel Allende, Stephen King or Astrid Lindgren. This made it easier for me to finally tackle some of the classics I had always avoided.

29.04.2010: edited to add some impressions I remember from the first reading for those books I read long ago.

2000s
1. Measuring the World (1001)
2. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
No idea why this was ever on the list. Has been removed in the 2010 edition. This was just an everyday read.
3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
see 2.
4. Kafka on the Shore (1001)
5. The Devil and Miss Prym (1001)
6. White Teeth

1900s
7. The Hours (1001)
8. Veronika Decides to Die (1001)
9. Enduring Love (1001)
10. Infinite Jest (1001)
11. The Reader (1001)
12. Smilla’s Sense of Snow
Found it confusing but read it till the end. I remember I liked it.
13. The Buddha of Suburbia
The first book I ever read dealing with immigration issues. Caught the spirit of the late 70s/ early 80s very well.
14. Remains of the Day (1001)
15. Foucault’s Pendulum
All-time favorite which makes Dan Brown look sooooo poor in comparison.
16. The New York Trilogy (1001)
17. Of Love and Shadows
Can't remember a single thing about the story, but I am sure I liked it.
18. Love in the Time of Cholera
A must-read in the 80s, I liked it a lot
19. Perfume
Another must-read, especially in Germany. For my taste a bit too 'belletristic' and obvious to be great. Hate the movie.
20. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
80s must-read. I didn't like it much, maybe I shoud try again. The pseudo-intellectuals at school loved it though
21. The Color Purple
22. The House of the Spirits
The first Allende was the best (for me)
23. Midnight’s Children (1001)
24. The Name of the Rose
My first big challenge book. I loved it and I hated the movie.
25. The Shining
Should re-read it. Back then it really scared me
26. Interview With the Vampire
27. The Fan Man
No memory. Wasn't it quite disgusting?
28. Portnoy’s Complaint (1001)
29. The Quest for Christa T. (1001)
30. One Hundred Years of Solitude
I preferred this one to the 'Cholera' book, it was a fantastic holiday read
31. The Bell Jar (1001)
32. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
This shocked me when I was young, especially the ending. Never saw the movie.
33. Pale Fire (1001)
34. Catch-22 (1001)
35. To Kill a Mockingbird (1001)
36. The Tin Drum
Hmpf... German must-read. I hate Grass and his self-importance.
37. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1001)
38. Homo Faber
School read. You can have too much of Max Frisch during your schooltime
39. Pnin (1001)
40. The Lord of the Rings
41. The Talented Mr. Ripley
42. Lolita (1001)
43. Bonjour Tristesse
I am proud to say that I read this in French. Many years ago. No chance I could do that nowadays. In my teenage years one of my favorites.
44. Lord of the Flies (1001)
45. The Old Man and the Sea (1001)
46. The Catcher in the Rye (1001)
47. Doctor Faustus (1001)
48. Brideshead Revisited (1001)
49. Animal Farm
50. Pippi Longstocking
Read it as child, as teenager, as adult. Watched the TV series. Dressed as Pippi for carnival. I will always love Pippi. Topped only by Michel from Lönneberga.
51. The Little Prince
Read it but never got the hype.
52. Chess Story
This one impressed me deeply when I read it first and I still like it a lot.
53. The Hobbit
54. Out of Africa
Actually, I found this one quite boring.
55. Gone With the Wind
The movie is a perfect adaptation. I love both.
56. Tropic of Cancer
57. The Waves (1001)
58. All Quiet on the Western Front (1001)
59. Remembrance of Things Past (1001)
A great misunderstanding lead me to reading all 7 books. But it was definitely worth it.
60. To The Lighthouse (1001)
61. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
I love Agatha Christie and am an avid Poirot fan. This is one of the best.
62. Mrs. Dalloway (1001)
63. The Trial (1001)
64. The Magic Mountain (1001)
65. Siddhartha (1001)
66. The Age of Innocence (1001)
67. Death in Venice (1001)
68. Howards End (1001)
69. A Room With a View
70. Young Törless (1001)
71. Heart of Darkness (1001)
72. The Hound of the Baskervilles
73. Buddenbrooks (1001)

1800s
74. Dracula
75. The Time Machine
School read. Didn't mean much to me.
76. Jude the Obscure (1001)
77. The Picture of Dorian Gray
78. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
79. Treasure Island
80. The Portrait of a Lady (1001)
81. Anna Karenina (1001)
82. Middlemarch (1001)
83. Through the Looking Glass (1001)
84. Little Women
No, I didn't cry once. But I kind of liked it.
85. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
86. Silas Marner (1001)
87. Great Expectations
88. Madame Bovary (1001)
89. Cranford (1001)
I found this quite dull.
90. Moby-Dick
I read this voluntarily on a holiday and really enjoyed it. I never knew it was known as a difficult and boring read. But my holiday was boring, so the book could only win.
91. Wuthering Heights
92. Jane Eyre (1001)
Will I ever become friends with this book?
93. The Count of Monte-Cristo (1001)
94. The Pit and the Pendulum (1001)
95. The Fall of the House of Usher (1001)
96. Oliver Twist
97. Emma
I started reading Austen after watching the movie with Gwyneth Paltrow. Emma is among my favorite Austens.
98. Mansfield Park (1001)
99. Pride and Prejudice
All-time favorite. And the BBC series... *sigh*
100. Sense and Sensibility
101. Elective Affinities (1001)

1700s
102. Dangerous Liaisons
Should re-read it one day. Found it very boring in the 80s.
103. The Sorrows of Young Werther
Must-must-must-read at school. Hated Werther, but obviously found a connection. My essay got the best grade!
104. A Modest Proposal
This counts as a book?
105. Gulliver’s Travels (1001)
106. Robinson Crusoe

Pre 1700s:
none

1,001 books on my tbr pile:

The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
The Thousand and One Nights
Oronooko by Aphra Behn
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Stiller by Max Frisch
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin

Currently reading:

The Invisible Man by G.H. Wells
Les Choses by Georges Perec

I’d never strive for the full 1001 for the following reasons (another list - whatever gives me an excuse to keep away from Tristram Shandy for a few more minutes):

I need to read non-fiction as well. And at times I just need to read some easy stuff or even trash to ‘clear my brains’.

There are books I would never touch for their contents ( I read a few pages of American Psycho years ago and it still haunts me. The same goes for Lovely Bones). I can’t cope with graphic violence.

Some books are almost unreadable in their original language and there exists no translation (Finnegans Wake is a good example). I decided that - for me - reading those is quite useless. Reading would merely become ‘moving my eyes over a text’, and this is a waste of my time

I’d like to decide myself how many books to read by one author. When an author turns up x times on the list, I’ll try one of her/his books and then decide whether I like it enough to read another one.

What I really like about the list:
It is not ‘1001 Really Serious And Difficult Books You Must Read Before You Die’. You will usually find something to fit your mood. There are many challenging books on the list for sure, but there are also many easy holiday reads.

107. Tristram Shandy

Done. I think I'll stay away from the pre-1800 classics for a while.

Ah ah - found your 1,001 thread!

So you finished it! Well done - I'm still well off the end becasue I only read it in one place/time of day (work but shhhhh...)

I'd really recommend Half of a Yellow Sun - I read that in Feb and its excellent. About as far from TS as you can get!

I read TS 'everywhere', just to get it finished. At work as well, but I also took it to the gym to read it on the crosstrainer or cardio-bike. A 60 minute workout got me through half a volume without being interrupted.
Not all books are gym material, but luckily it worked well with this one.

Actually, I bought Half of a Yellow Sun after reading your review in your 75 thread. I didn't start it yet, though it keeps 'calling to me' from its shelf (do you also have the impression that books are often waiting for the right time and then suddenly you feel drawn to them?). Unfortunately the edition I got through amazon has a terribly small print, so it will certainly require concentrated 'at-home reading' with good lights. It might be next after Nineteen-Eighty-Four.

Your list is impressive, and very different than mine would be! (I'm waiting to compile mine until I think I'm up to ca. 200). On your TBR pile, the only one I've both read and enjoyed is THe Woman in White. I've read 3 Wilkie Collins's and enjoyed them all in a bizarre way. WiW is one of the more normal of his books.

I haven't read any Wilkie Collins so far and unfortunately it will be a while till I can start The Woman in White, as it is stored at my parents' place.

My list has no system. When I got the spreadsheet I found that I had read mainly books which had been best-sellers at a time (Allende, Garcia-Marquez, Eco, Kundera) and some German classics and modern classics I had been forced to read at school.

So in the beginning I just went to the bookshops and bought whatever I found without any plan, and those were mostly renowned (modern) classics. Only when I started reading the 1001 threads here with the numerous recommendations I took a cautious step towards the modern authors. There have been so many great surprises, it's really like new worlds are opening up.

108. Nineteen-Eighty-Four

Another book I should have read ages ago. There was a some talking about it back in 1984, I think there was also a movie (which I then was too young to watch) and a song by Eurythmics. But there were other, more pressing issues at that time in Germany (acid rain and the start of ecological awareness, all the discussions around the use of nuclear energy) and once the year had passed, the whole Big Brother concept was not mentioned again until the reality show started on TV many years later.

Another book which in theory should be on the reading list in all schools, just like All Quiet on the Western Front. Yet in this case it's easier to see why it isn't.

As usual I'll write more on my 75-books thread.

Started Half of a Yellow Sun yesterday. So far I really like it, but now the war is just about to start and I am dreading to see what is going to happen to all the characters.

109. Half of a Yellow Sun

I had expected this would take me about a week, but I finished it in two days. An amazing book with wonderful characters and not overly sentimental.

It finds just the right balance between scenes of terrible sadness or shocking violence and scenes of love, hope and also forgiveness. The author succeeded in creating characters with completely different backgrounds and making them all believable.

Now once again I have no idea what to read next. I have been dragging The Kreutzer Sonata around with me in my gym bag for some weeks now, but I don't feel drawn to it yet.

110. The Judge and his Hangman

I have no idea how many times I went through the 1001 list, but this one had somehow escaped me so far. Maybe because I was not able to connect it with the German title, though it is a 1:1 translation. So one more for the records - yay!

I've read it ca 20 years ago and 'quite liked' it. I'd say 3,5 stars. I preferred Duerrenmatt's plays and I thought that his other crime story, The Quarry/ Der Verdacht was deeper.

111. Ulysses

Yay - finally finally finished! :-)
The weirdest thing: in the end I really liked it. I'll write a looong review on my 75-books thread. It took me two years to finish that book, so there's a lot to write.

Started The Plague yesterday and almost finished it. Also started Walden for the TIOLI May (otherwise I'd probably have avoided it for the rest of my life). So far it's... well, boring.
And I am halfway through "The Leopard"/ Il Gattopardo which has not many pages, but requires attentive reading.

112. The Plague (German version)

I remember that I had read parts of it as a teenager and that the existentialist writing style had impressed me much more then. And I also remembered it as a difficult read. Maybe it is among those books which should better be read at an older age, with some more experience of life. Actually I was astonished at how quickly I went through it now, 20 years later, and how obvious the allegories seemed to me (and how easily they could be applied to more recent events).

******
Though I know that Camus used the plague in a metaphorical sense, I went to read a bit more about the disease at wiki and was surprised to see that there is a certain number of fatal cases every year, some even in the US (caused by prairie dogs).

113. The Leopard/ The Gattopardo (German version)

After my failed attempt of reading it in Italian I now finished the German translation. Hopefully I will be able to read the original in a few months, because the language plays a major role in this book and I'd like to be able to enjoy the 'melody' of the Italian text.

I liked this book a lot. But I believe the reader should be a bit familiar with Italian history and the ever-existing tensions between North and South, otherwise the calm and lengthy reflections on the landscape and people of Sicily might become boring.

My rating: 4,5 stars

And now I'll concentrate on my 3 TIOLI challenges ( Steppenwolf , Walden , Life of Pi ).

114. Steppenwolf (German version)

I read this for the May TIOLI. I can't believe I avoided Hesse for so long for such stupid reasons... the reason was in the end that I myself was a bit of a "Steppenwolf" and Hesse was like by the 'wrong' sort of people at my school, the wannabe intellectuals always carried a Hesse book in their bag. So I thought it must be easy-to-digest, pseudo-philosophical stuff and didn't touch it until recently.

I find that reading Hesse is like getting a confirmation of my own thoughts. It was the same with Siddharta. I don't know if I should find this worrying. Probably all readers feel this way and that's what makes his books so popular.

The book has a strange and sometimes sparse atmosphere, reminding me a lot of Kafka, especially the ending.

Rating: 4,5 stars

115. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen

Very hard stuff, as to be expected from a book about survival in Auschwitz. I will write more on my 75 books thread, but it might take a while, because writing a review for a book like this is really difficult.

I'd recommend it to anyone, as it is not recent Holocaust fiction (like "The Reader" or "The Kindly Ones" - both touchstones don't work - ) but written by an eye-witness, the Polish poet Tadeusz Borowski. He survived Auschwitz physically, but killed himself in 1951 using gas, not being able to cope both with what he had seen (and done) and with the world after the war.

Rating: 5 stars

116. Life of Pi

Another May TIOLI read. I rated it with 4 stars, but am not yet sure. Before chapter 3 I would have rated with 3 or 3,5 stars. I feel a bit disturbed and also repulsed by it and I expected something quite different, something more heartwarming.

I'll let it settle for a bit and then decide about the final rating.

117. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

A quick read with just 88 pages. No surprises here, everyone knows the story. Has some unintended funny bits (the narrator is such an honorable English gentleman).

Rating: 3,5 stars

118. Walden

Thanks to the TIOLI May I got this one finally off my tbr pile. I just want to say that I am glad it is finished. The 333 pages felt like at least a thousand.

Rating: 2,5 stars

119. Hideous Kinky

The story of a hippie family in Marocco, seen through the eyes of a little girl. Certainly no must-read, but a beautiful, heartbreaking book (with just 180 pages).

Rating: 4 stars

120. The lost honor of Katharina Blum

Just noticed that I had forgotten to list this May read. Surprisingly, I liked it. It is written in a pseuo-neutral reporting style. The atmosphere is typically 70s but the plot has lost nothing of its relevance.

Rating: 4 stars

121. Things Fall Apart

This is quite a short book at just 197 pages, but it took me almost a week to finish. It is an interesting read which fits in well with the other books about Nigeria I've read so far, but it has some lengths and seems a bit unbalanced. The "introductory" part (life in an Ibo clan in Nigeria before colonization) is quite (too?) extensive, while the part that describes the changes in the villages after the arrival of missionaries and commissioners seems too short in comparison.
I would have rated it with 3 stars, but the last paragraph was worth an extra 0,5 for me.

Rating: 3,5 stars

122. The Woman in White

Basically a great story, and the idea of using all those different narratives must have been groundbreaking at its time - but for my liking the book was at least 200 pages too long. This is a common issue if a book was originally published as a series of chapters in a paper.
And I didn't really like the main (good) characters, they were so one-dimensional (and - sorry! -boring).

Rating: 3 stars

123. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

What a weird and wonderful book!
I am so glad I discovered Hurakami. When I finally read Kafka on the Shore early this year -after it had been sitting on my shelf for almost two years- it was like new worlds were opening up to me. Since then I have read Norwegian Wood and South of the Border, so Wind-up Bird has already been my fourth Murakami in 2010.

This one didn't leave as many open story threads as the Kafka book, but left me feeling a bit dejected. I might have preferred a different ending - with the well and the 'hanging house' and the 'mark' remaining in place. But that's just me.

Like Kafka this was once again a brilliant book. Although currently I don't have that much time for reading I managed more than 100 pages daily (or nightly I should say).

I am now taking a Murakami break - otherwise I might have read them all by the end of the year - and what then?

Rating: 4,5 stars

124. Group Portrait with Lady

After reading this book I am wondering if David Foster Wallace was familiar with Boell's work, much of Boell's style reminds me of passages of Infinite Jest. This book earned Boell the nobel prize.

The 'story' tells the life of Leni Pfeiffer, a middle-aged woman, who had a secret relationship with a Russion prisoner of war during WWII. This sounds like nothing, but her story is told in letters, personal interviews and comments from other people - friends, relatives, neighbours, colleagues, teachers, etc., commented by an anonymous 'author'. We don't know anything about the author himself or his motives and in the course of the book he loses his distance to the story and becomes part of it.

With the help of all those statements, the reader gets an overview of the third reich, the war, the bombing of the German cities, the time following the capitulation, and what it meant for the population. It is a bit like a puzzle, but extremely insightful and personal.

The part covering the present (i.e. the early seventies) is mainly concerned with the way post-war Germany deals with its past. From today's point of view I can say that much has changed since then for the better.

I can very much recommend this book - although I don't know how it works in the English translation. I'll write a bit more about the style in my 75-books thread.

Rating: 4,5 stars

#123 >> The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle sounds very interesting. It's on my tbr pile. I'm still reading Kafka on the Shore (100 pages to go), and I'm looking forward to read another Murakami book.

I am very surpised I am just now finding your group. I am also a big list person. And I had to laugh alittle at your comment when you stated you were a little embarrassed of how low the figure of books on the big 1001 list. My weakness has always been bio I love reading about famous people (actors, politicans) and see what makes them tick. But going though the list I have found some really great reads.

I have went though and found several different list on listology.com and I have combined 1001 books you have to read before you die all editions with books you should read to consider yourself well read and now I have a list of around 2500 titles. And now I have the list printed out and taped on my wall and once a month I get the pleasure of highlighting the titles that I have know read. I have alot of reading to do but that is okay.

HAPPY READING

Read this classic a couple of months ago and like you know big surpises and a really fast read that I knocked out is an evening.

Completely agree with you there are some books that I dont know if I will ever be able to read. I think my thorn is MARQUIS DE SADE. I have tried to pick up his book several times and can only get though a couple pages at a time. Im no prude by any means but OMG.

And like you if I see a author serveral times I will pick a title and decide if I want to read the others. Michael Dubin I dont not really care for so there are a couple title right there. And lucky I have a co-worker that reads just much has I do but has been at it alot longer then I and I can go and ask her about some of the authors that have saved me some time.

# 26 Kilgorius: Kafka on the Shore is a great book and I might reread it soon. There are many recurring themes in Murakami's books and I wonder if I'd perceive 'Kafka' - which was also my first Murakami - differently now.

# 27-29 ALWINN: Welcome to my thread. I think I might also check out listology - even if it puts me in danger of adding even more books to my tbr pile.

125. The Death of Ivan Ilych

I read this little book this morning in an online version. It is really short and yet it counts as a full book on the 1001 list.

Ivan Ilych is a man in his 40s, well established in his bourgeois life. Unexpectedly he finds himself terminally ill, facing a slow and painful death by an undefined desease. The reader escorts him on his way to acceptance of this fate and is forced to reflect on her/his own attitude towards mortality.

I liked the book and can recommend it, but only to readers who are willing to confront this subject. Otherwise it can be a depressing read.

Rating: 4 stars

And with this book I have read 1/8 of the listed books (2008 version) - yay! :-)

Well I do have my master list so let me know if you want a copy and I will shot it over to you. Like I said it is a combined list of all the edition of the 1001 books to read and then others. And I have already done the leg work by deleting the dupl.

126. La Bete Humaine/ The Beast in Man

This was a spontanous read after I was reminded that I had not read any Zola so far. This one is comparatively short (I got through the online version in 2 days - during work - , I guess the book has less than 200 pages).

I started completely unprepared, so I was shocked and put off by the violence, especially in the first two chapters. But then the story really gains speed. I literally feels like once I had jumped on that story-train, I couldn't get off anymore.

All characters are mean - either they are brutal or scheming or both. Violence is widely accepted (a brother regularly beats his sister, a husband poisons his wife and those are just small side plots) and often described in detail. This is nothing for the sensitive reader.
The only 'character' seeming human was the train, the Lison.
Very strong ending!

In summary: horrible and violent story, but a great and powerful book.

Rating: 4 stars

127. Zorba the Greek

Finally finished another 1001 book. I don't count Don't Move as I am using the 2008 list.

I got this book because I needed a title starting with 'Z' to complete my personal 'A-Z title' challenge. Next will be 'A-Z authors'.

Well, I loved it (and at the same time disliked it a bit). Zorba is an incredibly likeable character and now that I finished the book I am already missing him. His liveliness successfully gilds all the flaws the book has, and there are some.

As for the rest of the story: the permanent comparison of 'life philosophies' seemed quite constructed and it is obvious that the author has a strong love-hate relationship with his home country Greece. At times I wished the narrator would disappear and leave us alone with Zorba.

Something I didn't like at all (but had to accept) was the way women are seen and treated in the story. However I think this is a realistic description of the situation in the first half of the 1900s (before WWII) in this very rural community on a Greek island and this can't make me hate the book.

Rating: 4 stars

128. Ethan Frome

My second Edith Wharton book after The Age of Innocence, and also a very short book with just 130 pages. I was pleasantly surprised, I even liked it more than AoI, but then came this impossible ending. I was warned it would be ridiculous and cheesy and yes, it is. The utter hopelessness of Ethan's situation reminded me a lot of Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.

Rating: 3 stars

129. The Cement Garden

I got this one because the title sounded interesting and because it had just 120 pages. It's a typical McEwan - people leading a seemingly normal life take an unfortunate decision and slowly lose control over their situation.

Spoilers coming:
This book is about four children losing first their father and some months later also their mother. Fearing to be separated by the authorities they decide to hide the mother's body in the basement in a trunk they fill up with cement. They try to keep up their daily routine, which is easy as it all happens during the summer holidays and the family has always been quite isolated anyway.
There is the 'neverending summer heat' (in England?), there is disorder, there are hormones stirring and there are incestuous activities, though I found the latter less disturbing than the relationship of the moustache-wearing, sports car-driving billard player (aged 23) with the eldest sister (aged 16 or 17).
Spoilers ended

McEwan is an amazing writer, he is able to address directly to the reader's senses. You feel the summer heat, the passivity and laziness it creates. You can hear the flies in the dirty kitchen, and you can almost smell the stench of the garbage (and other stuff).

So in the end, as much as I admire his writing, I can't help feeling slightly disgusted by each and every McEwan book I've read so far.

Rating: 3,5 stars

Ugh. Ethan Frome's ending is the kookiest thing I ever done read. Glad I wasn't the only one.

Oh believe me, not at all! I've enjoyed all the other Wharton I've read but I hated Ethan Frome...though that hatred isn't specific to the ending I'm afraid Deern.

130. Everything is Illuminated

It is difficult to describe what this book is about, so I'm not even trying it. You can check other reviews for that.

I bought it quite spontaneously because I liked the cover, and when I read the plot description in the 1001 book I was terribly bored after just a few lines. But many people seemed to like it and what convinced me to read it was maryjanemanolos' recommendation on her blog (thanks for that!!). And it fit nicely into the August TIOLI. So I started it and couldn't put it down. I even got up at night just to finish it because I couldn't sleep without knowing the ending.

The first few chapters might be a bit confusing until you see the connection between the story threads and time levels, but then it all works very well.
Jonathan Safran Foer is quite creative with the language and the styles he is using, but I didn't once get the feeling of reading one of those overly 'constructed' works (which is currently the case with If on a winter's night a traveller.

The book made me laugh (especially the first half), it made me sad, but it didn't depress me. I'd say this is one of those books which leave the reader with a feeling of 'quiet contentedness'.

Rating: 4,5 stars, but maybe I'll change that to 5 once it has settled a bit.

131. Germinal

After reading La Bete Humaine I decided to finally reread (and this time finish) Germinal.

While LBH was short and powerful and packed with violence, this here felt more like a long and slow walk through a valley of utter hopelessness. I am really feeling down now. If I was forced to read all Zolas in a row I'd probably feel like killing myself. Nonetheless the books are great, but it seems I can only have them in small bits with longer breaks in between. Zola certainly didn't sugarcoat anything and that made his books so important.

Rating: 4 stars (but not an enjoyable read)

Epic win! Isn't it amazing that that was his first novel, and we has only in his 20s? Ugh. It's so good.

I loved Germinal and after reading it I sought out the movie of Emile Zola's life

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029146/

He was a great muckraker who was possibly murdered for his beliefs/actions.

# 41: Have you read his next Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? I just ordered it, I hope it's as good.

#42: Thanks for the link, I never heard of that movie.

No worries re link. It's one of the 1001 movies list if that matters.

You didn't ask *me*but anyways, I actually preferred Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Don't be tempted to look at the unique pages at the end of the book until you finish!

So there's a 1001 movies list... And I already spend too much on DVDs and need all the remaining space in my flat for new books... I'd better try and forget that list quickly.

"Extremely Loud" was delivered today and now it's kind of watching me from its amazon box, trying to tempt me into looking at those last pages. Well, I won't!! (at least not right now)

132. The God of Small Things

Rahel, a young woman, returns from the US to her home town in India to take care of her twin bother Estha. Estha has not been speaking for many years and is obviously trapped in a world of his own that no-one else can enter. With backflashes we learn that the twins were separated at a young age after some terrible events had taken place in the family.

The story is at the same time terribly sad and beautiful. From a very early point the reader knows what is going to happen, but is drawn into the story very slowly, in ever smaller circles, up to the point where he can‘t escape anymore and is forced to watch ‚The Terror‘ (as it is called in the book) unfold.

Arundhati Roy shows great sensitivity and empathy describing the destructive and lasting effects even a casual remark (or later a cruel manipulation) can have on the minds of innocent children.

Rating: 4 stars

133. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

There is not much I can write about a book which has probably been reviewed thousands of times. When I started reading it I feard I might be too old already to get the humor, and I was relieved when I found I was actually able to really enjoy it. Certainly it will never be a cult book for me as it might have been had I read it 20 years earlier. But it was fun and I will probably read the other books of the series as well.

Rating: 4 stars

134. Cloud Atlas

A great book, one of my best reads in 2010.

You'll find the review as posting #175 on my 2010's 75-thread (link above in posting #1).

Rating 4,5 stars which will probably be upgraded to 5 stars later.

135. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler/ Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore

So far my worst read in 2010! Again you'll find the review on my 75-thread, posting # 179.

Rating 2 stars: 1 star + 1 star in case I missed something due to some language issues.

136. Exercises in Style

Quite short at just 121 pages and very easy to read.
My review is posting #180 on my 75-thread.

Rating: 3 stars

137. The Crow Road

Finally found the time to finish this one. I really liked it, enjoyable read, not too deep. My review is posting #190 on the 75-thread.

Rating: 4 stars

138. Orlando

Lovedlovedloved it!!
It's not my favorite Virginia Woolf novel (that would be The Waves), but when I look at other great books I rated with 4 or 4,5 stars, this one here clearly stands out.

Rating 5 stars

The review is posting #195 on my 75 thread.

139. The Great Gatsby

This book would have worked better for me, had it been longer. Too much was given away too early. I read so much praise for it, and I am really sorry to say this, but it disappointed me. It was okay, but it wasn't great.
How can a book about so many shallow people be 'the' American novel? This is such a sad book. Sure it touches all those important issues, but shouldn't I at least like ANY of the characters?
You'll find my review as posting #207 on my 75 thread.

Rating 3,5 stars

140. Slaughterhouse-Five

What a strange and unexpected way to write an anti-war book. Am I allowed to 'enjoy' a book about WWII? Well, I did. It is short with just 157 pages but it took me a whole day to get through.

Review is posting #210 on the 75 thread.

Rating: 4 stars

Edited to add posting number.

What an interesting list! Got me enthused with writing my own.

#55: Thank you! I can recommend starting your own list. In my case it made me read even more, because the updating (and seeing the progress) feels so good. :-)

141. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Banana Yoshimoto represents the 'Y' on my 'A-Z author challenge'.
This is a charming little book which I quite enjoyed and which reminded me of Murakami's works.
My review is posting #217 on the 75 thread.

Rating 3,5 stars

142. Kim

A very difficult read for me, I had problems with the language and my lack of knowledge about the cultural background. I will get a German annotated version for a reread.
I posted my review as #219 on my 75 thread.

Rating: 3 stars

143. Of Human Bondage

One of the best books I have ever read.
No real review but some more information in posting #238 on my 75thread.

Rating 5 stars.

144. Io non ho paura/ I'm not scared

A story that is very convincingly told through the eyes of a nine year old child. Quite disturbing. The review is posting # 239 on my 75thread.

Rating: 3,5 stars

145. Frankenstein

Brilliant idea, terribly executed.

My review is posting #2 on my second 75thread:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/97981

Rating: 2,5 stars

#61

Which version did you read? I pretty much agree with your opinion but the version I read was the newer, wordier one and I have heard the older one is tighter...

#62: It's called Giunti Classics, which surprisingly is an Italian publishing house and the introduction doesn't really say which version it is, apart from 'complete and unabridged'. The (English) text has 222 pages and it certainly felt 'wordy'.

I had most problems with the first part (you read and read and nothing much happens, then suddenly the 'creature' is there and gone again in an instant). The middle part was quite well balanced and in the third part I could have done without the extensive description of landscapes.

146. Giovanni's Room

A really sad book about a young man trying to overcome his homosexual desires by steering towards a conventional marriage, set in Paris in the 1950s. Posting #19 in my second 75thread.
Rating: 4,5 stars

147. The Castle of Otranto

'The first gothic novel' - a book I was only able to finish by declaring it a comedy. Quite short, but tiring. Posting #20 in my 2nd 75thread.
Rating: 2,5 stars

148. Bleak House

Really great classic, but very long. Wonderful characters. Posting #26 in the usual thread.
Rating: 4,5 stars

I think I rated those 3 books exactly the same! I thought Castle of Otranto was terrible--but it had cool illustrations so i ripped them out to use in an art project and threw the text in recycling (hey, I paid 50 cents for the book at a charity sale--it was far from precious).

#65: I read it on the Kindle, sadly no illustrations in my version. For a short book it seemed certainly very very long.

Here is the next bunch:

149: Rabbit, Run

The first of the 'Rabbit' series, and I am not sure I will ever read the sequels. Great writing (though sometimes repulsive), depressing story.
Posting #32 on my 2nd 75thread.
Rating: 3 stars

150. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
I had just started The Elementary Particles, but decided that one shouldn't be #150, so I read this because it's short and I had it already on my Kindle. It was okay, but not that funny. Alltogether I am not too happy with the humorous books on the 1001 list, some of them are surprisingly silly.
Posting #34 on the usual thread.
Rating: 3 stars

151. The island of Doctor Moreau

A Victorian fantasy novel which (in my opinion) doesn't translate well into our time. Not my favorite genre. Posting #36 on the 75 thread.
Rating: 3 stars

152. The Elementary Particles

Not good, but not as bad as expected. The review is posting #44 on my 75thread.

Rating: 3,5 stars

153. The Life of a Good-for Nothing

German classic, quite short, easy to read. A bit like a fairy tale by the Grimm brothers. Not really my taste, but doesn't hurt. Posting #60 on the 75 thread

Rating: 3 stars

154. Nowhere Man

Interesting concept of 6 interrelated stories, dealing with life in Yugoslavia before the war and with migration. Not an easy read. Would have rated it higher but couldn't get into the 6th story. The review is posting #61 on the 75thread.

Rating: 4 stars

155. Cry, the beloved country

A great book once you get over the first few chapters. I'd say a must-read for people interested in African literature. The (short) review is posting #62 on my 75thread.

Rating: 5 stars

I read too many non-1001 books this month... but here are two more:

156. 2666
Exceptional, brilliant. I lost many, many more words in my posting #91 on the 75thread.
Rating: 5 stars, because I can't give more

157. The Inheritance of Loss
After years on hold finally finished. Not my favorite 'India book' this year. Posting #92 on the 75thread
Rating: 3 stars

Currently reading The Corrections

And the next ones:

158. The Corrections
A great book and a must-read. At times embarrassingly and painfully real.
Review is posting #111 on my 75thread.
Rating: 4,5 stars

159. The Moonstone
I liked it much better than The Woman in White, still a bit too long.
Longer posting #112 on my 75thread.
Rating: 4 stars

160. The Three Musketeers
Not as good as The Count of Monte Christo, disappointing ending and too many sword fights for my liking. #135 on the 75thread.
Rating: 3 stars

161. A Clockwork Orange
In short: 4,5 stars for the language, 3,5 for the story, makes 4. Recommendable read and it's short! #136 on the 75thread.
Rating: 4 stars

I read The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf. It's on the 2006 list but was removed from the 2008 edition which I own, so I don't count it here. But it is a recommendable book if you like Woolf's books in general and more accessible than some of the later ones (review: #142 on my 75thread)

162. Silk (wrong touchstone)
A very quick read - 68 short chapters, most of them covering less than a page. Hard to describe in 2 sentences, so see my longer review: #169 on my 75 thread.

Rating: 4 stars

163. The Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Definitely not my genre and I am sure not among the best by Jules Verne. Comparatively "short" with less than 400 pages and quite a quick read if you (like me) don't care about the science stuff and read it without thinking much. Longer review: #171 on the 75 thread.

Rating:2,5 stars

I also reread A Christmas Carol which will forever be a 5 star favorite (#172 on the other thread).

I am now reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and plan to squeeze in another classic before the year ends. War and Peace is planned for early 2011.

I have a christmas Carol on my list to read, glad to see you give it 5 stars. Always makes me want to start reading them straight away! Xx

164. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
A very pleasant and easy read. Review: #188 on my 75thread.
Rating: 4 stars

165. Pereira Declares
I rated this little book with 4 stars, but even weeks after finishing it I keep thinking about it. It has much to offer if you are willing to find it.
Review: #223 on the 75thread
Rating: 4 stars

166. Crime and Punishment
A must-read, but not an easy one.
Review: #225 on my 75thread.
Rating: 4 stars

I reread Jane Eyre and upgraded my rating from 3 to 4,5 stars. Something must have gone wrong the first time, maybe it was the translation.

167. David Copperfield
A great classic, but not my favorite Dickens. Almost abandoned because I was so annoyed by Dora Spenlow.
Review: # 37 on my new 75thread for 2011: http://www.librarything.com/topic/104781#2434413
Rating: 4 stars

168. Love in a Cold Climate
A technically well-written book which was quite a disappointment plotwise. I have no idea why this is on the 1001 list.
Review: #41 on the thread above
Rating: 3 stars

I started re-reading Sense and Sensibility, my second-favorite Austen book.

Deern - I agree with you about Love in a Cold Climate. I read In Pursuit of Love a few years ago and rather enjoyed it, but when I got to this one I was tired of the whole thing. Definitely not something one must read before one dies!

Oops - more than a month since my last posting... I did finish some of the shorter ones while very slowly enjoying War and Peace, allowing myself no more than 10-15 pages per day.

I reread Sense and Sensibility, the review is #72 on my '75 in 2011' thread:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/104781

169. A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne
Didn't like it, but didn't hate it as fervently as Tristram Shandy. Thank God I'm now done with the Sterne books on the list.
Review: #73 on the other thread
Rating: 2,5 stars

170. Candide by Voltaire
While I am not able to find anything in the Sterne books funny, I really enjoyed the humor in this one. And it's short ==> recommended
Review: #109
Rating: 4 stars

171. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
A Book I loved while reading, then hated in retrospective and now I am somewhat undecided. It feels like some sour and outdated moral codex has been pulled over an otherwise gripping and really enjoyable plot. And it feels like this has not been the author's intention, maybe the publishing house had a word in it. It's great until the romance starts. I posted a long review and a very long rant about the things I hated on my '75 in 2011' thread, postings #125 and 127. And I'd like to apologize to all who loved the book.
Rating: still 4 stars

172. Michael Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist
Another short one, more like a novella and (unintentionally) funny, both the plot and the writing. Beware of endless German sentences with numerous parantheses.
Review: #129
Rating: 3,5 stars

173. If this is a Man by Primo Levi
A 5 star read and extremely recommendable Holocaust book, based on Levi's experiences in Auschwitz. It has a sequel I am reading right now (it's no 1001 book), called " The Truce"
Review #150
Rating: 5 stars

174. Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

5 stars for the language (I'd give more if I could), 1,5 stars for the annoying plot that drags on and on and on. It has many modern thoughts, but the setting is completely outdated and the plot often reminded me of gothic novels with all those miraculous coincidences. The best bits are the few poems, most of them are beautiful.
And it is by far the longest Goethe book on the list. I can only recommend it if you either like Goethe's prose (I don't, I prefer the poems) or are really willing to reach the full 1001.
Review: #157
Rating: 3 stars

175. Thank You, Jeeves

Finally finished another 1001 book. Nice, easy, short, maybe a bit shallow but sometimes that's just what you need.

Review: #183
Rating: 3,5 stars

Next up (hopefully soon): Tender is the Night by F.Scott Fitzgerald and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

176. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Wonderful book, in the first part the writing has a dreamlike quality, while parts 2 and 3 are darker and almost autobiographic. Liked it much more than The Great Gatsby.
Review: #185
Rating: 4,5 stars

177. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
This really is something special. I am glad I finally read it.
Long review: #212
Rating: 4,5 stars (with upgrade option for my reread)

178. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Another great read with a surprising plot twist, amazing language. Page-turner!
Review: #213
Rating: 4 stars

179. Effi Briest by Therodor Fontane
German classic about a young woman who cheats on her husband, with sad consequences. Surprisingly an enjoyable read.
Review: #215
Rating: 4 stars

Wow - even though I've been keeping track of your 75-er thread, you still take me by surprise at how many 1,001 you've been getting through. Go you!

#83: Thank you! The beginning of the year was a bit slow and I'd like to get to 200 in 2011.

180. Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
An easy and delightful read, a classical 1930s English detective novel from the Lord Peter Wimsey series.
Review: #231
Rating: 4 stars

If you liked Sayers' MMA you will like her Nine Tailors which is also on the list. I'm a died-in-the-wool Sayers fan since adolescence, but those two really are her best (maybe with Have his Carcase); the BBC versions with Ian Charmichael are also well worth watching.

#85: thank you! I only noticed last night that there's a second Sayers book on the 1001 list and I'll sure read some of the other ones as well. I'll put those two on my wishlist immediately.

85&86> Nine Tailors is good, as are several others...though the books with Harriet Vane benefit from being read in right order (Strong Poison - Have His Carcase - Gaudy Night - Busman's Honeymoon), while others can be read in any order.

#85 and #87: with your recommendations and those on my 75thread I just decided to read them all in order. There are not too many anyway.

#84 I think you should make that! I wanted to get to 250 (which is about 30 away) but I think that's a pipe dream this year - maybe next year!

181. The Path to the Spider's Nests by Italo Calvino
The 2nd of 4 Calvino's on the list. I liked it better than If on a Winter's Night, but didn't love it. But I'll try a third one. Some time.
Review #15 in my new 75 in 2011 thread:
http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.php?topic=116275
Rating: 3,5 stars

182. Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant
A very enjoyable and quite timeless read. I probably found it funnier than was intended.
Review: #16
Rating: 4 stars

Btw. I have now started the Wimsey series with Whose Body? which is nice, but only half as good as Murder Must Advertise. But I'm looking forward to the next ones.

I've also found If on a Winter's Night a struggle so am glad to hear that at least one of Calvino's other listed books is more enjoyable. I've really tried to enjoy the style but not convinced myself yet.

Yes, it was his first, so he was still experimenting. But the book already shows glimpses of his later style, probably this happened during the re-editing in the 60s. I fear the 2 remaining ones will be more in "Winter's Night" style. I also "did my best to enjoy" that one, simply because I loved the title so much, but sometimes the best efforts don't work...

183. Pierre et Jean by Guy de Maupassant
Shorter then Bel-Ami, enoyable, but not necessarily a 1001 I'd say.
Review: #58
Rating: 3,5 stars

184. The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley
No, I didn't like this one. Outdated, full of prejudice of the worst kind.
Review: #71
Rating: 2,5 stars

185. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Great writing, sad story. Short book (app. 180 pages).
Review: #78
Rating: 4 stars

186. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Not my genre, but certainly enjoyed by many other readers. I can't help it, I don't like Verne's books.
Review: #82
Rating: 3 stars

I'm reading Around the World in Eighty Days aloud to my children. Somehow I thought this would be a good idea. It's actually kind of group torture, but at least we'll all be able to check it off our 1001 lists when we're done. A book that would be more amusing if read quickly to oneself.

"group torture" bahaha that made me smile!

That made me laugh as well! You'd expect that someone with such an imagination was a better storyteller. I've read both JV books from the 1001 list now, and I doubt I'll read any of the numerous other ones.

#94: and better don't read "The Water Babies" to your children, at least not the full version or not without having read the first half for yourself.

"Group torture" that's hillarious!! Some of the group reads I have had have seemed like that. You end up the group read wondering why you did that.

I have been startled to discover that my 11-year-old actually loves Around the World in Eighty Days. I think she thinks it's more exciting than it really is. She is convinced that at the end, we will find out that Phileas Fogg really was the bank robber.

#98: And how did she like the ending?

Monthly update - I read too many non-1001 books in June:

187. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
Probably better than The End of the Affair, but it touched me less, maybe because I am not religious.
Review: #112
Rating: 3,5 stars

188. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
A book I found really painful to read. Not easy by all means and not a feel-good book like Room with a View. Maybe Forster's best.
Review: #122
Rating: 4,5 stars

189. In Search of Klingsor by Jorge Volpi
A 'no idea why it's a 1001' book. Science mystery where a brilliant idea for a plot was very unsatisfactorily worked out.
Review: 148
Rating: 2 stars (for the science bits)

190. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

Another book I have read many years ago and that so far completely escaped me here on the list. I know I read it, I am sure I liked it (I read many Wallanders back then), I don't remember a thing. I don't want to reread it though, so no rating and no review in this case. I am glad I found it before I came to #200, I have plans for that one...

#101 What would your plan be for #200, Deern?

#102: I hope I'll be manage to finish A Dream of Red Mansions as #200. I started reading it about three months ago, very slowly, and now took a break in order not to finish it too early. It has 2550 pages, and I am only through the first 1000.
It would also complete my alphabetical author challenge, as only an 'X' author is missing.

Ahh, that sounds like a nice plan. I look forward to the day that I can get to #100 and can plan something special for that. That is going to take me a while, though! Have you been enjoying A Dream of Red Mansions? Is it a difficult read?

#104: not difficult, just lengthy. And there are hundreds of characters, often with similar names, which I found confusing. But then I noticed only a couple of them are important and just read over the others. It's interesting to see how rich Chinese families in the 1700s spent their leisure time (of which they had much): mainly writing and reading poetry, eating and playing drinking games.

I'll have to bear that in mind as one that I will probably really enjoy then. I love learning about different cultures and historical times through novels. I have difficulties with names in books at the best of times - Russian literature with the patronymics is especially trick for me, but you're right; if you don't focus too hard you usually end up figuring out the important stuff sooner rather than later.

191. Professor Unrat oder Das Ende eines Tyrannen (aka "The Blue Angel") by Heinrich Mann
The movie version of this book made Marlene Dietrich famous. A very enjoyable read, well-written, but be warned that the second half of the story has nothing in common with the movie version.
Review: #190
Rating: 4 stars

192. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Not so much 'the American take on Mme Bovary', more like an early book of feminism. And a very short read.
Review: #191
Rating: 4 stars

193. The Pigeon by Patrick Sueskind
The good thing is that it's short. It's also well-written. But nothing I really liked or will remember for a long time.
Review: #194
Rating: 3 stars

I also reread One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Rated it with 5 stars, but feel unable to write a real review for it. For some impressions see #193 on my 75thread.

I opened a new 75thread, so the next couple of longer reviews can be found here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/121752

194. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
I am now convinced that your first Vonnegut is likely to become your favorite. In my case it was Slaughterhouse-Five. The originality gets lost, but still this is a good book.
Review: #10 in the new thread
Rating: 4 stars

195. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirowski
A great (half) book by an incredibly gifted author. She was killed in the Holocaust and her manuscripts were discovered and published just a few years ago. Beautiful writing, the first half of what she planned as a big war epos.
Review: #10 (as well)
Rating: 5 stars

196. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
It's off my list, finally. Though I admit I enjoyed most of it, I refuse to rate it.

Review: #29

Very stressful time in my life right now, so my reading is suffering a bit.

I reread Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (4,5 stars) and I finished

197. The Human Stain by Philip Roth
A very worthy book for the 1001 list, but a difficult read. Took me forever to finish.

Review #53
Rating: 4,5 stars

Still very limited reading time - I finished only two 1001 books in the last 4 weeks:

198. Of Mice and Men (Italian version "Uomini e topi") by John Steinbeck
A good book, but not a pleasant read for me. It was almost like reading a play. And (sorry for that) I couldn't stand Lennie and didn't feel a bit sorry for him.

Longer Review: #78
Rating: 3,5 stars (I might downgrade it to 3 stars, as I am currently reviewing my rating system and found there are too many 5 star books)

199. Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
Read for the November group read, and I am glad I joined them. A very good book, and Spielberg imo did it justice in his movie adaptation.

Longer review: #85
Rating: 4 stars

How will you pick book 200 - feels like it needs to be something special to mrk a major milestone ;)

I was planning to read A Dream of Red Mansions which has something like 2400 pages, but got stuck in the middle of volume 2 (of four). Too much stress at work right now and not enough reading time to do that great book any justice. Maybe it will be #250.

So I decided to go for something in Italian, to celebrate the fact that I am finally able to read real books in that language. I chose Sandokan: Le tigri di Mompracem (The tigers of Mompracem), because it's the greatest Italian best-seller of all times. It's a pirate adventure, basically childrens' literature, and it's quite fun. It's the most over-exaggerated book I ever read.

Finished book #200 (and #201):

200. Sandokan: the tigers of Mompracem by Emilio Salgari
A pirate adventure, written in the late 1800s (published in 1900), the greatest Italian best-seller of all times. Intended for children, but beware: blood is flowing in torrents, pirates are dying by the hundreds. For modern adult readers who had their share of adventure books, the story is a bit too predictable and repetitive.

Longer review: #86 on my 75 thread
Rating: 3 stars

201. Lieutenant Gustl (None but the Brave) by Artur Schnitzler
Must be one of the shortest books on the list, therefore recommended. And it heavily influenced James Joyce's writing of Ulysses with its interior monologue style.
Did you know you have to kill yourself when a socially inferior person insults you, because otherwise you'd lose your honor? I'm so glad those times are over!

Longer review: #87
Rating: 3 stars

Well done on book 200! Looks like you've knocked a wide range of books off the list this year - I'm working my way through your 75 thread bit by bit, always interesting to read your reviews.

Thank you!
Looking at the books read in 2011 I notice that once again, with very few exceptions, I concentrated on the shorter ones. I fear there are not many more of them left for me.

I finally read Northanger Abbey. It's not on the 2008/2010 list, but I'd like to say that I really enjoyed it. For a Jane Austen book it's surprisingly funny and almost 'action-packed'.

Review: #104
Rating: 3,5 stars

202: Senilità/ As A Man Grows Older by Italo Svevo
A good book, but a joyless read. Not a book I would have put on the list, but I realize many people had a bit of an "aha-moment" when they read it.

Review: #105
Rating: 3 stars

203: Wittgenstein's Nephew by Thomas Bernhard
No paragraphs, long sentences, repetitive, Austrian-bashing. But also some beautifully written and obviously heartfelt parts about friendship, illness, suffering and death.

Review: #111
Rating: 3,5 stars

204. Miss Pettigrew lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
I don't know how it earned its status as a 1001 book, but no doubt this is a enjoyable, easy-to-read, optimistic book. I listened to the audio version which earned an extra half star.

Review: #115
Rating: 3,5 stars for the book/ 4 stars for the audio book

205. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
Another page-turner, wonderfully dense atmosphere. And another easy read.

Review: #117
Rating: 4 stars

206. Lebensansichten des Katers Murr/ The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr by E.T.A. Hoffmann
A stylistically unusual yet entertaining book by one of my favorite German classic authors. It took me a while to get into it, but then I was hooked.

Review: #121
Rating: 3,5 stars

From the 2006 list I read:
Old Masters by Thomas Bernhard
Review: #103
Rating:2,5 stars

My last books for 2011:

207. I Malavoglia/ The House by the Medlar Tree by Giovanni Verga
The misfortunes of a Sicilian family in the 1800s, seen through the eyes of their gossiping neighbours.

Review: #151
Rating: 3,5 stars

208. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
More a romance novel than the expected criticism on industrialism, but at least a good romance novel.

Review: #151
Rating: 4 stars

209. Fanny Hill by John Cleland
All the endless, detailed, flowery descriptions of Fanny's sexual adventures quickly became boring. I understand the 1001 status, but imo not a good book.

Review: #152
Rating: 2,5 stars

210. Hyperion by Friedrich Hoelderlin
German romantic pathos at its best - or worst, depending on your personal taste. But it's quite short.

Review: #153
Rating: 3,5 stars

From the 2006 list:

The Third Man by Graham Greene (audio book)
No idea, why of all Greene books this one was removed from the 2008 version. Wonderful atmosphere!
Review: #152
Rating: 4 stars

A seemingly low start into the new year, but I tackled a couple of over-long 1001 books which are all very slow going and will be with me for another few months: Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann, La Vie Mode d'Emploi by Georges Perec and Clarissa Harlowe by Samuel Richardson. Not to forget "Arabian Nights" where I just finished the 2nd of 16 volumes and which will certainly accompany me well into 2013. February will be better with some additional short books.

New thread for the longer reviews: http://www.librarything.com/topic/129529

211. Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais
Read in German in a very good translation and therefore enjoyed it a lot. Nothing for the over-sensitive reader, rough language and descriptions of bodily functions prevail. If you don't mind that it's fun.
Review: #59
Rating: 4 stars

From the 2006 list:
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
What a gem! How could they remove that one from the list and leave From Mice and Men on it? Wonderful language, optimistic story.
Review: #78
Rating:4,5 stars

One more in January:

212. One, No One & One Hundred Thousand by Luigi Pirandello
I had a terribly hard time with this book and needed three attempts to finally finish it. I appreciate its literary value, but it was one of my most joyless reads ever.
Review: #128 (combined review of this one and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk)
Rating: 3 stars

February reads so far:

213. The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth (free Kindle, German)
An interesting story about the rise and fall of an Austrian family during the Habsburgian Empire. Well written, but very factual language. Goes well with Lieutenant Gustl by Arthur Schnitzler or Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig (the latter not being a 1001).
Review: #182
Rating: 4 stars

214. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence (free Kindle, English)
I know I am quite alone here, but I really didn't like it.
Review: #184
Rating: 2 stars

215. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (library book, German)
I feel like I am one of the voyeur boys. An unappealing story, but weirldy seductive.
Review: #196
Rating: 3,5 stars

216. Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann (library book, German)
I am so glad I read the Mann books in an order that saved this one for last. Loved it.
Recommended only for dedicated Mann fans who got through Doctor Faustus without lasting damage. It's more humorous, but it's looong!
Review: #198 and plot overview in post #208
Rating: 5 stars

Two more February reads - both books I had put on hold in 2011 with not many pages left to go:

217. Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
The best short stories I ever read - but be warned that they are hard to digest. Bigotry/ racism of the worst kind/ family issues - all set in the 50s or 60s in the Southern states of the US.
Review: #220
Rating: 4,5 stars

218. Fiesta: The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Men drinking too much and all falling in love with a terribly annoying woman. Detailed descriptions of bull fights (more boring than cruel). I can feel it is a good book, but I didn't really enjoy it.
Review: #228
Rating: 3 stars

New thread for longer reviews: http://www.librarything.com/topic/133498

I am reading a couple of very long 1001 novels, so this month again I kind of cheated by reading mainly short ones. None of them was great, but one was more than okay.

219. The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
A must? Not really. They should remove this one and instead put Memento Mori on the list.
Review: #35
Rating: 3 stars

220. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
The easiest to read JJ on the list, but I prefer Ulysses. This one should if possible be read first. This leaves me now with Finnegans Wake. I am officially scared.
Review: #57
Rating: 4 stars

221. The Once and Future King by T.H. White
The 1001 book mentions only 4 parts, so I see this one as finished, although I am still listening to part 5,"The Book of Merlin". The whole thing overall was quite a disappointment, I had expected to enjoy it much more. I liked part 3 best. Maybe you need to have known it as a child to still appreciate it as an adult.
Reviews: #59, 61, 78 on the above thread (reviewed the single books)
Rating: sums up to 3 stars

222. Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Japanese classic, short stories. Very short book. The stories all start strong and then fall flat (my opinion).
Review: #79
Rating: 3 stars

It's more than a month since my last post. Problem is I haven't yet written all of the long reviews, so I'll add those numbers later. April reads:

223. Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith
Can I say I found this one rather disappointing? Funny start and rather lame second half. Still rated with 3,5 stars at it was the easy read I had hoped for, but I had expected it to be a 4star book.
Review: #142
Rating: 3,5 stars (might downgrade to 3)

224. Il Deserto dei Tartari/ The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati
A very slow book on how time passes without our notice and how we spend out lives waiting for something special to happen, only to realize too late that we forgot to live. Buzzati is using the allegory of soldiers in a bastion waiting for an enemy's attack.
Review:#143
Rating: 3,5 stars (might upgrade to 4)

225. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Deserved 1001, better than Girls of Slender Means imo, but not her best. Short and easy read.
Review: #196
Rating: 3,5 stars

226. Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
If you want to laugh about ridiculous storywriting and don't mind the blatant racism, superiorism, sexism - go for it. Belongs on the list for its influnce, but should be better read at an earlier age. Funny it was, but shake-your-head-in-disbelief funny.
Review: #197
Rating: 2,5 stars

These were all short books, but I keep working on the real long ones:
- Clarissa Harlowe by Samuel Richardson, finished vol. 3
- Arabian Night translated by Richard Burton, taken up again after short break, reading vol. 5 of 16
- read Barchester Towers by Trollope in oder to get closer to the last one of the series which is a 1001
- started the Dance to the Music of Time series by Anthony Powell . Listened to 1,5 of the 12 volumes
- not to forget the unbearable Memoirs of my Nervous Illness. "Only" 367 pages, but an agonizingly slow read

Edit: added review references

Here are my May reads - it was a month of ups and downs:

You'll find longer reviews at the posting numbers given for each book in this thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/136499

227. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
I've read and enjoyed a couple of Steinbeck books in those last months, but this one here stands out. Wonderfully written, touching and absolutely timeless. Must-read, and if you hated it at school, try again - you might see it with different eyes.
Review:#39
Rating: 5 stars

228. Memoirs of my Nervous Illness by Daniel Paul Schreber
By far my worst book this year. Can't express how much I hated it. The only good thing: 'additions' started at about 53%, so I could declare it finished early. It isn't even fiction, and although it is said to have influenced Freud I have no idea why it's on the list. Poetic language? Didn't find it.
Review:#76
Rating: 1 star

229. Kindheitsmuster/ Patterns of Childhood by Christa Wolf
An absolutely unexpected 5 star read. Maybe it took me so long to get to this book about a childhood in Nazi Germany and an adult life in the German Deocratic Republic because I had to mature towards it. Very good but complicated writing in the original German, which might be even more difficult to read in translation. It is also possible that with its many references to German traditions, songs, etc. it will appeal less to non-German readers, so please see my rating as a bit of a personal one. This book brought back many memories.
Review:#115
Rating: 5 stars

230. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Loved the group read here, didn't like the book much. Overwrought and too long, too much drama which resolves into nothing. Check the GR thread if you are interested in knowing more and to see some quotes.
Review: #144
Rating:2.5 stars

I also read two more of the Dance to the Music of Time series:
- A Buyer's Market, review #37, rating 3.5 stars
- The Acceptance World, review #117, rating 3 stars

And I read #3 of Anthony Trollope's Basetshire series, Doctor Thorne, and am getting closer to The Last Chronicle of Barset.

I read The Iliad in German which should be on the list if they put Ovid and "Arabian Nights" on it. Most translations are in prose anyway. This was my 3rd 5star book in May.

********

June will be reread month, I am planning
- Der Name der Rose/ The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
- Die unerträgliche Leichtigkeit des Seins/ The unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
- Uomini e Topi/ Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

So my list of books read probably won't grow unless I squeeze in another book, but I will post short reviews here.

I'm so glad that you ended up liking Patterns of Childhood! Of all the books I've read from the list and would never have read otherwise, it's the one that made the greatest real impact on me. The words "I don't know" have never meant so much.

#126: and it was so completely unexpected. Of other great works you've usually heard before.

My only issue with this book is that in all its beauty it will not be read by many other people (like my grandma who is not much older than 'Nelly') who 'never knew' and suppressed their own memories and whom books like this could encourage to open up to their past. Most of them wouldn't get over the first couple of pages.

Good news about Patterns of Childhood. I ordered a copy this week.

#128: I hope you'll like it!

Reviews... June has been a very stressful and difficult month for me in RL and July/ August won't be much better. I can add only one new 1001 to my list, but I reread and enjoyed 3 more.

231. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Great fun, but also confusing fun. And not as related to Goethe's Faust as I had expected.
Review: post #231 in this thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/136499
Rating: 3.75, might upgrade it to 4

Rereads:
a) The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Loved it this 2nd time and upgraded my rating.
Review: post #178
Rating: 4.5

b) The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Still my perfect historical murder mystery.
Review: post #229
Rating: 4.5

c) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Improved much on second reading, but The Grapes of Wrath remains my favorite.
Review: post #230
Rating: 4

I'll try and read The Golden Notebook next month with the GR here and haven't planned any other 1001 books for the near future. At least I am making progress on Clarissa, finished vol 6 of 9!

Edit 04.07.2012:
Forgot to add that I am going to read Our Mutual Friend from the 2006 list in July.
And why are there so few Steinbecks on the list? I am almost done with East of Eden and it really should be there, I am ready to sacrifice a Goethe for it or that terrible Schreber book!

Finished my first 1,001 book since June - but at least it was a BIG one, a real milestone:

232. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
Well, it's LONG (1,500 pages that feel like 5,000).
It's not BAD. But you'll need patience - both for the length and the plot, especially (I guess) if you are a woman. At least it will leave you with a sense of gratitude for everything feminism has since achieved. What a dull and boring life a (rich) girl was forced to lead in the 1700s.
Don't start a drinking game on the words 'virtue/ virtuous', 'angel' or 'saint', it might kill you.
Review: post #108 in thread http://www.librarything.com/topic/139239
Rating: 3.5 stars

RL keeps being difficult, so I won't get to my planned book #250 in 2012. No reading plans yet for September.

Might kill you? No, it definitely would kill you. If you didn't already waiting for something new to happen.

I kid, it's really not too bad. I'm still reading it, but congrats for finishing!

Can't believe how I neglected the 1,001 list since August. Too much going on in RL, and I needed to soothe myself by reading lots of children's books. Good ones, and certainly many of them are on the 1,001 list for children's literature, but that doesn't help my statistics here. And I read all of this year's Booker shortlisted candidates and some Herta Mueller, whose Hunger Angel should be on the list as well.

233. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
I loved this book. There's something about good magical realism that just works for me. I listened to this one on audio and it was an excellent narration, although not always easy to follow.
Review: on this thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/142952 post #47
Rating 4.5 stars

234. The Monk by M.G. Lewis
What a crazy book! Great beginning, lengthy middle part, but then an ending that makes up for it. Maybe the most entertaining Gothic novel I've read so far.
Review: post #114 same thread
Rating: 3.5 stars

235. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
I am glad I joined the GR for this book. It's hard to stomach at times, with the detailed descriptions of the situation in the Chicago slaughterhouses in the very early 1900s. It went well with Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath which I had read earlier this year.
Review: Post #196 same thread
Rating: 4 stars

Rereads: The Shining by Stephen King, this time as audiobook. A Halloween experience I can happily recommend :-)
Review: Post #48 same thread
Rating: 4 stars

It would be kinda cute for a good really good remake of The Shining since they could probably make the tree art really come to life now. But of course they could never replace Jack in the lead role.

I still can't watch more than 15 minutes of The Shining at a time without getting too scared. Books don't seem to have the same effect on me, fortunately.

In this case, book and movie are quite different, but both very good in their own way. Jack Nicholson is so scary, and the atmosphere in the hotel gives me the chills already in the first scenes. And those landscape shots in the beginning were amazing. They give you an idea of how remote that place is.

In the book it all happens much slower and it is easier to develop sympathy for the father (what's his name again? Jack as well? I have no memory for character names). In the movie he is crazy from the beginning and the wife is never at ease. And I preferred the book's ending if there hadn't been the epilogue. I don't remember the last sentence (before the epilogue), but it was a great one. Must look it up.

ALWINN, They remade The Shining as a TV miniseries in the late 90s, actually following the book, so King could rest at ease. His biggest problem was as Deern points out, Jack is not supposed to have gone into it crazy, it is supposed to be the result of the Overlook. He felt Kubrick was taking a cheap shot there, disbelieving in the supernatural and not allowing it to be truly portrayed in the movie, just making it about a lunatic stuck in a hotel.

While I haven't been posting here on my own thread, at least I've been reading and made it to 248. More detailed (= often embarrassingly long) reviews are here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/147127

January 2013:
236. Falling Man by Don de Lillo - Kindle - EN - 274p
Keith only barely escapes from the North Tower of the WTC before it collapses. He moves back in with his estranged wife and son and the family tries to find a way to cope with the trauma. Very well written, not easy to read.
Review: #116 on the above thread
Rating: 4 stars

237. Simplicissimus by von Grimmelshausen - free Kindle - DE - 1050p
Long, old, often vulgar. But one of the oldest European novels and a great witness of the ongoings of the devastating 30 years war. Not an easy read, but it belongs on the list!
Review: #118
Rating: 4.25 stars

February 2013:
238. La coscienza di Zeno/ Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo - free Kindle - IT - 598p
Don't read this one and Svevo's When a Man Grows Older and D'Annunzio's The Child of Pleasure (which I am reading right now) in quick succession. It's a good book, but I don't need any more of those whiny guys complaining about the mistresses they are not planning to marry anyway.
Review: #140
Rating: 3.5 stars

239. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing - Kindle - EN - 688p
Oh dear, I am glad I didn't continue this book during the GR last year when my RL was so distressing. I don't know if any other book has been that painful to read.
Warning: if you can't personally connect to the characters, you might find this book dreadfully boring. 4.5 stars, but I don't want to touch it ever again.
Review: #142
Rating: 4.5 stars

240. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - Kindle - EN - 1488p
Not much to say. Must-read! Without the GR I might have avoided it forever for its length, but it's an incredible pageturner and I enjoyed (almost!) every line of the numerous digressions that kept interrupting the story.
Review: #150
Rating: 5 stars

241. Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge /(The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge)by Rainer Maria Rilke - free Kindle - DE - 193p
Short, great language, but confusing story. I might downgrade it later. They couldn't put Rilke's poems on the list, so they went for the only novel he wrote.
Review: #151
Rating: 4 stars

242. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks - audible credit - EN - 194p
I loved The Crow Road and liked Stonemouth. This earlier work is also well-written, but I don't really see it on the list. The great surprise didn't work out for me.
Review: #153
Rating: 3 stars

243. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole - audible credit - EN - 405p
People love it or hate it. I loved it, but mainly for the protagonist Ignatius J. Reilly who is alarmingly realistic. I am glad I don't know anyone like him in RL, but I could fully enjoy his antics in book form.
Review: #164
Rating: 4 stars

March books so far:

244. Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini/The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani - paperback - IT - 214p (1001)
Slow book with beautiful language. Loved it, although the story itself wasn't that gripping.
Review: #184
Rating: 4 stars

245. Nachsommer/ (Indian Summer) by Adalbert Stifter - free Kindle - DE - 768p
Auto-brainwash might be required to like this book. Long and slow, and it really needs some patience. Wanted to throw it out of the window during the first half, then I just gave in and accepted that the characters are not so much unrealistic than idealized in an arty way.
Review: #189
Rating: 4 stars

246. Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac - free Kindle - FR/EN/DE - 268p - 3.5 stars
A tragic story, humorously told. My first Balzac and I enjoyed it enough to try the other one on the list soon.
Review: #192
Rating: 3.5 stars

247. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood - Kindle - EN - 482p
My first Atwood. Not sure about the must-read status though. I liked Grace's storyline but could have done without all that business with the fictional doctor.
Review: not yet posted
Rating: 3.5 stars

248. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel - Kindle - EN - 268p
Short and easy and overall enjoyable read. I admit that it gained an extra half point because I was so grateful that this wasn't a book that had to be "conquered", like so many others from the list. I love my challenges (otherwise I wouldn't be here), but isn't it nice if from time to time when there's one you can just read in a day and which doesn't leave you depressed?
Review: #11 here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/152316
Rating: 3.5 stars

Added 30/03/2013:
249. Il Piacere by Gabriele D'Annunzio - free Kindle - IT - 466p
I'm glad it's off the list. Not bad in the sense of 'badly written', but I didn't like it at all. Whiny Italian nobleman is left by his mistress, gets totally obsessed with his jealousy when he learns she got married (while he's having countless other women which seems to be okay) and finally sets out to seduce the very respectable and married friend of his cousin. If there hadn't been an amazing part about the truth and beauty of poetry, the rating would have been lower.
Don't read unless you want to get to the full 1,001!
Review: #12 here http://www.librarything.com/topic/152316
Rating: 3 stars

Some April reads (I'm much behind with all the reviews):

250. The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch - paperback - EN - 555p
A good one for #250! My first Murdoch and I loved it. There's so much in it that I can't write a short review here.
Long review: #44 here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/152316
Rating: 4.5 stars

251. L'Assomoir by Émile Zola - free Kindle - DE - 409p
As could be expected from a book about alcoholism this wasn't an easy read. But there are also some great, almost comic scenes in there, and Zola even managed to soften the ultimate downfall of his protagonist Gervaise a bit. Certainly an important witness of its time!
Review: #45 here http://www.librarything.com/topic/152316
Rating: 4 stars

252. Surfacing by Margaret Atwood - Kindle - EN - 249p
I liked the writing but not the story. I haven't read any non-listed Atwood yet, but The Blind Assassin for example seems to be very popular. I wonder why this one here was kept on the list in 2008 instead.
Review: #46
Rating: 3 stars

253. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson - Kindle - EN - 160p
Looking for short, easy, sweet? Go and read it! The author invented the Moomins btw!!
Review: #51
Rating: 4 stars

Others:
My non-review (more an explanation of why my rating was so high) for 1Q84 is post #49 on this thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/152316

#4/12 of A Dance to the Music of Time: At Lady Molly's is #53.

The remaining April books:

254. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood- Kindle - EN - 311p
The best of the 3 Atwoods on the 2008 list. I don't like dystopian, but this is very well done.
Review: #65 here http://www.librarything.com/topic/152316
Rating: 4 stars

255. Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood- Kindle - EN - 218p
256. Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood- Kindle - EN - 218p
I read both books from the "Berlin Stories" collection. Very interesting observations of the Berlin of the early 30s before Hitler and the Nazis came to power. You get a good impression of the chaotic situation that had to end up in some kind of extremist government - either far right or far left.
The story around Sally Bowles is just one of several short episodes in the "Goodbye to Berlin" book, but the Musical "Cabaret" is clearly influenced by the complete collection of Isherwood's stories.
Reviews: #66
Rating: 3.5 stars each

From the 2006 list: Mrs 'Arris goes to Paris by Paul Gallico. Short and sweet, but surely no must.
Review can also be found in post #65 of the 75thread.

Belated Congratulations on hitting 250!

#141: Thank you so much! I can't believe I got there. Now I want 500! :-)

2 months gone, 20 books read. Okay, some real short ones among them.

May reads:

257. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid - Kindle - EN - 191p
Good book, strange ending. Believable story of how the Pakistani student Changez slowly becomes an Islamic fundamentalist. Could have done without the love story though.
Review: post #75
Rating: 3.5 stars

258. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick - audible credit - EN
That was entertaining and also quite good as audio version. I often don't like sci-fi, but here there was something...
Review: #76
Rating: 4 stars

259. What a Carve Up! by Johnathan Coe - Kindle - EN - 531p
This was like a mixed bag full of unexpected surprises, most of them good ones! The Kindle sample promised a satirical whodunnit in an old and noble but extremely unlikeable family. When I got the book I found I also got a great story about the political and social development in the UK from the 1970s to the early 1990s.
Review: #77
Rating: 4 stars

260. A ciascuno il suo/ To Each His Own by Leonardo Sciascia - paperback - IT - 151p (1,001)
An early Sicilian whodunnit which should better be a whomtotrustwhenyouwanttofindoutwhodunnit. Review: #77
Rating: 3.5 stars

261. At The Mountains Of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft - free Kindle - EN - 120p
I thought 120 pages couldn't feel longer (but then in June Calvino showed me how much worse it can get). A bit of horror and much boredom. I feel now my rating is a bit too high.
Review: #78
Rating: 3 stars

262. Le Braci (Embers) by Sándor Márai - Paperback - IT - 172p
A short, slow-paced book, beautiful language (in the Italian translation, the original is Hungarian, I can't say anything about the English version). After 41 years an old man finally has the occasion to talk things out with his former best friend. In the end he is the only one who talks, and the reason for the fallout is a trivial as can be, but the writing is great.
Review: not posted yet
Rating: 3.5 stars

263. The Third Policeman by Flan O'Brien - audible credit - EN
I was unable to follow the audio and MUST reread the paper copy some day. Count it as read because I listened to the whole thing at least twice but still didn't get it.
Review: #80
Rating: no rating

264. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky - hardback - EN - 615p (1,001)
Not exactly the best time in my life to get this book off my shelf, but at least I was able to see its greatness. My favorite Dostoevsky so far.
Review: #110
Rating: 4 stars

Also read in May: Casanova's Chinese Restaurant by Anthony Powell - Paperback - EN - 229p
Nick has finally grown up!
Review: #76
Rating: 4 stars

June reads:

All longer reviews here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/152316#4189401

265. The Godfather by Mario Puzo - Kindle - EN - 595p
Great pageturner, imo as good as the movie!
Review: #113
Rating: 4.5 stars

266. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles - Kindle - EN - 436p
Wonderful book for the GR, a postmodernist take at the Victorian novel.
Review: #114
Rating: 4 stars

267. Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh - Kindle - 320p
Maybe not a must, but a quick and amusing read. I like Waugh!
Review: #115
Rating: 3.5 stars

268. Atonement by Ian McEwan - paperback - EN - 364p
Finally off my shelf - and it was great. As with all Mc Ewans though I don't think I'll ever reread it.
Review: #120
Rating: 4.5 stars

269. They Shoot Horses, don't they? by Horace McCoy - Kindle - EN - 112p - 3stars
Very quick read, probably a must in American literature. A bit too far from my own culture, I feel I just didn't get it.
Review: #136
Rating: 3 stars

270. A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro - audible credit - EN - 183p
Deep and a bit disturbing. I must read more Ishiguro soon.
Review: #137
Rating: 3.5 stars

271. Memoriale del Convento/ Baltasar and Blimunda by José Saramago - Kindle - IT - 319p
I read it ahead of the GR, but the GR brought my attention to it. Wonderful book, though not easy to read.
Review: #138
Rating: 4 stars

272. The Nose by Nikolay Gogol - ebook - EN - 32p - 3 stars
Very very short. So go and read it and don't think about it too much.
Review: #139
Rating: 3 stars

273. Money A Suicide Note by Martin Amis - paperback - EN - 402p - 4 stars
Another old one off the shelf! Brilliant language. I hate books about drink & drugs but this one was great fun!
Review: #139
Rating: 4 stars

274. Schande (Disgrace) by J.M. Coetzee - library book - DE - 285p
Yay, I survived my first Coetzee. Not as bad as I feared, but quite disturbing, though in a different way than expected.
Review: #141
Rating: 4 stars

275. Il Castello dei destini incrociati/ The castle of crossed destinies by Italo Calvino - hardcover - IT - 120p
Well yes... I hated it. Found it terribly boring and really, really tried my best! Read it extra slowly not to skip anything, but it didn't help. It's not Calvino's fault though that I don't get his books...
Often felt more like an exercise than a novel.
Review: #142
Rating: 2.5 stars

276. l'amore molesto (troubling love) by Elena Ferrante - Kindle - IT - 178p
Female Italian Mc Ewan I said in my review. Disturbing, sad, somehow "filthy". And yet not at all bad if you make it to the ending...
Review: #142
Rating: 3.5 stars

Plus: June's Powell: The Kindly Ones by Anthony Powell - paperback - EN - 254p
The best so far in the series, including July.
Review: #112
Rating: #4.5 stars

April, May and June have been exceptional 1,001 months for me!
July will be much weaker, there are too many non-listed books to finish, and the 3 1,001 books I started so far are all slow-going. Hoping for August!

Starting my slow update by first listing the books read in July - September and then adding the usual short reviews and links... I really must update more regularly... :-)
At least I didn't read as many 1,001s in the last 3 months, more concentrating on the Booker candidates.

July reads:

277. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - Kindle - EN - 384p - 4 stars
Good, but not as impressive as 1984.

278. The last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope - free Kindle - EN - 972p - 4 stars
I wrote a long rant on things I didn't like. It's a good book and a worthy ending of the series, but I can't say how much I despise Crawley! Lilly? Not exactly among my favorites either.

279. L'immoraliste by André Gide - free Kindle - FR - 144p - 3 stars
Certainly important, but... I don't know. It didn't get me.

280. Nel cuore del paese (In the Heart of the Country) by J.M. Coetzee - library book - IT - 199p - 3.25 stars
Very difficult read despite its shortness that gave me the impression that I am simply too stupid for Coetzee.

others:
July's Powell: The Valley of Bones, rated with 4 stars
The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope as the penultimate of the Barsetshire Chronicles, rated with 4 stars

August reads:

281: The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
I admit I didn't like this series as much as most of the other readers in our GR.
281a. The Man of Property by John Galsworthy - free Kindle - EN - 352p - 3.5 stars
My favorite in the series.
281b. In Chancery by John Galsworthy - free Kindle - EN - 336p - 3.25 stars
So Irene is still beautiful??
281c. To Let by John Galsworthy - free Kindle - EN - 352p - 2.5 stars
Now Irene is not just beautiful, she is also horribly manipulating.

282. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells - free Kindle - EN - 302p - 3.5 stars
That was some sci-fi fun not bothering with keeping the number of victims at a low level!

283. The Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - free Kindle - EN - 672p - 2.5 stars
Dreadfully boring. Maybe I should read this again when I am much older.

284. Terre al crespuscolo /Dusklands by J.M. Coetzee - library book - IT - 169p - 3.5 stars
Urgh... another difficult Coetzee. Good yes, important yes, enjoyable not at all.

285. Deutschstunde /The German Lesson by Siegfried Lenz - paperback - DE - 500p - 5 stars
LOVED it!! What a great book, why did I keep it on my shelf so long? The eternal dilemma of free thinking against (blind) obedience brillantly worked out.

286. Amok by Stefan Zweig - paperback - DE - 62p - 3 stars
I don't see it among Zweig's best and am a bit surprised at why it was chosen for the list.

others: Augusts's Powell: The Soldier's Art, rated with 4 stars

September reads:

287.The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox - online book - EN - 530p - 3.5 stars
Alternating between hilarious, ridiculous and a little boring, but alltogether an enjoyable read for such an old classic.

288.Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth - online book - EN - 76p - 3 stars
"The first family saga". Probably also the shortest.

289.Ivanhoe by Walter Scott - free Kindle - DE - 357p (1,001) - 4 stars
Now that was more fun than I had expected. Solid knight's tale, and Robin Hood turns up!

290.Il libro del riso e dell'oblio / The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera - paperback - IT - 273p (1,001) - 3.5 stars
Felt like an exercise for the later novel. Often went simply over my head.

291. Der Stechlin by Theodor Fontane - free Kindle - DE - 372p (1,001) - 4 stars
A bit like a German Trollope this one. Country, politics, religion... all quiet and solid. Great writing.

292. Vathek by William Beckford - free Kindle - EN - 120p (1,001) - 2.5 stars
A mix of 1,001 Nights and Gothic lit. Not for me.

293. The Interesting Narrative by Olaudah Equiano - free Kindle - EN - 167p (1,001) - 3 stars
Maybe not authentic (there are doubts) but certainly interesting and definitely important, this realistic autobio of a man kidnapped from Africa and sold as a slave in the West Indies. The second half became far too religious for my liking.

others: Powell #9: The Military Philosophers, rated with 4 stars

Wow...just wow!

#Bekka: it just looks so impressive because I update so rarely. Thanks for recommending The Postman always rings twice, I am reading it now and loving it!

Cutting/ pasting the October reads into this post now to keep the months separated:

October:

294. The Bell by Iris Murdoch - Kindle - EN - 340p - 4 stars
Not as great as The Sea, The Sea, but still good and equally thought-provoking

295. The Kreutzersonata by Leo Tolstoy - paperback - DE - 128p - 3.5 stars
The weakest of the 4 listed Tolstoys. Some modern thoughts on marriage, some very traditional ones, overall too bitter

296. Caleb Williams by William Godwin - free Kindle - EN - 452p - 3.5 stars
Quite a pageturner for its age, but sometimes I couldn't bear the injustice anymore.

297. Anton Reiser by Karl Philipp Moritz - free Kindle - DE - 420p - 4 stars
Feels incomplete. A 1700s psychological novel with surprisingly modern insights. Has some lengths.

298. Rameau's Nephew by Denis Diderot - free Kindle - EN - 56p - 3.5 stars
A short philosophical dialogue that manages to be entertaining and timeless.

299. Henry von Ofterdingen by Novalis - free Kindle - DE - 158p - 3 stars
Far too incomplete for me to rate it higher. Romance and minnesong rule!

300. Die Entdeckung der Currywurst by Uwe Timm - paperback - DE - 181p - 4 stars
A seemingly easy and undemanding read with hidden depths. Realistic and touching look on the life of a single woman in Hamburg during the last days of WWII and the first weeks of peace.

301. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain - Kindle - EN - 114p - 4 stars
A quick and fun read, although I wasn't all happy with the ending.

And I finished the Powell: Books Do Furnish A Room - 4 stars again

Currently reading:Very slowly I Vicerè (The Viceroys) by Federico De Roberto.

Even slower because my heart and stomach can't take more: The 120 Days of Sodom.

Congratulations on reaching 300!

Congratulations! You'll have to start planning what to read for book 400 ;)

#148 + #149: Thank you! I can't believe I made it. I always thought "maybe I'll get to 250 and then just stop". Now I want more!! :-))

I won't finish any more books this month, so it's time for an October update:

302. Jacques the Fatalist and his Master by Denis Diderot - free Kindle - DE - 254p
This was more fun than Rameau's Nephew and went extremely well with Don Quixote. Another master and servant travelling through the country, having interesting discussions and many adventures. It ends a bit abruptly and surprisingly.
Rating: 4 stars

303. Nana by Émile Zola - free Kindle - DE - 462p
Had put on hold this one earlier this year because I was a bit overfed with the Rougon-Maquarts. Now I could fully enjoy it. Completely exaggerated, but very lively. To understand Nana's character, it's good to have read L'assommoir first which shows her upbringing.
Rating: 4 stars

304. Delta of Venus by Anais Nin - cheap Hardcover - DE - 322p
With the last two episodes Ms Nin reconciled me a bit with her book. When you understand about the war looming, it suddenly has something "Nana-ish". My problem here is not with the erotica genre, I just found most of the book really badly written. The "plots" often made no sense and the "characters" behaved inconsistently all the time. I noticed that most of the women managed to get the desired "liberation", while the disturbed men didn't change.
I added a star because my translation was so obviously bad with many typos and I just want to believe the book is better in its original language.
Rating: 2.5 stars which I might later lower to 2

Now see I think you are fibbing to me :) We'll be tied on 301 for a while indeed!

Hm... :-) I remember you saying you had several listed books going? I am sure we'll soon tie again.
And I am reading 1200 pages Don Quixote now which will take a while + the unfinishable "Sodom".

But yes, I'll try and read Camus' The Stranger in the next couple of days simply because I don't want the Nin book to remain my last read for too long in that "individual totals" thread.

Done for November with listed books I guess. More short ones again than I had planned, but DQ balances them out.

Longer reviews on my 75 thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/158513

305. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev - online book - EN - 224 p
Short and intense story about the love of 2 fathers to their only sons, the hopes they put into them and 2 different outcomes.
Review: post # 103 on my 75 thread
Rating: 4 stars

306. Der Fremde (The Stranger/The Outsider) by Albert Camus- paperback - DE - 159p
I feel bad for writing this, but I didn't like this book at all. Which doesn't influence my impression that I was reading something great and important.
Review: post #105
Rating: 3.5 stars

307. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes - paperback, online book, audio - DE/EN - 1119p
Just wow! A must-read on any list, even if it were "the 10 books you...".
Review: post #107
Rating: 5 stars

308. Nessuno scrive al colonello (No One Writes To The Colonel) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - hardcover owned - IT - 83p
Surprisingly short and free of magical realism, yet strange enough that still I don't know what to make of it. Somewhat sad, and still hopeful, I was often smiling.
Review: post #118
Rating: 3.5 stars

309. Ragazzi di vita (The Ragazzi) by Pier Paolo Pasolini - paperback - IT - 251p - 4 stars
A strange work like a very fragile musical composition with many layers. A very difficult read, difficult to review. The dialogue is rude and vulgar (and all in Roman dialect), the narrative parts are brutally realistic or heartbreakingly poetic. It is obvious that there's love in Pasolini's look on the lost boys in post-WWII Rome, that in all the dirt, hunger, misery there's something humming that draws him towards them. I am sure this is a great work of art. I don't know if I can recommend it, it's not an easy book to read and to digest. But it is special and belongs on the list.
Review: not posted yet
Rating: 4 stars, might upgrade to 4.5

Plus:

Temporary Kings by Anthony Powell - paperback - 280p
The penultimate book of the Dance to the Music of Time series. Nick is now older than me. Everyone is feeling nostalgic all the time.
Review: post #101
Rating: 4 stars

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope - free Kindle - 702p
The first book of the Palliser series of which the 2nd, Phineas Finn, is listed. Long and for a Trollope unusually dark. I enjoyed it, but have mixed feelings about Trollope's writing of the women in this story. All young women are continually called "foolish" by the men in the story and I hate it when I have to admit they are right.
Review: post #106
Rating: 4 stars

The last books read in 2013:

310. Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell - 12 volumes - Paperback - EN
I reviewed all the individual volumes on my 75threads and posted some remarks here. The last one, Hearing Secret Harmonies, quite perfectly concludes the circle.

Rating: 4.5 stars

311. I Viceré (The Viceroys) by Federico De Roberto - free Kindle - IT - 632p
One of the books I quite hated while reading but which still left a lasting impression. Maybe it was so hard to read because there isn't a single likeable member in this Sicilian family. The political part was fascinatingly modern.

Rating: 4 stars

312. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol - free Kindle - EN - 432p
I quite liked this book once I had accepted it as satire. Unfortunately very much incomplete. After part 1 there are only fragments of what surely would have become a great and long work.

3.5 stars

313. Transit by Anna Seghers - Kindle - DE - 280p
I'd recommend reading it after The Seventh Cross. The language needs some getting used to, but after quite a weak start the book became really gripping and showed me a so far unknown aspect of WWII.

4.5 stars

314. Der Streit um den Sergeanten Grischa (The Case of ...) by Arnold Zweig - Kindle - DE - 480p
As with Dead Souls I needed a bit to recognize the satire, as with Transit I had issues with the writing. Often lengthy, but based on a true case and with interesting reflections on war ethics. Written and published pre 1933, this book also gives an open and unspoiled look on Jewish life in Eastern Europe during WWI.

Rating: 4 stars

315. Le radici del cielo (The Roots of Heaven) by Romain Gary - library book - IT - 487p
What a great GR book! Somehow it went very well with some other books I read this month, like "Grischa". Another book about the will to believe in justice and humanity was just the message I needed during the Christmas month and the message we all need maybe more than ever in today's world.

4.5 stars

Great.. I have to update 4.5 months and 17 books... So I better get started:

January 2014:
316.For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Not my favorite Hemingway, but an important anti-war work with some very strong moments.
Rating: 4 stars

317.The Professor's House by Willa Cather
I quite liked this book though I can't really say why... :)
Rating: 4 stars

318.La Promesse de l'aube/ Promise at Dawn by Romain Gary
Not as strong as The Roots of Heaven, quite autobiographical. Often entertaining despite the sad background, and what a strong example of absolute unconditional maternal love!
Rating: 4 stars

319.Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor
A short quiet book that really impressed me.
Rating: 4 stars

February 2014:

320. Bird Song by Sebastian Faulks
Didn't really like it. The best parts were the front scenes that felt a bit like copied from elsewhere. The romance was useless. Rating with 3 stars as usual for well-meaning anti-war literature.
Rating: 3 stars

321. Bartleby and Co. by Enrique Vilas-Matas
A book about "Bartlebys", i.e. authors unable to get anything (or much) published because they think too much or because they believe they are unworthy. Loved it, but it's probably not for everyone, not offering a story.
Rating: 4.5 stars

322. Conversazioni in Sicilia by Elio Vittorini
Short observations of the author's trip to Sicily where he had spent his childhood. Set in the early fascist Mussolini years.
Rating: 4 stars

323. Garden, Ashes by Danilo Kis
From the "unread" list. Should be more widely read, wonderful poetical language, sad Story about a childhood in Eastern Europe on the hide from the nazis.
Rating: 4 stars

324. Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner
Read for the AAC in the 75 Group, my first Faulkner. I didn't get through my paper copy and tried the audio which was a good decision. Confusing but great!
Rating: 4 stars

March 2014:
325. All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Read for the American Author Challenge in the 75group. Sadly I didn't find a connection with it though I appreciate its place in literature.
Rating: 3.5 stars

326. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
Phew... quite hated it and now appreciate the early movies much more.
Rating: 2 stars

April 2014:

327. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Had a hard time getting through this one. No likeable characters, every digression was welcome.
Rating: 3 stars

May 2014:
328. Das Treibhaus/ The Hothouse by Wolfgang Köppen
Read for the "unread list" and very glad I did. Why is this book not on the German school syllabus? It perfectly captures the atmosphere in Bonn (the then capital city of West Germany) in the early 1950s when many ex-nazis had made a comfortable post-war political career and a left-wing MP struggles with his conscience.
Rating: 4 stars

329. La Morte a Roma/ Death in Rome by Wolfgang Köppen
Not as good as #327, but still very good. Somehow fits well with Pasolini's Ragazzi di Vita with the observations of life in post-war Rome.
Rating: 3.5 stars

330. Gösta Berling by Selma Lagerlöf
While reading next to nothing since March, at least I try to do the GRs here. This was a quick read and thanks to the GR I learned it is an early example for magic realism. I still prefer Nils Holgersson.
Rating: 3.5 stars

331. The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Read in honor of the recently deceased author. Should better have waited a bit with this one as it needs time and concentration which I both don't really have right now. Great book though, more difficult than One Hundred Years of Solitude and one for my to-be-reread list.
Rating: 4 stars for now

332. Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Short and somewhat confusing. I preferred part I.
Rating: 3.5 stars

Looks like The Optimist's Daughter might become #333 and Dog Years #334. Hm...

Reread and loved Dangerous Liaisons, much better than on my first try in the 80s.

Impressive as always my dear :) And you def liked Autumn of the Patriarch a whole LOT more than me!

I thought I'd better update this thread before I hit the magic 333/334. No progress on the index though...
BUT once I add all those books from other editions I might gain.. err... maybe one rank. :)

TAotP imo is a book that should ideally be read in one or two sittings, like a Virginia Woolf novel. Sadly I had to squeeze it into a tight schedule, reading just a couple of pages = half a sentence whenever there was some time, so the beauty of the language, while I noticed it, was quite lost on me. In one of the reviews here there's a link to the NYT review which was really helpful.

Yay, passed "the 1st third"! :))

333. The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
A little too sad for me right now (I was unspoiled and really expected sth happier from the title...). Yet I quite loved it and wished it were a bit longer, I would have liked to see more real interaction between Laurel and Fay.
Rating: 4 stars

334. Inside Mr. Enderby by Anthony Burgess
I think it was a good choice reading this one as #334 instead of finishing Dog Years first. This book is often a bit disgusting - body functions too detailed, but still amusing. I always wonder what it is with the English (British?) and Catholicism. Must be the many persecution years/centuries? Continental Catholicism as I know it (myself being Protestant, but living in Italy) follows much more the "sin and maybe confess" approach, but in British literature of the 1950s (Greene, Waugh, now Burgess) it is always a terribly serious, often traumatizing issue.
Anyway, I enjoyed it, I'll read the other Enderbys as well.
Rating: 4 stars.

Congratulations on getting past that crucial 1/3 mark. Onward!

#159 Thank you! And YES! :)

335. Dog Years by Günter Grass
Much better than expected. Although I still don't like Grass much as a person I must acknowledge his extreme talent as writer. It's decades since I read The Tin Drum, and then I couldn't handle the style yet. In the meantime I learned to love magic realism, and this book is a great example. The only issue I have is the repetitiveness of certain elements, especially in part 3. It felt like he didn't want to come to a close and added some paragraphs in unfinished sentences here, some lists of words/ synonyms there and so the original strong effect of those elements was a bit lost. But overall a work of such a great power that I am now eager to reread TTD.
Rating: 4 stars

Cleaning up - I'll now count books from all editions, but still count the 2008 edition separately, putting that number in brackets. So here's the list of books read from the 2006 edition, removed in 2008:

2006 edition:
336. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro – strange and fascinating book

337. On Beauty by Zadie Smith – White Teeth was better, it’s okay that this one was removed from the list

338. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides – I can’t say I liked it very much and now I feel un-pc. Still far better than many remaining books.

339. Don’t Move by Margaret Mazzantini – A sometimes shocking, but true ad heartfelt book. Should have remained on the list

340. City of God by E.L. Doctorow – almost all my memories of that book are gone, but I certainly never felt like reading something very special

341. Old Masters by Thomas Bernhard – ew.. I quite hated it and clearly preferred Wittgenstein’s Nephew (still on)

342. The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan – now this one was and remains chilling. Typical IME

343. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut – liked it much, but not necessarily a 1,001

344. Memento Mori by Muriel Spark – my favorite Spark, imo better than the 2 remaining ones

345. Mrs. ‘Arris Goes To Paris by Paul Gallico – lovely book, but certainly no 1,001

346. The Third Man by Graham Greene – as an audio book this one was fantastic

347. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck – this one should have stayed on the list which imo hasn’t got enough JS books

348. Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller – don’t remember much, but I absolutely don’t want to reread it

349. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh – very okay, but not a must-read

350. Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf – I liked it very much, but the remaining books are the real literary milestones

351. The Last Days of Humanity by Karl Kraus – certainly removed because it’s a play. One of my favorite books. 5 stars!!

352. The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf – a great first work, but VW’s still listed books are better

353. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James – well.. not really that chilling

354. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman – short and impressive

355. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens – liked it, but no must-read

356. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – should have remained on the list imo as it is quite different from other Dickens works. One of my favorite CDs

357. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – such a worldwide beloved and life-affirming classic, it should have stayed on the list. THE feelgood novel!

358. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen – I liked it but it’s okay it was removed. The better Austens stayed on the list

359. Persuasion by Jane Austen – with Mansfield Park the only JA book I didn’t get through on my first try, but then I really enjoyed it, mostly the second half.

Books read from the 2010 edition:
360. Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery – it didn’t sound honest in my ears and I didn’t think it was very original. In a line with books like the “Ucrainian Tractor”, the curious “dog incident” or “Measuring the World”. Popular for a season or 2 but quickly forgotten.

361. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga – I loved this book, but understand that others don’t.

362. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz – imo not a very good book. Maybe a must in the sense that you’ll learn much about the Dominican Republic. But the Oscar character??

Books read from the 2012 edition:
363. There But For The by Ali Smith – Nice GR read. But a must? A book that might be gone again in one of the next editions.

364. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides – I guess I read it at the right time in my life, it was and remains a really helpful book for me.

365. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen – I thought it was quite disappointing, I never found a connection.

366. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami – hit a nerve with me for absolutely no explainable reason: 5 stars

367. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes – Booker winner, really?

368. (336) Amatissima/ Beloved by Toni Morrison
This book left me quite untouched, contrary to everything I had expected from my first Morrison. It might have been the language (maybe I can't connect Italian and a story about slavery), but possibly it was the mix of realism and ghost story. I'll try another one soon, preferably in English.
Rating: 3 stars

369. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
My new favorite Vonnegut which should have stayed on the list. It's not flawless, but important and timeless.
Rating: 4.5 stars

370. Ebdòmero/ Hebdomeros by Giorgio de Chirico
Read for the unread challenge. Don't know what I read, but it sounded nice and didn't annoy me too much.
Rating: 2.5 stars

371. (337) Halbzeit/ Halftime by Martin Walser
Another one for the unread challenge. Very hard read for me for personal reasons. A great book that should be more widely available. It looks deep into the (mostly rotten) heart of the 1950s "Wirtschaftswunder" (economic miracle) Germany. Great observations, often amusing, always honest.
Rating: 4.5 stars

Deern, based on your review of Halbzeit I would really like to read it. I think however that is has not been translated. Do you know if I am right?

>164 Simone2: As far as I know it has been translated, but is out of print. I think I saw that here on the thread "where to find these 1001 books". I'd post the link if I could manage to copy/paste on the ipad.

>165 Deern: According to Steven's book-finding list:

"Walser, Martin

Halftime (Halbzeit) has apparently never been published in English translation, though the Wikipedia article on Walser says that it has. I can find no reference elsewhere to an English-language edition. "

http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/1001_Books:_Finding_Aid#Authors:_W

>166 ELiz_M: yes, you're right, I just checked wiki. it gives a list of English Walser titles, this one among them, and a separate list of books published in German only. Strange...
Before we had the unread thread and the discussion about Taebek Mountains I had assumed that the English edition has only books that are also available in English, but apparently that's not the case.
The Italians copied the list, but removed all books not published in Italian, filling the gaps mainly with more Italian books. The German edition is a 1:1 copy, but at least marks those that haven't been translated.

Half a year since I updated... oh dear, much to do for me, 12 books to add.

372. (338) La disubbidienza by Alberto Moravia
This is a short book that well describes the growing pains of young Luca. When for the first time he sees his parents in a situation of weakness he feels cheated and loses his will to live. Well written, but quite predictable.
Rating: 3.5 stars

373. Cecilia by Fanny Burney
This was a drag. An amusing and enjoyable drag, but still… The story is interesting, the characterizations are great, there’s lots of humor and some scenes read like a sit-com script. But it’s also very long and from the moment where young and lovely and smart heiress Cecilia Beverly meets “Mr Right” you know how it’s going to end and those endless obstacles become somewhat annoying.
Rating: 3.5 stars

374. (339) The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
Great concept, rushed and disappointing ending. Not fully convinced, rating is more than 3 stars for importance, because the book shows how fragile democracy is at any moment.
Rating: 3.5 stars

375. (340) Go Tell It On A Mountain by George Baldwin
It really impressed me and I liked it very much up to about 80% when part 3 started. Then I was lost and I don't even understand the ending.
Rating: 3.5 stars

376. (341) In A Free State by V.S. Naipaul
Booker winner in my birth year 1971. This is one of those highly uncomfortable books which you want to shake off you like a biting insect while reading it. Not a novel, instead two short stories, a novella ad two short framing pieces. I thought the title was well chosen, as it can be interpreted as "free country" or "free (personal) status", both alternatives applicable to all 5 stories.
Rating: 3.5 stars

377. (342) Paare, Passanten/ Couples, Passerby by Botho Strauss
Can't say I am eager to read more Strauss anytime soon. Picked from the unread list and glad it was a quick read. Well observed scenes in the first part, but an overly exerted language that tries to be special and feels artificial.
Rating: 3 stars

378. (343) The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Interesting psychological study without hope for the protagonist. That's the issue with those classics focussing on women in conflicting situations. Not easy to read, I was suffering along a bit too much.
Rating: 3.8 stars

379. (344) The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.
I finally got to this famous classic. A difficult read for me because I could relate so well to the heroine, while knowing early on how it must end. Great writing, a very uncomfortable book.
Rating: 4 stars

380. (345) Paradise of the Blind by Duong Hu Thuong
October GR. Hard to like, but important. The first Vietnamese novel post-war to be published internationally.
Rating: 3.2 stars

381. (346) Jahrestage by Uwe Johnson
My book of the year, hands down! I want my own copy. Set in 1968, it's a one-year diary by a German woman living in Manhattan. Memories of life back in Germany during the Nazi period and later in the Soviet zone are mixed with observations of life in the US during an important period - Afro-Americans fighting for equal rights, the Vietnam war going on with ever more victims, while in Europe the Prague Spring emerges and the US wants to be part of the movement.
2,000 pages in the German version, the English edition is abridged.
Rating: 5 stars

382. (347)Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
A long and hard read, but an extremely important anti-war book. I am glad it was selected for a GR.
Rating: 4 stars

383. (348) Rabbit Redux by John Updike
Rabbit is not a character to be liked and the books are hard to read for me. Rabbit's passivity paralyzes me. Nevertheless the books are very well written and feel important, certainly for US readers.
Rating: 3.5 stars

384. (349) Mother's Milk by Edward St. Aubyn
I am grateful someone told me to read the whole Patrick Melrose series, not just this 4th (of 5) book. As I saw from reviews, this book doesn't work well on its own, but very, very well as the most intense and honest part in a series were a young man comes to terms with his abusive childhood.
Rating: 4 stars for this book, 4.5 for the series

Now reading the short and easy Vicar of Wakefield to end the year with 385 books read from the complete list.

Good to see you're thread back. I was slowly closing in on your total but now have more work to do....!

>169 puckers: Sorry! :)

385. (350) The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
A strange mix of moralistic tale and satire which certainly wasn't the perfect book to conclude this year. But quick and easy and it was Christmas, so
Rating: 3 stars

Re 384... good to know. I just found a copy in the cheap-heap but I hate jumping into the middle of something (even if the books could standalone). I will look for the others first. Thanks!

As I don't know when I'll read the next listed book after my looong break, maybe I should at least update my stats here:

January:
386. (350) Sula by Toni Morrison - 4 stars
387. (351) An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro - 4 stars

February:
388. (351) Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters - 3.5 stars
389. (352) The Wings of the Dove by Henry James - 2 stars
390. (352) Fingersmith by Sarah Waters - 3.8 stars
391. (352) A Handful of Dust by Evely Waugh - 3 stars

March:
392. (352) The History of Love by Nicole Krauss - 3.8 stars (I had totally forgotten I read this book)

In March I still read some great books in GRs that aren't on the 1,001 list and then in April RL took over and I haven't read much "real literature" since. Slowly recovering from my book funk with the help of the 2015 Booker Prize longlist and then I hope that I'll be able to squeeze in those missing 8 before New Year's Eve.

Sometimes we need a break from 'real literature' :-). I have my trusty stand bys and I make sure I have a good mix now of books rather than just concentrating on 10001 books. They are usually great reads but they are often heavy going.

>173 M1nks: You're right and I believe I'm by now through most of the easy ones. I fell back on mystery novels (Camilleri) and lots of self-help during summer. But now I finished one, yay:

September:
393. (352) The Collector by John Fowles - 3 stars
The book is better than 3 stars, but once Miranda's diary starts I hated reading every single page. I felt like an intruder, I didn't want to read what I was reading and I was glad when I was through. Interestingly it was less the kidnapping (as it has been used in literature and film a lot since), it was reading about that non-relationship with the horribly manipulative G.P.. A good book I'll certainly never touch again, too disturbing.

394. (352) The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells - 3 stars
Another Wells that starts great and quickly gets one-dimensional and a bit boring. The best part is the small-town life. I would have wished for a bit more depth and mystery.

October:

395.(353) Les Choses by Georges Perec - 3 stars
I love what Calvino tries with novels, but I hate his books. I love Perec's experiments, but the three books I tried so far bored me, while I see their value. Next time I'll try a translation. This one is very short and, except for the Tunis part, quite timeless. Still it took me a over a week to finish it and I had to read most of it aloud to better concentrate.

396. (354) The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte - 4 stars
Now this was just the linear well told classic I needed after this year's Booker longlist with all those books written like movies with super sad and/ or violent plots.
I don't like letter form much, but as there was just the one writer here, I didn't mind. I had always dreaded this book for its length, but I was through the 550 pages in two days, and it felt quite fresh and modern. And normal! No ghosts, no hidden wife in the attic. Okay, the last 100 pages could have been told faster, because it was long obvious how it would all end, but overall it was an enjoyable, solid read.

397. (355) The Devil's Pool by George Sand - 1.5 stars
While readng this short book I felt very angry in the introduction, amused (which wasn't the author's intention) and annoyed in the main part which is a very cheesy love story, and very bored in the long appendix that describes in detail strange wedding rites in the Tourraine centuries(?) ago. Maybe I'm so disappointed because title and author had lead me to expect something completely different.

November:

398. (355) The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark - 3.5 stars
Very short (114p) and quite good in the typical Spark style, but very disturbing. A young woman plans to be FAT SPOILER a murder victim and sets out to be noticed by future witnesses. Not a good book to read last thing before going to sleep.

399. (356) Le Città Invisibili by Italo Calvino - 3.5 stars
It took me several days to get through 160 pages of the most beautiful Italian prose, and I have no idea what I read except that sometimes in the Marco Polo/ Kublai Khan interludes I got an idea of a life philosophy. My favorite of the 4 listed Calvinos, but I'm glad I'm done.

400. (356) Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham - 4.2 stars
Such a delightful book - why haven't I read more WSM yet? Why aren't more books listed?
I didn't get the literary references (I only read one Thomas Hardy so far and no Hugh Walpole) and would never have noticed that there are real writers behind those character names hadn't an LT friend told me, but I liked the light and often humorous tone and the honesty when the narrator remembers his class-conscious youth in a small town by the coast.

And so I at least reached my minimum goal for the year with about 6 months delay. I hope for a better 2016.

Congratulations on 400. Plenty more to look forward to next year (and beyond)

Cakes and Ale is great. I liked The Razor's Edge even more.

400. (356) Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham - 4.2 stars
Such a delightful book - why haven't I read more WSM yet? Why aren't more books listed?

Probably because he is more well known as a short story writer. He does have a couple of books listed in the various versions, which isn't too bad really.

If you liked this then I highly recommend you try reading his short stories. They are in a class of their own. Absolutely superb.

>177 puckers: thank you! I am quite ambitious for next year... I hope RL lets me read more in 2016.

>178 Cliff-Rhu-Rhubarb: thanks, The Razor's Edge is noted now as a soon-tbr!

>179 M1nks: I usually don't enjoy short stories (mainly a language issue, it takes me a bit longer to get settled in a plot), but for WSM I'd make an exception, thank you for the recommendation!

These two still count for November:

401. (356) The Information by Martin Amis
I liked Money but thought this one was far weaker, it was like Amis lost his ambition/enthusiasm half way through and then had to keep a publisher's deadline. Sad, because it started so promising.
Rating: 2.5 stars

402. (357) Small Island by Andrea Levy
This book had more layers than other historical fiction books about WWII, but then it got lost in unnecessary drama as well. I liked it that Levy showed "racism" wasn't limited to the Jamaicans in London, that the poor English families bombed out of their houses, weren't treated any friendlier. But then again... if you read a book actually written in the post-war 1940s, all that added drama wouldn't be there because the situation itself would be dramatic enough and it would be palpable for today's readers as well. This is another book that screams at me instead of just telling its story.
Rating: 3.5 stars

I doubt I'll get through Gravitiy's Rainbow before January 1st, so here are my 2 December reads:

403. (357) Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf
My third favorite VW now after The Waves and To The Lighthouse. Set on a single day in summer 1939, shortly before the beginning of WWII, on a country estate where a pageant is to take place in the afternoon. I didn't get all of the pageant's contents, but the scenes before and between the acts were just fantastic (if you enjoy VW, that is).
Rating: 4.5 stars

404. (358) Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
This is a book I enjoyed but that didn't captivate me at all. Only now at my parents' place over Christmas (=with lots of time) and with the help of the additionally purchased audio book did I finally finish it. It wasn't boring - just easy to put down and forget. It's satire and a good one and surprisingly timeless as well. Basically the normal life of an average US businessman and "good citizen" during the prohibition years between the world wars. It surely lost some of its original punch, but I can see how it made it to the 1,001 list.
Rating: 3.5 stars

Wishing you all HAPPY HOLIDAYS and ALL THE BEST FOR THE NEW YEAR!!

3 books in Jan 2016:

405. (359) Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
I surprisingly fell quite in love with this audiobook and am considering reading the rest of the trilogy as well. A quiet story about the "ordinary" life of a highschool teacher, whose existence triggers dramatic events in the lives of others.
Rating: 4 stars

406. (360) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
My first Pynchon, and this concludes my challenge to read at least one book by each author with more than 2 books in the 2008 edition. I think this is the most difficult book I've ever read, but hey - there's still Finnegan's Wake to come! :) Ulysses and Infinite Jest were easy in comparison. But despite not understanding big parts of the plot and constantly forgetting names I had much fun with it, though not enough to rate it with more than 4.2 stars.
Rating: 4.2 stars

407. (361) Stiller by Max Frisch - BEWARE OF SPOILERS
I'm eternally grateful that my German lit teacher gave us Homo Faber and didn't spoil this one for me. Definitely a book for us middle-agers. The best description of a tortured narcissist soul and the collateral damage it can cause in others I ever read. If you can't relate to it, it might bore you to death. If you can (as I do) it might kill your hopes for improvement. So be warned.
Brillantly observed and very intelligently constructed.
Rating: 5 stars

Having another difficult 1,001 year. Hoping for April when I got 3 listed books lined up for other challenges. Just checked the next 2 GRs here, but found none of them on Kindle.

So for the stats: nothing finished in February (got stuck early in The Return of the Native despite(!) listening to Alan Rickman's audio, and just one short one in March:

408. (362) The Accidental by Ali Smith
Loved it more than most other reviewers and interpreted it a bit as a modern Mary Poppins tale. Not AS' best, but a good one with a clear structure.
Rating: 4 stars

Yay, read 4(!!!) 1,001s this month so far:

409. (362): The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
The first (and maybe last) Atwood I really enjoyed despite the sci-fi story in the story in the story, despite the extremely confusing beginning and despite the not at all surprising big secret. Maybe it was the sensitive and believable description of old age and living with the knowledge that we might made mistakes we can never make up for.
4.5 stars

410. (362):Gabriel's Gift by Hanif Kureishi
One of those books where I can't explain what I liked. Maybe I just like Kureishi because I read his "Buddha" so early and now his books always bring me back to my own youth.
Rating: 3.5 stars

411. (363): Adam Bede by George Eliot
The first classic in ages I enjoyed. Not perfect - a bit too wordy and too religious. But in every Eliot book I feel that she likes her characters, and even the "bad" ones are just human.
Rating: 3.8 stars

412. (364): The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek
It might speak for me (and my mind) that I tried another Jelinek right after this one and couldn't even get through the sample.
But this here is quite brilliant, at least in its original language. And that's the thing. It's highly constructed on the language level with hidden meanings which I'm sure are most often not translatable. This gives the overall viciousness a lightness that makes it readable and even entertaining in a weird way. That Prater voyeur scene is actually quite funny (though sad funny, not happy funny). An extremely sad and touching third part where a woman desperately longing for love who has never learned to open up pours (not literally!!) rubbish over her head and hacks off her own hand (not literally as well).
If this sounds in any way tempting - seeing all the negative reviews I'm quite sure it doesn't work half as well in translation and without at least some cultural connection to Austria. If you like Thomas Bernhard's "hate books" however and don't shy away from some very explicit and not nice scenes you can give it a try.

Rating: 4 stars

And 4 with fairly high ratings at that!

I read a 1,001 again after more than a year! OMG, I've been through such a bad reading funk, and the little I read was either very simple or very new (like Auster's 4 3 2 1 A Novel and therefore not on the list.

413. (365) In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
I like some crime reading in summer and I combined it with the movie. Liked the book better, the writing was great. And as I read it about 6 weeks ago, my memories of it are already slightly blurred, so I'm sorry I can't say more.
Rating: 4 stars

Going through my yearly Booker longlist reading and hope to return then to the 1,001 list. I want to read some more Booker winners, and many of them are on this list as well.

>187 Deern: Welcome back! I recently read Rites of Passage and enjoyed it - I think that is one Booker winner you haven't read yet.

Started The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, my last unread Ishiguro which fortunately is also a 1,001. Still mainly reading newer fiction, though some of it certainly worth a place in an updated list.

>188 puckers: I own that one on Kindle, high time to read it! :)

I forgot listing this one I read in October:

414. (366) The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
I had a difficult time with it. I often like weird metaphysical stuff, but this hit a tone that was less accessible for me, it just made me terribly nervous most of the time and reminded me a lot of The Trial by Kafka. And yet it stayed with me for a long while and my memories are mainly positive.
Rating: 4 stars

I'm now listening to all Sherlock Holmes books which counts as a re-read of the listed one, so at least I'm concluding the year with a bit of 1,001 literature. I'm planning to participate in several author challenges next year in the 75 group which hopefully will get my 1,001 count up a bit again.

415. (366) Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
I didn't hate it as much as expected, which doesn't mean I liked it. Drunk people/ people on drugs scare me, scared me all my life on a very low, instinctive level. It's the possibility of a sudden outbreak of violence, especially in crowds. I avoid big sports events, festivals, etc. So reading about a gang of junkies in Edinburgh was like confrontation therapy, though a mild form of course. Of course there were lots of icky and some very sad scenes, but again it was the violence that got to me most and all I wanted was close the book and not open it again.

The book is in fact really good, but because of my personal zero-enjoyment I rate it with only 3 stars.

Can't judge the famous play with language as I read it in German, it was a library give-away copy, falling to pieces. The translators tried to add some slang, but I guess it's not comparable to the original which I probably wouldn't have understood anyway.

416. (367) The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien
The first one of a trilogy, #2 Girl with Green Eyes is listed as well. This was an audio I quite enjoyed about a young girl in 1950s Ireland and her wild manipulative (and really unlikeable) friend Baba. They go to convent school together and later to Dublin, there's first love and heartbreak. A good book, but I can't say I feel much drawn to the next in the series.
3.8 stars

House of 7 Gables is very long, and at 40% I'm still waiting for some action.

>192 Deern: - I preferred Girl with Green Eyes. Baba isn't as prominent and she's grown up a little bit from her mean girl phase.

>193 Nickelini: Thank you! I'll certainly read it some time this year, though maybe as paper copy/ Kindle, the audio made me feel too involved.

417. (368) The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi
More non-fiction or a selection of essays than a novel, so far my favorite Levi. I read it parallely with the (non-listed) At the Mind's Limits by Jean Améry, another Auschwitz survivor with a different philosophy. He directly responds to some of Améry's writings in this book.
I didn't read the essays in order, I started with the letters from German readers, then read the Améry response, then read the others randomly.
They all show great clarity and are imo very well written, and they are conclusive. The collection is his last published book before his death a year later. Nothing in the book hints at a later suicide, on the contrary. They sound like he came to terms with everything and had nothing more to say. I'll read some more of his earlier works (I have The Periodic Table on my shelf) and maybe a biography at some point.
If you read If this is a Man, you shouldn't miss out on the non-listed The Truce which is a direct sequel, though written 15 years later. He refers to the events in this book and certainly also in the listed If Not Now, When?.

Rating: 5 stars

418. (369) Felicia's Journey by William Trevor
The premise was great: pregnant Irish girl travels to England, looking for her lover of whom she knows only name and town, but has no address. She meets a sinister older man who seems to be harmless and helpful, but clearly has his own agenda. I really enjoyed the first third, then it became a bit repetitive and boring, and the ending was imo totally unsatisfactory and didn’t really make sense. Yes, guilt, etc. But still… People say Trevor is a great writer. I wasn’t at my best while reading it, and I mainly noticed how I was thrown into completely new situations/ circumstances/ character worlds several times and found it quite tiring. I’ll try another Trevor some time, as he has several books on the 1,001 list, but not this month.

Rating: 2.8 stars

419. (370) G. A Novel by John Berger
I started this last year in July as Booker preparation, put it on hold when the 2017 longlist was out and then quite forgot about it until I saw it fit the Feb 2018 British Author Challenge. G. is the illegitimate son of a rich Italian and his English mistress, born in the late 1800s. He spends his childhood years in England on the farm of his mother’s relatives, later meets his father in Milano during the big riots, but returns to England to conclude his education. Later episodes see him again in Northern Italy (Milano, Domodossola) and finally in Trieste during the first days of WWI. This was for me – for the most part – a great book, but the last 30%, set in Trieste, were totally lost on me, and it wasn’t the flu. Berger uses G., whose name is never spelled out, as a Don Juan character. He experiences his life mostly sensually. How does it feel to drink milk or to touch the rough fabric of a skirt? How do we feel inside our body, and inside our clothes? Later, in the Domodossola chapter, I really liked the portrayal of his lover Camille and highlighted complete pages. But the last chapter, the conclusion, somehow doesn’t fit.

Not an easy book, and certainly a courageous and non-traditional choice as a Booker winner.

Rating: 3.8 stars

420. (371) The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
I recently looked at my excel with my 1,001 reads and clearly something happened to my brain. I’d read 106 from the 2008 list before 2010, then read 60 in 2010, 44 in 2011, 25 in 2012, 80(!!!) in 2013, 35 in 2014, 8 in 2015, 6 in 2016, an extremely embarrassing 2 in 2017. In those earlier years I read my way through the 1800s classics, many long ones, without any big issues. In the last couple of years however I notice I enjoy them far less, that I also have far less patience with them. Maybe it’s partly because I’m through the really popular ones, but it also feels like something in my brain has been switched to different understanding of text. I find myself reading more non-fiction recently.

Anyway – this was my first Hawthorne, and I found it dreadfully boring. For the first 25% of this long book, I still believed it was all irony, but when the whole sermon of “Little Phoebe’s presence making everyone’s life better, and even the chickens lay more eggs and the flowers have more blossoms…” didn’t end, I started skim-reading. There is a little plot hidden in there that could be blown up to 100 pages and still not feel compressed. At least it’s a painless read in the sense that there aren’t any terrible injustices to suffer through (as I’m expecting from The Scarlet Letter). This is a “gothic” novel, but there wasn’t a moment that felt gothic to me. It just felt very, very pointless. Oh, and the writing was good!

Rating: 2.8 because at least 1 star might be attributed to my loss of “classic brain cells”

Oh dear, I should really update more regularly.... Thanks to the GRs here and the British and Irish author challenges I managed some more.

March reads
421. (372) Cause for Alarm by Eric Ambler
This is a quick and quite fun read, a classic noir thriller set in fascist Italy of the early 30s.
4 stars

422. (373) La luna e i falò (The Moon and the Bonfires) by Cesare Pavese
I liked this one very much, but it is very, very slow and took me forever to get through.
3.8 stars

423. (374) Underworld by Don De Lillo
I remember when I finished this book I felt a bit tired of those "great American novels" and thought I would have liked it better if I had read it earlier, before all the other GANs.
4 stars which don't feel like 4 anymore

424. (374) Die Mittagsfrau by Julia Franck
This one has been removed in the latest edition. It's a good book, but not at all a must.
3.5 stars

425. (375) 2001 by Arthur C Clarke
Read it after finally having seen the movie. Both together are great, but the movie can stand on its own feet many years later, while I thought the book alone hasn't aged as well.
3.5 stars

426. (375) Metamorphosen by Ovid
I don't remember why I rated with 4 stars only. Usually I give 5 for those great old epic works. It might have been the translation I read which I often didn't understand. Okay:
4 stars for my edition, 5 for the work.

April reads:

427. (376) Molloy by Samuel Beckett
I would like to say that I liked it, and I did then. My brain is always better for difficult books early in the year. I got the other listed Becketts as well, but don't feel like reading them yet. Maybe next January.
4 stars

428. (377) Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
I almost completely forgot this book since reading it. Sorry!
3.5 stars

429. (378) Christo si è fermato a Eboli (Christ Stopped at Eboli) by Carlo Levi
A long and sometimes tedious read, but a very important book that's on the Italian syllabus. Poor kids, it should be read later. It reads more like non-fiction and gives a good idea about the very poor South of Italy during the early fascist years.
4 stars

Reading funk hit in May and June, but here's July:

430. (379) The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor
This style is called Southern Gothic, isn't it? Very strong, dark prose, but her short stories have a stronger punch.
3 stars

431. (379) Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
I read this for the "Angry Young Men" theme in the British author challenge. Most of the time I was totally annoyed with the self-complacent snobbish main character.
Very well-meaning 3 stars

432. (379) The Gathering by Anne Enright
Err... okay, Booker winner. Where are the Booker winners and listed books of the last couple of years by the way? I had hoped to see some more of them on the new 2018 list as I have been reading almost all of them since 2013. Among the listed books would be Enright's The Green Road which I thought was better than this one, but similar. This is very much a typical "big Irish family comes together, alcohol, faith, sex&guilt, conflict" book. In this year's Irish author challenge I feel like I've read too many of those.
3 stars

433. (380) The Master by Colm Toibin
I got this one as audio book and really dreaded it, and then it was so good. Not a great fan of Henry James or historical fiction generally, but it was a wonderful listen.
4.3 stars

434. (381) Under The Net by Iris Murdoch
This was a good book, but I really, really don't like slapstick. If you like it, go for it, it's a quick read!
3.5 stars

and August so far:

435. (382) The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
A timeless main plot and an execution that hasn't aged well at all (totally chauvinistic). It was an audio and quite an entertaining listen.
3.5 stars

436. (382) Winter by Ali Smith
New entry in the 2018 edition, I read it last year. I really loved it but thought Autumn was even better (5 stars).
Both are Ali Smith at her best.
4.5 stars

437. (382) The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
Another new entry in the 2018 edition. I read the series in 2017 in Italian. It has many, many flaws if you look at the narrative with a critical eye, but I loved it to bits. For me, it isn't the story of a great friendship it has always been praised for. For me, Lenu and Lena started out as the same person LL, and at some point in early childhood there was a split and whenever LL arrived at a crossing in her life, Lenu took one way and Lena the other one. The road not taken. It was a fascinating experiment and I'll re-read it eventually.
I rate the whole series with 5 stars although the single elements are more like 4 - 4.5

Nice bunch of snappy reviews there. I’ll need to look out for those 2018 list books.