Do you have books you want to read, before it is, um... too late?
What are they?

The one at the top of mine is War and Peace.

I refuse to acknowledge my own mortality.

That said, I'm going to read Moby Dick, even if that is what kills me. One chapter a year should be sufficient.

I should add Swann's Way, too.

And The Count of Monte Cristo.

#2 - You can do it. I did it twice! The second time I skimmed that 'cetology' chapter, though.

Thanks for the encouragement! In return, I'll tell you that The Count of Monte Cristo is an entrancing read, even if the injustice in the storyline is frustrating.

#6 - Ahhh, injustice!!! Worse than The Hunchback of Notre Dame? I was practically pulling my hair out while listening to that audio book. :oS

*quickly adds The Hunchback of Notre Dame to her TBR list in order aviod future embarassment*

Ummmm...maybe not quite as bad? I just found it annoying, but not hair-tearing worthy, if that helps at all.

(stupid keyboard)

Message edited by its author, Feb 5, 2009, 4:10pm.

#8 - Well, let me put it this way, it's nothing like the Disney version.

N.O.T.H.I.N.G!

I want to read Moby Dick and Proust too. But I think I'd like to read Remembrance of Things Past, I've heard so much about madeleines, I want to know the context. And I'd like to read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon. I think that's enough to keep me busy for a few years.

I loved The Count of Monte Cristo, and the D'Artagnan Romances, The Black Tulip, Alexandre Dumas wrote some wonderful books! You're in for a treat clam.

Maybe I should move it to the top of the list. I really need to print off a list and hang it where I can see it, so I stop BUYING new books when I already own so many things I want to read.

I'm going to wait until I am reincarnated as someone who understands and appreciates the language in Jane Austin and Shakespear to finish my bucket list. I know I am a heathen...but at least I didn't say I am waiting for the movie.

I have the The Illiad, the Odessy, and Moby Dick all sitting on my shelf waiting for their turn, and waiting, and waiting...

I have to say - nothing. I have no books I feel compelled to read before I die. I'm sure I will read lots of good books before then (and probably more than a few stinkers), but that's just cause. The 'deadline' is not an incentive.

#14 - Heh heh. 'deadline'.... ;o)

Thanks. I try!

Probably some Voltaire. I keep hearing how he was a master of satire, etc., etc., and I like satire.

Let's see, I've read the Bible, Moby Dick, Les Miserables, The Illiad, the Odessy, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera. So I guess I'm done. ;)

Well, I've still got several bookcases of books which I haven't read, so maybe not. I really want to finish Shakespeare, War and Peace and Crime and Punishment, but I'm in no hurry.

I also want to read more Dickens. I adored David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities, but don't know what to pick up next.

I think I am supposed to read Madame Bovary although I really have no idea why.

Anna Karenina is better, if you want to read about wayward wives.

I hope to be able to read books written by me someday. I've been working on this enormous fantasy epic for nearly two decades now. If I can someday purchase them right off the shelves of my local bookstore, I can die a happy man!

#19, Great Expectations clam? I love it. And The Old Curiosity Shop, of course, Bleak House is pretty darn good too, and then there's Nicholas Nickelby, those are my favourites of his.

PBS is going to be starting dramatizations of 4 of his novels starting in mid-February, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Little Dorrit and The Old Curiosity Shop. Some pretty good actors, Derek Jacobi, Maggie Smith, Ian McKellen, Bob Hoskins, even a young Daniel Radcliffe as David C.

Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, I love their books, and I love movies made from their stories (well...I'll qualify that and say well-done movies!).

#23 - Oh, yes, I also read Great Expectations, back in college. Forgot that one... Oliver Twist and Bleak House are two I have considered. I have them, but my most of my Dickens books are old enough that I consider them too fragile to read.

#22 - Okay, how far have you gotten? Are you even close to sending out manuscripts?

Finnegan's Wake I figure you have to read at least one James Joyce at least.

#26 - True, but I read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man* AND Ulysses** back in grad school.

* Loved it!
** OY!

#25 - I've been rejected here and there, but I'm still not comfortable with certain aspects of my story (Elvish language, Dwarvish history, etc., etc.) And if I'm not comfy with it yet, how can I expect any publishers to be? But it's in the works...I won't give up. And I hope to live a long time. Maybe my great work will be the last thing I do! This is a bucket list after all, eh?

I'm going to read Godel, Escher and Bach before I die. I'm also going to read the rest of Charles Dickens and re-read all of Jules Verne.

#28 - Well, the very best of luck to you, then. :o)

#29 - I never heard of that fist one, but a lot of my contacts seem to own it. *adds to wishlist*

How much of Dickens have you already read, Jasper?

I want to finish the 1001 Fantasy Books to Read Before You are Turned Into a Newt list.

Other than that, I've been reading more classics and really enjoying it. The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorites. Pride and Prejudice grew on me.

Currently reading The Great Gatsby and it's... meh... okay, I guess. Also, The Odyssey which I'm liking more than I thought I would.

Message edited by its author, Feb 6, 2009, 8:56am.

I'd like to read Les Miserables in full, The Count of Monte Cristo, and more Charles Dickens while I'm at it, especially A Tale of Two Cities since I loved the abridged version in high school. I also plan to read Emma and have two versions of it, but it's my last Austen and I will mourn when I have no more left. I actually went to a used bookstore with loads of classics and picked out tons I decided I should read, so I'd like to get through those. Oh, and the proper classics like The Iliad and The Odyssey.

#23 katylit, is that the BBC Little Dorrit? If so, it was fantastic and all should watch. I've never read the book but the miniseries felt very Dickensian and I couldn't wait for each installment. It made me really want to read the book as well.

blast it

Message edited by its author, Feb 6, 2009, 10:15am.

#33 - Two versions of Emma? You mean two different editions, right? There aren't tow different versions, are there? I loved Emma, by the way. I have two Austens yet to read. Mansfield Park and Persuasion. They are both on my Book Bucket List.

I was going to say I don't have any books I need to read. But I realised I'm part way through so many series' I need to finish and know how they all end.

For some reason I'm feeling very loved right now. ;)

Thought of another one- Dracula. It seems like a classic I shouldn't miss.

OOOh Dracula, for some reason I have read that twice...

Once before a college course, then again in the college course. Since we had to analyze it in the college course it was less fun. And we were downgraded if we did not interpret the book the way the professor did.

I think though that twice is enough.

Now what about the 2 versions of Emma? I have done P & P (twice and currently listening to an audiobook of it when I ride my bike for exercise) and S&S, so the other 4 majors are on my list before the bucket gets kicked, but they are not the top of the list.

My otherwise not very reading husband insists Crime and punishment is a fantastic read. He also thinks all those depressing italian classic films are fantastic, though. (Yes, they are depressing. If you don't think so you haven't truly watched one. They're all about the depravity of humankind, about how our modern life makes us superficial and amoral, how our morals makes us amoral, how... *sigh*)

So no, or yes, I might read that one. Else I think my list, like that of 'Fox, is about series I want to know how they end.

The rest, the classics? If I will read them it will be soon, so they can make a difference in my life. Read them too late and they'd change nothing. And what then would be the meaning? ;-)

#33, yes littlebookworm it's the BBC version, I think they always do wonderful adaptations of period dramas and I'm really looking forward to Little Dorrit. Good to hear such a great recommendation from you. Now I'm really impatient for it to start!

#35 Two different editions, sorry. :P

#37 I adore Dracula. One of my favorite books.

#40 I hope you love it too! It was popular over here, they aired two episodes a week until they missed one for a current events story and got a huge protest from viewers. So it's not just me. =)

I would really like to read Beowulf my brother had to read it for school but it was never on my curriculum.

Message edited by its author, Feb 6, 2009, 4:29pm.

#31 Godel, Escher, Bach is one of my all-time favorite non-fiction books. It requires a certain amount of dedication--you can't read it in five-minute chunks, and you must be ready for some mental gymnastics. Great stuff!!

I still haven't read War and Peace and I've been thinking about tackling it, but first I have to finish my current Early Reviewer book, and then the Gene Wolfe books I'm reading for another discussion group, and then the book for my library book club, ...

#42 It's been a l-o-n-g time since I read Beowulf, but I'm currently in the middle of John Gardner's Grendel, which is the story from the monster's point of view. Very lyrical and creative. I'm enjoying it a lot.

#43 - I went to a reading by John Gardner back when I was an undergrad. The story is that he walked in to the reception they held for him afterwards, took the bottle of Scotch off the table, and walked right out the door. 0.0 He passed away just a few short years later.

Great anecdote about Gardner Clam. If I was a famous writer about to attend another reception with eager undergrads, I'd be inclined to take the bottle and run too.

I'm not sure which Dickens I've read - whatever was in the school curricula plus a couple others I picked up on my own. They were all read 30+ years ago so the Statute of Reading Limitations has expired. I'll just have to read them all.

Clam - You should read The Count of Monte Cristo sooner rather than later. It's a *great* book. I loved it, particularly all the bits that get left out of the movie adaptations. If you can find it, as an intro, watch the television version that had Richard Chamberlain of Dr. Kildare fame starring as Dantes. It also had Louis Jourdan as Danglars, I think. It was definitely Louis Jourdan (I may have the character name wrong).

I'm thinking of using the tag Book Bucket List for some of the books I own but haven't gotten to yet...

If we have more than one book to shout out that we want to read before kicking, then I too must add all the Dickens that I have yet to read, and then reread a few of my favorites, like Nicholas Nickelby and A Tale of Two Cities again.

I want to read the 10 books in the Poldark family series by
Winston Graham. Love them, with all of their history, the love stories, about life among poor miners contra more or less rich gentry in Cornwall, and the caracters who develop boook by book.

My husband thoroughly enjoyed that Poldark series, Anna-Marie, although I haven't read it myself.

Well, I don't own all of the Dickens that I thought I did...
WAH!
*Adds a few things to B&N wishlist*

Pride and Prejudice which is on a couple of my challenge lists for this year. Of course, it was one last year and I still didn't read it.

I just mooched Great Expectations on the advice of my co-worker. That will be my first Dickens.

Message edited by its author, Feb 8, 2009, 9:11am.

42> Ceridwen, I read the Seamus Heaney translation last year and thought it was really good. Go get that one!

Bucket list books: I am looking forward to The Count of Monte Cristo (I *loved* The Three Musketeers) and also have Moby Dick, Les Miserables, Anna Karenina and The Idiot on my shelves. I want to get round to reading the rest of the Gormenghast Trilogy and finish Journey to the West.

Then we get onto the books I don't own yet: Dream of the Red Chamber is up there, along with Crime and Punishment and In Search of Lost Time (although part of me wants to be able to read it in the French...). I should probably leave it there for now...

Oddly, I feel no compelling need to read Dickens. I studied Great Expectations at A-level and think the fact that it didn't turn my life upside down has nudged him further down the list.

Oh, and I want to read Cyteen because certain people (stares pointedly at reading_fox and Busifer) have raved about it so much!

Clam, I'll put in my recommendations also for The Count of Monte Cristo, which I recently re-read because I love it so much (I don't think any of the dramatizations I've seen have done it justice, although the Guy Pearce one was the worst, IMHO) and for Persuasion, which is tied with P&P for my favorite Austen book. Mansfield Park is a bit more difficult, in a way, as it comes across as less "typical" Austen and the heroine is one that many readers have a hard time warming up to.

>53 LizT, another vote for Cyteen here, or, well, just about anything by C. J. Cherryh, I love her works.

Generally, I guess my education as an English lit major was a good one, as I've read a lot of the books listed here. But I'll go with Dano on the wish to be able to see/read/buy/whatever my own novel, preferably from one of those special end-of-aisle displays. Hey, why not dream big?

(Or maybe I'd be happy just reading big fat royalty checks?)

Message edited by its author, Feb 8, 2009, 12:01pm.

#54 - ...another vote for Cyteen here, or, well, just about anything by C. J. Cherryh, I love her works.
You do?! Have you found your way to Shejidan?

Well, I hadn't, but gee, thanks, just what I need--another group of congenial folks with an interest I share, so I can spend even more time not doing other stuff I should!

(Seriously, thanks, Busifer, it couldn't be more up my alley.)

Me and 'Fox is there, plus a couple of LT'ers who aren't GD'ers.
It's kind of difficult to find one's way in when applying for membership, but that's just because they have such problems with spam-bots and hackers - nothing personal. When you're in it's easy enough :-)
A great group of people.

>52 Keep in mind that P&P has a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor. It became SO enjoyable when I realized that.

Hearty agreement on the excellence of The Count of Monte Cristo. And for anyone who enjoys old-school science fiction, one of the early greats is Alfred Bester's retelling of Count, The Stars My Destination.

Oh, just thought of one: Don Quixote--I have a copy somewhere, too. And someday I'll read it.

#60 - Ditto that! I'd better add that, too.

Well, I'm going to live for a very *very* long time, since I've decided that I can't die until I make it through all my lists of books (and I've got many many many lists). So there.

I guess I did come up with a few books! I want to read all of Terry Pratchett's books before I die. But I also want to save them! The deal with a living author is that you can't be sure how many books you'll get in the end.

But as much as I love his books, you only get to have the 'first read' well, once. And that's always so much fun. So I don't want to hurry and read them all now, because then I won't get to enjoy them later, if that makes sense. I do like reread books, but it's always special to read it that first time. So I"m trying to pace myself and read maybe 1 or 2 new ones a year.

cmbohn - You and I have the same idea about Pratchett, only, I can never restrain myself to 1 or 2 a year. I'm thinking 1 a month, perhaps a bit less. I haven't read any yet this year and I'm feeling the lack of it.

I want to reread Jane Austen. I read her in my early twenties when I took life ever-so-much more seriously, and though I understood the humor, I felt they were mean-spirited. I think I misjudged them and need to try again. There are a couple I haven't read, but I loved Emma and Northanger Abbey. I need to try Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility again.

Message edited by its author, Feb 9, 2009, 3:28pm.

Okay, I have to admit I have never read a single Pratchett. I bought my daughter Good Omens a while back and she loved it.

In fact, I bought her the black copy with the devil on the front, and she noticed a very cute young man in the hall at school reading the white copy with the angel on the front. That cute young man is now her boyfriend.

Okay, so, for a Pratchett virgin, what should I pick up first?

That's such a great story!!!

I think Good omens is great, of course, but then there's the Discworld books... and either you want to start at the beginning, with Light Fantastic, or you want to being with any of the internal sequences. My first was Light Fantastic, but it's not as good as most of the rest. Enough to get me hooked, though, but that was some 15 years ago. Don't know if it would be enough for now.

Personally I like the DEATH, and the Patrician (who MrsLee once suggested should be played by David Bowie, so now I imagine him as Bowie). But there are some great stand-alones as well, like Small Gods.
The witches, too, are very funny.

I think clamy should start with the witches series. I bet she would love those gals. I'm saving them for last. :) The first one would be Equal Rites, which I've not read and so can't give an opinion, but the ones I have read in that series are Lords and Ladies and Carpe Jugulum, both of which I loved.

I wonder how many other "matches" have happened due to the two covers of Good Omens? That story should be on a Pratchett website or something. :D

I want to read all the Hugo winners, Nebula winners, Locus winners, World Fantasy winners, Campbell winners, Clarke winners, and Mythopoeic winners. I sort of want to read all the Prometheus winners.

If I finish that, its on to the nominees.

I doubt I will ever be done.

okay. my aim is to read all the fiction pulitzer winners, all the newbery winners (medal and honor), all the hugo novel winners AND all the books I actually own.

i better live a long long time

I've been trying to read Light Fantastic, and it just seems so full of itself, so pleased with itself, that I keep feeling as if I'm going to lose my lunch. I'm usually up for silliness, but somehow this one isn't doing it for me. I guess I'm getting stodgy in my old age.

Jim - Don't judge all of Pratchett by that book. Like many authors, his first book was not his best. He gets much better as he keeps writing. I liked Mort a whole lot and that's not a bad one to read next. If you don't like it, then maybe Pratchett is not for you.

My DTR (Determined to Read) Pile consists of many mentioned here, which makes me feel better about not having read them yet!

The list includes: Anna Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov, The Count of Monte Christo, The Three Musketeers and *ducks* Lord of the Rings.

I'm aso going to read all the Austen novels, having received a beautiful box set for Christmas. I've finished Persuasion, so just the rest to go.

StormRaven - I like that, nice manageable goals ;) I'm thinking we all better start looking for the fountain of youth or the potion of long living! It won't really matter though, because hopefully, no matter how long we live, there will still be authors out there writing great books, so we will have to make longer lists!

*Is feeling a bit envious of LadyN and her box set of Austen. Sounds wonderful.* Mine are all patchy, tattered paperbacks.

#59 Jim - I've added The Stars My Destination to my TBR pile. My library is ordering it for me.

#67 - Okay, that first one is going on my B&N wishlist! Thanks, all of you.

Sad confession. I have not yet read War and Peace all the way through, although I tried when I was in high school. Beginning to doubt it will ever happen.

#73 The Fountain of Youth is on Sani Pass, about 1 km below the South African border post. Any halfway decent tour guide will stop there for you. Unfortunately it's so dilute that you'll drown your kidneys before achieving any measurable rejuvenation ;)

Just a minor correction the first discworld book is Colour of magic But it isn't any better (or worse) than Light fantastic.

I also endorse Equal Rites as a starting point. L Space has a PDf reading guide, and any of the starting points Equal Rites, Mort, Guards Guards or moving pictures work equally well.

Message edited by its author, Feb 10, 2009, 6:42am.

My fault, I'm sorry. Apparently my brain was in slow mode. Happens a lot when there's a lot of parallel processes running :D

#78 - Thanks r_f, I will save that file for further study. Who would ever think one would need a MAP to read a book series? ;o)

Many thanks, all of you, for your suggestions and input on Mr. Pratchett!

#77 - So, does it work in powdered form? You could maybe distill it for your GD friends?

#81 "Instant water: just add water"!

Nooo, but if said GD friends were to come visit, we could have an extended get-together going up the pass together. No bookshops, but the view's fantastic!

#71, 78, Thanks for the info re alternative Pratchett starting points. I don't know that I'll be in a hurry to get back to him, but I'll keep an eye out for those.

I'm up to 43 books tagged, and several added to my wishlist.

Thanks peeps!

GeorgiaDawn just reminded me that Macgiavelli's The Prince should probably be re-read after all these years.

Yeah, been thinking about rereading it these last two years... maybe I'll manage THIS year.
I remember thinking it... "interesting". To say the least. Since (early 90's) I have learned a lot about "literature" written during the period it was written, and I'd like to put it in context this time.

Edited for clarification.

Message edited by its author, Feb 14, 2009, 3:42pm.

One of my professors gave us such a different view of The Prince that it's the first thing that comes to mind for me after all these years. I don't want to go into it and possibly color someone's view of the book, but would be happy to discuss it after you've read it. (And now will have to re-read it myself.)

Oh I thought of few more I have to add, including Lorna Doone, and some more of Thomas Hardy's and George Eliot's works.

Message edited by its author, Feb 15, 2009, 10:21am.

I'm finding that I enjoy the shorter works by George Eliot rather than the hefty ones like Middlemarch or Daniel Deronda. I recommend Scenes From Clerical Life or as odd as it may seem Silas Marner

I don't know if I own Scenes, but I know I have Silas Marner in an anthology somewhere. I still say Middlemarch is one of the best books I have ever read, though it was not an easy read by any means.

I actually enjoyed The Mill on the Floss quite a bit. I remember I wrote a paper on it comparing the characters' stages of moral and philosophical development (using Kohlberg and Perry), and the professor didn't understand it at all. I found Middlemarch much harder to stick with for some reason.

Ulysses. I've started it several times, then finally gave the book away. When I find a used copy somewhere, maybe I'll try again. I know I should. A former student read The Hunchback of Notre Dame this summer and loved it, so I feel like I should read it now too.

The Murders in the rue morgue - probably. Partly from Fforde, and also as the inspiration behind Sherlock.

>87 ejj1955

I'd love to hear what your professor had to say about The Prince. (interesting touchstone !)

oops, double post

Message edited by its author, Feb 22, 2009, 5:29pm.