February 2011: Which 1001 Book Are You Reading?

I just started Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.
--BJ
Edited to fix touchstone.

I hope you enjoy S&S! I read that in 2009, and thought it was wonderful.

I'm between "1001" books at the moment. Hopefully I'll pick another one up soon...

I read Cannery Row tonight- only 123 pages, so it was a quick read. Steinbeck is brilliant.

I started Nicholas Nickleby. It's long, so I'll be there a while.

Guess I'll read Gulliver's Travels in the second half of February.

It's on my tbr mountain for a long time.

Picking up Small Island by Andrea Levy at the library today for my first book of February.

It's one of the books removed from the 1001 list with the new 2010 list, but I am working on reading every thing from all there editions of the list.

#5 , just finished Gulliver's Travels myself . It was interesting with some quite funny moments .

I finally got around to Never Let Me Go, and I wasn't dissappointed. Next up is Labyrinths. I finally found out that this book is a collection of English translations of Borges's short stories, essays, and parables. Thus, in order to read in the original Spanish as I had planned, I have to hunt down collections containing some of the same stories. I hope to get started on this soon.

I hope your Spanish is really good. Borges is complex reading.

I finally finished War and Peace yesterday. I started in july; it took me so long because I kept reading other stuff in between, and because I wanted it to last. This is my favourite book in the history of literature. Actually, this was the second time I read it: after the first time, a decade ago, I wanted to reread it immediately. But I looked at all the other masterpieces in world literature, so I limited myself to one reread every ten years. See you in a decade, Natasha, Pierren, Andrej, ...

Started the curious incident of the dog in the night-time last night. I've never read a book that used no caps in the cover title and marked chapters with prime numbers only. Gotta love it!

9- Well, I'm not going to read it completely in Spanish without any help. I do plan to make use of my Spanish-English dictionary, and I have the English version as a back-up plan in case it doesn't work out. I'm determined to try, though.

Just finished Swimming Pool Library. Although not my favorite subject, the writing was excellent. I liked it more than The Line of Beauty. Now reading Pere Goriot.

Is Lev Tolstoj's War and Peace anything like Tolstoy's epic War and Peace? I hear Hadji Murad is a classic.

I'm reading Brave New World and can't seem to stop drawing comparisons to a Burgess novel I read recently.

I have started The Mysteries of Udolpho for the second time, the first time I just couldn't get into it.

#16-Good luck with your second try. Brave New World is also a do-over for me after taking a decade long break. It definitely seems more interesting the second time around...

Re 17 - thanks, it seems to be going faster than last time. Maybe it was my mood last time.

I read Brave New World last year, having avoided it for ages, and I am glad I had. I think I read it when I was ready to read it, so I enjoyed it. If I had read it at school, when it was recommended reading, I would have hated it on principle. Ah, contrary teenagers ;)

Started Monkey by Wu Ch'Eng-En.

Julia

I started reading Beloved this morning.

I hope you enjoy Beloved. I haven't read a lot of fiction in which slavery is portrayed or spoken about and it gave me a new perspective. It was the second or third Toni Morrison book I've read and my favorite so far.

I just finished The Robber Bride and now I need to look up the fairytale that inspired it!

I just finished The Talented Mr. Ripley which was quite good in a very low-key creepy way. I appreciated that it managed to be somehow ghastly without being actually violent, a subtlety that's been lost in more modern culture!

Just started Embers which also seems quite good, and on tape I'm still listening to Cranford which has really grown on me. So altogether a good month.

The last one I read was a swedish classic, Gösta Berling's Saga by Selma Lagerlöf. She was the first female writer to be a nobel laureate.

This is really a gem with a fantastic language, at least in swedish. So why not try this, my friends...

Today I did finish a book that I didn't realize was one of the 1001. It was Tipping the Velvet, and I don't think it should have been on the list. It was too cheerful for its subject.

I have been working on Middlemarch for a couple of weeks. Heard this was a challenge to get through due to the detail and length. Wishing I had some type of electronic reader for it, because I borrowed this copy from the library and it is hefty to lug back and forth. Oh, the woes of a reader...but I'm not complaining.

@24, I'm planning to read this one this year, so good to know you enjoyed it :-)

Picked up The Hours, which is quite excellent so far.

Started reading Dracula. Never read it before, very enjoyable so far.

In February I finished If this is a Man (5stars) and Michael Kohlhaas (3,5 stars).

I am now very slowly reading three 1001 books that will take me forever to finish: War and Peace as a group read, A Dream of Red Mansions: New Approaches to Learning Chinese and Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.

#4: I am looking forward to reading your thoughts about Nicholas Nickleby. I was also planning to read it early this year, but right now I can't handle another big tome, so it will have to wait.

I finished Erewhon by Samuel Butler. In my opinion it took too much of a anthropological view of the newly discovered culture of the Erewhons, and these sections of the book failed to hold my interest.

Next up is The House of Seven Gables.

I've just chosen The Power and the Glory as my next book to read. I have actually never read anything by Graham Greene before.

where can i find the original list of 1001 books?

Hi Rick, there are several sources.

You can use the "1001" Award data here on LT: http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/1001+Books+You+Must+Read+Before+You+Die - that'll show you the list of *all* books across all three (so far) editions.

The original list can be found here: http://www.listology.com/list/1001-books-you-must-read-you-die - if you're just interested in the first edition.

And then there's the fabulous spreadsheet by arukiyomi: http://johnandsheena.co.uk/books/?page_id=1806 - currently in its fourth edition, and a brilliant resource.

The "1001" book people did have their own website, but it didn't come up in a quick Google, maybe someone else has it bookmarked.

Well I've been away for such a long time....

Anyway, I did manage to read Midnight's Children which is my first Salman Rushdie. A great example of magic realism if that's your cup of tea. It took me forever to finish.

I also just read The Island of Doctor Moreau which thankfully was a quick read. I think I liked other HG Wells stuff better. Then again I did read those books War of the Worlds, Invisible Man etc when I was a teenager, so who really knows.....

I just finished Their Eyes Were Watching God and I can certainly see why it's on the list. It provides so much fuel for thought and discussion.

Up next for me is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

Hi Rick, there are several sources.

You can use the "1001" Award data here on LT: http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/1001+Books+You+Must+Read+Before+You+Die - that'll show you the list of *all* books across all three (so far) editions.

The original list can be found here: http://www.listology.com/list/1001-books-you-must-read-you-die - if you're just interested in the first edition.

And then there's the fabulous spreadsheet by arukiyomi: http://johnandsheena.co.uk/books/?page_id=1806 - currently in its fourth edition, and a brilliant resource.

The "1001" book people did have their own website, but it didn't come up in a quick Google, maybe someone else has it bookmarked.

-----------------------------

Or you can get the real thing and buy the book! 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, Peter Boxall, ed.

thanks, I looked at one list.

I've just finished The Picture of Dorian Grey which was simply fantastic. I'd seen the movie so I knew what was coming, but it was still a perfect finish.

Now reading The Book of Daniel which is ok so far....

Finished Brighton Rock and now on to Ben Hur.

Just started Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky on audio. That's not in my edition of 1001 books: can somebody tell me what year they now have it as first published?
In printed form I think I might read John Banville, The Sea, next.

Wikepedia says her daughter got the books that became Suite Francaisetogether in 1998 and they were first published in 2004. My paperback is 2006.

anamorphic: I read The Sea a couple of months ago and I really did like the book. The sorrows of Mordens life and loves are described in a marvellous way.

I'm re-reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. It has been so long since I've read it, though, that it'll be like reading a new book.

I'm reading The Club Dumas, which I find listed as The Dumas Club on a couple versions of the list- not sure why! I'm really enjoying it so far!

I'm reading Dirk Gently's holistic detective agency. Very entertaining.

re 46 - I loved that book, pity the film was a travesty. I loved the mix of a good mystery and a classic book. I have been reading his Captain Alatriste series, swashbuckling fun.

I am reading The Monkey and the Monk, about halfway now. It is interesting, myth, religion, a naughty monkey with ideas above his station ...

#40 - I read The book of Daniel in 09 and I loved it. The beginning was a bit difficult but it quickly became a fascinating and tragic story. Doctorow became one of my favourite authors after that and I plan to read most of his books. I have also read The March which I also loved.

I just started Swann's Way. So far, I think I'm going to love it.

Here's my list of February reads.

STARS
Veronika Decides to Die 4
The Good Soldier 2.5
The Age of Innocence 3.5
Brideshead Revisited 2.5
Vathek 3

Finished the The Tin Drum, a slow and tedious read. Did not enjoy it at all but powered through.

Talking about tedious reading; I'm halfway through Rousseau's Julie, or the New Heloise. This epistolatory novel almost drives me mad. It never seems that I'm getting anywhere.