November 2011: What book/s are you reading?

In the Heart of the Country by Coetzee which is very dark but very gripping.
Jacob's Room by Woolf which I've only just started so can't tell you much about.

and a couple of others not on the list

Just starting Jude the Obscure.

I'm going to listen to Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood on books on tape, and read Schindler's Ark for the group read.

oh gosh... I wrote the post and ambled into the bathroom to brush my teeth and lo and behold my nemesis was staring at me from atop the cistern

Gargantua and Pantagruel

forgot about that one... seems very appropriate for a toilet read

#1 - I look forward to your review of In the Heart of the Country. As part of my 12 in 12 challenge next year, I'm going to read all of the Coetzee fiction. (So far, I've only read Disgrace.)

I'm only about 20 pages off the end and it's a harrowingly vivid portrayal. He came close to this in bits of Disgrace but this is really, really intense. Anyway, I'll get to the review but I've got two more books I've finished in the last week to do first and then I'm in a play next week so rehearsals are eating at my time. Must take my laptop to rehearsal tomorrow night so I can blog!

Just started (and am really enjoying) Our Mutual Friend. After that will be Pride and Prejudice.

I've just started The Knot of Vipers and after that will pick up the monthly group read, Schindler's Ark. I have a few other things started - and in particular must find the will to finish Blood and Guts in High School. (I had the intention of having one read going at any one time based on a run through the alphabet by author - perhaps shouldn't have started with A for Acker and I might have got much further...)

I'm hoping to start Alias Grace by the end of the week and I'm still trying to hunt down a book on audio, haven't found one from the library yet

I'm reading Blaming at the moment - but it is my birthday this month so I think a few new books may be coming my way!! I am very excited.... but totally at a loss about where to go from here.

My only planned 1001 book for Novemebr is Quartet in Autumn by by Barbara Pym but I managed to scoop up a number of shorter 1001 books from the library this week so I may fit a few of them in.

I read Of Mice and Men (Italian version Uomini e Topi) and though I understand its importance, I found it hard going, despite its shortness.

I just started Schindler's Ark for the group read and I read the beginning of The Thousand and One Nights. I got the Kindle version and it has more than 123,000 "locations" , whatever that is in pages. It will take forever.

I finished Labyrinths! (Happy dance)
I don't know if I'll get to any more 1001 this month because of Nanowrimo, but if I do, it'll probably be The 39 Steps.

Finished The Age of Innocence. Fabulous! Five star read and a new one among my favourites.

Finished In the Heart of the Country... boy that was dark...

I'm going to start The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler, today. I believe it will be the first detective novel of my entire life.

Made my first dent in The Magic Mountain which I got for my birthday last week. It's bleak and dense, but well-written. After 136 pages I am still liking it and have good hopes for finishing it within reasonable time, but I am also starting to question my plan of following it up with Mann's Doctor Faustus. On the other hand, I have Marlowe's Doctor Faustus on the TBR pile as well...

I'll be starting Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams soon and then The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

I'm reading Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Only about 20 pages into it, so I don't have much to say about it but I'm assuming that since she's brilliant and fantastic that this book will be brilliant and fantastic.

Time to reread Anna Karenina.

>18 Jacksonian: Both great books in my opinion!

Re 5
Just read Foe by Coetzee, really good. I have a couple more of his here in Spain, but neither are on the 1001 list.

Re 17
I am at the 300 page mark, slow going, but I am enjoying it. I agree it is very dense.

Halfway through Platform by Houellebecq, next up is Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Also still plugging through David Copperfield on my Kindle, only about 30% through and since I only read it during lunch at work every couple days, I should be done sometime in 2013!

Cloud Atlas will be my 100th book from the latest 1001 list and 126th out of the 1294 books from all three versions of the list. Look way to go!

I finished Schindler's Ark and now started Sandokan: The tiger of Mompracem by Emilio Salgari as book #200. The Boxall book calls it "the greatest Italian bestseller of all times", so even if it is quite unknown here, it might be a worthy milestone.

I finished Schindler's Ark too, and so I'm going to try and finish Watchmen, AGAIN. Month #3 of working on that one. It just won't go away.

25> Salgari is apparently a huge deal in Italy but largely unknown anywhere else...haven't read anything directly by him but I've read some comics based on them by Italo-Disney, including Sandokan (with Donald Duck in titular role). Possibly not the most faithful of versions but I guess I got the spirit of the book :)

@ #23 - depends what list you're working on soffitta1. If you are counting books from all three editions then Coetzee has Duskland, In the Heart of the Country, The Life and Times of Michael K, Waiting for the Barbarians, Elizabeth Costello, Foe, Youth, Slow Man and the Master of Petersburg on the list which is, I think all of his novels. The first 4 are in every edition. The others have been removed at some point.

#197-Schindler's List-4 Stars. Excellent book. A very good narrative of a very terrible time.

I just started Persuasion by Jane Austen, and I love it already. This has been a great year of reading Jane Austen.

Finally finished A Suitable Boy!!! Well worth the journey, though I may have developed tendonitis from holding it...

#31: that's another book I am dreading. But as I have at least 20 more years to finish the list, I can concentrate on one of those over-long books per year.

I finished Sandokan: the tigers of Mompracem and Lieutenant Gustl (English title "None but the Brave"), the latter must be one of the shortest books on the list.

I now started Senilità by Italo Svevo (English title "When a Man Grows Older") and feel already depressed. And I am through what feels like 200 pages of Arabian Nights and my Kindle tells me it's only 3%.

I'm listening to Saturday by Ian McEwan and thinking, why am I doing this? My fourth McEwan, and they have ranged (to my mind) from middling to atrocious. This one starts with descriptions of brain surgery and segues into an account of a plane crash, so you are totally unsettled before whatever's going to happen happens. I also seem to recall another McEwan novel that began with an air crash (OK, it was a hot-air balloon) and feel a bit cheated to be handed another one.

Also, Schindler's List is becoming so upsetting that I'm not sure I can finish it. The "cleansing" of the Cracow ghetto just did me in. Those were my relatives there in Cracow. Somehow I've never read an account that was so completely awful.

I want to read something nice and light and uplifting next. Any suggestions?

Sorry you don't like McEwan, I think he's a great writer. Obviously one of those different tastes things. :)

For nice/light/uplifting, have you read Cold Comfort Farm? If not, then read it. If so, then re-read it. :)

#33 - I was going to try to offer a suggestion, but then I looked through my list of 1001 books that I've read, and there's really nothing that's light and/or uplifting (that I would recommend). I suppose there's A Confederacy of Dunces, which is somewhat funny, but not really light and definitely not uplifting....and I actually didn't like it very much. Anyway, good luck!

or you could try What a Carve Up! or A short history of tractors in Ukrainian which is hilarious

I also really enjoyed... a long time ago... Crome Yellow

Cannery Row is the last one I read which was uplifting. It's a really popular book though so you may have read it. If so I recommend it's sequel Sweet Thursday not on the 1001 list but it's fun to see what Doc and Mac have been getting up to :)

#33 I want to read something nice and light and uplifting next. Any suggestions?

We have a thread full of suggestions that you can read over: http://www.librarything.com/topic/22752

I don't think I've ever seen a thread here at the 1001 group where posters insisted so often in suggesting non-1001 books. The problem isn't finding uplifting books, it's finding uplifting books that are also on the 1001 list(s). But once you get around that, perhaps you can find a suitable suggestion.

I spent most of September and almost all of October reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, and it was worth every minute - except for the last 40 pages or so, but let's not talk about that. It's actually my favorite book now.

I've also just finished Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, and I was left feeling very ambivalent about it.

Suitable Boy isn't a book to dread - it's a delight throughout all 1500 pages.

Finished rereading Anna Karenina, not sure what my next 1001 book will be.

Suitable Boy isn't a book to dread - it's a delight throughout all 1500 pages.

I dread it only because I can't lift it.

#43- Amen to that! I got through mine without substantial injuries, but had to use a large stack of pillows to support it...

that's where ebook readers come into their own!

#43--That's hillarious!!

Just finshed The Shipping News, next up The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Thanks to all the suggestions of light reading, I've just begun A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian. Definitely what I needed after Schindler.

Mansfield Park. I'm hoping I like it better this time around.

I'm currently up to the last chapter of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

I was never inclined to read this one until I read The Picture of Dorian Gray as part of the group read. The notes for Dorian Gray said that it was the success of Jekyll and Hyde which prompted the editor of a magazine to have lunch with Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle and commission them both for a story. And so Dorian Gray and Sherlock Holmes came to being.

#49 -Mansfield Park. I'm hoping I like it better this time around.

I loved studying Mansfield Park at university. My prof thought very highly of it, and showed us why it's great. I'm sad to see so many readers dissing it. There's a gem of a novel there, really there is! And it has my favourite of Austen's minor characters--Mrs Bertram. The way Austen shows us her vapidness is sheer brilliance. Anyway, I hope you like it better than previous attempts! I think not expecting the sparkling fun of Pride and Prejudice is half the battle with this one.

I'll admit, I did spend most of my time reading Suitable Boy with the book in my lap.

#51 - I think I'd like the book much better if Fanny Price wasn't in it. Maybe if it was the story of how Mary Crawford stopped being such a snob, but stayed an interesting character, and married Edmund, and lived happily ever after as a minister's wife. And Henry Crawford naughtily ran off with the married sister (scandal!).

But no. I'm supposed to accept poor, fatigued, boring Fanny as a heroine. I like Mrs. Bertram too, and Mrs. Norris. Mrs. Norris is so delightfully nasty and bitchy - I was wondering last night if J.K. Rowling named Filch's delightfully nasty and bitchy cat "Mrs. Norris" in tribute.

#53 - I hear you! But Mary Crawford never would have been happy as the minister's wife. And yes, I think Rowling's Mrs Norris is definitely a tribute.

I'm listening to The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I think I'm almost through. It's been a bit of a slog and I suspect Mr. Collins was being paid by the word because I think there is a lot of unnecessary verbiage. Still I'm glad to have finally read it. I really thought this was the one Wilkie Collins I read when I was in highschool but I'm pretty sure it must have been The Moonstone because this story is not at all familiar. (On the other hand, maybe after 40+ years my memory isn't as sharp as it should be!)

#50. I have read both of these novels in the last few months, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was my favourite.

The reason that I liked them both, was that they were very both slim novels!!

I'm reading Journey to the End of the Night by Celine which has been on my shelves forever. I've only read about 30 pages, but I'm already gripped by the writing style - very straight-ahead, sarcastic, and funny even in dark circumstances.

I finished Senilità by Italo Svevo and Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (2006 list version). Next up are Wittgenstein's Nephew by Thomas Bernhard and Brighton Rock by Graham Greene.

Just finished reading Schindler's Ark and started both I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Shadow of the Wind. Hopefully I'll finish both before the month ends.

Is The Shadow of the Wind really on the 1001 list? (I follow the 2006 list, so I'm not up on the changes.) I know it's popular with readers, but I didn't see any literary merit in the must-read-before-I-die type. Even with books on the list I don't like, I can see some reason they are on the list. I'm missing it with that one.

You know, now I'm not so sure. It's not on any of the spreadsheets, but when I look up 1001 books to read before you die under the award section of the statistics page, it's there with no edition number. It doesn't make sense. Can anyone help me make sense?

The 1001 list presence should also show on the book page in common knowledge section but Shadow of the Wind doesn't have it (and 1001 is not listed in common tags for the book either).
I presume it is not part of 1001 list, but it was pretty entertaining and I would recommend checking it out anyway...

All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, written from the perspective of German soldiers in the trenches in World War One. Haunting. Horrifying.

Almost finished with The History of the Siege of Lisbon and started The Plot Against America. The only issue I take with History is the sentence structure- sentences that last entire paragraphs, sometimes PAGES are exhausting!

My faith in the 1001 lists is restored -- Shadow of the Wind, in my opinion, belongs no where near the list. I realize that many readers love the book, but that alone doesn't make it 1001 worthy.

Amaryann-- you're frightening me--I was excited about History of the Siege of Lisbon when I bought it years ago, but I have since read the same author's Blindness, which I disliked intensely. I don't know when I'm gong to be able to make myself pick up another of his books, especially if sentences go on for pages. Why do authors do that? Just because they can?

Nickelini, don't be too scared. There's something oddly compelling about the book, despite the lists of names or churches or whatever he chooses to go on and on about (which I skim- shhh, don't tell anyone!). Just push through the first chapter- that was the worst. Oh, and read the dialogue carefully- he doesn't use quotes and it's a bit confusing.

I think the hardest thing for me is the feeling of the sentences going on and on and on is that I feel there isn't a break, and I feel pushed forward without taking a breath. Does that make sense?

Almost finished with God bless you, Mr. Rosewater. Nothing has changed since it was written. Correction: things have gotten worse.

I think the hardest thing for me is the feeling of the sentences going on and on and on is that I feel there isn't a break, and I feel pushed forward without taking a breath. Does that make sense?

Absolutely. That's one of the reasons I love Margaret Atwood--she writes in small bits, so I'm always catching my breath and then have lots left in me to move on. Anyway, the book is in my TBR pile, so I will get to it one day.

I finished Jude the Obscure this morning. Got to the big moment late last night. Ouch! I did not see that coming. And got little sleep as a result. Too tired today to think about what 1001 to read next.

A long train ride today means I'm 100 pages higher on The Magic Mountain, arriving at my destination right after a key scene! Sometimes life can be good :-)

#68: I guess this is a language thing. There are languages where long sentences are completely normal and people even talk that way. My own language, German, is one example. When we learned English at school one of the first rules was: "Keep your sentences as short as possible. Instead of a comma, use a full stop and start a new sentence."
I saw many reviews on LT where people complained about over-long sentences which I hadn't even noticed during my own reading.
Maybe a good translator should be able also to observe the usage rules of the 'target language', so the reader feels more comfortable and at home.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest #198--3 stars.

Just finished Native Son and going to start The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.

I'll be finishing The Magic Mountain today - 30 pages left! It'll be a relief, I have been enjoying the book, but it has been tough going. Yesterday I finished Wide Sargasso Sea, which I got drawn into quickly and liked a lot.

Not sure what is up next, but maybe my high school nemesis - Cider with Rosie. We did extracts at school, and I wanted to burn the book, but that was probably because of the class I was in (you know, with the kids who insist on commenting on a book they have never read!). I tried to read it early this year, but didn't get into it, so will have another go.

Just finished The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. Not sure what's up next.

Just finished Journey to the End of the Night by Celine and now reading Cold Comfort Farm. Both were published in the same year (1932) and couldn't be more different. Interesting to read them back to back.

#75 I just loved Cold Comfort Farm, enjoy.

I finally started Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally. I am about halfway through and discovered that 30 pages are repeated and it goes from chapter 23 to chapter 28. So I requested a copy from the library to make sure that I get the whole thing. I guess that at $1 the price was too low.

Hunchback of Notre Dame finished off last night... great ending. The Gathering by Anne Enright last few days... boy she's miserable. Just started on The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists... enjoying it already and reminds me of a British version of The Jungle which I loved.

I'm into The Arabian Nights vol.1 out of 3! 900 pages! Ha!

It's gonna take a while, so my plan is to read one night pr lunch while at work...probably finish vol.1 sometime next year :-)

#79: I am doing the same, today I am going to read night #31. I have no idea how long this whole thing will take. My Kindle tells me I'm only 4% in.

I'm almost through Old Masters by Thomas Bernhard and I started The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr by E.T.A. Hoffmann. And I got Brighton Rock from the library. Too many books...

#74 What did you think of it? I have a copy sitting on my TBR pile like a large uninteresting rock.

#80 I *LOVED* Tomcat Murr - more people should know about this! I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

Just finished The Once & Future King, up next, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.