January 2012, what books are you reading?

I don't see the January 1001 thread started yet, so what are you reading this month?

Just finished Around the World in Eighty Days and still working on The Three Musketeers.

Next up for me will be The Things They Carried.

I'm reading Decline and Fall, by Evelyn Waugh. Although it's pretty funny, I'm not sure what I think of it yet.

I'm reading Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais and also started La Vie Mode d'Emploi by Georges Perec.

Already finished the Group Read The Inheritance of Loss and started on Neuromancer.

Reading the group read and listening to Uncle Tom's Cabin on audiobooks. I think that the latter will be quite painful: 22 hours of good, honest black folks saying "Lor'-a-mercy, massa George done got him a hawse!" and evil greedy white folks saying "Them n***ers is all slippery, lyin' thieves, you gotta beat it out of them" and things like this. I already get why it was a powerful indictment of slavery, but the complete lack of subtlety gets quite wearing.

I started Cloud Atlas last week. Slow going so far because of holiday-related commitments but great writing.

I've just started The Godfather by Mario Puzo which was a birthday gift last month.

I've got The Inheritance of Loss as my next read - I would like to get to make a start on Moll Flanders after that.

For those interested in reading Clarissa Harlowe by Samuel Richardson this year, there's a group read on the 75 books group, starting on January 10, with the intention of reading it chronologically. Feel free to join us: http://www.librarything.com/topic/130187#3145708

I'm almost halfway through The 39 Steps. I'm not liking it as much as I thought I would, but it's alright so far.

Having finished Oliver Twist, I've started Dubliners and The Tin Drum - both of which are awesome.

(Oliver Twist was... alright. I enjoyed the writing, but didn't get too involved in the main character's plight. Oliver's not exactly a very exciting character.)

Finished Decline and Fall. It was zany and funny, but was also full of social commentary and meaning. I liked it a lot . . . except one chapter, where the satire just comes off as racist. I try not to judge 80+ year old books by the standards of today, and I know Waugh's statement was against the people making the racist comments. But it still made me unhappy to read. However, it was a very short bit, and the rest was most excellent! Waugh is a must-read for all Anglophiles.

My next 1001 is a reread--my 15 year old daughter is reading To Kill a Mockingbird for grade 10 English, and since I haven't read it since grade 10 English (back in the 70s--they haven't changed the curriculum), I thought I'd refresh myself. She's not really into it and I think some good discussions will help. She's an avid reader, but doesn't read broadly, so I think she needs some nudging from mom.

I just finished the last Raymond Chandler book in the list: The Long Goodbye. I finished Farewell, My Lovely last month. I liked both of them more than The Big Sleep, which I found to be confusing.

I'm struggling to find my next book. I started Giles Goat-Boy but it was too dense for me, especially considering that it is about 700 pages. So it's going back to the library tomorrow.

I just picked three at random. Bound to be at least one I like in the three:

Beloved by Toni Morrison
Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace
The Radiant Way by Margaret Drabble

-- M1001

#14 Beloved is brilliant! I hope you enjoy.

I'm still plugging at a few - since once again have spoons in too many pots. Mainly Henderson the Rain King, Surfacing and Metamorphoses (which I feel like I have been reading FOREVER). I also succumbed and started Cannery Row as part of the Steinbeckathon over on the 75 books group!

Just finished the January group read, The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai.

I just started The Rainbow- my first Lawrence.

Just finished Neuromancer by William Gibson and will start The Double on my flight back home tomorrow.

I finished Gargantua and Pantagruel - another long one off the list! Of the 2006 list I finished Cannery Row by John Steinbeck.

Today I started the chronologic read of Clarissa Harlowe. So I now have 4 very very long 1001 books in 'currently reading' status.

Absalom, Absalom! #202 4 stars

I am reading The Count of Monte Cristo and Infinite Jest and hope to start Clarissa, although I am late starting it.

I'm about to start The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, my first le Carré! Yes, it's the upcoming cinema release of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" that *finally* has finally pushed me towards the Smiley books in my collection...

BekkaJo, I'm still sourcing a copy of Cannery Row, but will be joining in the group read when I get the chance!

Finished The Things They Carried yesterday... Emma is the next list book in my pile.

I am reading The Count of Monte Cristo, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and will be reading Don Quixote all year.

Rushdie's Shame is some very good stuff. Maybe a good intro to Rushdie before you tackle those intimidating books Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses.

#22 Yay - I am absolutely loving it. I'm reading it quite slowly but with definite savour.

I'm taking a break from climbing The Magic Mountain by reading another very difficult classic that is not on the list (because it's not a novel): Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Not sure that was a good idea though!

#22 - look forward to hearing how you got on with Le Carre - i have just bought The spy who came in from the cold and it was high on my tbr pile.

Has anyone else read The Rainbow? So far, it's all about feelings... and as a therapist, this is just wearing me out!! This book is a bit too much like work...

I've started The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendahl, and I'm really liking it, so far. I'm not far in, but so far, what I've read is reminding me of bits of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. It's been all about he Napoleonic Wars and the effect on a certain family from Italy. Stendahl seems to write with a more sardonic tone that Tolstoy, and it seems that the war is about to end towards the beginning of the book, so it's probably too early to make such a comparison.

#29 I got about half way through The Rainbow and gave up. It put me off reading more DH Lawrence until I tried his novella The Fox which I thought was great and it's on the 1001 list. I'd like to give The Rainbow another try one day.

>31 socialpages: I'm plugging my way through, but for the love... it's not getting better!!

Finished The Double with only minimal pain and about to start Home.

I'm reading The Body Artist. My first Don DeLillo -- he was one of those writers with 4+ books on the list who I hadn't even begun to tackle. This book is quite good, poetic, and very short. The writing is so unusual and unexpected that it keeps you close, taking in each word and trying to unravel what is actually happening.
I'm about 1/4 through Uncle Tom's Cabin on audio books and have finally discovered how to enjoy it. You have to read it strictly as a novelized polemic, then its genius becomes apparent.

Just finished Home by Marilynne Robinson and am starting The Great Gatsby next.

Finished with Emma... hoping to squeeze in Quartet in Autumn this month, provided I can finish a massive Bronte biography in time.

I started another very long one: Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann. And I restarted a book I had put on hold last year: One, No One & One Hundred Thousand by Luigi Pirandello. I doubt I will be able to finish it this time - it has only 140 pages, but it's terribly difficult to follow his thoughts about all the different identities a person is presenting to others.
Or in short: I am too stupid for this book. :-)

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was a great book, and I'm very happy to note there are two more in this series on the "1001" list! (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and Smiley's People.) I'm glad I finally read a le Carre, and it won't be my last.

Currently I'm reading Cannery Row, which is not what I expected it would be, but I'm enjoying it.

Currently I'm reading Cannery Row, which is not what I expected it would be, but I'm enjoying it.

So, what were you expecting from it? I read it last summer and *loved* it. I don't think it was what I expected either . . . I thought it would be grim, and I wasn't expecting it to be so full of heart, yet eloquent. And funny.

I think it's the eloquence I wasn't expecting. I was thinking it was going to be funny, thanks to your comments last year, and it's definitely charming so far, but I was expecting a straightforward story with a linear plot, and then the second chapter is more about the creation of a story, rather than the story itself.

It's positively meta, and I just wasn't expecting that at all. I was under the impression that Steinbeck was a much more straightforward plot-driven writer. (I read East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath many, many years ago; and Of Mice and Men last year, and I don't remember anything quite like this!)

Sorry, can't explain it too well, have a bit of a lurgi today and am not quite able to focus. Am taking Cannery Row one sentence at a time. :)

I take back what I said about The Charterhouse of Parma reminding me of War and Peace. It isn't at all the same! It was only the descriptions of the Napoleonic War in the beginning that were anything like. It definitely had its own flavor, and I quite enjoyed it.

Now I'm on to another 1001 book - Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. So far, it's excellent!

Finished The Great Gatsby and started on Frankenstein.

#38 I've just finished my first le Carre too - and feel exactly the same as you. The first thing I did was check for more on the list. Thoroughly enjoyable reading!

Fifth Business, #207, 3.5 Stars. Very interesting little story. Much more there than meets the eye.

Started The Reluctant Fundamentalist and what a great little book! I should be done tonight.

I just finished So long a letter and have started The great Gatsby.

I just finished Shusaku Endo's Silence. It was a beautiful and thought-provoking book. Not sure what I'll read next.

I finished One, No One & One Hundred Thousand by Luigi Pirandello yesterday. Can't say how relieved I am that this one is finally off my list!

I've just treated myself to a Kindle and have been indulging in a spree of downloading free and bargain literature - inspired by the recent Sherlock dramas on the BBC, I have reread The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with much enjoyment, and have just started The Picture of Dorian Gray.

I'm just about finished my second 1001 book this month--Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark.

I am now reading In Cold Blood which is notably unsuccessful as a Book at Bedtime.

Finished Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (and hated it) and about to start on Brave New World by Aldous Huxley tomorrow morning.

#51--I remember reading that about 30 years ago. I was raised on a farm in Indiana and I was shocked and appalled that anything like that could happen. I feel your fear.

#52 - I've just finished Brave New World and I'm really in two minds about it - started off loving it just not sure about the end. Will be interesting to see what you make of it.

Just started Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - hilarious. Not many things make me laugh out loud within the first four pages...

Just thnking ahead to Febs reads and am going to be doing the February Fantasy over on 75ers next month - anyone got any 1,001 Fantasy ideas? Baring the obvious LOR, Hobbit, Legend... there are several sci-fi but not that many fantasy.

#55, there's The Once and Future King at least. Also some books which could be considered if one is willing to stretch the concept of fantasy beyond the pseudomedieval Tolkienesque...books by Rushdie and Borges, One Hundred Years of Solitude, At the Mountains of Madness, The Thousand and One Nights, The Life of Insects, The Temptation of Saint Anthony...

O&FK is a brilliant book. May have to reread it soon...

#51 & #53> I read In Cold Blood some years ago, and felt quite traumatised by it. Shocking stuff.

I do like Capote's other works, I binged on all his books at once (including In Cold Blood), maybe some of them are due for a re-read soonish.

The Interesting Narrative, #208, 3 stars: An autobiography of Gustavas Vassa recounting his abduction and life as a slave, a freed man and his journey to salvation.

I will start Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell today. It will be my first 1001 book this year. Well, I'm very far behind...

@60 - Looking forward to hear what you think of Cloud Atlas. I have it on my TBR pile and would like to read it before the movie comes out.

Man, I forgot it was going to be a movie. I'm reading through it right now - though I took a break to finish Tin Drum - and it's quite good. Last time I read it, I thought it was just a bunch of nestled stories that didn't have anything to do with each other. I'm starting to notice the more thematic parallels, and that's greatly increasing my enjoyment.

I'm starting to notice the more thematic parallels, and that's greatly increasing my enjoyment.

I hear you . . . the English major in me really delights in finding those threads.

Finished Brave New World and loved it. Going to immediately start The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.