February 2013 reads from 1001: finally, a thread!

Well, somebody had to start a thread. I know I'll be reading Les Miserables and nothing else all month.

I finished and adored The Museum of Unconditional Surrender today. Next up for me is Almost Transparent Blue.

Tackling some short ones after finishing up Les Miserables a few days ago (... had a two month head start on the group read.)

I'm about 1/3 the way through A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens is such a fantastic writer.

Just finished The Stone Diaries. I'll post a review soon - for now, I'll just say it continues my trend of dissatisfaction with Pulitzer winners.

Next up: The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett.

George, A Tale of Two Cities is now my favorite Dickens - a solid 5 star read. I thought it started pretty slow, so I'm sure you will like it if you are already pleased.

The only 1001 Books I'm working on are Infinite Jest and A Dance to the Music of Time. And I will be working on these for some time.

I just started Main Street, haven't got a clue where it's leading so far. Beside my bed are waiting Van de liefde bezeten (which I think has not been translated in English) and Lolita from the list. I am looking forward to a week holidays on Curacao, so it should be possible to finish these in February.

Finished with Almost Transparent Blue this morning.... I definitely wasn't a fan of that one.

Hoping to have better luck with my next pick: The Heather Blazing.

Finally finished At the Mountains of Madness (NOT a fan) and am massively enjoying The Once and Future King. Also just started Less than Zero for a bit of variation - I'm reading a lot of non 1,001 fantasy for the 75ers Fantasy February :)

#8. Watch out for Less than Zero; that was a memorably disturbing book. It should come with a warning.

I'm trying to chip away another brick: Gargantua and Pantagruel (in Dutch translation). Enjoying it so far, though there doesn't seem to be much of a plot. Meh, they're overrated anyway.

I'm over halfway with White Teeth, which has proved so far to be really enjoyable - but I'm a sucker for multigenerational stories. The monthly-read thread about this suggests it takes a kind of tumble in its second half. I hope to finish it this weekend so I can write more about it...

I'm reading some Irish lit this month. I'm starting with Borstal Boy, and I have a few others on my list of possibilities for after I finish, including The Heather Blazing, amerynth! So let me know how you like it.

Just finished The Hobbit. I'm going to be unpopular, but I didn't really like it.

#13. You're popular with me. I don't like Tolkien one bit!

The Hobbit was the first book on the 1001 list that I ever read: my father read it to me when I was six years old. I seem to remember loving it. I have not, however, scheduled a reread.

#270 - A Tale of Two Cities - 5 Stars. This was just an awsome story. Don't know why I had never read it before.

Finished Castle Rackrent and started Agnes Grey. Anne Bronte's tone strikes me as much different than Emily and/or Charlotte.

I also hit the 100 page mark in Within a Budding Grove. So far the second volume is reading faster than the first. I may be more used to Proust's style, but so far this book feels simpler in tone and has had fewer characters introduced than Swann's Way.

I'm about to return to Anna Karenina, but in the meantime, picked up In Watermelon Sugar. No idea what to think about it as yet, it's a strange little book. Still, it is little, and I'll probably finish it today. :)

I also finished A Question of Upbringing last month (the first in A Dance to the Music of Time) and thought it was great. Will be reading the second book later this month.

I finished La Coscienza di Zeno by Italo Svevo and finally The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing which had been on 'hold' status since the GR last year.

I am very much enjoying Les Misérables, and today I started the short Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke.

And almost forgot - I am half through A Buyer's Market, vol. 2 in A Dance to the Music of Time.

February is already shaping up to be a slower reading month.

However, I have just finished A Buyer's Market for the Dance to the Music of Time group read.

I'm very slowly working my way through Life: A User's Manual which is fantastic and Atonement which I've not read enough of yet to make a decent judgement.

My "phone" book (only read when I have no light, or if I'm out and about) is going to be Robinson Crusoe

#20: I started reading Life: A User's Manual about a year ago in French and then - probably because the reading in French was too time-consuming - put it on hold after the 1st part although I liked it very much. I always regretted that and I need to find a gap this year to restart it. So it's good to see that it keeps being fantastic.

I finished American Psycho, another one by Bret Easton Ellis that should come with a warning. I hated it (and am totally suspicious of people who liked it - obviously serial killers, all).

I did find the descriptions of the insane food they eat to be hilarious: free-range squid? The first half of the book was actually pretty funny, up until the graphic killing chapters. Just skipped right on over those. Can't do it.

It's a very dark satire. A really vicious mockery of the vapid materialism and empty egotism of yuppie culture, and a man so devoid of personal identity he has to create a violent fantasy to make up for his complete lack of individuality. I mean, the characters are so interchangeably empty they can't even remember who's who.

Still twisted, but worthwhile in my opinion.

Yes, yours is a much better description of the book. I can see how it's a great satire. Just - gross.

Well, In Watermelon Sugar was a strange little book. I'm not quite sure what it's point was. But I did rather enjoy it, even if I wanted some *explanations*, dagnabbit! iDEATH? Some sort of Apple product?? Mysterious book, I may be pondering it for longer than I was reading it!

@ jfetting "I can see how it's a great satire. Just - gross."

No argument with that. The movie's much less torturey.

Only thinking of American Psycho makes my stomach turn. It wasn't just the violence - I've read other violent books - what creeped me out was how well BEE described the psychology during the torturing scenes, the contempt for the victim + power kick in the protagonist (forgot his name already), but worse was the suffering of the victim. It broke my heart. I don't want to know how your mind must be built to be able to imagine and write such scenes.
I also liked the first half and even enjoyed the movie. The 2nd half of the book was just too much for me.

I have had American Psycho on my shelf for years. I find reasons every time I pick it up to not start it. I'm just not sure I can handle it, but it is so talked about and it's part of the list, that I feel like I'm copping out a bit.

I read Palahniuk no problem, so I'm not sure why just the concept of this book is too much for me. I know nothing about Less than Zero, but maybe that's a better place to start. At least it would give me an introduction to the author. Is that book less soul wrenching?

American Psycho is one of those books that if I see if displayed proudly in someones bookcase I have to wonder A) Have they read that book or B) Okay if they have read that book and put it out like that Im slowly backing out of the room and running for my life. LOL But look at this away we learning alot about Phil Collins and Whitney Houston and mens fashion. :)

So true! The chapters on Phil Collins and Whitney Houston are totally bizarre, but they were a refreshing change from the carnage so I read them.

Just finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and loved it. Not sure what's next on the docket...

#271 - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - 3.5 Stars. Very entertaining.

I'm listening to Wuthering Heights. I read it about 10 years ago and have been meaning to reread it, but could never fit it in. But I can fit in an audiobook.

Finished Les Misérables, how I will miss it!
I started listening to Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory on audio.

Finished with The Heather Blazing, which didn't really make much of an impression on me. Didn't love it or hate it, really.

My next book will be Leaden Wings.

Started The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch and then hoping to start Les Miserables.

Finished The Glass Key. Reaction: eh.

Next? Not sure, probably something 19th century.

#9 You were so so right. I started Tom Jones in reaction :)

I've also finished vol 1 of The Once and Future King - The Sword in the Stone, so I'm straight on to the next one. Loving it (mostly - there are occasional chapters that drag).

I'm going to start a reread of The Once and Future King soon - it's one of my favorites that I always go back to.

I've started Gogol's Dead Souls, and it's actually a hoot. I don't usually expect a Russian classic to be funny, but this one is.

#272--Catch-22--4 Stars. Don't know why I hadn't read this before. Very funny and entertaining, easy read.

I managed to finish two books last week - Manuscript found in Accra (Paulo Coelho) and Survival in Auschwitz (Primo Levi). Both very thought provoking books, but also surprisingly quick reads. Survival in Auschwitz wasn't nearly as bleak as I thought it would be.

I'm also still reading Gargantua and Pantagruel (this will take me a while) and am halfway through the biography of Maria Callas. Enjoying all of it!

Survival in Auschwitz gave me night terrors. I wouldn't describe it as bleak either. But I found it very, very disturbing.

Don't get me wrong there, Nickelini - the story of Survival in Auschwitz is horrible of course. But Levi's book is, despite it all, a book with hope. That may be because he did indeed survive; but what made it 'positive' for me is that despite all the horror, some people managed to survive, and to stay human. Levi survived the machinery that was devised to dehumanize him, and what's more, he still managed to have hope for the future.

I finished The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, A Buyer's Market (vol 2 of the "Dance" series) by Anthony Powell and another short one, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Briggs by Rainer Maria Rilke.
And I started early into the March GR, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I listened to the audio sample and enjoyed it so much that I couldn't wait till March.

I finished A Room With a View by Forster which I loved. Now reading Mary Barton which may turn into my favorite Gaskell book.

Finally finished with the very dull Leaden Wings. Now I'm onto Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I'm currently reading McEwan's Amsterdam which I am enjoying, despite everyone saying it's not one of his best.

I'm reading Tarzan of the Apes, which is unsurprisingly going pretty quickly. I'm also working my way through Tristram Shandy, which is equally unsurprisingly, going pretty slowly. (But it's not bad.)

#47 - I read Amsterdam a few years ago and really enjoyed it, despite all the negative comments on LT. But you know what? I remember almost nothing about it. I should have kept it to reread.

Ah yes, not since high school have I read Les Miserables. Good idea.

I've started Smilla's Sense of Snow and The Robber Bride.

I'm reading Nana by Emile Zola. This must be one of those naughty French novels that Victorian moralists are always warning young ladies about.

I know Zola was listed in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Not sure if it was for specific books or not.

#49> Joyce, I did enjoy Amsterdam, ghastly characters and all. Up until the ending, which I thought was pretty awful. McEwan dropped the ball there!

#54 - See, I have to reread it. I don't remember at all! But at least it was short!

Oh yes, short. And I *do* like McEwan, so it was great to be reading him. But the ending just fell terribly flat to me.

Enjoyed a quick read of Breakfast at Tiffany's and will be starting The Garden of the Finzi-Continis next.

I'm reading The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, which is on the 2012 list (I think. Pretty sure). I loved his other books, but I'm finding this one frustrating. It's annoying when an author does just enough research into an area to be able to throw around some relevant words, but not enough research to know that one of the major conflicts he's setting up wouldn't really exist.

On the upside, I do love the veiled tribute to Barbara McClintock. Always nice to see references to one's scientific heroes in literature.

>58 jfetting: I found The Marriage Plot frustrating as well. I was disappointed.

I finished listening to A Confederacy of Dunces and liked it enough to also buy the paper copy to reread some sections. And after finally having picked up "Arabian Nights" again after a break of almost a year I finished vol. 5 of 16 and will now get to the adventures of Sindbad. Looking very much forward to this part.

I started on another very long reading journey today with the audio book of Don Quixote.

#57: I am also reading The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, I saw somewhere it has its 50th birthday in 2013. So far I enjoy it a lot, the language (in Italian) is absolutely beautiful, although the construction of the sentences with all the parentheses and insertions is very unusual.

#60, I adored the audio of Don Quixote! Do you have the Smollett edition? I got that one, somewhat by accident, and it was perfect.

@Deern: Glad to hear good things about The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. I haven't started it yet, as I'm finishing off a non-list book first.

I saw the movie eons ago, but remember absolutely nothing about it except for what the video cover looked like. I'm anxious to see if the story starts feeling very familiar once I start reading or whether it's completely gone from my memory.

I'm starting (very late, as I'm supposed to be reading one of each sequence each month this year) the second in the Dance to the Music of Time series, A Buyer's Market. Good fun, again!