PolymathicMonkey's 1001 Chronicle

Figured it was about time I finally made my thread here! ;)

I'm doing all the versions, so 1305 rather than 1001. Like many, I sort them into time periods, so that's how I'll keep them listed here. :) I'll be including when they were read along with my ratings. And from now on, as I finish them and add to my list here, I'll be tossing my thoughts/opinions out as well.

Sadly, I'm nowhere near as far along as most of you. But hopefully my number will continue a slow but steady increase! :))

 Pre-1700s | 4 of 27        (14.8%)
     1700s   | 9 of 47        (19.1%)
1800-1849 | 21 of 55       (38.2%)
1850-1899 | 30 of 133     (22.3%)
1900-1949 | 33 of 305     (10.8%)
1950-1979 | 32 of 328     (9.7%)
1980-2011 | 16 of 410     (3.9%)
     Total    | 145 / 1305 (11.1%)



https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/1001_Progress_Index

Pre-1700s | 4 of 27
Aesop's Fables (3.2013)
The Golden Ass (6.2016)
Oroonoko (7.2016)
Don Quixote (5.2017)

1700s | 9 of 47
Gulliver's Travels (7.2011)
The Castle of Otranto (5.2013)
Vathek (5.2013)
The Monk (12.2013)
Moll Flanders (8.2014)
The Adventures of Caleb Williams (6.2015)
Candide (7.2016)
Robinson Crusoe (11.2016)
Evelina (2.2018)

1800-1849 | 21 of 55
The Fall of the House of Usher (2012)
Dead Souls (2012)
The Count of Monte Cristo (2005?)
Jane Eyre (2.2014)
Oliver Twist (7.2014)
De leeuw van Vlaanderen (8.2014)
Frankenstein (6.2015)
Sense and Sensibility (3.2016)
Wuthering Heights (6.2016)
Three Musketeers (7.2016)
Agnes Grey (8.2016)
Rob Roy (8.2016)
Tenant of Wildfell Hall (11.2016)
The Nose (5.2017)
Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (5.2017)
Pride and Prejudice (5.2017)
Mansfield Park (5.2017)
Emma (6.2017)
Northanger Abbey (11.2017)
Persuasion (11.2017)
A Christmas Carol (12.2017)

1850-1899 | 29 of 133
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1995?)
The Scarlet Letter (1998)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1998)
Crime and Punishment (10.2009)
Dracula (10.2009)
The Brothers Karamazov (2010)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (12.2010)
The War of the Worlds (1.2011)
The Yellow Wallpaper (2.2013)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (3.2013)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (12.2013)
Complete Sherlock Holmes (Adventures of) (7.2015)
Max Havelaar (10.2015)
Treasure Island (10.2015)
King Solomon's Mines (12.2015)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (12.2015)
Demons (4.2016)
Around the World in 80 Days (8.2016)
Villette (8.2016)
Les Misérables (12.2016)
The Time Machine (12.2016)
In a Glass Darkly (5.2017)
Diary of a Nobody (6.2017)
The Moonstone (12.2017)
Notes from the Underground (12.2017)
Anna Karenina (1.2018)
Island of Doctor Moreau (1.2018)
The idiot (2.2018)
Uncle Silas (2.2018)
The invisible man (3.2018)

1900-1949 | 33 of 305
The Hobbit (1993?/1998)
Animal Farm (1995)
Of Mice and Men (1996)
The Great Gatsby (1997)
Nineteen Eighty-Four (7.2000)
The Power and the Glory (2000)
The Jungle (1.2010)
Heart of Darkness (12.2010)
Siddhartha (11.2010)
The Sun Also Rises (12.2010)
For Whom the Bell Tolls (6.2011)
Crome Yellow (12.2011)
Brave New World (2.2013)
Cannery Row (12.2013)
Decline and Fall (1.2014)
Native Son (1.2014)
The Big Sleep (2.2014)
Farewell, My Lovely (2.2014)
Age of Innocence (9.2014)
Complete Sherlock Holmes (Hound of the Baskervilles) (7.2015)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (7.2015)
In The Heart of the Seas (1.2016)
The Maltese Falcon (1.2016)
The Glass Key (2.2016)
Their Eyes Were Watching God (4.2016)
Brideshead Revisited (7.2016)
The Thin Man (7.2016)
Jacob's Room (7.2016)
Brighton Rock (7.2016)
The Castle (8.2016)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (12.2016)
All quiet on the Western Front (4.2017)
A handful of dust (2.2018)

1950-1979 | 32 of 328
To Kill a Mockingbird (1994?/11.2011)
The Bell Jar (1994?/10.2012)
The Shining (1995?)
Interview With the Vampire (1996?)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1997)
Stranger in a Strange Land (8.2000)
The Catcher in the Rye (8.2000)
Catch-22 (9.2000/8.2009)
Things Fall Apart (2.2001)
Lord of the Flies (8.2001)
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (12.2010)
The Godfather (4.2011)
Lolita (5.2012)
The Quiet American (3.2013)
Doctor Zhivago (11.2013)
Slaughterhouse Five (1.2013)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1.2013)
Cat's Cradle (10.2013)
Ragtime (1.2014)
On the Road (1.2014)
In Cold Blood (1.2014)
Wide Sargasso Sea (3.2014)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (8.2014)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (7.2015)
Invisible Man (12.2015)
I, Robot (1.2016)
them (3.2016)
Myra Breckinridge (4.2016)
Play it as it Lays (5.2016)
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (5.2016)
Pale Fire (12.2016)
The Crying of Lot 49 (12.2017)

1980-2011 | 16 of 410
Rites of Passage (2.2012)
Schindler's Ark (10.2013)
The Sorrow of Belgium (11.2013)
The Secret History (2001)
All the Pretty Horses (1.2014)
The Master of Petersburg (8.2013)
Alias Grace (5.2013)
Blonde (9.2013)
House of Leaves (9?.2004)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (10.2010)
Kafka on the Shore (4.2013)
The Plot Against America (8.2014)
The Things They Carried (9.2014)
Beloved (7.2016)
Democracy (7.2016)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (6.2017)

#55 Schindler's Ark complete. That was pretty amazing. Of course I knew the very basics, and I even own the movie—but haven't ever watched it. I find it easier somehow, and also more...fulfilling, in a sense, I guess getting the proper story in the author's/survivor's intended words and whatnot, to read the books rather than to watch the movies about that period. (Though Swing Kids is excellent, I must say.) He was an incredible person and it was so moving to read about his selfless heroic acts, and how devoted they all were to him until the end of his days. Just, wow.

Nice thread you've got here! Schindler's Ark was amazing. I had watched the movie soon after it came out, so I remembered very little when I read the book. I think I would like to watch the movie again, if only to compare the Schindler in the book (very flawed) with how he's portrayed by Liam Neeson (I think he was rather sugar coated).

Someone in another thread said that they did right by that, making the movie focus on him and showing his true self, but like you, I have a little trouble imagining that. It's definitely not typical Hollywood to do so! And I can't imagine at all them deciding they should show all the mistresses! I suppose I should finally watch it. Maybe tomorrow, I'll have the whole day to myself, lol.

#56 Cat's Cradle I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It put me in mind of Tom Robbins, which is always a good thing as he's one of my top 3 favorite authors of all time. I just love the kind of style used, with the kind of biting satiric humor and whatnot... Yep, will definitely have to start reading more Vonnegut.

#57 Sorrow of Belgium. Well huh. I...don't know what to say about this. I'm...glad it's finished? lol. It wasn't bad, but it was ... odd? Let's go with odd. Very very odd. Weird characters. Doing strange things. I'm sure there's stuff that went totally over my head, cultural references and the like. I wish my husband had read it, or intended to read it any time in the not so distant future and could then discuss it with me. I feel rather empty about it, as it is. I don't know.

#58 Doctor Zhivago I'm not remotely a fan of "love stories," let alone the "greatest love stories ever told," but I am a big fan of Russian literature, and this didn't disappoint. This is one instance where the coincidences didn't seem absurdly contrived but natural, and the story and background were very interesting. It's not one I think I'd ever feel the desire to read again (unlike, say, Dostoevsky), but it was plenty enjoyable.

#59 The Monk. Well that was...morbid. For a while I was wondering if everyone the story touched was simply doomed to misery till the end of their (presumably not very long yet) days! Lol. Pretty good, though.

#60 Journey to the Center of the Earth I'm of two minds on this. It was a fun entertaining romp and I read it much much faster than Five Weeks in a Balloon, but cripes the absurdity of his "science"! I wanted to throttle him, thinking folks could just ride along a piece of wood on burning boiling lava, and simply stroll along right next to it down a volcano. Really?! ack. But ignoring that lunacy it was plenty enjoyable. I'll be starting on From the Earth to the Moon later today (I know, it's not on the list, but I'm reading the B&N volume of seven of his novels, and that one is next!).

#61 Cannery Row. This is one of those books where nothing much happens, and yet the world happens. Where in a sense it's about nothing and everything at the same time.

When I picked it up from the library I hadn't the slightest idea what it was about. I read classics, I enjoy classics, I know Steinbeck is a good author, and this title is on the 1,001 Books list, so I saw it and snagged it, needing no more info. After reading it, I'm not really sure I could pinpoint what it was about. Life, that's probably the closest you can get. Cannery Row is snapshots of life, the humor, the pain, and everything in between.

I think the first few lines say it all.
"Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, the little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, 'whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,' by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, 'Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,' and he would have meant the same thing."

That's a great review of Steinbeck, you really echo my own feelings about his writing!

I read Grapes of Wrath recently and for me it topped everything I'd read by him before (Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flats, The Moon is Down.) It is now one of my 5* reads. It sounds like you would really like it.

I still haven't read East of Eden though and given that it's not on the list (surprisingly?) I'll have to make an extra special effort to read it (to overcome my obsessive nature!)

Thanks :)

I've actually read very little Steinbeck as yet, just Of Mice and Men for high school reading. Not intentional avoidance, just, as with many things, others have made themselves more prominent, heh. I will definitely have to remedy that. I'm hoping the annual Boekenfestijn may have some inexpensive editions of at least a couple of his, so that'll wait till May, but the library has some that I may take advantage of. :)

LOL, is just about all your reading these days from the list? More of mine probably would be if more titles were easily accessible to me. As of now, I own about 80 not yet read and the library has a handful more, but not too many. I'd love to increase my progress of the list, but there's just too much I'm interested in to make it that much a focus, I like my variety! I think I'll just be aiming for 15 read next year, though of course I wouldn't mind further denting it. :P

#62 On the Road. It's hard to sum up my opinion on this. It isn't bad and I don't dislike it but... I'm inclined to agree with the comments I've heard of late, that essentially it's one of those things that had a shelf life, and it's now expired. It just doesn't relate to modern day; it's from another time and it doesn't have the pull that it once did, it doesn't reflect the same feelings and desires that fit in today's world. There's nothing at all wrong with the story, but I simply couldn't get properly interested in it, I wasn't excited to pick it back up. That said, I think the ending was well done and it bumped my opinion up a half-star.

After reading the introduction, I must add that I think Kerouac seems like he was an intelligent sensitive man, and its information made me look at the book a little differently and with a more positive view... but I won't change my rating, because the words on the pages haven't changed. This is one where I'd say read the intro first (Ann Charters), it doesn't spoil anything—I'm not sure there's many spoilers to be had in this book, it's autobiographical in nature and it's just, well, a story of the road—and it might give a better appreciation for the text. I'm thinking this is one book that might benefit from a reread in another decade or so.

I agree with you on On the Road. I also didn't have the usual excitement to pick up the book again. It wasn't bad and was undoubtedly an important book, but I also found it hard to enjoy the reading.

Yeah, I'm not about to rush out for more Kerouac right now. In the future I'll pick up more, for the autobiographical nature of them, interesting life and all that. But no hurry.

#63 In Cold Blood. Fabulous book about a terrible tragedy. Capote did an excellent job of making you really get to know the family before the inevitable happens (after all, we already know this is a true crime book), and of showing all sides of the cold-blooded killers, their lives before and after. After getting over the initial hurdle of "meeting" and getting to like and respect this lovely family, it was difficult to put the book down — waiting for the killers to be caught and wondering how it all would eventually happen.

Unlike other threads, it's good to know that all the books I encounter in this group are books that I will get to eventually. It's just a matter of sooner and later, really. Based on your review, it looks like Capote's book will be in the "sooner"-half...

I definitely recommend it! :)

#64 Native Son. Richard Wright does an excellent job at pulling us in to Bigger's world, his constant fears and his ocean of anger. When Bigger makes bad choices, we feel for him, we can understand how he is compelled to do these things, why they almost have to happen. We want to yell out, Stop! Wait! Just please think first!, but instead we are dragged right beside him through his downward spiral, through his confusion, panic, anxiety, elation, resignation. Wright's writing is impeccable. I don't believe I have ever felt so tied in alongside a character before. I literally had to put the book aside for a few hours because I was so anxiety-ridden with him about what was going to happen "now," it was making me jittery. Wright had the desire of "'enclosing' the reader's mind ... to blot out all reality except that which" he provided us, and beyond a shadow of a doubt he succeeded.

#65 All the Pretty Horses. This was my second McCarthy (first off the list), and at first I wasn't sure I was really going to like it, this one definitely took longer to really form up and take shape, and meanwhile I had no idea what was really going on or why or anything, so it was a little iffy. And, he doesn't use any distinguishing marks for speech, he makes use of rambling stream-of-consciousness sentences like the above, and there's the issue of everyone being referred to simply as "he" all the time, and when there's some kind of back & forth between two or more people, it can wind up a bit confused which one has done something. In spite of those things, the more it started coming together the more I found myself enjoying it, to the point where I wound up reading 229 of the 30pgs in one day, pretty much just breaking for dinner. Wonderful story about a search for ...well that's the question, isn't it, what are we all looking for? I will definitely be reading the other two books in the trilogy.

very good review...

Thanks

#66 Ragtime. A hard book to explain without giving things away, but definitely an enjoyable read.

terrible review...

...

;-)

Haha. My "proper" review is on the book page and my annual thread pages ;)

#67 Decline and Fall. Review's on the book page.

Haven't written reviews yet, but have finished this month so far:

#68 Jane Eyre
#69 The Big Sleep
#70 Farewell, My Lovely

Loved all of them, Jane was fabulous, and Chandler's writing is a trip--so many descriptions and amusing comments that are just marvelous.

Haven't been updating for ages, but here's the list of what I've read since!

#71 Wide Sargasso Sea (3.2014)
#72 Oliver Twist (7.2014)
#73 Moll Flanders (8.2014)
#74 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (8.2014)
#75 De leeuw van Vlaanderen (8.2014)
#76 The Plot Against America (8.2014)
#77 Age of Innocence (9.2014)
#78 The Things They Carried (9.2014)
#79 The Adventures of Caleb Williams (6.2015)
#80 Frankenstein (6.2015)
#81 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (7.2015)
#82 Complete Sherlock Holmes (Adventures of) (7.2015)
#83 Complete Sherlock Holmes (Hound of the Baskervilles) (7.2015)
#84 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (7.2015)
#85 Max Havelaar (10.2015)
#86 Treasure Island (10.2015)
#87 King Solomon's Mines (12.2015)
#88 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (12.2015)
#89 Invisible Man (12.2015)

#90 In The Heart of the Seas (1.2016)
Interesting, and fairly enjoyable writing, but I wasn't really taken with the story.

#91 The Maltese Falcon (1.2016)
Fun story, super fast read, overall enjoyable and entertaining. I think Chandler was better, though. At least based on this title. I have two of Hammett's others here waiting to be read (so far), so I'll see if my opinion changes any later on.

>91 Nickelini: Have you watched the movie with Bogie? I prefer it to the book, but perhaps that is because I have watched it several times before dipping into the original written version.

I haven't yet actually. I'd seen The Big Sleep before I read that one. :P

#92 I, Robot (1.2016)
Enjoyable, amusing, thought-provoking.

#93 The Glass Key (2.2016)
As with Maltese Falcon, unsurprisingly, a fast read that's overall enjoyable and entertaining. I still prefer Chandler. ;)

#94 Sense and Sensibility (3.2016)
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. The whole romance theme is not something that appeals to me, but this seemed to be more about people, behavior, motivation for behavior... In a way it was sort of like watching a silly soap opera, oh the drama! but it doesn't come off like that. I found it difficult to put down, I wanted to see how it all played out and wound up. I will definitely not be waiting a long time before diving into Austen again.

#95 them (3.2016)
I...don't know what to say about this one. It wasn't bad, I'd find it hard to believe JCO could write anything bad but it was... I don't know. I really don't. I liked that it was in Detroit, my mother is from there and her family is there, it's always fun when not just random cities nobody not from an area would have heard of but even street names are bandied about, and you can be all, Hey I know where that is! My mom was actually living quite close to where the riot happened, they heard the tanks rumbling down the streets. Anyway, I dunno, it was interesting but... well it's definitely not a book I would ever consider rereading.

Was that your first Austen Monkey? Jane Austen is famous for her people observational skills and ability to portray them so skilfully in writing. In fact I'd say that that is what makes her so revered a writer. Even though all of her books are romances, none of them are really 'romances!'. Persuasion would be the closest I think.

It was my first real one, yeah. I read Pride & Prejudice & Zombies a few years ago, which made me rather curious about the actual book (which previously had been on my "list" just due to being a classic, but I'd figured it was probably not my kind of thing and wasn't looking forward to it; P&P&Z made me rethink that), but I'd not yet gotten to it. I have the B&N leatherbounds edition of her Seven Novels, and I prefer to read things chronologically when possible, so rather than starting with that one, I started from the beginning. :)

I'm envious of the fact that you're going to read Pride and Prejudice for the first time.

:) If I can manage not getting too caught up in playing silly MMOs, I will probably try to read as many of them as possible this year, see if I can't finish the collection. But with distracting games, and other plans... well, we shall see! xP

#96 Myra Breckinridge (4.2016)
Very odd story, satire dealing with sexuality and gender/sex, not his best but intriguing and worth the read.

#97 Demons (4.2016)
I <3 Dostoevsky. This was excellent.

#98 Their Eyes Were Watching God (4.2016)
Brilliant evocative writing of a woman's search for happiness and herself.

>42 paruline: I'm envious of the fact that you're going to read Pride and Prejudice for the first time.

I second that. When I read it (my last Austen -- I saved it), I didn't think it would surprise me, since I'd seen so many different film versions. It was a pleasant surprise how much I loved it.

#99 Play it as it Lays (5.2016)
Very bleak but very real. The manner it's written made me think of Myra Breckinridge. Looking forward to more Didion.

#100 If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (5.2016)
Very different, original, fun. Would read more Calvino.

Have you seen the BBC series version Nickelini? That is far and away the most authentic to the book that I've seen. And therefore the best imo.

>47 M1nks: Have you seen the BBC series version Nickelini?

Only about 100,000 times. (BTW the 2005 version is terrible)

I think I watched about 10 minutes of it and then turned it off.

Urgh!

#101 Wuthering Heights (6.2016)
Not much positive to say about really any of the characters, but the story was engrossing nonetheless, and I had a hard time putting it down once I got into it.

Belated congratulations on number 100!

:)

#102 The Golden Ass (6.2016)
Amusing stories/moral tales, but sometimes they went on a bit. Overall enjoyable.

#103 Brideshead Revisited (7.2016)
I was a little disappointed, it was not at all like his other two I've read --and loved-- and had I read this one of his first, it is quite unlikely I'd have been motivated to read any others. Not that it is bad at all, but it's not remotely what I expect of his writing. I was interested, though it started a little slowly, but I certainly wanted to know what was going to happen, and how it would end. But the ending didn't leave me satisfied, more just happy to be finished. It actually makes me think of Age of Innocence only less obnoxious.

>54 .Monkey.: So which are the other two you read and loved? BR was my first and I also was disappointed by it after many people told me I would love it...

>54 .Monkey.: >55 ELiz_M: Yeah, me too

I read Black Mischief first from the library. It wasn't the most amazing thing in the world but it had a lot of that British wit and style of humor that I really enjoy. Fair warning: it's possibly somewhat racist but the thing is, he was satirizing the British so it's kind of hard to say whether the remarks were purposely like that simply as the satire or whether any of it was his actual opinions. Either way, it's the Brits he's on about and it's funny. After that, I bought a few when I saw them at the 2ndhand shop; this was the second of those purchased that I read, the first was Decline and Fall which I thought was excellent.

#104 Three Musketeers (7.2016)
Not much new to say here, nothing new. Fun adventure story, a quick enjoyable read.

#105 Beloved (7.2016)
About time I finally read my first Toni Morrison. Really good, not that I'm the least surprised. I was actually expecting it to be more emotionally crushing, but I didn't feel like it ended that way, at least.

#106 Democracy (7.2016)
Interesting, particularly the narration style. The story itself wasn't especially appealing to me, but it still kept up my interest. Still keen on reading more Didion.

That was my view. I just didn't know enough about what was going on to really engage, but the writing was really well done.

#107 Candide (7.2016)
So odd. So so odd. Sometimes amusing, sometimes just weird. Overall though it makes a good point, even if it is often rather bizarre in the making. Would like to read more Voltaire. Kind of annoyed I let this one languish on the shelves so many years, lol; I guess I just sort of figured, 1700s, philosophy, translation, it would be a bit heavy, and I'm not always in the mood for that sort of thing. But no, definitely not like that! xD

#108 Oroonoko (7.2016)
After a comment about Candide, for some reason my husband got this story in his head and got out one of the volumes of his huge anthology of literature from some course he took and set it open on my desk and said You ought to read this! and lo & behold it's one off the list, lol. Very quick read, and I think it was trying to do something positive re: Africans/slaves? but it was also quite racist, so it's...difficult. And then there's the point my husband mentioned, saying he wasn't sure if it was something he thought of or someone else had brought it up, but that it seemed as though Oroonoko had to be a prince in order that it was taken seriously -- had he just been some regular ol' African like all the rest that he wouldn't have been cared about \by the readers\ and it wouldn't have worked to make the point that they (like Europeans) could be intelligent thoughtful dignified etc. Except he's the sole African who is. Imonida probably could be as well, but she's really only regarded for her beauty & purity almost the whole time. All the rest of the Africans are pretty much either outright scoundrels (like his grandfather) or "dogs" with no backbone who run whenever things get difficult. So, while this is "significant" in being potentially/supposedly the first English novel, frankly it really doesn't have very much going for it, imo.

>62 .Monkey.:, >63 .Monkey.: I read both Candide and Oroonoko at uni, and I probably have the same huge anthology that your husband has. My thoughts on both the books were very similar to yours. I was expecting Candide to be so serious and heavy, and it's so not. And Oroonoko is one I'm glad I read, even though I didn't particularly enjoy it. I'm not sure that it's quite accurate to call it racist though -- I mean, by our standards of course it is. But it's so old (1688) and extremely radical for its time. I have to stop myself from judging books in the past by our standards today, but it does cause me some internal conflict.

Right, at the time she wrote it it was probably more unique a view, buuut it's still racist; she still discusses how he was so nice looking because the people from his area didn't have those normal ugly black features, big lips flat noses etc, they looked European except with dark skin. And he was pretty much the sole exemption from the fact that blacks were savages. Etc. So while on the one hand she was sort of positive, "not all blacks are bad!" on the other...well, "normal blacks are still bad." :|

I know older books have racism & antisemitism and sexism (and probably various other -isms I'm not thinking of lol), and depending just how they're written, I can potentially write off some of it as simply the (sadly) prevailing view at the time. But there's a limit to my tolerance, and especially when one is acting like it's being positive toward something while it's actually denigrating at the same time...well then that tolerance level fills rather quickly, heh.

Actually I have two big anthologies, the 2004 Longman (2nd compact edition) and the 2006 Norton (8th giant edition). There was a bit of a switcheroony in the second year due to some availability issue or something. And I just realized I could've also given her the about half as weighty Longman 'cause naturally it also contains Oroonoko. >_> That being said, I tend to prefer the typeface and page layout of the Norton for actual reading.

Hahaha oh well, it served its purpose anyhow.

#109 The Thin Man (7.2016)
I think this was probably my favorite of the Hammetts. I had a niggle about the lawyer and I thought the letters, particularly how they were described each time, seemed suspicious, but the big angle I had not anticipated. All in all a good fun story with enjoyable characters (I really liked Nora!).

So I have The Unfortunate Traveller out from the library and I ... don't think I will be finishing this. @.@ I read the first like 20 pgs of the intro, up till it was about to start talking about the book, and I despise spoilers so that's where I cut out (plus it is ungodly long and I was rather through with reading it at that point anyhow), and it made Nashe sound quite interesting...but holy crap this text! What the hell am I even trying to decipher here?! Good grief. I've made it about 15p in, and I think I have come to the conclusion that I will try to read a page or two a day until it has to go back. And then in the future I will take it out again and do the same, and slowly plod through it that way. Because while I do not trust Boxall et al to have only included worthwhile titles (there are some I know I most certainly disagree with!), like I said the intro does make Nashe sound worth checking out and it just seems like there ought to be something here... but hell if I know what it is yet.

>69 .Monkey.: This book keeps moving further and further down my list.

#110 Jacob's Room (7.2016)
I didn't really care for this. Unsurprisingly, the writing is good, there were a few lines I especially liked. But the (very loose) story... just not for me. I didn't mind the odd style of telling it, I don't think, though it's hard to say so clearly when you're not very fond of what's being told. But, the kind of vaguely sad, ambling, not much plot... I just didn't care much for it. I am curious to read other Woolf and see what I think of the more hyped titles.

I probably wouldn't have liked Jacob's Room if I hadn't studied it at university, where we examined it with a microscope and had to write on it. I don't think it works well as a casual read.

Honestly for me I think it's less the plotless/ambling part than the fact that I'm just really not keen on the kind of like, sad look back on life sort of thing. It's possible that learning more about it would make me a little more positive about it, but the "feel" (so to speak) of the novel wouldn't change, you know? I'd put it in the same kind of class as Age of Innocence or Brideshead Revisited, Crome Yellow perhaps. It's just not for me. But it was a short quick read, so eh.

On to Graham Greene! :D

#111 Brighton Rock (7.2016)
I think this is my favorite Greene yet. Still feels like him, but Ida brings the mood up a bit. Really enjoyed this one.

#112 The Castle (8.2016)
I'm not really sure what I think of this. It was a bit reminiscent of Catch-22 only, without the excess of wit that made Catch-22 so amazing. Yeah yeah I know it was written earlier and technically Catch-22 would be reminiscent of it but I read Catch-22 long before reading this, and besides I like Heller's better. I love Yossarian and feel like I understand and sympathize and empathize with him, whereas K. ...I mean it's still a struggle against authority but his just seems so...random and pointless, like I don't know what he hoped to gain and I feel like he doesn't either, like he's just kind of doing these things just to do them. I don't know. I mean it has its moments, I chuckled here & there, and there were spots I liked, but mostly I was just really ...puzzled. Like, there's not really a clear story, and everything that goes on is just...wonky and, well, absurd. I feel like just kind of sat there going ...why?! throughout. Anyway, I will read the other two novels Kafka wrote but I'm assuming I'll remain rather ambivalent about him, not so far as disliking his stuff but it simply doesn't do much for me.

#113 Agnes Grey (8.2016)
My first Anne, which I liked a good bit. Not so in-depth as Jane, or dramatic as Wuthering Heights, but it was sweet, a nice little story. Even if you can see the end coming from a mile away. ;)

#114 Rob Roy (8.2016)
I really liked this! I was a bit worried before I started it, and admittedly trudging through some of Andrew's rambling Scottish brogue was trying at times, but overall quite good.

#115 Around the World in 80 Days (8.2016)
My favorite Verne (amongst Five Weeks in a Balloon, Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, Round the Moon, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) as yet, not overfilled with "science" or historical stuff, or dealing with many "savages," just a fun story.

#116 Villette (8.2016)
My 2nd Charlotte, and after having recently read one from each of her sisters I can now definitively say that she was certainly the better writer. I enjoyed the other two stories (still have to get to Wildfell Hall) but they didn't hold a candle to Jane or Lucy. Charlotte's protagonists shine and her characters & stories are far deeper. Great book, though I could have done with some French translations, urgh.

#117 Robinson Crusoe (11.2016)
I would have enjoyed this reasonably well ...if not for all the ridiculous religious "moral" junk he just had to fill it up with. It pretty much reminded me of a "masculine" Moll Flanders. With the woman, it's of course to do with sex, with the man, it's adventure. In both cases, oh noes they are trying to follow their ideas and it has led them to sin, beware! Argh, not for me.

#118 Tenant of Wildfell Hall (11.2016)
Super love!!

#119 Les Misérables (12.2016)
This was really great, even if I did read the first third back in Jan and the last two-thirds in Dec, because it was depressing and I set it aside and didn't want to pick it back up, hahaha. Great story though, loved (and hated) the characters. The last 55 pages or so were KILLER to get through, just heart-wrenching!

#120 Pale Fire (12.2016)
Interesting concept. Nabokov sure does love his unreliable narrators!

#121 The Postman Always Rings Twice (12.2016)
Nice short noir with fairly unlikable characters but it kept me hooked from the get-go.

#122 All quiet on the Western Front (4.2017)
Really excellent, moving glimpse into the horrors of the front lines of trench warfare and the impact it had on those involved.

#123 Don Quixote (5.2017)
He was a little too stupid at times, but overall a very amusing read, glad to finally tick this off my lists. :)

#124 The Nose (5.2017)
I liked this story best of the Petersburg Tales, the rest all had more sad vibes, while this one was just oddly amusing.

#125 Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (5.2017)
Not bad, but it was rather excruciating reading the "confessions" bit, I just wanted to throttle him for being such a stupid POS the whole time. Otherwise, interesting.

#126 Pride and Prejudice (5.2017)
#127 Mansfield Park (5.2017)
Wonderfully excellent. Austen and the Brontës sit nicely beside each other amongst my favorites. :)

#128 In a Glass Darkly (5.2017)
(Oops, this ought to have been 124 actually, oh well!) I wasn't super crazy about the 3 short stories, they were okay but nothing so special, but I really enjoyed the two novellas. I'd read Carmilla several years ago (2010?) but went ahead and reread it since I didn't recall the specifics, only the very basic plotline, and I was curious just how much they used of it for the webseries. Anyway, yeah, good stuff. :P

Charlotte wouldn't have liked to hear that! She thought Austen was rubbish. Mind you I rather got the impression that she thought that she was the only female author of any talent... Woman was a cow.

Hahaha! I will always admire Charlotte's writing, I think she was without doubt the most talented of the sisters, but her person definitely leaves things to be desired.

I've only read two of her books so far. Jane Eyre which I found decent but overly dramatic and pretty unbelievable. Good enough for a light read but I remember being very puzzled as to why it was so highly regarded as a work of literature (I've never been fond of Gothic works), and Shirley which I thought lacking in nearly every respect.

I prefer Wuthering Heights which I studied at Uni (if you're going to go Gothic go Full Out!) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall which I think quite groundbreaking for its time.

>90 M1nks: I disagree that Jane Eyre is a light read. I would have agreed on my first reading, but then I studied it at uni and it's really not at all. Like you, I prefer Wuthering Heights by quite a bit. But I still think they are both 5 star reads. I didn't enjoy the Tenant of Wildfell Hall nearly as much, but I actually think it had a lot of interesting aspects so perhaps I need to reread it. If I had a thousand lives, I'd write an alternate version from the horrible husband's point of view. I don't think she was such a prize of a wife. But Anne Bronte was the only one of the sisters who knew how to write men.

Perhaps light read is the wrong term. There are a lot of heavy themes but they were presented in such over dramatic ways and by over drawn characters that i didn't take them seriously. That's a typical reaction from me reading gothic books.

Re the writing of men, have you read Shirley? I don't find the men in there unrealistic. Universally horrible but sadly quite believable.

I've read all the Brontë novels except Shirley, because my "complete" volume of their works neglected to include that one. >_< I think Jane Eyre is amazing; I did enjoy Wuthering a lot, but definitely not more than Jane. Wildfell I didn't think the writing itself was quite as good, but the story was great and yes, that she dared write such an intense feminist piece was just brilliant, she is my favorite of them for that reason. Charlotte apparently highly disapproved of it and slandered it and everything, pff.

>92 M1nks: My problem with how Charlotte and Emily write men is that they basically just monologue. They don't have conversations.

...and people say that's unrealistic? :)

Genuine lol :-)

LOL. I must say, my husband doesn't need anyone else to have a "conversation," he just goes on and on by himself. Hahahaha

>_> _>

LOL what are you doing here, shoo!

#129 Emma (6.2017)
Yep, Austen is great.

Yes she is :-)

You've been reading a lot of the traditional classics I see. Those are pretty much guaranteed great reads if your taste tends in that direction which yours obviously does. Being able to read all those fabulous books one after another will make for a hugely enjoyable reading year!

Yeah, I'm big on classics so the list works nicely for me in that regard, haha. I don't focus so much on the more modern titles, I feel like they put waaay too many 1950+ books on it, especially 1980+, that's just an insane amount of books that haven't even had time to ripen yet. The ones I read that are so recent aren't chosen for being list titles but simply ones I may happen to pick up, heh. I'd read more of the even older ones except they're harder to come by - the libraries here don't have many of them, nor are most of those that I've looked for available for cheap. I've currently got Diary of a Nobody and The Female Quixote out from the uni library, though.

Most of the old books are available online if you can't find them in your libraries.

Unfortunately for me, I can't stand ebooks, lol.

#130 Diary of a Nobody (6.2017)
This was sometimes amusing, sometimes obnoxious.

#131 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (6.2017)
This was one I'd been wanting to read for years, and finally randomly found a cheap copy not quite a year ago. I feel like he did a pretty decent job at depicting what life can be like for someone on that area of the spectrum. The book was good, interesting.

#132 Northanger Abbey (11.2017)
#133 Persuasion (11.2017)
Not much to say here. Austen is <3 and I'm sad I have only one Austen left to read (I don't think Lady Susan is on the list though? but yeah), hahaha. She very quickly went right to the top of my list. I wish there was more!

#134 A Christmas Carol (12.2017)
Obviously I was already familiar with the story, heh, but it was a quick enjoyable read. I particularly liked Dickens' line about Scrooge's house, "They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so little business to be, that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and have forgotten the way out again."

#135 The Time Machine (12.2016)
Just noticed while running down the list of the unreads I own, read this a year ago and apparently never ticked it off! Oops. It wasn't bad, didn't really wow me though.

#136 The Crying of Lot 49 (12.2017)
Not crazy about this. It feels a bit like Tom Robbins...except not as good. Wasn't bad but eh.

>109 .Monkey.: There IS some common flavor between Robbins and Pynchon, isn't there? I hadn't thought about it before, but I agree- if you like Robbins, Pynchon doesn't go quite far enough into witty or weird, or something is missing...

YES, thank you, that is perfect! Lol. I hadn't put my finger on what it was that was "wrong" about it, but that is totally it — it's that same vibe but not enough, and so for me, at least, it just falls flat.

#137 The Moonstone (12.2017)
Looooved this. The Clack section about drove me nuts, lol, but otherwise, this was just excellent. I loved the depth of the characters and all their quirks, and the various twists & turns it all took. I will likely wind up reading Woman in White in 2018, lol.

>112 .Monkey.: I read The Woman in White and loved it so much that I had to continue on with The Moonstone. It was really good as well but I like the first one a bit better.

#138 Notes from the Underground (12.2017)
Unfortunately my least favorite Dostoevsky. Not bad, but not nearly as good as most of his stuff.

#139 Anna Karenina (1.2018)
Quite enjoyed it, excellent characters. Also intrigued that Levin is at least partially auto-biographical for Tolstoy, heh, I can't believe he actually did the diary thing!

#140 Island of Doctor Moreau (1.2018)
I liked it a good bit more than Time machine, though the bad science did pull me out at times. The general idea of it would've been a bit more horrifying (as I believe it was intended to be) if the science weren't so rotten as to make it laughable, lol. But overall enjoyable entertaining story, and I think the notion of ethics/cruelty were played out reasonably well (at least, if one weren't too busy sitting there shaking their head at the notion of a little surgery accomplishing magic).

#141 The idiot (2.2018)
Interesting. I liked the first half better, the atmosphere of it. The second half was ...gloomier. But, as usual for Dostoevsky, a very worthwhile read.

#142 Uncle Silas (2.2018)
Loved this. Knowing this was not Jane Austen, though the protagonist was a sweet naïve girl with the typical variety of the kind gentleman, the playboy, and the thug surrounding her, and therefore no guarantees of nice girl going off into the sunset with nice boy, kept this really suspenseful till the last moment. Lots of fun.

#143 Evelina (2.2018)
I really enjoyed this. I prefer Jane Austen, but this was a good sweet little Cinderella story. I have the "Bedford Cultural Edition" from the library, so I've still to read through the very very many pages of cultural context stuff they include (I imagine I will be merely skimming some of it), but yeah, this was good. And there were times for a whole page or two I was laughing out loud, mostly at the Captain, haha.

#144 A handful of dust (2.2018)
Well-written, of course, but eh, I wasn't very fond of this one. Satiric spin on upperclass life, but I found much of it more depressing than amusing. Ah well.

#145 The invisible man (3.2018)
Not bad, but it didn't draw me in. Griffin was a dick, and even though the story itself was interesting enough, there was just no real compulsion to want to read more about him, just a vague curiosity to see how it would all end. I did find the little epilogue amusing.