October 2014: What 1,001 books are you reading?

After finishing the very depressing American Rust, I now started As a Man Grows Older. Next will be the Group Read, Paradise of the Blind and Through the Looking Glass, which I somehow never read before.

I looked at American Rust after seeing what you wrote here. The reviews aren't exactly glowing; they seem to prefer one of his other novels The Son which isn't on any of the 1001 list unfortunately.

>2 M1nks: I don't know that one, but I did like American Rust. In Holland the reviews were very positive (in the media). I should certainly recommend it, though it is quite depressing!

Agreed. I described American Rust as "powerful, well written but largely depressing". Worth a look.

I finished Good Morning, Midnight which I liked much more than her Wide Sargasso Sea. I put down Nausea in favor of Cause for Alarm a short pre-WWII espionage novel. I am still working on Typical, trying to read a story or two before bed, but I keep forgetting to do so. Next up is either They Shoot Horses, Don't They? or Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Next up for me will be Books Do Furnish A Room, the ninth book in A Dance to the Music of Time. Looking forward to leaving the war years behind!

I'm starting off the month having just finished Simon and the Oaks and the first half of the 5th installment of In Search of Lost Time, The Captive. I'm a little way into Paradise of the Blind, and The Burning Plain has just arrived at the library.

On paper I am in more of a jumble than usual because I realized that I am leaving for New York on Weds. but cannot carry The Devil to Pay in the Backlands along as my reading, since it is large and heavy and to replace the library copy would cost $300! So I am planning to take Paradise of the Blind and maybe something non-1001 to New York, and read Devil to Pay now and when I get home. On audio, listening to Madame Bovary, which is being marred by the wrong reader.

I'm reading Paradise of the Blind for the group read and listening to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

I finished The House of Mirth. Fantastic writing, but I always have a tendency to identify too much with those solitary heroines, and after last month's The Mill On The Floss it overwhelmed me a bit. I need a break from tragic classics (Tess of the D'Urbervilles will have to wait another couple of years).
Now started Paradise of the Blind and the rest of the month will be blocked with "the Johnson", Jahrestage.

I'm about to go on holidaywith some friends so I expect I won't get much chance to read in the next little while...

When I'm back though I want to finish Get Shorty and start IQ84. I am about halfway through Possesing the Secret of Joy (which I'm not likeing at all) and making good progress on my audio Far From the Madding Crowd. I have plans for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein once I finish that.

Otherwise I'll read my The Brothers Karamazov and my Open Library books as they come available. Although I suspect I'll miss one as I'll be on holiday when it come up for download and I only have 24 hours to pick it up. Oh well, I can always wait again.

I finished The House of Mirth. Fantastic writing, but I always have a tendency to identify too much with those solitary heroines, and after last month's The Mill On The Floss it overwhelmed me a bit. I need a break from tragic classics (Tess of the D'Urbervilles will have to wait another couple of years).

Ha ha ha. Yes, if you have those tendencies, and are sensitive that way, do stay away from Tess of the D'urbervilles. It will just slay you. (It's so very good though, so make sure once you've recovered that you consider reading it). All three of those are such good books.

I'm listening to Fanny Hill on audiobook. I tend to anticipate that books from the 1700s are going to be 1. full of archaic language, and 2. didactic, and prim & proper.

I learned that wasn't true when I read Candide, but Fanny Hill really proves that wrong. Really.

13> Personally I rather like 1700s and earlier periods of literature, there's a lot of fun there, meanwhile 1800s is often a bit of a drudge.

>15 hdcclassic: like The Marble Faun! Which I am currently sort-of slogging through. I'm also reading Aesop's Fables off and on.

#15 - "there's lots of fun there" -- yes, I'm learning that! I sort of ignore the earlier stuff on the list, but I think I need to start paying more attention. I'm still not planning to read Pamela though (isn't that the one that goes on for ever and ever?)

I'm reading Asphodel, which is dreamy and stream of consciousness (which usually frustrates me, but this time I like it) and Fall on Your Knees, which I'm enjoying despite it being part of Oprah's Book Club ;)

I started To the Lighthouse yesterday with much trepidation, but so far so good!

Books Do Furnish A Room turned out to be one of my favorites so far of A Dance to the Music of Time.

I feel like I'm starting super late, but next up for me will be Paradise of the Blind for the group read.

Next for me will be Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas and Half of a Yellow Sun.

>20 amerynth: You have almost finished The Dance! One book each month?

@Simone2: Yes, one book a month, which turned out to be a great way to read it. I have really been enjoying the series -- enough that it will be a bit strange next year once I'm not immersed in Powell's world anymore.

On audio I am now listening to Midnight's Children. Once the preface was over, it became good fun. The preface brought back to me terrible memories of Rushdie's Fury. It is so obviously written by a man who thinks he's a genius in a very specific way, also kind of like Ian McEwan in Saturday. I'll bet those two run in the same literary circles in London. I feel that I would not want to be friends with either one. But as I say, Midnight's Children really is lovely in and of itself.

Since my last update here, I've finished The Captive & the Fugitive (one more book to go to cross off In Search of Lost Time!) and The Burning Plain and Other Stories. Started on What a Carve Up!, and have Buddha's Little Finger (aka The Clay Machine Gun) on deck.

Let's see.... I have finished Journey to the Center of the Earth, Phineas Finn, and Man's Fate. I am currently working on The Forbidden Realm.

>23 annamorphic: I love this comment. Add to your list Martin Amis! I find all these writers very readable, but yes, they sure have a high opinion of themselves.

The Third Man by Graham Greene. Very entertaining.

>27 jfetting: Inspired by your recent Graham Greene reading, I'm about to start The Quiet American as an audiobook. I'm also reading The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster.

The Quiet American is my favorite.

I have just finished the beautiful Half of a Yellow Sun and are now starting in Man's Fate, which scares me a little.

I just finished Man's Fate (the English translation)! I thought it was lovely -- the writing does take a little focus, but it's not difficult.

>31 ELiz_M: Thanks, that's reassuring! I'll be reading the Dutch translation. The translator was a personal friend of Malraux, so I suppose it will be an approved one.

I’m hoping to finish a couple of books before the end of the month – I’ve started Testament of Youth which came up on the Open Library a few days ago. I can see why some reviewers are put off by thinking that she’s a snob and unappealing to them. Sometimes I wonder if people can remember how they were when they were young…

One asked why, if she had changed, did she still put down those passages from her letters which made her seem so, as if it should be acceptable practice in a writer to doctor their old letters to portray themselves in a better light. Honestly!

I’ve also had I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings just come available this morning and as it’s not a long book I’m wanting to see if I can make decent inroads on this as well.

For the rest of my reading, I finished the first of the 1Q84 books but I’ll wait before reading the last book as I can’t say it overall inspired me with a vociferous desire to follow it straight up and I have ‘finally’! started The Brothers Karamazov. But, as I can probably renew this yet again from the library I’m mainly reading it in the bath right now and I’m only about 70 pages or so in.

I’m also ‘re-reading’ Moll Flanders on audio and this is going well and it might even be finished by months end. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to really make use of audio books but there’s no stopping me now ;-)

Testament of Youth is next month's group read but I might begin it a day or two early as well. It's quite hefty, and I'm almost done with Devil to Pay in the Backlands.

Finally finished the audiobook of Fanny Hill, which I mostly found to be silly, although not entirely.

>24 ursula: You'll likely finish Buddha's Little Finger before me (I've gotten sidetracked with other books), so be sure to post on the group Read Every Book thread!

I finally finished Infinite Jest! Can't say it was worth it, but it wasn't bad enough to abandon.

I'm about a third of the way through Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord and liking it very much even though there's some magical realism to it!

>36 aliciamay: Oh, I had no idea it was one of the still-outstanding books on that list! I will definitely update there when it's done.

Just finished the master by Coibin. now reading Dom Casmurro.