March 2015: What 1001 books are you reading?

Although here in NYC it feels like Spring will never arrive, it is March. Surely there will be some pleasant rainy (rather than snowy) reading days ahead.

What are you reading?

I've picked up Garden, Ashes because it was deceptively short. Beautiful, lush, almost Proustian writing that won't be the quick read for which i was hoping.

Still working on Infinite Jest and on schedule, 250-ish pages in.

Also reading The Castle of Otranto.

Still in the middle of Oscar and Lucinda but keep getting sidetracked by others.

Still reading Adam Bede. It is still wonderful and I'm enjoying it, but it is very long.

Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye. Because I needed something light, short, and that I knew I'd like. Oh, and something that was really different from Trollope, my audio project.

This month, I'll be reading Dictionary of the Khazars for the group read, How Late it Was, How Late, Reveries of a Solitary Walker and, finally, the second book in Proust's Rememberance of Things Past, which is In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower.

It is pretty possible, this will extend into April too.

I'm listening to A Pale View of Hills on audio and I've just started The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas in book form. I'm also thinking about getting back to Doctor Zhivago, which I set aside in December and haven't gotten back to.

>8 japaul22: What do you think of The Birds? I loved it, but no one here had read it then. I am really curious if it's as good as I remember or if I was just sentimal back then :)

>9 Simone2: I've only read the first 50 pages, but I definitely like it so far. I've found myself really enjoying the Scandinavian works on the list. Even with different subjects they all have a feel - kind of sparse, straightforward and unsentimental - that I really like.

>10 japaul22: Me too, I also like most of the Scandinavian books on the list. Straightforward, that's what they are indeed.

Agreed, Scandinavian literature has been one of the best discoveries I've made from the 1001 list.

This discussion is making me wonder if anyone has broken down the list in terms of the author's country of origin. I'd be very interested to see that as I'm sure I'm missing some of the Scandinavian authors on the list since I can't always tell by looking at the name.

>13 japaul22: When the 2008 (or maybe 2010?) edition was published, the website had a searchable table that listed Title, Name, Year Published, Nationality, Language, Author born (basically the info in the header above the book description). They no longer do so, but I captured what was there at the time.

By "nationality"

Danish:
Smilla’s Sense of Snow
Out of Africa

Finnish:
The Year of the Hare
The Summer Book
The Manila Rope
The Unknown Soldier

Icelandic:
Independent People

Norwegian:
The House with the Blind Glass Windows
Birds, the
Alberta and Jacob
Kristin Lavransdatter
Growth of the Soil
Hunger

Swedish:
The Book about Blanche and Marie
Faceless Killers
Simon and the Oaks
The Christmas Oratorio
Barabbas
Pippi Longstocking
Gösta Berling’s Saga
By the Open Sea
People of Hemsö, the
Red Room, the

>14 ELiz_M: Thank you so much! That's wonderful! I really wish they still had that feature. About a third of those were not on my radar yet.

I just finished War of Worlds by HG Wells - it really stands the test of time

I'm still plugging away at the very enjoyable Middlemarch and am closing in on the end of The Untouchable both of which I'm reading for my 5 books on the list challenge.

For my kindle book I was in the exciting position of having over 200 books to read and no idea what to read next. I tend to neglect 21st century books so I decided to go with the most recently published work that I own, which happens to be Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.

I've also finally taken the plunge and begun my 2015 goal of reading The Arabian Nights, 100 nights a month from now until December! Fun fun fun.

Garden, Ashes is waiting in my shelf but I think I'll go for it sometimes later (I did like Early Sorrows by Kis that is apparently a sort of prequel to that book).

Not all Nordic writers are sparse and unsentimental but I guess there is a fair amount of that here, yes :)

I read The Passion of New Eve and The Path to the Spiders' Nests, neither ended up among my favourite books but, well, they were short and not worthless either. Next will probably be some more non-1001 books...

I picked up the Dictionary of the Khazars again and put it down quickly. Way too much like hard work. Instead I am reading Contempt by Alberto Moravia for my personal challenge. Not saying it's an easy novel but it's definitely not like a history book.

>17 JonnySaunders:
Freedom is on my pile of library books which need to be read. But I've just finished The Corrections which I found a bit of a slog if I'm honest. So I'm indulging in a bit of Michael Connelly with The Burning Room off list, from the library and To Kill a Mockingbird on my kindle to keep something going which is on the list. I guess that means I might not make it to Freedom until next month!

I am reading an other Scandinavian, Knausgard, who will definitely be in the next update of the list. Then back to the current list with By the Open Sea, The Water Babies and The Garden Party.