November 2016: What 1001 Books are you Reading?

Happy All Saints Day and Día de Muertos! What 1001 books are you reading this month?

I'm reading The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

Just started On the Road which I have had some really mixed reports of from friends.

Then I am looking to read through the Rabbit books by John Updike.

Will be finished with Dangerous Liaison soon (epistolary genre saved!), then will tackle The Confessions, which looks way too long.

This is the last month I'll say this: I'm still reading Clarissa. I'm halfway through the final volume now.

I also just finished The Radetzky March and I'll be starting The Adventures of Augie March (coincidentally from one march to another!).

I am listening to the second half of The Return of the King by Tolkien (the audio version is fantastic BTW) and still reading Mansfield Park by Austen. And may have a few others lying around half-read...

Just started Phineas Finn. I'm also planning on reading Portnoy's Complaint for the group read and The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and Half of a Yellow Sun this month.

I'm reading Nemesis by Philip Roth, which I had put aside while traveling. On audio, still Catch-22.

I am reading Portnoy's Complaint and Kirstin Lavransdochter. Both are very good!

I am reading The Once and Future King by T. H. White. This should keep me occupied for a bit.

I finished Clarissa! I finished Clarissa! I finished Clarissa!!

I'm still reading The Adventures of Augie March. And I'm about to start Love Medicine.

>11 ursula: Congrats!

I will look for your review on Love Medicine. I just bought the book from Louise Erdrich's bookstore in Minneapolis. Despite being a local author, I have never read one of her books.

>11 ursula: You did it! Hope it was worth so much of your reading time!

Way to go! That book is a brick, and the last part really dragged for me.

I am reading Hangover Square which, 60-odd pages in, is both mesmerizing and terribly boring. Only so much I can stand of reading about somebody's obsession. Not sure I'll be able to struggle through this one.

>12 Lynsey2: Thanks! I see that Love Medicine has been revised, which is weird for a fiction book. But I guess it had some chapters added back that had been removed before and it was "resequenced." I have to be honest, it's not entirely grabbing me at the moment. I did have high expectations, so I don't know if that's part of it.

>13 Simone2: Thanks! I think so - I like devoting a long period of time to working through some of these monsters on the list. It makes it feel more possible when I can stretch it out and only have to commit to short amounts of reading at a time. If I were trying to read Clarissa like a regular book and looking at a couple/few months of mostly that, I don't think I would have even attempted it. And although it definitely didn't have to be as long as it was, there was value there.

>14 M1nks: That last book was so frustrating to me. Your story is over, just shut up already. But after reading some of the commentary on it, I do get why he went on. It's just a super old-fashioned thing to do now, especially for so long.

>15 annamorphic: That's an interesting description!

I'm starting Amongst Women, by John McGahern.

I'm reading Middlemarch , about 50 pages in so far and quite enjoying it.

I am reading so little of the list right now... neglecting it even, for the first time in years. But I have so many modern novels on my shelves which have been begging for my attention lately and I have fallen for it. Still reading Kirstin Lavransdochter, though, but slowly, along with other novels.

>16 ursula: Oh I hate when that happens! I was disappointed by Of Love and Shadows and now am having a hard time engaging with The Once and Future King. Both are books that have been on my tbr forever and I expected them to be 5 star reads.

>19 Simone2: I completely understand taking a break from the list! Besides, current authors need our support more so than the dead ones. :) I am trying to strike a balance now after burning out on list books the past few years.

>20 Lynsey2: The Once and Future King was all about fits and starts for me. Ultimately, I'm glad I read it, but man, there were some parts that were an awful slog, and others that really held my interest.

I've picked up a few more 1001 books after being a bit neglectful in the last few months. I'm making an attempt at getting somewhere vaguely near my 100 books target. I won't make but I've read some pretty long books this year and quite a few off list ones that I've really enjoyed so I won't beat myself up too much.

Currently I'm reading The Graduate, Ben-Hur and The Sun Also Rises. I'm also reading Dombey and Son as a pretty large off-list book and I've just finished The Third Man, The Buddha of Suburbia and The Windup Bird Chronicle. I've also got A Suitable Boy waiting beside my bed for once I've finished Dombey and Son.

Just started The Children's Book. Quite enjoying it, although it is so detailed that I am finding it a little bit slow.

I'm finally getting back to reading again, I started Kim this morning - oh its just delightful! middlemarch is getting a bit boring but plodding along with it.

I've finished Portnoy's Complaint and have started the final (!!!) volume of In Search of Lost time, Time Regained.

I started The Heat of the Day because I was in London and wanted anohter London book. Now I am leaving London in the middle of this book which is somehow not satisfying me. Usually I love Elizabeth Bowen, so I think it just wasn't the right moment: shouldn't have followed an Iris Murdoch with this. But OK, I persevere.

I've finally started the October group read, Of Love and Shadows. Real life got in the way, including some eye problems which have limited my reading. Can you see why I don't commit to group reads very often? ;-)

>27 streamsong: I hope your eyes are better now - and real life interruptions is just part of most people's reading lives!

Next up for me is The Lover by Marguerite Duras before getting starting with The First Circle for the December Group read. My version may be abbreviated but it's still not short!