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1Andrew_MC
New to this group....I've picked mostly slimmer TBR books as opposed to thick ones, hopefully this will help my chances of success :)
My main list:
1. Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald
2. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
✓ 3. The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas -- completed 15 April 2017
4. Butcher's Crossing by John Williams
5. True Love by Ivan Turgenev
6. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
7. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
8. Coventry by Helen Humphreys
9. Esther's Inheritance by Sándor Márai
10. The Sea by John Banville
11. Independent People by Halldór Laxness
12. The Natural by Bernard Malamud
Alternates list:
1. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
2. Love and Summer by William Trevor
3. Howards End by E.M. Forster
4. Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun
5. At Freddie's by Penelope Fitzgerald
6. Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib Mahfouz
7. 14 by Jean Echenoz
8. A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
9. Europeana by Patrik Ouředník
10. Selected Poems by Emile Nelligan
11. The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am by Kjersti A. Skomsvold
12. The Alp by Arno Camenisch
My main list:
1. Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald
2. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
✓ 3. The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas -- completed 15 April 2017
4. Butcher's Crossing by John Williams
5. True Love by Ivan Turgenev
6. Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
7. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
8. Coventry by Helen Humphreys
9. Esther's Inheritance by Sándor Márai
10. The Sea by John Banville
11. Independent People by Halldór Laxness
12. The Natural by Bernard Malamud
Alternates list:
1. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
2. Love and Summer by William Trevor
3. Howards End by E.M. Forster
4. Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun
5. At Freddie's by Penelope Fitzgerald
6. Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib Mahfouz
7. 14 by Jean Echenoz
8. A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
9. Europeana by Patrik Ouředník
10. Selected Poems by Emile Nelligan
11. The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am by Kjersti A. Skomsvold
12. The Alp by Arno Camenisch
2Petroglyph
Interesting list!
I recently purchased Human Voices, though I put another Fitzgerald book on the TBR list (I've had it for longer) because I really want to read more by her (The blue flower I thought was wonderful). I might read it this year, too, and I'd be happy to compare notes, if you want. Two years ago I read Vesaas' The ice palace for this challenge, which I liked quite a bit - he had a way with words. The Skomsvold book I've heard nothing but good things about.
Other than that, I see a bunch of books on the various "1001 books you must read before you die" lists (Banville, Remarque, Vesaas, Forster, Láxness, Hamsun, Forster). Coincidence?
(Just FYI: The touchstones to The Birds, True Love, The Natural, Love and Summer, 14, and The alp go to other books.)
I recently purchased Human Voices, though I put another Fitzgerald book on the TBR list (I've had it for longer) because I really want to read more by her (The blue flower I thought was wonderful). I might read it this year, too, and I'd be happy to compare notes, if you want. Two years ago I read Vesaas' The ice palace for this challenge, which I liked quite a bit - he had a way with words. The Skomsvold book I've heard nothing but good things about.
Other than that, I see a bunch of books on the various "1001 books you must read before you die" lists (Banville, Remarque, Vesaas, Forster, Láxness, Hamsun, Forster). Coincidence?
(Just FYI: The touchstones to The Birds, True Love, The Natural, Love and Summer, 14, and The alp go to other books.)
3Cecrow
I can vouch for McCullers, Remarque, and especially Forster. Short your titles may be, but a lot of these are worth taking your time with to soak them in.
5Cecrow
re the Banville, there's another Booker winner by Iris Murdoch that's twice as good.
Sorry, couldn't resist dusting off that old joke. :)
Edit: tested the touchstone hyperlinks in your list and found some problems with these ones. Entirely not your fault - watch, same thing will happen to me:
The Birds (and other animals?)
True Love (instead I get ... shudder, I can't say)
The Natural (... beginning of the Roman Empire?)
Love and Summer (another one of THOSE links)
14 (and now we're on to book four ...)
Selected Poems (by that other guy. Figures this one would be tricky)
The Alp (Because when I think of the Alps, I always think of the Mississippi)
Sorry, couldn't resist dusting off that old joke. :)
Edit: tested the touchstone hyperlinks in your list and found some problems with these ones. Entirely not your fault - watch, same thing will happen to me:
The Birds (and other animals?)
True Love (instead I get ... shudder, I can't say)
The Natural (... beginning of the Roman Empire?)
Love and Summer (another one of THOSE links)
14 (and now we're on to book four ...)
Selected Poems (by that other guy. Figures this one would be tricky)
The Alp (Because when I think of the Alps, I always think of the Mississippi)
6billiejean
Lots of titles on your list that I am interested in reading, so I look forward to seeing what you think of them. Best of luck on your tbr challenge.
7artturnerjr
Welcome!
All Quiet on the Western Front seems to be quite the popular title in this group this year - .Monkey.'s got it on her lists, too.
Good luck and happy reading! :D
>5 Cecrow:
re the Banville, there's another Booker winner by Iris Murdoch that's twice as good.
Lol - I actually got that one. :)
All Quiet on the Western Front seems to be quite the popular title in this group this year - .Monkey.'s got it on her lists, too.
Good luck and happy reading! :D
>5 Cecrow:
re the Banville, there's another Booker winner by Iris Murdoch that's twice as good.
Lol - I actually got that one. :)
8LittleTaiko
Welcome! Hard to go wrong having Huckleberry Finn on the list. One of these days maybe I'll get to The Aeneid but I doubt it will be any time soon. I'll just live vicariously through you.
9Andrew_MC
>2 Petroglyph: I have eight novels by Penelope Fitzgerald -- most of which I scooped on sale when a bookstore closed a couple years ago -- but have so far only read one (The Bookshop). So it was inevitable that she would make it onto my list. Likewise with E.M. Forster -- I have six novels but have read only two, so a book by him was another obvious TBR candidate.
I didn't organize my TBR challenge around the 1001 lists -- the overlap you note happened organically, so to speak, since literary fiction represents a large chunk of my reading. So, yes, coincidence. :) I do use the 1001 lists as a reference now and then, though.
What actually defines my list is probably the fact that over half (13 of 24) were not originally written in English. I am an avid reader of fiction in translation, or in the original if I know the language well enough, e.g. Echenoz and Nelligan I'll read in French.
Also, Nordic literature will be a major focus for me this year, since I'll be leading a quarterly theme read on this topic in October-December 2017 in the Reading Globally group. So I naturally put a few titles (e.g. Hamsun, Laxness, Vesaas) on there in conjunction with that.
It seems the touchstones seem to be hit or miss especially when the titles/authors are less well-known.
I didn't organize my TBR challenge around the 1001 lists -- the overlap you note happened organically, so to speak, since literary fiction represents a large chunk of my reading. So, yes, coincidence. :) I do use the 1001 lists as a reference now and then, though.
What actually defines my list is probably the fact that over half (13 of 24) were not originally written in English. I am an avid reader of fiction in translation, or in the original if I know the language well enough, e.g. Echenoz and Nelligan I'll read in French.
Also, Nordic literature will be a major focus for me this year, since I'll be leading a quarterly theme read on this topic in October-December 2017 in the Reading Globally group. So I naturally put a few titles (e.g. Hamsun, Laxness, Vesaas) on there in conjunction with that.
It seems the touchstones seem to be hit or miss especially when the titles/authors are less well-known.
10Andrew_MC
I have managed, finally, to get around to one of the books on my TBR Challenge list: The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas.
The Birds is the story of Mattis, a 37-year-old man with learning disabilities, and his older sister Hege. They share a cottage together in rural Norway near a lake, managing to get by off of money made by Hege from knitting sweaters, as Mattis -- derided by locals as a "simple Simon" -- proves incapable of holding down a job. Eventually, he chances upon the idea of ferrying people across the lake, but there is no demand for his services -- he only ever ferries one passenger, a lumberjack named Jørgen. But before long Hege and Jørgen become a couple, and Mattis struggles to adapt to this new reality...
Using spare yet beautiful prose, Vesaas allows us to get inside Mattis' head, to follow his thoughts and see how differently he experiences and understands the world -- patterns of nature, such as the flight path of a bird, hold great significance for him. We see the difficulty he has in conveying what he means to others, how mesmerized he is by females and how insecure Jørgen's presence makes him, as he fears he will lose Hege forever.
This novel is an understated masterpiece. 5/5
The Birds is the story of Mattis, a 37-year-old man with learning disabilities, and his older sister Hege. They share a cottage together in rural Norway near a lake, managing to get by off of money made by Hege from knitting sweaters, as Mattis -- derided by locals as a "simple Simon" -- proves incapable of holding down a job. Eventually, he chances upon the idea of ferrying people across the lake, but there is no demand for his services -- he only ever ferries one passenger, a lumberjack named Jørgen. But before long Hege and Jørgen become a couple, and Mattis struggles to adapt to this new reality...
Using spare yet beautiful prose, Vesaas allows us to get inside Mattis' head, to follow his thoughts and see how differently he experiences and understands the world -- patterns of nature, such as the flight path of a bird, hold great significance for him. We see the difficulty he has in conveying what he means to others, how mesmerized he is by females and how insecure Jørgen's presence makes him, as he fears he will lose Hege forever.
This novel is an understated masterpiece. 5/5
11LittleTaiko
Congrats on finishing a book. It sounds absolutely wonderful - great book to kick off your challenge with.
12billiejean
Wonderful review!
13.Monkey.
That sounds like an interesting read! I hope you make more progress with your list, you have a bunch of intriguing titles here and I'd love seeing your thoughts on many of them! And yup, All Quiet... is on my list this year also, I managed to knock it out last month, really really excellent. :)
