Mistress 'rissa's challenge

So, I didn't make my 75 goal last year, but I was only short by 5 so I'm gonna give it another go. One thing I learned from 2007 is that maybe I should not count 1000 page and notoriously hard books as more than 1. My expected list this year includes:

War and Peace (which will be counted as the 5 individual books it originally came published as)
Underworld
Tale of Genji
The Trial
some Marquis de Sade
and after I've got myself excited about pain, Finnegans Wake

Plus, the international edition of 1001 Books to Read Before you Die come out in April so I'll be diving into new suggestions off of that.

My first two are hold over from my substance free holiday
1. The Subtle Knife Philip Pullman
2.The Amber Spyglass Philip Pullman

While much better written then Harry Potter I was expecting a little more condemnation of religion given the fury from the catholic church and overprotective parents everywhere. Also, considering Pullmanwanted his series published as an adult book, the language and plot are a little too simple.

-mistress 'rissa

3. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Welcome to the group! Come on over to The Kitchen and tell us a little about yourself.

Hi 'rissa; you might be interested to know that there's a planned group read of War and Peace going to happen in the 50 Book Challenge group starting around mid-February. (See Joycepa's thread).

(Sorry to breeze in like this - I'm still trying to decide whether to uproot my thread over in 50 Book Challenge and come over here or not. Decisions...)

ETA: It now exists but in What Are You Reading Now instead. Here.

4. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

A stunning book! I can only describe Capote's prose as looking through the words as if they were a pool of clear water, and seeing the story, clear sharp and magnified on the bottom.

Still working on Walden, War and Peace and almost done with Today I wrote Nothing by Daniil Kharms

Re Finnegans Wake, I'd strongly recommend reading it with one of those companion books, such as A Skeleton's Key to Finnegans Wake or A Reader's Guide to Finnegans Wake. I first tried to read it 'straight' and, unsurprisingly, found it a struggle. Reading it with a reader's guide to refer to was a much more rewarding process

Apologies if this is too obvious to need saying.

I read In Cold Blood when I was in high school (hundreds of moons ago). It was chilling! Has anyone read Capote? I have it on my shelf - a friend lent it to me months ago - but I haven't been drawn to it (yet).

5. Today I wrote Nothing by Daniil Kharms

Absolutely absurdist with the dark undertones of the author slowly starving to death in a gulag. This book is a collection of Kharms poetry, short stories, brief stories and random thoughts all of which would make Brecht proud. It drunkenly walks the fine line between genius and madness.

joehutcheon-not only will Finnegan's Wake be read with A Skeleton's Key but also a reading buddy so we each have someone to say, "Did you get to this part yet? What the hell does it mean?!?!"

6. God is Dead by Ron Currie Jr

Excellent book. The concept and execution is great even if you believe there is no god.

7. Walden by Henry David Thoreau

I am so glad my book club is done with this book. The first half is good but then he gets way too metaphysical for my tastes. And it's totally NOT an environmental/nature text.

Still plugging away on War and Peace, (it's way too hard to hold the brick/book in one hand while riding the subway) and started Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt which is amazing and filling in my gap in European history.

Have you read Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire? A very different flavour of wild love for place and nature, full of passion.

No, I've not read Abbey. We read Walden because it was one rebellious text that none of us had picked up yet. Plus, we've all been to Walden Pond a short 20 minutes from our house.

Being an extrovert, these introspective books tend to bore me. For non-fiction, give me a good history book any day.

Thanks for the encouraging words about Ulysses! It's kind of funny: I'm finding it difficult to understand without reading the notes, but I am enjoying it even when I don't understand! The language is just fun--like "reading" Monty Python! Almost done--I'm up to chapter 16!

8. Birds, Beasts and Relatives by Gerald Durrell

Untold tales from his first book about life in Greece.

I am really behind this month! I need to switch back to less knitting and more reading.

9. Volume 1 War and Peace

10. The Broom of the System by david foster wallace
Great little read while waiting for his new book to come out. Kinda like Infinite Jest lite.

11. Blood meridian by Cormac McCarthy

I would hate to view what Cormac McCarthy sees when he closes his eyes at night. This book's got more then enough of the old ultraviolence to give Alec a run for his money.

12. Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo

13. Watchmen by Alan Moore

14. Everything and more : a compact history of Infinity by David Foster Wallace

200 pages into Underworld by Don DeLillo

Let me know what you think of Underworld. It has been on my TBR for forever, I think.

15. & 16. Underworld by Don DeLillo
An excellent po-mo read written in Delillo's smooth, easily comprehended complexity.

17. Christie Malry's own Double Entry by BS Johnson
A very dark and funny novella of the world keeping you down.

18. A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne
Alas, poor Yorick. When I first met you, you were dead. Then poor Laurence died before he finished your trip. Don't you just hate it when death interrupts you in the middle of a good story?

19. The Sheep look up by John Brunner
A masterpiece of dystopian fiction. I think Brunner hits the nail on the head with the environmental devastation and political unrest in the "future" but he also gets a LOT right about what’s going on now. It's scary to think this was written 30 years ago.

I think I'm going to downgrade my goal to 50 this year. I'm still hoping for 75 but 50 is more reasonable. Between work and well, work I've gotten really behind.

RE #15: Do you have specific knowledge of a new book by David Foster Wallace? You have me excited!

#18: Do you own B.S. Johnson's The Unfortunates? It just came back into print--I snagged a copy of it from my local independent. It's on my "probably will read in the next couple of weeks" list.

I just got a copy of The Sheep Look Up from Amazon, too. Glad to see your good review.

Noticed at the top of your thread you finished Tale of Gengi. What did you think? I just got a copy of it the other day.

#19 The only thing I know about the new David Foster Wallace is that it's supposed to be out this year. My partner, who is a bookseller, says the publisher keeps pushing back the release date. Hopefully it'll be out soon otherwise it's back to Pynchon for the ole mind fuck.

Oh and The Sheep Look Up will blow your mind. I can't recommend that book enough. If you like it, Stand on Zanzibar has a very similar tone, only it's more about overpopulation then environmental devastation.

#20
I actually haven't started it yet. It's one of my books to read this year. The current start time for it is mid-summer, I'll let you know how it goes.

20. God is not Great : how religion poisons everything by Christopher Hitchens

Hitchens was already one of my favorite Slate.com columnists before I picked this up. It gives very compelling examples of why religion is the worst thing humanity could have thought up.

I found God is Not Great very compelling - I also read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins this year and I must say they are two books that have changed my thinking - in that they gave some focus to what I obviously really believed. I do find well thought out logic hard to argue with. There are some books (one by Tom Hurpur and one or more by Christopher Frakeand Tim Gandy which cover the other "myths" from before Jesus' time which pretty much follow the same story (virgin birth, star, wise men, raising of the dead, etc etc.).
As well, all this helps one look at the development of the western world in a different light.

21. Nightwood by Djuna Barnes

I'm gonna be honest. I'm not really a fan of this book. Even for modernist prose, it's extremely dense and the characters are over characterized of themselves. I understand that the reason it made the 1001 book list is that it is supposed to contain one of the more compelling protagonists in literature but off the top of my head I can think of at least 1/2 dozen that are much more interesting.

22. Justine by Marquis de Sade

It was both what I expected and what I did not. While notorious for his sex scenes the work was in response to morality tales of his time. He uses his parody to explore the fanatical nature of sex in the upper classes as inflicted upon the poor, while continually stressing that the world is evil and those who try to be good at every turn will be broken by it. Therese, never learns a damn thing throughout the whole book which is wholly infuriating, but then again, feminism didn't exist in 18th century France. The masterpiece of this book lies in its duality as being "one of those books you read with one hand" and like Lolita forcing you to look past the gratuitous (and boy are they ever) sex scenes into Sade’s philosophy on surviving in a hard, rough, immoral world. I now understand why so many authors are obsessed with him.

23. The Ballad of Dingus Magee; being the immortal true saga of the most notorious and desperate bad man of the olden days by David Markson
Cross Huck Finn with Blazing Saddles and you have Dingus Magee. Once again, Markson uses his talent to take pulp to the next level. Very well written, funny and wrapped up in one neat little package.

24. Portrait of an Artist as a Young man by James Joyce
I now understand why Stephen was a whiney bitch throughout Ulysses. This is definitely aimed at a younger crowd who can more easily identify with Stephen's plight and it brought back not so fond memories of being sent to parochial school.
When it comes to Catholic guilt no one is as spot on as Joyce.

25. & 26. Europe Central by William Vollman
What an amazing book! Up there with Life and Fate in terms of WWII lit.

27. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
For my book club. This book is so damn depressing as an adult.

28. & 29. The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution by Richard Dawkins
Another amazing science book. I highly recommend it as an update to Darwin.

30. Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
Which disappointingly has to do with trees. It is a very good book though. I liked the time flow narrative and the Gargantua/Pantagruel protagonist.

31. Fingersmith By Sarah Waters
A regular Dicken's meets Pride and Prejudice.