jfetting's 1001 list v2
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Talk 1001 Books to read before you die
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1jfetting
A continuation of my first 1001 thread. Most of my reading/reviews are over on my 100 books challenge thread, but this one will (I hope) keep me accountable to reading more 1001 books. I'm sort of following all the lists, keeping track of milestones within each list - yay for positive reinforcement! - and hoping to read all of at least one list before I die. Which, according to Arukiyomi's app, will be in 42 years when I am 81.
Right now (12/30/2017) I've read 398 off the combined lists.
Reverse chronological order - combined list
2000s
There but for the by Ali Smith, 3 stars
A Visit from the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan, 3 stars
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, 3 stars
The Marriage Plot, 2 stars
Cain by Jose Saramago, 4 stars
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, 5 stars
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, 3 stars
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, 3 stars
Home by Marilynne Robinson, 5 stars
The Gathering by Anne Enright, 4 stars
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, 4 stars
Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, 5 stars
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, 4 stars
The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell, 1 star
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, 4 stars
Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, 4 stars
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka, 3 stars
The Sea by John Banville, 5 stars
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, 5 stars
Saturday by Ian McEwan, 2 stars
On Beauty by Zadie Smith, 3 stars
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, 3 stars
2666 by Roberto Bolano, 4 stars
Small Island by Andrea Levy, 5 stars
The Master by Colm Toibin, 4 stars
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, 5 stars
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, 5 stars
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon, 3 stars
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre, 1 star
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, 4 stars
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, 4 stars
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, 3 stars
The Double by Jose Saramago, 5 stars
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor, 4 stars
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, 5 stars
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, 1 star
Life of Pi by Yann Mantel, 3 stars
Atonement by Ian McEwan, 4 stars
The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa, 3 stars
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, 4 stars
The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho, 3 stars
Spring Flowers, Spring Frost by Ismail Kadare, 3 stars
White Teeth by Zadie Smith, 3 stars
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, 3 stars
After the Quake by Haruki Murakami, 4 stars
Right now (12/30/2017) I've read 398 off the combined lists.
Reverse chronological order - combined list
2000s
There but for the by Ali Smith, 3 stars
A Visit from the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan, 3 stars
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, 3 stars
The Marriage Plot, 2 stars
Cain by Jose Saramago, 4 stars
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, 5 stars
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, 3 stars
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, 3 stars
Home by Marilynne Robinson, 5 stars
The Gathering by Anne Enright, 4 stars
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, 4 stars
Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, 5 stars
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, 4 stars
The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell, 1 star
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, 4 stars
Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, 4 stars
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka, 3 stars
The Sea by John Banville, 5 stars
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, 5 stars
Saturday by Ian McEwan, 2 stars
On Beauty by Zadie Smith, 3 stars
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, 3 stars
2666 by Roberto Bolano, 4 stars
Small Island by Andrea Levy, 5 stars
The Master by Colm Toibin, 4 stars
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, 5 stars
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, 5 stars
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon, 3 stars
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre, 1 star
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, 4 stars
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, 4 stars
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, 3 stars
The Double by Jose Saramago, 5 stars
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor, 4 stars
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, 5 stars
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, 1 star
Life of Pi by Yann Mantel, 3 stars
Atonement by Ian McEwan, 4 stars
The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa, 3 stars
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, 4 stars
The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho, 3 stars
Spring Flowers, Spring Frost by Ismail Kadare, 3 stars
White Teeth by Zadie Smith, 3 stars
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, 3 stars
After the Quake by Haruki Murakami, 4 stars
2jfetting
1900s
Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb, 3 stars
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, 2 stars
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, 5 stars
The Hours by Michael Cunningham, 3 stars
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho, 3 stars
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, 4 stars
Memoirs of a Geisha, 4 stars
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, 4 stars
The Ghost Road by Pat Barker, 4 stars
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, 5 stars
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, 3 stars
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink, 5 stars
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, 3 stars
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, 5 stars
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres, 5 stars
Deep River by Shusaku Endo, 5 stars
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, 4 stars
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields, 2 stars
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, 4 stars
The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood, 4 stars
The Secret History by Donna Tartt, 5 stars
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, 3 stars
Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker, 4 stars
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, 2 stars
Regeneration by Pat Barker, 5 stars
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell, 4 stars
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, 1 star
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, 4 stars
The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh, 4 stars
Possession by A.S. Byatt, 5 stars
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, 5 stars
The Temple of my Familiar by Alice Walker, 3 stars
The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago, 5 stars
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, 5 stars
The Book of Evidence by John Banville, 4 stars
Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood, 4 stars
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, 4 stars
The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst, 2 stars
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, 4 stars
The Child in Time by Ian McEwan, 1 star
The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams, 4 stars
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, 5 stars
The Radiant Way by Margaret Drabble, 2 stars
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, 1 star
Beloved by Toni Morrison, 3 stars
The Pigeon by Patrick Suskind, 3 stars
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro, 5 stars
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 4 stars
The Cider House Rules by John Irving, 1 star
Contact by Carl Sagan, 4 stars
Perfume by Patrick Suskind, 5 stars
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, 5 stars
White Noise by Don DeLillo, 3 stars
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, 3 stars
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago, 5 stars
The Lover by Marguerite Duras, 3 stars
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, 2 stars
Neuromancer by William Gibson, 4 stars
The Color Purple by Alice Walker, 5 stars
A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro, 5 stars
Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally, 5 stars
The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan, 2 stars
The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa, 4 stars
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, 2 stars
Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, 3 stars
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, 4 stars
Smiley's People by John le Carre, 5 stars
A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul, 3 stars
If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, 5 stars
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 5 stars
The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan, 1 star
The Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt, 3 stars
The Shining by Stephen King, 5 stars
Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 4 stars
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, 5 stars
Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami, 1 star
Interview with a Vampire by Ann Rice, 4 stars
A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell, 5 stars
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, 4 stars
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, 5 stars
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre, 5 stars
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Sula by Toni Morrison, 5 stars
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, 5 stars
Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, 3 stars
The Sea of Fertility by Yukio Mishima, 4 stars
The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark, 4 stars
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, 5 stars
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, 5 stars
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 5 stars
The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles, 4 stars
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth, 1 star
The Godfather by Mario Puzo, 5 stars
A Void by Georges Perec, 4 stars
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clark, 3 stars
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick, 3 stars
The Cubs and other stories by Mario Vargas Llosa, 3 stars
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 4 stars
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, 3 stars
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, 5 stars
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, 5 stars
The Magus by John Fowles, 3 stars
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, 3 stars
Silence by Shusaku Endo, 5 stars
The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 4 stars
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey, 2 stars
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, 3 stars
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre, 5 stars
The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark, 4 stars
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, 4 stars
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, 4 stars
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, 4 stars
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, 4 stars
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, 5 stars
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, 3 stars
No One Writes to the Colonel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 3 stars
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, 5 stars
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, 5 stars
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 5 stars
Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow, 1 star
Pluck the Bud and Destroy the Offspring by Kenzabure Oe, 2 stars
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, 3 stars
The Bell by Iris Murdoch, 2 stars
The Once and Future King by T.H. White, 5 stars
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, 3 stars
On the Road by Jack Kerouac, 1 star
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, 5 stars
Justine by Lawrence Durrell, 5 stars
Seize the Day by Saul Bellow, 2 stars
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein, 5 stars
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, 5 stars
The Quiet American by Graham Greene, 4 stars
The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima, 4 stars
Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1 star
Under the Net by Iris Murdoch, 4 stars
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler, 3 stars
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming, 4 stars
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, 1 star
Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin, 5 stars
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym, 5 stars
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, 5 stars
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, 4 stars
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 2 stars
The Third Man by Graham Greene, 3 stars
Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford, 5 stars
Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell, 4 stars
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene, 4 stars
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, 5 stars
Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann, 4 stars
If This is a Man by Primo Levi, 5 stars
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry, 4 stars
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, 5 stars
Animal Farm by George Orwell, 3 stars
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, 5 stars
Loving by Henry Green, 3 stars
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, 4 stars
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham, 5 stars
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges, 4 stars
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 5 stars
Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, 5 stars
Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner, 4 stars
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, 3 stars
Native Son by Richard Wright, 3 stars
Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce, 3 stars
Party Going by Henry Green, 3 stars
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 3 stars
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, 5 stars
U.S.A by John dos Passos, 3 stars
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, 3 stars
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, 4 stars
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein, 4 stars
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, 5 stars
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner, 5 stars
Threepenny Novel by Bertolt Brecht, 3 stars
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, 3 stars
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, 2 stars
A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh, 5 stars
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 3 stars
Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, 5 stars
Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West, 3 stars
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 5 stars
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, 5 stars
The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth, 5 stars
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett, 4 stars
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, 4 stars
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe, 3 stars
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, 4 stars
Living by Henry Green, 3 stars
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, 5 stars
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, 5 stars
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, 3 stars
Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford, 4 stars
Some Prefer Nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki, 4 stars
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh, 4 stars
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust, 4 stars
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, 3 stars
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, 2 stars
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, 5 stars
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, 5 stars
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 3 stars
The Trial by Franz Kafka, 4 stars
The Professor's House by Willa Cather, 4 stars
Billy Budd, Foretopman, 1 star
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster, 4 stars
Amok by Stefan Zweig, 5 stars
The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield, 4 stars
The Enormous Room by ee cummings, 1 star
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, 3 stars
Ulysses by James Joyce, 5 stars
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, 4 stars
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, 4 stars
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence, 1 star
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West, 5 stars
Summer by Edith Wharton, 3 stars
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, 3 stars
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford, 4 stars
The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf, 2 stars
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham, 5 stars
The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence, 1 star
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan, 3 stars
Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, 4 stars
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence, 1 star
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, 2 stars
Howards End by E.M. Forster, 5 stars
A Room With a View by E.M. Forster, 4 stars
The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett, 3 stars
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad, 3 stars
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy, 5 stars
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, 5 stars
Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster, 3 stars
Nostromo by Joseph Conrad, 1 star
The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler, 3 stars
The Call of the Wild by Jack London, 2 stars
The Golden Bowl by Henry James, 5 stars
The Ambassadors by Henry James, 4 stars
The Wings of the Dove by Henry James, 5 stars
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, 1 star
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, 4 stars
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, 5 stars
Kim by Rudyard Kipling, 3 stars
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, 1 star
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, 4 stars
Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb, 3 stars
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, 2 stars
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, 5 stars
The Hours by Michael Cunningham, 3 stars
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho, 3 stars
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, 4 stars
Memoirs of a Geisha, 4 stars
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, 4 stars
The Ghost Road by Pat Barker, 4 stars
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, 5 stars
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, 3 stars
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink, 5 stars
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, 3 stars
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, 5 stars
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres, 5 stars
Deep River by Shusaku Endo, 5 stars
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, 4 stars
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields, 2 stars
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, 4 stars
The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood, 4 stars
The Secret History by Donna Tartt, 5 stars
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, 3 stars
Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker, 4 stars
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, 2 stars
Regeneration by Pat Barker, 5 stars
Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell, 4 stars
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, 1 star
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, 4 stars
The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh, 4 stars
Possession by A.S. Byatt, 5 stars
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, 5 stars
The Temple of my Familiar by Alice Walker, 3 stars
The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago, 5 stars
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, 5 stars
The Book of Evidence by John Banville, 4 stars
Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood, 4 stars
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, 4 stars
The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst, 2 stars
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, 4 stars
The Child in Time by Ian McEwan, 1 star
The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams, 4 stars
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, 5 stars
The Radiant Way by Margaret Drabble, 2 stars
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, 1 star
Beloved by Toni Morrison, 3 stars
The Pigeon by Patrick Suskind, 3 stars
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro, 5 stars
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 4 stars
The Cider House Rules by John Irving, 1 star
Contact by Carl Sagan, 4 stars
Perfume by Patrick Suskind, 5 stars
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, 5 stars
White Noise by Don DeLillo, 3 stars
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, 3 stars
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago, 5 stars
The Lover by Marguerite Duras, 3 stars
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, 2 stars
Neuromancer by William Gibson, 4 stars
The Color Purple by Alice Walker, 5 stars
A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro, 5 stars
Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally, 5 stars
The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan, 2 stars
The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa, 4 stars
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, 2 stars
Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, 3 stars
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, 4 stars
Smiley's People by John le Carre, 5 stars
A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul, 3 stars
If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, 5 stars
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 5 stars
The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan, 1 star
The Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt, 3 stars
The Shining by Stephen King, 5 stars
Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 4 stars
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, 5 stars
Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami, 1 star
Interview with a Vampire by Ann Rice, 4 stars
A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell, 5 stars
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, 4 stars
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, 5 stars
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre, 5 stars
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Sula by Toni Morrison, 5 stars
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, 5 stars
Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, 3 stars
The Sea of Fertility by Yukio Mishima, 4 stars
The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark, 4 stars
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, 5 stars
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, 5 stars
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 5 stars
The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles, 4 stars
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth, 1 star
The Godfather by Mario Puzo, 5 stars
A Void by Georges Perec, 4 stars
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clark, 3 stars
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick, 3 stars
The Cubs and other stories by Mario Vargas Llosa, 3 stars
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 4 stars
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, 3 stars
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, 5 stars
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, 5 stars
The Magus by John Fowles, 3 stars
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, 3 stars
Silence by Shusaku Endo, 5 stars
The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 4 stars
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey, 2 stars
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, 3 stars
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre, 5 stars
The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark, 4 stars
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, 4 stars
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, 4 stars
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, 4 stars
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, 4 stars
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, 5 stars
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, 3 stars
No One Writes to the Colonel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 3 stars
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, 5 stars
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, 5 stars
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 5 stars
Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow, 1 star
Pluck the Bud and Destroy the Offspring by Kenzabure Oe, 2 stars
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, 3 stars
The Bell by Iris Murdoch, 2 stars
The Once and Future King by T.H. White, 5 stars
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, 3 stars
On the Road by Jack Kerouac, 1 star
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, 5 stars
Justine by Lawrence Durrell, 5 stars
Seize the Day by Saul Bellow, 2 stars
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein, 5 stars
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, 5 stars
The Quiet American by Graham Greene, 4 stars
The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima, 4 stars
Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1 star
Under the Net by Iris Murdoch, 4 stars
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler, 3 stars
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming, 4 stars
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, 1 star
Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin, 5 stars
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym, 5 stars
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, 5 stars
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, 4 stars
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 2 stars
The Third Man by Graham Greene, 3 stars
Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford, 5 stars
Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell, 4 stars
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene, 4 stars
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, 5 stars
Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann, 4 stars
If This is a Man by Primo Levi, 5 stars
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry, 4 stars
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, 5 stars
Animal Farm by George Orwell, 3 stars
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, 5 stars
Loving by Henry Green, 3 stars
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, 4 stars
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham, 5 stars
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges, 4 stars
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 5 stars
Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, 5 stars
Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner, 4 stars
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, 3 stars
Native Son by Richard Wright, 3 stars
Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce, 3 stars
Party Going by Henry Green, 3 stars
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 3 stars
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, 5 stars
U.S.A by John dos Passos, 3 stars
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, 3 stars
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, 4 stars
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein, 4 stars
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, 5 stars
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner, 5 stars
Threepenny Novel by Bertolt Brecht, 3 stars
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, 3 stars
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, 2 stars
A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh, 5 stars
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 3 stars
Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, 5 stars
Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West, 3 stars
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 5 stars
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, 5 stars
The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth, 5 stars
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett, 4 stars
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, 4 stars
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe, 3 stars
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, 4 stars
Living by Henry Green, 3 stars
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, 5 stars
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, 5 stars
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence, 3 stars
Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford, 4 stars
Some Prefer Nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki, 4 stars
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh, 4 stars
Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust, 4 stars
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, 3 stars
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, 2 stars
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, 5 stars
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, 5 stars
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 3 stars
The Trial by Franz Kafka, 4 stars
The Professor's House by Willa Cather, 4 stars
Billy Budd, Foretopman, 1 star
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster, 4 stars
Amok by Stefan Zweig, 5 stars
The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield, 4 stars
The Enormous Room by ee cummings, 1 star
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, 3 stars
Ulysses by James Joyce, 5 stars
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, 4 stars
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, 4 stars
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence, 1 star
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West, 5 stars
Summer by Edith Wharton, 3 stars
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, 3 stars
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford, 4 stars
The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf, 2 stars
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham, 5 stars
The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence, 1 star
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan, 3 stars
Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, 4 stars
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence, 1 star
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, 2 stars
Howards End by E.M. Forster, 5 stars
A Room With a View by E.M. Forster, 4 stars
The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett, 3 stars
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad, 3 stars
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy, 5 stars
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, 5 stars
Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster, 3 stars
Nostromo by Joseph Conrad, 1 star
The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler, 3 stars
The Call of the Wild by Jack London, 2 stars
The Golden Bowl by Henry James, 5 stars
The Ambassadors by Henry James, 4 stars
The Wings of the Dove by Henry James, 5 stars
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, 1 star
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, 4 stars
Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, 5 stars
Kim by Rudyard Kipling, 3 stars
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, 1 star
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, 4 stars
3jfetting
1800s
Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Somerville and Ross, 3 stars
The Awakening by Kate Chopin, 3 stars
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, 3 stars
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, 3 stars
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, 3 stars
Dracula by Bram Stoker, 4 stars
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, 4 stars
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy, 4 stars
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 4 stars
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, 5 stars
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, 3 stars
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, 4 stars
The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy, 1 star
Eline Vere by Louis Couperus, 3 stars
Pierre et Jean by Guy de Maupassant, 3 stars
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy, 3 stars
She by H. Rider Haggard, 3 stars
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson, 3 stars
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, 5 stars
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, 4 stars
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard, 3 stars
Germinal by Emile Zola, 3 stars
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, 3 stars
Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant, 4 stars
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy, 3 stars
Une Vie by Guy de Maupassant, 3 stars
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stephenson, 3 stars
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, 4 stars
Nana by Emile Zola, 4 stars
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 5 stars
Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, 4 stars
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, 5 stars
Drunkard by Emile Zola, 3 stars
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, 5 stars
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, 3 stars
The Devils by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 4 stars
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, 4 stars
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, 4 stars
Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope, 4 stars
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 4 stars
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, 5 stars
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, 5 stars
Therese Raquin by Emile Zola, 3 stars
The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope, 5 stars
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 5 stars
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, 5 stars
Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 3 stars
The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley, 3 stars
Silas Marner by George Eliot, 3 stars
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, 4 stars
The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1 star
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, 5 stars
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, 4 stars
Adam Bede by George Eliot, 4 stars
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, 5 stars
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, 5 stars
Hard Times by Charles Dickens, 3 stars
Walden by Henry David Thoreau, 4 stars
Bleak House by Charles Dickens, 5 stars
Villette by Charlotte Bronte, 4 stars
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, 5 stars
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, 3 stars
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1 star
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, 1 star
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1 star
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, 1 star
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte, 4 stars
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell, 4 stars
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, 4 stars
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, 4 stars
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, 3 stars
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, 5 stars
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, 5 stars
The Count of Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, 4 stars
La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas, 5 stars
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, 4 stars
The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe, 4 stars
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens, 3 stars
The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe, 5 stars
Lost Illusions by Honore de Balzac, 4 stars
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 5 stars
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, 3 stars
The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal, 5 stars
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens, 3 stars
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, 3 stars
Le Pere Goriot by Balzac, 4 stars
Eugenie Grandet by Balzac, 4 stars
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo, 4 stars
The Red and the Black by Stendhal, 4 stars
Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, 2 stars
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, 4 stars
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, 4 stars
Persuasion by Jane Austen, 5 stars
Emma by Jane Austen, 5 stars
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, 3 stars
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, 5 stars
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, 4 stars
Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Somerville and Ross, 3 stars
The Awakening by Kate Chopin, 3 stars
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, 3 stars
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, 3 stars
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, 3 stars
Dracula by Bram Stoker, 4 stars
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, 4 stars
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy, 4 stars
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 4 stars
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, 5 stars
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, 3 stars
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, 4 stars
The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy, 1 star
Eline Vere by Louis Couperus, 3 stars
Pierre et Jean by Guy de Maupassant, 3 stars
The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy, 3 stars
She by H. Rider Haggard, 3 stars
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson, 3 stars
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, 5 stars
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, 4 stars
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard, 3 stars
Germinal by Emile Zola, 3 stars
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, 3 stars
Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant, 4 stars
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy, 3 stars
Une Vie by Guy de Maupassant, 3 stars
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stephenson, 3 stars
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, 4 stars
Nana by Emile Zola, 4 stars
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 5 stars
Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, 4 stars
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, 5 stars
Drunkard by Emile Zola, 3 stars
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, 5 stars
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, 3 stars
The Devils by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 4 stars
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, 4 stars
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, 4 stars
Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope, 4 stars
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 4 stars
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, 5 stars
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, 5 stars
Therese Raquin by Emile Zola, 3 stars
The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope, 5 stars
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 5 stars
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, 5 stars
Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, 3 stars
The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley, 3 stars
Silas Marner by George Eliot, 3 stars
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, 4 stars
The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1 star
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, 5 stars
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, 4 stars
Adam Bede by George Eliot, 4 stars
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, 5 stars
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, 5 stars
Hard Times by Charles Dickens, 3 stars
Walden by Henry David Thoreau, 4 stars
Bleak House by Charles Dickens, 5 stars
Villette by Charlotte Bronte, 4 stars
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, 5 stars
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, 3 stars
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1 star
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, 1 star
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1 star
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, 1 star
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte, 4 stars
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell, 4 stars
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, 4 stars
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, 4 stars
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, 3 stars
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, 5 stars
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, 5 stars
The Count of Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, 4 stars
La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas, 5 stars
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, 4 stars
The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe, 4 stars
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens, 3 stars
The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe, 5 stars
Lost Illusions by Honore de Balzac, 4 stars
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 5 stars
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, 3 stars
The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal, 5 stars
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens, 3 stars
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, 3 stars
Le Pere Goriot by Balzac, 4 stars
Eugenie Grandet by Balzac, 4 stars
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo, 4 stars
The Red and the Black by Stendhal, 4 stars
Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, 2 stars
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, 4 stars
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, 4 stars
Persuasion by Jane Austen, 5 stars
Emma by Jane Austen, 5 stars
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, 3 stars
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, 5 stars
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, 4 stars
4jfetting
1700s and earlier
The Monk by M.G. Lewis, 2 stars
Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, 5 stars
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe, 1 star
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne, 5 stars
Candide by Voltaire, 4 stars
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding, 5 stars
Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding, 4 stars
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, 5 stars
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, 4 stars
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, 5 stars
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 3 stars
A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift, 3 stars
The Princess of Cleves by Madame de la Fayette, 4 stars
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, 3 stars
Don Quixote by Cervantes, 4 stars
The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius, 3 stars
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, 3 stars
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter by Anonymous, 3 star
Aesop's Fables by Aesopus, 3 stars
The Monk by M.G. Lewis, 2 stars
Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, 5 stars
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe, 1 star
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne, 5 stars
Candide by Voltaire, 4 stars
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding, 5 stars
Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding, 4 stars
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, 5 stars
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, 4 stars
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, 5 stars
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 3 stars
A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift, 3 stars
The Princess of Cleves by Madame de la Fayette, 4 stars
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, 3 stars
Don Quixote by Cervantes, 4 stars
The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius, 3 stars
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, 3 stars
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter by Anonymous, 3 star
Aesop's Fables by Aesopus, 3 stars
5jfetting
First of 2018 is...
#399 The Arabian Nights by Anonymous (translated by Richard Burton) **** (1001 book #1)
So this is one of the oldest books on the list, and it is one of those books like Shakespeare or the Bible that has heavily influenced storytelling for at least a couple of centuries. "Open Sesame!", Aladdin and his Genie (any book at all that contains a Jinn), Sinbad and his sea voyages... these are stories we've all known since we were little.
Well, parts of them, anyway. Turns out that the stories are a lot more violent (shocker) and risque (so much banging! Seriously, lots of sex in here) than the stories we heard as kids. The book as a whole is a bit much to take in over the month the library let me keep it; better to own a copy and read it slowly over time. Also, fair warning - this is a product of its time (ie, the centuries that these stories were told), so it can be super racist in parts. Hilarious in a horrifying way that some stereotypes have been around almost forever.
If you read the Burton translation (and I don't see why you shouldn't - it is pretty approachable), READ THE FOOTNOTES. Some of them are boring, some are racist, some are hilarious (he rants about stupid hats, he talks about measuring male genitalia, etc.). Skip the ones you don't like and savor the good ones.
#399 The Arabian Nights by Anonymous (translated by Richard Burton) **** (1001 book #1)
So this is one of the oldest books on the list, and it is one of those books like Shakespeare or the Bible that has heavily influenced storytelling for at least a couple of centuries. "Open Sesame!", Aladdin and his Genie (any book at all that contains a Jinn), Sinbad and his sea voyages... these are stories we've all known since we were little.
Well, parts of them, anyway. Turns out that the stories are a lot more violent (shocker) and risque (so much banging! Seriously, lots of sex in here) than the stories we heard as kids. The book as a whole is a bit much to take in over the month the library let me keep it; better to own a copy and read it slowly over time. Also, fair warning - this is a product of its time (ie, the centuries that these stories were told), so it can be super racist in parts. Hilarious in a horrifying way that some stereotypes have been around almost forever.
If you read the Burton translation (and I don't see why you shouldn't - it is pretty approachable), READ THE FOOTNOTES. Some of them are boring, some are racist, some are hilarious (he rants about stupid hats, he talks about measuring male genitalia, etc.). Skip the ones you don't like and savor the good ones.
7jfetting
I think it is going to be Middlemarch (probably should've save Nights for 400, because it is a Very Important Book, but I forgot how close I was).
8Yells
>5 jfetting: Yup, there was a lot of banging going on back then! I enjoyed the stories but found them to be so repetitive. It took me a long time to get through them.
9jfetting
>8 Yells: I agree that they got really repetitive (especially trying to get through them all in a couple of weeks!).
10arukiyomi
definitely read the footnotes... they were far more entertaining than many of the stories!
Aladdin and his lamp isn't in there though. Neither is Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves... not in the 3,500+ pages of the original Burton edition. You have to read his supplemental volumes added later for all that.
Aladdin and his lamp isn't in there though. Neither is Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves... not in the 3,500+ pages of the original Burton edition. You have to read his supplemental volumes added later for all that.
11jfetting
>10 arukiyomi: This was an abridged edition, so the greatest hits were included.
13jfetting
And it turns out that #400 wasn't a big, important book after all...
#400 Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami ****
Not my favorite Murakami, although still pretty good. Nowhere near as much magical realism as I like. I prefer those - in the more non-magical realism books, Murakami's inability to write realistic women is more jarring.
#400 Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami ****
Not my favorite Murakami, although still pretty good. Nowhere near as much magical realism as I like. I prefer those - in the more non-magical realism books, Murakami's inability to write realistic women is more jarring.
14puckers
>13 jfetting: they all count - congratulations on the 400.
20jfetting
#401 The Master of Ballentrae by Robert Louis Stevenson ***
It's ok. Very similar to the rest of Stevenson's adventure novels, although not quite as much fun as Kidnapped. It is partly set in Scotland during the Jacobite uprising, and partly set in colonial America. Two brothers don't get along; one is a sociopath similar to Mr. Hyde, while the other is a put-upon saint who becomes increasingly nuts over the course of the novel.
It's ok. Very similar to the rest of Stevenson's adventure novels, although not quite as much fun as Kidnapped. It is partly set in Scotland during the Jacobite uprising, and partly set in colonial America. Two brothers don't get along; one is a sociopath similar to Mr. Hyde, while the other is a put-upon saint who becomes increasingly nuts over the course of the novel.
21jfetting
#402 Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion **
For some reason this seems like a very familiar book. It is about an actress/model who doesn't seem to feel much about anything, and screws around and starves herself and drinks too much/takes too many drugs and blah blah blah and I don't know. Didn't work for me.
For some reason this seems like a very familiar book. It is about an actress/model who doesn't seem to feel much about anything, and screws around and starves herself and drinks too much/takes too many drugs and blah blah blah and I don't know. Didn't work for me.
22jfetting
#403 Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Doblin ****
The reviews I've read of this call Doblin the "German Joyce" or the "German Dos Passos". I can definitely get the comparison to Dos Passos - the same sort of mix of narrative and poetry and references and quotes etc. It is stream-of-consciousness, and the narrator inserts itself and addresses the reader directly in a couple of places. The most interesting thing is that this was written in the late 20s in Weimar Germany, right before everything went to hell, so references to politics probably mean something different to a modern reader than they did to someone who read the book when published.
It is the story of an ex-convict named Franz Bieberkopf and his life after leaving prison. Franz is a pitiable character in several ways, and his story is a sad. Even though this is his story, the city itself is a major character also. I really enjoyed it - the copy I read was the Michael Hofmann translation recently published by NYRB Classics. Recommended.
#404 Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset *****
I loved this book. It's about the life of a headstrong woman (best kind) back in 14th century Norway, and her life and her kind of worthless husband and her kids and politics and running an estate and the plague etc etc. It is very, very, very, very, very long but totally worth it.
The reviews I've read of this call Doblin the "German Joyce" or the "German Dos Passos". I can definitely get the comparison to Dos Passos - the same sort of mix of narrative and poetry and references and quotes etc. It is stream-of-consciousness, and the narrator inserts itself and addresses the reader directly in a couple of places. The most interesting thing is that this was written in the late 20s in Weimar Germany, right before everything went to hell, so references to politics probably mean something different to a modern reader than they did to someone who read the book when published.
It is the story of an ex-convict named Franz Bieberkopf and his life after leaving prison. Franz is a pitiable character in several ways, and his story is a sad. Even though this is his story, the city itself is a major character also. I really enjoyed it - the copy I read was the Michael Hofmann translation recently published by NYRB Classics. Recommended.
#404 Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset *****
I loved this book. It's about the life of a headstrong woman (best kind) back in 14th century Norway, and her life and her kind of worthless husband and her kids and politics and running an estate and the plague etc etc. It is very, very, very, very, very long but totally worth it.
23jfetting
#405 Underworld by Don DeLillo **
The edition of this book that I read is 827 pages long, and I enjoyed reading the first 60 pages (the baseball game section). The rest of the book left me increasingly bored and confused; I basically skimmed the last 400 pages. It would be a 1-star read without that opening section.
The edition of this book that I read is 827 pages long, and I enjoyed reading the first 60 pages (the baseball game section). The rest of the book left me increasingly bored and confused; I basically skimmed the last 400 pages. It would be a 1-star read without that opening section.
24jfetting
#406 Snow by Orhan Pamuk **
Huh. I think this could have been really interesting - a novel in part about the tension between secularists and Islamists in Turkey in the late 1990s/early 2000s time frame. Pamuk injects himself into the book, and I always enjoy when authors do that, but for some reason the story didn't work for me. The protagonist (Ka) is an exiled poet who returns to Turkey to... it isn't exactly clear, something about a pretty woman, something about a rash of teenage girls committing suicide. There is a coup, but it is a weird coup. The whole time I read it I kept thinking "this is obviously supposed to be a very deep and profound novel", but if it was actually a deep and profound novel, I would be absorbed and not thinking that, right?
#407 The Nose by Nikolai Gogol ****
I was not aware that Great Russian Authors could be funny.
#408 Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol *** (1001 #10)
While amusing in places, this was nowhere near as good as his short stories.
#409 The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni ***
Apparently this is one of those books that is continually forced on Italian schoolchildren while they are growing up (kind of like The Tell-Tale Heart in my life). It is entertaining and supermelodramatic - evil Don Roderick is trying to seduce poor, sweet, helpless Lucia and so orders some spineless priest to not marry her and her fiance Renzo. There are shady nuns and sketchy bravos and holy priests and an outlaw called The Unknown and the plague. It's fun.
Huh. I think this could have been really interesting - a novel in part about the tension between secularists and Islamists in Turkey in the late 1990s/early 2000s time frame. Pamuk injects himself into the book, and I always enjoy when authors do that, but for some reason the story didn't work for me. The protagonist (Ka) is an exiled poet who returns to Turkey to... it isn't exactly clear, something about a pretty woman, something about a rash of teenage girls committing suicide. There is a coup, but it is a weird coup. The whole time I read it I kept thinking "this is obviously supposed to be a very deep and profound novel", but if it was actually a deep and profound novel, I would be absorbed and not thinking that, right?
#407 The Nose by Nikolai Gogol ****
I was not aware that Great Russian Authors could be funny.
#408 Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol *** (1001 #10)
While amusing in places, this was nowhere near as good as his short stories.
#409 The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni ***
Apparently this is one of those books that is continually forced on Italian schoolchildren while they are growing up (kind of like The Tell-Tale Heart in my life). It is entertaining and supermelodramatic - evil Don Roderick is trying to seduce poor, sweet, helpless Lucia and so orders some spineless priest to not marry her and her fiance Renzo. There are shady nuns and sketchy bravos and holy priests and an outlaw called The Unknown and the plague. It's fun.
25arukiyomi
I believe Gogol was the only one... and it may have something to do with the fact that he hailed not from Russia true, but from Ukraine.
26jfetting
#410 H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald ***
This was not what I expected - I suppose I expected a fiction novel about a hawk maybe? It was not that. Part grief memoir, part training-a-hawk story, part biography of T. H. White. I'm giving it 3 stars because I thought that the parts about how she grieved for her father after his sudden death were sad and honest, and really affected me. Mabel the bird was kind of a delight. I have absolutely no idea why Macdonald felt the need to include the White bits (he was super cruel to his hawks, and those parts were hard to read).
This was not what I expected - I suppose I expected a fiction novel about a hawk maybe? It was not that. Part grief memoir, part training-a-hawk story, part biography of T. H. White. I'm giving it 3 stars because I thought that the parts about how she grieved for her father after his sudden death were sad and honest, and really affected me. Mabel the bird was kind of a delight. I have absolutely no idea why Macdonald felt the need to include the White bits (he was super cruel to his hawks, and those parts were hard to read).
27JayneCM
>26 jfetting: That is interesting about T.H. White. I haven't read this yet, but I know that Helen Macdonald wrote an introduction for T.H. White's The Goshawk, where he talks about how training is a battle , a clash of wills where the falcon is worn down until the falconer triumphs. Is it this book where she gets the information about T.H. White and his training methods, I'm wondering?
I have been looking forward to getting to this book.
I have been looking forward to getting to this book.
28jfetting
>27 JayneCM: Yes, I think so - she mentions The Goshawk a lot (poor bird), and the book is set up so that his training style is compared to her training style, which sounds much more humane. I ended up learning a lot about White that I did not previously know - although I suppose my previous knowledge was limited to "British author".
29JayneCM
>28 jfetting: Certainly sounds like an interesting book. Not sure if we do much for my liking of T.H. White though. Although there are many authors we probably wouldn't like as people or condone their behaviour in certain regards.
30Helenliz
>26 jfetting: You rated it higher than I. I thought it as emotional as a piece of wet lettuce. But I entirely understand what you mean about it being an odd mis-mash of subjects in one book. I'm not sure it worked.
