dprendergast - 75 Book Challenge for 2023

Hi, all. I'm David and, like many others, have been on LT for quite a while but new to the 75 challenge. This will represent a substantial escalation of the "23 in '23" that I had committed to, LOL!

I live in East Tennessee, retiring here a few years ago. Married, with 2 adult children in other states, and a hound dog right here.

January (6)
---------
1. Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York (Washington Irving)
2. Germinal (Emile Zola)
3. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson)
4. Up from Slavery (Booker T. Washington)
5. The Epic of Gilgamesh
6. The Cloister and the Hearth (Charles C. Reade)

February (14)
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7. The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane)
8. The Odyssey (Homer)
9. Betty (Georges Simenon)
10. Mary (Vladimir Nabokov)
11. Monsieur Beaucaire (Booth Tarkington)
12. The Original of Laura (Vladimir Nabokov)
13. The Grandmother (Georges Simenon)
14. Penguin Island (Anatole France)
15. The Widower (Georges Simenon)
16. Cape Cod (Henry David Thoreau)
17. The Suspect (Georges Simenon)
18. A Burnt-Out Case (Graham Greene)
19. Donadieu's Will (Georges Simenon)
20. The Time Machine (H. G. Wells)

March (3)
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21. Walden (Henry David Thoreau)
22. The Little Doctor (Georges Simenon)
23. The Tropic of Cancer (Henry Miller)

April (7)
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24. Barchester Towers (Anthony Trollope)
25. The Girl in His Past (Georges Simenon)
26. Faust (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
27. Tales of the Gold Rush (Bret Harte)
28. My Antonia (Willa Cather)
29. Chips off the Old Benchley (Robert Benchley)
30. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)

May (5)
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31. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne)
32. The Delivery (Georges Simenon)
33. The Venice Train (Georges Simenon)
34. The Singular Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Rudolf Erich Raspe)
35. Waverley (Sir Walter Scott)

Welcome to the group, David.

I love Germinal and will read all the Rougon Macquart books again this year (probably two books a month from March).

Thanks, Paul. Hats off to you! I don't think I'd have the stamina for that. Years ago I spent a summer making it through Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. I'm not sure I could do it again! It was back when this was the only version I knew of, and I still get a visceral kind of reaction when I see these covers:

>4 dprendergast: Well they do look charming, David, if a little forbidding! Beautiful books though.

Welcome to the 75ers David. Looks like you have got off to a good start.

What's the name of your hound dog?

>6 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. His name is "Cola". That was his shelter name, and my wife liked it, so we kept it. He's a 3 1/2 year old Mountain Cur.

Welcome, David.

>4 dprendergast: I worked my way through Proust a few years ago. Don't feel any need to do it again.

>1 dprendergast: That bookstore in the topper looks suspiciously like McKays. I see you waste no time getting to know our East Tennessee treasures!

>9 thornton37814: Nailed it!

>9 thornton37814: & >10 dprendergast: Ah, I forgot that you guys must be near neighbours.

Welcome, David! I’m glad you joined us.

Starred and followed, glad you joined us!

Thanks for the warm welcome - what a nice community here!

David - you might well enjoy both The American Authors and British Author Challenges -

for the first, you will only have to read a Children's Classic for January and find a Richard Powers for February.

My Bell Family comes from Unicoi, Tennessee.

>15 m.belljackson: Had to look Unicoi up on the map - that's REALLY East Tennessee!. I've been up to Kingsport and Bristol, but not over Unicoi way. We have friends that lived in Johnson City before moving over here, and they go back that way several times a year to visit friends. Maybe we'll make one of those trips with them.

East Tennessee sightseeing...

I'm the last Library Thing person who wants to read a mystery, except Diana Gabaldon's milder ones,

and loathe true crime in any form, but here it is:

Unicoi, Tennessee, is the site of a famous cemetery for The Bell Family Massacre!

February
----------
1. The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane)
2. The Odyssey (Homer)
3. Betty (Georges Simenon)
4. Mary (Vladimir Nabokov)
5. Monsieur Beaucaire (Booth Tarkington)
6. The Original of Laura (Vladimir Nabokov)
7. The Grandmother (Georges Simenon)
8. Penguin Island (Anatole France)
9. The Widower (Georges Simenon)
10. Cape Cod (Henry David Thoreau)
11. The Suspect (Georges Simenon)
12. A Burnt-Out Case (Graham Greene)
13. Donadieu's Will (Georges Simenon)
14. The Time Machine (H. G. Wells)

Abandoned: Green Hills of Africa (Ernest Hemingway)

>18 dprendergast: Some good reading there David. I must get to the Simenon sometime.

Which translation of The Odyssey did you read? I read Emily Wilson's a few years back and enjoyed it.

Hi Caroline. I read the Fitzgerald translation, enjoyed it very much. I guess the Fagles version is preferred by many, but I already owned it in the Fitzgerald (Franklin Library edition).

I got hooked on Simenon reading his Maigret books. Then went on to start reading his "psychological novels". I collect the first American editions of Simenon and, because he was so prolific, he keeps me busy! I can recommend specific Simenons if you like - he ranges from "OK" to superb.

I am reading "Walden" now and honestly kind of blown away by that book.

>18 dprendergast: I've read #1 and #14, but it's been a long time.

Is that a ranked list?

>20 dprendergast: Would welcome some Simeon recommendations David.

>21 fuzzi: No, not ranked. Chronological sequence.

>22 Caroline_McElwee: Caroline, are you more interested in his Maigret books, or non-Maigret? If it does not matter, I will recommend from both.

>24 dprendergast: Thanks David.

Three of each:

Maigret Novels
-----------------
My Friend Maigret
Maigret on the Defensive
The Saint-Fiacre Affair

Non-Maigret Novels
----------------------
Dirty Snow
The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By
The Glass Cage

Great David, thank you again. I shall definitely add to my reading list this year.

Some good reading there David. I started the Trollope series a few years back, and was enjoying, but got distracted.

>31 Caroline_McElwee: Ah, I feel for you. When I find an author I like, I usually read a LOT of them in a relatively short time. And, no surprise I suppose, going back at a different time in my life, I may not be at all as appreciative as I was "back then".

So, to be interrupted in the early stages of discovering might mean never experiencing that "phase" at all.

Ring the bell!

>33 dprendergast: Congratulations on reaching 75, David!

Thank you!!!

Congrats!

Congratulations on 75 David, some good reads in there.

It feels great to meet the goal. I have a few "easy" reads to indulge in for a few days. Then I want to tackle Erich Auerbach's "Mimesis". My goal is to finish that by year end.

>33 dprendergast: woo! Good job on 75!

Keep going...

>39 fuzzi: Thankee!

Thinking about you during the festive season, David

>40 dprendergast: How kind of you, thanks very much. Happy holidays to you as well.

The final list. Happy New Year all!

January (6)
---------
1. Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York (Washington Irving)
2. Germinal (Emile Zola)
3. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson)
4. Up from Slavery (Booker T. Washington)
5. The Epic of Gilgamesh
6. The Cloister and the Hearth (Charles C. Reade)

February (14)
----------
7. The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane)
8. The Odyssey (Homer)
9. Betty (Georges Simenon)
10. Mary (Vladimir Nabokov)
11. Monsieur Beaucaire (Booth Tarkington)
12. The Original of Laura (Vladimir Nabokov)
13. The Grandmother (Georges Simenon)
14. Penguin Island (Anatole France)
15. The Widower (Georges Simenon)
16. Cape Cod (Henry David Thoreau)
17. The Suspect (Georges Simenon)
18. A Burnt-Out Case (Graham Greene)
19. Donadieu's Will (Georges Simenon)
20. The Time Machine (H. G. Wells)

March (3)
-------
21. Walden (Henry David Thoreau)
22. The Little Doctor (Georges Simenon)
23. The Tropic of Cancer (Henry Miller)

April (7)
-----
24. Barchester Towers (Anthony Trollope)
25. The Girl in His Past (Georges Simenon)
26. Faust (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
27. Tales of the Gold Rush (Bret Harte)
28. My Antonia (Willa Cather)
29. Chips off the Old Benchley (Robert Benchley)
30. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)

May (6)
----
31. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne)
32. The Delivery (Georges Simenon)
33. The Venice Train (Georges Simenon)
34. The Singular Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Rudolf Erich Raspe)
35. Waverly (Sir Walter Scott)
36. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)

June (7)
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37. The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas)
38. Stories (Rudyard Kipling)
39. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
40. Fables (Aesop)
41. Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy)
42. Two Years Before the Mast (Richard Henry Dana, Jr.)
43. Our Town (Thornton Wilder)

July (7)
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44. The Reivers (William Faulkner)
45. The Yearling (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings)
46. The Portrait of a Lady (Henry James)
47. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
48. The Mill on the Floss (George Eliot)
49. The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (Vladimir Nabokov)
50. November (Georges Simenon)

August (8)
--------
51. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
52. Black Boy (Richard Wright)
53. The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison)
54. Wise Blood (Flannery O'Connor)
55. Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
56. Franny and Zooey (J. D. Salinger)
57. The Woman Warrior (Maxine Hong Kingston)
58. Housekeeping (Marilynne Robinson)

September (9)
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59. Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)
60. Nana (Emile Zola)
61. The Ambassadors (Henry James)
62. The Passenger (Cormac McCarthy)
63. Stella Maris (Cormac McCarthy)
64. My Brilliant Friend (Elena Ferrante)
65. The Story of a New Name (Elena Ferrante)
66. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (Elena Ferrante)
67. The Story of the Lost Child (Elena Ferrante)

October (7)
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68. Underworld (Don DeLillo)
69. Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon)
70. Gulliver's Travels (Jonathan Swift)
71. The Art of Cruelty (Maggie Nelson)
72. Woe Is I (Patricia O'Connor)
73. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction (William Zinsser)
74. Seven Types of Ambiguity (William Empson)

November (5)
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75. King Lear (William Shakespeare)
76. Anatomy of Criticism (Northrop Frye)
77. The Inner Game of Tennis (Timothy Galloway)
78. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (Erich Auerbach)
79. How to Read Literature Like a Professor (Thomas C. Foster)

December (23)
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80. The Satanic Verses (Salman Rushdie)
81. Inferno (Dante Alighieri)
82. Purgatorio (Dante Alighieri)
83. Paradiso (Dante Alighieri)
84. Ravelstein (Saul Bellow)
85. The Aeneid (Virgil)
86. Twelfth Night (William Shakespeare)
87. The Comedy of Errors (William Shakespeare)
88. The Taming of the Shrew (William Shakespeare)
89. The Two Gentlemen of Verona (William Shakespeare)
90. Lucrece (William Shakespeare)
91. A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
92. Henry VI, Part I (William Shakespeare)
93. Henry VI, Part II (William Shakespeare)
94. Venus and Adonis (William Shakespeare)
95. Henry VI, Part III (William Shakespeare)
96. Richard III (William Shakespeare)
97. King John (William Shakespeare)
98. Richard II (William Shakespeare)
99. Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare)
100. Love's Labour's Lost (William Shakespeare)
101. Henry IV, Part 1 (William Shakespeare)
102. The Merry Wives of Windsor (William Shakespeare)

Wow, impressed with December David.

Happy New Year. I hope it's another good reading one.

Got a thread for 2024 yet?

>44 Caroline_McElwee: Hi Caroline. A belated Happy New Year to you! It's going to be another great reading year, I have no doubt.

>45 fuzzi: Just starting one now!

>47 dprendergast: woo, great!