brochettes is trying to read 1001 books before she dies- and hopes that she lives a very long life..

Hi there,

I'm not sure whether I'll ever get there, but I got the book yesterday and felt inspired. I'm going to go through the list bit by bit and add what I've already read over the next few days. I've already discovered that there are some books which I can vaguely recall having read, but have no proper memory of- those won't be included for now, as I intend to make things more difficult for myself and reread them before adding them on...
So here goes the first part:
1. Metamorphoses
2. The Thousand and One Nights
3. Moll Flanders
4. Tom Jones
5. Candide
6. Castle Rackrent
7. Sense and Sensibility
8. Pride and Prejudice
9. Mansfield Park
10. Emma
11. Persuasion
12. Northanger Abbey
13. Frankenstein
14. The Fall of the House of Usher
15. A Christmas Carol
16. The Pit and the Pendulum
17. Jane Eyre
18. Agnes Grey
19. Wuthering Heights
20. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
21. Mary Barton
22. Shirley
23. The Scarlet Letter
24. The House of the Seven Gables
25. Cranford
26. Villette
27. North and South
28. Adam Bede
29. The Woman in White
30. The Mill on the Floss
31. Silas Marner
32. Fathers and Sons
33. The Water-Babies
34. Crime and Punishment
35. The Last Chronicle of Barset
36. The Moonstone
37. Middlemarch
38. In a Glass Darkly
39. Far from the Madding Crowd
40. Daniel Deronda
41. Return of the Native
42. King Solomon’s Mines
43. The Mayor of Casterbridge
44. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
45. The Woodlanders
46. Tess of the D’Urbervilles
47. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
48. The Yellow Wallpaper
49. Jude the Obscure
50. Dracula
51. The Turn of the Screw

Well, as I am up to the 20th century now, I'll have a break. I'll probably add more later, as I tend to get a wee bit obsessive about these things!

It looks like you're off to a strong start. When I got the book, I'd only read 40 books total.

And don't worry; you're not the only one who gets obsessive about the list.

Good luck!

Thank you for the encouragement, shootingstarr!

The sad thing is that there are quite a few books on the list that I recall reading about half way through, only to get distracted by something newer and shinier. It's a habit I am intending to break, and I hope that this list will help me in that.

Well, here comes the 20th/21st century:
52. Buddenbrooks
53. The Hound of the Baskervilles
54. Heart of Darkness
55. Young Törless
56. The Secret Agent
57. The Old Wives’ Tale
58. Kokoro
59. The Great Gatsby
60. Mrs. Dalloway
61. To The Lighthouse
62. Orlando
63. All Quiet on the Western Front
64. A Farewell to Arms
65. Cold Comfort Farm
66. Tender is the Night
67. Gone With the Wind
68. The Hobbit
69. Rebecca
70. For Whom the Bell Tolls
71. The Outsider
72. The Little Prince
73. The Plague
74. The Catcher in the Rye
75. The Judge and His Hangman
76. Lord of the Flies
77. The Story of O
78. The Lord of the Rings
79. On the Road
80. Homo Faber
81. The Once and Future King
82. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
83. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
84. In Cold Blood
85. The Master and Margarita
86. One Hundred Years of Solitude
87. Surfacing
88. Delta of Venus
89. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
90. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
91. The Handmaid’s Tale
92. Love in the Time of Cholera
93. The New York Trilogy
94. American Psycho
95. Hideous Kinky
96. Smilla’s Sense of Snow
97. The Secret History
98. Trainspotting
99. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
100. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
101. Memoirs of a Geisha
102. Sputnik Sweetheart
103. The Blind Assassin
104. Ignorance
105. Life of Pi
106. Middlesex
107. Kafka on the Shore
108. Unless
109. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
110. On Beauty
111. Never Let Me Go

Whoops, forgot one on the above list:
112. The Sun Also Rises

I'm currently reading Walden; or Life in the Woods, but have to admit that it's very slow going, so I'll probably start and finish another one or two before I'm through with that one, as I feel that it lends itself to reading when in a reflective mood. My mood is going a little more towards manic at the moment, so I guess it's a case of wrong book at the wrong time...

And I just realised I forgot another one on the list:

113. The Vicar of Wakefield

I've also gotten into the list recently and have added 3 titles (Aesop, Ovid and Nadine Gordimer's July's People for a total of 127.

A joke I like to make is I'm trying to get through the list slowly...

114. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

To be fair, I'd read this before, but forgot to add to the list. As I've just reread it as part of my 50 book challenge, now is a good time to add it.

115. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

I haven't really got much to say about this. It was a decent enough read, the story never bored me, but I wasn't exactly enthralled either; otherwise it wouldn't have taken me so long to read it. Is it a book I feel I needed to have read before I die? Nope.

I felt the same way about that book. It came highly recommended to me and I think that there might be a whole series of them, but I just did not really care enough about it to read any others.
--BJ
P.S. You have really read a lot of the books on the list. :)

116. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

I bought this book as I was stuck at an airport with nothing to read, and saw this book on offer and recalled it was part of the 1001 list. I didn't know anything about it, otherwise I probably wouldn't have picked it up for a light holiday read. It's not exactly the kind of book I'd usually kick back and relax with- a little too disturbing for my tastes! That being said, while I didn't enjoy reading it, I'm glad I did read it. It affected me in a similar way American Psycho did when I read it years ago: I was disgusted at times and disturbed, but it was well written and and made me keep on reading anyway. Not a book I would reread in a hurry, but it definitely made an impression.

117. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

A lovely, uplifting book.

The first 1001 book of 2009- I am aiming for at least 20 this year:

118. After the Quake by Haruki Murakami

ETA: I am keeping to the original 1001 list, as that's the book I bought. Although I do like the updated version as it's more international and I welcome the changes, I'm sticking to the old one right now. I have however downloaded the updated spreadsheet and will keep track of both lists- maybe I'll try and combine them both at some point when I've got too much time on my hands... For now though, it's the old list, and thus After the Quake counts :-)

Ok, I have decided to combine both lists, which means that instead of 1001 books, there's going to be 1283 books to read before I die. I'll work on updating the list bit by bit, but for now I'll just update my target number (sigh)

it looks like I have read 99 books in the new list, and 24 books on the removed items list, which brings my total up to 123 books.

I have seen two books I hadn't added before,

#119. Pippi Langstrumpf by Astrid Lindgren and
#120. Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts by Joseph von Eichendorff,

which brings me up to 120, so somewhere, I'm missing three books. This might take a while for me to work out...

#121. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

A very good read, very human, well fleshed- out characters, and the despite the generally dark tone it was never really heavy going and even had a couple of hilarious slapstick moments. I'd definitely recommend and will look out for others in this series. That's right, I've now got one more series to keep track of.

Hi brochettes,

Have fun with your reading! I am reading Sons and Lovers from the list. I read it in university a while back, but I am starting the 1001 from scratch and plan to concentrate solely on that list (and magazine subscriptions) for the time being.

What are you reading now?

I haven't had the chance to get much reading time in recently, but during my time off in March I manages to squeeze a couple of 1001 books in:

#122: Paddy Clarke HA HA HA by Roddy Doyle

I expected to love this, liked it instead. It wouldn't make my personal 1001 list, but it was ok.


#123: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

I didn't expect to like it at all, but found that I did. Again, I am not sure that it falls into the must-read- before- dying- category, but it was a pleasant enough way to pass the time.

Wow, what a nice list you have already! :)

I haven't got to Paddy Clarke yet, although I have every intention . . . But I agree with you on #123 - a good story, but not so sure about its inclusion on this list.

#124: Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Meh. I vaguely recall having parts of this read to me as achild, but always falling asleep before a chapter was done (I'm sure my parents loved it!). Now I know why. It may well be a wondeful little book, but it just didn't hold my attention- not as a kid, and not now.

I didn't realise Faceless Killers was on the list! I jumped into the series at The Dogs of Riga, loved it, and now have FK out of the library. And yep I feel the same way about another series to follow...

I gave up on the Ukrainian tractors last year. One day I'll try again, but not till I've read the hundreds of potentially wonderful TBRs around the house!

Hi Cushla, thanks for stopping by!

Yes, I was very pleased when I found out that Faceless Killers was on the 2nd, less anglocentric edition! I actually enjoyed The Dogs of Riga even more, but I guess if you include a book from a long series on the list, you might as well go for the introductory one...

I have finally managed to get round to reading another one,

#125: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

This is a perfect example of why I prefer to read a book before watching the movie. I'd watched the movie many years ago and had hoped that it had been long enough for me to not automatically imagine everything as it was in the film, but unfortunately, the imagery was too strong and kept me from really forming my own ideas. That being said, I actually liked the movie (although I am not sure that 'like' is the right word to use in this case), and I found the book a surprisingly rewarding read. It took me a couple of chapters to adjust to the language, but once that was out of the way I enjoyed it. Again, not sure whether enjoy is the right word, but I think it definitely deserves to be on the 1001 list, and I am glad I finally got round to reading it.

#126: The Awakening by Kate Chopin

This is a book that while I enjoyed reading it, I don't necessarily feel I needed to have read before I died. However, this is because it didn't have a huge impact on me, but I can imagine how it would have made a huge impact when it was first published, and for that alone I guess it deserves to be on the list.

#127 Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Fantastic book. If I had to recommend a book as a great holiday read to anyone, this would be it. One of my favourite books of the year.

Brochettes, I agree with you. The book was not earth shaking for me either. However, as I indicate in my review, I believe it was most likely absolutely scandolous at the time. I believe that it was very well written and depicted life for the upper-middle class of the late 1890s.

#128: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

While I really enjoyed this book, it took me a very long time to get through. I would read a chunk and then get distracted by something else, and it would take me weeks, sometimes months, to pick this up again to read the next chunk. I am not sure why that is, as I really did enjoy myself while reading it; but I guess it just didn't pull me in in a must-continue-now-to-find-out-what-happens-next way. So, lovely book, great atmosphere, maybe a bit lengthy. Certainly more worthy to be on the list than some of the others, but still not necessarily must-read-before-dying material for me.

#129: Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum by Heinrich Böll

A sobering look at the power of the tabloid press. Due to the unusual perspective this is narrated from, it took me a while to get into it; but once I got used to the style, I found this a very worthwhile read.

I love that Katharina Blum book...and it has made quite good transition to a movie too, which is not that common with classics.

But Böll does use unusual style which probably is not for everyone's taste, sharp and distant documentative style which often sounds like dry academical treatises or official police reports...but documenting very human things, and often hilariously absurd events.

I must watch that movie some time- I can imagine the material making for a good movie.

Quite unlike #130 The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

First of all, I heard that the movie is painfully bad. Secondly, I hated the book. Well, maybe hated is too strong a word- I simply couldn't bring myself to like it. I found it really difficult to get into, and once the action picked up a little after the actual crime was committed, I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters. This is not necessarily because the protagonist is an unsavoury character- I have loved certain very unsympathetic antiheroes/ straight forward villains in the past- but because the prose removes me too far from the (rather messy) story to really care about any of the participants. The only person I felt remotely sorry for was Elisabeth Short who, after being horrifically murdered in real life in the first place, has now been used and maligned in a mediocre fictional version of her life and death.

edited to fix typos

When I read The Black Dahlia I was, like you, at a loss why as to why it was included. Poor book.

#131 Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El-Saadawi

Incredibly depressing but quite moving. Definitely a book that desrves to be on the 1001 list, and despite the sad subject matter, surprisingly readable.

#132 Silk by Alessandro Baricco

A very elegant little book. While I really enjoyed reading it, I am not quite convinced it warrants inclusion in the 1001 list. I also almost feel like I've somehow cheated as this is so very short- more of a extravagantly packaged short story. Nevertheless, a lovely story, and while I've failed at my attempt to read twenty books from the 1001 list this year, this one ends the year on a pleasant note.

#133 The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster

It kept me engaged, it was fairly entertaining, I liked it. However, it's not one of those books that I feel I need to recommend to everyone, and I can't say that it exactly had a great impact on me.

#134 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Finally a book that I feel really deserves to be on the list. Masterful, restrained and very sad. I loved it.

#135 Der Vorleser by Bernhard Schlink

One of those books which i am finding it difficult to form an opinion of- I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I feel like it was supposed to make me think and to a ceretain extent it did, but I found the protagonist so underwhelming that I never really got into it. I think if it hadn't been suchg a short read I would probably have postponed or even abandoned reading it altogether pretty early on. Maybe I just read it at a bad time.

#136 The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

My first 1001-book of the year; I have to say I am surprised how much I enjoyed this. I am not exactly a sci-fi reader, but this struck just the right balance between eerie and humorous for me. I definitely think that this deserves to be on the list.

#137 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Wonderful book, makes me regret not having read it when I was younger. Definitely another one that deserves to be on the 1001-list.

Re The Midwich Cuckoos
I had the same experience, I don't often read Sci-Fi, but really got into this. I also enjoyed Day of the Triffids by the same author, which I read recently.

# 138 White Teeth by Zadie Smith

I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to get around to reading this; but I am very glad I finally have. Very clever, very funny, and a story that kept me engaged to the end. Definitely deserves to be on the 1001- list, and one hell of an impressive debut.

Interested that you liked White Teeth. I read On Beauty and hated it so much that I didn't think I could ever read another book by her. But perhaps I should persevere.

#139 Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

I am really proud that I have finally made my way through this one- it took me a few years of stop/start attempts, so it really does feel like an accomplishment. This is not to say that I didn't like it; it was just very long (too long in places for my taste). This book was odd for me in the sense that there are plenty of reasons for me not to like it: it was a little melodramatic in places, overly long, and most importantly, I didn't really particularly get to care about any of the characters, and yet I did enjoy reading it. The descriptions of medieval Norway are lush, and something in the way this was narrated made this my go-to book when I needed some time to really get away from it all. It had an oddly calming effect on me that made it perfect for sitting down with on a rainy Sunday afternoon for a couple of hours, and feeling strangely better for it afterwards. Just for those soothing properties (add a decent pot of tea and you have one serene individual) I give it a thumbs up on the "does it deserve to be on the 1001 list?" question.

#140 Die Taube by Patrick Süskind

A quick read, and both entertaining and thought provoking. Not quite sure whether it deserves to be on the 1001 list though.

I have a feeling that I may have read a few 1001- books since last August and not posted them here- oops! As I am having a rather busy year, I don't think it will be that many, as I gravitate towards trashy/ comfort reads in times of stress, but I shall have to double check what I've missed.

The last two 1001- books I have read are:

#141 If On A Winter's Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino

Interesting. I didn't find it as enjoyable as I'd hoped from the way it started, but still a challenge- in the good way.

#142 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

A very quick and enjoyable read. I love the author's style and will look out for more of her books.

Yes, Muriel Spark is wonderful! I think that Miss Jean Brodie is the best one, but there are a few others on the 1001 list that are worth reading too.

#143 Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

A lovely book, and beautiful in its restraint. I shall definitely keep an eye out for the next part in the trilogy. Definitely deserves to be on the list.

Speaking of Muriel Spark, I liked memento mori even better, it made me laugh and thinking. Definitely high recommended!

Since I've had two recommendations now (thanks annamorphic and Simone2!) I have added Memento Mori to my list of books to be acquired asap.

#144 Wide Sargasso Sea

Definitely inventive and deserves to be on the list for the completely new perspective it gives on a mere plot device in Jane Eyre, as well as in its own right as a novel. Yet I was somehow a little disappointed, although I cannot put my finger on why that is- I just somehow expected more (?).

#145 Things Fall Apart

Powerful and sad.

#146 Beloved

I can't remember the last time a book genuinely made me cry- this one did. It also gave me nightmares. I also at times was struggling through some parts of the narrative/ internal monologues, especially towards the end. While this may sound negative, I actually found this a very uplifting book, and it will stay with me for a long time.

#147 Memento Mori

Wonderful. Funny, sad (in a very different way from the previous read), thought- provoking and terrifying. Probably one of my favourite reads this year.

#148 The Picture of Dorian Gray

For some strange reason I have never read this before, despite having read my way through the majority of Oscar Wilde's work in my late teens- just happened to leave the most famous one out! In a way I am glad, as it means I got to enjoy it now- a wonderful book!

#149 The Bell Jar

Sad, realistic portrayal of depression, and holds up much better than Catcher in the Rye, which I feel shows its age a lot more. Still, not a book that I feel I have taken a lot away from, and not a book I hugely enjoyed, so probably won't reread in a hurry.

#150 The Shining

I'd been meaning to read this for a very long time, but despite having seen the movie many many years ago and enjoying it, it had somehow always bypassed me when shopping for new books. As I want to be able to read and discuss Dr Sleep, I decided to finally make myself read this, and I am glad I did.
I was surprised by two things: first of all, how some of the most iconic moments of the movie don't appear in the book as such, and second, how I was less scared by the book (usually it's the other way round for me) despite the fact that the supernatural side of things seems to be a much stronger element vs Jack's progressive insanity. This did not make me enjoy it any lees though, and I am glad about one specific difference in the ending, which made it a little happier.

For once, while I think that the book and the movie are quite different in mood and detail, neither is superior to the other-I quite happily give a thumbs up to both.

#151 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

I can see why this book is considered a classic among detective novels, due to a plot twist that would have been ground breaking at the time of publication. Despite the fact that I had been spoiled as to the identity of the killer some time ago, and although I had forgotten it did come back to me thanks to clues I wouldn't have picked up on without having the plot twist at the back of my mind, I still enjoyed the story. Had I gone into the book unspoiled, I would most certainly been caught out. This is my introduction to Poirot, and I am looking forward to exploring the rest of the stories.

#152 Possession: a Romance

Dense. Didn't love it, didn't hate it. Liked the general story, got sucked in at the beginning, some bits in the middle and the very end, but was also rather bored over long stretches, and got very frustrated by the very long and overwrought Victorian poems.

Obviously I am an uncultured pleb, but instead of adding to the story, I felt it pulled me out and made the whole thing less enjoyable as a reading experience. I feel shorter "extracts" of the poems would have sufficed to add a feeling of scholarly authenticity, and would have made the whole feel less like homework. Major points to the author for an intimidating amount of effort put into it though.