August 2008: Which Book from the 1001 List are You Reading?

I'm wading my way through The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.

Still enjoying The Waves, now and then. I've actually put it aside while I finish a couple of non-1001 books, but it's the kind of book that you can do that with.

I just finished On Beauty by Zadie Smith and am starting Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates for my library book discussion group.

Started Jane Eyre a few days ago but also just started Orlando by Virginia Woolf.

I am about 70 pages into A Room with a View. Honestly, it hasn't really grabbed me yet. Hopefully I will get into it a bit more pretty quick.

Still working on What I Loved. It's an excellent book. It feels like what On Beauty was trying to be.

Still working on Bleak House. Loving it!

Having finished The Corrections, I'll be returning in earnest to Rebecca, and will be tempering the familiarity of that work with Ian McEwan's The Comfort of Strangers.

I just started On Beauty.

I just started The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. I must say I find it more engaging then the first time I attempted it.

I am now into the second chapter of Nationalism and Self-Government by Scott L. Greer

Thankfully, YuriBCN, Nationalism and Self-Government is not on the "list".

I am reading Never Let Me Go which is great so far!

I'm reading Rebecca with the B&N lit by women group.

>5 Whicker:,
It took me forever to get into A Room With a View, too. It shouldn't have taken me nearly as long as it did to read such a short book. But in the end, I enjoyed it, and I'm glad I persevered.

I'm reading Living by Henry Green. It felt like I was pushing a rock uphill for the first forty pages (maybe akin to reading Nationalism and Self-Government!), before I learned to 'slow down' my internal voice for the dialogue (and there is a lot of it) - and then I started loving it.

It's my third Henry Green (I think there are six on the list) but it's the first one I've really enjoyed. I only wish I'd read the previous two (Loving and Party Going) in the same way. Oh well, three down, three to go!

I'm just starting Walden; or, Life in the Woods. I got that book for my birthday in February and happily procrastinated away until now.
However, since I've just realised that I've only read one 1001 list book this year so far, I've got some catching up to do, so fingers crossed!

I'm about a quarter of the way through Memoirs of a Geisha, as I put it on hold to read a few non-1001 books. I'm hoping to finish it right about the time Slaughterhouse Five comes in the mail, which should be in about 2 days!

Am currently reading The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins, might take some time to finish, have some other commitments...

I am reading At swim, two boys and am not really enjoying it - it is dragging.

I just finished Ethan Frome and Summer by Edith Wharton, who is now officially one of my favorite authors. They were so beautiful and tragic!

I'm reading Possession: A Romance. I'm halfway through and it's still not grabbing me hugely. Finding all the Victorian stuff a bit turgid. But I'll persist.

Just started Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. Only a few pages into it so far!

>22 bookmark123:: bookmark123, I read Possession about a month ago. I skimmed / skipped a lot of the Victorian writing (i.e.; epic poems and such). If they held clues to the mystery, I didn't suffer for lack of them. I enjoyed the various journals and letters, though. Hang in there!

I started A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch over the weekend and anticipate finishing it this week. I'm finding it quite melodramatic and a bit disturbing but I have to admit that I'm also relishing every page.

Just finished The Murder of Robert Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, and plan to finish Jonathan Swift's A Tale of A Tub and Samuel Beckett's Molloy by next week, although I am currently caught up in John Barth's The End of the Road.

Halfway through Uncle Tom's Cabin, which I found heavy for the first third or so but the pace has picked up and I'm well into it now. Also just finished A Modest Proposal or otherwise known as "What to Cook for Dinner Tonight, Dear". Wonderful if slightly revolting.

@#27: In the words of Comic Book Guy, "Greatest. Satire. Ever."

Finished Rebecca and just starting The Comfort of Strangers. Might need to take another Early Reviewers break after the McEwan.

#27 Isn't A Modest Proposal fun, though? When I got to the actual proposal, I gasped (really!), and then kept running the mantra "Swift's a satirist! Swift's a satirist!" And I've recommended it since that time, although I'm always careful to remind people that this is the man who wrote Gulliver's Travels.

I am roughly 400 pages into Cryptonomicon after spending far too long on The Corrections

I am still reading Midnight's Children and also reading Lord of the Flies.

Finished Slaughterhouse Five, which I enjoyed immensely.

I've put Memoirs of a Geisha on hold once again to start The Picture of Dorian Gray and a few non-1001 books. I've also got Death in Venice on the top of my TBR pile.

I am reading Bleak House by Charles Dickens for the Group Read - Classics. Finished Section One - Chapters 1-7 See my reviews there.

>3 dbloom5386: What did you think of On Beauty by Zadie Smith? Or anyone else who has read it. I will be reading it soon. I thought White Teeth was brilliant when I read it in December 2000.

I am currently reading Herzog.

#10
I have been trying to read The Satanic Verses for two months. I do not have a clue what is going on, but I just keep reading. I am almost half way through the book and wish it would just be done! It gives me great hope that you are having a more pleasant experience the second time around.

I just finished The Things They Carried which I though was one of the best books I have ever read. Next on my list is Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China.

If you haven't read The Things They Carried, check out my blog for my review.

Happy reading - I know I better get busy!

I'm almost through To the Lighthouse, which has taken me forever! But I'm determined to finish it. And it does have it's moments, I have to admit.

Also, I just started I, Robot last night, which is excellent! I expected a story like the movie, but it turns out to be a collection of short stories. Very good though. I expect to be through it in no time.

Looks like I am going to make it to the 18 books from the list I'm supposed to read this year :)

I recently finished The Waves, which like Vonini says in post 36 about another Woolf book, had its moments. And it also took me forever to read (not the kind of book you need to read all in one gulp).

I'm now on to Sense and Sensibility, and chipping away at Midnight's Children for the group read.

I think I am going to read either Life of Pi or Vanishing Point

>32 TheresaHPIR: I'm glad you liked Slaughterhouse-Five. I thought that was a great book. I enjoyed Breakfast of Champions as well. I'd recommend it.

#35 I read On Beauty as a book club read, and it was okay for me. However, I read The Autograph Man afterward and was intrigued by it. I'm not sure Zadie Smith is what all the hype about her work seems to think she is, but I've managed to get through On Beauty and was intrigued enough to try another of her works.

On the other hand, #35 and #37--Salman Rushdie! I've tried in the past to read his work and dropped the efforts. However, so many of his works are on the list, I decided to try once more with his shortest work I could find, which is also his first--Grimus. I'm over two months into it, half-way done, and wish, too, that something would happen. I will finish it, but that may be by year's end!

I've hugely enjoyed The Vicar of Wakefield (who knew?), The Castle of Otranto, and Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, all early (or much later, whichever way you read the list).

Currently reading The End of the Road by John Barth, Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (what a hoot this one is!), and a couple of non-listers just to keep my sanity.

#40 - On the other hand, #35 and #37--Salman Rushdie! I've tried in the past to read his work and dropped the efforts. However, so many of his works are on the list, I decided to try once more with his shortest work I could find, which is also his first--Grimus. I'm over two months into it, half-way done, and wish, too, that something would happen. I will finish it, but that may be by year's end!

--------------

I haven't read Grimus, but I encourage you to stick with it. I've read two Rushdies from the list: Shame and The Ground Beneath Her Feet. Both were a little work, but for the most part I enjoyed them, and in the end both were very rewarding. I know I'll love Midnight's Children once I get into it, but my brain is not really in concentration mode these days, so it's probably just not the right time for me to tackle it. And lastly, as I've said elsewhere at LT, I really prefer Salman Rushdie's non-fiction and essay writing to his fiction. He really is a fascinating thinker.

Hi Nickelini,

Salman Rushdie has been interesting to watch in interviews, and his written commentaries on his works have been intriguing. It's just the prose in his works and the convolutions of the plots that drive me nuts. I intend to finish Grimus, I really do, as there is now a thread I can follow and continue with, where I didn't run into that before.

But I have similar problems with Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March. I'm about half-way through the novel (as of last summer), and have found that everytime I go back to it, I know where Augie is in his adventures without a problem--so something in the writing is working for me. It's just a style that I don't really care for most of the time. Augie March is another one I plan to finish this year.

And I will state, without equivocation, that I really DON'T like Bret Easton Ellis and can't figure out why he's on the list, especially more than once.

However, I have found that I enjoy more of the books on the original list than I ever thought I would. I'm not sure that they are necessarily the "must reads" of all time, but they have been fun to read, or entertaining, or extremely thought-provoking. I'm currently 3 pages from finishing Journey to the Center of the Earth and loving it. I avoided Verne for too many years. I also prefer him to Wells, and I've read a fair amount of Wells, but who knew?

#42 - However, I have found that I enjoy more of the books on the original list than I ever thought I would. I'm not sure that they are necessarily the "must reads" of all time, but they have been fun to read, or entertaining, or extremely thought-provoking.

-----------

And isn't that just what's great about the list? I've read all sorts of stuff I wouldn't have been aware of otherwise, and all of it has been interesting on some level. Even when I don't like it.

Mind you, I haven't gotten to Bret Easton Ellis yet. And maybe I never will!

I decided to start with the shorter ones I hadn't read. So in the past week or so I've finished Of Mice and Men and Breakfast at Tiffany's, along with the short stories by Edgar Allan Poe that were included. Right now I'm working on Rebecca and am actually really enjoying it.

#42 and #43 - glad to hear there are others out there, I've struggled with Bret Easton Ellis too. Nearly all the boys in my Year 12 English extension class seem to be obsessed with American Psycho (should I be worried?). My copy has a bookmark that will probably be forever marooned at p.139 (or thereabouts). I did force myself to finish The Informers just so I could say I'd read one complete Ellis, but it's not on the 1001 list so it was all for naught!

I'm now reading The Hobbit which is my first ever Tolkien... a bit of an embarrassment to admit as an English teacher :)

>45 Miss-Owl: You have chosen the best Tolkien in The Hobbit which is full of fasinating characters. The Lord of the Rings is just more of The Hobbit but at boring length. I couldn't finish LOR, but I thought The Hobbit was brilliant.

Finished Kafka on the Shore and starting Never Let Me Go.

#45 On Bret Easton Ellis, I've avoided American Psycho for years, just because it's advertised as blatantly anti-female. What I actually read was Less Than Zero, which is about a time and locale that I know well. While I can't argue with his story, it was the telling that bothered me. I thought it was vulgar, poorly presented, and when I read that critics were comparing it to Catcher in the Rye, I about choked. Both books are told by narrators about their friends in school and life, but I fail to see any other connection. I note that film version is not scored particularly well in IMdb either.

Tolkien is a funny read for me--I started with The Hobbit many years ago, and finally picked up Lord of the Rings when I met an actress who claimed to have regularly corresponded with Tolkien. I found myself skipping the poetry because I found it boring at the time, hated the cartoon versions of the books, and then the film trilogy came out. I started again, and I enjoyed them much more, especially having an opportunity to debate with my children about plots and subplots.

I have just finished Journey to the Center of the Earth by Verne and loved it! It was an absolute blast reading this version (Barnes and Noble) which is yet another translation--but a good one.

I'm almost finished with The End of The Road by John Barth. Not sure yet whether I like the book, but I'm enjoying the process at this point.

I am currently reading Enduring Love and am enjoying it so far.

#35 Satanic Verses is an amazing book, it makes more sense once you reach the end, definitely a superb read second time around though. Satanic Verses is the only Salman Rushdie work I have read till date.

#45 J. R. R. Tolkien is an amazing writer, read The Hobbitt and loved it. Lord Of The Rings is equally amazing though, actually, may be more so!

Keren- How are you doing with Enduring Love? I read it in one day while on holidays, and loved it. My husband thought it was just okay.

I picked up Silk at the bookstore today, and will likely have it finished within the next hour or so. It's engrossing.

In addition to I, Robot (still good), I'm now reading an on-line version of Nana by Zola. Since it's my first book by Zola, I didn't know what to expect, but it is quite good.

I've started a re-read of Nineteen Eighty Four, so know I will enjoy it :)

#51

I am enjoying it so far - very intruguing and I like mysteries of the mind so to speak - its well written too which always helps a story.

Finished Goodbye to Berlin which was quite a good read. Very atmospheric, bit short on plot, but plot wasn't really the point of this book.

Started The Last Temptation by Nikos Kazantzakis this morning. Very heavy going in the beginning (bear in mind it's all about Christ, and I am a third-generation atheist, so I am missing a bit of background knowledge here). But I think I was getting into the swing of it when the bus arrived at my stop this morning.

I'm another fan of Enduring Love! I thought it was fascinating. And I've read a few Salman Rushdie books - Midnight's Children was awesome, but quite heavy going at times. I thought The Ground Beneath Her Feet was a much more accessible book, and still a great read. I've read one Bret Easton Ellis and didn't enjoy it much. I've got American Psycho on my pile of books to read, and I am regarding it with much trepidation.

To Wonderlake,

FYI--The last film Richard Burton made was a version of 1984, also starring John Hurt, filmed in London in 1984. It's a fabulous film version of an "unfilmable" story.

Had a day of waiting to be called in a jury waiting room and finished Willard and His Bowling Trophies by Richard Brautigan and Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne.

Not sure quite what to make of Willard--it read really fast and no problem to follow the plot line, but what a finish. It's the only Brautigan I've read, so maybe that's the answer, but I was totally caught up with the characters until the very end.

Read the Verne because I had so much fun with Journey to the Center of the Earth. Was not disappointed in the least with Around the World, except my appreciation of the Fifties film has diminished. They could have totally kept the original story intact and still had a fabulous film.

I've got several 1001 books open, but none of them has quite caught me up yet (and yes! one of those is Grimus by Rushdie), so I'll let you know. Otherwise, I'm sneaking in one of my favorite writers, Minette Walters and The Chameleon's Shadow.

I just finished Bleak House by Charles Dickens. I think everything that can be said has been said about Dickens. I will just add that I personally love his satiric wit, political commentary, melodramatic plot lines, his use of language, and above all, his archetypal characters. I had forgotten how much I love his writing!

I'm reading The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago. This is the third book of his that I've read, after Blindness and The History of the Siege of Lisbon, and with each one I like him more and more.

I've set a goal to read two chapters a day from Midnight's Children. When I'm done that, and I still have time, I'm reading High Rise, by JG Ballard.

Since one of my upcoming courses is very Virginia Woolf-heavy, I took the opportunity of two cross-country plane rides to finish A Room of One's Own and start Mrs. Dalloway.

#61- Dczapka -- Oh, I'm jealous. I'm always trying to take courses that include Virginia Woolf, but my university doesn't offer much.

>24 lauralkeet: Thanks lindsacl. I did hang in there with Possession and I'm glad I did. Not reading a 1001 at the moment.

After finishing Silk earlier this week, I started Alias Grace again. I'd tried reading it several years ago and couldn't get into it. I'm having much better luck this time around.

Just started Atonement last night.

Reading Bleak House, I am not quite as enthusiastic as hemlokgang > 58 because I wish I was actually reading On Beauty which I am looking forward to reading next. In fact, I have just decided I am not going to wait - I will read them together!

-TT

Finished The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho and Crome Yellow by Aldoux Huxley this weekend. I'm liking the gentle fable telling of Coelho more with each book. This one read like James Thurber had rewritten the The Devil and Daniel Webster. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Crome Yellow is a novel of manners published just before T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland and before Huxley's own Brave New World. What I really enjoyed was not so much the interplay between the characters as the history of Crome Yellow (the house where the story takes place), and a fascinating dissertation by one character which totally foreshadows Brave New World. Quite a daring piece when published, it's a lot tamer now, but I did enjoy the read.

Now on to Dashiell Hammett---

(Oh, and The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters, NOT on the list, is another fabulous story by this writer).

I'm just starting The Castle tonight. I've had a great library discard copy sitting on my shelf for about a year and a half, so it's high time I got around to it. I loved The Trial, so I'm excited for this one.

>63 bookmark123:: bookmark123, that's great news! Thanks for reporting back ...

I was going to start Bleak House, but decided to read The Quiet American instead.
--BJ

Today I started The Maltese Falcon by Dashiel Hammet.

I am about 80 pages into A Prayer For Owen Meany and totally love it so far. Not at all what I expected. Wondering what other think of it, but no spoilers please!

I focused on finding short stories and small novels this month...

I'm actually reading Dashiell Hammett this month also (must be in the air). I read The Glass Key a while back, finished The Maltese Falcon a week ago and just finished The Thin Man this morning. Started Red Harvest just a bit ago. All of them are good stories and don't take to long to read.

Finished my first Jane Austen novel this month: Sense and Sensibility. It started a bit slow for me but got a little better when the conflict and drama finally kicked in.

Read a couple of short stories by Ivan Turgenev: King Lear of the Steppes, which was good because King Lear is a great story anyway, and Spring Torrents, which was fairly decent as well. He's a pretty good story teller. Read The Enchanted Wanderer and Death in Venice to round out the short story stuff.

I picked up and read Erewhon and News From Nowhere because I thought they were going to be dystopian novels but they weren't. Erewhon is more of a social satire like a Swift novel and News From Nowhere is Socialist manifesto thinly disguised as a story. Neither one impressed me much.

Finished Wittgenstein's Mistress. If any of you read Vanishing Point, Markson's other novel in the list, this novel is similar in that the story is told gradually through a lot of intellectual trivia and allusions. I liked Vanishing Point, but got a bit bored with the technique by the time I finished Wittgenstein's Mistress.

Starting the second volume of Rembrance of Things Past (yeesh).

-- M1001

I just finished Quicksand by Nellallitea Larsen.
I hated it, I hate it and I will always hate it!

Finished Nana by Emile Zola just now. Excellent story about the rise and fall of a courtisan in Parisien society.

#72 - I loved Owen Meany, probably my favorite John Irving book. It's such a good story with a lot to it. I also loved World According to Garp.

I'm currently taking a break from the list for an ARC but hope to return soon.

@#62:
It's a course on Bloomsbury, with half our syllabus being Woolf (Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, A Room of One's Own, and Three Guineas). Ought to be a good one, and I'll let you know how it goes!

Finished Mrs. Dalloway, though I'm not convinced that one reading will suffice on that one. Either way, I've moved on to Ada, or Ardor.

Ada, or Ardor is one of my all-time favorites! I am a big fan of Nabokov. I am in awe of his use of language. Enjoy!

The tin drum by Gunter Grass.

I'm currently reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Felicia's Journey by William Trevor

I finished Enduring love and Jack Maggs and am now reading Dead Air.

Message 77: dczapka

I have a lot of respect for you reading all of those Woolf novels. Never been able to finish one of her novels. They didn't create the Movie "Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf" for nothing. Let me know with a comment how it goes.

Message 79: Leuntje

Never read The Tin Drum, but watch the film about a month ago. It was bizarre and brilliant. I really need to check on the novel. Let me know what you think via comments.

Message 81: hemlokgang

Felicia's Journey sounds like an abstract feminist spiritual awaken, but is actually a thriller. I liked it. Reminded me of The Collector, although I liked The Collector better.

I just finished Red Harvest. It is as good as any Hammett novel gets, which is great.

Currently reading Mrs. Pettigrew Lives for a Day which reminds me of Mrs. 'Arris goes to Paris: simple and cutesy, better for women than men.

Also, Kim, which is a great adventure story, tinged with Eastern philosophy.

And, yes, still reading Proust.

-- M1001

Just starting The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

@#83:
The only ones I've completed so far are A Room of One's Own and Mrs. Dalloway, the latter of which is so obviously informed and inspired by Proust that you may want to give it another shot. I was a little lost at where things were going at certain points, and I feel certain I'll have to reread it, so maybe that second reading will elucidate some of the things that people say is so amazing about it.

#83, #85 - To the Lighthouse is readable and short - read it recently. Mildly enjoyable if you like the contemplative poetic type novel.

I just finished The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow. Disappointing, it was a bit of a slog without enough reward.

I'm almost through with The Crying of Lot 49.

I finished The Quiet American and have finally started Bleak House. I think that I will be reading this one for quite a while!
--BJ

Okay, spent this weekend reading Blood and Guts in High School by Karen Acker and The Body Artist by Don De Lillo. When you look for shorter (by page count) books, they just prove the notion that you should be careful what you wish for!

Words cannot describe Blook and Guts. I know there are reviews and jacket blurbs, but they don't begin to touch the absurdity of reading this novel(?). Ostensibly it's a diary of a 10 year old who, having been sexually active with her father, gets upset that he finds a girlfriend, so the girl moves to New York where she's abducted into white slavery, ends up in the Middle East, meets Jean Genet and is abused by him, then develops cancer. Besides being linguistically foul-mouthed, it's illustrated with graphic pictures and elaborate charts of dreams and full of rewritten classics (The Scarlet Letter being one), and really, what is all about? Still shaking my head on this one being on the list.

As for Don De Lillo, having not read him and seeing as he has many books on the list, I opted for one that appears to be somewhat neutral in The Body Artist. She is the body artist married to a much older man who dies. At that point, she discovers a man who is living in her rented house who doesn't communicate well and the rest of the novel is what seems to happen to the two of them. Seems is the operative word, because what appears to happen may not be what is happening. It was interesting enough to hold me through to the end, but I'm going to have to try another by this author to see if his works are really for me.

Read the Crying of Lot 49 and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Pynchon has always been something of a trial for me to read. And it's going to take me years (literally) to get through The Adventures of Augie March. I can only take one adventure at a time before I want to leave the character alone for a while.

I'm currently half-way through Hawksmoor by Ackroyd (a two-century murder thriller) and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

Finished Don Quixote and am now starting Crime and Punishment.

Don Quixote was an excellent novel by the way!! :)

Just finished Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton. Entertaining story (not all too long either) about the lives of two sisters, which are at first pretty dull but pleasant, but change drastically when a man appears on stage.

Enjoying Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Reply Message 89: Prop2gether:

I didn't like The Body Artist much myself. It was the first DeLillo novel I read as well and almost put me off him for good. White Noise is the second one of his that I read and I enjoyed quite a bit more.

-- M!001.

I'm now reading Where Angels fear to tread, which is ok. I'm not particularly loving it, but I'm not hating it either.

Then I'm still reading Atonement, which is better than I had expected it to be. When I was in school, we read The Cement Garden and I didn't really care for it. All I can remember is that I thought the atmosphere was extremely oppressive and the ending a bit icky... So I had kinda wrote Ian McEwan off, but I think I should reconsider. I'll try some more of his work in the future and see if I can appreciate it.

@#94:
That's interesting, since I read Saturday and was mostly underwhelmed, but found The Cement Garden to be incredibly fascinating.

If you're looking to reconsider McEwan, may I recommend Amsterdam? It's a shorter novel, and he shows incredibly impressive command. I normally try not to buy into "prize winners" for the sake of their prizes, but it took the Booker and deservedly so.

Still working on Ada, or Ardor, but with the semester kicking into gear, I have to start working through assigned reading. Of course, it helps that my first book, Howards End is also on the list, so there you go.

Just finished Life of Pi. It was interesting and unusual, but I didn't love it to the degree that others seem to. That makes a total of 7 1001 books this summer, which isn't too bad considering one of them was Moby Dick.

Nowhere Man by Aleksandar Hemon

Finished Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd, which was interesting to read, and fascinating to mull over after I read about the historical Hawksmoor. This is a murder mystery set in two centuries with some historical twists that were quite intriguing.

Read Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee, who I have managed never to read before. This novel has really stayed with me and I am looking forward to another by Coetzee.

Finished Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett--and it's great detective fiction.

Currently reading Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord by de Bernieres, and absolutely loving every word.

@#98:
If you liked Coetzee, be sure to check out Disgrace. A great short novel, if a little frustrating (not because of the style, but because you hate the characters for some of the decisions they make). I found it to be much stronger than Life and Times of Michael K, but that's just me.

I just got Adjunct: An Undigest in through Interlibrary Loan today, so I will probably be starting it within the next day or so. I'm already anticipating the headache and frustration. It looks like it will not be an easy read.

Actually, Adjunct isn't difficult. It's more important that you just "let the art wash over you." You're not supposed to "get" every word or phrase. When I read it I found the author's webpage where he explains what he's doing. Think of it more as sound-bites put together, or blurbs cut out of a newspaper and pasted on a sheet. It's not telling a narrative in the way we've been trained to read. Hope that helps.

>95 dczapka: dczapka

I was thinking while reading Atonement that maybe one day I should reread The Cement Garden. It's been at least 12 years since I read it and at the time we read it in class, which was always a bit annoying because people had to read it aloud and not everyone could read English very well.

And of course, I'm not the same person as I was 12 years ago, my reading tastes have changed and I might very well like it now.

But who has time to reread when there are so many wonderful unreads still out there?! Maybe someday later when I'm in the autumn of my life and I feel like I've covered most of what I wanted to read... (like that's ever going to happen!) :)

ETA: I will add Amsterdam to my wish list, thanks for the recommendation!

My pleasure. I've been pretty on the fence about Ian McEwan (same with Cormac McCarthy), but I thought Amsterdam was unequivocally excellent. I hope you enjoy it too!

dczapka - just wondering on what course Howard's End is set. I read a lot of E.M. Forster at one stage, when I was about sixteen, passing through my Merchant Ivory stage. My tastes have moved quite some distance since then, so I must admit, my first reaction to your post was: "Why would anyone want to set Howard's End on a course?" What do you think? Have I let my adolescent judgement cloud my thoughts?

Also, just weighing in the on the general McEwan discussion... I too was initially underwhelmed by Saturday. But then I found it resonating in my mind for several days after finishing reading it. I found Perowne's meditations and pensiveness somewhat overblown at times; but wonder, on reflection, if there isn't something Henry Jamesian in McEwan's writing (which might well be considered underwhelming, if not tortuous!).

The only other McEwan I've read is Atonement, which I loved (particularly Briony's view of the fountain episode) but based on what I've read here, am looking forward to more!

Just finished my on-line book Where Angels fear to tread. Didn't care much for it really. I didn't like any of the characters and it felt as if the author changed his mind about the direction of his story halfway through.

OK, I've got a dumb question. Where is the list of 1001 books to read before you die?

The list is derived from the book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, but the book can be pretty expensive. The spreadsheet many of us use to keep track is here: http://johnandsheena.co.uk/books/?p=33

And though it is expensive, the book itself is a neat investment; Dr. Boxall and the contributors explain what it is about the books that makes them so necessary.

ETA: Though I should also note that a second edition came out this year with quite a few substitutions (nearly 300, I think). There's quite a bit of debate about whether some books that were removed should have been, or whether books that were on the original list should have been there in the first place. The spreadsheet itself is for the original list. There are places to get the books from the new list; there's a thread on this group, if I'm not mistaken.

@#104:
Miss-Owl, the course is on the Bloomsbury Group. At the end, we'll be reading some contemporary reimaginings of Bloomsbury works for context. While we're also reading a lot of essays and short stories, here are the course's primary texts:

E.M. Forster -- Howards End, Maurice
Virginia Woolf -- Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, A Room of One's Own, Three Guineas, To the Lighthouse
Michael Cunningham -- The Hours
Robin Lippincott -- Mr. Dalloway
Zadie Smith -- On Beauty

(Edited to fix touchstones that didn't work the first time.)

Dczapka -- I'm so jealous--that sounds like a fabulous course! Much, much better than my dreaded reading list this term (which is much too long and entirely un-1001 list related so I won't list it here, but it's on my profile page if you need to know).

Thanks, dczapka - totally agree with Nickelini - what a wonderful reading list. I wasn't aware On Beauty had any links with Bloomsbury. It's on Mount Toobie and now I have a new perspective before launching into it later on this year.

Thanks also for fiddling with the touchstones... that was a lot!

According to my professor, whom I trust implicitly (for better or worse), On Beauty is a modern recasting of Howards End. The latter is our read for this week, while the former is the last book we'll read in December. I'll of course let you all know how it goes!

I recently finished Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, short little novel based in Monterey, which was fun to read while I was visiting there earlier this week.