Eurydice's 999 Challenge

18 down, 4 - 5 in progress, and some time spent in cookbooks, not sufficient yet to count.

So far, my categories look to be:

1. 20th-Century Authors I Am Ashamed Not to Have Read

2. 9 Books Published in the Last 9 Years

3. Cities of the World (and Books on Urban Design)

4. World Travels: 9 Countries in Literature or Memoir (Preferably new to me.)

5. The Golden Ages of Great Empires: Holland, Spain, China, Japan

6. 1890 - 1919 (War Memoirs, Literature, History)

7. Science-Fiction and Fantasy

8. Illustrated Books (Children's Books, Graphic Novels, Design) I love these, but find it hard to make myself give them time. Now, they count.

9. Food Writing, History, and Cookbooks (especially those long on technique, description, information)

A bonus, sure to be fulfilled: 9 Mysteries From My Collection

I'm tempted to add some others, but afraid I won't have the stamina to carry it through. (Contenders include: Christianity & Church History, Science & Medicine, Art & Art Forms, Poetry & Plays, and Europe 1400 - 1800.)

I'm really excited about the challenge, and a couple of my categories meet burning desires to read. As for adding, Christianity, focusing on Church History, Theology, and the Reformation, is most tempting.

Eurydice, welcome to the group....I too have added extra categories, because the Theology/spirituality/church history TBR pile keeps growing, so I'm going to try to get some of them in as bonuses. Also i have a pile of Food related books my daughter just 'borrowed' me, so I think that will be category 11. I look forward to seeing your extras as well as your books on the list.
Tina.

Much of the inspiration for my Iberian Golden Ages category comes from Maria Rosa Menocal's The Ornament of the World, which probably focuses more on the Islamic Golden Age in Spain, and Don Quixote. I don't know if you're going to include non-fiction in yours, but Menocal is great. There was also a great art exhibit in Boston this last year at the Museum of Fine Arts called "El Greco to Velazquez" that focused on the art of the Spanish Golden Age (and the catalog also included some discussion of the literature).

I'm going to get started with some plays by Lope de Vega next year, and am also thinking about which of Cervantes' predecessor's I should read - like a picaresque novel and maybe some of the Christian mystics (like Dark Night of the Soul) from the prior century. But I'll be interested to see what you read, and may have to pilfer from your lists!

Oh Please, my TBR pile is toppling, but Menocal's book looks too good to pass by. I was fortunate enough to spend a week in southern Spain several years ago, and then went to Gibraltar, and to Portugal. The Moorish/Islamic influence is everywhere, and so beautiful. I recently completed People of the Book which also again whetted my appetite to read more. And I'm ashamed to say I don't think I ever read Don Quixote all the way thru.

Perhaps the biblical parable about the loaves and the fishes was really referring to a TBR pile? When we take one off the pile, it gets replaced by two more. :-)

Eurydice - Just browsing, came across your categories and your extras and just had to say how very interesting they sound. Are you going to fit in any Viragos I wonder? You have inspired me to follow up the 888 challenge with the 999! Thank you.

If you're looking around for titles for category 3, are you aware of The Works: Anatomy of a City by Kate Ascher? It came out before Christmas a couple of years ago. Coffee table book, I think.

I love your World Travels category, and will be very interested to see what you select in that group.

I'll be watching your World Travels category as well.

Finally compiling a partial list of intended titles, with many more in mind.... hopefully to be completed, later tonight.

1. 20th-Century Authors I Am Ashamed Not to Have Read

Beware of Pity, Stefan Zweig (currently reading)

Marcel Proust
Toni Morrison
Marilynne Robinson
John Updike/Philip Roth
The Oxford Book of Short Stories, ed. V.S. Pritchett will supply enjoyable older stories, and those by a number of authors I've read, while supplying a taste, each, of: Sherwood Anderson, D.H. Lawrence, Ring Lardner, Katherine Anne Porter, Liam O'Flaherty, V.S. Pritchett, himself, Sean O'Faolain, Frank O'Connor, R.K. Narayan, Patrick White, Doris Lessing, William Trevor, and John Updike.... none of whom I clearly remember having read. It will also reintroduce me to my first love: the short story.

2. 9 Books Published in the Last 9 Years

3. Cities of the World (and Books on Urban Design)

4. World Travels: 9 Countries in Literature or Memoir (Preferably new to me.)

5. The Golden Ages of Great Empires: Holland, Spain, China, Japan

Going Dutch, Lisa Jardine Quite interesting on the commonality between Dutch and British that eased the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, and the subsequent hand-off of global dominance to the British. Fascinating on the growth of shared taste in many areas, ease of movement in travel, commodities, luxuries, and information, and the relative frequency of intermarriages. The prominence and closeness of the Huygens family to rulers and the forefront of art and science, comes in for much attention. Especially as Anglophilic and conversant as they were with both England and Anglophile courts with strong English connections (of birth, marriage, or exile), in the Netherlands.

6. 1914 - 1919, and After (War Memoirs, Literature, and History Concerning the First World War)
A World Undone: the story of the Great War, 1914-1918, G.J. Meyer (history)
Paris 1919, Margaret Macmillan (history)
The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War (history, reference)
Undertones of War, Edmund Blunden (memoir)
Under Fire, Henri Barbusse, (memoir)
Return of the Soldier, Rebecca West, (novel)
Three Soldiers, John Dos Passos, (novel)
Her Privates We/The Middle Parts of Fortune, Frederic Manning (novel)
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf (novel; a possible tangential, tenth choice)
The Oxford Book of World War I Poetry.

7. Science-Fiction and Fantasy
Claw of the Conciliator, Gene Wolfe
Sword of the Lictor, Gene Wolfe
Citadel of the Autarch, Gene Wolfe
The King of Elfland's Daughter, Dunsany
The Mote in God's Eye, Larry Niven

8. Illustrated Books (Children's Books, Graphic Novels, Design) I love these, but find it hard to make myself give them time. Now, they count.

9. Food Writing, History, and Cookbooks (especially those long on technique, description, information)

"10." Viragos and Other Books by Women

Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather (February selection for Monthly Author Reads)
Less Than Angels, Barbara Pym
The Misses Mallett, E.H. Young
After the Death of Don Juan, Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Return of the Soldier, Rebecca West

A bonus, sure to be fulfilled:

"11." 18 Mysteries From My Collection

Vintage:
An Oxford Tragedy, J.C. Masterman - excellent
Rim of the Pit, Hake Talbot - original and ingenious
The Peacock Feather Murders, Carter Dickson
Recent:
The Seventy-Seven Clocks, Christopher Fowler
Caroline Miniscule, Andrew Taylor (just making it; 1982)
Deal Breaker, Harlan Coben
Death in the Garden, Elizabeth Ironside
When Will There Be Good News?, Kate Atkinson
One Good Turn, Kate Atkinson

"12." Miscellaneous (or, harder on myself, The Johnsonian Circle, for which I have read relevant books, and own many more)

Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage, Richard Holmes
The Making of Dr. Johnson, Adam Sisman

I'm tempted to add some others, but afraid I won't have the stamina to carry it through. (Contenders include: Christianity & Church History, Science & Medicine, Art & Art Forms, Poetry & Plays, The Johnsonian Circle, and Europe 1400 - 1800.)

(Back to this, and long-overdue replies, after tea and the end of my first book on Holland.)

Eurydice, for your food category, have you ever come across the Edible series of books? I've got Pizza: A Global History by Carol Helstosky checked out of the library right now.

Others in the series, I think, are Hamburger and also Pancake. There might be others, as well.

It's got history, description, and a few recipes. Fairly short but looks to be interesting even though I don't like to cook, still sounds interesting.

No, I hadn't; thank you. :)

The one on pancakes might be fun. There are so many interesting kinds, from so many different places. Microhistories of any sort are a good idea.

(And I ought to fill in the handful of food books I know about, and have already; that's a good reminder.)

I finished Michael Dirda's Book by Book. It does finally pick up a bit about page 116. It has gotten rave reviews but I don't understand that at all. It was disappointing to me, though it did have its moments.

#15 lindapanzo

I found Dirda's Book by Book enjoyable for "dipping into" a little at a time. I'm not sure I would want to try to read it straight through. I had it on my nightstand for several weeks and read it a chapter at a time. I found most of it charming and got some good ideas--I remember especially that he gave information about what books to provide in a guest room. Since i have a big bookcase in there I used his ideas and made two shelves dedicated for guests. That was fun. It's been a while since I've looked at it but I do remember feeling like I was having fun "listening" to a friend talk about books.

MusicMom41: In retrospect, I think that's the best approach to take to the Dirda book, reading it a little bit at a time. There are some gems in there and I'm glad I didn't miss them. I just didn't like that it took so long to get to those buried gems.

The guest room advice was one of the better parts.

I always think that listing page after page of quotations is a lazy author's approach. This book could've been much better with far fewer quotes and more insights from the author.

Have you ever read any of his other books? Are they like this?

linda

I own 2 other Dirda books: Readings which was given to me as a gift, and Bound to Please which is a collection of many of his essays and reviews over the years (Washington Post) and also some stuff he wrote for the book. Again, I like to use these for "dipping." I became fond of Dirda when I moved here and no longer had anyone to "talk books with" on a regular basis. I don't always agree with him (that would be boring, anyway!) but most of the time I find him interesting and sometimes absolutely delightful--rather like a "friend."

I would suggest Bound to Please as the one Dirda book someone should own who wants to own one Dirda book! :-) I find this one hugely entertaining. (But then, I also liked Book by Book!) In the introduction he says to think of this book as a "cocktail party". He also calls it a One Volume Literary Education. I think he is correct on both counts.. I find it entertaining as well as informative without being arduous. Especially when read a little at a time. However, if you don't care for his style or his content there are a lot of other choices out there.

I also read his memoir which was interesting but I don't feel compelled to own it.

Read The Return of the Soldier, which deserves more comment, for the WWI category; and The Tragedy of X, a decent vintage mystery.

Began Frederic Manning's The Middle Parts of Fortune/Her Privates We, in which I am absorbed; and was inspired to mooch, and start, Rebecca West's so-far excellent novella collection, The Harsh Voice.

Zweig's Beware of Pity sits at the mid-point, but I am hungering for a return, tonight. The Professor's House, for Monthly Author Reads, also ought to see more of me.

I haven't read an Ellery Queen in quite awhile. I need to add one to my list. Maybe the Tragedy of X--I've never read that one.

I'm getting some good vintage and recent mystery ideas here. Thanks!!

#19 I am with you regarding The Return of The Soldier - a wonderful book that was in my Women and War category last year. Just completed All Quiet on The Western Front - if you have not read it you may be interested. Although it was published later than your 1890 - 1919 category it was a profound yet apparently simple book – it transcends nationality and gave voice to the common soldier.

Indeed it does. I remember being very much impressed by All Quiet on the Western Front, which has stuck with me, since reading it in my mid-teens. A perfect recommendation. If I didn't find myself so glad at adding these unread novels to the 'read', I'd slate it for re-reading.

As it is, I am drawing on slightly later, but still contemporary, accounts, as well (whether fictionalized or otherwise). (The Middle Parts of Fortune was published in 1930, I believe - about the same a Remarque, if memory serves.)

Lindapanzo - I'm glad! There are (for good or ill) a great many to come!

Eurydice, I notice you've narrowed down your early 20th C category to just the WWI years. If this is a particular interest of yours, you might be interested in knowing that there is a very nice WWI memorial and museum in Kansas City. Evidently, the only one of its kind in the nation. Sometime when you're traveling north, plan to stop by and visit for a few hours. They call it the Liberty Memorial.

All Quiet on the Western Front, is one of the books in my War Time Fiction Cataloguer for the 999 Challenge. I've heard good thing about it and can't wait to read it. (Although, I can't wait to read most of the books on my list)

Eurydice: Two old favorite mystery authors are Ngaio Marsh (Inspector Alleyn) and Patricia Moyes (Henry Tibbett). I thought I'd read them all but, thanks to LT, I discovered that I'd missed a few.

My current read is Marsh's Night at the Vulcan, which I am enjoying immensely.

Sjmcreary, thank you. It is an interest, and I didn't know. If I'm ever heading in that direction, or one that allows for a detour, I'll definitely try to stop. (And, of course, the time may come when it merits its own trip.)

bookwormjules: Definitely go for it, when you get there!

lindapanzo: I think a slight outing to the local used bookstore is in order. ;) The one Ngaio Marsh I read rather turned me off reading more, but this level of discontent happens even in certain books by otherwise favorite authors. Patricia Moyes I've seen on shelves and never really known anything about. After a few minutes on LT, I assure you I will look for something by her; and possibly Night at the Vulcan!

It's been 20 to 25 years since I sat down and read a whole bunch of Ngaio Marsh books but I seem to recall liking Death at the Bar.

Night at the Vulcan was slow going at first. The print in my copy was kind of smudged and the story was slow but it has really picked up. I haven't read an old traditional-type mystery in awhile and they definitely are different.

Eurydice, since you like vintage mysteries, do you get the Rue Morgue Press catalog? Most of theirs are new editions of classic mysteries from the 20s to the 40s. Authors like Stuart Palmer, Michael Gilbert, and Gladys Mitchell, just to name a few.

Mine arrived yesterday, and, as usual, I'd love to get most of the books in the catalog but will probably make do reserving some of these from the library.

No, I should definitely look into it. Thank you for an idea obviously fraught with danger! (To my spending, anyway.)

I mooched a Moyes, as the used bookstore was remodeling.

Earlier, I mentioned I'd read Pizza: A Global History. Well, I checked out my library reserve books today and one arrival is called Hamburger: A Global History. I have a ton of other books to get to first but this one looks even more interesting than Pizza.

Maybe I'll reserve Pancake next.

Fun. :)

I think I am going to read A Platter of Figs, and Other Recipes, a much-desired Christmas gift, starting in the next few days. Today, I began The Guns of August and The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War, to get the desired balance of non-fiction into both my reading, and the WWI category.

Edited to fix a title.

Euridice

I read The Guns of August several years ago and loved it. I hope you enjoy it!

I'm glad to hear that others are reading The Guns of August. This is one of my longest-owned books that is unread so I think it will fit well into my new "long-time TBR" category. With a little nudge, I might even get to it this year.

I read a few Barbara Tuchman books about 20 years ago and kept meaning to go back and read more. This is the year!!

It's been quite a while since I read Barbara Tuchman but I remember liking everything by her I read. Unfortunate, she didn't write about the Civil War so I can't read her this year. ;-) But now I'm tempted to make her a category next year. I still have three of the ones I read before and it would be fun to try to find others to add to my library--especially the ones I haven't read yet!

I read The First Salute (about the Revolutionary War) and also Practicing History, both by Tuchman. I'd always had the impression, though,that The Guns of August was her masterwork.

For a 10th category for next year, I might do an American History category. Too soon but at least that would be broad enough for me.

It is, I believe, with A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. I've read only The Proud Tower : A Portrait of the World Before the War : 1890-1914, before. Marvelous, and rather frightening, though I have heard doubts cast on her viewpoint and accuracy.

To separate things a bit better, I'll follow others' lead and begin separate postings.

1. 20th-Century Authors I Am Ashamed Not to Have Read

Beware of Pity, Stefan Zweig (read)
The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster (read)
The Sea, John Banville (read)
Swann's Way, Marcel Proust - begun, on hold because of a trip, but about to be taken up, again

This qualifies somewhat less than others, perhaps, but genuinely enough: Possession: A Romance, A.S. Byatt - a Valentine's pick, currently reading

I keep failing to make a definitive list, perhaps out of further shame? :) But here are a couple of definite books, and some more possibilities. When I've covered a couple, I need to really sit down and think about the literary territory I have left uncharted.

Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
Toni Morrison
John Updike/Philip Roth
Ian McEwan

The Oxford Book of Short Stories, ed. V.S. Pritchett would supply enjoyable older stories, and those by a number of authors I've read, while supplying a taste, each, of: Sherwood Anderson, D.H. Lawrence, Ring Lardner, Katherine Anne Porter, Liam O'Flaherty, V.S. Pritchett, himself, Sean O'Faolain, Frank O'Connor, R.K. Narayan, Patrick White, Doris Lessing, William Trevor, and John Updike.... none of whom I clearly remember having read. It will also reintroduce me to my first love: the short story.

2. 9 Books Published in the Last 9 Years
2000:Emotionally Weird, Kate Atkinson read
2001:
2002:
2003:
2004:
2005: The Sea, John Banville read
2006: The Emperor's Children, Claire Messud read
2007:
2008:

Bonus - 2009:

3. Cities of the World (and Books on Urban Design)

The City: a Global History, Joel Kotkin read

4. World Travels: 9 Countries in Literature or Memoir (Preferably new to me.)

5. The Seventeenth Century, and Golden Ages of Great Empires: Holland, Spain, China, Japan

Going Dutch, Lisa Jardine

Quite interesting on the commonality between Dutch and British that eased the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, and the subsequent hand-off of global dominance to the British. Fascinating on the growth of shared taste in many areas, ease of movement in travel, commodities, luxuries, and information, and the relative frequency of intermarriages. The prominence and closeness of the Huygens family to rulers and the forefront of art and science, comes in for much attention. Especially as Anglophilic and conversant as they were with both England and Anglophile courts with strong English connections (of birth, marriage, or exile), in the Netherlands.

Unnatural Murder: Poison at the Court of James I, Anne Somerset read

The Alchemist, Ben Jonson read

The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, Frances Yates, currently reading

The Elizabethan World Picture, E.M.W. Tillyard, currently reading

Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492 - 1763, Henry Kamen

6. World War I: 1914 - 1919, and After (War Memoirs, Literature, and History Concerning the First World War)

Choices include:

The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman (history) On Hold
A World Undone: the story of the Great War, 1914-1918, G.J. Meyer (history, unowned)
Paris 1919, Margaret Macmillan (history)
The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War (history, reference)
Undertones of War, Edmund Blunden (memoir)
Under Fire, Henri Barbusse, (memoir)
Ambulancing on the French Front, Coylee (memoir) A few pages were cloying enough in style to strike this from my over-long list.
Return of the Soldier, Rebecca West, (novel)
Three Soldiers, John Dos Passos, (novel)
Her Privates We/The Middle Parts of Fortune, Frederic Manning (novel)
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf (novel; a possible tangential, tenth choice)
The Oxford Book of First World War Poetry, Revised Edition (poetry)
Counter-Attack and Other Poems, Siegfried Sassoon

7. Science-Fiction and Fantasy

Claw of the Conciliator, Gene Wolfe
Sword of the Lictor, Gene Wolfe
Citadel of the Autarch, Gene Wolfe
The King of Elfland's Daughter, Dunsany
The Mote in God's Eye, Larry Niven

8. Illustrated Books (Children's Books, Graphic Novels, Design) I love these, but find it hard to make myself give them time. Now, they count.

9. Food Writing, History, and Cookbooks (especially those long on technique, description, information)

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, Jeff Hertzberg
Gluttony, Francine Prose
China to Chinatown: Chinese Food in the West, J.A.G. Roberts currently reading

Choose among:

The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen, Jacques Pepin
Fish, Flesh, and Good Red Herring, Alice Thomas Ellis
Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
A Considerable Town, Consider the Oyster or Serve it Forth, M.F. K. Fisher
1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die, Neil Beckett
A Platter of Figs, and Other Recipes, David Tanis
Vegetable Love, Barbara Kafka
The Art of Simple Food, Alice Waters
The Old-World Kitchen, Elizabeth Luard
Culinary Artistry, Andrew Dornenberg
loads of time with How to Cook Everything, 10th Anniversary Edition, Mark Bittman
A Social History of Tea, Jane Pettigrew
Harney & Sons Guide to Tea, Mike Harney
Pepys at Table: Seventeenth Century Recipes for the Modern Cook, Christopher Driver

"10." Viragos and Other Books by Women

The Return of the Soldier, Rebecca West
The Soul of Kindness, Elizabeth Taylor
The Old Man and Me, Elaine Dundy
Good Behaviour, Molly Keane


Possession: A Romance, A.S. Byatt - a Valentine's pick (on hold)
Less Than Angels, Barbara Pym
The Misses Mallett, E.H. Young
After the Death of Don Juan, Sylvia Townsend Warner

"11." 27 Mysteries From My Collection

(Which shows me making uncommonly good time on my favorite comfort reading... In fact, I have to switch to sci-fi, cooking, and books by women for more of it.)

Vintage:

An Oxford Tragedy, J.C. Masterman - excellent
Rim of the Pit, Hake Talbot - original and ingenious
The Peacock Feather Murders, Carter Dickson
The Tragedy of X, Ellery Queen
Bodies in a Bookshop, R.T. Campell
The Roman Hat Mystery, Ellery Queen
What Happened at Hazelwood, Michael Innes
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, Fergus Hume


1960s and 1970s:

The Strangers in the House, Georges Simenon
Maigret and the Nahour Case, Georges Simenon
The Sleeping Car Murders, Sebastien Japrisot


Recent:

Seventy-Seven Clocks, Christopher Fowler
Caroline Miniscule, Andrew Taylor (just making it; 1982)
Deal Breaker, Harlan Coben
Death in the Garden, Elizabeth Ironside
When Will There Be Good News?, Kate Atkinson
One Good Turn, Kate Atkinson
Who is Simon Warwick?, Patricia Moyes
The Four Last Things, Andrew Taylor

touchstones not loading well, today

"12." Miscellaneous (or, harder on myself, The Johnsonian Circle, for which I have read relevant books, and own many more)

Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage, Richard Holmes
Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of Dr. Johnson, Adam Sisman
Cryptozoology, A to Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Chupacabras, And Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature, Loren Coleman (currently reading) a very funny, intriguing, distinctly oddball book for this category... fruit of a long-running joke, between my boyfriend and myself
Gluttony, Francine Prose

So... 17 books read, 4 in progress, and 1 slated to begin tomorrow. I wish I was faster, making more comments, and will work and shifting my focus off mysteries, a bit; just so I have some left to read in the rest of the year!

Eurydice

You have a lot of great selections--I'm looking forward to the comments as you read. I'm considering Possession this year since I own it already. I want to find Return of the Soldier and The Professors House. I own all but one Barbara Pym and have read only a few of them--Less Than Angels is one I haven't read. Maybe I'll pick that one so we can compare notes. I'm doing a lot of fantasy this year so I'm going to see what you think of the ones you are reading because none of those are on my list--yet!

I loved your review of Going Dutch (BTW your touchstone is wrong). I think I would enjoy that one, especially after reading Coffee Trader. It's going on my TBR--but it will have to wait while I figure out where to put it!

I'm looking forward to some "vicarious reading" and adding to my TBR pile!

Dear Eurydice, I am so impressed with your reorganisation here! I have been checking threads this evening and every time I see you popping up with a new post =) I am especially interested in your WW1 works along with the Viragoes and women writers. When are you beginning Possession ? One of the most influential and thought provoking books of my twenties. Enjoy! I am envious of oyu as you begin to savour it for the first time.

Edited for touchstone challenge.

MusicMom, thank you - I look forward to actually sitting down and writing some! The touchstone is corrected. I'd forgotten it needed it, originally, in my haste.

It'd be fun to both read Less Than Angels; and yes, I imagine Going Dutch would be a great factual background to The Coffee Trader. I tried A Conspiracy of Paper, as I loved the setting, but found Liss told too much to flatly about his characters' thoughts, for me. (He may, of course, have grown out of that with subsequent books!)

Julie: Thank you! I really do mean to fill in some of the other categories, soon. Shorter messages will make it less overwhelming.

As to beginning Possession, tomorrow seemed a suitable day. ;) Planning something specially enjoyable for my evening struck me as fun and sensible, with a boyfriend some distance away, and a mania for celebrating days-seasons-holidays aptly, if simply. I am looking forward to taking my nephews a home-baked treat, and settling in with good tea, a perfect, much-lauded book, and cocoa-dusted almonds, in the evening.

Eurydice

"...found Liss told too much to flatly about his characters' thoughts, for me. (He may, of course, have grown out of that with subsequent books!)"

Nope! He didn't. One reason it is taking me so long to finish the book. I read a bit and get frustrated, put it aside--read 2 or 3 other books--pick it up again. etc. I think I'll get it done before summer--I hope! :-)

I should have added I am reading a great (so far) fantasy--Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. It is the first book of his I've read and am wondering why no one ever suggested him to me before. The writing never intrudes--I just get "lost" in the story. I'll let you know when I finish it if it continues to be this good. This was recommended by TadAD--who really knows his fantasy and science fiction. Have you read it?

53> As to beginning Possession, tomorrow seemed a suitable day. ;)

Every time someone mentions an unread book I own, I'm tempted to haul it out immediately and add it to the other books I'm reading. This one attracted me initially because of the Edward Burne-Jones cover (I do love the Pre-Raphaelites). The cover seems especially appropriate because isn't the central Victorian-era character based on Christina Rossetti?

Dang. Somewhere I also have a C. Rossetti biography I bought around '96 or '97. And an Everyman collection of Pre-Raphaelite poetry. Hmmnn. All of those books would fit in my 999 categories. I know where two of the books are, but not the biography.... :-)

54> I, too, am taking a fair bit of time to get through a Liss novel. Thought it was me, though.

55:

I'll be interested to hear what you think. Fantasy, aside from a few massive, crossover classics, is something up to know, I've basically never read. Science fiction has never been more than a matter of dipping in, though I take to it readily. (And can love.) The category is to force me into reading some unread books I own, and paying attention to others. The Gene Wolfe books I might not have chosen, had not my boyfriend set them - and a pile of others - in front of me, to challenge my anti-fantasy bias. They were so strongly praised, and so serious, in many ways, as to have me intrigued. Shadow of the Torturer was fine enough to keep me reading into the second volume, now read, and I'm acquiring others.

56:

I think so. And being a much-loved literary love story.... in my TBR pile... which I am ashamed not to have read... ;) When better than Valentine's Day?

You could always begin on the two you've found, and keep looking...

(If you want to.)

>10 Eurydice:, Eurydice, Love your categories & am stealing your WW1 reading list. Its a new obsession of mine. Tonight I am relaxing with The Return of the Soldier, which is already amazing. I just feel that I am going to want to read this book, read all the commentary/criticism I can on it, read it again, and then read everything West ever wrote.

I like the empires category too - I bet you're going to have some interesting things in that.

Fanny, thank you. I am enjoying all of it very much. And West is impressive.

The empires will come, in the main, in later months. (It's a category where I have to find and acquire books - through borrowing, or birthday.)

For the last few days, reading has stalled over cookbook time, doing necessary tasks, making up for social time I'd been lacking, and spending too many hours online. Which is frustrating. I expect today to make a good breakaway point.

At least I got some of my Food & Drink titles filled in. :)

Eurydice and #58 fannyprice- please forgive me for butting in here but I was a great Return of The Soldierfan last year! Thinking about the WW1 category - All Quiet on The Western Front has been one of my 'surely it must be one of the best books I've read' category and one that you may also wish to consider.

If I may also suggest Not So Quiet ... Stepdaughters of War by Helen Zenna Smith - it was written as a response to the aforementioned book and concerns the role of women actively engaged in WW1.

Butting in? I thought it was kindly contributing! :)

Remarque, of course, is not on my list just because there are so many worthwhile books to be covered, without re-reading. But I have added Not So Quiet... Stepdaughters of the War to my Amazon wishlist. Thank you: it looks like an excellent recommendation!

Eurydice

I'm planning to read WWI "in depth" next year and am collecting books--getting good ideas from you! I just bought Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain at a used book sale. Have you read that one? It's a "chunkster" but it looks like it should be a good one.

MusicMom,

No, I haven't, but it had been in the back of my mind. Good thought. I am trying to cut down on buying books my boyfriend already owns, as at any rate I tend to sometimes pay him long visits. Though I didn't realize it till I went to the book page, just now, thinking to proceed - this is one of them.

And thank you - glad to add anything.

Not on my list, that I would also recommend, Goodbye to All That (not an actual favorite, but too famous not to include) and The Great War and Modern Memory (which took me forever but seemed to me to justify its reputation fully). Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age is another I'd love to eventually read. Hopefully, sometime or other, I'll get my hands on Siegfried Sassoon's Memoirs of a Foxhunting Man, and successive volumes, too....

I will be curious to see what World War 1 books come up. I've read much, much more on WW 2 than on WW 1. All Quiet on the Western Front is about the only WW 1 book I can recall reading.

Buried deep in my TBR pile, I think, is Martin Gilbert's The First World War.

Anne Perry has that World War 1 mystery series, as well. I haven't read any of those, either.

For WWI, poetry, have you read any by Wilfred Owen? Some of his work is available on Project Gutenberg if you want to check it out.

Yes, but not much/lately. :) I downloaded Owen's Poems and Sassoon's Counter-Attack and Other Poems to my Kindle a week or so ago, but failed to enter them in my catalogue, or list.

I remember being partial to those I did read, years ago. (And I did see you just added a biography, lately. Too soon to have read it, or have you an opinion?)

You have some great categories!

>67 Eurydice:

I love his poetry and think he was an excellent poet. I thought it wrong that I saw mention of Sassoon yet no Owen in your thread! ;) (Although I've only read one poem of Sassoon's I have this unsupported yet solid feeling that Owen was the better poet). Perhaps you have some particular Sassoon poems to recommend?

I haven't had a chance yet to dip into the biography; however, it was recommended to me by a friend whose discernment I respect.

#69 Oh how I agree, and if I may also includeRupert Brooke. I also have a collection In Time of War which I cannot find at present. It is a collection from both World Wars and gives a broad range of poets and poetry of the era. I am contemplating a WW1 literary fest in future as the more I read the more and more interested I become.

Sorry posted twice - hence the deletion.

Odd that I didn't add it, but I do have some. :) Not least, of course, in a couple of anthologies of war poetry - none of which could leave him out.

I am not sure whether Owen was the better poet or not, but perhaps becoming re-acquainted with both will confirm me in your opinion. - Or give reason for another one.

Aside from things listed above, currently reading Kate Atkinson's Emotionally Weird, for 'books by women', 'books published in the last nine years', and pure enjoyment....

Eurydice, you are re-watching La Grande Illusion as you immerse yourself in WWI?

Yes, Kate Atkinson certainly falls into the category of pure enjoyment!

Have you read Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy? The third one won the Booker (I think that was the prize) but all three books are fantastic and need to be read in order. They deal with the experiences of those who fought in WWI. They would also fit in the "books by women" and the "books published in the last nine years".

Ha! Pamela, what a great movie - and how right you are to remind me!!!

I have not, yet, but I think I will have to get a couple of batches of WWI films, both re-viewings and new to myself, from Netflix, when I get back. (I'll be gone large swathes of March, on two trips; practical and social.)

RidgewayGirl, I've not read them, but they've looked tempting. Since my focus with WWI fiction is on contemporary (say, 1914 - 1930) accounts of the war, I may save them for next year, and try to open the category of recent books for something with different themes. Or, maybe I'll have to begin the series, and wait to finish it... ;)