poplin's 50+ books in 2009

I didn't quite make it to 50 in 2008--I stalled out at 38, unfortunately. Considering the fact that I got married, went on a month-long honeymoon and moved halfway across the country, though, I think 38 is pretty good!

I'm determined to make it to--and past--50 this year. I finished five in the first two and a half weeks, so I think I'm off to a good start. I'm still taking my cues from 1001 Books to Read Before You Die, so I'm happy to have made a dent in the list already in 2009! Here's my list so far:

1. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
2. Ignorance by Milan Kundera
3. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
4. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
5. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
6. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
7. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
8. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
9. A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor
10. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
11. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
12. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
13. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
14. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
15. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
16. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Boll
17. Herzog by Saul Bellow
18. Shame by Salman Rushdie
19. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
20. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
21. If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino
22. The Music of Chance by Paul Auster
23. The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
24. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
25. The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
26. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
27. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
28. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
29. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
31. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
32. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
33. Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan
34. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
35. Passing by Nella Larsen
36. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

Hi, poplin!
I like to read books off the 1001 list, too. The first book I read this year was The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. I really loved that book. It has a man versus nature theme. Good luck with your reading challenge and congrats on the marriage! :)
--BJ

Hi Poplin. Will look forward to reading your opinion on Revolutionary Road. I just recently finished it. Curious to see your reaction to American Psycho, too. I read Less Than Zero when it first came out and pretty much felt done with Ellis. Reaction to American Psycho seemed to swing both ways.

billiejean:

I've actually not read The Old Man and the Sea, which is bad considering the fact that Ernest Hemingway is one of my favorite authors. I definitely plan on reading it soon--probably as a reward after reading something long!--so it's great to hear that you loved it. And thanks for the congratulations!

theaelizabet:

I loved, loved, loved Revolutionary Road--instant favorite! It's still too soon for me to fully formulate my thoughts on it, but a few quick thoughts: I'm really interested in books that explore the American psychology, particularly in the decades following WWII. This book does an excellent job of inspecting the premises underlying the American Dream and various individuals' reactions to it, and I think Yates creates very nuanced characters and situations. Unlike in some other books, you don't get the sense that Yates is trying to lead the reader to one particular conclusion; rather, he simply presents a compelling and heartbreaking human tragedy, and leaves it up to reader to untangle it. I particularly like the fact that he creates a parallel between this 1950's generation and the founding generation.

As for American Psycho: yes, it's definitely a love or hate book; there's no way anyone can be indifferent to it, I think. I personally loved it. I've also read Less Than Zero, and while I think that American Psycho is far superior, your reaction to it will depend on why you didn't like Less Than Zero. If you felt Less Than Zero didn't make its point that effectively, then you might like American Psycho; if you felt it was too violent or vulgar, then stay far, far away from American Psycho!

Interesting books you've got there, poplin! I've been meaning to read some Nabokov for ages and never quite got around to it - no, I haven't even read Lolita! Would you recommend him? As for B.E.Ellis, I've only read Glamorama by him, it's one of my boyfriend's favorite books so he recommended it to me. You sure had to keep your eye on the ..uhm ball (book in this case) at all times to get what was going on. I definitely want to read more by him. I saw American Psycho (the movie) and loved it, Christian Bale was amazing as Patrick Bateman!

girlunderglass:

Oh, you must move something by Nabokov to the top of your to-be-read pile; he was such an amazing author. I've read Lolita, Pnin and Pale Fire, and I would definitely recommend starting with Lolita; besides its cultural significance, it is by far the most accessible of the three (and it IS amazing). I really liked Pale Fire, but it is a book that clearly needs several reads to truly understand. Its structure is very innovative and fun, though; it is set up as a 999-line poem with an introduction and commentary, with the commentary comprising the bulk of the novel.

I'd like to read Glamorama, but I have a rule that I must have at least six months in between books by the same author. I tend to blur them together otherwise; I learned that the hard way with Milan Kundera!

6. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Here's a book I've started many times, but never was able to get past the first five or so pages. I stuck with it this time, and was justly rewarded; what an amazing book.

You're the first person that has ever tempted me to read American Psycho. No, I didn't think Less Than Zero was too violent or vulgar (well, it sort of was, but that was the point). I thought it was too derivative. I remember finishing it and feeling like Ellis had read his share of Hemingway and had synthesized it with some of Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays(?). Then sometime later I read an article (NYT, LAT??) that basically said the same thing, even to the point of comparing some of LTZ's passages with some Hemingway/Didion writing. Of course, Ellis was only 21 when he wrote LTZ so I should cut him some slack. Anyway, I now have to reconsider American Psycho.

Couldn't agree more on Revolutionary Road. The generational aspects are interesting, aren't they? I'm intrigued by the whiff of "Lost Generation" (going to Paris) influence. Interestingly, you could say that these are the children of the Lost Generation-influenced era, who in turn, begat the Boomers, who were unknown, of course, to Yates when he wrote the book.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your challenge!

7. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
8. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger

I've finished two more since last updating my list--I'm just flying through them this month! At this rate, I'll far surpass 50 this year, but who knows? I'll have to tackle some longer works soon!

9. A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor
10. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Not a bad month!

what did you think of Franny & Zooey?

>11 girlunderglass: - I second that question, I didn't rate Catcher much but this one seems to get positive feedback...

I tried so hard to like American Psycho - and having given up on it I actually really enjoyed the film, which despite being hailed as a explicitly bloody gorefest was NOTHING on the book... The novel's satire was great but the 'psycho' parts of it, unusually, got to me so much that I actually felt physically sick. They're still lodged in my brain now. A mark of evocative writing but I couldn't finish it.

>12 elliepotten: Elliepotten I'm not a stalker, I swear! :) I asked because Franny and Zooey (and most of Salinger's work) is one of my favorite books of all time, but I KNOW that if you're not used to his writing style and if you don;t know much about the Glass family in the first place, it's hard to get into it. It took me two reads to absolutely love it. The thing is, there's not much happening usually in Salinger's stories. If you're looking for a strong plot, or twists and turns, you're not gonna find them. But his writing is fantastic, his vocabulary stunning, his characters are more real to me than real people, and their dialogs and internal battles are some of the best in fiction, IMHO. Not many people manage to get past the fact that Catcher in the Rye is considered something you read when you're a teenager - that you're taught in highschool. Caulfield is not your typical teenager, no matter how much your teacher tried to convince you that he is just like you, when you were in school.

That's why I really expected to 'get' Catcher in the Rye - I wasn't much of a typical teenager either, if I'm honest... I have kept it though, I'm going to read it again, give it a fighting chance post-teenager before I give it up as just not for me. But I've not read Franny and Zooey yet, I think I might prefer it to Catcher...

girlunderglass:

I'm somewhat undecided on Franny and Zooey. I certainly don't mind that there's not much action in the story; what bothers me more is that none of the main characters seem like persons of action themselves. I can't help but compare it to The Old Man and the Sea (or any of Hemingway's books, really), and I find Hemingway's characters much more laudable: they aren't perfect, and are certainly not unreflective or unthinking, but they work out their problems mainly through action. Ironically (or not), I'm much more like the Glasses: more talk, less action. I tend to admire characters who move beyond mere reflection for that reason.

Zooey bothers me FAR more than Franny, though. Franny strikes me as struggling through growing pains--not necessarily in the same way as most people do, but even so. Zooey is much more condescending and actively hostile, often in instances when it doesn't seem entirely deserved. I'm always suspicious of people (or characters!) who consider themselves more enlightened than others, even if they actually are.

That being said, I do love Salinger's writing style, and I'd definitely recommend the book; it simply isn't likely to number amongst my favorites.

elliepotten:

I know exactly what you mean about American Psycho lodging in your brain; as much as I loved it, there are several parts I really wish I could shake. And if you didn't finish it, that might be a good thing, because by FAR the most disturbing scene is very near the end.

11. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

I decided I should starting giving a short summary of my thoughts, so here goes:

I wasn't really expecting to enjoy All Quiet on the Western Front: for whatever reason I expected it be a dry military account. In actuality, it is a moving and terrifying novel, and I ended up loving it. No novel, I'm sure, can ever truly convey the horror of war, but All Quiet of the Western Front brought me closer--however slightly--to understanding the ordeal. It is alternately gory and funny, touching and sentimental yet detached and depressed.

Perhaps most surprising is how similar in tone and theme I found it to The Things They Carried; decades separated the wars, but the experiences seemed to remain the same (at least for Remarque and Tim O'Brien).

poplin - on Franny & Zooey again:
No, the Glasses aren't persons of action and YES, by God, they do consider themselves smarter and more enlightened than others. And smarter they definitely are. But the whole point was: they resent it, they're not proud of it. Zooey was saying again and again in the book how Seymour (his brother that committed suicide) had ruined their lives by making them all a bunch of snobs, and how he resents not even being able to have a conversation with someone without thinking "this person is an idiot". What he wants is to be normal and fit in, to enjoy the company of people, but it is impossible because he can't let go of Seymour's influence - even though he is dead. Salinger wrote many books about the Glasses, this is not the only one - in fact, it is told that by the time he started to isolate himself from society he had become obsessed with them and only wrote about the Glasses and nobody else. Other stories like Hapworth 16, 1924 or Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction might shed more light on the matter. One the one hand Seymour's biggest ambition is to reach religious enlightenment, to be able to love all of humanity and conceive of them all as fragments of God himself and on the other hand he cannot get past his snobbery that most people around him are idiots. It is his biggest struggle in life and he passes it on to his other siblings as well - imagine having been born with an intellect incomparable to those of the people around you (if you read Hapworth 16 you'll see how Seymour is at seven years old - it is just a short story, it's not long) and trying desperately to not judge people based on their intellect and to love them as much as yourself. The fact that he eventually committed suicide should tell you how hard it is.

Sorry for being so insistent about it - people often are when it comes to their favorite writers :)

Wow, that sounds so interesting!
--BJ

12. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

To my great chagrin, this is my first Virginia Woolf book. Her writing style daunted me, but I have made a resolution (see my 999 Challenge thread!) to read more female authors. I am very glad that I gave this book my all, because it is absolutely stunning. There is one particular storyline (involving a WWI veteran and his Italian wife) which touched and moved me more than anything I have read in recent memory--to the point tears actually came to my eyes. This is definitely a book that requires a reader's complete attention, and I moved much slower through it than through most books, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable journey.

Any recommendations on what should be my next Virginia Woolf read?

girlunderglass:

That makes a lot of sense, and I would like to read more of Salinger's Glass stories. (I assume they are to be found in Nine Stories, correct?) I certainly will reserve judgment until I explore the family more--but it is hard to shake first impressions! :^)

Thank you very much for your thoughts on the matter!

You are reading some wonderful books. Virginia Woolf has several wonderful novels. Jacob's Room is another challenging book, but worth it in my mind. Orlando is completely different and not nearly as difficult. A more "fun" or "light" book from Woolf. And then there are her wonderful essay collections, particularly A Room of One's Own.

>20 poplin: Poplin, from the Nine Stories, only three of them deal with members of the Glass Family - but they are all brilliant. Hapworth 16, 1924 is a short story that you can find online (and print?); it has not been published. Seymour: an Introduction is also worth it.

I read Mrs. Dalloway when I was very young (14-15?) and at the time found it boring, and didn't even finish it. But I read Woolf's A Room of One's Own this year and quite liked it. So I'm thinking maybe my age was to blame for not enjoying Mrs. Dalloway and maybe I should give it another try!

wrmjr66:

Thank you for the recommendations! I might have to try A Room of One's Own next, if for no other reason than that I read far too little non-fiction.

girlunderglass:

I'll definitely give Nine Stories a try--but I have a rule of waiting several month in between reading books by the same author (as I have a horrible tendency to mix them up otherwise), so I'll have to get back to you in June or July on that one! :^)

And do give Mrs. Dalloway another try. It's not the easiest to get into, but once you just let yourself relax into it and go with the flow, it is extremely rewarding. (And I certainly wouldn't have been able to get into it at 14 or 15, either!)

13. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

I read The Leopard because it is February read over in the Group Reads - Literature group. I had actually never heard of it before--much to my chagrin as apparently it is the bestselling Italian novel of all time and widely critically acclaimed.

I loved it for its setting; I have visited Southern Italy several times. I find it to be a place of glorious decay, and it was fascinating to read about the genesis of that downfall and the beautifully stubborn attitude that accompanies it to this day.

The Leopard was much more than simply a beautiful setting, however. The discussion and comparison of the merits of an aristocracy versus a more democratic class structure was fascinating and, I think, dead on; neither is without its faults, and there is a great tragedy in the death of the noble class.

I definitely recommend everyone go check out the Group Reads - Literature threads on the book, and help jump-start discussion!

14. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

As for Waiting for Godot; well, I imagine I might have enjoyed this much more seeing it rather than reading it. Although one of my resolutions for this year is to read more plays, there are obvious limitations as compared to novels, and I found Waiting for Godot far less enjoyable than Molloy, even though they both explored many of the same themes.

On the other hand, the play took me all of an hour to read, so I can't complain too much!

"I have a rule of waiting several month in between reading books by the same author"
I have the same rule, so I understand. I'll be checking your thread anyway so I won't miss it. Happy reading!

I have that rule as well, though it's partially because I don't want to get through an author's entire collection all at once. I want to spread it out and savour it. For the last four or five years now, everytime school was done for the year, I've gone straight to the library catalogue and picked my next John Irving and Graham Greene novels. Some years I have doubled up but I try to keep them spread out like that. I love the anticipation when I know Irving & Greene Season is coming, it makes it that much more enjoyable.

This continues to be a great thread! I'm reading The Leopard next, so I'll see you eventually over at Group Reads

Waiting for Godot is indeed a play that is better seen than read. It can be hilarious and tragic when done well. If you get the chance, go see it! Another interesting play by Beckett--and one that I think reads better--is Endgame. So if you find yourself circling back to Beckett in a few months, that is another hour-long read that is time well spent.

15. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

I am now ashamed to say that I avoided this book for a long time for very silly reasons: because the title makes it sound like a Nicholas Sparks-esque romance (which is not exactly my favorite genre), and because it was an Oprah's Book Club selection. Of course, I should know not to judge a book by its cover (or title), and while I question some of Oprah's choices, she has made some equally brilliant ones. I am very glad that I decided to overcome my prejudice towards The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, as it is such a brilliant book and is now tied with Revolutionary Road as my favorite book of 2009 so far.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is a beautiful example of Southern Gothic, a cross between To Kill a Mockingbird and Flannery O'Connor. McCullers creates rich, compelling characters, and is able to create relationships between them with so much realistic complexity. The events surrounding these characters (and the characters themselves) are rather grotesque, as is characteristic of Southern Gothic, but McCullers' skill is such that every note rings truer for it. Much like Revolutionary Road, this is a novel that explores a very complex and important element of American psychology and personality, and is really a must read.

16. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Boll

I picked The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum because the story sounded interesting--an innocent young woman turned less-than-innocent by malevolent tabloid coverage--and because Boll is a Nobel Prize winner.

I certainly enjoyed this book, but I had a similar reaction to it as to The Reader by Bernhard Schlink: both were books with *points*, and although the points were interesting and well-made--with an eye to nuances--I ultimately enjoy such books less than those that explore larger subjects (such as those explored by The Heart is a Lonely Hunter or Revolutionary Road, as I said above).

I have sadly ignored updating my list for a while, so hopefully my two reviews at once (with another one coming soon, hopefully!) will make up for it.

Hi, poplin!
I enjoyed your reviews, as I have not read either book yet, but I was curious about them both. Thanks!
--BJ

billiejean:

Glad to be of service! I consider The Heart is a Lonely Hunter to be a must-read-now, so I implore you to go read it as soon as possible! :^)

17. Herzog by Saul Bellow

I really, really wanted to like this one; I loved Seize the Day, I love reading Great American Authors--and everything (including my own perception) points to Herzog also being a great one. But I just couldn't get into it. My biggest problem was that I could not connect to the main character, Moses Herzog. He is one of the first characters I've read where, in terms of both demographics and psychology, he seems completely different from me.

So while I recognize that this was a well-written, thought-provoking book, my reaction to it is still "eh".

It has been, sadly, a long time since I updated my list. For sake of brevity, I'm not going to include reviews for these, but will (hopefully) pick that up again from this point forward. My new additions are:

18. Shame by Salman Rushdie
19. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
20. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
21. If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino
22. The Music of Chance by Paul Auster
23. The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
24. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Looks like you have read lots of great books!
--BJ

I think so! I can say there hasn't been a one that I haven't loved (or at least really, really liked). Perhaps my tastes are undiscriminating, or maybe I just lucked out in my selections. I can honestly say that I would recommend everything I've read so far this year.

poplin, my dear, you have some of the most fascinating titles in your challenge. You put me to shame for being such a lightweight. And your thread is one of the best I've read. I love your reviews and you are getting some great responses from some really sophisticated readers out there. Keep up the good work!~!
Happy reading and blessings on your day.
N/B

39 >>

Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm definitely trying to work in a lot of "important" works, and luckily, I'm enjoying them in the process.

Okay, I FINALLY updated my list again, after saying I was going to keep up with it this time! In my defense, I just began a new job, and I've been devoting most of my spare time to keeping up with my reading and not (sadly) spending as much time on LibraryThing. Here's what I've added since last time:

25. The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
26. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
27. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
28. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
29. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

In the interest of time, here's a quick review of each:

The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Loved it, as I've loved everything he's written. It's very different from everything else I've read of his (One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, Chronicle of a Death Foretold), but in a good and interesting way. The caveat (isn't there always one?) is that it was as difficult to get into as The Sound and the Fury--there is the need here as well to just give yourself over to the book and go with it.

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs: Liked it, but didn't love it. Still, I found it worth reading to gain further insight into a world I know relatively little of. I would recommend it, but it would be around number one hundred on my list of recommendations.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: A book I *should* have read in high school, I'm very glad that I finally did. I'm very interested in Southern U.S. literature, and Twain is (obviously) a masterful writer. I can't really say much that hasn't already been said. Read it.

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles: Justifiably made Time's 100 Best Novels list. The last section is one of the most captivatingly haunting passages I've ever read. Highly recommended.

An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro: I had tried giving The Remains of the Day a read several years back, and practically threw it away from me after less than ten pages. Perhaps I was unfair, as I loved this book. Ishiguro has such a quiet, precise elegance to his writing, and I felt such sympathy for his main character. In an interesting way, I felt this complemented The Reader (which I read earlier this year) quite nicely.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: Another book I should have read a long time ago, I very much enjoyed it, although I feel a great deal of scholarship would be necessary for me to fully understand all the nuances.

That is a great description of Ishiguro. More than any other novelist I can think of who is writing today, Ishiguro never seems to waist a word. I never feel like he has taken too much space describing a scene or a character's motivation. That's probably why his books aren't 750 page monsters.

I feel the same way about him. I read both When We Were Orphans and Never Let Me Go last summer, and was blown away by both. I'll warn you with the latter one though--don't look it up ahead of time; accidentally learning the book's twist instead of figuring it out as you go makes it a lot less enjoyable.

wrmjr66 >>

Yes, I feel awful for having underestimated Ishiguro. His writing is certainly different from most of what I read, but in a very, very good way.

whitewavedarling >>

I actually got about halfway through Never Let Me Go last summer before giving it up for greener pastures (i.e., long overdue wedding planning). I admit, it wasn't really grabbing me, and part of the problem might have been exactly what you mentioned: I *did* know the twist. (How I found it out, I have no idea.)

Either way, I'm going to put that one on the back burner for a while, hoping I forget the twist (which is, for me, a very real possibility). I think The Remains of the Day will be my next Ishiguro, since I *really* didn't give that one a fair shake the first time around.

Yeah--the problem with the twist is that it's REALLY difficult to write a review without giving it away--I think the review for that book was the most difficult one I've ever written. I do strongly recommend When We Were Orphans though--and that one moves faster than Remains of the Day.

I found Remains of the Day a little slow going as well but it grew on me. So much of the story is in what's not said, if that makes sense. I found myself thinking about it a lot afterwards. Ishiguro really does have a way with words. I'd say give it another shot, for sure.

Apparently I read faster than I can update my threads! I've read four books since my last update, and unfortunately, they've been four of my least favorite reads so far this year. (By which I mean, of course, that I loved them but did not LOVE them!)

31. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan: An entertaining little adventure/spy novel that I picked up because of its inclusion on the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die." I can't say that it is a MUST read; certainly, there were NUMEROUS spots in this book of little more than 100 pages than strained credulity to the point of breaking, which seriously diminished its value in my eyes. I am glad, however, that I tried out a genre that I normally don't partake in, and for all its faults, The Thirty-Nine Steps was indeed quite enjoyable.

32. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein: While I think (or at least hope!) there was quite a bit of tongue-in-cheekness here, I am not a fan of books that are essentially odes to the author by the author. However, as it dealt with a time period and population that I am interested in, I was able to enjoy it nonetheless. And the next time I'm in the mood for a 1,000 page epic, I'll certainly consider Stein's The Making of Americans; her writing style was particularly captivating.

33. Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan: By a long shot my favorite of this group, I am very impressed that Sagan wrote this when she was only eighteen. Her insight into her age and psychology was certainly greater than mine at my age. The close (read: semi-incestuous) bond the main character has with her father is one of the more interesting relationships I've encountered in recent memory.

34. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon: I read this one because (beyond the fact that I own it and it has been sitting on my shelf) I am attempting to read more well-reviewed books from this decade, lest I get too mired in the past. It was enjoyable, and certainly a quick read; I finished it in a couple of hours. However much I enjoyed the main character, though, I found the story itself rather pointless and hollow.

I have to admit, it's somewhat refreshing to see a less-than-stellar review of The Curious Incident...I could appreciate the writing, but when it came down to it, I felt like the book was more of an experiment than a lasting literary achievement.

whitewavedarling >>

Exactly! I certainly don't feel that reading it was a waste of time, but I also doubt that it will be widely acclaimed 20-25 years from now.

That's part of why I typically only read books that are at least as old as I am (25 years); I figure if they're still being talked about after that length of time, they stand a better chance of being worth reading! I suppose I can catch up on this decade's writing in my 40s and 50s. :^)

Couldn't agree more re: Curious Incident... When I had finished reading it I described it to a friend as a decent short story.

Finished two more since yesterday! (These were already in progress, so I'm not reading *that* quickly.)

35. Passing by Nella Larsen: A very interesting look at race, its ambiguities and the treatment of non-whites in the first part of the twentieth century. Essentially, the story centers around two women, both African-American but fair enough to "pass" as white. The different decisions they make, as well as their attitudes toward one another, make this one of the most compelling books I've read so far this year--and certainly the most compelling book I've read on the particular subject that I can remember.

36. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen: *This* play (as compared to Waiting for Godot) was extremely readable as well as (I'm sure) watchable. Whether or not Ibsen denied it, this play has distinctly feminist themes running through it, which makes it quite an interesting read considering the time it was written in. The characters themselves are not always believable by modern standards, but the situations remain so.

always been curious to read Ibsen's A Doll's house - it seems to be one of those that everyone has read and makes me feel stupid admitting not to in conversations haha. I need to get to it soon!

girlunderglass >>

Oh, A Doll's House was captivating! And it (like most plays) is a very quick read, so even if you hate it, not much time will be lost. ;^)