What Book From the 1001 List are You Reading: February 2009

Thought I'd start a thread for Feb, and kick it off by stating that I'm reading

Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer.

I'm reading Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger!

I am reading Perfume by Patrick Suskind. So far it is really good. Hopefully I will be able to finish it this weekend.

{Touchstone incorrect}

Surprise, surprise, I'm STILL reading Parade's End, Jacob's Room and Great Expectations. I feel I shall always be reading Parade's End, Jacob's Room, and Great Expectations.

Last year I mistakenly read Cloud Atlas by Liam Callanan instead of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (doh!) The Callanan book was beautiful, so no regrets. But now I'm reading the Mitchell one and whoa nellie what an interesting read it is...

I'm still on The Golden Notebook, and really enjoying it. Next up, either The Good Terrorist (also by Doris Lessing) or The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse.

I have about 150 pages left to read of A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and it is fantastic so far.

I'm still reading "The History of the Siege of Lisbon" by Jose Saramago. I love it, but it is taking me a long time to read. His sentences are really long and convoluted, which is great, but it means I have to actually concentrate and think and read each sentence about 3 times. Even though I haven't finished it yet, I'm already planning to reread it, maybe sometime when I can give it the attention it deserves.

I'm also re-reading Sense and Sensibility for maybe the 13th time. This is for when I'm not up for the kind of concentration the Saramago requires. I'm more of an Elinor myself, but I love the character Marianne. She's so over the top.

Still reading Dining on Stones by Iain Sinclair. I think it's going to take me a while. As I keep saying, it's good, but difficult and challenging for me. It's a library book though, and I need to get it back for 12 Feb (although I can of course extend that!).

I am starting The Brothers Karamazov with the 999 Challenge group read. I don't expect to keep up but I do expect to finish.

I am still going with Anna Karenina and Pere Goriot. I'm hoping to finish with M. Goriot this week, but Ms Karenina will be around in my life for some weeks to come. :)

I started Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs and am loving it so far. It won't take me long to get through this one.

I just posted on January, but realized it is February already ... geez, wake up me. Too much reading! LOL

Anyway, I just finished A Prayer for Owen Meany which I loved. I am now reading Anna Karenina which is going very well, it's fascinating and a lot easier reading than I thought it would be. I'm surprised that Anna herself is not really the main character though!

On deck for this month are Stone Junction and Nervous Conditions ... both of which looked unusual, were kind of hard to track down, but interesing. I couldn't really find all that much on either one.

Woo! Finally finished my first 1001 book for the year...Black Dogs by Ian McEwan. Have to confess I was unimpressed, but that's par for the course when it comes to me and McEwan.

Next up will probably be Paulo Coelho's Veronika Decides to Die.

#16 I absolutely loved Veronika Decides to Die. Hope you enjoy it.

I am reading Sputnik Sweetheart.

16: I loved Veronika Decides to Die, Paulo Coelho is pretty amazing.

17: Also, Sputnik Sweetheart is great, although a little odd at times. Enjoy!

After reading and liking The Hound of the Baskervilles, I decided to read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a collection of short stories. I was trying to increase my number read of books written in the 1900's, but I just found out this one was written in the 1800's, doh! Oh well, still counts towards the 1001 list ^^

Just checking in for this month. Back when I have something to post.

I've just finished A Prayer for Owen Meany. I did enjoy it to some degree but I thought the endless foreshadowing made me impatient to finish the book.

Next up will be All the Pretty Horses which I expect to enjoy, having read other Cormac McCarthy

Well, finished Franny and Zooey and tried my hand at Middlesex and gave up on that one....I had this moment of.."oh...incest..sex changes..how....interesting (snore modern lit scares me snore)" so now I'm on to Treasure Island!

Oh no, Mary Jane! I implore you, don't give up on Middlesex! It doesn't read nearly as modern/postmodern as you suspect it will, and it's a fantastically epic work!

-22,23 I have to second the support for Middlesex! I also hate how many modern authors have to invent preposterous situations in their novels, but intersex people really do exist and they are generally the result of some inbreeding, due to the recessive nature of the mutations.

- 22,23,24 - I third Middlesex; I am going to read it a second time, eventually.

Right now I am reading 2666. I am finding it a little hard to follow at times but I'm sure it will all piece together!

I haven't read Middlesex yet, but due to my love for The Virgin Suicides, I will get it read eventually. I look forward to it.

I am reading Love in the Time of Cholera & absolutely loving it.

Agree with everyone about Middlesex. Definitely worth taking a little bit of time over!

Middlesex was a great read. Although am I the only one who thought the ending was a bit all-over-the-place?

Finished Pere Goriot last night. An excellent book, I did like the scathing insight into 19th century Parisian high society.

I'll be starting Their Eyes Were Watching God next chance I have...

Finished reading A Confederacy of Dunces which was fantastic. Started reading Breakfast At Tiffany's by Truman Capote and am a quarter of the way through. Considering this, should be a rather quick read that I'll hopefully finish tonight.

Just finished Ian McEwan's The Cement Garden, and still digesting it, but now I'm reluctantly back to trying to finish Autumn of the Patriarch. So strange~I've loved everything else by Gabriel Garcia Marquez but am having a huge problem with this one; agonizingly slow going.

Reading Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid.I will finish it today.It´s a short read only about 150 pages.

Finished Breakfast At Tiffany's by Truman Capote, and I'm not entirely sure which one I'm reading next, yet.

I finished Great Expectations and The Time Machine this week. It took me a month to read Great Expectations. Not sure what I was thinking reading Dickens with a 4 month old baby and going back to work full time!

Do you like it? I read it when it first came out.

I finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Still working on The Brothers Karamazov and planning to start The Professor's House.
--BJ

I finished Notes from the Underground - it was a bit of a chore at times. I think I will read The Yellow Wallpaper next.

I just finished The Buddha of Suburbia which was wonderful. I'll have to keep an eye out for more of Kureishi's work.

I'm a new poster here, but have been reading from the list since June 2008. I'm working off both versions. So far in February I've finished Howard's End, which I really enjoyed and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which I can't believe I haven't actually read before now. I'm currently reading and enjoying Through the Looking Glass, The Once and Future King, Journey to the Center of the Earth & The Golden Ass.

I'm about to start Mansfield Park.

Just finished The Magician of Lublin and will soon be starting Chess Story or The Royal Game and Amok. I'm slowly catching up the number of 2008 edition books read to bring it up to my 2006 level. My goal is this year is to have read 280 books on both lists. It takes some calculating because some books raise the number of books read on both lists where other books only increase one of the lists.

A Prayer for Owen Meany. So far I love Owen's VOICE.

I'm reading Poe in February. I've started on The Fall of the House of Usher and will move on to The Purloined Letter and The Pit and the Pendulum.

I just started The Leopard by Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa for an LT Group Read.

Today I've started Pride And Prejudice . A great 1001 ... choice for the week leading up to Valentine's Day !

Whew, finally finished War and Peace. It took me almost a month to read (I swear a full half the time I was reading the epilogue). I enjoyed it for about 1,100 pages, but the end was a torture. To shake off the giant tome blues, I then read The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which was also an interesting read.

finished Jacob's Room and Good Morning, Midnight (which I really didn't like) and am now starting The Portrait of a Lady.

Maryjanemanolos - what did you think of Jacob's Room? I read it last week, and my lecture series on it starts today. I'm really looking forward to it. Apparently the first class is spent on just the first page.

48: I LOVED LOVED Jacob's Room. The introduction of my copy said it's a book to be read late at night when everything is turned off and everyone is asleep, and that's very true. The imagery is very vivid, and important details to the story can be buried in this really expansive language. It's great, genius.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Cry, the Beloved Country.

Well I gave up on Everything is Illuminated- too melancholy. Then I tried and also gave up on Steppenwolf. I am now hoping to be able to finish I know why the caged bird sings, by Maya Angelou :>

Started reading The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. Good so far, should be able to hold me til the end, which is what you need with books on this list.

Well, since post #7 I've finished The Golden Notebook (which was mind-blowingly good, if quite a draining read - heartily recommended), and I've just started The Glass Bead Game. So far so good: I was quickly intrigued. Hesse is obviously a titanic intellect - I'm starting to worry that his utopian vision is going to be a little beyond me!

>53 DLSmithies:
I'm going to say that part of the reason I gave up on Steppenwolf is because it was an edition I didn't like- from 1975(! - a movie tie-in) received via Bookmooch. I'm hoping a nice, new edition might be more appealing ...

I've just started The Seducer by Jan Kjærstad, it's in the Norwegian edition of 1001 books...

I'm plowing through The Trick is to Keep Breathing.
It is tedious and depressing. Maybe I'll put it aside for a while and read Catch 22.

I finished The Professor's House yesterday, and it was beautifully written and completely absorbing. I'd forgotten how much I love Willa Cather. I'm also re-reading Jane Eyre, one of my favorite books in the entire world.

I have now finished All the Pretty Horses and enjoyed it greatly. One problem for me was lots of Spanish dialog which to me jarred the reading process. I will read it again perhaps with the aid of bablefish.

Now I've started The Prime of Miss Brodie which has been languishing in my bookcase for a good 20 years. So far I'm enjoying it.

I'm reading The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers...starting it tonight

Half way through Slow Man by J M Coetzee, my first book by this author. If I continue to enjoy it, I will be returning to his other work on the 1001 list.

I continue with The Leopard and have also started listening to Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Now reading Shikasta and hoping it will get better ;)

Started and finished Veronika Decides to Die in two sittings today. What an amazingly affecting book. If you haven't read it yet, I'd make a point to send it near the top of your TBR pile.

Not sure what my next victim's gonna be in terms of pleasure reading. Oroonoko is coming up in a week for class, and I may just keep plugging through Ada, or Ardor, which I've picked up again recently.

#63 - Started and finished Veronika Decides to Die in two sittings today. What an amazingly affecting book. If you haven't read it yet, I'd make a point to send it near the top of your TBR pile.
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I bought it a few months ago because I found it at a book sale for $1, but I put it at the bottom of my TBR pile. The only other book I've read by Coelho was The Alchemist and I thought it was insipid. Mind you, The Alchemist didn't make the 1001 list and Veronika Decides to Die did. Wonder why The Alchemist is his big hit then. Hmmm.

@#64: I have no other experience with Coelho, and I'll freely admit I picked this up strictly because it was on the 1001 list. That having been said, I thought it had a great deal of character, particularly in its treatment of mental illness and the vividness of the descriptions of symptoms. (The scene where Mari has a panic attack, for instance, conjured up amazingly powerful recollections of the one panic attack I had, and it actually terrified me.)

The writing is pretty sparse and uncomplicated, though the ideas are fairly thought-provoking. And despite the mostly unblemished praise I've leveled on it thus far, I'll confess that the "twist" ending felt a bit like a cheap shot and doesn't feel nearly as genuine as the rest of the text. Nevertheless, I found the majority of the book to be refreshing, empathetic, and powerful -- thus my recommendation. :)

I finally started The Leopard today.
--BJ

I'm reading Foucault's Pendulum.

P.S. The mis-touchstone in 66 is pretty funny!

Thanks, Dczapka . . . I'll move Veronika up the TBR tower. You can skip The Alchemist, unless you're under age 18. If you're really young, it may be kinda interesting.

63, 64:

I've read all the books Coelho has on the list, can't remember if that's two or three. I did find them all enjoyable, slightly more so than The Alchemist, but I did read his books on the list because I'd somewhat enjoyed The Alchemist. His books on the list are definitely worth looking into, even if you've had a mediocre experience with The Alchemist

Regarding Coelho: I found The Alchemist rather lame, thought The Devil and Miss Prym was better but really not my sort of book, and have heard (from friends with similar tastes and views on Coelho) that Veronika Decides to Die was actually rather good. I still got rid of my copy anyhow, life's too short...

I finished Their Eyes Were Watching God and thought it was great, even if the dialect took a bit of getting used to.

And I should be starting The Leopard today...

Just finished Half of a Yellow Sun which made it into Boxall version 2. Great book and one that will stay with me for some time. I knew very little about the Biafran/Nigerian civil war before reading this book.

#67 Thanks for the heads up on the touchstone. I am sick again, and my brain is not really functioning that well. :/ I am ready for Spring! I hope that when I edited it, it came out right. Thanks, again! :)
--BJ

When I find an author I truly love, I aim to read everything they've written. I feel like I need to read a little more Coelho before I make that judgment, so until then, I'll read his 1001 books and see how I feel about those too!

Veronika Decides to Die is the only Coelho I've read and it was one those books that are quite short but really make an impact. I'm still reading The Brothers Karamazov and may be still reading this for the foreseeable future. My audio book for the car is Evelina by Fanny Burney and it's suprisingly good. Jane Austen was a fan of Burney.

Well, finished Anna Karenina and was very disappointed. I felt it was a huge waste of two weeks. I know it's on so many people's best-of-all-times novels, but I thought after the beginning (which was pretty good), it was so long, dry, so many irrelevant tangents and I just really, really did NOT like Anna (so found it hard to read or care about her).

But now I'm half-way into Stone Junction which is just wild, weird and in a strange way, an invigorating reading experience. It's hugely entertaining so far. I needed something a bit lighter and more stimulating after the Karenina tome.

Finally slogged through Autumn of the Patriarch which was out-and-out depressing (see #31 above), and also the very eery horror stories by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, In a Glass Darkly. So now I'm depressed *and* horrified. Please, someone, suggest something light-hearted? Or maybe better yet, trade something funny for one of the above?

# 76- Please, someone, suggest something light-hearted? Or maybe better yet, trade something funny for one of the above?
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Maybe you can find something at the 1001 thread Uplifting Books.
I try to add any 1001 book that is on the happy or funny side to this list when I come across one. Unfortunately, most of the books from the list have some sort of grim element to them.

So far Stone Junction is DEFINITELY funny, uplifting, life affirming ... but not sure what happens in the second half of the book.

Rereading A Tale of a Tub and also about halfway through the very brief and rather interesting Oroonoko.

#75 - I'm sorry you didn't enjoy Anna Karenina; I read it recently and just loved it.

I'm just starting Slaughterhouse - Five. Good so far.

Finished reading The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks and am more than halfway through The Reader by Bernhard Schlink in anticipation for the film, which is released this Thursday in Australia. :D Should be done with that one tomorrow. Haven't got internet at home so spent more time than usual reading.

I finished Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. To all the people here who told me it was a great read... you were right, I loved it! A friend and I read it together and she felt the same, she's now passing the recommendation on to customers at the bookstore where she works.

Last night I started Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. Just a few pages in and I'm already hooked :)

Quickly vanquished Oroonoko. Short, sweet, and surprisingly fun to read for being over 320 years old!

If any one is looking for a quick one to check off the list -- I just read Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates in one sitting. I think the best I've ever read of hers -she is so hit or miss for me. I am still shuddering.

#83 - Quickly vanquished Oroonoko. Short, sweet, and surprisingly fun to read for being over 320 years old!

------Not my favourite book by any means, but I think Oroonoko stands up to the test of time well. I can see why it's on the list.

---
#84 - I just read Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates in one sitting. I think the best I've ever read of hers -she is so hit or miss for me. I am still shuddering.

--- Thanks, I'll add that one to my list. I've never read her books.

I'm into Atonement at the moment, well written but I havent got to the crunch yet. I've been told it happens about halfway through? McEwan seems to take along time setting up his stories. Or am I missing the point

I just read The Prime of Miss Brodie and I'm not sure what I thought about it. The betrayal of Miss Brodie just seemed rather capricious. Miss Brodie herself seemed too silly by half.

Now I'm just about finished with If this is a Man which has really engrossed me so far.

Yeah, #80, I am SO in the minority with Anna Karenina ... I am one of the few people who really did not care for it. I do not personally know anyone else who liked it, but on this site, it gets raves.

I finished Stone Junction which was pretty good, but not amazing. Starting really well, then kind of got violent and unbelievable near the end ~ and not as interesting as it should have been. I'm now reading Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga ... which is interesting and a little different.

Finished The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. I enjoyed it and can't wait to see the movie on Thursday.

About halfway through Fathers and Sons, which is in the first edition, but not the second, I believe. So far, a good story!

I have finished If this a man. It was was just incredible. An insight into the very dark side of humanity.

Now for a change of pace I've started The Secret History

About to start reading Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson. I'm not sure whether it's on both versions or not, but I'm looking forward to it all the same.

finished Portrait of a Lady, starting the Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Have not read a book from the list in some time so decided to get back into it with
The Human Stain by Philip Roth.

Excellent choice, in my opinion, joeinma!

Just finished Street of Crocodiles and except for the last two chapters I enjoyed the wierd Kafka-like style. The last two chapters were writen a little later and were not part of the original book. For whatever reason, I had a hard time concentrating on these two chapters.

I'm starting Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre, which was added in the 2008 edition.

So far, I'm not thrilled, but there are a couple funny parts (and f-bombs every two lines, which is wearing, and horrid grammar). It has a similar feel of Oscar Wao, which I really disliked ... but I'll give it a bit more to come into its own.

Finished The Yellow Wallpaper and Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time. Signed up to get Gulliver's Travels on Daily Lit, and reading a hard copy of Wuthering Heights.

Stick with Vernon God Little CarolynSchroeder, it is full of profanities, which I agree are wearing, but it stays with you.
I found In Cold Blood to have a similar chilling feel, but completely different style!

Thanks for the advice Carlton, I'll stick with it!

I just finished Austen's P & P . It was a delightful story !

I've been reading Never Let Me Go for my book club. It's not what I think it is, is it?

Although I'm still reading Parade's End and Great Expectations, I now also have to start Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh. All of this is assigned reading.

I'm reading a penguin published Moll Flanders. Finding it really interesting reading a book that was written before the country where I live was even known about! The language has been modernised a little but the style of the expression is still ol' worldly. I remember really enjoying a Moll Flanders movie when I was young and the irrepressible spirit of the character in the book is the same.

Just finished Wuthering Heights and I was taken completely off guard by how...annoying I found it. I was fully prepared to be swept up into a timeless, tragic romance. But I just muddled through, disliking the characters and not really caring what happened to them. Sigh. Maybe it's just me. But I'm glad I read it, all the same. Now, onto Woman in White

>100 maryjanemanolos:, maryjanemanolos, I too read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. It was a gem! It's one of the best books I've read this year! What did you think about it?

I'm currently trying to tackle The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, but I keep getting distracted by The Terror, a very scary book by Dan Simmons. It's also very loooooooooong, but so, so good. I'm hoping to finish it this week so I can go back to focusing on The Jungle.

I just gave up on Snow by Orhan Pamuk. I was trying to listen to this in audio, but could not get through it. My mind kept wandering and wanting to do other things than listen. I was really interested in this one since I didn't know anything about Turkey and it got some good reviews. I found it very slow moving and wasn't crazy about the writing style.

I'm still working on & hope to finish this weekend journey to the centre of the earth by Jules Verne. I'm reallly enjoying this one. Also working on the golden ass by Apuleius which is going a little slow for me and the once and future king by T.H. White which is taking me a while, but I'm really enjoying.

Finished Human Stain and now moving on to King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard. Will be reading that on vacation in Naples, FL. Also bringing The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett.

I am listening to Herzog by Saul Bellow.

I just finished Foucault's Pendulum and am partially through Veronika Decides to Die. It seems to be an interesting juxtaposition, all about creating realities and the true purpose of life.

Yesterday I finished Kafka on the shore by Haruki Murakami. I've the list 2006 and 2008 list on my computer. Maybe I should pay some more attention to it in my book-buying habbit...

Just finished Cloud Atlas and it floored me.Yowza.

#114 boekenwijs

I'm also reading Kafka on the shore and I'm loving it! It's one of those books I don't want to put down! What did you think of it (no spoilers please! ^^)?

I read Kafka late last year and really enjoyed it. Up next for me will be another of Murakami's works The wind-up bird Chronicle. It looks like a much more intense and longer work then Kafka, I'm a little concerned that I might not have the stamina for it ;-)
Cloud Atlas was given to me last year by a very dear LT friend, I cant wait to get to it. I'll definately be reading it this year.
I've noticed quite a few of the older books on the list, pre 1930s are online on the Project Gutenberg site. Wharton, Joyce, Swift, Defoe, Woolf and Eliot are all on there just to name a few. Although proping my laptop up in bed is not really a very relaxing way to read ;-)

I am reading Choke as my first Paluhniuk novel.

Cloud Atlas and any book by Murakami would be my "desert island" book choices. KimB I hope you enjoy The Wind-up Bird Chronicle it has the most amazing section of descriptive prose that still haunts me. Without giving away any spoilers, watch out for the soldier's story.

>116 Vonini: Vonini, I really enjoyed Kafka on the shore. I like that strange and impossible things happen in the book, but it's so natural that it just should be there. And I never found it predictable, so I'm absolutely going to read more by Murakami.

Cloud atlas is also on my TBR list. I've read Number9dream and although that was kind of a strange book, it makes me want to read more by David Mitchell.

I read Kafka on the Shore last month. It's really a unique story! I read on Wikipedia that there are some references in there that come from The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle so I would like to read that as well!

I've read Smilla's Sense of Snow (both lists), Northanger Abbey (old list) and Pippi Longstocking (new list) this month. Pippi was a reread, but I loved the other two! Smilla really blew me away in terms of very different books than I usually read. I just love Jane Austen, so the other was a comfort read :)

I love looking through these threads to see which books people enjoyed this month! Helps me pick what to read next month!

I have finally picked up A Fine Balance. So many people here on LT have encouraged me to read it. I am looking forward to finding out why!

I finished Pride and Prejudice earlier this month and have started Memoirs of a Geisha.

I've just started listening to a Librevox recording of Tess of D'Urbervilles, suprisingly good reader, and the sound is good as well.

I finished The Secret History which was interesting even though the characters were in the main loathsome. Lots of lies, drugs and drinking to excess which didn't help them in the predicament they found themselves.

Next up I think I'll go for Germinal which should take me into the next month, see you all in that post I guess.

I had very mixed feelings on Kafka on the Shore ... read my review if you have any interest (no spoilers in there). I do like Murakama's style of writing a lot though (just pleasurable & interesting or something), so would be willing to give him another try. I did not hate it, but just, well, overall it fizzled ... and I too loved the beginning. Cats talking, especially with such acumen, is just such a happy thing :)

Cloud Atlas has been purchased and is in the top 10 of the TBR pile. I'm glad so many people here liked it! I cannot wait.

Overall, I did like Vernon God Little (new list) quite a bit, but I gave it 3 of 5 stars. It is WAYYYY better than The Brief and Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao (which I thought was utter rubbish) and it sort of reminded me of it at the beginning. Ultimately, I definitely changed my view of that and it was a very worth it read. I flew through it. I will totally agree on the chilling-after-you-put-it-down effect with this one. Thanks Carlton for pushing me to stick with it.

Just finished Moby Dick.

I just started For Whom the Bell Tolls for my Book Club. I'm rather ambivalent about Hemingway, and the first couple pages aren't getting me excited about this book. (Where are these two men? Who are they? What are they doing? Argh....) I'm hoping it will pick up for me.

It will get better. I loved that book.
--BJ

I finished Vile Bodies the other day, and I recommend it.

I just started listening to The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.

A friend loaned me both The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Life of Pi yesterday. I'm about halfway through the former and will probably kill it by the end of the day!

I read Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in February.

Started 1984 and having a hard time putting it down. That was totally unexpected as I've been putting that one off for a long time.

I'm reading The Story of Lucy Gault; for me, a study in twisted wistfulness.

Finished February with the following two books while on vacation:

King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard and The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett