poplin's 75 books in 2009

I'm already in the 50 book group, but at 24 books read before mid-March, I seem to be well on pace to meet (and maybe even exceed!) 75 books this year. I thought, then, that I'd throw my hat in the challenge here as well.

Here is my list, which I will continue to update as I continue to read!

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

Nice list! Welcome to our little group.

I love your book choices. Did you write reviews on your 50 book challenge thread? Is there a link? Thanks.

2 >

Thank you on both counts!

3 >

Thank you also! I have reviewed a good number of them on my 50 book challenge thread, which can be found here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/55520

Hi poplin
Welcome on board.

Welcome poplin! That is an impressive list. I'll be reading your reviews and following your thread closely.

Welcome to the madness, nope, sorry, meant welcome to the group!

Ooh, nice list! Will look forward to the rest of your reading year.

Welcome and good luck with your challenge this year, Poplin!

Welcome on the 75 one, as well! I also moved here from the 50 group. Happy reading! :)

Okay, I FINALLY updated my list again! I'm definitely making good progress, and am eying the "100 Books Challenge" group--but I'm not going to get too cocky yet.

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

For 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.

Hi poplin.

I've just starred your thread - you've read a lot of books this year that I'm keen to read (Revolutionary Road, The Sound and the Fury, The Old Man and the Sea, If On a Winter's Night a Traveller), so I'm keen to keep up to date with the others you choose.

Very interesting and well-written thread (I've just caught up with your 50 book challenge), and I'm looking forward to following your progress!

>>11 poplin:: Thanks for your Ishiguro review... I've never read any of his work, but I've been intending to for a while now... What is his style like?

#11: An Ishguro book I have not heard of? Cool beans! I will have to look for that one. Thanks for the mention.

jbeast >>

Thank you for the compliments! I would highly recommend all the books you mentioned, but Revolutionary Road in particular--I'm fairly certain it is destined to become one of my all-time favorites.

tarendz >>

Well, I would describe it thusly: although I know that Ishiguro is Japanese in name only (as he moved to Britain when he was four, and didn't go back to Japan for 30 years), his writing reminds me very much of a Japanese garden. It is very neat, sparse and precise, with not a leaf out of place. (And I truly think that I would make this comparison regardless of his origins.)

At the same time, he is very different from, say, Hemingway. Both are neat, sparse and precise, but Hemingway is much more direct: he says what he means. Ishiguro hints at it instead; the meaning of what is being said is never on the surface, but rather floats just beneath it.

His style very much unlike that of any other author I can remember having read (in a good way!).

alcottacre >>

Definitely do! Beyond the fact that it was beautiful written (which, with him, seems to go without saying), it explores an *intensely* interesting character. For a one-two punch, I'd read The Reader by Bernhard Schlink and An Artist of the Floating World back-to-back, as there is a startlingly large amount of similarities between them (plot-wise).

I read The Reader last year, but if I can track down a copy of Artist, I will give your idea a try.

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 "1,001 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 that 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.

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.

#18: The book Passing looks interesting. I will see if I can find it. Thanks for the recommendation!

#15 Poplin, thanks to you I've bought a copy of Revolutionary Road and it's in my bag waiting for me to start it on my way home from work.

jbeast >>

That's wonderful to hear! I would love to hear your thoughts on it. As many great books as I've read so far this year, I know that Revolutionary Road is destined to join my list of all-time favorites.

Incidentally, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter will also make that list, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Pale Fire will as well (though that one will certainly need a second--and a third, and a fourth--read to fully digest it!).

Well since I last posted I've read the first three chapters and already I really like it. It feels familiar too - I was in an impossible relationship like that. Seems so far like it will be a 5* for me.

Is Pale Fire anything like Lolita? I found Lolita a little bit weird, but have so far read nothing else by Nabokov.

I'm glad to hear that you're liking it!

As for Pale Fire: well, if you found Lolita weird, prepare to be taken to the next level of weirdness. Pale Fire takes the form of a 999-line poem, with an introduction and a commentary. The commentary takes up the bulk of the book, and it is in the commentary that the novel (such as it is) is presented. If only for formal reasons, Pale Fire is one of the more unusual novels I've come across.

At the same time, it is brilliant and compelling, although certainly not a book that one can take in in one reading!

Poplin--I can't remember if you were in on the Group Read--Literature for March. We read Pale Fire and there is an interesting thread discussing it. You might want to check it out.

I agree that it is one of those books you can read multiple times (this was my second time reading it), and it will reward you each time.

Poplin--What a great list of books! It looks like you've been delving into the 1001 Must Read list as much as I have. It's quite an interesting group of books.

LOL, A Doll's House is indeed more "readable" than Waiting for Godot, but they are important to the theatre in different ways. Glad you enjoyed them.

And Bonjour Tristesse is one of the best novellas I've read recently--and last weekend I managed in channel flipping to catch the last half-hour of the film version starring Jean Seberg, David Niven, and Deborah Kerr--it was amazingly close to the book, and I'm now going to Netflix the film to watch in full.

Thanks for your summaries and commentaries!