What 1001 Books are you reading in April 2010 ?

I'll be reading Like Water For Chocolate .

Hope you enjoy it . . . one of my favourites.

Anyway, I'm still trying to get back to A Tale of Two Cities, which I did not touch in March due to other obligations.

I'll be reading The Moonstone this month. March was a 1001-book-free month for me, unfortunately. I hope April will be better.

I'll be nibbling at my Jorge Luis Borges collection. Eventually I'll finish it. It's just the not the sort of thing you read straight through.

I am about to start Simon and the oaks, which is this month read at my book club. Now I need to find a way to also fit it in my 1010 challenge.

I finished The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and am now back to Don Quixote.

I read A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. I chose it because it was a 1960s book (I haven't read many of those) and it was short, but I found it incredibly difficult to get through. It was so grim. I knew almost immediately how it would end so moving through the sad book toward the sadder ending was agony. On the other hand, it was quite interesting in the context of its time and I'm glad I read it.

I'm reading The Once and Future King, War and Peace and The Divine Comedy.

Divine Comedy is not in the 1001 -- at least, not in my edition -- but probably should be because it is very good.

-- M1001

I've always wondered about that, too. Maybe because it is poetry, and they seem to have steered clear of poetry (now that would be a fun book - 1001 poems to read before you die)?

Reply Message 9:

I considered that as well.

Ignoring the Epic Poems would also explain the absence of "Paradise Lost".

Of course, Ovid's Metamorphoses is an Epic Poem, and it's in the list, so who knows what criteria they are using.

-- M1001

#9 & 10 . . . and The Canterbury Tales.

Not to mention the Iliad and The Odyssey.
I think they should have included all these epic poems, and the Faerie Queene. They really count as "books" rather than as poems or plays, the only other "1000"s I could imagine assembling. I mean, how could you put "The Road Not Taken" next to "Paradise Lose" as two poems everyone should read? It just doesn't make sense.

I've started a thread on 'Epic poems you must read before you die' in the Geeks who love the Classics group: http://www.librarything.com/groups/geekswholovetheclass - we may not get to 1001 though :-)

Well, Metamorphoses was dropped after 2006 edition. And if one started to count epic poems there would be loads of dozens of significant ones: let's throw in Gilgamesh, Nibelungenlied, Kalevala, Edda, El Cantar de Mio Cid, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Orlando Furioso, Gerusalemme Liberata, Song of Hiawatha and several others which all would have a strong claim to be included in the book.

I've started April reading Alias Grace (so far very good) and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (not so gripping). I'm also hoping to get through If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, The Leopard, The Bothers Karamazov and All Quiet on the Western Front. Wishful thinking, but its the Easter hols so I have 2 weeks off of work :D

I've started April reading Alias Grace (so far very good) and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (not so gripping). I'm also hoping to get through If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, The Leopard, The Bothers Karamazov and All Quiet on the Western Front. Wishful thinking, but its the Easter hols so I have 2 weeks off of work :D

I've started April reading Alias Grace (so far very good) and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (not so gripping). I'm also hoping to get through If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, The Leopard, The Bothers Karamazov and All Quiet on the Western Front. Wishful thinking, but its the Easter hols so I have 2 weeks off of work :D

Started out the month reading Babbit by Sinclair Lewis. It hasn't exactly grabbed me yet, but I'm sticking with it. Also, hope to finish War and Peace this month.

#14 (hdcclassic), just to whinge on about epic poems for a moment, I think they could easily have made room for 50 epic poems in the 1000 books. I'm not sure I'd count "Song of Hiawatha" in there but sure, some of those you mention belong in The Book. I'll bet that as a group, we could come up with 50 books we'd like to cut and replace with some good Epics. I've been thinking of starting a thread "Replace a Book" where people are invited to toss one of the 1000 and add another in its place....

I agree that epic poems should be included. As an English Major I think I read more of those than anything else in my classes.

For April, I'm hoping to master something by Virginia Woolf(going to the library tomorrow, it all depends on what is available), Breakfast of Champions and Villette

April's gonna see me finish Wind up Bird Chronicles and keep plugging away at Tristram Shandy...

Nearly finished The Murder of Roger Ackroyd for a quickie read :)

I hope to finish Don Quixote and Atonement soon. I have started Sense and Sensibility and The Thousand and One Nights, which will take some time as there are 4 volumes to the copy I am reading.

I just finished Surfacing by Margaret Atwood and thought well of it. Next up will be The Thousand and One Nights.

I finished The Voyage Out, which I didn't love as much as I loved Mrs. Dalloway and To The Lighthouse. Woolf did manage to surprise me at the end, even though one of her other books has a very similar event.

I also read some excerpts from The Decameron. One of the stories is very, very similar to a story in The Canterbury Tales. That made me laugh because I had just finished reading a few articles about the prevalence of modern literary theft and lax academic plagiarism standards and the resulting end of the world. People who think that humanity is getting progressively worse really need to read their Medieval bawdy tales.

I am hoping to read both The Plague by Albert Camus and Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood this month.
--BJ

# 25 - Oh, interesting. I read The Plague, which I think is a worthwhile read, but I loved Alias Grace. Enjoy!

jlelliott, I remember when I was in high school sitting on our front room sofa reading The Canterbury Tales and laughing hysterically. Walking into the room, my mother chirpped, "Maybe I should look at that book to see if you should be reading it." Apparrently, mothers at that time didn't think good literature should be funny. When I explained that my English teacher had recommended it to me, that made everything better---even the bawdy parts. It still makes my eyes water with laughter when I think back those 50 years ago. Thanks for the memory.

Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon all month long. It's a whopper! (and very wonderful)

*touchstone refuses to load

I finished The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and hope to start The Brothers Karamazov for a readalong.

Hmmm just picked up The Plague at the library - quick/long read?

#28 Really? Wonderful? Hmmm... nope, still not ready to revoke my Pynchon embargo. I will eventually. Just not this year :)

Currently reading The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. Haven't had much of a chance to read it this week, but hopefully next week will have it done. It's a lot of conversation, but it's fantastic, and rather humourous despite it being a detective novel set in the 1930s. Much wit and banter between the wonderful husband and wife duo, Nick and Nora Charles.

Just finished War and Peace. Exceptional. Plan on finishing Babbitt this weekend. Then I don't know where I will go. Kind of burnt out on Russian names and the moment.

Just finished Cry, the Beloved Country on audiobooks, which was fantastic--the voice of the reader was very nuanced and moving, and I feel like I got more out of it than I would have if I'd read it myself. I am also reading In a Free State, another "colonial" book but extraordinarily different, a good balance. Has anybody else here read it? All the Amazon reviewers hated the story "Tell Me Who to Kill" but I found that one mesmerizing. I'm on the title story now. THe book is sort of a group of novellas, only related in a vague thematic way.
On audiobooks, I'm starting Daniel Deronda, for something completely different.

Started The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Just finished The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, slow and weird to start with but I really kind of liked it by the end. Am still working through Les Miserables, so close to being done! Also reading, Brideshead Revisited, Lady Chaterley's Lover and The Country Girls. Haha, I just realized I am going a bit heavy on books from across the pond.

Finished Babbitt Friday evening. Very good overall and I thought the ending was great. Have started Walden.

I'm in the mood for Dostoyevsky, so I started Demons aka The Devils aka The Possessed - I think it's called The Devils in the 1001 list. The first chapter is quite a bit funnier than I expected.

In April so far I read and finished The Count of Monte Christo and All Quiet on the Western Front.
Now I started with Tristram Shandy, but I doubt I will finish that one in April.
And parallely I continue with Ulysses. I decided to take the Proust approach there and read 20 pages every day. Otherwise I will probably never see the end of that book...

#38 What do you think of Tristram Shandy? I'm about a quarter in and it just makes me tired and cranky. Sigh. Will have a brief pause and return to it later in the week I think!

Try the movie version of Tristram Shandy--it's ...hilarious?, no, almost, but that's not it . . . delightful? I suppose, in a way . . . odd? Yes, definitely. Indescribable? that's probably it. Anyway, I haven't gotten around to the book yet, but I've seen the movie a few times and it's fun.

#39: I finished book one yesterday and I feel the same way. So it doesn't get any better once he is finally born? So far the best bit were two pages all in French which I could just skip.

Unfortunately I could read the French so had to plough through it!

Hmmm maybe I'm not as far as I thought - he's not born yet at my end either!

Oh darn.

Almost finished Ragtime by Doctorow.

Finished Walden by Thoreau. Didn't think much of it. It was like reading an essay as opposed to a novel. It seemed to me that he was bent on convincing us to be poverty stricken or at least get along on nothing. Although, I must admit that with no property, no job, no responsibilities and very little to do, he had a lot of leisure time. Sounds like one of my grandsons. Anyway, I started A Boy's Own Story this morning. So far, it is very readable.

44- I hated Walden! The whole time I kept noticing things like "I borrowed this from my neighbor" or "I watched the train pull in" or "I went to the general store"...seemed to me that he wasn't any more isolated than a suburban house wife whose electricity has died. Which, you know, is so transcendental. (sarcasm alert) I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one who thought it was silly.

Shucks... I was looking forward to Walden. I finished Don Quixote and The War of the Worlds. For not being a sci-fi fan, I rather enjoyed it. I have started Jane Eyre and I have some others in the works too.

I'm about halfway through Neuromancer. I'm liking it, even the craziness. Will try to read several classic sci-fi novels this year.

In April I finished Midnight's children which was a great read and Disgrace Which I found pretty depressing. Started The Engilsh Patient. Currently working on those that won the Booker Prize.

Midnight's Children Disgrace The English Patient Here's the Touchstones for the books. Sorry I didn't include them.

Just read Vicar of Wakefield which was pretty dire. Am a little spread out on 1,001 books that I am reading in various different places (as usual!), the main two beingTristram Shandy - ugh.... and Goodbye to Berlin - for my bookgroup.

I've also got Hideous Kinky and Day of the Triffids floating around :)

Oh, well, you'll zip right through Hideous Kinky, easy, fun reading as I remember.

Hmmm maybe I'll have to promote it then! It's currently my bag book - for when I am stuck somewhere without another one, or when my daughter will play on her own for two seconds... so they can take some time. Often get switched out once I get into them though!

Hideous Kinky is one of those "why is it on the list?" books, for me. I read it when it first came out and thought it was pleasant and forgettable. How can it possibly be on the list, and nothing Penelope Fitzgerald, whose novels are small masterpieces? Unless PF is in the later edition of 1001--I only have the original.

Just checked my latest Aruyikomi downloaded (06-08-10) spreadsheet - no Penelope Fitzgerald, sorry. Will have to consider Hideous Kinky in a 1,001 light once I've finished.

On a happy note I reached 180 this week - yay! Still planning on aiming for 200 this year.

Anyone read The Magic Mountain? This book is killing me. I checked it out from the library a month ago and I'm still only 1/3 of the way through. I'm bored silly, and usually I have no problem with books where nothing happens but this one is a drag.

#55: I hated it on the first try and I gave up after the first half (there is a bit of a cut in the story at that point). Read it again last year, almost 15 years later, and loved it. Although in the end I skipped some pages of those endless philosophical discussions.
It is one of those books which have to fit your mood.

I am halfway through On the road. It's not half bad and I can understand why it had so much impact.

Just started the Penguin edition of One Thousand and One Nights. This one's going to be easy fun!

I am just finishing The Red and the Black and am hoping to get through more 1001 books this month, Hangover square, Love in a Cold Climate, The White Tiger, being some of the possibles.

I am finding One Thousand and One Nights less fun than I expected, so I will read it in chunks between other books. It is an important source for subsequent writers, so I will get through it. What I am finding is that no characters are admirable, the women especially are deceivers and the slapstick humor is pretty mortal (not surprising, I suppose, for stories that old). I am also finding the famous format - that of one story leading into the next without completion of the first - pretty frustrating. Oh well. Next up is not a 1001 book but still an important source for later fantasy writers - The Worm Ouroboros.

#60 - I had a Richard Burton translation of 1001 nights - no fun at all. I think it's a book that I would like to study as part of a course and be guided through the book and be told which parts are superfluous and skip. In absence of that I'm thinking of finding a child/teen version instead.

Today I am starting The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

When I read One Thousand and One Nights it started out alright and I found it entertaining and amuzing. After a while, though, it became tedious and the stories seemed to go on and on with no ending. Perhaps, if I had read it when I was younger, I would have enjoyed it more.

Just finished reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, really good. I also read The White Tiger yesterday. Would recommend both.

Just finished The Underdogs. It was pretty good. It put me in mind of a Zane Grey novel.

Reading Madame Bovary via DailyLit. It will take me some time but I'm enjoying it so far.

I finally finished my first 1001 book for 2010--A Tale of Two Cities. I started it in February (well, really I started it in 1990), but life has just been too busy. Most years I read about 25 1001 books, but I don't think I will this year. Don't know what's next.

I'm reading A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute : )

Deern - how's Tristram Shandy going at your end? I'm just hating it. Yuk yuk yuk. I'm just living for the Latin sections so I can skip them.

It's been a slow month. I only just got through Breakfast of Champions and I'm reading something off list now. Maybe I will start Villette next, but I just started The Call of the Wild via DailyLit.

#65 I checked it out after seeing your post. Great invention. =) I especially like that you can ask for extra sections.

Just finished Franny and Zooey. I am now reading Tropic of Cancer by Miller, then The Rebel by Camus.

Finished Neuromancerthe other day now I have to undiscombobulate my brain. It was slow going towards the end and hard to sort out what and why things were happening.

#68: Almost done, 55 pages to go! The last volume has many half-empty pages, so I might finish it today. Most of the time I have no idea what I am reading. I remember a very long section about noses and not much else.

So far the best bit about the book was the missing chapter 24 in volume 4. I couldn't believe my eyes when page 251 followed page 240. I'd admit that this was a bit of humour I really liked (and the Latin sections you mentioned), almost worth half an extra star in the rating.

On the back of my edition it says 'It contains some of the best-known and best-loved characters in English literature, including Uncle Toby,...'. For me Uncle Toby is one of the most annoying characters ever. If I were present in any of those scenes I'd leave the room as soon as he starts ranting.

Yet somehow I understand why the book is liked by so many readers. It's just not working for me.

I don't think I've heard of anyone who liked Tristram Shandy. I'd like to hear from someone who'd read the book and seen the movie too. The movie is great, by the way ...

Anyhoo, I really wanted to read something short, but yesterday I picked up Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood. It's not short, but I think it's going to go fairly quickly if I just have time to read.

#72 Completely agree. I'm reading an e-text Project Gutenberg version and when it said '10 pages missing' I nearly cried with joy.

I think I hate all the characters. Ugh. Meugh....

I'm still not letting it defeat me this time - I'm far enogh in that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel I guess! Hope you get it finished tonight!

#73. I *loved* Tristram Shandy. I absolutely did, and I am amazed to see how many people dislike it. I had tears of laughter in my eyes more than once. I still laugh when I think about the widow who tried to find out where exactly uncle Toby was wounded.

The movie 'A cock and bull story' was okay, but absolutely no substitute for the book. It reminded me more of a mixture between 'Barry Lyndon' and 'Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead' than of Tristram Shandy.

Thanks, Steven VI . . . I plan to read Tristram Shandy one of these days, but first I have to knock a big chunk off Mnt. TBR. I can see that the movie wouldn't be a substitute for the book....it's just too . . . unusual. I actually adore about the first third of the movie, but then I think it goes rather far downhill. I certainly have seen the beginning more often than the end.

I have just finished Notes From the Underground. What an amazing waste of time, ink and paper! The author's own words best describe this work----"it's hardly literature so much as a corrective punishment." And reading it only serves to punish the reader as well.

#75 Really? I guess the great thing about literature is that it has something for everyone. This one is not for me - I think at halfway through it has only evoked one smile.

I like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - that does make me laugh :)

I'm currently reading A Suitable Boy. I'm over halfway through it, and I really enjoy it. Recommended for hose who enjoyed A Fine Balance and for those who enjoy Indian authors.

Finished A Boy's Own Story last night. It was well written and cudos to Edmund White for having the courage to write it. I learned a lot I did not know.
Currently reading Rasselas and A Bend In The River.

I finished Jane Eyre last night and was again pleasently surprised at how enjoyable it was. It was made even more entertaining because I heard it ended differently, so I was really kept guessing.

I started Chaereas and Callirhoe and I always find it interesting reading such old works.

I got totally carried away again in the Library today! I have about 8 1,001 books out to read now... plus all the ones I have at home sitting looking at me acusingly! There're just not enough hours in the day.

Edit to fix my dreadful grammar...

I just started Pnin and think that I will be able to finish it (unlike some others) but may not enjoy it very much. I'm also listening to Daniel Deronda on tape which is unexpectedly good, not at all like what I anticipated. I think I need to read more George Eliot.

Started Passing by Nella Larsen this morning.

I just started JG Ballard's Crash...I've been avoiding the 1001 books and have been reading recommendations on Chuck Palahniuk's website. Among the ones I read and enjoyed were "Kiss Me, Judas" and "Beat the Reaper"

Just finished The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a good quick read

Along with The Rebel (posted above), today I am starting Brideshead Revisited and The Life of Pi. I am on a rampage. :)

Just finished The Confusions of Young Torless by Robert Musil. I don't like it. Now reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Finished Morvern Callar last night, it was great, very very strange but loved it. I have If on a Winters Night to start next

Finished Goodbye to Berlin - rather liked it, and The Castle of Otranto which is apparently the first gothic novel. Am still plugging away (from time to time) at the eternal TS. Am also reading Breakfast at Tiffany's which is quite fun.

I also seem to have gone on a 1,001 crime splurge and taken out 4 of them from the library!

I'm still stuck on The Magic Mountain. I'm over halfway through, but it is painful. I haven't stopped reading a book in about 15 years, but this one may be my downfall. Yet, then every time I look at the list it will be there taunting me...I don't think I'll ever pick up another Thomas Mann book again.

I know the feeling - thank heaven there's nothing else by Laurence Sterne to read...

#93: I fear there is another Sterne (A Sentimental Journey). I'll put that one to my personal 'to be read last' list along with American Psycho and some others, should I really ever try and go for the full 1001.

Thanks for recommending Half of Yellow Sun. Finished it today and loved it.

#92: Yes, Thomas Mann's bigger books (especially the Magic Mountain or Dr Faustus) should be read only if you are in the right mood, ideally when you are feeling a bit philosophical and have lots of time. Otherwise they are no fun at all. You should maybe try Death in Venice next which is really short (should you ever decide to give him a second chance).

Nooooooooooooo.... I didn't realise. Oh poop.

Glad you enjoyed Half of a Yellow Sun - it is very good.

Just finished Call of the Wild and I started Jacob's Room and Villette. I think the latter may take awhile.

Read a couple over the last week: The Professor's House and Love in a cold climate, which I have just finished. Both good, both unknown to me before. I had heard of Nancy Mitford, but never read any of her books. Similar books, in that they are both slow burners, but by the end, I couldn't put them down. Not sure what's up next.

Deern--I've read Death in Venice and liked it. Thought I'd have no problem picking up one of his other books. Maybe this isn't the time in my life to tackle it. (full time job and 18 month old baby)

Just finished Rasselas. Interesting little story which proposes to the reader a wealth of philosophical questions.

#97 I read a few Nancy Mitford books last year and I felt the same way. I was drawn into their extraordinary world of 'the Hons'. It's ridiculous in today's world but fascinating to read about. I wish Mitford had written more.

I just finished Heart of Darkness. Excellent story. It draws you in as you go along. Very good adventure novel.

#95 BekkaJo: I checked the book on amazon, ist has only 160 pages. So maybe it's not too bad.

Just started reading "The Leopard"/ Il Gattopardo (English tombstone doesn't work) by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Wonderful book, it might become a favorite.

That sounds much more do-able. I'm getting there on TS...ish...

I think I'm going to try and stick to the 75ers TIOLI challenge this month - books with 1 word titles! There are plenty on the 1,001 list.

Finished A Bend In The River last night. Didn't think much of it. Perhaps it was considered good in the 70s and 80s when the history was current, but it just did nothing for me. Anyway that completes my first 100 from the list!! (Brief celebration. Woo Hoo!!!)

Started the next 100 with--guess what--One Hundered Years of Solitude! So far, it is very good, but then I'm only 20 pages into it.

I finished Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood last night. Not sure which 1001 book will be next, but I know it's going to be something short.

Congrats george1295! I hope to make it to 100 by the end of summer.

I finished The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and I enojyed it and I was even able to guess a few of the mysteries.

I think I will be starting I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and I am still plugging away on The Thousand and One Nights.

In April i read Bel-Ami, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Disgrace, and Midnight's Children.

I just finished The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene..review to come when I darn well feel like it so stop PRESSURING me. GOSH.