What book from the 1001 list are you reading in AUGUST?

It's only the first but I started a new book this morning so I thought, why not start it?

I am reading American Rust and loving it so far.

I had started Orlando by Virginia Woolf last week, but put it aside to read one more Orange July book, so now I'm back to Orlando. It's positively yummy.

Evolphoto> I read American Rust last month and really enjoyed it!

This month I hope to finally read Persuasion the only Jane Austen on the list I haven't read.

I thought that I would finish The Three Musketeers yesterday, but I was in Las Vegas so that didn't happen, I shouldl finish today or tomorrow. I should also finish Swann's Way by Proust this month. I'm also in the early parts of Frankenstein..

I read Everything is Illuminated yesterday, just couldn't put it down. I went to bed late last night with 60 pages left, couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about the book, so I got up again to finish it.

Now I am back to Germinal which I am dreading. At least it makes me appreciate again and again what a wonderful and comfortable life I am having.

5: Everything is Illuminated is so amazing. I loved it!

I've started A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. Pleasantly surprised that it's not about Rich People Whining. I went in not knowing anything about it, so I'm really enjoying it as a break from Forster's usual stuff- which I like, but can get a little old.

I just started She by H. Rider Haggard. The main character has a wonderful name... Ayesha, She Who Must Be Obeyed.

I am reading Siddhartha . Hopefully , it will be a fast read .

I finished Therese Raquin which I enjoyed. It's not quite up to the standard of Germinal and La Bête Humaine.

I really have enjoyed Emile Zola so far he's got a real gritty modern style.

@5 Deern hope you enjoy Germinal Romantic tale isn't it? "Love" in the slag heaps!

Now reading The Buddha of Suburbia

I am reading Siddhartha . Hopefully , it will be a fast read .

I'm a big fan of the fast read, and Siddhartha is pretty short. But it's a philosophical sort of novel that is better with reflection. It would be a pity to rush it. So many books, not enough time is my mantra, and I don't give many books a reread, but Siddhartha is one I like to reread every so often. Don't rip yourself off by flying through it.

Don't worry , LOL ! The older I get the slower I read . At this point It will be "fast" if I finish it in 3 days .

Thanks, AquariusNat--one thing off my long worry list! Enjoy the book.

Just started Cloud Atlas. It's my first by David Mitchell. Enjoying going with the flow so far. He writes well.

I'm reading Hard Times. The times aren't nearly as hard compared to Germinal. Not much can be worse than life portrayed by Zola...well, I'm listening to What is the What (not a 1001 book) and being a lost boy in africa could probably compare to the miner families in Germinal in a contest of whose life is the most miserable.

I finished Germinal. What a depressing book. And there are 3 more unread Zolas on my 1001 list. I'll probably wait till 2011 to start the next one.
I am half through If on a winter's night a traveller. It's very slow going because I am trying to read it in Italian and can't manage more than 20 pages per day.
My next read will be something that fits both the 1001 list and the August TIOLI, either The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or The God of Small Things, haven't decided yet.

I started Middlemarch it is a group read and I am very glad that it is actually turning out to be a good book. I have also started Little Women and I have to say I am not enjoying this one at all.

Deern, The God of Small Things is a wonderful book, but certainly not uplifting or light hearted... you might opt for The Hitchhiker's Guide.

I finished Evelina today and was thoroughly charmed. I have started Correction and I don't think it will be an easy read at all. The fact that sentences go on for pages and there is one paragraph 270 pages long, makes the content all the more dense. I have also started Middlemarch.

Loved American Rust.

I started Vanity Fair, but I think I will stop and read The Hobbit. I've been reading everything on my kindle but there are a few hard copy books I have that I want to read so they can go into my bookshelf. The Hobbit being one of them.

#16: I read Little Women as a child and didn't like it much. The characters were too "good" and obedient and I remember that Jo was the only one I liked a bit. It was quite different from other childrens books I had read till then. I should probably reread it some day. Maybe this time I'll be softhearted enough to cry.

#17: Actually, I started The God of Small Things yesterday, but "Hitchhiker" now takes top position on the August tbr pile.

I read Little Women as a child and didn't like it much. The characters were too "good" and obedient

I've never read Little Women and your comment describes exactly why I've always shunned that book. I can't imagine anything making me pick up that book, other than being stranded someplace and the only entertainment available was either that or something by Danielle Steele, and I'd finished the Steele.

I loved Little Women as a kid, but when I re-read it as an adult I found it sermonizing and too-sweet. It's just a poor example of literature from that time period, in my opinion. A rare example of the movie being better than the book?

Yea Little Women honestly now make me throw up in my mouth a bit. Its just too sappy, so I may go ahead and cut my loses. It would be better if there was at least 1 woman in the house that you would love to hate.

# 21: "sermonizing" is the word I was looking for. Far away from the values other childrens books were communicating, also classic ones from the same period.

When I learned how popular this book still is I felt a bit guilty for not liking it (and for not crying at a certain point where everyone else seems to have cried their eyes out).

I like to think that if I had read it as a young teen girl maybe it would be another story and I could go back and read it remember a more innocent time in my life. But reading for the first time I guess maybe I have been too tainted with life to get that warm and fuzzy feeling.

I finished Robinson Crusoe this morning which was ok. I'm also reading Emma and picturing Alicia Silverstone as the title character.

I just started The Virgin in the Garden this morning and am reasonably confident I will love it. Byatt has not disappointed me yet. Re: Little Women, I loved all the the Alcott books for girls when I was growing up but I was growing up in a war zone so the alternate universe appealed. Alcott herelf did not like her goodie-goodie books either but they paid her bills.

Now that is funny that you dont like the stuff you are writing.

Oh, I cried my eyes out when reading Little Women, but that was many years ago now! I may not have the same reaction any more.

#26> Alcott herelf did not like her goodie-goodie books either but they paid her bills.

Have you read her The Chase? It was apparently what she wanted to write, and it's a fabulously purple-prosed almost-bodice-ripping gothic novel. I loved it!

# 17: I finished The God of Small Things. You were right - it is beautiful, but terribly sad.

I started The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy today.

And I looked through the first few pages of Exercises in Style. I was completely unprepared - has anybody read it? I mean, it's amusing and experimental, and it will be a very quick read (at least those parts which are readable at all), but does it really count as fiction?

#28> I have read some of Alcott's gothics and enjoyed them as gothics. Can't remember any details now but that's me all over. In one eye and out the other.

Just read Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford, and really enjoyed it.

I just picked up Swann's Way by Proust, which is the first bit of his seven volume monstrosity. I can only read it in 30 page increments, so I'm also reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon in attempt to read something by someone who is still alive at some point this year.

Despite how much my brain hurts after reading it, I'm really enjoying the Proust.

#32 , you're a brave woman ! I'm not ready to tackle Proust yet . LOL !

32> I started Proust at some point and gave it up, not a book for me. I dislike the endless navelgazing and going on and on and on how exactly is the person feeling like at that very moment...

16+> Enjoyed Little Women quite a lot despite being an adult male, but I do have a soft spot for books which manage to provoke, even if I don't necessarily agree with them (actually, I wouldn't be provoked if I did agree). Little Women is built on archetypes and it's in-your-face goody-good and on one hand it is supposed to be like that and on another Alcott does have enough sense and humour to keep it from slipping into a boring sermon. Someone should have been eaten by a bear though, that would have been cool :)

But then again, I liked Pilgrim's Progress too. YMMV

# 32: This is a good approach, it's how I went through the whole thing - not allowing me more than 25 pages per day. In the beginning I did read more - something like 60-70 pages at once, but this felt like overeating and then I needed 'digestion breaks' of several days.

34- I kinda like the navelgazing. It's sort of soothing. Reading about naps and tea and cookies chills me out. Like valium, but you know- smart, cause it's Proust. ;)

32- Yes, my brain just stops functioning after a certain point. I'm CERTAINLY not going to be able to read all seven volumes straight through, either.

I am reading The Wasp Factory...so far I haven't had time to put a dent in it, but I hope its good

I finished The Buddha of Suburbia It was amiable enough. It didn't really resonate with me.

Now I'll read Les Miserables as a story about sad lesbians always appeals...

Seriously folks, I'm looking forward to this one.

Les Miserable is on my TBR before the year is out. Still moving along with MiddleMarch reach the half way point last night.

#25 I just love that movie Clueless, and I have never read Emma. But when I do, I think I will think of that movie all the way through.

I am almost through with Swann's Way. I have just started both Middlemarch and Red and Black. Of the two, I am liking Middlemarch better.
--BJ

Finished Orlando (V Woolf) this morning. It was wonderful. One of those books to be savoured by reading it slowly and closely.

I am reading The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Christie and will start Middlemarch after Thursday (I have an exam then but afterwards will be free until September!)

#40 You know BillieJean the thing that is screaming out at me reading MiddleMarch is the old saying
"Be Careful what you Wish for You Just May Get It".

I finished Cloud Atlas today. I really loved it, though usually I don't enjoy 'experimental' writing too much.

It has been compared to If on a winter's night a traveller which I am still reading and which every day I hate a little more.

Okay - in both cases there are interrrupted stories, but Mitchell's stories are really captivating and he finishes them in the second half of the book. In Calvino's book there isn't a single story I would like to continue reading.

So next is that strange little book Exercises in Style and after that some non-1001 reading for the TIOLI.

#43 Funny!
--BJ

Just finished A Sentimental Journey. I found it very entertaining and amusing.

I'm 20 pages in Cryptonomicon and it's already captivating.

I am about halfway through The Voyage Out - my first Woolf book. I am enjoying it, which is good since she has quite a few books on the list. Her writing is very picturesque and the characters are different (in a good way), but so far it seems to be yet another book about the privileges of being a wealthy English person back in the day. Hopefully it gets more complex. Maybe I am due for another dose of Dickens.

I am slowly making my way through some other works, but I will mention more when I have something to say.

Mygirlmaybe -- The Voyage Out is a challenging book to start your Woolf experience with. She definitely gets better. I suggest To the Lighthouse, A Room of One's Own or Orlando for your early Woolf experience.

Thanks for the encouragement and recommendations Nickelini. I will definitely pick one of those for my next Woolf endeavor.

Started Mrs. Dalloway and finished Don Quixote.

I just started The Lover by Marguerite Duras. It's short so it shouldn't take more than a day or two.

I finished everything I posted in #44 + The Crow Road (which I liked a lot). Now I am finally reading Orlando.

In addition to Middlemarch and Red and Black, I just started The Diary of a Nobody.
--BJ

Oh I have that one on my TBR list for this year. So how do you decide what to read next?

After of a quick and enjoyable read of Schlink's outstanding The Reader I'm now reading Never Let Me Go, which I always thought sounded dreadful but I figured it would be fairly painless. Before those I read The Spy Who Came In From the Cold which I could not bear: just not my type of book. On tape I'm listening to Middlemarch but I also got the book so I could recheck passages I'm distracted from while driving.

#56 Are you posting any comment on the thread????

I haven't posted yet; I'm not actually sure where I am in the book at the moment because the CD (not tape) never says the chapter numbers. (checks book) Ah, I see that I have just finished Book II! I must go and post.

I couldn't get into Vainty Fair I was reading all the words but not retaining much of what was going on, so I gave up less than a quarter of the way into it. I'll have to try again in a few months.

I started Moll Flanders in it's place and its much more enjoyable(for me) so far.

I don't know what it was about Vainty Fair, because from what little I was able to retain it seems like the sort of book I would like, but from the start my mind kept wandering.

#55 I started Diary of a Nobody because my daughter checked it out of the library, and she had just finished it. The other two were group read choices. It is all kind of random for me. She also checked out The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and finished it. I hope to reread that one before it is due. That was the first spy book that I ever read (way back in the late 70s) and I have been hooked on them ever since.
--BJ

I started my 1001 book list late this month because after reading Gargantua and Pantagruel last month my brain was fried and I needed to return to my normal mundane book list. Today I went back to my 1001 book list and started another lengthy book (I'm a glutton for punishment), Don Quixote. I also have Pride and Prejudice, The Invisible Man, and The Time Machine that I might try to get through before the month ends. That is if I survive Don Quixote.

I just finished Small Island, which directly skewered the various things I have been feeling antagonized by, with many of the older British and American books. That was nice. I'm reading We and Dr. Zhivago, and very much looking forward to Cancer Ward next. I just read Perfume, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and Middlemarch. Loved it; meh; and hated it, in that order. What compelling critiques!

I finished Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun--v. good.

I finished Orlando and Slaughterhouse-Five and am now reading Of Human Bondage and Kim.
Don't know yet about 'Kim', I am having a bit of a fight with the language (old English mixed with too many Hindu (?) expressions which are not explained in the online book).

I had a tough time with Kim as well. I enjoyed the overall story but found that I had to reread a lot to pick up the subtle stuff (and I had a paper copy that had the hindu expressions explained).

Having finished Never Let Me Go, which was strangely and unexpectedly good for a "high concept" book--very thought-provoking, really, and carried off quite brilliantly--I am now reading Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Yeah, I loved Never Let Me Go.
--BJ

To slow down on the books I am reading for the group reads I started One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia. So far pretty good.

i'm working on Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell but since i'm reading it on Dailylit it'll be another month or more before i finish it, even at 4 "parts" per day.

Finished Orlando last evening. Can't say I had much appreciation for it, although I really enjoy Virginia Woolf's writing. I believe I just found it very hard to relate to this fictional character.

I loved Cloud Atlas also. First chapter was a bit slow for me, then it all went by quickly.

Finished Cloud Atlas and Madame Bovary this month. 14% read! I really liked Cloud Atlas. All the different narrators and dialects were brilliant. Struggled a bit with Madame Bovary but glad in the end to have finished it.

Finished Middlemarch. Excellent book. It's right up there with Buddenbrooks, Sense and Sensiblity, and Pride and Prejudice.

I'm still reading Les Miserables Only 400+ pages done so far - that's only about a third read. Yikes!

Apart from the unexpected lack of singing - this is simply fantastic so far!

I'm well into Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin and will finish it in the next few days. A fairly quick read.

Started Cat's Eye and hope its as good as some of Atwood's other books

Leedavies- I read Cat's Eye a few months ago. I liked it, but not as much as I loved The Robber Bride.

I just finished Giovanni's Room and it was excellent. One of the better 1001 books I've read this year. I actually wasn't particularly interested in it, but I bought it at a charity sale a while ago because it was on the list and it was only 25 cents. A great example of a great book that I'd never have read if it weren't for the 1001.

Yes I have read many books that are on the 1001 list that I have really enjoy and wouldnt have picked up otherwise. But then again I have read several that I honestly wonder why in the world the book is a classic and why it is on the list.

Yes, it certainly goes both ways, doesn't it!

Nickelini- LOVED "The Robber Bride", gave me the creeps. I actually stopped reading Cat's Eye temporarily and moved on to Ishmael, friend of mine recommended it.

Well, Cat's Eye is worth reading, so do get back to it eventually.

I'm half-way through Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker. When I first heard about this book I really wanted to read it, but it took me a while to track down a copy (the publisher appeared to be between printings). Then I found a used copy and really disliked the first page so I lost all interest and put it aside. Now I've tried it again, and I'm finding it better than I expected.

Finished Everything is Illuminated which turned out to be a wonderful book. Who'd have thought that a 25-year-old American in 2002 could write something really original, extremely funny, and absolutely heartbreaking about the Holocaust, the most written-about subject in the past century (especially among the 1001 books--I've read half a dozen in the past 2 months alone)? I doubted that this was possible but at the end of the book I was truly impressed. So impressed that I'm buying a hard-cover copy of the book because I hate the way the paperback copy cover curls. OK, I have a somewhat fetishistic attitude toward books...

Now I am reading The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West which takes us back to World War I and is interesting and sad but perhaps not actually Great.

I thought Return of the Soldier was extremely great. But I was lucky to study it at university and got to have those really fabulous conversations and a great prof that showed us things about the book that I wouldn't have noticed on my own. But now it's one of my all-time very favourites.

Loved Cloud Atlas. Was so happy to see it on the revised list. Enjoy!

Nickelini, here's my problem with Return of the Soldier: how are we supposed to sympathize with Kitty? How can we make her point of view matter? If it doesn't, then the story has an edge of, what, sentimentality? I do feel sorry for her, and I see that her life has been empty and shallow and that this is why she is so desperate for validation and completely selfish, but still. I think that the story would only be truly great, and truly tragic, if we also felt with her need to behave as she does. The narrator starts out despising both Kitty and Margaret (in different ways) but the latter view is always socially conditioned and clearly changes. What about the former?
I have not finished the book so perhaps my perspective on Kitty will change.

Finished Kafka's The Castle last week - very much enjoyed, although his caricature of bureaucracy is sometimes a little too close to the reality of the modern world for comfort!
Now I'm ROMPING through The Secret History by Donna Tartt - can't believe I've never got round to reading it before (although since I was 8 when it came out, I won't beat myself up for not swallowing it immediately). It's awesome. I can't put it down. 100 pages to go. Nobody speak to me until I'm done! :)

Cryptonomicon has been keeping me busy for all of August. 900 pages in, only 200 pages to go!

Been going through some of the shorter ones:
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata
Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb and
Quartet by Jean Rhys.

All ranging from good to great even if none of them are particularly happy...
I have couple more waiting on my desk, we'll see if I start another one yet this month...and I am very much avoiding all the 900-page monsters :)

I just re-read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte because it is the shiznit, and my go-to comfort read.

Finished Thomas of Reading **** I really enjoyed it. But then, I like Chaucer and all those olde timee guyes!

George1295 -- I clicked on your touchstone because Thomas of Reading is a 1001 I've never heard of and I wanted to take a look. But it's linking to something else entirely (which also looks interesting). Oh, the tangents we go off on .... where great discoveries are made. Anyway, who wrote Thomas of Reading?

Looked at search: Thomas of Reading by Thomas Deloney, been tagged by 7 people so looks like it*s one of the more obscure ones on the list...
What is it about, tell us more?

(btw, I read yesterday The Optimist's Daughter. Didn't particularly like it)

I'm reading The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt. I also picked Tender is the Night for my book club. I think it will be challenging for some members, but I feel we should do some older books occasionally. I was torn between Tender is the Night (which I've read) or Robber Bride (which I haven't read, but Atwood has never disappointed me). Now I kind of wish I went with Robber Bride after reading everyone's comments. Oh well, maybe next year when I get to pick the book again.

On the 1001 list, Thomas of Reading falls in the pre-1700s group. Deloney wrote this novel as a humorous honor to clothiers of that period. Deloney himself was a Norwegian silk-weaver, so he knew much about the trade and the behaviors of middle-class people of the time. The book has both humorous moments and sad moments. While it is actually a very easy read, the most difficult part of reading the book for most folks will be getting over the use of olde English in the text. For anyone interested in following up with this book, there are several on line sites from which the book can be down loaded for free.

Thanks for the info on Thomas of Reading. Sounds like something worth tracking down.

I'm just starting The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera.

I managed to finish off a few while I was on vacation...The Voyage Out, Middlemarch, and Cat's Cradle. I tried to read an oldie from the 2006 list, Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit by John Lyly, but I gave up after I realized I was 40 pages into it and was not only bored and uninvested, but I had no idea what the book was about.

The Voyage Out was my favorite of the ones I did finish, but that is probably because I had exceedingly high expectations for Middlemarch and Cat's Cradle. Not to say, I didn't enjoy them, but I wasn't blown away. Kudos though to Vonnegut for creating a new religion for his book.

I forgot, I also finished Frankenstein. This one exceeded my expectations in that it was so much more nuanced than what is portrayed in the movies. The monster is so much more intelligent and sympathetic than what he has morphed into. I feel guilty calling him a monster, but I don’t think he was ever given a name.

Spoilers ahead (kind of)… How can you begrudge the monster for only wanting a female monster companion, since all of humanity shuns and fears him? Granted he did kill several people and framed a couple more. Then interwoven with the monster’s woes, you have Frankenstein’s moral conflict over what he has created and his heartbreak over losing his loved ones. Plus it involves a dog sled chase.

MyGirl-- I had problems with Frankenstein that led me to dislike it, but as you describe, it is very, very different from the Frankenstein that we meet in movies and popular culture. I definitely think it belongs on the 1001 list, and I think everyone should give it a chance because I'm sure they'd be surprised by what the book is actually about.

Agree on Frankenstein, this was quite an amazing book, much more complex and gripping than I had anticipated. I always thought of it as a "horror" book but it is only one on a philosophical, emotional level. Loved it. Definitely a "1001" winner.

I read Frankenstein *years* ago (so long ago that I can't really give a sensible opinion of it any more), and still have my copy on the shelves from then. I've been meaning to re-read it rsn for a while now, hopefully your comments will bump it up Mt TBR a bit faster!