books, books, books

[miss buenos aires]

I didn't count it twice, that would be cheating! I don't usually read twice (in fact, I usually give books away when I am done), but I thought I would like to revisit this one... I guess I was wrong.

[Otis Westinghouse]

That was just my wounded ego talking! Shame you did revisit it as it dispelled the magic. I hate the idea of not being able to revisit books I've read and enjoyed, so I basically keep everything. There's a bit of a book overspill thing going on in this house...

[strangerinthehouse]

And I think The Outsider by Camus that's on the list is The Stranger. I believe it's sometimes translated that way. If I'm wrong, knock one off my count.
I believe it's because the expectant lifespan of a female is longer than that of a male, which means she'd have more years to read.

And I think The Outsider by Camus that's on the list is The Stranger. I believe it's sometimes translated that way. If I'm wrong, knock one off my count.

Your're right, I just checked it on Wikipedia. I'm up to twenty.

[alexv]

106. A grand total of "1" in the 2000s. Ouch. Sadly, fiction doesn't do it for me as much these days. I blame it on middle age, and a gradual, make that a steep, decline in my imaginative powers. At 816 it should be Benito Perez Galdos not Galdez. And, unless I missed it there isn't one Guillermo Cabrera Infante book on this list but we get Fear of Flying? Al diablo con la lista.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Thought you'd be over 200, but then it's true you never seem to read novels. Curious what you say about age and imagination - wouldn't reading lots of fiction feed those imaginative powers? Personally I have no loss of appetite to read, just loss of time, awakeness at night when I like to read and eyesight!

Not too surprised if they're patchy with non-English texts and I guess 'Fear of Flying' is quite significant historically. The spreadsheet offers an apology for the non-exhaustive nature of it, presumably paraphrasing from the book itself: 'It is not intended to be exhaustive. Rather, Boxall was trying to trace the development of the novel. It's a starting point, not the Final Answer!' Fair enough. It's a pretty varied and impressive list despite bvous question marks.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Recount! I've been working on my colour scheme using the Excel sheet, and entering a number for each category, and doing it this way I found that although I'm still way off MBA, my total did come to 144. I was fairly disciplined where I wasn't sure, generally with university texts from 25 years back. It's actually really hard to remember, and there are probably texts I don't have down as read which I have annotated copies of on my shelf. Also, do you have to have read the whole text? I certainly didn't always do that at uni. I thought I'd read literall all of Beckett's prose, but I just can't rcall reading the first two that appear here, 'Worstward Ho' and 'Mercier et Camier'. Where's 'Company'? ('A voice comes to one in the dark. Imagine...' a fabulous book.) Well, all a bit subjective I guess.

[alexv]

Otis, up until the last ten years or so I was a big novel reader. Something has happened. For some time now, the idea of immersing myself in a made up world, no matter how artfully that world is created, doesn't get my juices going. I'm trying to think of the last novels I've read: Harlequins, by Vnabokov; Orlando; Brideshead.... and I draw a blank. Nabokov has always been a favorite (he was a gigantically funny, perverse genius whose every sentence hits me the way those wonderful wines you enjoy must hit you); Bridey came about because of the letters, bio and SelfMMug (we need her back); Orlando was left at the train station and I had just read her letters so....

Anyway, i agree that when I read a good novel the imagination perks up a bit, but what i meant to say, and I've thought a lot about this, is that I get older something in me wants facts, facts, explanations, and the old habit of novel reading seems, well, let's just say it, a waste of time. Ifind it more and more difficult to get into the fictional narrative. Reality always seems to intrude.

I've always loved Boyle, for example, and Drop City sits in my bookcase staring at me while I wait for the inevitable movie. Same with Updike's novel about the movies. They wait for me, and all I do is dig into books about evolution, early christianity (how's that for a funky grouping), relativity, quantum mechanics (this is when I really notice the additional problem of waning brain power), Updike's collected essays and reviews; collected letters and the like. The kind of stuff I remember never, ever wanting to read (when I should have been reading it and doing better in school). I'll pause here, however, and once again recommend Byron's collected letters to one and all. Pure pleasure for all people.

I'm also harsher and harsher on novels by "youngsters". Truly unfair, and one of the blights of middle age, but it's a fact. I've read so much over the years, that Franzen (started it), Zazie (ditto), Ellis (I have to admit that whenever the movie is shown on tv I pause and enjoy it as kitsch of the purest kind), and other youngsters are not given much of a listen. It's probably me. The elders get hit hard because the new stuff (with the exception of EC Board favorite Philip Roth) just doesn't measure up: the 2000s novels by Rushide, Delillo, Pynchon, Amis seem like "jump the shark" exercises. I LOVE Rushdie and yet the last book of his I truly enjoyed was Haroun. I start the books of these old favorites and they get put down fairly quickly.

Enough with the introspection, you get the drift.

I don't have the list in front of me, but was JBarnes in there, or WBoyd? I love their early stuff (I was young, so where they so I guess all bets were off).

[Otis Westinghouse]

Is there a name for your condition? If not, I'll call it Gradgrind Syndrome! I sign up to the theory that the novel, far from being an evasion of reality, is an exploration of it. An examination of what it is to be human and how language can be used to render it. You learn loads from a good novel, whether it be straight facts that come from the contexts, or some more valuable form of insight. Clearly you've lost the desire or ability to lose yourself in narrative. The books you read are fascinating, but they won't have the same magic. As I get older and, possibly, wiser, I get more out of it not less.

Do you read Byron's poetry as well as the letters? To me the latter would only be interesting, other than at a superficial level, if read in conjunction, though in his case he was weird and fascinating enough, I guess, to merit study of his life as an art form.

Had to look up 'jump the shark'. Heard it (here probably), but didn't know it. It's a Fonz ref! He jumped over a shark on water-skis, apparently - the moment where things veer into ridiculousness and self-parody. I read all of Amis up until Yellow Dog which I own, but which got so slated I haven't dared, nor have I read his latest. I've always felt he's a brilliant writer who's never quite written the truly brilliant books he should have. Rushdie I have more or less avoided (most of his except Haroun are included). Underworld sits on the shelf too, awaiting inspection. Pynchon has only published the immense Against The Day this decade. No shark jumping for me. Huge and sprawling, immensely slow for me to read, though I should probably just lock myself up and work through it in a week, but his qualities are still intact. Haven't read Franzen either, but I thought White Teeth (you meant Zadie, right?), was great - very fresh and enjoyable.

A quick sort of the Excel sheet reveals the only Barnes is Flaubert's Parrot - surely A History of the World... should be in there, and I've also enjoyed several others of his. No Boyd at all, which is odd. Clearly there are favourites and big omissions, but I'm interested in all the ones I've never heard of who are in there: Manson, Sleigh, Hemon, McGowan, Mazzantini, Sharma, Kadare. Some of these must be in translation, though I 'm surprised that Orhan Pamuk, who is now a pretty big name and features regularly in the Guardian etc., is overlooked.

[ice nine]

The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch. A nice quick read. A companion piece to Tuesdays With Morrie.

[StrictTime]

Read God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (Vonnegut), Slapstick (Vonnegut), The Island of Dr. Moreau (Wells), and The Time Machine (Wells) recently. I've also been reading a few essays on gender, and started on Frankenstein today.

[BlueChair]

About to get started on this:



Loved Kavalier & Clay, so I'm really looking forward to this (which I've heard is even better)

[StrictTime]

I found the best deal at the local Barnes and Nobles on Tuesday. Sean (boyfriend) and I found the Lord of The Rings books, hardcover, illustrated, for $8 apiece. Needless to say we both nerded out and bought all three. Of course, if they had had The Hobbit as well, I might have fainted, nerd that I am. So instead of Frankenstein, it's all about the Fellowship right now.

[alexv]

If translation is the sincerest form of flattery, than it's a small world after all. This is UNESCO's survey on the most transalted authors.

http://databases.unesco.org/xtrans/stat ... op=50&lg=0

[BlueChair]

This is where I admit that I had never read Nineteen Eighty-Four or Animal Farm before this month. Now I have read both. Huzzah!

Brilliant works, of course. You know how it is though... sometimes when you already know the general gist of a story, you're less prone to take the time and actually read the damn book. I'm glad I did though as an adult... I think a lot of the intricacies of both stories probably would have gone over my head in high school. Would the board agree that the next Orwell I should go for is Coming Up For Air?

I'm about to delve into this one, which I've heard nothing but good things about:

[StrictTime]

Well, from the last update, I've read Frankenstein (Which I really liked), re-read all three LOTR books and a lot of the appendices (I still love them), started re-reading Sense and Sensibility but then got to the library and got: Vonnegut's Welcome To The Monkey House (title story was brilliant), and Wesley Stace's By George (Doesn't capture the magic of his debut, imo, but still very good). I'm currently working on Bluebeard (Vonnegut), which I'm enjoying quite a bit.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Would the board agree that the next Orwell I should go for is Coming Up For Air

I'd recommend it. There are lots of his I haven't read, so can't compare all, but this one has always stayed in my memory. I couldn't really tell you what happens in it. It's some 26 years since I read it, but the details are what have stayed with me, the grinding sense of mundane English 1950s suburban existence and being smothered by life. I read it in The Jam's heyday, and there are many parallels with the milieu Weller was trying to nail in songs like Private Hell and A Town Called Malice. Two particular details have never left me: the male protagonist having to hurry off for work not having washed the soap or shaving foam off his neck and the irritation this made him feel, which seemed to sum up the pathos of his entire existence, and one of the most gruesome food moments in literature when he has a sausage in the works canteen, pierces it and a grey ooze seeps out. I nearly threw up just reading it. Orwell was fantastic at details and imbuing with pathos and tragedy. He was also a wonderful essay writer. I have fond memories of my time in Berlin 20 years ago when I made a habit of spending Saturday afternoons in the American library reading Orwell essays.

[pophead2k]

Got over my relative disdain for Portnoy's Complaint (thankfully) and picked up a couple of Roth books on board suggestions. So glad I did. American Pastoral was utterly fantastic and I'm halfway through the wonderful The Plot Against America. The writing in the former is so beautiful and evocative, while the latter is plausible, suspenseful, and engrossing. Thanks for the recommendations! Next up: McEwan's Saturday.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Have yet to read The Plot.... It awaits me. Glad you like AP and the quality of the writing. So many times do you say 'wow' to his ability to nail a phrase, metaphor, concept, etc. And the story is genuinely involving.

Did you enjoy the whacking off into liver behind a billboard bit in Portnoy? As I recall, he's been trusted with buying the liver for that evening's chopped liver dinner. The bus makes him so desperate for teenage relief that he hops off, scuttles behind a billboard and decides the liver is the best place to deposit it (which now seems odd - surely he could have scattered his seed on the earth?). He then washes the liver and describes the feeling of sitting eating it with his unaware family at dinner. Some details here may be distorted at c. 25 years distance, but it was one of those memorable moments, bit like Pynchon's shit-munching scene in Gravity's Rainbow.

[pophead2k]

My God, there are so many scenes of masturbation in Portnoy's that its almost difficult to remember them all! That one does stand out though.........

[miss buenos aires]

Got over my relative disdain for Portnoy's Complaint (thankfully) and picked up a couple of Roth books on board suggestions. So glad I did. American Pastoral was utterly fantastic and I'm halfway through the wonderful The Plot Against America. The writing in the former is so beautiful and evocative, while the latter is plausible, suspenseful, and engrossing. Thanks for the recommendations! Next up: McEwan's Saturday.

Saturday is on that 1,001 Books list. I just finished Gabriel's Gift (also on the list) and am working on Greene's The Honorary Consul, which brings me up to 206, I believe...

[johnfoyle]

Just finished Anne Enright's Taking Pictures. An engrossing read, short stories told with a straightforward style, articulating with a stunning clarity the contemporary Irish condition. I still have to read her Booker Prize winner The Gathering; why should I read about a dysfunctional Dublin family when I can get that for real at home?

Next up is Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir.

[Otis Westinghouse]

My wife enjoyed Taking Pictures. Thought The Gathering was good if on the dark side (and yes, maybe a bit close to home too!).

MBA: stop showing off!

I didn't think Saturday was as good as other recent ones, a bit too in love with the loveliness of comfy living in London for rich people, with a rather unsubtle clash between that and another world, and the anti-war march is semi-irrelevant, but still well worth reading. All his books tend to be based on the impact of a devastating moment or event on normal life. I loved On Chesil Beach. Sad and beautiful. Interestingly, an article in this weekend's Guardian mag was all about his parents selling his unwanted brother illegally in a classified ad in the local rag! Seems like the devastating event motif also applies to his life.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Been reading the Lemony Snickets books with my daughter at bedtime. I hope it gets a least marginally better for the Baudelaire orphans, 'cause I'm not sure I can take 10 volumes of misery. They're a good read though.

[mood swung]

I had the same thought watching the movie, Sam.

Girl, Interrupted which I have wanted to read since watching the movie. Kind of, I don't know, self-indulgent? at times. But brief and readable. I just kept picturing Winona and Angelina.

Now on to Larry McMurtry's Comanche Moon. I think this was a miniseries on tv last fall, but I found it unwatchable. The book seems better, at least the first 40 pages.

[Otis Westinghouse]

His son's s singer, did you know? If he's the Ulysses of Americana, is Larry also deeply indebted to the Joycean masterpiece?