June 2011: What are you reading?

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June 2011: What are you reading?

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1socialpages
Juin 2, 2011, 4:34 am

I'm starting this month off with The Portrait of a Lady.

2perlle
Juin 2, 2011, 5:05 am

I'm still struggling through The Corrections but picked up Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and just flew through that one. What a unique story!

3Nickelini
Juin 2, 2011, 10:37 am

I'm rereading Lady Chatterly's Lover for my book club. Not sure if I'll bother to finish it. It's okay, but I've read it before and I have so many inviting unread books waiting.

4jfetting
Juin 2, 2011, 11:31 am

#2 - Perfume really is great. A unique story and an interesting perspective.

I'm reading The War at the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa, or will be soon, anyway.

5annamorphic
Juin 2, 2011, 11:40 am

I'm reading Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih. Another book that I'd never have picked up but for The List, and it's very good indeed. Short, too!

6xuesheng
Juin 2, 2011, 11:50 am

I'm still reading Outlaws of the Marsh, but this month I'm on Volume 2 of 5. It's an easy read, but very gory.

Also, I suggest a list of characters when you read it. Characters enter for a few chapters, the author moves on to other characters and then he brings back the earlier characters in a different setting.

7satsche
Juin 3, 2011, 9:37 am

Guess I'll read Ivanhoe and/or Catch-22. But I also have Tom Jones on my pile for a long time. I'll make my decision spontaneously.

8soffitta1
Juin 3, 2011, 10:41 am

Well, I'm nearly done with the main part of my 11 in 11 Category Challenge. So, I'll either be reading The Trial or Crime and Punishment as my last 1001 book for it.

9perlle
Juin 3, 2011, 9:14 pm

10aliciamay
Juin 4, 2011, 1:04 pm

I finished Cloud Atlas, which was superb, and have started Things: A Story of the Sixties.

11dste
Juin 4, 2011, 2:12 pm

I'm still working my way through Middlemarch. It's really long, but I'm over half way through now, so I should be finishing soon. The reason it's taking so long is that it only holds my interest off and on, maybe because it has so many characters that it keeps switching the focus between.

12nlgeorge
Juin 4, 2011, 4:15 pm

I requested copies of Cold Comfort Farm and Silk (as suggested by a fellow LTer) on an interlibrary loan. When the email notice came to let me know the books were ready to be picked up, I stopped at my local library the very next day after work... but it was CLOSED! I guess nobody wants to read after 5pm on a Friday! Picked up books and reading Cold Comfort Farm first.

13tweezle
Juin 4, 2011, 5:54 pm

I just started The Graduate. I remember watching the movie years ago, but don't remember it enough to compare it to the book.

14billiejean
Juin 4, 2011, 6:42 pm

I just started The Captive, book 5 of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.

15soffitta1
Juin 5, 2011, 3:16 am

I am now reading Part 3 of Crime and Punishment, good so far, as I expected it is dramatic and depressing.

Re 12 - I read Cold Comfort Farm for the 11 in 11 Category Challenge, very funny. Silk is another good read, short but beautiful.

Re 13. As for The Graduate, from what I remembered of the film, they lifted most of the dialogue from the book. (another book I read for the 11 in 11).

16Deern
Juin 5, 2011, 1:32 pm

I finished The End of the Affair by Graham Greene and Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. A Passage to India might be next. And I am still reading (and will be for a long time) "A Dream of Red Mansions", I just moved to volume 2 (of 4).

17arukiyomi
Juin 6, 2011, 7:34 pm

I'm alternating chapters between What a Carve Up and The Last Temptation of Christ by Kazantzakis. Both great reads so far and about halfway through each. Already read Remembering Babylon which was strange.

18annamorphic
Juin 9, 2011, 7:47 pm

Now I am reading Elizabeth Costello by J. M. Coetzee and not enjoying it at all. It's about an elderly famous writer and is structured around a series of public lectures she gives at different international venues. Most of the text is comprised of these lectures. Her audiences tend to be disappointed in them. The lecture I am currently reading is about mankind's relation to animals.

Honestly, I work at a university, and if I wanted to go to a lecture about literature or to hear a writer talk about ethics, I would go to a bloody lecture. I would not read a novel! So I am finding this most annoying. I started reading Coetzee's most famous novel, Disgrace, years ago and couldn't stand it. I am sad to see that he's another writer of whom the 1001 editors are extremely fond.

19joelwal
Juin 9, 2011, 9:55 pm

Elizabeth Costello is a difficult book, but wait until you get to the last chapter (it gets worse). When you finish EC, go back and read Disgrace - by comparison it is a much better book.

20jfetting
Juin 12, 2011, 8:38 pm

I just finished Suite Francaise, and loved it. She does a great job portraying both the French and Germans as human beings (with all the good and bad parts of being human), not just as heroes or villains. I wish she had been able to finish it.

21soffitta1
Juin 13, 2011, 8:52 am

Finished Crime and Punishment, at times it moved quickly, but the names were hellish to keep up with!
I have started Lord Jim, rather different to what I remember Heart of Darkness being like. I'm about 60 pages in, and it I think I'll enjoy it.

22chrissybob
Juin 13, 2011, 9:28 am

I read The Pigeon yesterday which I enjoyed as a quiet sunday afternoon read - now onto Felicia's Journey. I've also just ordered a few others including The Crow Road and Everything is Illuminated which I looking forward to!

23paruline
Juin 13, 2011, 9:34 am

I'm reading The tartar steppe which I find good but strangely depressing.

24dste
Juin 13, 2011, 11:48 am

I'm reading Agnes Grey. A nice, easier one after finally finishing Middlemarch.

25annamorphic
Juin 13, 2011, 5:04 pm

After Elizabeth Costello I need something big and meaty with a real plot and real characters. So I'm going to read Jude the Obscure. I liked Hardy in high school, so we'll see if I still do!

26soffitta1
Juin 14, 2011, 2:47 am

Re 22 The Crow Road is one of my favourite books. I have read it and reread it. I love the characters, the strangeness and the brilliant opening.

27Nickelini
Juin 15, 2011, 4:39 pm

I'm listening to the audiobook of Brighton Rock. I didn't know what to expect, but so far I'm liking it. I've never read Graham Greene before but he has several on the list.

28Deern
Juin 16, 2011, 2:41 am

I finished another Graham Greene book, The Power and the Glory. And I am having a surprisingly hard time with A Passage to India. I enjoyed both Howard's End and Room with a View, so I had expected to like "Passage" much more.

29chamberk
Juin 16, 2011, 7:44 pm

Greene is awesome, I've read a ton of his books and they're all pretty awesome.

Finished Dr. Zhivago, which was very good, and starting We. Maybe after this, some Fathers and Sons? I'm on a bit of a Russian kick right now...

30amaryann21
Juin 17, 2011, 1:36 pm

>28 Deern: It took me two months to get through A Passage to India. I hated it. I felt like it could have been summed up in a couple paragraphs.

31jdaniel3760
Juin 21, 2011, 8:48 am

#200 War and Peace finally finished. A good meaty read, the final epilogue was a bridge too far though. Feels so good to have finished, and I've now read 200 books in the 1001 list. 801 to go ;-)

now reading....
#201 Madam Bovary

32Deern
Juin 21, 2011, 9:39 am

#31: W&P is a more than worthy #200, congratulations on finishing! And I agree on the final epilogue, I could very well have done without it .

#30: I have now finished A Passage to India. It did have some agonizing lengths, but my problem was more the open racial prejudice and hatred in the story and the lack of likeable characters.

Next up is Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor, a book of short stories. I read the title story yesterday and it looks like I am in for another depressing read.

33billiejean
Juin 21, 2011, 12:37 pm

I started Mansfield Park. I am hoping to read all the Jane Austen books this year.

34Hoopdriver
Juin 21, 2011, 2:33 pm

I'm reading New Frontiers of the Mind (early research on ESP at Duke University, a great example of nonfiction that can be read as fiction. I'm also reading The Man Who Was Thursday and The Time Machine for two separate book groups. Then there's always the ongoing Christianity, the First 3,000 Years which a group of us have been reading for the past 8 months.

35arukiyomi
Juin 22, 2011, 8:26 am

Just picked up a rare copy of Last Days in New Guinea by CAW Monckton. If the first book was anything to go by(http://www.johnandsheena.co.uk/books/?p=1678) , I'm in for a fantastic read. Might make it harder to finish the last 100 pages of The Magic Mountain though which I'm still ploughing through.

36Nickelini
Juin 22, 2011, 10:24 am

I just started the Master, by Colm Toibin. So far so good.

37jfetting
Juin 22, 2011, 4:12 pm

I'm re-reading Wuthering Heights.

38Jennifer_Austen
Juin 23, 2011, 8:32 am

>>>37 jfetting: I just start to read Wuthering Heights. People say it's the most romantic and passionate literature ever written. I finished reading Jane Eyre not long ago and I was in love with it. Being so exceedingly impressed by one of the Brontë sisters, I really have high expectation on this one. What makes you re-read this book?

39Yanislava
Modifié : Juin 23, 2011, 10:19 am

Ce message a été supprimé par son auteur

40paruline
Juin 23, 2011, 10:23 am

After reading The Tartar steppe (which was GREAT!), I've started Waiting for the Barbarians, which was supposedly inspired by The Tartar steppe.

Yesterday, I also picked up Bonjour tristesse from the library and will be starting it soon.

41amaryann21
Juin 23, 2011, 12:57 pm

I finally made my way through The War of the End of the World and have started Their Eyes Were Watching God. I am at the beach for vacation next week, so will likely take a few books with me. Any good beach books on the list?

42arukiyomi
Juin 24, 2011, 10:30 am

Well, there's The Waves by Woolf which is possibly the most stunning novel I've ever read. Not on the list are Chesil Beach and On the Beach both by authors that have other books on the list. Personally, I think these two are better than others they do have on the list but who's asking me right...

43amaryann21
Juin 24, 2011, 11:29 am

>42 arukiyomi: I was also thinking along the lines of something appropriately named for an ocean view... Great suggestions! Thank you!

44KindleKapers
Modifié : Juin 24, 2011, 2:34 pm

Ce message a été supprimé par son auteur

45jfetting
Juin 26, 2011, 7:54 am

>38 Jennifer_Austen: JenniferAustin-
Its funny, usually about halfway through a re-read of Wuthering Heights I find myself wondering "why exactly am I reading this again?". It isn't my favorite Bronte novel (I'm like you - Jane Eyre is one of my absolute favorite books of all time), but there is something about it. Most of the characters drive me nuts (especially the Linton family), and it is pretty over-the-top in places, but I still like it. It is one of those books that changes every time I read it. I would once have called it incredibly romantic, now not so much, for example.

Now I'm reading The Guermantes Way, book 3 of In Search of Lost Time. I think I like it even more than Swann's Way.

46BekkaJo
Juin 27, 2011, 3:46 am

I'm a little unfocused... and it took this post to realise how badly.

I'm reading a chapter/section of Moby Dick and Ovid's Metamorphoses a day. I have Vile Bodies in my bag for when out. I've still got Wild Swans on the go and I am reading Jude the Obscure and Mountains of Madness as well.

It's entirely possible I should focus somewhat.

47annamorphic
Juin 27, 2011, 11:20 am

BekkaJo -- Jude the Obscure becomes more compelling as you go along. By the last 150 pages or so it's un-put-downable, even (especially) if you know what's going to happen -- you just keep thinking, what can they possibly do to end up in that situation??

Having finished that, I needed something much much lighter in every way, so I am reading short stories by Katherine Mansfield. The Garden Party was on the 1001 list for quite mysterious reasons, as it is a very short short story. So I thought I would read some of the other stories in the family sequence too, to make it a bit more bookish.

48socialpages
Juin 28, 2011, 5:36 pm

I have just finished Cold Comfort Farm which was excellent. One of the few non-depressing reads on the list. It's a parody of the fashionable rural romance novels and the books of DH Lawrence which were popular at that time. It's a fun read with great characters for example I love that Gibbons has named the cows: Aimless, Feckless, Graceless, Pointless and the bull is known as Big Business. I also read The Fox a novella by DH Lawrence which was only 64 pages which tied in nicely with Cold Comfort Farm.

49Deern
Juin 29, 2011, 4:35 am

I finished In Search of Klingsor by Jorge Volpi. I found it quite disappointing, not very well written (but maybe it's better in the original Spanish) and the "surprising twist" wasn't a surprise.

50wookiebender
Juin 30, 2011, 11:39 pm

Picked up The Thirty Nine Steps as a read of something silly and adventurous at bedtime in this crazy busy week. It's a re-read, but I haven't read it since I was a kid/teen. Didn't realise/had forgotten it was a "1001" book until I checked here.

Am disappointed that it had right at the very start a reference to "the Jew" who is behind everything in Europe. I don't remember that from my childhood reading (I just remember the adventure of it all). And it was just a bit too horrible a description to be able to dismiss as "a product of its times". Still, I shall remind myself that it wasn't our hero Richard Hannay who said it (although he didn't protest it at all either) and maybe it won't reoccur. (I say, very hopefully.)

51Nickelini
Juil 1, 2011, 2:24 am

Wookie - I had so many problems with that book that that one didn't stand out. I find a lot of subtle antisemitism in books written between 1900 & 1950. Your comment makes me think that it wasn't so subtle though. Still, when I read books from that era, I for the most part look at it as part of the culture--their attitudes toward women are even worse.

That comment might have been one of the many that turned me off--who knows--but I hated that book! Short read though.

52paruline
Juil 1, 2011, 8:13 am

Wookie - I found it quite distasteful too, but at the end, if I remember correctly, one character says something like 'yeah, that guy had some crazy ideas about Jews'.

53annamorphic
Juil 1, 2011, 11:26 am

I just finished two items that were short stories -- The Garden Party and The Nose. The latter was clearly here as an example of good 19th-century comic writing (like the James Thurber novellas in the 20th century), the former because Mansfield was a great stylist whose best (only?) work is short stories.
Now I am torn between doing the group read or starting Doctor Zhivago to continue my Russian literature kick. I'm doing Russian history this summer and want to read a bunch of stuff I haven't read before.

54xuesheng
Modifié : Juil 1, 2011, 12:00 pm

>53 annamorphic:
I'm reading and enjoying The Namesake in which the main character is named Gogol after The Nose's author. I'm glad to know that some of Gogol's works are on the list since I'm now very interested in reading them.

55arukiyomi
Juil 8, 2011, 8:52 am

@ socialpages - for non-depressing reads check out A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian or What a Carve Up!... I really enjoyed both of those. There must be others but they don't come to mind at the mo and Mrs Arukiyomi is bugging me to come to bed... can't ignore bed with the Mrs... even for books!

56socialpages
Juil 13, 2011, 4:50 pm

arukiyomi thanks for the suggestions. I've read A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and after checking the entry for What A Carve Up in 1001BYMRBYD I've added that one to my wish list as it sounds intriguing. And I'm glad to hear you have your priorities right - Mrs A come first!