Elee's 999 Challenge

My categories are:

1. 1001 Books to Read list (mainly newer releases)
2. Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror
3. Classics
4. Non-fiction
5. Fiction by Australian authors (not necessarily set in Australia though)
6. Gothic fiction
7. Short-stories and essays
8. Graphic novels
9. Surprise (books that don't fit into any of the other 8 categories)

As I read a book I will strike it out in the list. Hopefully I will manage to post some of my thoughts on each book.

1001 Books to Read list:

1. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
2. Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
3. Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
5. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
6. A Room With A View by E.M. Forster

Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror:

1. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
2. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
3. Heart-shaped Box by Joe Hill
4. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Classics:

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
3. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
4. Emma by Jane Austen
5. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
6. Persuasion by Jane Austen
7. Lady Susan by Jane Austen

Yes, it's true - I have never read a book by Jane Austen. I intend to remedy that situation once-and-for-all in January and February next year when I am going to have a Jane Austen read-a-thon.

Non-fiction:

1. Joe Cinque's Consolation by Helen Garner
2. Gomorra by Roberto Saviano
3. In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 by Mary Beth Norton

Fiction by Australian authors:

1. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
2. The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville
3. The Secret River by Kate Grenville
4. The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville
5. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
6. The Riders by Tim Winton
7. March by Geraldine Brooks

Gothic Fiction:

1. The Thirteenth Tale by Dianne Setterfield
2. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
3. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
4. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas de Quincey
5. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
6. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
7. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
8. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
9. Dracula by Bram Stoker

Short-stories and Essays:

1. Girl with Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace
2. This is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life by David Foster Wallace
3. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
4. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
5. Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace

Graphic Novels:

1. Watchmen by Alan Moore
2. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
3. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
4. Fables: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham
5. The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar
6. Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan
7. Palestine by Joe Sacco
8. Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale

I decided to change this category from YA fiction to graphic novels mainly because I am reading The Complete Maus at the moment and have fallen in love with it. I've only recently become interested in graphic novels but I think it is very likely that I will want to read many more next year, whereas there are no YA novels I'm particularly desperate to read at the moment. Besides, any YA novels I do read in 2009 can just go in the surprise category anyway. The graphic novels on my list are ones I've read about on other people's threads for the 999 challenge that sound interesting to me. I'm very excited about this category now!

Surprise:

1. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
2. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
3. After Dark by Haruki Murakami
4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I love your Gothic Fiction category. Hope you post reviews/notes on them.

Some great reads in the Gothic section. Have you read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde already? If not, I recommend that you add that classic gothic to your list.

Good luck with the Jane Austens - personally I don't like her writing (I was put off by Mansfield Park) so hope you do enjoy her, otherwise you will have a couple of months of miserably reading!

I agree that the Gothic Fiction category is fantastic. I do envy you discovering Jane Austen for the first time!

Some people love everything Jane Austen has written and re-read her every year - you might be one of those. However, you will love Pride and Prejudice.

Good reading!

- TT

I'm still working on reading all of the Jane Austen. I absolutely love her works (or at least the three I've read so far). And I concur with TT, Pride and Prejudice is amazing. It's my favorite.

Thanks everyone!

I'm going to start with Jane Austen and try to read all her works in one go, however I deliberately made the category "Classics" and not just "Jane Austen" so that I can give up after one or two if I want and fill this category with the many other classics I haven't read yet. I've seen several of the movies based on her books so I have some idea of the stories and think I will like them, but I won't know for sure until I start I guess. It is entirely possible that I will hate them!

Thanks for the tip sanddancer, I forgot about Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and have now added it to my list. In case anyone is interested, my source for the list of gothic fiction is the article of the same name on Wikipedia. I went through, made a list of those that sounded interesting, read a little about them on Amazon, and chose the ones I thought I'd like best. It was fun :-)

ooo I love the books you have chosen so far - I've read quite a few of them and enjoyed them too! The gothic category is great, especially for winter reading. I agree with the above that P&P is great and I would recommend starting with that one. I've read all of them except Persuasion and Northanger Abbey so I've got them on my 999 list. Just for fun, if you haven't already seen it, you should watch the movie 'Becoming Jane' too.

>11 VictoriaPL:, VictoriaPL - oops, I forgot to respond to your post, sorry. I am going to try very hard to post my thoughts (without spoilers!) about everything I read for this challenge. I only joined LT a few months ago, and until then I mostly just read books for fun, and other than talking about them a little with people in real-life, I never bothered to write my thoughts down or really think in a formal way about what I had read, except for school, of course. I would like to get in the habit of thinking critically about what I read so that I get more out of the experience. Plus, I figure I love reading what other people write about the books they read, so it's only fair that I give a little back :-)

>17 kiwiflowa:, kiwiflowa - you've tipped me over the edge - I'll definitely read Pride and Prejudice first. I haven't seen 'Becoming Jane' but it looks very good and I think I would like it a lot. It would be fun to watch it while I'm in the process of reading Jane Austen's books. My cousins also have quite a few of the BBC Jane Austen movies on DVD that they said they will lend to me. I think I will aim to watch the movie after I read each book.

Don't forget to go ahead and watch Clueless after reading Emma.

#19 Clueless is such a funny movie. I went to see Hamlet this weekend, and I could not get that movie out of my head during Polonius' big speech. She knows her Mel Gibson!

Elee, you have so many wonderful book choices on your lists. I can't wait to hear all about them. :)
--BJ

Ooh! You have to tell me how you like Ender's Game. It's definately going to be on my challenge somewhere. Your challenge has some great reads!

I've already had to switch out one of the books on my list because I couldn't wait till next year and read it already! Things have been quiet at work for awhile so I decided to download and read an ebook from Project Gutenberg to keep myself occupied. Since it was already on my mind as I've been watching "Jekyll" on DVD (which is excellent by the way) and sanddancer also recommended it, I decided to read The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I was not disappointed - what an excellent story! Because I wanted to add it to my library I decided to buy a copy and managed to find one at my local bookstore for only $6 - bargain! I've decided to add Dracula to my Gothic Fiction list to fill the 9th spot. I've had my eye on The Annotated Dracula for a few weeks, so I might use this as an excuse to buy it.

Hi Elee - I've also been meaning to read A Room with a View - maybe I'll have to read it before this year ends and the challenge starts. Ender's Game is great - I went on and read most of that series a couple of years ago. I also loved The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon is one of my favourite writers.

Thanks avatiakh for the recommendations for Ender's Game and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Amazing Adventures in particular I KNOW will be good, but I think it's size kind of puts me off. I've only read Wonder Boys and Summerland by Michael Chabon but I thought both were great. I've been meaning to read A Room With a View for quite awhile. There was a movie of it on TV the other night and even though I missed the first half hour, I loved it, and am even keener to read the book now.

Yes - I want to read A Room with a View because of the movie! I had to do his A Passage to India at highschool and hated it.

Hi Elee - you have some neat lists. I did the 888 challenge this year and had a category devoted to old gothic novels, which turned out to be one of my favorite categories. I thought I'd offer a suggestion. Northanger Abbey plays off a lot of the older gothics, but especially The Mysteries of Udolpho, so I recommend reading it either after Udolpho or right before.

Thank you for the suggestion CarlosMcRey :-) I will now plan to read Northanger Abbey and The Mysteries of Udolpho close together. I've just been looking at your 888 challenge thread - you've done very well and your comments and reviews are great.

I was just checking out your categories when I noticed you have listed four books by David Foster Wallace. I plan to include his Infinite Jest in my challenge. Did you know he apparently committed suicide in September this year? I haven't read any of his books or essays but I believe he was a very talented writer who had suffered from depression for a long time.

I see you have included Joe Cinque's Consolation
in your nonfiction category. It is brilliantly written and the story seems almost unbelievable in its outcome. I hope you find it a rewarding read and I would like to know what you think of the story after you have finished the book.

Nice list! I really like your Gothic Fiction category; I would probably have 'stolen' the idea if I would have enough gothic fiction books available...

Also, Ender's Game is great!

Nice lists! I'm have Australian fiction and Jane Austen for my 999, too. Your gothic category sounds interesting.

> 28 Hi socialpages. I read Infinite Jest earlier this year and thought it was absolutely amazing - difficult and complicated for sure, but worth the challenge. I was so sad to read about the death of David Foster Wallace and especially the fact that he had suffered from depression for a large part of his life. I highly recommend Infinite Jest and look forward to reading your thoughts when you have finished. The Broom of the System, which I read a couple of months ago, is very good too.

> 29 mrspenny, I've been planning on reading Joe Cinque's Consolation for about a year now. At work last year I had to read some court transcripts from the trials of the two girls involved in this case. It was fascinating and I've heard good things about Helen Garner's research into the case. My cousin who is studying law has read the book and thought it was excellent too.

> 30 and 31 - thanks Kettricken and chanale :-) I'm off to check out your lists now.

We have quite a few of the same categories (1001, non-fiction, Australia, graphic novels)!

Kavalier and Clay and Dorian Gray are two of my favorite books (ever!--for emphasis), so I hope you like them! Also, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is my second-favorite Chabon book, which it seems you haven't read, so if you have time, I'd suggest that one too.

Great choices for the graphic novels! V for Vendetta and The Rabbi's Cat are fantastic. While I read Exit Wounds, I had some qualms about it, but it's stuck in my head, so I must have liked it! :) I know everybody loves Watchmen, but I don't think I "got" it - some parts are great, but some are just messy. I'll be interested to see what you think of Palestine - SqueakyChu recommended it for me and it's on my amazon wishlist.

>33 kurohyou:, kurohyou, thank you for the recommendations for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Picture of Dorian Gray, especially the added "favourite books ever!" for emphasis :-), because I need a little push to convince me to tackle Kavalier and Clay because it's so big and it's been hanging around on my shelves for a long time. I'm more excited about it now :-)

>34 -Eva-:, bookoholic13, thanks for your thoughts on my choices for the graphic novels. I plan to start Watchmen soon and it's good to know in advance that it might require a fair bit of attention.

Thanks for your comments on my thread! I've heard good things about Tim Winton, so I will probably add Dirt Music to my list.

So sorry about what I said about Australian Universities! *blushes* I didn't even think that that might offend anyone. And now I feel like a typical American. Whoops. I didn't mean that our universities are better--there are some pretty bad ones, I'm sure. I just meant that I've heard from other students at my college that the universities they went to in Australia for study-abroad were easier than the college I go to.

Anyways, I'm heading to University of Sydney, and I'm super excited about it! I see you're in Brisbane though--do you know much about Sydney?

Ooh! I love your graphic novel selection! Fables is one of my favorite series and Watchmen is amazing. I'm looking forward to your thoughts on these.

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

***VAGUELY SPOILERISH REVIEW***

As I have seen one of the movie versions of Pride and Prejudice (the most recent one with Keira Knightley as Elizabeth), my thoughts on the book were mostly related to my thoughts on the movie and the contrasts between the two.

First, I found the movie far more romantic than the book. Maybe it’s all those sweeping views of the countryside, long lingering looks between the lovers, and orchestral music that make the movie more romantic, because I have to admit that I didn’t find the book very romantic at all. For example, what should be the most romantic part of the story is over and done with in one paragraph and what the two characters in question actually say to each other is left out. I was expecting more because that part in the movie was so lovely and romantic.

On the flip side, I found the book very funny, much more so than I expected from having seen the movie. For example, in the movie many of the characters just come across as silly and self-absorbed – in a word “ridiculous”, as Elizabeth repeatedly describes Mr Collins. However, in the book I was deliciously shocked by how cruel many of the characters are to each other, and there attempts to disguise it as fond feelings and good wishes towards their friends and family members. For example, Mr Collins’ letter to Mr Bennet in regards to Lydia - “The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this...for the consolation of yourself and Mrs Bennet, I am inclined to think that her own disposition must be naturally bad...” How is that a consolation! The one-upmanship with the neighbours was very entertaining too – as Mr Bennet says “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?”

On the subject of Mr Bennet, his dislike of his own family was also a bit of a surprise to me, as I thought he seemed quite lovely in the movie. In regards to his wife we are told that “...he was very little otherwise indebted, than as her ignorance and folly had contributed to his amusement.” Also, he says to Lizzy, that “Wherever you and Jane are known, you must be respected and valued; and you will not appear to less advantage for having a couple of – or I may say, three very silly sisters.” But then again he appears not to have very favourable views of women in general – “Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then. It is something to think of, and gives her a sort of distinction among her companions.” The girls can give as good as they get though - I loved how horrible Miss Bingley was. For example, she says to Mr Darcy in regards to Lizzy and her mother – “She a beauty! – I should as soon call her mother a wit.” Oohh...Miss Bingley gets her claws out!

Finally, and probably a little oddly considering that this is supposed to be a romantic story, the following is my favourite quote from the book. It is when Lizzy is talking to her aunt about their plans for going on holiday – she is cranky at men in general and decides to throw herself whole-heartedly into plans for their travels:

“What are men to rocks and mountains? Oh! what hours of transport we shall spend! And when we do return, it shall not be like other travellers, without being able to give one accurate idea of anything. We will know where we have gone – we will recollect what we have seen. Lakes, mountains, and rivers, shall not be jumbled together in our imaginations; nor, when we attempt to describe any particular scene, will we begin quarrelling about its relative situation.”

Just yesterday I was at a friend’s place and she had a copy of Pride and Prejudice on the coffee table. I read out this part to her complete with actions (dramatic hand clenches in the air on each of the italicised words) and she thought it was very funny ;-)

All in all, Pride and Prejudice was a great start to the 999 challenge. I wouldn’t rate it as one of my all-time favourite books, but I certainly enjoyed it. I’m now just over half-way through Sense and Sensibility, also by Jane Austen. I like it, but not as much as Pride and Prejudice. I am also reading The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson, for some contrast but mainly because I was impatient to begin it.

2. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

**KIND OF SPOILERISH REVIEW - ONLY A LITTLE BIT**

I read Sense and Sensibility straight after reading Pride and Prejudice, and to begin with that was a bad idea because I could not settle into the book and amazed myself by how little I was reading each day. I think two Jane Austen’s in a row was just too much for me, but also I just wasn’t finding Sense and Sensibility as interesting as Pride and Prejudice. After a few days I realised that some contrast might be helpful so I also started reading The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson. It did the trick and I actually started to enjoy Sense and Sensibility.

Sense and Sensibility is about two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, and takes place over the course of a rather busy year as they move house with their mother and younger sister, make many new acquaintances, go on a lengthy trip to London, and fall in and out of love several times each. That’s pretty much the story in a nutshell, however what that summary doesn’t reveal is that, like Pride and Prejudice, the story is quite funny and full of amusing characters. Also, I’m not sure whether it was just reading two Jane Austen’s in a row and my brain was overloaded, but I really felt more of a chick-lit vibe from Sense and Sensibility that I didn’t pick up in Pride and Prejudice. Perhaps it’s just becoming clearer to me why modern writers like to re-work the plots of Jane Austen’s novels and set them in more modern times. For a start, the characters are so familiar. Everybody knows someone who is as self-centred and mean as Miss Bingley in Pride and Prejudice or Lucy Steele in Sense and Sensibility. Everybody has either had their own heart broken or knows somebody else who has by someone who seemed to really care for you and then turned out to already be attached to somebody else. I think the main reason why Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility are such fun reads though is the fact that, despite the interference of Miss Bingley and Lucy Steele, everything works out in the end and the good girls win – I’m a sucker for a happy ending :-)

So, book two for the year is done and dusted. I enjoyed Sense and Sensibility not quite as much as Pride and Prejudice, but it was still a great read. I look forward to reading more of Jane Austen’s novels later in the year, but I’ve decided to take a break and complete some books in other categories. I’m currently half-way through The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson, and about a quarter of the way through Watchmen by Alan Moore.

thank you, thank you for the spoilerish warning about P&P (but really, how can I be this old and not know what it's about?? :) I'll be back after reading it to see your comments.

I just noticed that you have March under your Australian writers category. I didn't even realize that Brooks was Australian! I'm looking forward to the book.

No worries detailmuse! I would hate to ruin a book for anyone. It doesn't matter how old you are when you first read a book, you still deserve to read it without it having already been ruined for you.

cmbohn, I'm looking forward to March too. I recently got copies of March, People of the Book, The Secret River, and The Idea of Perfection at a huge second-hand booksale we have in Brisbane twice a year (it's the biggest second-hand booksale in the Southern hemisphere), so I'm all set for my Australian category.

3. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

**NO SPOILERS UNLESS YOU COUNT WHAT YOU'D READ ON THE BACK OF A BOOK AS A SPOILER**

The Girl Who Played With Fire is book 2 in the Millennium trilogy, and having already read the first book, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo last year, I knew what to expect and was not disappointed. I am actually not a huge fan of crime fiction – I prefer to watch crime shows on TV rather than read crime stories, although I do like the Dexter novels – but I am a big fan of these books. There are very simple reasons for that. The two books that have been published so far in the Millennium trilogy both have interesting main characters, and plots that are detailed without being confusing. Also, the fairly long chapters are divided into small sections (some are only a paragraph or two long, the longest would be around 5 pages) which makes the books easy to pick up and put down and therefore easier and faster to read, and the action switches between the main characters quite often which helps to maintain interest. For me at any rate (and apparently many other people because the first book has apparently sold more than 5 million copies worldwide) I find these books difficult to put down. Finally, for sheer interest factor, the Millennium trilogy were written by Stieg Larsson, a Swedish journalist and author, who also set the books in Sweden. I quite like books that are set somewhere that is unfamiliar to me, like Sweden, but that is similar enough to Australia that the differences are not too distracting. Basically, it just adds another dimension of interest to the book.

I don’t want to ruin the story so I will not write any more about the plot than what is written on the back of the book. The two main characters of The Girl Who Played With Fire, and the previous book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, are Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist who in both books finds himself acting the part of private investigator, and Lisbeth Salander, a young woman with apparent psychological problems (she’s under guardianship and has no control over her own money) who is a brilliant researcher and ends up working with Mikael to solve the crimes that form the crux of each story. In the second book the crime is the murder of two journalists who are investigating the sex trafficking industry within Sweden, and unfortunately Lisbeth Salander becomes the prime suspect. The Girl Who Played With Fire actually ties up a few unanswered questions from the first book regarding Lisbeth’s background and the events that made her who she is. For that reason I really think that to get the most out of the second book it would be best to read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo first, although I recently read a review of this book in a newspaper that suggested that it wasn’t necessary since each book has a stand-alone plot.

So far, The Girl Who Played With Fire, is the best book I’ve read this year (please don’t hate me, Jane Austen fans!), and I can’t wait until the third and final book is released in January next year. At the moment I’m still slowly making my way through Watchmen – I’m enjoying it, but only in small doses. I’m about half-way through, and will probably start reading The Thirteenth Tale soon to keep things interesting.

4. Watchmen by Alan Moore

**SPOILERS AHEAD - READ AT OWN PERIL**

Hhmmm....I’m still trying to work out exactly what I think of this book. I wrote down some thoughts straight after finishing it and then didn’t think about it again for about a week. The whole thing is almost a blank now so I’m going to have to work mainly with my notes. Let’s see...

Well, it took me awhile to understand who was who in the story and to work out what the story was about. Actually, I think it probably took me about 4 chapters for the clouds of “huh” to lift and the light of “oh, OK, I get it now” to shine – on the one hand, that doesn’t seem like that big a deal (in an average book that might only be 50 pages), except that Watchmen is only 12 chapters long so it took me 1/3 of the book to settle into it. I’m not sure if that’s just how the book is, or if I was having problems with it. It might be the graphic novel format because I’ve only read a couple of them and sometimes find them challenging because my brain is used to interpreting words, not pictures. Anyway, once I did figure out what was going on I found the story very interesting. Basically, it’s about a group of masked avengers (only one of them is actually a super hero, due to being exposed to nuclear radiation in a workplace accident) known as the Watchmen, retired for the most part, who are trying to get on with their lives but can’t escape their pasts, and now slowly appear to be being picked off one by one by some shadowy opponent. I don’t know much about art, and pretty much nothing at all about comic book art, so it really doesn’t mean anything at all when I say that I liked the pictures ;-) It’s slightly more revealing when I say that I liked the writing, and thought that some of it was quite beautiful, especially the part where Laurie is on Mars with Jon:

“...but the world is so full of people, so crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace and we forget...I forget. We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another’s vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away. Come...dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly.”

I also liked how you really got to know each of the main characters in the story – my favourites were Laurie (Silk Spectre II) and Dan (Nite Owl II) – and their background, especially because of the passages of writing in between each chapter (book excerpts, newspaper clippings, etc.). Incidentally, I’ve seen the previews for the Watchmen movie coming out soon and it looks excellent, but I’m wondering how the text sections of the book will be dealt with in the movie because I don’t see how they can just leave them out.

Now for some things I didn’t really like about Watchmen, or at least my experience of reading it. I found the political background to the story hard to follow – basically I’m too young and from Australia, so the political stuff just went right over my head. That’s not the books fault at all, it’s mine, but it did detract from my enjoyment of the story somewhat. I understood the gist of the political situation in the alternate world of the book, but I think if I knew more about the actual political situation between America and Russia during that period of time it would have vastly increased my understanding of the actions of the characters in the book.

I also found the end of the book a bit odd. Basically, I just went “Woah, Veidt did what! And you’re all just going to let him get away with it!!” Actually, I found each hero’s reasons for their actions a bit unbelievable throughout most of the book. For me anyway, the “mask killer” plot would have made a much better ending – somebody with a grudge going after each of the Watchmen. That’s what I thought the book was going to be about so the end came as a huge surprise. The last part of the book with Adrian’s island and the creature in New York was just plain bizarre. So, I kind of went from being a bit iffy about the book in the beginning, to liking it quite a lot in the middle, and then feeling iffy about it at the end again.

Basically, I’m glad I read Watchmen – it was interesting, has made me want to read more graphic novels, and I’m looking forward to the movie because I think it looks excellent – but it certainly isn’t a favourite book. I will be interested to see how my thoughts change after seeing the movie and experiencing the story again.

5. The Thirteenth Tale by Dianne Setterfield

**SORT OF SPOILERISH REVIEW**

Wow – this is a good book. Forgive me if I am not very erudite as I am just recovering from a nasty cold and my head is still a little fuzzy, but I feel that “Wow – this is a good book” actually does sum it up quite well. Here are some reasons why:

First, it’s a fascinating gothic mystery. A young woman named Margaret Lea receives a letter from Vida Winter, an elderly and very famous writer, asking Margaret to write her biography. The catch is that Vida Winter is famous for making up a different story each time she is asked by a journalist to tell them about her past. They say “Miss Winter, tell me the truth”, and she gives them a story, “an impoverished, malnourished little thing. The kind of story that looks like real life. Or rather what people imagine real life to be...”. At first Margaret plans to say no, but then she reads Miss Winter’s most famous book, Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation, with its mysterious missing thirteenth tale, and she is captivated. As Vida Winter tells Margaret her story and reveals her secrets we also learn about Margaret and the secret her family has been hiding.

Second, it’s well-written in a way that allows for ease of reading – clear and concise so that the story itself takes centre stage. I zipped through the book quite quickly even though I was sick with a cold for the whole time and couldn’t concentrate very well. That is not to say, however, that the writing is not beautiful, because in many places it is, especially the passages referring to Margaret’s love of books:

“As one tends the graves of the dead, so I tend the books. I clean them, do minor repairs, keep them in good order. And every day I open a volume or two, read a few lines or pages, allow the voices of the forgotten dead to resonate inside my head. Do they sense it, these dead writers, when their books are read? Does a pinprick of light appear in the darkness? Is their soul stirred by the feather touch of another mind reading theirs? I do hope so. For it must be very lonely being dead.”

I loved this book in the same way that I love Kate Atkinson’s books – the writing is excellent, but it is the story and the characters that people it that draw you in and keep you hooked. I put this book down last night when I finished it and I was sad that I would no longer be following the lives of Margaret and Miss Winter, in the same way I am sad when I finish reading a Kate Atkinson novel.

Finally, there is one chapter in the book that is so fascinating that I’m still thinking about it – it’s called Jane Eyre and the Furnace. Miss Winter proposes this hypothetical situation to Margaret: imagine you are standing in a room with a furnace and a conveyor belt that leads into the furnace. On the conveyor belt is every copy in the world of every book you’ve ever loved (pretend that there are no electronic copies of the books). Beside the conveyor belt is a person with the controls to the conveyor belt and they are about to turn it on. You have a gun and therefore the means to stop them. What do you do? Miss Winter says to Margaret “Remember, this person burns books. Does he really deserve to live?” Margaret thinks the game is too extreme and lets all the worlds copies of Shirley, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Ayre be incinerated. In the back of my copy of the book there are reading group questions and one of them asks what book on the brink of destruction would have you pulling the trigger. What I want to know is, couldn’t you just knock the idiot with the controls over the head with your gun and decide what to do next while they’re unconscious. I think I’m just avoiding the question because it’s too difficult!

After reading The Thirteenth Tale there has been a change in my rankings – this is now the best book I’ve read this year. I am now reading Girl With Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace and The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett.

6. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

I very rarely ever re-read books. There are just so many books that I own and want to read, not to mention books I don’t own that I would like to read, that I usually find it uncomfortable to re-read a book. It just feels wrong to me, like I am wasting my finite amount of reading time. I often wish I could get rid of this feeling but I think the only way that will happen is if I learn to speed read :-) Having said that, I actually read The Colour of Magic probably about 5 years ago so this in fact was a re-read. However, I remembered almost nothing about the book and chose to read it for a specific reason so I’m going to count it as a first read.

I bought The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, the first and second books in the Discworld series, at the same time, pretty much straight after reading and loving Good Omens, which was co-written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It was both my first Pratchett and my first Gaiman and I assumed that if I liked Good Omens I would like other books Terry Pratchett had written (for some reason I already knew about Terry Pratchett but not about Neil Gaiman, so it took several years for me to read another book by Neil Gaiman, whose books I now love, but I immediately attempted another Pratchett – it’s weird how that can happen). So, I rushed out to buy some of the Discworld books, certain I would like them, and eagerly read The Colour of Magic...and I just didn’t like it. It was just so different from Good Omens and at the time I was just starting to like the fantasy genre, and I just didn’t get it. It was kind of funny but not enough so for me to attempt the second book. So, they sat on my shelves for about 5 years, until last week. I have recently made friends with a couple of people who love the television show Dr Who as much as I do and they also love the Discworld books. I owned up to not particularly liking Terry Pratchett which they didn’t quite understand but were willing to look past ;-) However, I was listening to them talking about the Discworld novels and one in particular called Carpe Jugulum, which is much later in the series, and it sounded so funny that I thought “You know, I really think I should give Pratchett another go”. So, the next day I took The Colour of Magic with me on a longish train journey and read about half of it, and lo and behold, I liked it. It’s funny, which I already expected, but it’s also an interesting story, which seemed to escape my notice last time I read it. So, for pretty much the first time ever, I actually enjoyed a re-read. It’s now got me worried though about all the other books I’ve attempted and abandoned! How many other books are there that I would actually enjoy if I tried them again, and how am I supposed to tell them apart from the riff-raff?

When I began The Colour of Magic I had already started reading the short-story collection Girl With Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace, which I’m still reading whenever I think my brain can handle the weirdness of DFW. I have also begun The Light Fantastic, the second Discworld novel. Unusually for me, I actually have 3 books going at once. On Saturday I stumbled across a cheap copy of The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, which I am enjoying so much that I’m deliberately stretching it out by making myself read some of the other two books. As a consequence, The Light Fantastic and Girl With Curious Hair kind of feel like punishment right now. They’re like the healthy food you make yourself eat before you can have dessert ;-)

7. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
Don’t have anything to write about this really. I enjoyed it – it was funny and a quick read. I can see myself buying and reading one of these books every time I need to be cheered up. Actually, that’s a good plan. I might do that.

I managed to set The Complete Polysyllabic Spree aside for a few days while I finished The Light Fantastic (very proud of myself), but I'm looking forward to finishing it because it's fascinating and very funny. As much as I want to read Girl With Curious Hair, it's kind of daunting. I'm about half-way through but I keep avoiding it. I am smart enough to read this book, I am smart enough to read this book...

I read The Complete Polysyllabic Spree over the christmas break (couldn't wait for Jan 1 to start my challenge). I agree it was very laught out loud funny although I didn't know many of the books he reviewed. I like the way his chapters started with two lists: one for the books he bought and the other for the books he read. They rarely matched.

Thanks for the review of The Girl Who Played with Fire. I read the first book a few weeks ago and am having trouble not diving into this one immediately. I'm going to use it as my reward for finishing The Brothers Karamazov.

WOW, my last post was at the end of February! Life has gotten in the way and my reading has slowed waaaaaaaaay down :-( This year I've gone back to uni to do a Graduate Diploma of Education to be a primary school teacher. Before school started I was a bit deluded about the amount of work required and really thought I'd be able to read at least 50 books this year. Not ... going ... to ... happen. Oh well, I'm not going to get anywhere close to completing the 999 challenge, but I have enjoyed what I've read so far this year (13 books so far). I've updated my categories above and here are some quick thoughts about those books:

I began reading Heart-shaped Box when I got into a bit of a rut with Girl With Curious Hair and while finishing off The Complete Polysyllabic Spree. Oohhh... Heart-shaped Box is a little bit scary and a whole lot gross, but the premise for the story (buying a ghost who then refuses to go away) is fascinating and it was well-written (IMO anyway). While at my cousin's house the other day I noticed she had a copy of the book and asked her what she thought. Apparently she found the book so disturbing that she couldn't finish it, so if you get scared or grossed-out easily I probably wouldn't recommend it.

I enjoyed The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, more so at the beginning than at the end (as the book progressed the author tended to go off on tangents too often and just generally rambled). It's a lot of fun to read about other people's reading habits. socialpages, I too loved comparing the 'Book's Read' and 'Books Bought' lists, and reading about the months where he hardly had anything to write about because he couldn't settle to a book and read a whole lot of little bits but didn't finish anything (I know how that feels).

Girl With Curious Hair was OK. Some of the stories were better than others. I particularly liked the first story (Little Expressionless Animals) and the last story (Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way). As always with anything by David Foster Wallace I have my post-its handy to mark my favourite parts. Here's one of my favourite parts from 'Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way':

"Mark listens. It's true: he's special. They're both special. (But I'm not special, and chances are you're not - we can't all be special, obviously; not enough room for a crowd that big in here. Suck it up.)"

I then moved on to People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, which was fascinating. I loved the backwards and forwards of the story - bits and pieces about the history of the Haggadah and then back to Hanna in the present trying to understand the clues she uncovered during the conservation of the book.

You know how sometimes you just want to read something that's kind of trashy but not terribly so? Well, I was feeling like that when I decided to read Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris and it hit the spot. It was easy to read, and a bit silly, but fun as well. I have some more of the books in the Sookie Stackhouse series and will probably read the second book soon.

And that brings me up to date. I'm now reading Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre (about a quarter of the way through). So far I'm quite enjoying it and I know there are going to be quite a few plot twists coming up so I'm looking forward to finishing it.

Welcome back. Uni work has to come first though it's a pity you can't combine your course books with your challenge books. Perhaps you'll have more time to read during the semester break.

Aaahhhhh, I love holidays :-) More time for reading......

I finished Vernon God Little this afternoon. I'm still trying to digest it, but basically I can see why it won the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Best First Novel Award, and why it is included in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list, but I can also see why people think it is utter trash and vulgar. I personally thought it was brilliant. Why? Because of passages like this:

" 'Lemme tell you something for free - you'll have a honey of a life if you love the people who love you first. Ever see your ma choose a birthday card for you?'
'No.'
He laughs. 'That's becausen there ain't the hours in a boy's agenda to watch her stand and read every little word in those cards, turn every feeling over in her soul. You probably too busy hiding the thing in you closet to read the words inside, about rays of sunshine the day you came into the world."

I liked it in the same kind of way I like books by David Foster Wallace.

I'm now reading Enduring Love by Ian McEwan, which is also on the 1001 Books list. I'm about 5 chapters in and so far it's fantastic. I've had good luck so far with reading books from that list.

I read Vernon God Little a couple of years ago and loved it.

As I'm from New Zealand I have been trying to read more NZ and Australian books. Very interested in your Australian authors section.

Enduring Love is wonderful -- among McEwan's very best.

My problem with Vernon God Little was that it was clearly written by someone who had never been in the place his novel was set. The false notes kept driving me from the story. I do understand why it won several British awards -- it very much fit with how the world sees Americans, rather than how we see ourselves or how we really are. I think it would have been a stronger book had DBC Pierre set it in his native Australia. The bits that shone were the ones universally true.

Thank you for the comments dianestm and RidgewayGirl :-)

RidgeWayGirl, I finished Enduring Love yesterday and thought it was excellent. I've only read one other book by McEwan - Atonement - and I was surprised, given how good I thought Atonement was, that I liked this one better. It's a fascinating story and beautifully written.

I can see your point about Vernon God Little and it's interesting to compare the writing of DBC Pierre to that of McEwan (I read the books one after the other which is why I'm comparing them - otherwise they really don't have anything in common). In both Atonement and Enduring Love I found myself forgetting that this was fiction. Both felt like stories that McEwan had observed and was then relaying to us as readers. I can see what you mean about how there isn't this smoothness in Vernon God Little. McEwan's stories feel real, DBC Pierre's feels made up. I think both have their place though in fiction.

I'm reading a few different books at the moment, alternating depending on my mood. I'm reading His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina by Danielle Steel. I've never read a book by Danielle Steel, although I have seen some of the movies based on her books. I remember seeing an episode of Oprah years ago where Danielle Steel talked about her son and his struggles with Bipolar Disorder and subsequent death. Having studied Psychology it's a topic I'm interested in so when I saw the book at a second hand store I snapped it up. I'm about 1/3 of the way through but have put it down and not picked it up for awhile. I'm also reading Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart by Gordon Livingston, who, interestingly (I can see a pattern occurring), is a Psychologist. Basically the book is about what the title suggests - 30 true things you need to know now. I got this second hand from a friend and it looked interesting so I plucked it from my shelves the other day. Finally, I began Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho yesterday. The pattern is complete - this book is largely set in a mental hospital. I had no idea until I began to type this that for some reason I've been reading a lot lately about people with psychological disorders or reading books by Psychologists. I suppose it's not so strange considering that I have a degree in Psychology (although I'm not a Psychologist and am now studying to be a teacher). I think I may need to choose a more upbeat book next though!

Well, what a difference a couple of months can make! I am now no longer at University (I quit because I hated it and worked out it wasn't what I wanted, so it wasn't worth it to continue) and am looking for a job (probably what I was doing before I went back to school - research assistant for a health promotions or Psychology based project).

My reading has been all over the place. I finished Veronika Decides to Die and must have liked it because I read it in about two days. I stopped reading His Bright Light and Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart because I wasn't enjoying either of them. I read The Time Traveler's Wife as it was recommended by a friend and enjoyed it. I'm now reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith as I liked both White Teeth and The Autograph Man.

Doesn't seem like much, does it? Well, one of the reasons I quit school was because I was having so much trouble sleeping (due to stress and general unhappiness) that I gave up reading before bed. Giving up reading is just not worth it ;-)

I'm thinking though, that in this time of upheaval in my life, re-reading the Harry Potter books might be the best medicine :-)

Good luck with your new job.

Giving up reading is just not worth it

So true! I can't think of anything in life that I'd give up reading for. You're probably better off getting out of education early if it didn't feel right to you. It can be very stressful. It's a lot of time for relatively little pay AND you spend way too much of that pay on your students!

Good luck with the job hunting. Life is way too short to be unhappy and there are far too many good books out there waiting to be read. Enjoy your time with Harry, Ron and Hermione - they're old friends of mine too. I've been thinking it's time for a reread, isn't there a new HP movie due out soon?