Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

Due to high volume traffic causing the previous thread (of the same name) to act a bit quirky, I have opted to redirect the flow to this shiny, new thread!

Soooo, tell us which book from the 1001 Books LIST you just finished...

Good Morning, Midnight and Mrs. Dalloway. An interesting conjunction of novels with somewhat similar themes, both of which are very good.

Just finished The Golden Bowl. *shudder* I can't believe how much Henry James is on this list.

Just finished "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Hemingway. My first Hemingway and I enjoyed it.

Silas Marner. 5*

Just finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I'm kind of baffled right now after finishing this and not really sure what I feel like picking up next.

The Stone Diaries. Not sure exactly which version of the list this one appeared in, but I gave it a 3 star rating. It was very readable, & a "quick read". It was also down to earth, believable, & interesting!

I recently finished Doctor Zhivago. It was OK.

Robinson Crusoe. Ugh. Defoe takes all the excitement out of adventure.

Read Aesop's Fables and Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum this week. Both quick reads and Pie is great October reading.

Poe, not pie, but pie is great for October too!

I just finished The Ill-Made Knight, the third part of The Once and Future King. It started slowly and got better and better towards the end.

I also recently finished Candide by Voltaire which I didn't enjoy too much.

Recently finished Memoirs of Hadrian. I didn't enjoy it. I had to force myself to finish. It did pique my interest in learning more world history, so, that's a good thing. :)

Just finished The Savage Detectives. I didn't really get it to be honest. Maybe something was lost in translation, or maybe I just didn't get enough of the South American/Spanish/Mexican references.

FINALLY finished Gargantua and Pantagruel. The best part of that book was the afterword by the editor that put Rabelais' life into historical context. Bawdy Rabelais was not for me.

I just finished The Accidental by Ali Smith. I didn't enjoy it much. It had some interesting parts and thoughts but overall most of it didn't make much sense.

Excellent WomenbyBarbara Pym I enjoyed it... a funny, quick read.

The Waves Woolf, uhhhhhhh yeahhhh string of consciousness I just dont get. Well written and some spot on life/death analysis but goodness its tough with no plot and seemingly no point.

Great Expectations (good, of course, I always enjoy Dickens)
Heart of Darkness (vivid use of language, short, but dark so very dark)
The Moonstone (Wow! Thank you List for getting me to read Collins. I hope there are off-list titles too. A pleasure.)

Just finished Lord of the Flies by William Goulding. Definitely think reading this one out of the school environment allowed me to enjoy it.

Gone With the Wind. This book blew me away! I want to re-read it. I thought the writing was beautiful, highly descriptive and the story so heart-wrenching. Oh it was amazing!

Independent People. Magnificent piece of work.

Jamielynn wrote: "Gone With the Wind. This book blew me away! I want to re-read it. I thought the writing was beautiful, highly descriptive and the story so heart-wrenching. Oh it was amazing!"

I'm so glad you enjoyed! It's one of my personal favs. I re-read every few years. It never gets old.

Drop City by TC Boyle. A powerful book, very hilarious as well as tragic. Never read a better book about the hippie era.

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. It contained some interesting ideas, but it took me a while to get through it because it was a little too whimsical for my taste. Lots of sex, Czech history, and philosophizing. Certain parts of it might be upsetting to someone who is extremely feminist or who has experienced sexual abuse.

To the Lighthouse Woolf. The second Woolf in a week, I feel like I ran a marathon, well a half marathon anyway.

2001: A Space Odyssey. Found it rather interesting and unlike anything I've ever read before. I'm curious to see the movie now.

The Call of the Wild. An enjoyable, quick read.

I finished The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, which was a thoroughly typical 18th century novel. It even had a chapter entitled "Rasselas continues to muse and grieve." You really can't get much more 18th century than that.

The Cement Garden - Ian MacEwan.
A bold, but fairly unpleasant read.

Joseph Conrad The Shadow-Line
Very quick and good read. Interesting to contrast style between this and Heart of Darkness.

Everything is Illuminated. I enjoyed the story, there were some brilliant thoughts. But some parts (especially the stories of the inhabitants of Trachimbrod) were very weird.

The Conquest of New Spain It was really long. And repetitive. And I'm glad I'm done with it.

Genia wrote: "I finished The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, which was a thoroughly typical 18th century novel. It even had a chapter entitled "Rasselas continues to muse and grieve." You really can't ..."

ahahaha as someone who loves 18th century, I wholeheartedly agree.

Cecilia by Fanny Burney.

I just finished The Devil in the Flesh. This book definitely is one of the hidden gems on the list. I would probably never have come across it without the list but I'm so glad I read it!

Ellinor wrote: "I just finished The Devil in the Flesh. This book definitely is one of the hidden gems on the list. I would probably never have come across it without the list but I'm so glad I read it!"

Thank you for your exuberance on this one! I did not yet have it marked as Wish List, but have now done so.

Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West, review here.

just finished Home by Marilyn Robinson. Loved it, couldn't put it down. reminded me of The Gathering by Anne Enright

Aubrey wrote: "Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West, review here."

Aubrey you missed the best line, hat trick in a medicine show, that entire paragraph just kills me!
Great review though.

Thank you, Steve, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Mind linking me to a quote of the line in question?

Stephanie "Jedigal" wrote: "Great Expectations (good, of course, I always enjoy Dickens)
Heart of Darkness (vivid use of language, short, but dark so very dark)
The Moonstone (Wow! Thank you List for getting me to read Colli..."
Have you read The Lady in White? I thought it was unbelievable! I literally couldn't put it down- I'm looking forward to reading the Moonstone too

Ian wrote: "The Cement Garden - Ian MacEwan.
A bold, but fairly unpleasant read."

Haha much like all of his books! He's definitely an excellent writer but I don't like the subject matter of his books!

Ellinor wrote: "I just finished The Devil in the Flesh. This book definitely is one of the hidden gems on the list. I would probably never have come across it without the list but I'm so glad I read it!"

I do agree with you, a splendid book.

Just finished Correctionby Thomas Bernhard. Very difficult, but very rewarding. Also my 300th list book. Woo-hoo!

Drew wrote: "Just finished Correctionby Thomas Bernhard. Very difficult, but very rewarding. Also my 300th list book. Woo-hoo!"

Woo Hoo indeed! Well done!

Congrats, Drew!

I just finished an audio collection of Poe stories, to include "Fall of the House of Usher". (You know, October and all that). The only issue with Poe and audio is that it's hard not to zone out during the loooong flowery openings. I don't try to zone, it just happens, and then *bam* I'm back at the first mentioning of the mat of fungi growing from the front of the house...

The Leopard; that did not go well at all.

Finished Platero y yo. The descriptions are beautiful but I'm not really sure why it is a list book.

The Big Money - Dos Passos

The Big Money

This is the third in the USA Trilogy on the 1001 List.

Finally finished House of Leaves. I enjoyed it, but felt it tries far to hard to be clever.