Showing posts with label to read. Show all posts
Showing posts with label to read. Show all posts

03 January 2015

To read

The Sense of Style, by Steven Pinker  (recommended by RS)

Adios, Strunk and White, by Gary Hoffman (mentioned in S of S, mentioned by RS, but has this disturbing bit in its description: "Develop a distinct voice required by major university application forms..."

300,000,000 by Blake Butler, and the review mentions 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, and some other works. I'm not sure that any of this will be actually readable, but it all sounds interesting, and perhaps a peek at what the young people are writing?

Peripheral, by William Gibson, sounds fascinating, but I have found some of his stuff to be just too inaccessible. I enjoyed Pattern Recognition, and some others, though.

17 November 2014

The Guardian's list of 100 Greatest Novels

The Guardian has posted a list of "The 100 greatest novels of all time." Of these, I have read, think maybe I've read, or attempted to read 38 of them. To wit:

A= attempted; R=read; ?=I'm not sure but I may have read, or attempted this

T=thanks to my high school education; *=one of my favorite books ever

Don Quixote A
Robinson Crusoe R
Gulliver's Travels R -- my elementary school library had a really beautiful edition of this, as I recall, with illustrations, such as one of Gulliver tied down by the Lilliputians.
Tom Jones R
Frankenstein R*
David Copperfield R
Jane Eyre R
Scarlet Letter RT
Moby Dick A
Alice in Wonderland R*
The Brothers of Karamazov A
Huckleberry Finn A*
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde R
The Picture of Dorian Gray R
Jude the Obscure R
Call of the Wild ?
The Wind in the Willows R*
Ulysses R
The Trial A
Brave New World R* "a gram is better than a damn"
The Big Sleep R*
The Plague RT
Nineteen Eighty-Four R* "war is peace"
Catcher in the Rye RT--I recently re-read this, and it didn't really hold up.
Lord of the Rings R
Lord of the Flies RT
The Quiet American -- I think I only saw the movie made from this. Really should read it. Greene is always delightful.
On the Road R*--Capote said it wasn't writing, but typing, but I loved it when I read it.
Lolita R
To Kill a Mockingbird R*T--I always felt I wanted to see more from Harper Lee, but she felt that she had written all she needed to.
Catch 22 R
Herzog ?
One Hundred Years of Solitude A
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy R*--and the miniseries at least twice, and the recent movie.
Song of Solomon R
The BFG ?--not sure, but I have definitely read "The Twits."
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting ?
LA Confidential R