The List
Silly me tried to take on the world, and am slowly getting bored with what it is throwing back at me. Not all that long ago i started an endeavour, i say endeavour because it has been a personal trial of sorts. The task, to read the 100 books that adorn my list entitled 'The 100 greats before you die'. Now i have tried! Truly i have but this is starting to get ridiculous, i think i have taken on more than i can handle. A set list does not work. I have found myself going out of my way to read books that are not featured and therefore undermining the whole of point of the set list!
In the past two months i have read:
- The metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
- Swans way by Marcel Proust
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Ulysses by James Joyce
- Who's afraid of Virgina Woolf by Edward Albee
- The sound and the fury by William Faulkner
- The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald
- Cell by Stephen King
- The old man and the sea by Ernest Hemingway
- Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
- Malicious Intent by Kathryn Fox
- The Rainmaker by John Grisham
(And have just started Elbow Room by James Alan)
Ive finally figured out why the list is so named. Because once begun it shall slowly kill the participant, or at least remove their desire to live :)
I am currently adding to my list, i'm going to remove some that i don't care to try and replace them with others. If you have a valid suggestion it would be greatly appreciated.
Till next we meet,
Paul
15 Misguided mentions... :
And I thought I read a lot... Valid suggestion = Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs.
This i know is true (or something liek that, i cant remember) by wally lamb.
or if you're into memoirs, Daughter of the ganges by asha miro
Dale: stop trying to make me read that book! lol, your pushing too hard.
Sharyn~ann: Thanks, my mother should have that book somewhere. She is one of those Oprah's book club people... Consider it added :)
OMG its impossible to read Proust! That right there is a very fine list, but... why the hell are you reading Stephen King? That just seems stupid!
I have many additions to make, although considering the bulk of the books you may already have them on your list. A list i shall have to take from you.
- The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
- Emma by Jane Austen
- Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
- Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
- Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome
- Mrs Dalloway Virginia Woolf
- A Passage to India E. M. Forster
- The Trial Franz Kafka
- Men Without Women Ernest Hemingway
- As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
- Pale Fire by Nabokov
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
I know some of these are cliche but they need to be mentioned none the less :)
Happy reading.
Hey Paul, nice blog. I've stopped by a couple of times and thought it about time I wrote a message! I stumbled over from The Daley news so you have Dale to blame.
It's funny, I just had my brother give me a whole heap of classics to read. I normally tend to read more modern, lighter stuff. That list looks tiring! I just finished reading Catcher in the Rye. I enjoyed it for a book where pretty much nothing happens!
Anyway, for enjoyable reading I'd recommend Neverwhere by Neil Gaimen, Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman or even Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. And if you're willing to consider graphic novels, 'Y: The last man' is great fun.
Alex.. he probably read stephen king cos it was probably a gift that was a bit of an inside joke and he probably felt obligated to read it.
I also reccommend the Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman and I can lend you them if you like. :)
Alex: OMG that is so helpful, I completely forgot about Melville. But do i really want my first Melville to be Moby-Dick... Went out and brought Emma and Catch-22 yesterday, and tried to find the Fountainhead but couldn't :(.
Luke: I shall blame him very loudly don't you worry. I too like the more modern novels, but have decided bragging rights come with classics and I've always wanted to quote Tolstoy or Poe in the context of a normal conversation... You will soon learn I am very pretentious and quite proud of that fact :)
(BTW next random fact is for you click: http://www.dcuguide.com/who.php?name=kiteman)
Dale: I can't stop laughing… She just has a way of cutting you so so deep without meaning to :)
have you read 1984 .. i hear thats good ;)
just bc its on the oprah book club list doesnt mean its bad or tacky...
and once you get done reading all the thick as hell, extremely heavy and emotionally draining books, read hairy mclary from donaldson's dairy. its a great pick me up :P
Haha, thanks for that Paul! And I love how Kiteman somehow got a mention in a blog on classic literature. :)
Interesting to see that DC's Kite-man was Charles Brown and my (vastly superior) Kiteman is Baxter Brown. Perhaps Baxter is Charles's son and fate has given him a chance to redeem the Brown name. And kites.
Good luck with all the reading and pretentious quoting. As Tolstoy once wrote, 'The'. :)
Sharyn~ann: You have taken the oprah book club comment the wrong way... I simply ment my mother lives by it, meaning because its listed she will more than likely have it :).
The reason why i like the "thick as hell, extremely heavy and emotionally draining books" is because they were writen in a completly different time with a vast amount of different styles. They are classics for a reason, and simply appeal to my taste :)
Luke: OMG i remember that quote! lol your welcome :). There is still so much we are yet to know about the mysterious 'Kiteman' but his fathers backstory gives us something to ponder...
now you're the one wo has taken the comment the wrong way. the hairy mclary comment was my pathetic attempt to be a smart ass.
and i too love the heavy duty, emotionally draining books. actually, i luv heavy duty emotionally draining anything (converstations, music, art, etc) anything that makes me....feel.
That's quite an endeavour. I'm awed by your diligence. You've done a lot of heavy reading lately!
My suggestions, while many, will be limited to two. The Stranger (sometimes called The outsider depending on the translation by Albert Camus and Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov. I noticed someone mentioned Pale Fire, but I liked Lolita much better. Or Invitation to a Beheading. That's pretty great too.
Pffft and you call yourself a reader...you should be ashamed *points finger*
Well Well uni don't start till a month from now...kinda looking forward to it, but been allocated all week...no bang
What ever will you do when you have read them all? You will have nothing to look forward to, and be reduced to browsing t.v. guides and lifestyle magazines.
I think you should commit yourself to reading the complete Proustian cycle, as part of the list. I think its title is (currently) translated as "In Search Of Lost Time". That would definitely add several years to your project.
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