Monkey's 2016 TBR Corner

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Monkey's 2016 TBR Corner

Tämä viestiketju on "uinuva" —viimeisin viesti on vanhempi kuin 90 päivää. Ryhmä "virkoaa", kun lähetät vastauksen.

1.Monkey.
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 17, 2016, 11:18 am

Okay, so my list isn't quite ready yet, but I wanted to claim my spot ...so I'll have the URL to use elsewhere.
Sneaky sneaky monkey! xP

The list is ready!
(#22) 1. Les Misérables - Victor Hugo (2013) 6.12.2016
(#10) 2. Demons - Fyodor Dostoevsky (*2013) 27.4.2016
(#17) 3. Stalin's Secret Pogrom - Rubenstein & Naumov (2013) 22.7.2016
(#15) 4. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (2014) 9.7.2016
(#13) 5. A Long Fatal Love Chase - Louisa May Alcott 22.6.2016
(#11) 6. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino 22.5.2016
(#08) 7. The Last Man - Mary Shelley 16.4.2016
(#03) 8. Prison Journal - Luise Rinser 17.1.2016
(#12) 9. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë 7.6.2016
(#14) 10. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 3.7.2016
(#05) 11. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 11.3.2016
(#09) 12. Myra Breckinridge - Gore Vidal 19.4.2016

(#21) 13. The Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens 2.10.2016
(#20) 14. The Castle - Franz Kafka 10.8.2016
(#19) 15. Brighton Rock - Graham Greene 27.7.2016
(#24) 16. Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov 17.12.2016
(#04) 17. Ancestor Stones - Aminatta Forna 21.1.2016
(#07) 18. them - Joyce Carol Oates 19.3.2016
(#23) 19. And We Are Not Saved - Derrick Bell 10.12.2016
(#18) 20. Jacob's Room - Virginia Woolf 24.7.2016
(#16) 21. Beloved - Toni Morrison 11.7.2016
(#01) 22. In The Heart of the Seas - Shmuel Yosef Agnon 1.1.2016
(#06) 23. Dune - Frank Herbert 14.3.2016
(#02) 24. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown 5.1.2016

The first 4 are carryovers, Demons was technically added last time (I skipped 2015, mind), but in 2013 I'd put on Nabokov's Lectures on Russian Literature, but then decided wth am I doing, I hate spoilers I can't read this before reading the books he talks about!, so I added one of those books in place of it for the next year, and will continue to do so until they're all read!

I was going to have Don Quixote on here, but then I had a D'oh! moment and realized, wait, I never think about translations when snagging classics! And yeah, cheapo Wordsworth editions = ancient translator who is bleh, soooo I will have to acquire a proper copy sometime later, and given how much I just spent on books in the past few weeks (oops? >.>) I just can't buy yet another one I don't need now. Soooo it'll wait! And, just a note on #24... it is not my choice to read this! But, my stepmother loaned it to me, ohhhh like 8? years ago now because I just had to read it, and I tried to say no but she insisted and I couldn't protest any more without being rude. So I figured, I really ought to get it read and just be done with it, send it back with my mom when she visits in the summer. She probably doesn't even remember I have it but, well, yeah. Lol. xD So there we go, bring on 2016! :P

 

2Cecrow
joulukuu 3, 2015, 2:29 pm

The anticipation!

3.Monkey.
joulukuu 3, 2015, 2:49 pm

Hahaha. It's half done, and then I have another bunch of "something by X" "something from pile X" etc. Soooo not too far off. Just need to narrow down the specifics! :P

4artturnerjr
joulukuu 7, 2015, 8:35 pm

Looking forward to it! :)

5.Monkey.
joulukuu 8, 2015, 3:00 pm

And the list is up!

6artturnerjr
joulukuu 8, 2015, 6:56 pm

>1 .Monkey.:

I read Wuthering Heights when I was a sophomore in high school, iirc - didn't enjoy it, but as a teenage boy, I was hardly Ms. Brontë's target audience. I read Dune when I was a little older (in my twenties); I was disappointed in that one, too, although I suspect that had more to do with it being constantly hyped as THE GREATEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OF ALL TIME than any particular lack of merit on the book's part (I suspect I would appreciate both books more now, actually).

As for The Da Vinci Code - shit, Mel, you can probably knock that one off in half an hour lol. Be forewarned, however, that if you find historical inaccuracies infuriating, you'll probably want to fling your copy against the wall at least once or twice while you're reading it; please make sure there are no small children or animals in the area at these times. ;)

7Petroglyph
joulukuu 8, 2015, 8:37 pm

Nice list! Looks like a good mix of the entertaining with the serious.

Les Mis I've always loved -- it's grand, melodramatic, and very, very solid.
The Three Musketeers: a fun 19thC adventure romp.
If on a winter's night a traveller: neat conceit and a lovely book about books and reading. Probably was as entertaining to write as it is to read. I've re-read the book (twice? I forget) and enjoyed it every time.
Wuthering heights I found weird but compelling. Hard to keep the clans and the generations separate, though.
Sense and Sensibility: not as much fun as P&P. But fun nonetheless.
Dune: A classic. Too wordy, but it reads like a breeze, and I thought it was rewarding to work my way through it. David Lynch's film is definitely a guilty pleasure (i.e. not very good yet entertaining); the book is less campy and much better.
The Da Vinci Code: like >6 artturnerjr: said, this one you will be able to rush through, more because it's written to move forward quickly than because it's a good thriller (it isn't: Angels and Demons is better in that respect). IIRC, it consists of six-page chapters that all end in a "cliff-hanger"; chase chapters alternate with "let's sit around and explain stuff to each other" type chapters.

8LittleTaiko
joulukuu 8, 2015, 9:33 pm

Nice list!

Les Mis - read that last year for a theater book club and enjoyed it overall, though I confess to skimming some of the battle sections.

If On a Winter's Night a Traveler - one of my favorite Calvino books

Wuthering Heights - just read that for a book club an it created quite a lot of conversation. Not a book I particularly enjoyed but I am very interested in hearing your take on it.

Looking forward to seeing how you progess.

9.Monkey.
joulukuu 9, 2015, 4:23 am

Hahaha yeah I know Da Vinci won't take long, it's just taken years because the thought of it makes me groan, so I figured including it was a good way to "make" me read it. :P

Wuthering Heights is one that people seem to love or want nothing to do with, hahaha, so I figured it was about time I see where I fall on the spectrum! xD

Dune is on that several boyfriends (including my husband) have thought was amazing, and the movie is interesting. I've been debating putting it on the list for several times running now, but never did, and never got to it otherwise either, so, again, it seemed time to toss it on! Same for Calvino, debated about putting it on but figured I'd probably get to it regardless, but it hasn't wound up happening so!

Les Mis I did start when I first put it on the list and got like 200? pgs in and was interested, but got distracted with other things and never wound up picking it back up. So I think I will start over again.

S&S does seem to be far less loved, but I got the overall sense of P&P from P&P&Zombies, plus I prefer to read authors' works in order when possible, so I figured I would start with that one, and then things will only go uphill from there anyhow! xP

10Cecrow
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 9, 2015, 8:14 am

Les Miserables is back! Big hurrah for Calvino, I really need to read more by him but so far I've only read that one. Acckkkkk ... two more that never quite get onto my lists, Sense and Sensibility and Wuthering Heights. S&S was the 501 pick among all Austen's works, which intrigues me. I'm going to sample Roth eventually.

Pickwick is way funny, although not very cohesive (Dickens even apologizes about that in his introduction). Beloved is on the 501 Must-Read list, but I made the mistake of seeing Oprah's movie way back when and the thought of reading it turns my stomach now; feel free to change my mind.

Dune is sheer awesome, one of the few sci-fi classics that hasn't aged. I've read all six of those. I'm sorry to say I've also read five of his son's spin-offs. Never seen the Lynch movie and don't know if I care to, lol. But you really can't go wrong with the first book.

Dostoevsky, Shelley, Vidal, Kafka, Greene, Nabokov, Woolf - is 2016 the year of revisiting favourite authors? :)

11majkia
joulukuu 9, 2015, 9:03 am

I know everyone disses The DaVinci Code but I throughly enjoyed it, mainly because I love puzzles and scavenger hunt kind of books, and it had aces in those.

12Book-Dragon1952
joulukuu 9, 2015, 11:25 am

Nice list, and you gave me a Book Bullet. The new year isn't even here yet, the discussion did me in and I ordered it. I have no will power! Thanks for the bullet.

13Book-Dragon1952
joulukuu 9, 2015, 11:25 am

Oop sorry the book is If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino.

14.Monkey.
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 9, 2015, 11:31 am

>11 majkia: From what I hear, his writing's just, not good. Plus, as Cecrow mentions, the historical ARGH!ness. ;)

>10 Cecrow: Yeah I don't know the specifics about Beloved but I know it is NOT an easy read, but everyone (including my husband) thinks it (and she) are amazing, so it's about time I finally read it/her!
Lmao, Hubs is always "happy" to rant about the other Dune books and how wretched they are. I don't know how many of them he actually read, though, hahaha.

LOL actually I haven't read any Woolf or Kafka yet! It's as much keeping up with the works of the favorite authors (and categories) as finally reading those who probably ought to be favorites but haven't been touched yet! XD I doubt I will ever go a year w/o a Nabokov and an older Russian classic! Shelley was actually chosen because, yet another every-year-inclusive is my Gothic shelf that I also work through, and hers is the oldest one, and I do so love reading chronologically. ;P Also I'm putting a focus on women & minorities/works in translation, and she & Alcott are the only women on that shelf (I read my only Radcliffe a couple yrs ago so it's elsewhere in the "read" section)!

ETA
>12 Book-Dragon1952: Just passing it along! Hahaha. I got hit by it myself from others, probably in Club Read?, a few years ago, and picked it up, but haven't gotten round to it yet. :P

15Cecrow
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 9, 2015, 11:34 am

>13 Book-Dragon1952:, absolutely a good choice. Talk about metafiction; and when was the last time you read a book written in 2nd person?

>14 .Monkey.:, I think that was Art who spoke to political arghness, but I'd probably agree with him. Happily nobody has lent it to me, lol

16thebookmagpie
joulukuu 9, 2015, 11:57 am

You have some great books up there! I read Les Miserables round about when the film came out and thoroughly devoured it - I know it has a rep for being dry but I found it so compelling and emotionally effecting and much preferred it to Notre-Dame. I've read The Idiot and Crime and Punishment so I'll be very interested to see how you get on with the Dostoevsky (I really like both of the ones that I read).

If On A Winter's Night A Traveller is fantastic if also completely weird. I love Wuthering Heights (though in general I do prefer Charlotte to Emily) and Sense and Sensibility, while not my favourite Jane Austen, is also one that I enjoyed. Brighton Rock is fantastic - pretty dark, but I found it quite and easy read in the sense that Greene's prose was pretty easy to get on with. I also thought Lolita was great and definitely want to read Pale Fire at some point.

17.Monkey.
joulukuu 9, 2015, 12:11 pm

>16 thebookmagpie: I love Dostoevsky, I thoroughly enjoyed Crime & Punishment and Brothers Karamazov, I've just been slacking on reading the rest! One reason I slacked on this one, actually, was that I got the cheapy Wordsworth edition and then realized, translators are important, and cheapy editions use old translations. lol. I didn't mind Constance Garnett's work in the others (I know she did my C&P, I don't know if I went back and checked on Karamazov but I read it in my brief stint of e-reading, from Project Gutenberg, so it's probably hers as well), but knowing that she made errors here & there, and more importantly, that she left out bits if she didn't understand them, I'd rather read one that was done a little more conscientiously. So for Demons I will be reading the Maguire translation. It seemed most appealing to me when I looked at the comparisons between the other 4 options.

Nabokov was absolutely brilliant. I will forever be in awe of his intellect. There is not a thing he could write that I wouldn't eagerly read. lol.

18Narilka
joulukuu 12, 2015, 12:51 pm

Interesting list. I read Les Miserables so long ago that I can only remember the musical now and I have no idea how they compare lol The Three Muskeeters is a fun one. None of the movies I've seen get it right other than names. It's one I always treat as separate from it's adaptations so I can enjoy both. Dune is a classic and the only in the Dune series I've read. I remember devouring it in a couple days.

>11 majkia: I'm with you on The Da Vinci Code. I enjoyed it too.

19abergsman
joulukuu 14, 2015, 2:19 pm

I like your list. I have never been able to get into Wuthering Heights, but do plan on trying again someday. I love Les Miserables - a beast to get through, but worth it in the end. I really like Toni Morrison - her books are something to savor and stew over.

20billiejean
joulukuu 21, 2015, 12:15 pm

Nice list! Les Miserables is also on my list since I could not get it read this year. I finally read Beloved after both of my kids read it in school. I had bought it when it first came out, but after reading the blurb could not bring myself to read it. Once I finally read it, it was one of my top reads that year.

21.Monkey.
tammikuu 2, 2016, 8:35 am

#1 is complete! I read In The Heart of the Seas yesterday to kick off the new year.
The writing was fairly enjoyable and makes me feel like I ought to rate it higher, but the story just didn't do much for me. So, an average rating of it is.

22thebookmagpie
tammikuu 2, 2016, 1:55 pm

>17 .Monkey.: I switched between the Garnett translation and the David McDuff and the McDuff was far superior IMHO. It was just a bit more readable; I thought some of the Garnett phrasing was clunky.

23.Monkey.
tammikuu 2, 2016, 5:08 pm

I didn't find her prose clunky, if anything it's simply somewhat old-fashioned, which is appropriate for the text. I cannot stand "modernized" stuff! I only prefer to read someone else because of her leaving things out if she was unsure of them. I doubt if anything truly meaningful is omitted but, I want to read the complete text, lol. I know there was a translations thread in CR 2014, and I seem to recall rather disliking the McDuff snippet. I think if I were to read a newer C&P translation I would go with Oliver Ready's. :)

24.Monkey.
tammikuu 3, 2016, 9:03 am

I added my stack pics to the OP! :D

25Narilka
tammikuu 3, 2016, 9:47 am

>24 .Monkey.: Nice! They look great :)

26.Monkey.
tammikuu 3, 2016, 9:54 am

Oh and Brideshead is not upside-down, even though it looks it. I don't know why the spine is French-style! :P

27artturnerjr
tammikuu 3, 2016, 1:23 pm

>21 .Monkey.:

Impressive! At this rate, you'll be finished with everything before the end of the month! :D

>24 .Monkey.:

Nice pics. Looks like you're partial to Wordsworth Classics; I have a couple of those myself.

28.Monkey.
tammikuu 3, 2016, 2:01 pm

Yeah they sell 'em cheap at the Boekenfestijn and I also had got a bunch from bookdepository back when I used to shop with them and before realizing they were even cheaper at the Boekenfestijn than the cheap prices they had on there. So, I have a whole lot of their classics, heh. My original copy of Demons was one also, but I replaced it with the (hopefully better) newer translation instead of Garnett's old one. xP

I've plotted out that if I read a mere 25p of Les Mis a day, I'd be done with it in only 2 mos, so that's what I'm working towards now, while reading other things alongside (I started Da Vinci today also), so it should be a nice easy attainable goal, and I'm sure there will be plenty of days I read more than the 25, too. And then I will do the same plotting for the rest of my chunksters and just slowly wade through them alongside quicker things, so they won't slow me down at all! :D

29artturnerjr
tammikuu 3, 2016, 3:53 pm

>28 .Monkey.:

I'm planning on taking the weight training/strength training approach this year - starting out with the lighter, more immediately appealing books and working my way up to the heavyweight/challenging stuff. :)

30.Monkey.
tammikuu 3, 2016, 4:47 pm

I have to work the opposite way, if I leave the big stuff then I panic at not getting it done and fret over even starting it, lol. Big stuff needs to get out of the way early so the easy stuff can be done whenever! :P

31Cecrow
tammikuu 4, 2016, 7:59 am

>21 .Monkey.:, I assumed that was the story from the similarly-titled recent movie, about the Moby Dick real-life episode, lol. As a Moby Dick fan I'll have to check that movie out sometime.

32.Monkey.
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 4, 2016, 9:28 am

Ah I had not heard of that one, which is apparently In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. Singular "sea" in that case, confusing! Haha. This one is a short novel (nearly a novella, really) written in Hebrew in 1948, about a group of Jews in Eastern Europe attempting to make their way to Israel. It has a kind of quaint feel to it, but it just didn't catch me.

33abergsman
tammikuu 4, 2016, 8:52 am

I love the look of the Wordsworth Edition of the Collected Novels of the Bronte Sisters. The Jane Austen one is pretty, too. The picture of your stack pretty much makes me want to read your entire list for this year...even the ones that I have already read! Great job on finishing up a book already.

34.Monkey.
tammikuu 4, 2016, 9:04 am

The Austen is one of the Barnes & Noble "leatherbounds" series, they're gorgeous and cheap, I adore them! I maaaay have like a dozen of them. >.> Haha. The Wordsworth one isn't nearly as nice, though the spine does give it a pretty look, but it's just a cheap cloth edition and the front isn't nearly as nice looking, lol, but for the price and the content, I don't mind a bit! :D

35artturnerjr
tammikuu 4, 2016, 8:38 pm

>34 .Monkey.:

The Austen is one of the Barnes & Noble "leatherbounds" series, they're gorgeous and cheap, I adore them! I maaaay have like a dozen of them.

I like those a lot, too. I have the H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction volume from that series (actually, it's from the B & N "Library of Essential Writers" series, but the contents are the same as the Leatherbound edition); it's my go-to volume when I want to read one of his stories in a print book.

I actually like B & N more as a publisher than a bookstore. I have a volume in their "Library of Essential Reading" series (Robert Chambers' The King in Yellow) on my Challenge lists this year. Those are nice-looking little trade paperbacks - not as fancy as their leatherbound books, but they look good on a shelf nonetheless. :)

36.Monkey.
tammikuu 5, 2016, 3:43 am

My Three Musketeers copy is one of their B&N Classics, I have a small handful of those. And yup I've got the Lovecraft one, haven't read it yet though. Let's see if I can think of them all: Austen, Lovecraft, HG Wells, Jules Verne, Shakespeare, Sherlock, Alice in Wonderland & other stories, Dorian Gray & other works, Narnia, Hans Christian Anderson, Frankenstein... haha. My King in Yellow is one of the Wordsworth ones. :P

37.Monkey.
tammikuu 5, 2016, 6:53 am

#2 The Da Vinci Code is done, wahoo! It wasn't as bad as I feared, the mystery/twists were alright (though Fache was clearly too obvious a suspect to have been the Teacher, I wasn't quite sure what the deal with him was but Brown went way overboard trying to make it look like he was the one, so I was sure from the start it wasn't him. A better job was done at hiding the reality of Teabing; I knew it had to be someone we were introduced to, but while I considered just about everyone else mentioned aside of Langdon & Neveu, Teabing never did cross my mind as a suspect. My bad, really, as there was pretty much no one else it could have been, lol.), but the writing was mediocre and, I was also completely jarred out of the story when he tried to claim "the inside of Gare Saint-Lazare looked like every other train station in Europe, a gaping indoor-outdoor cavern dotted with the usual suspects—homeless men holding cardboard signs, collections of bleary-eyed college kids sleeping on backpacks and zoning out to their portable MP3 players, and clusters of blue-clad baggage porters smoking cigarettes." NO NO NO NO NO!!! First of all, nearly every station in every country I've been in is different to varying degrees, second of all the main stations in larger cities are nearly ALWAYS unique, third I don't know that I have EVER seen homeless with signs inside any station (they rarely ever have signs and they are nearly always outside, unless perhaps it is super awful weather), fourth who the fuck are these "baggage porters" and what fancyass world does he live in where this is a thing?! And lastly, most stations are NOT the main city Central Stations and are small, most decidedly NOT cavernous, have few people loitering, few people working at all, etc etc. For the love of god NO! It made me question whether he has ever actually been to Europe at all, which given that the whole thing is a pair of people racing around in Europe looking at all these different things, with most of the characters being French, it's just like, do you have ANY clue what you're writing about?! Ugh. It seems like a minor thing but when he starts off a chapter, fairly early on, with something so blatantly ridiculous, it just removes any credulity. bah.

Suffice it to say, my opinion has not been swayed, there will be no more Brown in my future. Hahaha.

38Cecrow
tammikuu 5, 2016, 7:54 am

>37 .Monkey.:, I guess it's a good thing you got the pain over with fast. I'm starting with a quick and easy read myself but enjoying it considerably more, sounds like, lol.

Oh well, now you aunt can have her book back. You've gotta tell us whether she remembers she lent it to you ...

39.Monkey.
tammikuu 5, 2016, 8:45 am

Hahaha well my mother is balking at the idea of carrying anything back with her that she did not buy and insisting that it is certainly no longer wanted *rolls eyes* so apparently I will have to email and ask if she would like it back. But yes, it is done, woo! :P

I think I will go for Ancestor Stones next. :)

40Narilka
tammikuu 5, 2016, 9:29 am

>37 .Monkey.: It's funny those things that can pull you right out of a story and break your suspension of disbelief. I would've glossed right over that since I never travel by train. Still, hate when that happens.

41.Monkey.
tammikuu 5, 2016, 9:36 am

I mean, if he had just left it at "looked like every other station in Europe," it'd have irritated me but I would have moved along, but making it into this whole huge thing with this big list of supposed "reasons"/descriptions of why it is just like all the others, which are complete and utter ridiculous bullshit that could not be more wrong and certainly every European would sit there going WHAT?! at, it's just, no. Careless, sloppy, bad, WRONG! pff. xP

42abergsman
tammikuu 5, 2016, 5:59 pm

>34 .Monkey.: I have been eyeing the B&N leather bounds. It may be the thing that helps me break my Folio Society addiction!

43Petroglyph
tammikuu 5, 2016, 8:03 pm

Congratulations on finishing two already!

44.Monkey.
tammikuu 6, 2016, 4:37 am

>42 abergsman: They're so pretty! And they're all in their own color & style (like the Austen with just the quiet color & frilly design, as opposed to Wells which is deep purple with planets and space stuff), so you can see they belong together in a large set but are all totally different, I just love them, I want them all! xD

>43 Petroglyph: Thanks! I think I'll be slowing down some now though, working on Les Mis and currently Ancestor Stones, which isn't the racing-through sort, lol.

45thebookmagpie
tammikuu 8, 2016, 8:13 am

I am seriously coveting that edition of the Jane Austen now (even though I already have the Collector's Library boxed set).

46.Monkey.
tammikuu 8, 2016, 8:36 am

It's quite nice!

The image makes it look a bit darker than it actually is; the color in my photo is mildly paler due to the sun shining there, but is only a smidge off from reality. :) I seriously want the whole series, even the ones I have, too. They're just evil making them so attractive! Hahaha.

47thebookmagpie
tammikuu 8, 2016, 9:08 am

>46 .Monkey.: Beautiful books are definitely evil. I don't have room for all these fabulous covers!

48.Monkey.
tammikuu 8, 2016, 10:48 am

I don't even have room for all the nonfabulous covers! Doesn't stop me though. xD Only money does that. And even then I tend to forget myself when it comes to a good deal. Hahahaha.

49Petroglyph
tammikuu 8, 2016, 1:33 pm

>48 .Monkey.:
I don't even have room for all the nonfabulous covers!

True dat. I feel your pain...

50Cecrow
tammikuu 8, 2016, 1:48 pm

For a while I was in the habit of replacing ratty copies on my shelves with prettier copies. When it still didn't win them better real estate in the house (my wife generally regards books as clutter), that rapidly fell by the wayside. But if I spot a nicer copy of a book I haven't read yet on the TBR pile, I'll sometimes swap.

51.Monkey.
tammikuu 8, 2016, 3:06 pm

I only swap if the one I have I got for real cheap, and it's a favorite, otherwise, while I love a pretty book, I'd simply rather have more books than less but pretty ones. xP I only have a couple in double (intentionally, lol).

52.Monkey.
tammikuu 11, 2016, 11:31 am

Slowly plodding my way through Les Mis. This Waterloo interlude, argh. I mean it's interesting, I knew nothing at all about it, I mean we're not taught about European battles in American schools! But 58 pages! Almost done though, 5 left, and then on to Cosette! I may yet finish this month, we shall see!

53Petroglyph
tammikuu 11, 2016, 11:45 am

>52 .Monkey.:
Hang in there: the Waterloo section is relevant to the Thénardiers. (Well, tangentially. But there is a narrative point to it all, sorta.)

54Cecrow
tammikuu 11, 2016, 11:52 am

"Waterloo interlude? What Waterloo interlude?" - some guy who read the abridged version

55.Monkey.
tammikuu 11, 2016, 12:19 pm

Hahaha! 58 pages of intricate detail of the battle of Waterloo, all for like two small paragraphs at the end with five seconds of Thénardier. I am suddenly fearing the Paris sewer section that comes later...! Lol.

56abergsman
tammikuu 11, 2016, 8:01 pm

That was a struggle for me when I read Les Mis as well. My eyes tend to glaze over at long, drawn out battle descriptions.

57LittleTaiko
tammikuu 13, 2016, 8:23 am

Pretty sure I skimmed the Waterloo interlude. My logic was that it really didn't figure into the musical so therefore did not need my undivided attention.

58.Monkey.
tammikuu 13, 2016, 8:56 am

I read it all, though damned if I could tell you what nearly any of the like 500 names mentioned were, hahaha. Man. If he would have left out that extraneous stuff and just done like, maybe 15 pages, it would have been really good. Still not needed but, good. There were some wonderful bits in there, like 'The cry of "Treachery!" was followed by the cry "Every man for himself!" An army breaking ranks is like a thaw. Everything bends, cracks, floats, snaps, rolls, falls, crashes, dashes, plunges. Mysterious disintegration." Much fun. :P I may skim the sewer bit, but it's hard to make myself do such things, I'm a completist, lol. I even read the entire radio speech in Atlas Shrugged, even though it was like a hundred(? it's been so long, I forget the specifics, I just know it was huge!) page summation of the entire book, without the characters doing things to make it actually readable, just, dull tedious insanely long monologue of her rantings. Talk about painful! Haha.

59Petroglyph
tammikuu 13, 2016, 10:05 am

>58 .Monkey.:
Two years ago I read The Count of Monte Cristo, which also contains these tangential interludes that take a ludicrous 50+ pages and only serve to present person/place that is indirectly related to what will later become an MC. The interludes were fun, but the third time Dumas pulled that trick he was trying my patience. Considering them as 19thC tableaux helped.

The entire John Galt speech? Brave! Apparently it took Rand about a full year to write that speech.

60Cecrow
tammikuu 13, 2016, 10:45 am

"Tangential interludes? What tangential interludes?" - some guy who read the abridged version

.... There's no pattern here, you're completely mistaken. Move along.

61.Monkey.
tammikuu 13, 2016, 11:07 am

>60 Cecrow: LOL

>59 Petroglyph: I loved every bit of Monte Cristo, But then I think I read a mildly abridged version (like 1200pg instead of 1400 or something, of course it didn't advertise that it was and it was huge so of course I assumed it was the full thing, bah), possibly similar in nature to the one of Les Mis I've heard about that removes the two interludes from the text and sticks them in an appendix at the end for those who really want them. I, of course, want them, right in the text! Hahaha. I did get a different Monte Cristo later that is for sure not abridged, but I haven't gone back and read it yet. I'm not big on rereading so I was quite annoyed at that situation! Lol. I'll get there one day. :P

Yep, the entire miserable John Galt speech. She was clearly insane. I mean the whole friggin point of the book was the speech content, but in a form where it wasn't so hard to swallow! Like, dude, this is WHY you are writing fiction books and not (insanely massively long) essays! blurgh.

62Petroglyph
tammikuu 14, 2016, 3:03 pm

>61 .Monkey.:
It's weird: for some classics -- The Count, Moby-Dick, 20.000 leagues -- you have to be on the lookout for a copy that specifically says "unabridged" somewhere on the cover. The assumption seems to be that people in general will be put off by lengthy 19thC bloviations and will only read "old" books for a quick look at the plot and the atmosphere/language, not for the original text. This really irks me for some reason.

63.Monkey.
tammikuu 14, 2016, 4:50 pm

Yeah, that kind of thing pisses me off, too. ><

64.Monkey.
tammikuu 17, 2016, 9:16 am

#3 is done! Was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday, so after finishing Sayers' In the Teeth of the Evidence, I picked up Prison Journal. Very good read. The journal of a German woman arrested (denounced by a petty woman who had been a dear friend) for political crap, accused of "high treason," and spent a while in jail near the end of the war. Awful situation. Not nearly so bad as the camps of course (which she clearly states in her preface as well as mentioning in her journal) but they got wretched tiny food portions, treated like shit by wardens, potentially beaten, had to do labor, etc. She wrote short concise entries, due to lack of time and resources, not to mention physical & mental energy it took to write, so it does a really nice job of just summing up the experience without much of the emotional effects, just a chronicle "Today x & y happened" and so forth. It's not nearly so dry as that makes it sound though, given all the things that were going on. She said later that she regretted not including the emotional aspects, but, while of course that would paint a fuller picture, I think her matter-of-fact telling actually worked very nicely in this case. And it's not as though there's no emotion at all, she speaks of her weariness and anger and resignation and such, but in a natural flow with her little daily entries. I think that made it more powerful, because you could really see the strain things took on her, without it being fussed over, you know?

Anywho, very good (and quick) read, one that ought to be more well known, as she makes a lot of good points about people and humanity and such.

65Cecrow
tammikuu 18, 2016, 7:35 am

I take it by "war" you mean WW2? This book might be an answer to the question, why didn't the average citizens rise up and get rid of Hitler's government, considering all the stupid things it was doing? Germany deals with a lot of guilt right up to the present over the 1940s era, but this sounds like it contains a clue about the threats and oppression any outspoken person faced that would prevent them from taking action.

Sometime I would like to read The White Rose, the story of some students who took a stand and paid the ultimate price.

66.Monkey.
tammikuu 18, 2016, 8:24 am

Yep. People could likely have done something early on, but once he was firmly in place? They were as screwed as any other population under a dictator. And generally, even if they're saying nasty things (as he was) on their way up, it's not like you really know they're planning on murdering millions of people, ya know. Once it was all underway though, you couldn't sneeze for fear of being denounced. You couldn't speak at all in front of children, for fear they would say something, even something completely innocuous that just came out sounding wrong, and their teacher or neighbor or whoever would then go denounce the parent(s) for it. You couldn't speak to friends unless you were literally willing to bet your life that they would never turn on you for any reason, including their own safety. Spies (of the less espionage sort) were everywhere, the police had files on everyone, every second person was an informer to some degree, it was awful.
And, tons of people had no idea things were as nasty as they were, either because they were removed enough to have no clue (because really, who the hell would imagine such things?! Just like in the US, if they heard rumors they were hard-pressed to believe, it was insanity, who would!) or because they closed their eyes to it as too much to even think about, and then there were those who were real believers in Hitler (one of her cellmates even was one of those!), and those who were simply selfish pigs who didn't care because they got rich on it all (like the awful bakery that a handful of the prisoners where she was worked at, freaking breadcrumbs, "essential to the war effort," someone obviously knew someone else, and so this wretched family got rich on prison labor; the women worked themselves literally bloody in some cases, while being refused any of the tons of fresh white bread (which of course they simply stole, otherwise they would likely have died from the lack of food), meanwhile the family's dog was fed massive amounts of all sorts of food, so much that it would simply ignore it and have food just laying all around the floor). It takes all sorts! :|

67.Monkey.
tammikuu 24, 2016, 10:25 am

Finished #4 a couple days ago! Ancestor Stones was really excellent, if not a bit sad at times due to some aspects of the lives these women (and all the rest of the women in those areas) led. Wonderful read though, definitely recommended.

68Cecrow
tammikuu 25, 2016, 7:50 am

Did you know much about that part of the world before? I'm getting a whole new perspective on Iran right now. Definitely a good idea to get away from reading about the usual parts of the world once in a while.

69.Monkey.
tammikuu 25, 2016, 8:10 am

I don't know much of anything about Sierra Leone, no. Northern Africa isn't really in my realm of knowledge, only really South Africa. This novel isn't much good in terms of learning about the country, there's no names of anyone but the family/friends, which have been fictionalized (though the book is essentially nonfic, only obscured slightly to keep the family privacy and such), no names of the "leaders" staging the coups/terrorizing the country, only the occasional year mentioned, etc. But it was very nice at providing a window into the lives of a very different world than the western one we live in.

70abergsman
tammikuu 25, 2016, 9:17 pm

>67 .Monkey.: Ancestor Stones sounds like a great book. I looked up the author, and saw that she has written a memoir as well, which also sounds very interesting.

71.Monkey.
tammikuu 26, 2016, 3:18 am

I bet it would be, I may look into her other stuff in the future. (I make no hard statements as I already have many hundreds of books on my shelves waiting their turns, so when I buy now it's generally what I happen find cheap at sales/events and such! haha)

72Cecrow
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 26, 2016, 7:46 am

>71 .Monkey.:, exactly; I'll read something and think "wow, even better than I expected and her other stuff sounds good ..." and then the same realization hits me. Goes on my list of authors to watch for at book sales etc., eventually gets into the TBR pile, and maybe she'll come back around in a couple of years, lol. Exactly why I want to beat down this TBR pile a bit more every year so I can have more of that flexibility again.

73.Monkey.
tammikuu 26, 2016, 11:49 am

I will never beat mine down, hahahaha, but I've almost entirely been reading from stuff I own rather than libraries for the past while, so there's that! :P

74abergsman
tammikuu 26, 2016, 7:42 pm

I am seriously considering focusing on reading authors already familiar to me in 2017. There are quite a few that I have read once and loved, but never branched out to their other books. Ian McEwan, Geraldine Brooks, Barbara Pym, Cristina Garcia, Dave Eggers, Richard Dawkins, Kate Chopin, Louise Erdrich, Alice Walker, Sharon Creech, Carlos Ruiz Zafon...

75.Monkey.
tammikuu 27, 2016, 4:42 am

I think about around my list is new authors and the rest ones I've read before. For me, it's more like I said, I buy books for cheap, so winding up with an author I've read & enjoyed just may not wind up happening for a long time, if they're not like, an old classic that's got millions of copies floating around, or whatever, you know. It's luck of the draw. I may wind up at like the Deventer Boekenmarkt where some person winds up having several by the same author (like I'm pretty sure I have 2 Paul Auster titles for that reason), or some person cleaned out a shelf in their house to sell back to De Slegte so I can pick up several in a swoop, but often as not there's just singletons. Unless they're series, though, I don't mind waiting, since there's so much else waiting for attention already anyhow. :P

76.Monkey.
maaliskuu 11, 2016, 5:11 pm

I have been slacking terribly with my reading through Feb, and then Blade & Soul announced a contest to lvl a char to 45 within a couple weeks to get special goodies, so I'm still being way behind, but, I finished Sense & Sensibility this morning, and I'm reading Dune now.

S&S was thoroughly enjoyable ...aside of the few characters I wanted to throttle. Though I am not one for the whole romance theme, Austen had me thoroughly invested and having a hard time setting it aside when I went to play, or sleep, haha. It was far more about people, behavior, and quite interesting. I guessed correctly about how various things would wind up, the motivations characters had for their actions, and the responses to them (though there were a couple nice little surprises tossed in), but not in an obnoxious, poorly written way; rather it was simply what made sense, and it didn't lessen the story to have thought out these things before the explanations actually came around, more it was fun to be like Hah I was right, they said just what I thought! xP

77Cecrow
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 14, 2016, 7:24 am

>76 .Monkey.:, some similar distractions/hobbies of my own I find difficult to ignore, so I can relate.

One of Austen's I haven't read yet, and probably top of my "Embarassed I haven't read this yet" list now that Crime and Punishment is done. I thought P&P and Emma were both good, so it sounds as if I'd like this one too.

Dune! I'm excited for you! Although the higher one's expectations, the more dangerous. So maybe I should say yeah, Dune, it's okay I guess.

78.Monkey.
maaliskuu 14, 2016, 11:59 am

Hahaha! Don't worry, I quite enjoyed it, it was super hard to put down! I kept being all, oh damn I have to stop and ___, I'll just finish this page... and then wind up reading like 3 more pages before being like DOH I was supposed to stop, okay when I get to the end of this one! and do that like 4 times before finally quitting lmao. Very good. Nicely fleshed characters and depth and plot and all that important stuff. And it's easy to see why it grabs the heart of so many teen boys, too, hahaha, featuring such a strong intelligent 15yo boy, plus lots of action. ;)

79Cecrow
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 14, 2016, 1:23 pm

>78 .Monkey.:, oh! so you finished that one too! I read it thirty years ago so my memory is vague now, but it made enough impression that I read the rest of the series and caught up just as Frank Herbert died. I found all of them intriguing, but then I wasn't as critical when I was a teenager and many others will say that none approach the first one. I've sampled the son's spin-offs (Brian Herbert) and can definitely say don't bother with those.

I'm still waiting on the cliffhanger ending to the story of whether your step-mother remembers lending you The Da Vinci Code!

80.Monkey.
maaliskuu 14, 2016, 1:27 pm

Yep finished this morning! :D My husband feels the same about the rest of the books. He already said right when he found I'd finished, now you need to read the rest of the two trilogies! Hahaha. I think he might have read one of others, I'm not sure if he gave a shot to more than that, but I know he didn't finish them and thinks they're bleh. xP And psh, who expects the rest of a series to live up to an excellent original anyway? It's the same deal with movies, you never go in to a sequel expecting something as awesome as the first one! As long as they're still good and enjoyable, that's all that matters. :)

81.Monkey.
maaliskuu 14, 2016, 1:27 pm

LOL! I haven't asked yet, since my mother was a brat about not wanting to bother with it, I figured I would wait until closer to her visit. XD

82.Monkey.
maaliskuu 19, 2016, 4:56 pm

#7 is done, just finished them. That was...interesting. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. I didn't dislike it, JCO is an excellent author, but that is definitely not a book I'd ever consider rereading. I honestly just don't even really have words for it, I'm at a loss.

Meanwhile I'm taking a break from the list for the moment with Son of Rosemary, just because I couldn't resist and it'll be quick. xP

83.Monkey.
maaliskuu 23, 2016, 10:39 am

Break's over, so I'm now starting on The Last Man :)

84Cecrow
maaliskuu 23, 2016, 11:02 am

Okay, but you have to tell us if Son of Rosemary is as terrible as everyone says, lol

85.Monkey.
maaliskuu 23, 2016, 2:09 pm

I didn't think so! I mean it was nothing prize-worthy, for sure, but I thought it was fun, it entertained, it served its purpose. There was one particular aspect that was not so pleasant, lol, but I can see why he tossed it in, and he did a good job keeping the suspense going - is he lying or has he really gone good like mom wanted for him?? And, I can hazard a guess as to why he ended it the way he did, too, based on a comment he'd made about the original.
I think people are just too harsh about things, and expect too much. The guy was 70something if I recall and had written only one book in the previous like 25 years, give the man a break! I don't know if he was running short of funds or if the anniversary caused the publisher to push for it, or a bit of both, but so what, people just need to lighten up, it's a silly horror thriller, it's not meant to win the Pulitzer! It was a fast read and it was entertaining and it was a fair finish to one of the best horror novels written, that's good enough for me. :P

86Cecrow
maaliskuu 23, 2016, 2:25 pm

I'm expecting to feel similar when I read The Land of Painted Caves - everybody else booing and hissing, but I'll still find something to like about it, lol

87.Monkey.
maaliskuu 23, 2016, 4:31 pm

Haha exactly. My issues with books are if there are gaping holes in the story or awful writing or it's just plain boring or such, or like if there's racism/sexism that can't be "excused" (so to speak) by the time period, etc, real problems, not "oh this was the most awful thing ever because it didn't live up to what my own perceptions claim it ought to have been." Psh!

88.Monkey.
huhtikuu 11, 2016, 11:52 am

Slooowly working my way through Shelley's Last Man. It's not exactly happy reading, so I wind up doing only small bits at a time. I think I've just finally gotten a clue as to how the title will tie in, because as of yet the title/supposed theme have not made themselves known yet at all and I'm like, 40%? into it already. Oddness! But, I think what was literally on the last page I read is the "foreshadowing" of that. Scarequotes, because it was like one sentence of a fairly offhand mention that I'd have otherwise pretty much glossed right over, if I hadn't been waiting for the shoe to finally drop knowing the subgenre of the book, lol. I guess that means the 2nd half is going to be even more dreary than the first... oh my. Apparently I picked quite the list for myself this year! LOL

89Cecrow
huhtikuu 11, 2016, 1:22 pm

>88 .Monkey.:, ain't it bizarre how lists can turn out to have all sort of thematic ties you didn't see coming? Or, cross-referencing. I'm reading The Children of Men and ka-pow, giant spoilers for The Portrait of a Lady which I also have ahead on my list, good grief.

90.Monkey.
huhtikuu 11, 2016, 3:50 pm

Lol after realizing this, I was looking back over my list, and geez did I do myself in!! I mean we already know Les Mis is still sitting on the backburner, Stalin's Secret Pogrom is about a pogrom so, clearly no sunshine & rainbows there, and same for And We Are Not Saved, about race relation stuff in the US. Then there's Beloved, and I've never read any Morrison yet but I know her books are not CareBear approved! Dostoevsky, well, JCO 'described it as "Dostoevsky's most confused and violent novel, and his most satisfyingly 'tragic' work."' so there's that. Alcott's is Gothic, meaning it may not be too heavy but, it will be at least somewhat dreary and normally means things don't end nicely! As with Morrison, I have not yet read Woolf but I do believe she's another who wasn't full of sunshine either... dare I continue? LOL! At least they're all very different, styles subjects backgrounds etc, so it won't be tedious or anything like that. I'll just have to make sure to intersperse with my version of fluff - thrillers/mysteries/horror, lol, and I ought to make it through at least most of the list. xP

91Cecrow
huhtikuu 12, 2016, 7:31 am

>90 .Monkey.:, that's where your advantage of being able to read more than 24 per year will save you. I won't get around to reading much more than what's on my list, so in your position 2016 would be pretty glum for me, lol

92.Monkey.
huhtikuu 12, 2016, 10:15 am

Well my next breaks from the list will be the 2 I have out from the uni library, actually - Play it as it Lays and Herland. I doubt either will be cheerful but they ought to be quite interesting. I've been curious about Gilman's work for several years, since I read her excellent The Yellow Wallpaper.

93Cecrow
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 12, 2016, 11:27 am

Wow, now Gilman ... you're going pretty far down this road ... when you get to Sylvia Plath or Louis-Ferdinand Celine, remember to stop and turn around!

94.Monkey.
huhtikuu 12, 2016, 11:31 am

Hahaha, I read The Bell Jar a while back and harbor no further plans on Plath! :P

95Petroglyph
huhtikuu 14, 2016, 10:10 am

>94 .Monkey.:
Aw shucks. The bell jar is one of those books on my list of classics-i-really-should-get-round-to.

96.Monkey.
huhtikuu 14, 2016, 10:59 am

Oh I don't mean it's bad, it's an interesting book. Not a favorite by any means, but it's worth a read. But I've already read it, and I'm not interested in her poetry (I'm very particular about poetry, most of it just doesn't do much for me), and I'm not a short story or letters or journal fan, unless it's an author I superduper love (and even then I'm generally not overly fond of them). Sooo there's really nothing left of her for me. :P

97.Monkey.
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 16, 2016, 8:21 am

Still working through the intro but #8, Last Man, is finished! I do think this will be my last dip into MWS. She was a very talented writer, but she was so... I mean, you know how Romanticism is all ridiculous excesses, anything happens and it's all WOE IS ME FOREVER!! or LIGHT OF MY LIFE I NEED YOU FOR ALWAYS!! etc. Well, that was literally Mary. Last Man is dripping with Romanticism, but it's a roman à clef, it was her way of struggling through Shelley's death, creating him and Byron and herself in the small intricate group of central characters, these crazy exaggerations were how she really viewed life. And it's rather difficult for me to swallow. This was just shy of 400 pages of absolute melancholy. Even during the good happy times of the past, there are the illnesses and heartbreaks, and even during the Yay all is right with the world! bits, there is still always the tinge of the badness to come that is hanging over it all. It wasn't until past halfway into it that the actual apocalyptic stuff happened, in a book about apocalypse! And yet somehow it was still easier for me to wade through the second half than trudge through the first. Perhaps because there was finally a real reason for the melancholy, and also things were actually happening, it was no longer just an endless ramble of the lives of 5 people thrown together.

I should of course add that the characters have depth (of course they do, they are her and those dearest her) and the plot is certainly not without merit. It is simply my personal tastes that find these overshadowed by the aforementioned.

Anyway, the whole desolation & despair and ambling loneliness is clearly a central theme in both MWS's thoughts and writing, and that melancholy is just not something I find enjoyable in fiction, so, I do believe I will probably not read more of her (at the least not for a good long time), talent notwithstanding.

3 stars for writing, characters, & plot. I may waver and give 2.5, I don't know, the writing itself is good so I feel wrong to give less than 3 but at the same time my enjoyment always factors in to my rating and my enjoyment of this was rather lacking... Ah well.

98.Monkey.
huhtikuu 17, 2016, 3:42 pm

I read my break book today, Gilman's Herland, excellent stuff, she was quite a woman. I'm thinking I'll go with Vidal next. The cover proclaims it "The century's most explosively hilarious novel of far-out sexuality" heh.

99Cecrow
huhtikuu 18, 2016, 8:19 am

Whew, at least you have a few pick-me-ups. Pickwick, Musketeers and Winter's Night are all lighter in mood too.

I was never really crazy about reading Mary Shelley besides Frankenstein and this helps to confirm it.

100.Monkey.
huhtikuu 19, 2016, 1:54 pm

Yeah. I'm sure there is good to be found in them all (I did enjoy Maurice; or, The Fisher's Cot, but that was intended to be a YA story so, though it did have the melancholy, it was much toned down), but to me, well there's way more things to read than I will ever have time to, so I think there's plenty others I'd rather give weight to than more of hers.

Anyhow #9 is done! Myra Breckinridge was... well that was something! The first third or so of it I was just sitting there thinking how utterly bizarre this was, but, while still outrageous, I think the more depth it took on as it went, the better it got. It's incredibly hard to say much about without spoilers, but I think overall it was rather uniquely interesting. It could not be further from the style and content of Creation, which was one of the most amazing things I've ever read, so I must give Vidal props for being able to write skillfully in any manner he chose, lol.
4 stars for originality, quirkiness, daring, and a surprising level of hidden depth.

101Cecrow
huhtikuu 19, 2016, 2:52 pm

I haven't tried Gore Vidal yet. I don't think I'll choose to start there, lol.

102.Monkey.
huhtikuu 19, 2016, 2:57 pm

Hahaha, I wouldn't suggest it, I don't think it'd give a very ...enlightening view of his talents, though I do think it's worth a read, it's short and quick. But I highly recommend Creation, it was exquisite; I've bought every one of his I've encountered in the 2ndhand shops since I read that on the basis of that title alone. It's one I would consider rereading, someday. Which speaks volumes, coming from me, who does any rereading like twice in a decade! Hahaha.

103abergsman
huhtikuu 21, 2016, 2:41 pm

>98 .Monkey.: I read Herland more than 15 years ago, but the details of the story remain vividly etched in my memory. Great little book.

104.Monkey.
huhtikuu 21, 2016, 2:51 pm

It really is. Granted I wanted to give Terry the beating of his life LOL but it was really great. I might even need to look for a copy to buy. Along with the rest of her stuff. >.> hahaha

105.Monkey.
huhtikuu 26, 2016, 3:26 pm

120p left of Demons. And I'm pretty sure it's now going to hit that super tragic stuff. Like there's been some things but, fairly minor, but now, the event the book was loosely based on/inspired by is what's just about to happen and urge I don't want it to, I want them not to be stupid bastards and do the right thing! bahhhh.

106Cecrow
huhtikuu 27, 2016, 7:54 am

This sounds like me as I approached the end of A Farewell to Arms, just after its ending had been spoiled for me by "Silver Linings Playbook". I knew what was coming, and was half glad I did actually, since I was braced for what otherwise might have irked me as much as it did the fellow in the movie. (Okay - maybe not THAT much.)

Didn't know Demons had a historical event behind it, that sounds interesting.

107.Monkey.
huhtikuu 27, 2016, 10:00 am

It was a good book, even if the first half seemed slightly aimless, lol. Like, the first half is mainly just getting into the heads of the main characters and learning about the people in the town. Which, is a lot of pages for that. But it manages to be quite interesting nonetheless. It was only the first 50 or so pages I wasn't so hooked yet.

So yes, #10 is complete! Unsurprisingly, it is excellent; Dostoevsky was quite a writer. He probably could have been quite a psychologist, too, the way he delves into the mind, heh. I will have to make more of an effort not to let so many years go by before reading him again. The last one was all the way back in 2010! :O
Anywho. One particular character drove me mad, I just wanted to throttle him from his appearance and every appearance! And I hate the tragedy of the end, not fair, why must people be such fools! But it was a really good read. I think there's very little true history in it, like I think it's only the very end that is really similar to the incident, but at the same time there is a lot of history included. The mentality of Russians of the time, and how these sort of things could come about, the movements going on. And a lot of little things were based on historical figures, Granovsky, Herzen, Nechayev, Belinsky, even Dostoevsky himself. It's good stuff. Also, I HIGHLY recommend this translation by Robert A Maguire. I did a lot of looking around before selecting one, and I am firmly convinced that this was the best choice.
For, if he should decide on some town, his venture would instantly become both absurd and impossible in his own eyes; he felt that very keenly. And what exactly would he do in one particular town and not in another? ... No, the high road was really the best thing; it was so simple to set off on it, and walk along it and not think of anything, as long as it was possible not to think. The high road is something eternally long, long, and no end in sight. It's like human life, like human dreams. An idea is contained in the high road; but what idea is contained in a series of post-horses?

108.Monkey.
toukokuu 1, 2016, 6:03 am

I think it is time to pick up Les Mis again, and attempt, once more, to finish it this month. If I read 33p/day, that will happen. So I think I will strive for no more than 50, let it be all spread out, and once I hit my mark for the day, pick up something else, so that I do not fall behind in my numbers and such. Tis a plan!

109Petroglyph
toukokuu 1, 2016, 10:45 am

Go for it!

110.Monkey.
toukokuu 1, 2016, 10:58 am

I'm also thinking that Brideshead Revisited will be my first alongside read. :)

111.Monkey.
toukokuu 2, 2016, 4:07 pm

Dear god save me. I have been reading like 5 pages for like an hour. Because I DUN WANNNNAAAAAAA *flails* Holy crap with the rambling tangents! My husband was looking it up because I was whining about one page (half a page of just a list of freaking nuns!!) and something said that a quarter of the book is pointless rambles having nothing to do with the plot or sideplot stuff. A QUARTER! Of nearly 1500pgs! *ded* Please, please make him stop talking about this convent place and get back to Jean and Cosette! This has already been going on for nearly 30 pages and some of it was entertaining but dear god enough alreadyyyyyy!!

112Narilka
toukokuu 2, 2016, 9:39 pm

LOL I'm glad I already read Les Mis years ago. I don't think I'd make it through the book at this point.

113Cecrow
toukokuu 3, 2016, 8:38 am

*cough* abridged version never mentioned nuns *cough*. Hmm?? I didn't say anything.

114.Monkey.
toukokuu 3, 2016, 8:48 am

Lmao hush up you abridged-reading fiend! XD

115abergsman
toukokuu 3, 2016, 8:51 am

Ha! I read Les Mis years ago, in college. One has to wonder what a modern day editor/publisher would do to Les Mis if it arrived on their desk as a manuscript in today's times.

116.Monkey.
toukokuu 3, 2016, 9:07 am

Generally, I side with authors on editors being morons and slashing out important bits of their work, and wholeheartedly support them when they get popular enough to make new editions with the content replaced, editor be damned. But if ever there was a case that screamed for a red pen and some vicious slashing, this is it!!! Hahaha.

117.Monkey.
toukokuu 22, 2016, 3:20 pm

#11 If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is donnne! That was interesting. Unique. I'm not sure I really have coherent thoughts about it right now, aside of it was enjoyable and I'd certainly read more Calvino. :)

118Cecrow
toukokuu 24, 2016, 8:02 am

A few years on, I'm finding I don't remember a lot of its details but I know it made a significant impression on me at the time. It's the "tricks" that stand out rather than the plot: the 2nd-person POV, the interludes between unfinished stories, the character who might be Calvino himself, etc.

119.Monkey.
kesäkuu 7, 2016, 9:59 am

#12 Wuthering Heights, complete! I enjoyed that, and am puzzled that it is so loathed by so many! I mean sure, typical for its time, the emotions are all rather overcharged, but still, it was an interesting story. I hope to read at least one more from the Brontë novels before the year is up; one of Anne's, I suppose, since now I have read Emily's and one of Charlotte's.

120Cecrow
kesäkuu 7, 2016, 10:39 am

>119 .Monkey.:, I'm going to try fitting that into my 2017. One of the biggest classic titles I haven't gotten around to yet. It has always sounded interesting to me because apparently it doesn't follow the typical romance pattern.

121.Monkey.
kesäkuu 7, 2016, 11:11 am

No, it definitely does not do that! And there really is quite little to like in just about any of the characters, and yet even so, they & their story are quite compelling. After I started getting into it I found it rather difficult to put down.

122abergsman
kesäkuu 7, 2016, 8:36 pm

I haven't read Wuthering Heights yet, either. One of these days...

123.Monkey.
kesäkuu 13, 2016, 9:25 am

Taking a little list break, just read The Golden Ass, which was ...different LOL and now I'm about to read Not Just Batman's Butler, as it's an ER title I finally just got and it needs knocking out quick! Very excited I finally have it. :D

124Petroglyph
kesäkuu 13, 2016, 1:42 pm

Re: Wuthering Heights
I find that a very strange and incoherent book. It's weirdly structured, doesn't really have one overarching plot, and isn't really a romance: it deals with two separate generations' worth of feuding between dysfunctional families/neighbours, with only a few recurring characters across generations. The romance really only makes up the first half, and the whole second half is taken up with a different feud between a different set of characters that is only partially a result of revenge for the first half. It's a cumbersome thing of non-canonicalness (or just badly structured/planned, lol), which makes it very hard to adapt for theatre/tv/movie. None of the adaptations I saw really prepared me (or, after I'd read the book, satisfied me), in part because they have to abide by a canonical three-act structure, or because they have to elevate a subplot from one generation's half to the status of overarching, coherent, tight little plot that the book lacks. So yeah, its inclusion among the Great Romances is, imho, mistaken.

>119 .Monkey.:
I enjoyed the hell out of Anne Brontë's The tenant of Wildfell Hall when I read it a few years back. Considered so immoral at the time that Charlotte Brontë blocked repeat printings...

125Petroglyph
kesäkuu 13, 2016, 1:44 pm

>123 .Monkey.:
The Golden Ass I read two years ago: fairly enjoyable, I thought. (review here, in case you're interested)

126.Monkey.
kesäkuu 13, 2016, 2:14 pm

>124 Petroglyph: Well yes, the "plot" is just the relationships between all the characters and what goes on in their lives. I don't have a problem with that. I didn't find it incoherent, either. My only confusion was early on, in trying to figure out who the three people were that we met, after Nelly started telling the story. But it became clear fairly quickly. I also have no issue with the gradual shifting of some characters, as the story being told is about one person. He goes there, returns, and "hey so what's the deal with my landlord." And he gets his answer. It only makes sense that as a person's life goes on, the small group of people around them would not be constant. As a "great romance," no indeed, but as quite an interesting story, surely.

>125 Petroglyph: Hm, well, morality tales tend to be pretty black & white by their nature, and most of the things you seem to have been surprised by in it were already rather familiar to me. :P Various parts of it were actually anecdotes from his own life, and the re-transformation was symbolic of his own turn to religion, so those two angles also frame it in a bit different light I think. I found a lot of it amusing, though some bits here & there dragged a little. It's just very different in style than things you find in the past few centuries hahaha.

127.Monkey.
kesäkuu 22, 2016, 8:58 am

#13 A Long Fatal Love Chase, finished! I read almost all of it this morning lol, read 80p before bed last night and the other 272 this morning. Once you've read a couple of the old Gothic tales you pretty much know how they go, but even so I couldn't put it down. :))

128Cecrow
kesäkuu 22, 2016, 9:34 am

Hu - *cough* - wha - 272 pages, this morning??? I couldn't do that if I had a robot to read it for me.

I've got some Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe lined up on my e-reader to get to, might start on them next year.

129.Monkey.
kesäkuu 22, 2016, 2:37 pm

Hahaha well to be fair, it's a lil ol' MMPB, and while the size is only just slightly below the norm, the text size & line spacing are, for some reason, a bit larger. That said, if I am enthralled (and not busy), I can easily read over 500p in a day. :)

130.Monkey.
heinäkuu 4, 2016, 4:50 am

Hey lookit that, even though my lists are rather haphazardly made and my picking is on my whims, and of my first 7 done 5 were off the bottom half, I'm almost finished with the top half of my list! And I've just started on Three Musketeers, too. :D

In other words, #14 Brideshead Revisited has been finished (last night)! I was a little disappointed, it was not at all like his other two I've read --and loved-- and had I read this one of his first, it is quite unlikely I'd have been motivated to read any others. Not that it is bad at all, but it's not remotely what I expect of his writing. I was interested, though it started a little slowly, but I certainly wanted to know what was going to happen, and how it would end. But the ending didn't leave me satisfied, more just happy to be finished. I would strongly advise anyone potentially interested in Waugh to read Decline and Fall instead, that one is fabulous!

131.Monkey.
heinäkuu 9, 2016, 12:48 pm

#15 Three Musketeers donnnne! As expected, quite enjoyable action, lots of fun. Not much to say, everyone knows the general story. Though I was admittedly a little surprised at the ending. Anywho, one from the 2014 list ticked off! xP

132Cecrow
heinäkuu 11, 2016, 8:13 am

>130 .Monkey.:, dangit, I have Brideshead Revisited on my TBR pile. But since we've not seen eye-to-eye on a lot of other titles, I may still chance it as my intro with the footnote that I'll try not to write him off if I don't like it.

133.Monkey.
heinäkuu 11, 2016, 8:21 am

I mean it's not bad, it's a perfectly decent book, it just isn't anything fabulous. Have you read Age of Innocence? It felt to me rather reminiscent of that, though far less tedious. Though I would be remiss if I did not point out:
'In various letters, Waugh himself refers to the novel a number of times as his magnum opus; however, in 1950 he wrote to Graham Greene stating "I re-read Brideshead Revisited and was appalled." In Waugh's preface to his revised edition of Brideshead (1959) the author explained the circumstances in which the novel was written, following a minor parachute accident in the six months between December 1943 and June 1944. He was mildly disparaging of the novel, stating; "It was a bleak period of present privation and threatening disaster – the period of soya beans and Basic English — and in consequence the book is infused with a kind of gluttony, for food and wine, for the splendours of the recent past, and for rhetorical and ornamental language which now, with a full stomach, I find distasteful."'
XD But yeah it's not like I'm sitting here going Oh man that sucked, wasted time! or whatever. It was just eh. But you should totally read Decline and Fall!

134Narilka
heinäkuu 11, 2016, 9:59 am

>131 .Monkey.: I thought it was a fun one too. Since finishing Count, I'm debating picking up The Man in the Iron Mask for next year.

135.Monkey.
heinäkuu 11, 2016, 10:53 am

Yeah, I'd had this one on my shelves for YEARS, now it's finally done I need to get Twenty Years After and Man in the Iron Mask, argh! XD

136.Monkey.
heinäkuu 11, 2016, 2:51 pm

#16 Beloved is all done! I actually read most of it today, from p91-324, lol. T'was about time I finally read my first Toni Morrison. Really good, not that I'm the least surprised. I was actually expecting it to be more emotionally crushing, but I felt like it was more...probing? I dunno, hard to explain, but anyway, good book, good ending.

I suppose I ought to try to make some Les Mis progress now. I've left it sit for months. Again. >.>

137billiejean
heinäkuu 11, 2016, 7:47 pm

I also thought that Beloved had a good ending. I have only read two of her books, but they were both great reads.

138Cecrow
heinäkuu 12, 2016, 7:33 am

I saw Oprah Winfrey's cinematic take on Beloved and detested it, so I've never tried reading Toni Morrison. Don't tell me I've gotta consider it now, it's so relieving when I can say "definitely won't read that" .... grumble grumble

139.Monkey.
heinäkuu 12, 2016, 8:40 am

Bahaha, books are nearly ALWAYS better than movies! It is definitely worth a read, as culturally significant if nothing else.

140.Monkey.
heinäkuu 19, 2016, 6:42 am

I decided, surprise surprise xD, to pick up Stalin's Pogrom rather than Les Mis, and have been making good steady progress on it. It's not so bad (read: morbidly depressing) as I feared; I hadn't realized it consists like 85% of simply the transcript of this one "trial" (if you can call something where the sentences had already been set prior to starting, a trial), as opposed to all sorts of details about his antisemitic purges and whatnot. The introduction (65p) had some info about that, as the background to this trial (along with info about the defendants and such), so that was a little slower (it wasn't till the 4th day reading I moved on to the transcript), but yesterday I wound up reading 70p of transcript and am now reaching the halfway point of the book. This will leave Les Mis as my only carryover left to finish, woo!

141Petroglyph
heinäkuu 19, 2016, 12:28 pm

Great!

142Narilka
heinäkuu 19, 2016, 3:32 pm

>140 .Monkey.: Great progress! You are really blowing through your list :)

143.Monkey.
heinäkuu 19, 2016, 3:48 pm

I'm trying! Hahaha. I doubt I will finish but I'll be glad if I get 20+, particularly if I knock out the previous carryovers! :P

144abergsman
heinäkuu 20, 2016, 9:49 am

>138 Cecrow: Don't let Oprah ruin Toni Morrison for you. :-P

>143 .Monkey.: I always feel such a sense of achievement when I finally read the carryovers from previous challenge years!

145.Monkey.
heinäkuu 20, 2016, 10:24 am

Haha right? Currently at 230 of 415 in Stalin, should have no problem getting there before the month is up... provided this damn heat leaves so my brain actually functions again. >.<

146billiejean
heinäkuu 20, 2016, 12:31 pm

I don't think the heat will leave for awhile, at least where I am.

147.Monkey.
heinäkuu 20, 2016, 12:35 pm

Weather here is usually rather moderate. We get like a week a year of this insanity. Tomorrow the high is supposed to be back "down" to 28 (it's mid30s today), 26 Fri/Sat, and by next Weds back down to 24. So, apt ought to be back to non-death temps by the weekend. Hopefully.

148.Monkey.
heinäkuu 23, 2016, 9:48 am

And #17 is done! Finished the pogrom last night. Truly infuriatingly maddening. And so so so very stupid. *sigh* At least under Khrushchev a couple years later they reopened the matter. Couldn't bring back the wasted lives, but at the very least those Soviet heroes were no longer denied their rightful place. :/

Meanwhile I just read Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man which was much fun. :D

149.Monkey.
heinäkuu 24, 2016, 12:49 pm

#18 Jacob's Room finisssshed! I didn't really care for it, honestly. Unsurprisingly, the writing is good, there were a few lines I especially liked. But the (very loose) story... just not for me. I didn't mind the odd style of telling it, I don't think, though it's hard to say so clearly when you're not very fond of what's being told. But, the kind of vaguely sad, ambling, not much plot... I just didn't care much for it. I am curious to read other Woolf and see what I think of the more hyped titles.

150Cecrow
heinäkuu 25, 2016, 7:59 am

I've a hard time getting my head around the thought of Khrushchev as a hand of justice, but I guess we're doing a Stalin comparison here. It's all relative. Sorry to hear Woolf fell flat for you, I still haven't approached her and I'm curious how it's gonna turn out.

151.Monkey.
heinäkuu 25, 2016, 8:29 am

I mean he certainly had his share of issues lol but he tried to bring about change that he felt would do the country good. While Stalin lived, he was responsible for carrying out all sorts of awful things, because well, you don't eff with Stalin. But when he took control he tried to make the country a better place. Obviously when you take charge after multiple evil dictators have been running things into the ground for decades, and before that a monarchy was being stupid and ignorant and doing the same in other ways, well, you've got a lot on your plate and it's no surprise when some hits the floor, haha. But he tried, and then Brezhnev took over and undid good things Khrushchev had put in place. This is actually a very nice article about views of him http://europe.newsweek.com/khrushchev-hero-or-villain-250691 taken from his granddaughter's memoirs.

I already had the idea this was not the best start for Woolf but at the same time, I actually prefer to read an author's weaker stuff first a lot of times, because reading after you've read their best makes it that much worse, lol. So I figured, it's short, it's not one people really talk about, why not just dive in with that and see what's what. XD The writing was good, it was just not the book for me. I really want to read Orlando but that's one of the few we don't own lol.

152.Monkey.
heinäkuu 27, 2016, 11:07 am

#19 Brighton Rock finished! I think this is my favorite Greene yet. It still has that very Greene feel, but Ida brings the mood up a bit. Really enjoyed this!

153billiejean
heinäkuu 27, 2016, 11:46 am

You are zooming along nicely. :) I enjoy Greene as well. I need to get that one.

154Cecrow
heinäkuu 27, 2016, 1:58 pm

Haven't tried him at all yet, but I think he's going to make my 2017 list.

155.Monkey.
heinäkuu 27, 2016, 5:31 pm

You really should! He's not, uhhh, the most cheerful of writers? Hahaha. But I really love his stuff.

156.Monkey.
elokuu 11, 2016, 4:31 am

#20 The Castle is donnnne! I'm not really sure what I think of it. It was a bit reminiscent of Catch-22 only, without the excess of wit that made Catch-22 so amazing (yeah yeah I know it was written much earlier and technically Catch-22 would be reminiscent of it but I read Catch-22 long before reading this, and besides I feel like Heller did it better. As an aside, Heller was actually inspired by a different Czech author without whom he "would never have written Catch-22." Interesting eh. But he did have Kafka allusions in it, and it has been said that Yossarian was very Kafka-esque, which I agree with, except as I said, I prefer Heller's style.). I mean it has its moments, I chuckled here & there, but mostly I was just really ...confused? Like, there's not really a clear story, and everything that goes on is just...wonky and, well, absurd. I would say based on this piece that Absurdism is not for me, but it's too small a sampling to really know; I like it in Catch-22, but then that's also a rather mishmash of various things, so... Anyway, I will read the other two novels Kafka wrote but I'm assuming I'll remain rather ambivalent about him, not so far as disliking his stuff but it simply doesn't do much for me. We shall see! Maybe I'll put the other two on my next two years' lists! ;P

157Cecrow
elokuu 11, 2016, 8:17 am

The Castle is the primary Kafka novel I've not read, instead I've now read the other two, lol (if you meant Metamorphosis and Trial). There's also Amerika, maybe others? Absurdism is definitely not my thing, I don't have any big takeaways when I read it. I thought The Metamorphosis best, if you read it as a metaphor for coming out to your family about something that makes them uncomfortable. Someday I'll try Catch-22 again, I think I'd have more patience for it now and can do the Kafka comparison.

158.Monkey.
elokuu 11, 2016, 8:57 am

He only wrote three novels: The Castle, The Trial, and Amerika, and didn't finish any of them, amazingly, lol. Metamorphosis is one of his many short stories (often published these days as a collection, The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, which is what I have, along with The Trial, still have to get Amerika, or maybe borrow it if the uni has it, depending what I think of the other two Kafkas I do have lol). :)
I really liked the introduction in the one I read, it provided a nice bit of background on him, and his odd paranoia and fear and such, which helped to explain a bit of what was going on in The Castle, I definitely think it helped keep me from feeling more negative than I otherwise would have, knowing the basis and whatnot.

Man, Catch-22 is my most favorite book ever. It's hard to really say that, because there's so many books that are favorites, but if I had to pick, there's really no doubt, Catch-22 is just, it's perfect. So hilarious, and so true, just amazing!! :D

159.Monkey.
elokuu 21, 2016, 5:56 pm

Been taking a little break, just finished Rob Roy (actually finished it on the 19th but there was 60 more pages at the end of the original intro, with all the historical background of him & the MacGregors and such), and tomorrow I will read the King in Yellow for the group read, and then I will probably read something else non-list because I don't know if I'd finish any of my list titles before the month is up and I hate when books cross over months because I'm a weirdo and it makes things less tidy LOL. Next month I will be visiting with Dickens I think. :)

160abergsman
syyskuu 15, 2016, 4:55 pm

Wow! You have made a lot of progress!

161.Monkey.
syyskuu 15, 2016, 5:29 pm

Mom's been in town this month so I've done nothing so far, heh, she leaves Sat so then I will have my time back to myself! :P

162.Monkey.
syyskuu 24, 2016, 5:41 pm

I'm reading Pickwick Papers now. 140 down, 600 to go. I'm gonna see if I can get myself to read 100/day, then I can knock it out this month. That may be ...difficult, though. Lol. But I will give it a shot, who knows!

After that, I have a library book and an ER book that desperately need reading. Then hopefully back to the list! :)

163.Monkey.
lokakuu 2, 2016, 5:26 am

#21 is donnnnnnnne! Two days late dangit but done! Hahaha. On the whole, Pickwick Papers was very enjoyable. I laughed out loud a number of times and was plenty amused. However. It ought to have been half as long. Far too much dragging in the earlier part! But the end was very good so I'm feeling a bit forgiving, lol. Would recommend as worthwhile but with the warning that the first third is somewhat tiresome. ;P

164Narilka
lokakuu 2, 2016, 2:53 pm

You are almost done with your list too!

165.Monkey.
lokakuu 2, 2016, 3:10 pm

I am I am! Haha. Still have to read the last 2/3rds of Les Mis that I've been holding off on since, what, Feb? sooo we will see, hahaha, but I might make it! :P

166Cecrow
lokakuu 3, 2016, 8:34 am

Glad you liked Pickwick and it didn't become another Les Mis slog for you. :) Still one of my favourites by Dickens, meandering notwithstanding.

167.Monkey.
lokakuu 3, 2016, 8:52 am

I didn't really mind the meandering much, but the first 200 or so pages of it was just kind of a drag. I think he didn't really hit his stride with it until after Sam came along. Once he was there it didn't take long to get the right balance going and it was a lot more interesting, and the only parts I really found so tedious were the blue/buff stuff (though I also was not a big fan of the Ben/Bob antics).

168Cecrow
lokakuu 3, 2016, 8:57 am

Then you had the same impression as London at the time; Wikipedia says the book did middling sales until Sam Weller appears, then it took off.

169.Monkey.
lokakuu 3, 2016, 9:00 am

Hah! Yeah definitely not surprising. Sam totally made the book.

170.Monkey.
marraskuu 22, 2016, 4:40 pm

Well I took a little time away from books, then there was the 8th and in order not to drown in the horror I've had my nose stuck in books, but needed escapism so I dove into two Alistair MacLeans, finished Robinson Crusoe, then read Tenant of Wildfell Hall (AMAZINNNNNGGG!!!) and The Professor, thus completing my Brontë sisters collection (though it stupidly is missing Shirley, so I still have that one to go before being fully finished with them). And now, I am back to Les Mis and will do something dreadful to myself if I do not stick to my 35p/day min. until I finish it, LOL. That way it'll be done in like 26 days or some such. I'm not sure yet what I will read alongside it to make sure I still keep active. I might try pairing it with And We Are Not Saved, see if I can't kill 2 birds with 1 stone. ;) But in any case I WILL FINISH LES MIS THIS YEAR, it WILL happen!!!! Hahahaha

171Narilka
marraskuu 22, 2016, 8:16 pm

LOL Good luck!

172Cecrow
Muokkaaja: marraskuu 23, 2016, 8:17 am

Cheers to that! *Knocks my Darwin against your Hugo in a cheers gesture.* Bottoms up! We'll see who slumps over first, lol

173.Monkey.
marraskuu 23, 2016, 11:49 am

Bahaha! So far so good, I read 59p yesterday, and I'm 12 down so far today with plenty of time to sit around on my butt while dinner is in the oven. XD

174.Monkey.
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 1, 2016, 11:58 am

So I've been doing good so far but in the name of accountability and making sure it stays that way I'm gonna keep a log here of my pages, then you can scold me whenever I come in under 35! xP
22/11: 504-563 -- 60 ✔
23/11: 564-602 -- 39 ✔
24/11: 603-647 -- 45 ✔
25/11: 648-691 -- 44 ✔
26/11: 692-822 -- 131 ✔
27/11: 823-886 -- 64 ✔
28/11: 887-921 -- 35 ✔
29/11: 922-965 -- 44 ✔
30/11: 966-991 -- 26 ✖

175Cecrow
marraskuu 25, 2016, 7:35 am

I refuse to do the same with Darwin, sorry. Possibly because I haven't touched him in five days and could do with less scolding in my life, thank you very much.

176.Monkey.
marraskuu 25, 2016, 2:45 pm

Lmao! I am determined to get this book done this year, I cannot possibly continue carrying it over year after year, the time has come! XD

177billiejean
marraskuu 30, 2016, 2:35 pm

You're doing great!

178.Monkey.
joulukuu 1, 2016, 12:06 pm

I missed out yesterday, dammit! LOL. Nine pages short. And now I'm hitting another bump of a different kind - he is talking, one hundred and fifty five years ago about the certainty that misery would be abolished soon, that the levels of education etc would simply rise above that and the human condition would inevitably improve, speedily. And about there being no backward flow and these things that are just, hitting me really freaking hard with what is going on right now. Because I still cannot fathom how it is even possible and then here's this really intelligent educated dude, a century & a half ago, SO SURE that the future could not possibly hold more of the same, that humans could not possibly revert backwards, and I just... it's painful. But there's only two more pages of this tangent before back to the story so, here's hoping I can make some good progress to make up for yesterday. I've only read like 10 pgs today so far.

179Cecrow
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 1, 2016, 1:19 pm

scold scold scold. Done as requested!

France hasn't been at war or in a revolution for over sixty years, I think that's pretty good by the standards of his day? Don't know about the rest.

180.Monkey.
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 6, 2016, 6:34 am

Dec Les Mis log:
01/12: 0992-1040 -- 49 ✔
02/12: 1041-1095 -- 55 ✔
03/12: 1096-1175 -- 80 ✔
04/12: 1176-1241 -- 66 ✔
05/12: 1242-1363 -- 122 ✔
06/12: 1364-1463 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ !!

181billiejean
joulukuu 1, 2016, 9:28 pm

I think you're doing great!

182.Monkey.
joulukuu 3, 2016, 5:09 pm

Less than 300 pages to goooo!

183billiejean
joulukuu 4, 2016, 5:57 pm

You are zooming!

184Cecrow
joulukuu 5, 2016, 7:42 am

It's gonna happen! It's gonna happen!

I've a very loooooooong book I'm lining up for 2017, so I might have a similar battle coming up.

185.Monkey.
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 6, 2016, 7:11 am

IT IS FINISHED!!! Okay technically there's still the intro to go back to but, DONE! Oh man, that last 55pgs or so was heart-wrenching. :( Excellent book.

ETA- Intro now finished as well. WOOHOOOOO!
I think I will take a momentary break to read something a bit quicker (probably Hell House), and then go for And We Are Not Saved. :)

186Cecrow
joulukuu 6, 2016, 7:26 am

WOO-HOO! It was such a chore, you must have found its title apropos. At least it has a good ending, eh? If you ever re-read it, try the abridged version instead now that you've defeated the full-sized monster and you'll be amazed how fast it flies by.

187Narilka
joulukuu 6, 2016, 9:07 am

Congrats!! You survived Les Mis :)

188.Monkey.
joulukuu 6, 2016, 9:12 am

Haha actually I dunno, I think the historical stuff might flow easier with knowing where it's going, how it ties in, etc. Really it was just a trudge because of the emotional roller coaster, so long & drawn out, hard to swallow it all, lol. I actually looked it up on Wiki at one point to get a small bit of spoilers because I needed to know I wasn't just going to be taking hit after hit after hit, it had to give sometime! heh. But it was amazing, and I have the added thrill of FINALLY completing it, 4 yrs after adding it to my list LOL (2013 list, so made Dec 2012 xP), hahaha.

189billiejean
joulukuu 6, 2016, 3:42 pm

Great job! And it's a really great read, isn't it? It turned out to be one of my favorite books ever. Truly the best of 2016.

190.Monkey.
joulukuu 10, 2016, 4:58 pm

And that's #23 done! And We Are Not Saved was an interesting way to frame the race issues the US has been struggling with ...well, for as long as it has been a country. Lots of facts (and cases) cited, but within a frame of "chronicles" so as to be engaging rather than dry. My main "issue" with it is that it's a bit depressing to think about, particularly because in the end it offers no real solution - which is not the fault of the author, but of the subject. Sadly, there is no viable solution other than for folks to simply keep trying. But reading defenses with cases cited as "legit" for why scenarios that ought to offer up a viable path to change, wouldn't... it's just kind of crushing. Especially with it being about 30 yrs since this was written, and nothing has changed, or hell, things may even be regressing. *sigh*

Oh well, even with aspects being a bit dated, the actual content is still completely relevant, so recommended for those interested in race issues in the US.

Now I take a break with Renfield: Slave of Dracula, while I ponder if I should try to make it through #24. :P

191LittleTaiko
joulukuu 10, 2016, 9:29 pm

Congrats on finally finishing Les Mis!!

192Cecrow
joulukuu 12, 2016, 7:42 am

>190 .Monkey.:, sounds like a good one. Objective perspectives on issues like this that describe the story from origins to current situation are a great reminder of why history matters. Because people are making it matter, every day.

#24, and Nabokov, no less. Do IT! Do IT! Do IT! ;)

193majkia
joulukuu 12, 2016, 8:17 am

Congrats!

194.Monkey.
joulukuu 12, 2016, 8:54 am

>192 Cecrow: Yeah, even with the stats being from the 60s-80s, I think I'd still recommend it for the avg person (as opposed to academics/major activists etc) who is interested in getting a bit of insight, as the chronicles make it an easy read, not scholarly and slow. It does make the writing suffer a little, as even two lawyers discussing things aren't really going to sit there not merely citing case law but actually coming at each other with complete quotes from judges, historical figures, politicians, etc, so the conversations were a little stilted, lol, but since it was not a novel, it wasn't an issue, just kind of made me chuckle a bit.

Hahaha if I don't do it now it would definitely happen in Jan. But his stuff has so many levels, so much depth, it can be a little slow-going, so I'm not sure I'd finish. I'll probably try, though, lol. Renfield is book 75 of the year so I'm set regardless, I hit the number I was aiming for. :)

>193 majkia: Thanks :)

195.Monkey.
joulukuu 13, 2016, 4:40 pm

Well I have been given an idea, inadvertently lol, for my 2017 (and future) list/s! So I have a picture up on a site,

which was just called to my attention, where someone specifically mentioned the Che book. And that made me look harder at the pic and sit here going, man that was over 7 yrs ago and not only have I still not read that one, there's a whole lot there I've not yet gotten to! So from now until ...completion xD I am going to pick several titles from those stacks to put on my list. :D

196Narilka
joulukuu 13, 2016, 9:57 pm

Oh yeah, that will keep you busy for a little while! Stacks like that tend to keep growing ;)

197Cecrow
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 14, 2016, 7:34 am

Can't see your image (won't load?) but I'm targeting a Che Guevara bio myself (the one from the 501 list), if that's who you mean. Although, looks like 2018 for me.

198.Monkey.
joulukuu 14, 2016, 8:08 am

>196 Narilka: Haha I've read a fair bit of them but there's still a lot to go! Those were my unread books from the US that I had shipped when I moved over here. :P

>197 Cecrow: That's odd, but if you're curious you can try checking out the larger size here: https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Items/n-9NVRC/i-HTfBpCk/0/X3/i-HTfBpCk-X3.jpg
I have no idea if my Che bio is the one from the list, likely not but who knows lol, I'd picked it up on a whim at the store, for whatever reason it caught my eye, and of course I was naturally curious about him, knowing the name but very little else. So...now it's been sitting around for probably at least a decade lol.

199Cecrow
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 14, 2016, 8:29 am

Ah, figured it out, it's a firewall thing. Yup that's the same one I want to read. I've pretty much read his whole page on Wikipedia but I'm still game, lol.

The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy is also on the 501 list.

200.Monkey.
joulukuu 14, 2016, 8:43 am

Well maybe we should both do it for 2018! I've already got several giants on my list for this year so I probably shouldn't add it now, should stick with some simpler ones, hahaha.

I don't feel like opening my spread sheet now to check LOL but I think I knew that one, that it's marked as owned. xP

201iamFOXFIRE
joulukuu 14, 2016, 11:38 am

How was A Long Fatal Chase? (Sorry for butting into this thread here, I'm new to LibraryThing...) I've loved Little Women since I was a kid (reread it many times) but I recently read a collection of her short stories that was really disappointing so unfortunately I'm now hesitating to read another Louisa May Alcott even though it sounds interesting.

If On a Winter's Night a Traveler is quite a wild ride, isn't it? I remember the first time I read it I took it to work with me and had trouble putting it down. I kept picking it up to read in the middle of the day and then shoving it under piles of paperwork to hide it whenever someone walked into my office.

202.Monkey.
joulukuu 14, 2016, 12:46 pm

>201 iamFOXFIRE: You're welcome to butt in any time, we love chatting about books, tis what we're here for! :D

Was that the collection of her thrillers? If so, you may not like this, as that's pretty much the same lines but shorter format. I thought it was pretty good, though, as natural for a Gothic romance, it gets over the top in places.

Hahaha, it was definitely a unique ride. I didn't love it, but I loved what he did with it, really interesting way to go about things! :)

203.Monkey.
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 14, 2016, 4:11 pm

"I think there must exist a special subversive group of pseudo-cupids—plump hairless little devils whom Satan commissions to make disgusting mischief in sacrosanct places." LOL oh I do so love Nabokov. No one else on the planet could ever come up with the sentences he created.

204billiejean
joulukuu 14, 2016, 9:42 pm

Love the photo of your tbr stack.

205.Monkey.
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 15, 2016, 5:02 am

Lol well, this would be the updated version of the TBR "stacks"

plus

Only the black unit on the 2nd one (the actual bookshelf is one of the two of read books), and the lower shelves are my husband's books from uni, and then of course all the DVDs are in there.
Those were taken a few mos ago, so there's been a few adds and switches to the read shelves, but you get the general idea. XD

So I made a list, I'm actually not so bad off as I thought! Of the ones I can make out (there's several stacks behind, where most things are way too hidden), there's 33 books to read, and 50 I've read (two of which were on my list this year :P), and then those King ones which are the first 4 Dark Tower books (we have the whole series now), which I am intentionally holding off on because I want to go back and read all his stuff in order because he always makes reference to stuff in earlier books and yeah, and the Anne Rice & James Patterson ones which are series stuff so meh they're waiting around and don't count! Lol. Oh and the Alistair MacLean stack which the titles are out of sight, and I've read a lot and gotten a lot more, those don't count either 'cause they take a couple hrs to read and I intentionally save them for when I want that particular kind of snack. xP

206.Monkey.
joulukuu 15, 2016, 6:52 am

Lolol oh god, so I'm just finalizing my 2017 list, and apparently I REALLY wanted to torture myself. I'd had like 2/3rd of it done so I go in the other room to pull the titles from the shelves (pictured above xP) and pick out more and bring them in here, like I did this year, and I go start locating & grabbing them and I'm pulling giant book after giant book and just started cracking up, thank goodness my husband wasn't home yet to think I'd lost my mind LOL but oh god, you guys! Wait until you see! XD Thank goodness I had already decided one of them was going to be Mary Poppins hahahaha and then for another, mostly because I'd intended on reading it this year so it's already in here, I chose Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court, because goodness! XD So I also explicitly chose the last 3 I selected just because they were shorter and I was like HEY you look good! Lmao. When I take the stack pics I'm totally going to sort them the order I pulled them out so you can see how it went, hahaha.

207Cecrow
joulukuu 15, 2016, 7:50 am

I run into this same problem, I start by listing the titles I genuinely want to read next and then take a look at size. The difference being I chicken out and do a bunch of swaps if there's too much big stuff, lol.

208.Monkey.
joulukuu 15, 2016, 8:56 am

Hahaha no chickening for me! Just hope they'll be engaging enough and not too heavy. xP

209iamFOXFIRE
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 15, 2016, 8:59 am

>202 .Monkey.: It was a collection of her stories about Christmas. They were all very preachy and kind of dull.(Not so spoiler alert: every single one of them is about a rich person being charitable to a poor person).
I've never read any of her thrillers but I think I might give them a shot. An over the top Gothic romance is really fun every once in while.

You have perfectly summed up how I feel about If On a Winter's Night A Traveler! I loved the style but I didn't quite fall in love with the book itself.

210.Monkey.
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 15, 2016, 9:01 am

Ahh, I've not seen that one around. Yeah that is definitely not what it is like! Lol. If you've read other Gothics and enjoyed them then I think you'd be safe with this one. :)

211Narilka
joulukuu 15, 2016, 9:39 pm

>207 Cecrow: I so know that feeling!

212.Monkey.
joulukuu 17, 2016, 11:38 am

Well stick a fork in me I am done!!! Woohooooooo! I don't think I ever hit all 24 before, did I? I was always 20something but... Yippy! XD

So yes Pale Fire is done. Very good, of course, and naturally I'm still trying to digest and sort through what was real and what was not. Nabokov did love his unreliable narrators, lol. Definitely something to think over for a while. :)

213billiejean
joulukuu 18, 2016, 8:32 pm

Congratulations on completely both lists!

214Narilka
joulukuu 18, 2016, 10:58 pm

YAY! You did it!!

215Cecrow
joulukuu 19, 2016, 8:02 am

Woohoo, you did it! This has been quite the good reading year for you.

I can't imagine you have too much Nabokov left on the TBR pile at this point, being the fan that you are? I still have to get to Speak, Memory sometime, I know you read that one a couple of years back.

216.Monkey.
joulukuu 19, 2016, 8:59 am

Oh I do, quite a lot actually! He wrote a good deal, and his writing has so much to it that it takes time to digest, so I don't generally wind up reading more than 1-2/yr.
Yup, I read that one back in *checks* 2013. It was really interesting, I had no idea he came from such a background.

I'm really pleased with this year! A few of my list books were a bit eh, but none were awful and a lot were excellent. Plus even though I went through a funk as usual (this year it was a crawl in May and then only 4 books read in all Sept/Oct!), I've finished 77 books this year so far, and most of those have been quite good, only a few duds. :D

217majkia
joulukuu 19, 2016, 9:00 am

Congrats on completing your challenge! Way to go!

218LittleTaiko
joulukuu 19, 2016, 10:10 am

Congratulations on making it through all 24 - very impressive!