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The Sound and the Fury is truly a great book. It is filled with the pathos and angst we expect from Faulkner. I love his stuff.
The Bell Jar is a bit of a downer but that's to be expected from Plath. Those of us who were around in the 50s can really identify with it.
I like anything written by Nabokov. He was a genius writer, IMO. It's not so much the story but rather the style of writing that appeals to me.
I've read everything on your list except for "Silas Marner." I'll get to it next year.
I suggest "Swann's Way" by Proust. Good stuff.
Congrats on working your list.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Halo_in_reverse
Sure no problem.
Ooops, thought I was further along in my reading list (I'm only on #10). Whew I still have quite a way to go. The ones in italics and bold are the ones that I have read. I started this project back in May of this year. So I'm just about 6 months in at the moment. I may not make all 25 in one year, but I'm seriously trying.
1. Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky
2. Anna Karenina - Tolstoy 3. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 4. Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton 5. Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham
6. The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner
7. All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
8. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 10. Lolita - Vladimir Nabakov
11. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
12. Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
13. The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
14. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexander Dumas 15. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
16. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorn
17. Silas Marner - George Eliot 18. The Stranger - Albert Camus 19. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
20. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
21. Madame Bovary - Gustav Flaubert
22. Vanity Fair - Wm. Makepeace Thackery
23. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 24. Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe
25. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Catch-22 was excellent. I'm really happy that I've read it now. So you'll have to let me know how The Fountainhead was. I keep seeing lots of people talking about Ayn Rand and in particular - Atlas Shrugged. I know nothing of her work, but it seems to resonate today. Maybe I'll have to read for myself to find out why
I've just starte Silas Marner by George Eliot as part of my 25 classics in one year project. This is book 11 of my quest.
You might want to start a new list which includes Atlas Shrugged then. But I'd suggest reading The Fountainhead first. It's about half the size, and easier to read. I like Rands works, but she can be turgid if you're not used to being sort of...beaten about the head with a concept continually. YMMV and all that, of course.
You might want to start a new list which includes Atlas Shrugged then. But I'd suggest reading The Fountainhead first. It's about half the size, and easier to read. I like Rands works, but she can be turgid if you're not used to being sort of...beaten about the head with a concept continually. YMMV and all that, of course.
I liked The Fountainhead better than Atlas Shrugged.
I'm reading The Doctors Wife. Very good.
I am still working my way through atlas shrugged. I do like it, I just can't spend a lot of time with it! The edition I have is paperback with tiny little print!!!
I am still working my way through atlas shrugged. I do like it, I just can't spend a lot of time with it! The edition I have is paperback with tiny little print!!!
I read both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged many years ago in my late teens, early twenties. At that time, I read them because the story line was good, not for the ideology. I've wanted to revisit both books and read with a different perspective. There's just so many books I have not yet read. I would add Tale of Two Cities to the list.
For non-fiction, the best book I read recently was "Wrong: Why Experts Keep Failing Us — and How to Know When Not to Trust Them" by David Freedman. Pretty easy to read and interesting, and it sure explains a lot.
I am almost finished with "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson. I am really enjoying it.... I am finding it to be a charming combination of fact and humor.
Catch-22 has been mentioned five times in the past 20 posts. I tried to read it last year, and quite honestly, I found it tiresome. Yes, it was funny in its own rather dated way, but about a quarter of the way through, I thought it was repetitious and had lost its edge, and just gave up on it.
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I just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I really didn't think that I'd enjoy it at all. I love to be proven wrong, though -- I liked it VERY much, even though it's not my typical kind of read.
I'm about to start Great House by Nicole Krauss.
So much for my "I only read non-fiction" days.
PS to Wicked Felina: I got to about page 60 of Eleni before I had to turn to a lighter read. It's just too heavy (i.e. depressing and horrific) to read in the evenings when I'm inundated with work during the day. I will definitely, however, be going back to it when the work wanes... and it always does.
Just started Geraldine Brooks "People of the Book". Quite frankly, it reads like a 'what I did on my summer vacation' school paper, but she's a respected author, so I'll hang in there for a while.
I finished "Continental Drift" (Russell Banks) and, although well written, I found the Haiti parts very tiresome, and I didn't like the ending.
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The ones in italics and bold are the ones that I have read. I started this project back in May of this year. So I'm just about 6 months in at the moment. I may not make all 25 in one year, but I'm seriously trying. 
But I'd suggest reading The Fountainhead first. It's about half the size, and easier to read. I like Rands works, but she can be turgid if you're not used to being sort of...beaten about the head with a concept continually. 
YMMV and all that, of course.
