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2013 50 Book Challenge - Page 25

post #361 of 1000
3/4/12 at 8:07pm
17. Murder Must Advertise Dorothy L. Sayers 1933 One of Lord Peter Wimsey's whodunits from The List. First 70 pgs or so pretty boring. Then it revs up and is a great read. Plot's the same but who did whom pretty interesting. And some of the subject matter definitely racy for the 30s.
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post #362 of 1000
3/5/12 at 10:59am
Clockwise counting 12/50: Muriel Spark - Memento Mori (1959)

This English novel about the inter-connected life-stories and destinies of a large group of elderly people reads like a mystery although it is both a sad and a hilarious story about aging with reflections on the past as well as the inevitability of death. 

An anonymous caller has started with what first seems as prank calls to the old people, giving them only one simple message: "Remember you must die", which is also the meaning of this novel's title. As the calls get more frequent and extended to a larger group, there is a thought that the caller may be "death himself".

I liked this one, a very English book, and will read more of Spark. It also brought my personal score to 148/1001; and this well before I am inevitably and completely dead. I am still a bit ahead of schedule for the 50 in 2012 but doubt I will be able to catch Steve B who may actually be slyly targeting 75 or 100.
Edited by clockwise - 3/5/12 at 11:38am
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post #363 of 1000
3/5/12 at 4:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by clockwise View Post

Clockwise counting 12/50: Muriel Spark - Memento Mori (1959)
This English novel about the inter-connected life-stories and destinies of a large group of elderly people reads like a mystery although it is both a sad and a hilarious story about aging with reflections on the past as well as the inevitability of death. 
An anonymous caller has started with what first seems as prank calls to the old people, giving them only one simple message: "Remember you must die", which is also the meaning of this novel's title. As the calls get more frequent and extended to a larger group, there is a thought that the caller may be "death himself".
I liked this one, a very English book, and will read more of Spark. It also brought my personal score to 148/1001; and this well before I am inevitably and completely dead. I am still a bit ahead of schedule for the 50 in 2012 but doubt I will be able to catch Steve B who may actually be slyly targeting 75 or 100.

Not so, my good man.

I am Captain Ahab; the List the Great White Whale.
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post #364 of 1000
3/7/12 at 11:19am
18. Waiting for the Barbarians J.M. Coetzee 1980 The story of an old frontier magistrate's life. The beginning is peaceful and placid. He has hs routine; he is comfortable. Then soldiers of the Empire sweep in determined to obliterate the Barbarians (Natives/Indians/Nomads- pick one) from the earth. They don't seem to know why. To me they represent malicious herd instict- like the Nazis. The magistrate gets caught up in it all because he has taken a personal interest in one of the Barbarian prisoners. For this he is tortured and made to live like a dog. Ultimately the Empire's soldiers leave his village defenseless because the barbarians are winning the war I think the Barbarians represent Fear. Normally I don't like books like this, but I'd recommend this one highly.
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post #365 of 1000
3/8/12 at 6:29pm
19. Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote 1950 Holy aka Lumaellen aka pick whoever is living a life of fantasy. Protagonist is in love with her, but it's an asexual relationship. This book just had a lot going on for such a small book. I didn't care for it.
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post #366 of 1000
3/10/12 at 3:00am
Clockwise counting 13/50: Pascal Mercier - Night Train to Lisbon (2004)

This novel was a huge success in Germany and some other parts of Europe upon publication. It did not translate well to English (or was actually poorly translated) and I decided to read it in Swedish translation. 

The story is about a teacher of classical languages, a brilliant mind but in many ways a lost soul, and how a chance meeting with a Portuguese woman while crossing a bridge in Bern, Switzerland, is the beginning of some kind of inner revolution. The teacher abandons his job and stable life in Bern, buys a train ticket for Lisbon and commences the strange exploration into the writings and life story of an obscure Portuguese aristocrat. 

This is a story about the search for oneself and it is full of philosophical contemplation. It was a quite interesting journey but arriving at the end of these 400 pages, it all felt somewhat unsatisfying. Bit of a flawed jewel this one.
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post #367 of 1000
3/11/12 at 9:45am
20. The Island of Dr. Moreau 1896 H.G. Wells The story of a shipwrecker who alights on an island where animals are being made into men. The man in charge is Dr. Moreau. One of the animals he's working on goes berserk and kills him. Then everything goes to hell and the animals revert to their old ways. This is the last of the 4 of Wells' recommended books, and I liked it the least.
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post #368 of 1000
3/12/12 at 11:25pm
Clockwise counting 14/50: Kazuo Ishiguro - An Artist Of the Floating World (1986)

In post-war Japan 1948-50, retired master painter Masuji Ono reflects on the country's dark recent past and his own connection with the rise of Japanese militarism. This is a novel about a changing society, the need to face up to and take responsibility for past actions and it is also a miniature picture of pre- and post-war Japan. A very nice little book!
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post #369 of 1000
3/13/12 at 12:50pm
damn i don't think i'm going to make this challenge...

just finished reading ugly americans.

a "true" story of an american expat and his forways into the nikkei.
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post #370 of 1000
3/14/12 at 8:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by clockwise View Post

Clockwise counting 14/50: Kazuo Ishiguro - An Artist Of the Floating World (1986)
In post-war Japan 1948-50, retired master painter Masuji Ono reflects on the country's dark recent past and his own connection with the rise of Japanese militarism. This is a novel about a changing society, the need to face up to and take responsibility for past actions and it is also a miniature picture of pre- and post-war Japan. A very nice little book!

That book was a bit more expensive on Amazon so I didn't buy it this run. Now I shall...
Quote:
Originally Posted by yjeezle View Post

damn i don't think i'm going to make this challenge...
just finished reading ugly americans.
a "true" story of an american expat and his forways into the nikkei.

Don't give up. Not as hard as it seems.



Just finished the first novel in Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Hilarious- even more so than Confederacy of Dunces.

3 books in parallel- all completely different. Haven't done this in a while.
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post #371 of 1000
3/14/12 at 8:51am
Not sure what you'll think of that Ishiguro novel, Steve. Not the most plot-driven story but I liked it a lot. I am lining up more Ishiguro for this year.

I have read your three latest as part of the 50 challenge and thought all three very good, maybe especially Breakfast at Tiffanys biggrin.gif

I am always (or usually) parallel reading 3-4 books. Got a couple of thick ones on the way and now closing in on 800 pages in 1Q84.
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post #372 of 1000
3/15/12 at 9:47am
21. Heaven and Hell: My Life in The Eagles 1974-2001 Don Felder 2008 My dirty little secret- rock star bios. Snarfed this one up in about a day. The Eagles are one of my 4 or 5 favorite bands, and I've wanted to read this book for a while. It was supposedly a "tell-all", "no holds barred" story of one of the favorite bands of my generation. Unfortunately, I sympathized more with Glenn Frey and Don Henley, whom Felder sought to impugn. They were in the band before he was, and obviously contributed much more to its success than he did. He wrote 3 songs and sang on one. Great guitarist- but there are lots of those. Great read though if you're into that sort of thing.
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post #373 of 1000
3/16/12 at 8:44am
There have been three editions of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, published in 2006, 2008 and 2010 respectively. Major changes were made to the 2008 edition, including many more non-English novels and kicking out 200+ books from the original list. There is an excellent iPhone app (can be found at "1001 books"), which lists all the books from the three editions and allows you to tick them off as you read them. The total number of books, if you plan to cover all three editions, are 1,294. That will be my target. My score to date is 158. biggrin.gif
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post #374 of 1000
3/16/12 at 3:11pm
2. Franz Kafka - Processen.

Too much school work, i doubt i am going to reach 50 books frown.gif
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post #375 of 1000
3/16/12 at 4:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Knisse View Post

2. Franz Kafka - Processen.
Too much school work, i doubt i am going to reach 50 books frown.gif

Write a capsule review, please! We need your thoughts on Kafka's The Trial. And then get going with The Castle and Amerika. They are all must-reads! smile.gif
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