1001/1292 Books (Part 1)
As a lover/consumer of bookish lists I was intrigued by the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (enhanced to 1292) list of books over at Hannah’s Blog – Among Stories. Naturally I looked through the list ticking off the one’s I’d read and came to a satisfying 80 odd. This was rather less satisfying when I realised it represented a mere 6% or so of the total. But I did also find a number of books as yet unread but owned which will take it over the 100 mark. So, as I know several of my regular readers also enjoy book lists – as well as the fact that some of those listed are not classics so haven’t been mentioned here before as they were read pre-Blog – I thought I’d register those on Hannah’s Read Before You Die list I’ve read which might give other people ideas too! Win-Win, I call that. So...
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
The Player of Games – Iain M. Banks
The Cider House Rules – John Irving
Less Than Zero – Bret Easton Ellis
Legend – David Gemmell
Empire of the Sun – J.G. Ballard
The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
Neuromancer – William Gibson
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
The World According to Garp – John Irving
The Shining – Stephen King
Interview With the Vampire – Anne Rice
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Fear of Flying – Erica Jong
Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
The French Lieutenant’s Woman – John Fowles
I think that’s a pretty good list all told. A few of them I didn’t like very much but most were either above average to outstanding. As always, more to come.
9 comments:
Interesting! I've gone through the list on Hannah's blog and have read 140, but they are mainly the older books from the 19th and early 20th centuries - I've read hardly any of the more recent ones on the list.
I think my hits were a mixture of old (Wells & Conan Doyle) and new. I'd say that well over half I'd never heard of and around a third of the authors were completely new too. But it HAS given me some ideas so.... [grin]
I’ve read a few on this list. I started Vonnegut, but it’s gone to the back of the stack while I read others first.
I've read a few Vonnegut a LONG time ago. Can't say he's a favourite though!
Brilliant idea. Do you have a link to Hannah's list?
https://amongstories.wordpress.com/reading-challenges/1001-books-you-must-read-before-you-die/
Thank you.
It's so interesting to see the different books people have read off this list! Of the one's you listed here, I've only read Slaughterhouse 5, though that was back in high school. I picked up The Secret History and a couple of J.G. Ballard books recently because I'm very intrigued, but have yet to read them... as they say, so many books, so little time.
It's a VERY long list to pick from! [lol] I think 'Slaughterhouse 5' is on a lot of High School reading lists which probably accounts for its popularity. I read it in my teens but because it was SF rather than allocated reading. I really didn't like 'Secret History' and thought it was very overrated. Ballard is a difficult one. I've read quite a few of his - maybe 5-6 anyway - and wasn't overly impressed apart from 'Empire of the Sun' which I really liked.
More from the List on Saturday.
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