PelicanGodOfJupiter said about 2 years ago or at 5:44PM on Tuesday, June 20 2006.
I must admit, I have never been much of a bookworm, but recently I've powered through Don Quixote (and admittedly had a tough time at the start, but once I got the hang of the language I managed to get there) and I'm obsessed, so I've made myself a pact.
I'm going to go through and read as many classic books as possible... much like someone who had just discovered music and wanted to go through and listen to one definitive album from each definitive artist.
So here's where you come in. You get to list as many classic novels you can think of and give a small rundown of the general story next to it and I'll decide what my next one will be.
The list of literature begins... NOW!
- Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes - The tale of the Spanish madman Don Quixote, who, though rather intelligent, was convinced he was a knight errant out to do a world of good. The book is filled with his bizarre tales and delusions such as when he went to do battle with the windmills or when he attacked the actors, thinking they were demons.
YOU list things now!
half fiction/half true account of hemingways time in italy in ww1.
he is wounded and falls in love with his nurse.
then other stuff happens.
awesome book.
just finished the last hemingway fiction, now i've read all his stuff!
love him...
last night i watched The Hours and it kinda made me wanna read Mrs Dalloway and bake a cake and kill myslef and stuff. is the book any good?
I actually saw that in the bookshop the other day next to 'For Whom The Bell Tolls'. You reckon "Farewell" is better? I accept your recommendation.
I also saw George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' for 10 bucks. I might get that just because you could read it in a day.
i got a book for my birthday called "the 5 people you meet in heaven" from HanoiJane. Its a sad book so I only read it in bits.
I'm also reading a book called "Land of the Living by Nikki French. Its about a girl who wakes up and finds herself hooded and tied to a chair with my memory. Not exactly literature but its a good read.
Pelican, I reckon you'd like some Ian McEwan. Remind me to dig some out for you.
I'm pretty crap with reading books but i like the 'culty' style writers like Brett Easton-Ellis and Hunter S. Anyone recommend other such authors?
I remember being really bored one day. I thought "I might go see American Psycho"... then thought "Nar, I'll just read the book, it'll fill in more time."
The book was so awesome that I thought "Wow, I can't wait to see this movie!"
It was (though years ago) one of the first times in my life I realised that a book can be better than a movie.
I don't mind long, as long as it's interesting.
oooh.
tough.
i actually really liked 'the sun also rises' better than both.
it's set in france and spain, and there's bullfighting and jazz and hijinks.
i liked 'farewell to arms' better than 'for whom the bell tolls' though i think.
the end of 'farewell...' is a killer...
Ursula K LeGuin: The Dispossessed
Imagines the flawed, yet plausible utopia of an Anarchist society in the guise of a science fiction novel. Unlike most SF, the characters are well developed and the basis for its premise is meticulously thought through. Rates as "literature" not "pulp".
Digital, Have you tried Irvine Welsh or Nick Hornby?
I sat next to a guy on my bus today reading Don Quixote and i wanted to ask him about it but didnt want to disturb him. its on my list.
What about 'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas'? I haven't even seen the movie! Never heard a bad thing about the book though.
love Nick Hornby, How much of a break up book is High Fidelity, might have to check out some Irvine Welsh though.
Is there like some kind of allmusic for authors?
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i started madame bovary this morning.
i can hardly believe that i've never read it (I've read excerpts in french but not the whole thing). It's beautiful.
just finished flights of love by bernhard schlink and loved it. i started the collector by john fowles this morning.
i've just finished the promise by chaim potok, sequel to the the chosen, not as good but still
thanks all. market forces and quicksilver sounds interesting.
so does the bernhard schlink short stories but i want a novel i can really get stuck into... and lost in.
the collector! ah, a great book.
read Dave Eggers. I love that man.
I just finished Music for Torching by AM Homes. Fantastico!
dispite being armed with a list of books i couldnt find any of them at the bookstore last night (the brunswick st bookstore).
damn!
ended up walking out of the store with a copy of jeffrey eugenides' middlesex
middlesex is awesome.
louis i just read the new history of Smyrna in Turkey which is where Middlesex starts with the escape from the burning quay.
I cried all over again.
Read the original essay that this book came from a couple of years ago on a plane and was bawling by the time we had to get off. Embarrassing but such a good read. Looking forward to reading THE TALL MAN. Chloe Hooper in conversation here at Readings about the book.
Oops missed the classics bit. Praps The Tall Man will be an instant classic.
So recently I've been rereading some old crime fiction, and I noticed that my Dashiell Hammett collection is missing from the shelf- another reason not to lend out books you love.
Anyway, I just went to Kill City in Swanston St, that second hand place on Flinders St near the subway, and Angus & Robinson on Collins St looking for a replacement.
Found nothing at all, not even a cheapie reissue of The Maltese Falcon. How can this be?
I just finished David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed In Flames last night. So much fun. I have to get Naked and Corduroy And Denim now.
Damn it, I hate it when I get a book I love and it's finished in one night yet I have to be assaulted by the flourescent yellow cover of The Shock Doctrine for months.
pfft, you didn't read the shock doctrine in one night.
so full of lies inactivist.
This is perhaps the coolest thing I've seen ever!
I want to move to this house... NOW!
i feel vertigo just looking at that photo.
woah, brilliant.
I'll bet it's a fantastic apartment, all of it.
tiny - this one better?
how about this? (one more time)
hehe. yes. not so daunting.