Friday, February 29, 2008

Mythopoeic Challenge

The challenge is to read seven books between JANUARY 1ST 2008 to DECEMBER 31ST 2008 from the list of Mythopoeic Award Winners or from the list of nominees for the fantasy and scholarship parts. Foxy Writer is hosting it here, check it out!

This is my list - I'm going to need to re-arrange some of my other lists to include these now because I can't possibly add any more books!
Completed: 7/7 as of 5 December


The Wood Wife by Terri Windling is my alternate (if I don't get to Jonathan Strange this year).

Title Master Reading Challenge

Yes, another one! The Title Master Reading Challenge is to read at least 4 books whose titles have every word starting with the same letter. Go to the challenge site for more info!

2008 Update - Books

I'm doing this list to keep track and include things that aren't part of any of my challenges!

January:
1. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson (4/5)

February:
1. Children of Men by P.D. James (3/5)
2. Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler (3/5)
3. Stardust by Neil Gaiman (5/5)
4. Are You There, God? It's me, Margaret by Judy Blume (4/5)
5. The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby (5/5)
6. Under the Duvet by Marian Keyes (4/5)
7. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

2008 Update - Movies

January
1. Heavenly Creatures (5/5)
2. In America (5/5)

February
1. Hot Fuzz (3/5)
2. Thank you for Smoking (5/5)
3. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (4/5)
4. Underworld (0/5)
5. Annie Hall (5/5)
6. Almost Famous (4/5)
7. Children of Men (1/5)
8. Breakfast at Tiffany's (4/5)

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Heroine - Booking Through Thursday

Who is your favorite female lead character? And why? (And yes, of course, you can name more than one . . . I always have trouble narrowing down these things to one name, why should I force you to?)

I can't believe I'm capable of choosing just one. It came to me immediately - Anne of Green Gables. I love the books, I love the films, I love her. I read all the books (I can't remember how many there are, but they go until Anne has a family of her own) - I remember I got the whole set in Polish for my Name Day when I was 12 or 13.

Anne is a brilliant heroine. She's spunky and strong and fun and sentimental and a total dreamer. She messes up a lot, but in the end finds her way. I like that she didn't lose her character when she grew up - she changed of course, she wasn't a kid anymore, but you could always see where she came from.

I wanted to be Anne. I wanted to live on Prince Edward Island - to go there is still one of my biggest dreams, one that will hopefully come true soon. I wanted to have her courage, her strong will. I find it funny that to this day, after so many books read, Anne has not been replaced in my heart. She's my ultimate female heroine.

Under the Duvet

Marian Keyes' is a well-known Irish writer of women's fiction. I'm sure I've read something of hers in the past and I have something else waiting on the shelf for when I feel like something light. This book, Under the Duvet, is something different though, it's a collection of some short pieces of writing, mostly journalistic in style. Over the years, Marian Keyes had been asked to contribute to all kinds of Irish newspapers and magazines on all sorts of topics. Some of the pieces included in this book are such assignments and others are previously unpublished.

I enjoyed reading it - it's the sort of book you can dip into and out of easily, the pieces are short enough to sit down for a few minutes, read one and then move on to something else. I'd been reading it in bed, actually. Keyes' style is light and chatty - and very, very Irish. I am partial to the Irish style though, I find it funny and real, and it helps that I have it at home every day since my partner is Irish.

Anyway, I'd recommend the book for some light amusing reading and insight into the Irish mind. 4 stars from me and I hope to remember to read one of her novels at some point soon.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Around the World in Books

I've been wanting to keep track of my reading by country for a while and I was inspired by CaribousMom, so I'm finally starting something similar. I don't want to include books that I've already read, I'm starting with a clean slate. I will continue adding to this list as I discover books I want to read - if I've read them there will be a link to my thoughts.

AFRICA

Botswana:
The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith

Congo:
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Nigeria:
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie

Rwanda:
A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche

South Africa:
The Life and Times of Michael K. by J.M. Coetzee
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee


ASIA

Afghanistan:
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

China:
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Wild Swans by Jung Chang

India:
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
The God of Small Things by Arundhai Roy

Iran:
The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani (recommended by Melody)

Japan
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Pakistan:
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Turkey:
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak


AUSTRALIA/OCEANIA

Australia:
The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

New Zealand:
The Bone People by Keri Hulme
The Colour by Rose Tremain


EUROPE

Belgium:
The Sorrow of Belgium by Hugo Claus

France:
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Germany:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Ireland:
The Gathering by Anne Enright
Irish Journal by Heinrich Boll
The Speckled People by Hugo Hamilton
Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor

Norway:
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

Poland:
Poland by James Michener

Portugal:
Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali

Russia:
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Switzerland:
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

Spain:
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Sweden:
Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

United Kingdom:
Gabriel's Gift by Hanif Kureishi

NORTH AMERICA

Canada:
Alias, Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
The Story Girl by L.M. Montgomery
Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

United States:
Alabama - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Georgia - The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Iowa - The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

Mexico:
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

SOUTH AMERICA

Brazil:
The Devil and Miss Prym by Paolo Coelho

Chile:
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

World Book Day 2008

March 6 is apparently World Book Day! A list of 100 books to talk about was drawn up and ten were shortlisted. On February 29th voting will end of the ONE winning title, which will be announced on World Book Day itself. I like the list of 100. I'm trying really hard not to go through it too closely though. Maybe it can become a project? Hmmm...

Monday, February 25, 2008

I found two more challenges!

The Man Booker Challenge requires you to choose 6 books that either won, or have been shortlisted or longlisted for, the Man Booker Prize. Dewey from The Hidden Side of a Leaf is hosting and you can find more details here.

Here are my choices, all overlapping with other challenges:

6) Number9dream by David Mitchell (shortlisted 2001)


And since I'm joining all these challenges, I had to join this one too - the 100+ Reading Challenge. It's simple - I'm hoping to read at least 100 books this year! Better get off the computer and get to it! :-)

The Diving-Bell & The Butterfly

I'd never heard of Jean-Dominique Bauby's book before I saw it reviewed by Maggie. When I went to the used book store a couple of days later, there it was, so I thought it was meant for me to read at this point in my life.

The Diving-Bell & The Butterfly is an amazing book. Its author, Jean-Dominique Bauby, is the former editor-in-chief of the French Elle who had a massive stroke in 1995. What does that mean? In his words:

"In the past it was known as a 'massive stroke' and you simply died. But improved resuscitation techniques have now prolonged and refined the agony. You survive, but you survive with what is so aptly known as 'locked-in syndrome'."
His brain was working perfectly, he was perfectly aware of everything, be he was completely paralysed. He could move his left eyelid and he dictated the book using a blink pattern to indicate the letters of each word. So letter by letter.

And what a book. It is not full of self-pity, nor is it simply a tear-jerker (although some moments brought tears to my eyes). It doesn't tell us to live every minute of life to its fullest, but that is, of course, understood. It is a completely different look at life and one that I think all of us should take the time to know.

I cannot imagine being in that situation, imagine relying only on your memories when you cannot predict what effect they will have on you - sometimes joy, sometimes regret... Thinking about it makes me feel extremely lucky that I can live life the way I'm living it right now.

Jean-Dominique Bauby died in 1997, two days after his book was published in France. I think it deserves to be read by as many as possible and I hope that the blogging phenomenon will help this. It gets 5-stars with me, I hope that you get the chance to read it too!

Bauby talks about The Count of Monte Cristo in his book and because of this I'm bumping it up my to-be-read list and hope to get to it next month.

Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret

I am so glad that I read Judy Blume's Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret again - I loved it when I was about 10 or 11 and I can still see why. That has to be a good sign. I have to admit that I went back to it because of the blogging world - I felt kind of silly ordering early-teen literature, but I see now that there are others who are drawn to it! Yea, I'm not crazy! :-)

The story is about 12-year-old Margaret and her life as she tries to come to terms with moving to a new house, her new school, making new friends, plus all the problems of being a 12-year-old girl. It made for a very enjoyable couple of hours.

I'm happy to have read it at this point in my life, when I'm thinking about having kids, it reminded me of what things look like in a kid's head...

Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret gets 4 stars - I'll definitely be re-reading the Judy Blume books I grew up on - plus reading the ones I missed too!

Friday, February 22, 2008

Friday fill-ins

What a nice idea for a Friday afternoon! Check it out for yourself!

1. Discovering new things is the best thing about traveling. I love spending time in each place and seeing what the people there live like. I hate just driving through a place, stopping for an hour and then ticking it off your 'to be seen' list.

2. I love a good bowl of soup when I'm cold.

3. I often use shopping as therapy. Hmmm... maybe that has something to do with question #5.

4. I'm reading Catch-22 right now; I like it so far, although it's strange.

5. Money is something I dislike talking about. It makes me uncomfortable because I'm so bad at managing it!

6. When I visited Ireland last summer I most looked forward to seeing some old pagan worship sites. They are so normal in Ireland that most aren't even signposted or anything so it takes some time to find them!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to my friend Amy's birthday party, tomorrow my plans include reading, cooking and maybe baking too and Sunday, I want to read some more, it's almost the end of February and I'm behind!

Stardust

I LOVE this book. And Neil Gaiman. He's a genius. I don't like all fantasy books, but his writing is superb and his storylines a great - read American Gods, if you don't believe me.

Young Tristran Thorne promises to bring a fallen star to the woman he loves. Thing is, the fallen star landed in Fairie, on the other side of the wall. So Tristran goes on an adventure and finds that the star is not a piece of rock but a person. Together they travel through Fairie - through a strange and dangerous world - and come out of the journey different people.

It's a fairytale for adults - Not for kids as there are some scary things that happen and because of "one rude word in incredibly small type"- these are Neil Gaiman's own words, there is an interview with him at the end of the book. :-)

I give it 5 stars and can't wait to read something of his again.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Format - Booking Through Thursday


This week's question is:

All other things (like price and storage space) being equal, given a choice in a perfect world, would you rather have paperbacks in your library? Or hardcovers? And why?

This one's easy - paperbacks! For one thing, I don't like actually reading hardcovers because they're too big and heavy. And they won't fit in my handbag. I have a few hardbacks, but only really thick books so that they don't fall apart on me.

Plus, I don't know, if I try to imagine a library in my house having only hardcovers, in my head it looks kinda... stuffy. I guess paperbacks are just more 'me'.

I'd make an exception if I could have a magic library like Trish thought up - I don't think I'd be able to resist something like that!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Movies watched in 2008

48. Twilight (A)
47. Driving Miss Daisy (B)
46. In Bruges (A-)
45. P.S. I Love You (B)
44. Bride and Prejudice (A)
43. Atonement (B)
42. One True Thing (A)
41. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (A)
40. The Prince and me (B)
39. Ice Princess (A)
38. Barbarian Invasions (B+)
37. Bend it like Beckham (A)
36. Edward Scissorhands (A)
35. Memoirs of a Geisha (A-)
34. Mars Attacks (C)
33. The Corpse Bride (A)
32. The Sixth Sense (B+)
31. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (A)
30. 42nd Street (B+)
29. Love and Death (B+)
28. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (A)
27. The Princess Diaries (B+)
26. Bee Season (C-)
25. Mystic River (B+)
24. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (C+)
23. The Bourne Identity (B)
22. The Bourne Supremacy (B)
21. The Sting (A)
20. Wag the Dog (A)
(see my thoughts about the movies I watched until this point here)
19. Babel (A)
18. Mr. Holland's Opus (A)
17. Beetlejuice (A)
16. Muriel's Wedding (A)
15. The Devil Wears Prada (A)
14. Music and Lyrics (C)
13. The Lives of Others (B)
12. Juno (A)
11. Breakfast at Tiffany's (B)
10. Children of Men (D)
9. Almost Famous (B)
8. Annie Hall (A)
7. Underworld (F)
6. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (B)
5. Thank you for Smoking (A)
4. Hot Fuzz (C)
3. All That Jazz (A-)
2. In America (A)
1. Heavenly Creatures (A)

Three new reading challenges

I looked around on some of the other book blogs around and found that there are more challenges I can join! ;-) And I can do it by using titles I already plan to read this year, which is great! Here they are:

Numbers Challenge

The challenge is to read 5 books whose titles have a number in them from Jan 1, 2008 to June 1, 2008 This includes written numbers like "one" or "forty."

This one's hosted by Callista from SMS Book Reviews. Thanks Callista!

Completed: all as of 19 June

Here are my choices:

1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
2. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
3. number9dream by David Mitchell
4. The Year 1000 by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger
5. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield



Chunkster Challenge

The challenge is to read 4 chunksters until 17 December, 2008 - a chunkster has 450pp. regular or 750pp. large type. It's kindly hosted by So many books, so little time but there is a separate review blog - Feelin' Chunky - go check it out!

My chunksters:

1) Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
2) The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
3) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
4) Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami - 512pp
5) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller -576pp
6) The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - 464pp
7) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling - 608pp
8) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - 512pp
9) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - 560pp
10) The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood - 656pp
11) P.S. I Love You by Cecilia Ahern - 512pp
12) The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris - 496pp


Banned Book Challenge


This one comes from Canada, but is open to non-Canadians too!

Set a challenge for yourself to read x number of challenged or banned books between February 24 (Freedom to Read Week in Canada) and June 30.

Their site has lists of books that have been banned or challenged over the years so there's plenty of scope. I chose to read 6 books, here they are:

Completed: All as of 28 June

1) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
2) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
3) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4) The Giver by Lois Lowry
5) The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6) The Earth, My Butt and Other Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

The Eponymous Challenge

SuziQoregon of Blogging My Books posted about another reading challenge she found - The Eponymous Challenge, hosted by Coversgirl. I just looked through my lists and since I can use books I already plan to read, I'm joining too! The challenge is to read 4 books whose title is either the name or description of one or more of the characters; it runs from 1 March to 31 May, 2008.

COMPLETED!!! First challenge finished! :-)

My choices are:

1. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
2. The Speckled People by Hugo Hamilton
3. Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
4. Chloë by Freya North

I'm loving all these challenges, the world of blogging is great!

Back When We Were Grown-ups

On Monday night, I finished reading Anne Tyler's Back When We Were Grown-ups, started reading Neil Gaiman's Stardust (which I'm loving so far) and decided to give up on the Polish book I was reading - Rzeź Bezkręgowców by Joanna Chmielewska. It wasn't doing anything for me and since I have so many other things to read, I decided to move on. I used to love this author, but she's another one who's been using the same formula forever and it sounds forced by now.

When I started reading it, I didn't like Back When We Were Grown-ups. I didn't like that there were so many characters with strange names or nicknames, I found it hard to keep track and it seemed forced to me.

But it grew on me. The story was simple, in fact nothing really happened, the action mostly took place in the mind of the main character, Rebecca. She was doing a lot of thinking about whether she took the right fork in the road when she married her husband and about how different life would have been if she'd married her high school sweetheart. It's about the highly-addictive 'what-if' game that many of us play (I can't be only one!) and Anne Tyler takes it to a beautiful place. The book goes quickly, the simplest things in life are are beautifully described, all in all it was enjoyable.

I'm giving it 3 1/2 stars because I enjoyed it and would read something else by Anne Tyler at some point, but it didn't wow me.

Books read in 2008

Fun Facts (idea stolen from http://notenoughbooks.blogspot.com/):
Total read: 97
Audiobooks: 5
New authors: 77
Non-Fiction: 10

December
97. Incendiary by Chris Cleave 281pp (C+)
96. Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda 480pp (B+)
95. The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris 496pp (A)
94. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen 200pp (A)
93. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston 205pp (B)

November (14 books; 3,238pp plus 1 audio)
92. Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving 128pp (B)
91. Confessions of a Reformed Dieter by A.J. Rochester - Audiobook (B)
90. The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd 384pp (A)
89. Winter Rose by Patricia McKillip 272pp (C-)
88. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto 150pp (A)
87. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery 256pp (A)
86. Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot 272pp (B)
85. A Concise Chinese- English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolou Guo 368pp (C-)
84. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 240pp (B-)
83. P.S. I Love You by Cecilia Ahern 512pp (B+)
82. Zel by Donna Jo Napoli 240pp (B)
81. Black Water by Joyce Carol Oats 160pp (A)
80. The Dangerous Husband by Jane Shapiro 256pp (D)
79. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid 224pp (A)

October (11 books; 2,948pp)
78. Forever by Judy Blume 155pp (A)
77. The River King by Alice Hoffman 336pp (A)
76. Through Thick and Thin, edited by Jane Waghorn 118pp (B+)
75. The Story Girl by L.M. Montgomery 272pp (A)
74. The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien 206pp (C)
73. Rozowe Tabletki na Uspokojenie by Krystyna Janda 250pp (C)
72. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson 198pp (A)
71. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry 132pp (A)
70. One True Thing by Anna Quindlen 289pp (A)
69. The Stolen Child by Keith Donahue 336pp (B)
68. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood 656pp (A)

September (11 books; 3,061pp)
67. Chocolat by Joanne Harris 336pp (A)
66. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami 512pp (A)
65. Getting Things Done by David Allen 282pp (B+)
64. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett 298pp (A)
63. The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike 315pp (F - only managed 100pp)
62. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee 224pp (B)
61. The Truth About the Leprechaun by Bob Curran 157pp (B)
60. The Vanishing by Tim Krabbe 128pp (B+)
59. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle 224pp (B)
58. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 560pp (A)
57. Witch Child by Celia Rees 240pp (B)

August (5 books; 1,492 plus 1 audio)
56. Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor 432pp (A)
55. Amsterdam by Ian McEwan 192pp (D)
54. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card 336pp (A)
53. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson - Audiobook (B+)
52. The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller 182pp (B)
51. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy 350pp (A)

July (8 books; 1,975 plus 1 audio)
50. Don't you want me? by India Knight 272pp (B+)
49. Murder on a Girls' Night Out by Anne George 256pp (B)
48. Tego lata w Zawrociu by Hanna Kowalewska 222pp (C+)
47. The American Boy by Andrew Taylor - Audiobook (F)
46. The Devil and Miss Prym by Paolo Coelho 224pp (B)
45. Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella 329pp (C)
44. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 512pp (A)
43. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne 160pp (A)

June (9 books; 2,263pp)
42. The Celts, First Masters of Europe by Christiane Eluere 176pp (C)
41. Dziennik Irlandzki by Heinrich Boll 127pp (B-)
40. The Color Purple by Alice Walker 230pp (A)
39. The Giver by Lois Lowry 240pp (A)
38. Pefume by Patrick Suskind 272pp (A)
37. Gabriel's Gift by Hanif Kureishi 178pp (A)
36. number9dream by David Mitchell 432pp (B-)
35. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares 304pp (B)
34. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson 304pp (C+)

May (5 books; 1,861pp)
33. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 309pp (A)
32. Jennifer Government by Max Barry 352pp (A-)
31. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling 608pp (A)
30. I don't know how she does it by Allison Pearson 368pp (B)
29. The Boy on the Bus by Deborah Schupack 224pp (C)

April (9 books; 2,380pp plus 1 audio)
28. Like Life by Lorrie Moore 192pp (D-)
27. Summer Sisters by Judy Blume 384pp (C+)
26. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 192pp (A)
25. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield 480pp (A)
24. The Xmas Factor by Annie Sanders - Audiobook (C+)
23. This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes 380pp (C)
22. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne 224pp (A)
21. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood 224pp (B+)
20. The Speckled People by Hugo Hamilton 304pp (B+)

March (11 books; 2,939pp plus 1 audio)
19. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler 304pp (5/5)
18. Animal Farm by George Orwell 112pp (5/5)
17. Girls Under Pressure by Jacqueline Wilson 208pp (5/5)
16. The Memory Keeper's Daughter 416pp (5/5)
15. Gossip Girl by Cecily Von Ziegesar - Audiobook (2/5)
14. The Year 1000 by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger 240pp (4.5/5)
13. Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett 251pp (4.5/5)
12. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller 576pp (4/5)
11. Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson 288pp (4/5)
10. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark 128pp (4/5)
9. Chloe by Freya North 416pp (4/5)

February (7 books; 1,670pp)
8. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende 288pp (5/5)
7. Under the Duvet by Marian Keyes 288pp (4/5)
6. The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby 144pp (5/5)
5. Are You There, God? It's me, Margaret by Judy Blume 160pp (4/5)
4. Stardust by Neil Gaiman 224pp (5/5)
3. Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler 288pp (3/5)
2. The Children of Men by P.D. James 278pp (3/5)

January (umm... 1 book; 171pp - can you say 'slow start'?)
1. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson 171 pp (4/5)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Children of Men

I finished reading P.D. James' Children of Men a few days ago, but was waiting to watch the movie before I posted my thoughts... Truthfully, I don't know why I still insist on sometimes watching the film after reading the book. It's almost always a disappointment. The film had nothing of the atmosphere of the book. And the story was SO different!! That really bugged me, even relationships between characters differed. I'm no movie maker but I could think of a few places where sticking to the original story would not have been that difficult. Oh and the ending was so cheesy that even I couldn't stand it.

The book was good. I'm not normally a fan of suspense/thriller type books, but I wanted to read this one because I loved the storyline. It's the future and the youngest human dies at 18. People are infertile and the human race is close to dying out. Aside from the storyline, I liked the detail with which P.D. James painted the world where children don't exist. All the little touches were fascinating. Some were horrifying - the book reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go in that it explored what people are capable of ignoring or pretending not to know if only it benefits them.

I decided to try rating books and I'm giving this one 3-stars: good, enjoyable, I'd reccommend it as a fun read. The movie gets one star. If that.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Rory's Book Club

I'm a huge "Gilmore Girls" fan and apparently this list used to be up on the tv show's site when it existed - it contains books that Rory either read or might read.

(on 20/02/08 I read 17 of 120)

1984 by George Orwell
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Bee Season: A Novel by Myla Goldberg
The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duffy
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Cousin Bette by Honor'e de Balzac
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Emma by Jane Austen
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Extravagance: A Novel by Gary Krist
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fat Land by Greg Critser
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
How the Light Gets In by M. J. Hyland
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Life of Pi Yann Martel
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Meaning of Consuelo: A Novel by Judith Ortiz Cofer
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides
A Month of Sundays: Searching for the Spirit and My Sister by Julie Mars
My Life in Orange: Growing up with the Guru by Tim Guest
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
Nervous System: Or Losing my Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
Night by Elie Wiesel
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Old School by Tobias Wolff
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
Property by Valerie Martin
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Quattrocento by James Mckean
A Quiet Story by Rachel Howzell Hall
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories from a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kid
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Luis Zafon
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Small Island by Andrea Levy
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
Songbook by Nick Hornby
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
Time and Again by Jack Finney
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Unless by Carol Shields
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Lezlie of Books 'N Border Collies inspired me to check out this list, compiled by Peter Boxall. I thought it was one of many lists, but it's in fact a reference book that seems to be quite well-accepted. There is some criticism, of course, but you can't include everything on one list. I'm not promising to only read books that are on here from now on, but I'm hoping to expand my reading horizons somewhat. And I'm encouraged by the fact that the books on here that I've already read were excellent. The ones I've read are in bold; the ones I read from now on will hopefully link to a review or at least random thoughts. The ones in italic are on my list for this year...

Thanks for this Lezlie! :-)


1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Completed: 55 as of 8 October 2009

2000s
Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
Invisible by Paul Auster
American Rust by Philipp Meyer
Cost by Roxana Robinson
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Home by Marilynne Robinson
Kieron Smith, boy by James Kelman
The Gathering by Anne Enright
The Blind Side of the Heart by Julia Franck
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
*Animal's People by Indra Sinha
Falling Man by Don DeLillo
*The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
*The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland
Mother's Milk by Edward St. Aubyn
Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann

*A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Levycka
*Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

*Saturday by Ian McEwan
*On Beauty by Zadie Smith
*Slow Man by J.M. Coetzee
*Adjunct: An Undigest by Peter Manson
The Accidental by Ali Smith
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
2666 by Roberto Bolano
*Small Island by Andrea Levy
The Sea by John Banville
*The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble
The Book About Blanche and Marie by Per Olov Enquist
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
The Master by Colm Tóibín
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
The Swarm by Frank Schatzing
*Vanishing Point by David Markson
*The Lambs of London by Peter Ackroyd
*Dining on Stones by Iain Sinclair
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
*Drop City by T. Coraghessan Boyle
*The Colour by Rose Tremain
*Thursbitch by Alan Garner
*The Light of Day by Graham Swift
What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt
Your Face Tomorrow by Javier Marias
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Lady Number Thirteen by Juan Carlos Somoza
The Successor by Ismail Kadare
A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
Islands by Dan Sleigh
*Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee
*London Orbital by Iain Sinclair
*Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
*Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
*The Double by José Saramago
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
*Unless by Carol Shields
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
*That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern
*In the Forest by Edna O’Brien
*Shroud by John Banville
*Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
*Youth by J.M. Coetzee
*Dead Air by Iain Banks
Nowhere Man by Aleksandar Hemon
*The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster
*Gabriel's Gift by Hanif Kureishi
Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
Platform by Michael Houellebecq
*Schooling by Heather McGowan
Atonement by Ian McEwan
*Don't Move by Margaret Mazzantini
*The Body Artist by Don DeLillo
*Fury by Salman Rushdie
*At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O’Neill
*Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
Soldiers of Salami by Javier Cercas
I'm not Scared by Nicolo Ammaniti
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargos Llosa
*An Obedient Father by Akhil Sharma
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho
Spring Flowers, Spring Frost by Ismail Kadare
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda
Under the Skin by Michel Faber
*Ignorance by Milan Kundera
*Nineteen Seventy Seven by David Peace
Celestial Harmonies by Péter Esterházy
*City of God by E.L. Doctorow
*How the Dead Live by Will Self
The Human Stain by Philip Roth
*The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood*After the Quake by Haruki Murakami
Small Remedies by Shashi Deshpande
*Super-Cannes by J.G. Ballard
*House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
*Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates
*Pastoralia by George Saunders
Bartleby and Co. by Enrique Vila-Matas

1900s
*Timbuktu by Paul Auster
*The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra
*Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson
The Museum of Unconditional Surrender by Dubravka Ugresic
In Search of Klingsor by Jorge Volpi
Pavel's Letters by Monika Moron
As If I Am Not There – Slavenka Drakulison
*Everything You Need – A.L. Kennedy
Fear and Trembling – Amélie Nothomb
*The Ground Beneath Her Feet – Salman Rushdie
Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee
*Sputnik Sweetheart – Haruki Murakami
The Savage Detectived by Roberto Bolano
Elementary Particles – Michel Houellebecq
*Intimacy – Hanif Kureishi
*Amsterdam – Ian McEwan
*Cloudsplitter – Russell Banks
Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutierrez
The Heretic by Miguel Delibes
All Souls Day – Cees Nooteboom
The Talk of the Town – Ardal O’Hanlon
*Tipping the Velvet – Sarah Waters
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
*Glamorama – Bret Easton Ellis
Crossfire by Miyuki Miyabe
*Another World – Pat Barker
The Hours – Michael Cunningham
Veronika Decides to Die – Paulo Coelho
*Mason & Dixon – Thomas Pynchon
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
*Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
*Great Apes – Will Self
Enduring Love – Ian McEwan
Underworld – Don DeLillo
Money to Burn by Ricardo Piglia
Jack Maggs – Peter Carey
The Life of Insects – Victor Pelevin
*American Pastoral – Philip Roth
*The Untouchable – John Banville
Margot and the Angels by Kristien Hemmerechts
Silk – Alessandro Baricco
*Cocaine Nights – J.G. Ballard
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
A Light Comedy by Eduardo Mendoza
Hallucinating Foucault – Patricia Duncker
Fugitive Pieces – Anne Michaels
The Ghost Road – Pat Barker
Forever a Stranger – Hella Haasse
Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace
The Clay Machine-Gun – Victor Pelevin
Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood
The Unconsoled – Kazuo Ishiguro
Morvern Callar – Alan Warner
*The Information – Martin Amis
*The Moor’s Last Sigh – Salman Rushdie
*Sabbath’s Theater – Philip Roth
*The Rings of Saturn – W.G. Sebald
Santa Evita by Tomas Eloy Martinez
The Reader – Bernhard Schlink
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
Love’s Work – Gillian Rose
The End of the Story – Lydia Davis
*Mr. Vertigo – Paul Auster
*The Folding Star – Alan Hollinghurst
The Late-Night News by Petros Markaris
Troubling Love by Elena Ferrante
Whatever – Michel Houellebecq
Land – Park Kyong-ni
*The Master of Petersburg – J.M. Coetzee
Our Lady of Assassins by Fernando Allejo
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami
Pereira Declares: A Testimony – Antonio Tabucchi
City Sister Silver – Jàchym Topol
How Late It Was, How Late – James Kelman
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres
Felicia’s Journey – William Trevor
Deep River by Shusaku Endo
Disappearance – David Dabydeen
The Invention of Curried Sausage – Uwe Timm
Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light by Ivan Klima
The Shipping News – E. Annie Proulx
*Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh
Birdsong – Sebastian FaulksLooking for the Possible Dance – A.L. Kennedy
*Operation Shylock – Philip Roth
*Complicity – Iain Banks
Looking for the Possible Dance by A.L. Kennedy
The Twins by Tessa de Loo
On Love – Alain de Botton
What a Carve Up! – Jonathan Coe
A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields
The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides
The Holder of the World by Bharati Mukherjee
Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis
*The House of Doctor Dee – Peter Ackroyd
*The Robber Bride – Margaret Atwood
*The Emigrants – W.G. Sebald
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas
Life is a Caravanserai – Emine Özdamar
The Discovery of Heaven – Harry Mulisch
*A Heart So White – Javier Marias
Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture - Apostolos Doxiadis
The Triple Mirror of the Self - Zulfikar Ghose
All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
Possessing the Secret of Joy – Alice Walker
Indigo – Marina Warner
The Crow Road – Iain Banks
Written on the Body – Jeanette Winterson
*Jazz – Toni Morrison
The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
The Club Dumas - Arturo Perez-Reverte
Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Peter Høeg
The Butcher Boy – Patrick McCabe
*Black Water – Joyce Carol Oates
*The Heather Blazing – Colm Tóibín
Asphodel – H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
*Black Dogs – Ian McEwan
Memoirs of Rain - Sunetra Gupta
Hideous Kinky – Esther Freud
Arcadia – Jim Crace
Wild Swans – Jung Chang
American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
Time’s Arrow – Martin Amis
Mao II – Don DeLillo
Typical – Padgett Powell
Regeneration – Pat Barker
Downriver – Iain Sinclair
Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord – Louis de Bernieres
Wise Children – Angela Carter
Get Shorty – Elmore Leonard
Amongst Women – John McGahern
Vineland – Thomas Pynchon
Vertigo – W.G. Sebald
Stone Junction – Jim Dodge
The Music of Chance – Paul Auster
The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien
A Home at the End of the World – Michael Cunningham
Like Life – Lorrie Moore
Possession – A.S. Byatt
The Buddha of Suburbia – Hanif Kureishi
The Midnight Examiner – William Kotzwinkle
A Disaffection – James Kelman
Sexing the Cherry – Jeanette Winterson
Moon Palace – Paul Auster
Billy Bathgate – E.L. Doctorow
Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
The Melancholy of Resistance – László Krasznahorkai
The Temple of My Familiar – Alice Walker
The Trick is to Keep Breathing – Janice Galloway
The History of the Siege of Lisbon – José Saramago
Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel
A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
London Fields – Martin Amis
The Book of Evidence – John Banville
Cat’s Eye – Margaret Atwood
Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco
The Beautiful Room is Empty – Edmund White
Wittgenstein’s Mistress – David Markson
The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie
The Swimming-Pool Library – Alan Hollinghurst
Oscar and Lucinda – Peter Carey
Libra – Don DeLillo
The Player of Games – Iain M. Banks
Nervous Conditions – Tsitsi Dangarembga
The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul – Douglas Adams
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams
The Radiant Way – Margaret Drabble
The Afternoon of a Writer – Peter Handke
The Black Dahlia – James Ellroy
The Passion – Jeanette Winterson
The Pigeon – Patrick Süskind
The Child in Time – Ian McEwan
Cigarettes – Harry Mathews
The Bonfire of the Vanities – Tom Wolfe
The New York Trilogy – Paul Auster
World’s End – T. Coraghessan Boyle
Enigma of Arrival – V.S. Naipaul
The Taebek Mountains – Jo Jung-rae
Beloved – Toni Morrison
Anagrams – Lorrie Moore
Matigari – Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
Marya – Joyce Carol Oates
Watchmen – Alan Moore & David Gibbons
The Old Devils – Kingsley Amis
Lost Language of Cranes – David Leavitt
An Artist of the Floating World – Kazuo Ishiguro
Extinction – Thomas Bernhard
Foe – J.M. Coetzee
The Drowned and the Saved – Primo Levi
Reasons to Live – Amy Hempel
The Parable of the Blind – Gert Hofmann
Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson
The Cider House Rules – John Irving
A Maggot – John Fowles
Less Than Zero – Bret Easton Ellis
Contact – Carl Sagan
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Perfume – Patrick Süskind
Old Masters – Thomas Bernhard
White Noise – Don DeLillo
Queer – William Burroughs
Hawksmoor – Peter Ackroyd
Legend – David Gemmell
Dictionary of the Khazars – Milorad Pavi?
The Bus Conductor Hines – James Kelman
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis – José Saramago
The Lover – Marguerite Duras
Empire of the Sun – J.G. Ballard
The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
Nights at the Circus – Angela Carter
The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
Blood and Guts in High School – Kathy Acker
Neuromancer – William Gibson
Flaubert’s Parrot – Julian Barnes
Money: A Suicide Note – Martin Amis
Shame – Salman Rushdie
Worstward Ho – Samuel Beckett
Fools of Fortune – William Trevor
La Brava – Elmore Leonard
Waterland – Graham Swift
The Life and Times of Michael K – J.M. Coetzee
The Diary of Jane Somers – Doris Lessing
The Piano Teacher – Elfriede Jelinek
The Sorrow of Belgium – Hugo Claus
If Not Now, When? – Primo Levi
A Boy’s Own Story – Edmund White
The Color Purple – Alice Walker
Wittgenstein’s Nephew – Thomas Bernhard
A Pale View of Hills – Kazuo Ishiguro
Schindler’s Ark – Thomas Keneally
The House of the Spirits – Isabel Allende
The Newton Letter – John Banville
On the Black Hill – Bruce Chatwin
Concrete – Thomas Bernhard
The Names – Don DeLillo
Rabbit is Rich – John Updike
Lanark: A Life in Four Books – Alasdair Gray
The Comfort of Strangers – Ian McEwan
July’s People – Nadine Gordimer
Summer in Baden-Baden – Leonid Tsypkin
Broken April – Ismail Kadare
Waiting for the Barbarians – J.M. Coetzee
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Rites of Passage – William Golding
Rituals – Cees Nooteboom
Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
City Primeval – Elmore Leonard
The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting – Milan Kundera
Smiley’s People – John Le Carré
Shikasta – Doris Lessing
A Bend in the River – V.S. Naipaul
Burger’s Daughter - Nadine Gordimer
The Safety Net – Heinrich Böll
If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler – Italo Calvino
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
The Cement Garden – Ian McEwan
The World According to Garp – John Irving
Life: A User’s Manual – Georges Perec
The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch
The Singapore Grip – J.G. Farrell
Yes – Thomas Bernhard
The Virgin in the Garden – A.S. Byatt
In the Heart of the Country – J.M. Coetzee
The Passion of New Eve – Angela Carter
Delta of Venus – Anaïs Nin
The Shining – Stephen King
Dispatches – Michael Herr
Petals of Blood – Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison
The Hour of the Star – Clarice Lispector
The Left-Handed Woman – Peter Handke
Ratner’s Star – Don DeLillo
The Public Burning – Robert Coover
Interview With the Vampire – Anne Rice
Cutter and Bone – Newton Thornburg
Amateurs – Donald Barthelme
Patterns of Childhood – Christa Wolf
Autumn of the Patriarch – Gabriel García Márquez
W, or the Memory of Childhood – Georges Perec
A Dance to the Music of Time – Anthony Powell
Grimus – Salman Rushdie
The Dead Father – Donald Barthelme
Fateless – Imre Kertész
Willard and His Bowling Trophies – Richard Brautigan
High Rise – J.G. Ballard
Humboldt’s Gift – Saul Bellow
Dead Babies – Martin Amis
Correction – Thomas Bernhard
Ragtime – E.L. Doctorow
The Fan Man – William Kotzwinkle
Dusklands – J.M. Coetzee
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum – Heinrich Böll
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – John Le Carré
Breakfast of Champions – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Fear of Flying – Erica Jong
A Question of Power – Bessie Head
The Siege of Krishnapur – J.G. Farrell
The Castle of Crossed Destinies – Italo Calvino
Crash – J.G. Ballard
The Honorary Consul – Graham Greene
Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon
The Black Prince – Iris Murdoch
Sula – Toni Morrison
Invisible Cities – Italo Calvino
The Breast – Philip Roth
The Summer Book – Tove Jansson
G – John Berger
Surfacing – Margaret Atwood
House Mother Normal – B.S. Johnson
In A Free State – V.S. Naipaul
The Book of Daniel – E.L. Doctorow
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson
Group Portrait With Lady – Heinrich Böll
The Wild Boys – William Burroughs
Rabbit Redux – John Updike
The Sea of Fertility – Yukio Mishima
The Driver’s Seat – Muriel Spark
The Ogre – Michael Tournier
The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison
Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick – Peter Handke
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
Mercier et Camier – Samuel Beckett
Troubles – J.G. Farrell
Jahrestage – Uwe Johnson
The Atrocity Exhibition – J.G. Ballard
Tent of Miracles – Jorge Amado
Pricksongs and Descants – Robert Coover
Blind Man With a Pistol – Chester Hines
Slaughterhouse-five – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
The French Lieutenant’s Woman – John Fowles
The Green Man – Kingsley Amis
Portnoy’s Complaint – Philip Roth
The Godfather – Mario Puzo
Ada – Vladimir Nabokov
Them – Joyce Carol Oates
A Void/Avoid – Georges Perec
Eva Trout – Elizabeth Bowen
Myra Breckinridge – Gore Vidal
The Nice and the Good – Iris Murdoch
Belle du Seigneur – Albert Cohen
Cancer Ward – Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
The First Circle – Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
Dark as the Grave Wherein My Friend is Laid – Malcolm Lowry
The German Lesson – Siegfried Lenz
In Watermelon Sugar – Richard Brautigan
A Kestrel for a Knave – Barry Hines
The Quest for Christa T. – Christa Wolf
Chocky – John Wyndham
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test – Tom Wolfe
The Cubs and Other Stories – Mario Vargas Llosa
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov
Pilgrimage – Dorothy Richardson
The Joke – Milan Kundera
No Laughing Matter – Angus Wilson
The Third Policeman – Flann O’Brien
A Man Asleep – Georges Perec
The Birds Fall Down – Rebecca West
Trawl – B.S. Johnson
In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
The Magus – John Fowles
The Vice-Consul – Marguerite Duras
Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys
Giles Goat-Boy – John Barth
The Crying of Lot 49 – Thomas Pynchon
Things – Georges Perec
The River Between – Ngugi wa Thiong’o
August is a Wicked Month – Edna O’Brien
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater – Kurt Vonnegut
Everything That Rises Must Converge – Flannery O’Connor
The Passion According to G.H. – Clarice Lispector
Sometimes a Great Notion – Ken Kesey
Come Back, Dr. Caligari – Donald Bartholme
Albert Angelo – B.S. Johnson
Arrow of God – Chinua Achebe
The Ravishing of Lol V. Stein – Marguerite Duras
Herzog – Saul Bellow
V. – Thomas Pynchon
Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
The Graduate – Charles Webb
Manon des Sources – Marcel Pagnol
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John Le Carré
The Girls of Slender Means – Muriel Spark
Inside Mr. Enderby – Anthony Burgess
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
The Collector – John Fowles
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov
The Drowned World – J.G. Ballard
The Golden Notebook – Doris Lessing
Labyrinths – Jorg Luis Borges
Girl With Green Eyes – Edna O’Brien
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis – Giorgio Bassani
Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
Franny and Zooey – J.D. Salinger
A Severed Head – Iris Murdoch
Faces in the Water – Janet Frame
Solaris – Stanislaw Lem
Cat and Mouse – Günter Grass
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
The Violent Bear it Away – Flannery O’Connor
How It Is – Samuel Beckett
Our Ancestors – Italo Calvino
The Country Girls – Edna O’Brien
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Rabbit, Run – John Updike
Promise at Dawn – Romain Gary
Cider With Rosie – Laurie Lee
Billy Liar – Keith Waterhouse
Naked Lunch – William Burroughs
The Tin Drum – Günter Grass
Absolute Beginners – Colin MacInnes
Henderson the Rain King – Saul Bellow
Memento Mori – Muriel Spark
Billiards at Half-Past Nine – Heinrich Böll
Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
The Leopard – Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Pluck the Bud and Destroy the Offspring – Kenzaburo Oe
A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
The Bitter Glass – Eilís Dillon
Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – Alan Sillitoe
Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris – Paul Gallico
Borstal Boy – Brendan Behan
The End of the Road – John Barth
The Once and Future King – T.H. White
The Bell – Iris Murdoch
Jealousy – Alain Robbe-Grillet
Voss – Patrick White
The Midwich Cuckoos – John Wyndham
Blue Noon – Georges Bataille
Homo Faber – Max Frisch
On the Road – Jack Kerouac
Pnin – Vladimir Nabokov
Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak
The Wonderful “O” – James Thurber
Justine – Lawrence Durrell
Giovanni’s Room – James Baldwin
The Lonely Londoners – Sam Selvon
The Roots of Heaven – Romain Gary
Seize the Day – Saul Bellow
The Floating Opera – John Barth
The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
A World of Love – Elizabeth Bowen
The Trusting and the Maimed – James Plunkett
The Quiet American – Graham Greene
The Last Temptation of Christ – Nikos Kazantzákis
The Recognitions – William Gaddis
The Ragazzi – Pier Paulo Pasolini
Bonjour Tristesse – Françoise Sagan
I’m Not Stiller – Max Frisch
Self Condemned – Wyndham Lewis
The Story of O – Pauline Réage
A Ghost at Noon – Alberto Moravia
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Under the Net – Iris Murdoch
The Go-Between – L.P. Hartley
The Long Goodbye – Raymond Chandler
The Unnamable – Samuel Beckett
Watt – Samuel Beckett
Lucky Jim – Kingsley Amis
Junkie – William Burroughs
The Adventures of Augie March – Saul Bellow
Go Tell It on the Mountain – James Baldwin
Casino Royale – Ian Fleming
The Judge and His Hangman – Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
Wise Blood – Flannery O’Connor
The Killer Inside Me – Jim Thompson
Memoirs of Hadrian – Marguerite Yourcenar
Malone Dies – Samuel Beckett
Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
Foundation – Isaac Asimov
The Opposing Shore – Julien Gracq
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
The Rebel – Albert Camus
Molloy – Samuel Beckett
The End of the Affair – Graham Greene
The Abbot C – Georges Bataille
The Labyrinth of Solitude – Octavio Paz
The Third Man – Graham Greene
The 13 Clocks – James Thurber
Gormenghast – Mervyn Peake
The Grass is Singing – Doris Lessing
I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
The Moon and the Bonfires – Cesare Pavese
The Garden Where the Brass Band Played – Simon Vestdijk
Love in a Cold Climate – Nancy Mitford
The Case of Comrade Tulayev – Victor Serge
The Heat of the Day – Elizabeth Bowen
Kingdom of This World – Alejo Carpentier
The Man With the Golden Arm – Nelson Algren
Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
All About H. Hatterr – G.V. Desani
Disobedience – Alberto Moravia
Death Sentence – Maurice Blanchot
The Heart of the Matter – Graham Greene
Cry, the Beloved Country – Alan Paton
Doctor Faustus – Thomas Mann
The Victim – Saul Bellow
Exercises in Style – Raymond Queneau
If This Is a Man – Primo Levi
Under the Volcano – Malcolm Lowry
The Path to the Nest of Spiders – Italo Calvino
The Plague – Albert Camus
Back – Henry Green
Titus Groan – Mervyn Peake
The Bridge on the Drina – Ivo Andri?
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
Animal Farm – George Orwell
Cannery Row – John Steinbeck
The Pursuit of Love – Nancy Mitford
Loving – Henry Green
Arcanum 17 – André Breton
Christ Stopped at Eboli – Carlo Levi
The Razor’s Edge – William Somerset Maugham
Transit – Anna Seghers
Ficciones – Jorge Luis Borges
Dangling Man – Saul Bellow
The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Caught – Henry Green
The Glass Bead Game – Herman Hesse
Embers – Sandor Marai
Go Down, Moses – William Faulkner
The Outsider – Albert Camus
In Sicily – Elio Vittorini
The Poor Mouth – Flann O’Brien
The Living and the Dead – Patrick White
Hangover Square – Patrick Hamilton
Between the Acts – Virginia Woolf
The Hamlet – William Faulkner
Farewell My Lovely – Raymond Chandler
For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
Native Son – Richard Wright
The Power and the Glory – Graham Greene
The Tartar Steppe – Dino Buzzati
Party Going – Henry Green
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Finnegans Wake – James Joyce
At Swim-Two-Birds – Flann O’Brien
Coming Up for Air – George Orwell
Goodbye to Berlin – Christopher Isherwood
Tropic of Capricorn – Henry Miller
Good Morning, Midnight – Jean Rhys
The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler
After the Death of Don Juan – Sylvie Townsend Warner
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – Winifred Watson
Nausea – Jean-Paul Sartre
Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
Cause for Alarm – Eric Ambler
Brighton Rock – Graham Greene
U.S.A. – John Dos Passos
Murphy – Samuel Beckett
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Years – Virginia Woolf
In Parenthesis – David Jones
The Revenge for Love – Wyndham Lewis
Out of Africa – Isak Dineson (Karen Blixen)
To Have and Have Not – Ernest Hemingway
Summer Will Show – Sylvia Townsend Warner
Eyeless in Gaza – Aldous Huxley
The Thinking Reed – Rebecca West
Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
Keep the Aspidistra Flying – George Orwell
Wild Harbour – Ian MacPherson
Absalom, Absalom! – William Faulkner
At the Mountains of Madness – H.P. Lovecraft
Nightwood – Djuna Barnes
Independent People – Halldór Laxness
Auto-da-Fé – Elias Canetti
The Last of Mr. Norris – Christopher Isherwood
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? – Horace McCoy
The House in Paris – Elizabeth Bowen
England Made Me – Graham Greene
Burmese Days – George Orwell
The Nine Tailors – Dorothy L. Sayers
Threepenny Novel – Bertolt Brecht
Novel With Cocaine – M. Ageyev
The Postman Always Rings Twice – James M. Cain
Tropic of Cancer – Henry Miller
A Handful of Dust – Evelyn Waugh
Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Thank You, Jeeves – P.G. Wodehouse
Call it Sleep – Henry Roth
Miss Lonelyhearts – Nathanael West
Murder Must Advertise – Dorothy L. Sayers
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas – Gertrude Stein
Testament of Youth – Vera Brittain
A Day Off – Storm Jameson
The Man Without Qualities – Robert Musil
A Scots Quair (Sunset Song) – Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Journey to the End of the Night – Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
To the North – Elizabeth Bowen
The Thin Man – Dashiell Hammett
The Radetzky March – Joseph Roth
The Waves – Virginia Woolf
The Glass Key – Dashiell Hammett
Cakes and Ale – W. Somerset Maugham
The Apes of God – Wyndham Lewis
Her Privates We – Frederic Manning
Vile Bodies – Evelyn Waugh
The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett
Hebdomeros – Giorgio de Chirico
Passing – Nella Larsen
A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
Red Harvest – Dashiell Hammett
Living – Henry Green
The Time of Indifference – Alberto Moravia
All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
Berlin Alexanderplatz – Alfred Döblin
The Last September – Elizabeth Bowen
Harriet Hume – Rebecca West
The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
Les Enfants Terribles – Jean Cocteau
Look Homeward, Angel – Thomas Wolfe
Story of the Eye – Georges Bataille
Orlando – Virginia Woolf
Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D.H. Lawrence
The Well of Loneliness – Radclyffe Hall
The Childermass – Wyndham Lewis
Quartet – Jean Rhys
Decline and Fall – Evelyn Waugh
Quicksand – Nella Larsen
Parade’s End – Ford Madox Ford
Nadja – André Breton
Steppenwolf – Herman Hesse
Remembrance of Things Past – Marcel Proust
To The Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
Tarka the Otter – Henry Williamson
Amerika – Franz Kafka
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
Blindness – Henry Green
The Castle – Franz Kafka
The Good Soldier Švejk – Jaroslav Hašek
The Plumed Serpent – D.H. Lawrence
One, None and a Hundred Thousand – Luigi Pirandello
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – Agatha Christie
The Making of Americans – Gertrude Stein
Manhattan Transfer – John Dos Passos
Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Counterfeiters – André Gide
The Trial – Franz Kafka
The Artamonov Business – Maxim Gorky
The Professor’s House – Willa Cather
Billy Budd, Foretopman – Herman Melville
The Green Hat – Michael Arlen
The Magic Mountain – Thomas Mann
We – Yevgeny Zamyatin
A Passage to India – E.M. Forster
The Devil in the Flesh – Raymond Radiguet
Zeno’s Conscience – Italo Svevo
Cane – Jean Toomer
Antic Hay – Aldous Huxley
Amok – Stefan Zweig
The Garden Party – Katherine Mansfield
The Enormous Room – E.E. Cummings
Jacob’s Room – Virginia Woolf
Siddhartha – Herman Hesse
The Glimpses of the Moon – Edith Wharton
Life and Death of Harriett Frean – May Sinclair
The Last Days of Humanity – Karl Kraus
Aaron’s Rod – D.H. Lawrence
Babbitt – Sinclair Lewis
Ulysses – James Joyce
The Fox – D.H. Lawrence
Crome Yellow – Aldous Huxley
The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
Main Street – Sinclair Lewis
Women in Love – D.H. Lawrence
Night and Day – Virginia Woolf
Tarr – Wyndham Lewis
The Return of the Soldier – Rebecca West
The Shadow Line – Joseph Conrad
Summer – Edith Wharton
Growth of the Soil – Knut Hamsen
Bunner Sisters – Edith Wharton
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce
Under Fire – Henri Barbusse
Rashomon – Akutagawa Ryunosuke
The Good Soldier – Ford Madox Ford
The Voyage Out – Virginia Woolf
Of Human Bondage – William Somerset Maugham
The Rainbow – D.H. Lawrence
The Thirty-Nine Steps – John Buchan
Kokoro – Natsume Soseki
Locus Solus – Raymond Roussel
Rosshalde – Herman Hesse
Tarzan of the Apes – Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists – Robert Tressell
Sons and Lovers – D.H. Lawrence
Death in Venice – Thomas Mann
The Charwoman’s Daughter – James Stephens
Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton
Fantômas – Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre
Howards End – E.M. Forster
Impressions of Africa – Raymond Roussel
Three Lives – Gertrude Stein
Martin Eden – Jack London
Strait is the Gate – André Gide
Tono-Bungay – H.G. Wells
The Inferno – Henri Barbusse
A Room With a View – E.M. Forster
The Iron Heel – Jack London
The Old Wives’ Tale – Arnold Bennett
The House on the Borderland – William Hope Hodgson
Mother – Maxim Gorky
The Secret Agent – Joseph Conrad
The Jungle – Upton Sinclair
Young Törless – Robert Musil
The Forsyte Sage – John Galsworthy
The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton
Professor Unrat – Heinrich Mann
Where Angels Fear to Tread – E.M. Forster
Nostromo – Joseph Conrad
Hadrian the Seventh – Frederick Rolfe
The Golden Bowl – Henry James
The Ambassadors – Henry James
The Riddle of the Sands – Erskine Childers
The Immoralist – André Gide
The Wings of the Dove – Henry James
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The Hound of the Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Buddenbrooks – Thomas Mann
Kim – Rudyard Kipling
Sister Carrie – Theodore Dreiser
Lord Jim – Joseph Conrad

1800s
Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. – Somerville and Ross
The Stechlin – Theodore Fontane
The Awakening – Kate Chopin
The Turn of the Screw – Henry James
The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells
The Invisible Man – H.G. Wells
What Maisie Knew – Henry James
Fruits of the Earth – André Gide
Dracula – Bram Stoker
Quo Vadis – Henryk Sienkiewicz
The Island of Dr. Moreau – H.G. Wells
The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
Effi Briest – Theodore Fontane
Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
The Real Charlotte – Somerville and Ross
The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Born in Exile – George Gissing
Diary of a Nobody – George & Weedon Grossmith
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
News from Nowhere – William Morris
New Grub Street – George Gissing
Gösta Berling’s Saga – Selma Lagerlöf
Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
The Kreutzer Sonata – Leo Tolstoy
La Bête Humaine – Émile Zola
By the Open Sea – August Strindberg Hunger – Knut Hamsun
The Master of Ballantrae – Robert Louis Stevenson
Pierre and Jean – Guy de Maupassant
Fortunata and Jacinta – Benito Pérez Galdés
The People of Hemsö – August Strindberg
The Woodlanders – Thomas Hardy
She – H. Rider Haggard
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy
Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson
King Solomon’s Mines – H. Rider Haggard
Germinal – Émile Zola
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Bel-Ami – Guy de Maupassant
Marius the Epicurean – Walter Pater
Against the Grain – Joris-Karl Huysmans
The Death of Ivan Ilyich – Leo Tolstoy
A Woman’s Life – Guy de Maupassant
Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
The House by the Medlar Tree – Giovanni Verga
The Portrait of a Lady – Henry James
Bouvard and Pécuchet – Gustave Flaubert
Ben-Hur – Lew Wallace
Nana – Émile Zola
The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Red Room – August Strindberg
Return of the Native – Thomas Hardy
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
Drunkard – Émile Zola
Virgin Soil – Ivan Turgenev
Daniel Deronda – George Eliot
The Hand of Ethelberta – Thomas Hardy
The Temptation of Saint Anthony – Gustave Flaubert
Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
The Enchanted Wanderer – Nicolai Leskov
Around the World in Eighty Days – Jules Verne
In a Glass Darkly – Sheridan Le Fanu
The Devils – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Erewhon – Samuel Butler
Spring Torrents – Ivan Turgenev
Middlemarch – George Eliot
Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There – Lewis Carroll
King Lear of the Steppes – Ivan Turgenev
He Knew He Was Right – Anthony Trollope
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
Sentimental Education – Gustave Flaubert
Phineas Finn – Anthony Trollope
Maldoror – Comte de Lautréaumont
The Idiot – Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Thérèse Raquin – Émile Zola
The Last Chronicle of Barset – Anthony Trollope
Journey to the Centre of the Earth – Jules Verne
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens
Uncle Silas – Sheridan Le Fanu
Notes from the Underground – Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Water-Babies – Charles Kingsley
Les Misérables – Victor Hugo
Fathers and Sons – Ivan Turgenev
Silas Marner – George Eliot
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
On the Eve – Ivan Turgenev
Castle Richmond – Anthony Trollope
The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
The Marble Faun – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Max Havelaar – Multatuli
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Oblomovka – Ivan Goncharov
Adam Bede – George Eliot
Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell
Hard Times – Charles Dickens
Walden – Henry David Thoreau
Bleak House – Charles Dickens
Villette – Charlotte Brontë
Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell
Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lonely – Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Blithedale Romance – Nathaniel Hawthorne
The House of the Seven Gables – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Moby-Dick – Herman Melville
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
Shirley – Charlotte Brontë
Mary Barton – Elizabeth Gaskell
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Brontë
Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
Agnes Grey – Anne Brontë
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
The Count of Monte-Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
La Reine Margot – Alexandre Dumas
The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
The Purloined Letter – Edgar Allan Poe
Martin Chuzzlewit – Charles Dickens
The Pit and the Pendulum – Edgar Allan Poe
Lost Illusions – Honoré de Balzac
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Dead Souls – Nikolay Gogol
The Charterhouse of Parma – Stendhal
The Fall of the House of Usher – Edgar Allan Poe
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby – Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
The Nose – Nikolay Gogol
Le Père Goriot – Honoré de Balzac
Eugénie Grandet – Honoré de Balzac
The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo
The Red and the Black – Stendhal
The Betrothed – Alessandro Manzoni
Last of the Mohicans – James Fenimore Cooper
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner – James Hogg
The Albigenses – Charles Robert Maturin
Melmoth the Wanderer – Charles Robert Maturin
The Monastery – Sir Walter Scott
Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott
Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
Persuasion – Jane Austen
Ormond – Maria Edgeworth
Rob Roy – Sir Walter Scott
Emma – Jane Austen
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Absentee – Maria Edgeworth
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
Elective Affinities – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Castle Rackrent – Maria Edgeworth

1700sHyperion – Friedrich Hölderlin
The Nun – Denis Diderot
Camilla – Fanny Burney
The Monk – M.G. Lewis
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Mysteries of Udolpho – Ann Radcliffe
The Interesting Narrative – Olaudah Equiano
The Adventures of Caleb Williams – William Godwin
Justine – Marquis de Sade
Vathek – William Beckford
The 120 Days of Sodom – Marquis de Sade
Cecilia – Fanny Burney
Confessions – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Dangerous Liaisons – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Reveries of a Solitary Walker – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Evelina – Fanny Burney
The Sorrows of Young Werther – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Humphrey Clinker – Tobias George Smollett
The Man of Feeling – Henry Mackenzie
A Sentimental Journey – Laurence Sterne
Tristram Shandy – Laurence Sterne
The Vicar of Wakefield – Oliver Goldsmith
The Castle of Otranto – Horace Walpole
Émile; or, On Education – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rameau’s Nephew – Denis Diderot
Julie; or, the New Eloise – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rasselas – Samuel Johnson
Candide – Voltaire
The Female Quixote – Charlotte Lennox
Amelia – Henry Fielding
Peregrine Pickle – Tobias George Smollett
Fanny Hill – John Cleland
Tom Jones – Henry Fielding
Roderick Random – Tobias George Smollett
Clarissa – Samuel Richardson
Pamela – Samuel Richardson
Jacques the Fatalist – Denis Diderot
Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus – J. Arbuthnot, J. Gay, T. Parnell, A. Pope, J. Swift
Joseph Andrews – Henry Fielding
A Modest Proposal – Jonathan Swift
Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
Roxana – Daniel Defoe
Moll Flanders – Daniel Defoe
Love in Excess – Eliza Haywood
Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
A Tale of a Tub – Jonathan Swift

pre-1700Oroonoko – Aphra Behn
The Princess of Clèves – Marie-Madelaine Pioche de Lavergne, Comtesse de La Fayette
The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan
Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The Unfortunate Traveller – Thomas Nashe
Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit – John Lyly
Gargantua and Pantagruel – Françoise Rabelais
The Thousand and One Nights – Anonymous
The Golden Ass – Lucius Apuleius
Aithiopika – Heliodorus
Chaireas and Kallirhoe – Chariton
Metamorphoses – Ovid
Aesop’s Fables – Aesopus