I’m not quite sure how this game works but who cares when there’s a boardgame for BIBLIOPHILES!!!
http://www.notcot.com/archives/2009/12/the_great_pengu.php
This week’s BTT:
What books and authors are you particularly thankful for this year?
I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving but I’m still thankful for these books and authors:
- Stieg Larsson! – that he was able to complete the Millennium trilogy before he died.
- M. J. Hyland – for giving us another amazing piece of work (and meeting her in person too!) with This is How.
- Simone de Beauvoir – for her exploration and insight into what it means to be a female.
- Albet Camus – for his perception of existentialist theories
- Truman Capote – for producing utterly captivating stories.
Well, I’ve finished Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I tried to read slowly but I ultimately finished it too fast. It was not only the last book in the series but also the last completed book by Larsson. There are rumours that he has an unfinished manuscript of book 4 and sketchy outlines for a further six books but they’re not the same. If anything, they’ll just make it harder. No more Larsson. Boo. 
This week’s BTT:
Do you think any current author is of the same caliber as Dickens, Austen, Bronte, or any of the classic authors? If so, who, and why do you think so? If not, why not? What books from this era might be read 100 years from now?
This is a difficult question and I’ve pondered over it during dinner. These are some authors I think will be a classic in the next century:
Margaret Atwood – for her visionary and wonderful writing such as The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake, The Blind Assassin and Alias Grace.
J.M. Coetzee – I’ve only read one of his books but it was so wonderful that I think I’ll like the rest of his books. He’s also quite prolific for the quality of his writing and the issues he writes on.
Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird. Enough said.
And of course, the existentialist writers – Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.
There are so many more authors that I think will pass the test of time: Vonnegut, Nabokov, Toni Morrison, George Orwell, Truman Capote…
Neilbowers has a consolidated list of the top 100 lists from several different countries and has made these top 100 lists into one single top 100.
Those in bold are the ones I have read.
1. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
2. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. The Grapes Of Wrath John Steinbeck
4. The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
5. Catch-22 Joseph Heller
6. One Hundred Years Of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez
7. Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell
8. Ulysses James Joyce
9. On The Road Jack Kerouac
10. The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien
11. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
12. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
13. Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
14. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis
15. Great Expectations Charles Dickens
16. War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
17. Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
18. Animal Farm George Orwell
19. Crime And Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
20. Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
21. Lord Of The Flies William Golding
22. Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
23. Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie
24. Love In The Time Of Cholera Gabriel García Márquez
25. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
26. Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
27. The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien
28. To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
29. Middlemarch George Eliot
30. Rebecca Daphne du Maurier
31. Dune Frank Herbert
32. Brave New World Aldous Huxley
33. A Prayer For Owen Meany John Irving
34. Watership Down Richard Adams
35. The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner
36. Little Women Louisa May Alcott
37. Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
38. Anne Of Green Gables LM Montgomery
39. Emma Jane Austen
40. Memoirs Of A Geisha Arthur Golden
41. Beloved Toni Morrison
42. Of Mice And Men John Steinbeck
43. The Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
44. Les Miserables Victor Hugo
45. The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame
46. The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown
47. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles Thomas Hardy
48. Winnie the Pooh A.A. Milne
49. Birdsong Sebastian Faulks
50. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Louis de Bernieres
51. Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut
52. Life of Pi Yann Martel
53. A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
54. The Count Of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
55. A Passage to India E.M. Forster
56. Moby Dick Herman Melville
57. A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth
58. The Stand Stephen King
59. Possession A.S. Byatt
60. Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
61. A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens
62. The Trial Franz Kafka
63. I, Claudius Robert Graves
64. The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood
65. The Secret History Donna Tartt
66. His Dark Materials Philip Pullman
67. The Harry Potter Series J.K. Rowling
68. The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky
69. Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes
70. Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence
71. The Pillars Of The Earth Ken Follett
72. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce
73. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
74. The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
75. An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser
76. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland Lewis Carroll
77. Bleak House Charles Dickens
78. The Time Traveller’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger
79. A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry
80. The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemmingway
81. Nostromo Joseph Conrad
82. Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry
83. The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing
84. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
85. The Stranger Albert Camus
86. Native Son Richard Wright
87. Gravity’s Rainbow Thomas Pynchon
88. The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver
89. Perfume Patrick Süskind
90. Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
91. David Copperfield Charles Dickens
92. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl
93. Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov
94. Persuasion Jane Austen
95. Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand
96. The Tin Drum Gunter Grass
97. Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray
98. Atonement Ian McEwan
99. Light in August William Faulkner
100. The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett
33/100 – not too bad I suppose.
This week’s RoM:
Finished:
- The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson. AMAZING! I’m really impressed by this series and it’s such a shame Larsson died before he could see the popularity of his books. And it’s sad that there will never be new material from him but I’m grateful he finished the trilogy before he died.
Seems like a slow week. I started placement work so I’ve been pooped and Girl isn’t exactly a slim volume.
Reading:
- The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – Stieg Larsson. The final book in the trilogy and recently released. I’m glad I waited until all three were released so I didn’t have to wait! *pat on the back*
And I’m still working my way through The Seance, Emma and The Myth of Sisyphus.
Lined up:
Sadly, no more Girl books. No real strong line up except to finish the four books I’m magically simultaneously reading. 
Review: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson; translated by Reg Keeland
Eighteen percent of the women in Sweden have at one time been threatened by a man.
These statistics about violence and brutality against women sets the tone of the trilogy’s theme and are preludes to each section. In fact, the original Swedish title is Men who Hate Women. The first in the Millennium trilogy, this is one ripper of a book. The two central characters are introduced: Mickael Blomkvist, an independent and high profile journalist who is also co-owner of the Millennium magazine and Lisbeth Salander, a punky, anti-social, rather ruthless and resourceful genius hacker. And yes, it is Salander with the titular dragon tattoo.
Blomkvist and Salander have their own independent storyline until their paths meet much further into the book. Blomkvist finds himself in a disgraced position and takes a sabbatical when he is offered a one year contract by old Henrick Vangar to write a biography on the immensely wealthy and noted Vangar family. This is a cover for Blomkvist who is primarily there to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Harriet Vangar, the beloved granddaughter of the elder Henrik. The case has haunted Henrik for over 35 years since Harriet’s disappearance one eventful day in the 1960s. Henrik is adamant that she had been murdered by one the numerous members of the Vangar family, a mix of eccentrics, manipulative and dangerous people although the body has never been found.
And so Blomkvist moves to the relatively isolated Hedeby Island where the the majority of the Vangar family lives to try and solve the cold case. It is this section of the novel that becomes very reminiscent of Agatha Christie: an improbable murder, very little clues, impossible environment, a huge cast of suspects and an isolated scene of murder.
The twists in the plot are incredible and one can’t help but think if this is the sort of mysteries Agatha Christie would write if she was alive today. I’ll repeat my assessment of the book – “It’s like Agatha Christie on steroids and crystal meth”. The plot is unique but very very disturbing and rather violent and sheds quite a new light on the clean cut image of Sweden. Blomkvist and Salander are two quite unique characters, particularly Salander, although Blomkvist do at times appear to be the typical heroic journalist. One slight criticism of the novel would be that the ending ties up a little too neatly.
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo takes you on one hell of a ride. While I suspect that some things are probably lost in translation, it is still one ripping read. It’s quite a tragedy that Larsson died before he could see the success of his books and also without the opportunity to write more.
This week’s RoM.
Finished:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. WOWWOWWOW!!! This book is absolutely amazing!! I initially thought it was a book about China when it was released a few years ago. Then I found out it was simply a Swedish crime/detective novel and I thought, ’so what?’ and didn’t really understand why it was so popular. But WOW!! The plot is so amazing. It’s like Agatha Christie on steroids and crystal meth. I highly recommend it. I finished it in one day.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. This is re-read since I didn’t really like it when I first read it but I was 16 so I think that played a part. On the latest re-read, the first as an adult, I really did enjoy it.
Unfinished:
The Children’s Book – A.S. Byatt. I’ve sort of given up on this. I’m about 150 pages in but it’s really plodding and I have a pile of other books to read – mainly library books which are pushing me along. I’ve rested it and I might go back to it. It’s good, but just plodding.
Reading:
The Girl who Played with Fire – Stieg Larsson. The second book in the millenium trilogy.
The Seance- John Harwood.
This week’s BTT.
Which do you prefer? Biographies written about someone? Or Autobiographies written by the actual person (and/or ghost-writer)?
I’d much prefer autobiographies written by the actual person. Ghost writing is usually out of the question since I prefer autobiographies of writers! I know they aren’t the most objective insight into an author’s life but I find it much more fascinating. A writer writing about another writing is also pretty interesting. If I’m really interested in an person, I’ll try to read both if they are available.
Firstly, I don’t know what I have to write will add a lot more to what has already been written about this cult classic. It’s simply one of those books one must read in their lifetime.
The story begins when Holden Caufield is expelled from yet another prep school, Pencey. Before he leaves, Holden narrates his school life and some of his fellow students, none of whom he particular likes. Phoniness and superficiality is something that really ticks Holden off and he believes that the majority of people he meets is insincere except himself.
After having some sort of minor mental break down after he writes a composition about his dead younger brother’s baseball glove, which was scribbled all over with poetry, for his roommate he leaves the school to wander around New York and to wait for news of his expulsion to reach his parents. The rest of the story follows his stumbling about New York looking for truth and companionship. Growing up and the changes in adolescence also subconsciously concerns Holden who decides that the one thing he would like to do in life is to be the catcher in the rye. It is an idea he got from hearing a child mis-quote singing a Robert Burns poem, ‘Comin’ through the rye’. Holden would like to place himself on a cliff and be ready to catch any children who falls out through the rye and prevent them from plummeting off the cliff which would save the children from having to go through adolescence and confront the difficulty of growing up and losing the innocence of childhood.
Holden Caulfield is a likeable character and very funny but he is consumed by depression that, while he’ll admit to now and then, he fails to acknowledge. It is startling clear that Holden is desperately lonely. Out of life, he wants nothing but to see genuineness and truth from his fellow human citizens. One of the most endearing characteristics of Holden is his constant noticing of the underdogs or the background characters. In plays, movies, books and in life, the secondary characters always catches Holden’s attention and it’s quite moving. Another particularly endearing trait is his love and kindness to his younger siblings – his younger brother, Allie, with the baseball glove who died of leukemia and a sister, Phoebe, to who he eventually goes home to see. As the story unfolds, it is clear that Allie’s death still affects Holden and is unresolved grief. Another incident towards the end of the story also suggests that he may have been molested at some stage during his time at school which would explain Holden’s insistence of continually getting expelled. Holden’s troubled and repressed feelings eventually catches up with him.
I first read this book when I was 16 and I really didn’t like it. Perhaps choosing a book with such a strong, male, anti-hero protagonist was not really the type of material 16 year old girls naturally gravitate towards not to mention that the historical context was quite unfamiliar to me. On re-reading, I have enjoyed it quite a lot and I think growing up has everything to do with it. I empathise with Holden and understand his contempt for the superficiality of fellow humans. I don’t think of him as a rebel, as most criticism has labelled him as, but one who has precociously seen and desire the truth.
This week’s RoM.
Finished:
I most recently finished Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland which was amazing. I also finished Bibliotopia by Steven Gilbar which was a fun little read. It’s basically a little book with facts about bookish things but very American centric.
Reading:
The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt. It was a slightly difficult beginning and it’s a hard slog sometimes but everytime I think of giving up, something grabs my attention. It’s a VERY heavy book!
I also started re-reading The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I didn’t like it when I first read in high school but due to raves of many bibliophiles, I wouldn’t do it justice if I didn’t give it another go. So far, so good.
Lined up:
Nothing really lined up aside from my huge pile of library books and huge piles of new books and huge piles of TBR books. Getting slightly overwhelmed!
New acquisitions, largely due to Border’s 30% off coupons. Who could resist?
- Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
- The Sonnets and ALover’s Complaint – William Shakespeare
- Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
- The Portrait of a Lady – Henry James
Discount coupons are always a great time to pick up classics. The lovely hardcover editions of the Penguins are so beautiful and wonderfully priced. Jane Eyre was part of last year’s batch and I’ve been meaning to get myself a nice little copy of my favourite book. The Sonnets was just recently released.
These are really the most beautiful books and designs. I’m itching to buy more. Little Women is especially pretty except I just bought myself a new copy recently. If you’re interested in the designer, here’s an interview with her after the launch of the first batch. The series is exclusive to Borders, unfortunately.
In the tunnel where I was raped, a tunnel that was once an underground entry to an amphitheatre, a place where actors burst forth from underneath the seats of a crowd, a girl had been murdered and dismembered. I was told this story by the police. In comparison, they said, I was lucky.
This preface made up part of the cover of a previous edition of Alice Sebold’s amazing memoir and it is part of a longer preface leading into her recollections. From the very first sentence, there is no pretension or mistake about what the memoir was going to be about. It focuses entirely on Sebold’s rape, her virginity and inexperience with sex (she was a virgin when she was raped) when Sebold was an 18 year old freshman at Syracuse University, the aftermath and its consequences for most of her adult life. Nothing is held back when Sebold details her rape and recounts the moment when she wanted nothing more in the world than to live. After several attempts to escape -
Then I began to run. Like a giant who is all powerful, he reached out and grabbed the end of my long brown hair … that was my first missed escape, the hair, the woman’s long hair
Sebold relents to the demands of the rapist in order to live. This becomes a little problematic during the court proceedings down the track where the adage, ‘it is better to be dead than to be raped’, was still a popular consensus.
Intertwined with Sebold’s story is her childhood and stories about her somewhat dysfunctional family – a mother who was previously an alcoholic and ver nervous, a somewhat reclusive father who was more interested in his books than the family and an older sister whose main motive was to plot her escape away from the family. The two sisters never seem particularly close and, I think, that Sebold writes with guilt that she always managed to spoil her sister’s special moments and never letting her shine. Alice was raped on the day of her sister’s exam and her trial against her rapist was on the day of her sister’s graduation.
Sebold’s story is bravely told and the writing is amazing. There were so many times when I ached for her when Sebold recounts her physical injuries which were quite severe. There were many times where I was moved to tears. Her story also sheds light on how one moment, one horrendus moment, can have such a devastating lifelong impact. While Sebold gains justice in the end and she manages to finish her degree (not to mention taking writing classes from Tess Gallagher and Tobias Wolff), there is no justice for the pain and suffering the rape had caused and perhaps continue to cause.
The ending, as most of us will know, is a quite happy one. Sebold later wrote (the memoir was publised in 1999) The Lovely Bones and The Almost Moon and is married to the writer Glen David Gold.
