52x 1001 Books in 2011 - 3/4

The third quarter, and I am ahead of schedule (for now!).  Actually I still have quite a stack of 1001 books with me in Spain, so I should complete my challenge with a little bit of time left over.

My favourite, in terms of the way it was written, was Invisible Cities, I don't think I have ever read such beautiful prose.  The Age of Innocence (Wordsworth Classics) was an achingly moving love story, and shame on me for having taken 3 years to read it!  All Quiet on the Western Front was a reread for me, but affected me just as much as the first time I read it.  I was impressed by Half of a Yellow Sun, for the author's treatment of a little known civil war.  I enjoyed all the books this time, though a couple weren't great books, you could see how they had influenced those that followed them: Fantomas (Penguin Classics), Three Lives (Twentieth Century Classics) and The Vicar of Wakefield (Oxford World's Classics).  Here's to the final quarter!

27.  All Quiet on the Western Front Written to describe the horrors of WW1, but sadly relevant today.
28. Crime and Punishment (Wordsworth Classics) A tome dealing with the harshest punisher of all, our conscience.
29. Lord Jim: A Tale (Penguin Popular Classics) How an act of cowardice could be the making of a man.
30. The Vicar of Wakefield (Oxford World's Classics) A funny look at marriage obsessed vicar and his family.
31. The Age of Innocence (Wordsworth Classics) An impossible love set against the backdrop of high society.
32. Three Lives (Twentieth Century Classics) Three women, three very different lives and a very modern narrative style.
33. The Trial (Modern Classics)  Kafka on crime, how can you clear your name if you don't even know the charge?
34. Fantomas (Penguin Classics)  A modern criminal and the detective after him, great fun.
35. The Immoralist a man's musings on life.
36. Half of a Yellow Sun Relationships set against the backdrop of civil war.
37. Invisible Cities Marco Polo describing cities to Kublai Khan.
38 Journey to the Alcarria post Civil war trip to the countryside by a traveller, writing his observations. 
39. The Rainbow Three generations of a family, from yeomen to teacher.

11 in 11 Step Challenge - Half Way There

Still going strong on Soffitta1's 11 in 11 Step Challenge, half way there and with a stack of books in my flat left to read.  I reckon I'll soon be having a tinker with the categories as I have some books that don't fit here.
A good selection of books, no duffers, which makes me very happy!


11x 1001 Books
Bonus 1:


3. Three Lives
4. Half of a Yellow Sun
5. Invisible Cities 

10x Films



Books adapted for the big screen, small screen and stage.
3. The House of Sand and Fog

9x Asian Books

I usually read a lot of books set in Asia or by Asian writers, hopefully some from my huge TBR pile.
4. Thirty three Teeth
5.  Disco for the Departed

8x British

Books from the British Isles.
5. The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce

7x Spanish


From Spanish speaking world or in Spanish

2. Muerte de Tinta
3. Journey to the Alcarria **1001 Book

6x Crime


Crime, mystery, thriller

1. The Trial **1001 Book
2. The Ministry of Fear
3. The Winter Ghosts
4. The Ghost
5. The Flood

5x Food 'n' Drink


None this quarter

4x History


Still none :(

3x French

French Books

2. Fantomas ** 1001 Book
3. The Immoralist **1001 Book

2x Short Stories


COMPLETE

1x Tome

A big, fat, scary book.


Still not even opened :S


I would say that The Ministry of Fear was the surprise of the quarter, very gripping, well-written and much more than it appeared from the rather dreadful cover. Another thriller I enjoyed was The Ghost, who doesn't want to know why our former PM went into Iraq! I utterly relished finishing the Dr. Siri books I had, books 2 and 3 continued in the same entertaining vein as number 1. I must get my hand on books 4 and 5 (I already have 6 at home).

As for my top 1001 book, that's tough. I finally read The Trial, which had been on my radar for many years. It was much as I expected, carefully constructed narrative pulling you in and then pulling the rug out from beneath you. Fantomas was fun, while it certainly wasn't the best crime book I've read, I could see how many modern writers have been inspired by the style. Though I have to say I was most impressed by Invisible Cities, such beautiful prose, I will have to get my own copy of the book to dip in and out of.

Library ban

I took Journey to the Alcarria out of the local library, and I thought I should read it quickly so I can hand my books back in on Monday or Tuesday. I got a dressing down on Friday, I went to hand back an overdue book (I had tried to renew it when I was on holiday, not realising you could only renew books once), and because of work, it was 10 days late. I asked the lady what my fine would be, she glared at me in a way that I haven't seen since I left school, as if I had not only scribbled over the book and dropped it in the bath (not that I have ever done that - OK, I have dropped a couple of books in the bath, sorry! - I meant she looked at me with a disparaging and disappointed look) and informed me that I was "to be suspended from all library activity until the 21st of August." She said this so sternly, that I squirmed ever so slightly, giving her my excuse in Spanish and she all but tutted at me. What was worse (and funnier in hindsight) was that there was a lady behind me in the queue looking on and I knew that I was being observed by most people there - a blonde girl in my local library is rather an unusual occurance. So, better finish my other book - The Flood - and get it back on time. I hate to think what they do to repeat offenders!!

Top Reads for July

I am happy with my July reads, a book from the darkest corner of my TBR pile, another I received as a gift, a trio of Asian mysteries and more!  I am still working on The 11 in 11 Category Challenge : Soffitta1's 11 in 11.   I've got more books on my top reads than in previous, this is a nod to my 1001 Challenge and also to the fact that I was doing a summer camp and needed some "switch-off" reads for the evenings.  I am pleased to say that there were no bad apples this time, which probably accounts for so many "top reads"!



I read three page-turners, whilst they aren't the highest rated books, they all entertained me.  First up was Water for Elephants, which I received this as a RABCK, as it was on my wishlist and couldn't resist getting stuck in immediately. I haven't seen the film, and didn't know much about it before starting, all the better.  The book has two timelines, a man in an old folks' home is reliving his past, a very colourful past. Jacob worked on a circus as a young man, and here the story of his life on the road and his love, Marlena.  A good love story told against a rather unusual backdrop, though I felt it could have done with some tweaking to make it great.  Next was The Winter Ghosts, a real page turner, I sat down in a cafe to read " just a few more chapters" and ended up finishing the book!   I was already familiar with Mosse's work, having read Labyrinth a few years ago. The Winter Ghosts also takes place in the same area of France, the Languedoc region, famous for the Cathars. Starting in the inter war period, a young man walks into a shop with a piece of parchment with an almost forgotten language written on it, he then tells the story of how he came into possession of it.  I enjoyed the dual time period of the book, and Mosse certainly knows how to draw in her audience and paint a beautiful scene. Perfect after a long day at summer camp, it is the kind of book that sucks you, entertains you, but ultimately won't remain with you for long.   The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce, another of my long term TBR books. I really enjoyed Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which is why I picked this up.   Wilberforce is a wine-lover, though that term doesn't really get close to how he really feels about the drink, he "inherited" a great wine cellar when he bought up a dying friend's collection. He justifies his drinking, claiming not to be an alcoholic as he only drinks great wine, not just any bottle.   The style of the book is unusual, with Wilberforce narrating his story, each part starts a year before the previous, so while you know how it will end, only slowly do you find why.   I would recommend the book, for the literary style and also a, sometimes painful and often sad, intimate portrayal of a man's self-destruction.

I kept up with my 52x 1001 books in 2011 Challenge, this months offereing differed wildly.  I had put off reading The Age of Innocence, putting it down and picking up again and again, over a period of 3 years!  It is a tale of clandestine love in the upper echelons of society in New York in the 1870s.  Archer is torn between love and desire on one side and social duty on the other.  Very good, not only because of a well-told romance, but also as a window into the society of the time.  The Trial, another book on my radar since studying some Kafka at uni, was a good, thought-provoking read. I did have a severe case of deja vu with the priest's description of the door keeper, but as none of the rest of the book seemed familiar, I think I had studied that section as part of background reading. Strange, but fitting I suppose!  A lighter entry from the list was Fantomas.  I knew nothing of this, being sent it through the 1001-Library. It was great fun, a mystery about famed mysterious criminal, Fantomas, and Juve, the detective determined to catch him. Three seemingly unlinked crimes, 2 rather gruesome, are connected by Juve and he sets off to find evidence. There are better books in the genre, but apparently this book was the inspiration for those which followed.

I got stuck into Colin Cotterill's Dr. Siri series, reading the first three in July.  It is an unusual series, from the setting in Laos, a little known country, to its main characters.  The first in the Dr. Siri series, The Coroner's Lunch, introduces us to Dr. Siri, a reluctant coroner in '70s Laos.  Siri is a great character, he is a grumpy 70 year old,  a party member, though he admits to joining up for a woman, his wife.  He doesn't suffers fools gladly, and he, and his unusual team made up of a rotund nurse and a young man with mild Down's Syndrome, solve a series of unusual murders.  In the first book, the bodies of an official's wife and 3 Vietnamese torture victims cause the doctor to look more closely, especially when it becomes clear he is not wanted on either case.  In the second book, Thirty-three Teeth, there is a bigger nod to the supernatural.  Here Siri has two missions, first to discover how to open a box with a royal seal and second, to capture the creature terrorising Ventiene.  The third installment, Disco for the Departed pulls you straight into a strange mystery, this time an arm is found sticking out of a concrete path. Siri and Dtui are called to investigate.  It is always good to come across an interesting new series.  The only snag is I have book 6, but not book 4 or 5. I may crack my buying moratorium, as it means I can read book 6 which is on my TBR pile. That means it isn't really buying new books, doesn't it?

Wildcard of the month must go to The Ministry of Fear. Not what I thought it would be from the title - another wartime thriller. It is set in WW2, but is a a psychological thriller. Arthur Rowe is a man with a guilty conscience, he killed his ill wife, deemed a mercy killing, but he can't get past it. He goes to a fair, and on a whim goes to have his fortune read, accidentally giving the code phrase to the fortune-teller. He leaves with a cake, the weight of which was revealed to him by the fortune-teller, wondering why the fair organisers don't want to give it to him.  Good thriller, unexpectedly so from the cover.

UK 1001-Library VBB Round 4

Back to popular demand (and my own voracious appetite for 1001 books), Round 4 has begun.  The box currently contains 21 books.  Here's hoping that people find some good books!

1. All Quiet on the Western Front

2. farewell my lovely
3. Out of Africa (Penguin Modern Classics)
4. Les enfants terribles
5. Everything You Need 
6. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
7.Brideshead Revisited:(Penguin Modern Classics)
8. Sons and Lovers
9. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass: And What Alice Found There (Oxford World's Classics)
10. The Sea, the Sea
11. Catch-22  
12. White Teeth
13. The Scarlet Letter (Arcturus Classics)
14. Foe (Essential Penguin)
15. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China  
16. The House of Mirth 
17. Slaughterhouse-Five
18. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle

19. Atonement

20.The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Five Parts 
21. The Crow Road

1001 VBB Round 3 Completed

Another successful round completed, with 34 books changing hands.


1.  The Big Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Mystery (Penguin Fiction) 
2. Sputnik Sweetheart  
3.  The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
4.  Schindler's List
5.  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 
6. Waterland
7. Ravishing of Lol Stein 
8. Troubles
9. Invisible Man
10. Faceless Killers (Kurt Wallander Mystery)
11. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 
12. Rites of Passage
13. The Green Man (Vintage Classic)  
14. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories (World's Classics)
15. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (King Penguin)
16.  The Maltese Falcon (Crime Masterworks) 
17. A Prayer for Owen Meany 
18. Things Fall Apart
19. The Master
20. Mother's Milk   
21. Diary of a Nobody (Wordsworth Classics) 
22. The Cement Garden (Different picture)    
23. All Quiet on the Western Front 
24. Casino Royale (Penguin Viking Lit Fiction) 
25. Looking for the Possible Dance 
26. Nausea (New Directions Paperbook)
27. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Persephone Classics)
28. A Boy's Own Story 
29. Ivanhoe (BBC)
30. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Penguin Popular Classics) 
31. Pippi Longstocking
32. The Time Machine (Everyman Paperback Classics) 
33. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy 
34. Platero and I