1001 books read in 2010 and looking towards 2011

2 more read to finish up the year, bringing up my total to 54.  Less than last year because of travelling, but still a good haul.  The last two were Ivanhoe (BBC) and Pereira Maintains .  Both good books, the first has been on my radar for a while, with Sir Walter Scott being a favourite of  my Dad's.  I had read Pereira before, but a different translation and before living in Portugal, so I felt more of a connection with the book.

In 2011, I would like to read another 52 and have already signed up on katrinat 's challenge forum post.  Once again, I am sure that I will be getting books from the 1001-library.  I also have about 30 books at home, here are some of the books in that pile:

A Confederacy of Dunces [Penguin Classics]

~

John Kennedy Toole

Lucky Jim (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Kingsley Amis

The Graduate

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Charles Webb

Under the Net (Vintage Classics)

~

Iris Murdoch

As with last year, it is very much a mixed bag, but that is what I like about the list.  OK, so the nerd in me loves the stats and the spreadsheet (thanks Caroley), but the best thing has been coming across new authors and discovering some gems.  I have also overcome phobias of the classics, those books you HAVE to read, which always makes me run to the hills.

11 in 11 Category Challenge - The First Quarter

The first 31 books of my 11 in 11 Category Challenge . As with last year, I am speeding through the first lot of books, this is because I am at my parents' house with a huge number of books to choose from.  From previous experience, the second half of the year is always harder as I look for books to complete categories.

Category 1:  Latin America

1. The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts
2. Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord ** 1001 Book
3. Malinche

Category 2: 1001 Books

1. The Idiot
2. Of Mice and Men
3. Schooling
4. Pereira Maintains

Category 3: History  (Fiction and Non-Fiction)

1. The Help
2. The Bamboo Palace

3. Ivanhoe

Category 5: Asia

1. The Good Earth

2. The Inheritance of Loss ** 1001 Book

3. Eating Chinese Food Naked

Category 7: German Speaking World

1. Dragon Rider
2. Candide *1001 Book, main character from Westfalen.

Category 8: Film & Adaptations

1. The French Lieutentant's Woman ** 1001 Book
2. Bleak House ** 1001 Book
3. Wicked
4. Crash ** 1001 Book
5. The Notebook
6. A Christmas Carol and other Christmas Stories ** 1001 Book
7. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland **1001 Book
8. The Time Machine **1001 Book

Category 9: Links

 

1. Son of a Witch part of Wicked series
2. A Lion among Men part of Wicked series

 

Category 10: Travel

1. Three moons in Vietnam

Category 11: British Authors

1. It Could Happen to You
2. Cold Comfort Farm **1001 Book
3. I was Jane Austen's Best Friend
4. Mrs Fry's Diary 

Some of the books may end up in different categories, especially as I am trying to read as many 1001 books as possible this year (15 read so far).  I am also trying to read books I already own, I have a veritable Andean mountain of books to read in my room.  Some have been there for years, not because I don't want to reason, but because, for some reason or another, I keep overlooking them.  One such book was Schooling, as well as  Louis de Bernières' Latin American Trilogy.

Top reads so far include:

French Lieutenant's woman, I just couldn't put this one down.

I also really liked The Help, a look at life in America's South as the Civil Rights Movement hots up.

The Good Earth, a book that had been on my wishlist, didn't disappoint.

Cold Comfort Farm was hilarious, I can't believe that I had never come across it before.
Pereira Maintains , interestingly I have read another translation of this book, but it was before I lived in Portugal, so this one struck me more.  Through meeting a young dissident, Pereira decides to challenge Salazar's regime.

Duffers - 

Bleak House, I found this hard to get into and to get through. I was also disappointed by Malinche, which was not up to the standard of Laura Esquivel's 1001 Book, Like Water for Chocolate .

52 1001 Books in 2010

I thought I would sign up again for Read 10 1001 Books to read before you die books this year (2... , a challenge set by katrinat on Bookcrossing.  I managed to read a 1001 book a week last year, so here is this year's attempt.  A little slower this year, travelling makes it hard as I wasn't always able to find 1001 books in the book exchanges, though I did read some tomes, which I would have kept putting off at home.

1. The Old Man and the Sea-1001-Library Book 
2. The Grass Is Singing
3. Black Dogs
4. Watchmen (1001 Library Book) a graphic novel, recently filmed
5. A Kestrel for a Knave (Penguin Modern Classics)
6. The Midwich Cuckoos
7. The Siege of Krishnapur
8. Embers
9. Brideshead Revisited
10. The Plot Against America
11. Les Miserables (Penguin Classics)
12. Blue of Noon
13. Invisible
14. Vile Bodies
15. The Singapore Grip
16. The Nine Tailors (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries), nice to a mystery on the list
17. The Red and The Black
18. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 
19. The White Tiger
20. Professor's House
21. Love in a Cold Climate (Penguin Modern Classics)
22. The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale For A Land-Baby
23. The Return of the Native (English Library)
24. At Lady Molly's
25. August Is a Wicked Month (1001 book)
26. Troubles
27. Hangover Square
28. Life and Times of Michael K
29. Brothers Karamazov
30. The Divine Comedy: Inferno v. 1
31. 2666
32. North and South (Penguin Classics)
33. Madame Bovary
34. The Bell Jar
35. The Cranford Chronicles
36. The Children's Book
37. The French Lieutenant's woman
38. The Idiot
39. Bleak House
40. Of Mice and Men
41. The murder of Roger Ackroyd  reread
42. The Purloined Letter
43. Crash
44. Cold Comfort Farm
45. Schooling
46. The Inheritance of Loss
47. Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord
48. A Christmas Carol
49. Candide
50. Breakfast at Tiffany's

51. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

52. The Time Machine


I still think that  J.G. Farrell's books were really good (7,15 and 26), but the real gem was 2666 , a tome of a book, but worth every page.  It is actually 5 books in one volume, which makes it less daunting to read than say A Suitable Boy (a great book, but one I only read because I took it as my only book on a very long journey).  I also loved  Embers, a book I had never even heard of, a definite find.  My worst read was Bleak House, it just really didn't grab me.   Too much detail, too many characters, a struggle.

As I was due to be spending time travelling in Latin America, I wanted to read more of the books from that region, 2666 (written by a Chilean writer), Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord (set in a fictional country),  The Life and Times of Oscar Wao (a precocious Domincan Republican) and a surprise entry, Candide , in which the action moves around the world.


It is pleasing to see that the books ranged in years published, I did read some of the new additions:  The Children's Book,  Invisible , The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and The White Tiger.  I enjoyed all 4 and agree with their addition in the new editon.

52 1001 Books in 2010 1/2 way

I thought I would sign up again for Read 10 1001 Books to read before you die books this year (2... , a challenge set by katrinat on Bookcrossing.  I managed to read a 1001 book a week last year, so here is this year's attempt.  I am a wee bit behind where I wanted to be, especially as I will be off on my travels soon.

1. The Old Man and the Sea-1001-Library Book
2. The Grass Is Singing
3. Black Dogs
4. Watchmen (1001 Library Book)
5. A Kestrel for a Knave (Penguin Modern Classics)
6. The Midwich Cuckoos
7.   The Siege of Krishnapur
8. Embers
9. Brideshead Revisited
10.  The Plot Against America
11.  Les Miserables (Penguin Classics)
12.  Blue of Noon
13.   Invisible
14.   Vile Bodies
15.  The Singapore Grip
16.   The Nine Tailors (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries)
17.   The Red and The Black
18. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
19. The White Tiger
20.  Professor's House
21.  Love in a Cold Climate (Penguin Modern Classics)
22.  The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale For A Land-Baby
23.  The Return of the Native (English Library)
24. At Lady Molly's
25.  Troubles
26.  August Is a Wicked Month (1001 book)

It is hard to pick out the best books from those I've read, but I I have really enjoyed reading a new author to me,  J.G. Farrell.  Of the rest, I would have to say that Blue of Noon was rather odd, not sure what I think of it and The Water Babies a bit clumsy.  It was good to read some of the more modern books on the list, including three additions to the 2010 list, and I heartily concur with their inclusion, though it was sad to see an Auster book to be knocked off the list.

1010 Challenge - 3/4 Done!

3/4 down, and a good few more books read from my Mount TBR.  I have now finished 2 categories, and am near to finishing another 2.  Top books of this third quarter would have to include Baking Cakes in Kigali, a lighter but thought-provoking read; The Singapore Grip, another excellent book from J.G. Farrell;  and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao  , the story of a Dominican Republic boy in the U.S.

Group 1: 1001 Books 9/10
1. The Grass is Singing
2. The Successor  ** Olympic: Albania
3. Embers ** Olympic: Hungary
4. The Plot Against America
5. Blue of Noon
6. Invisible
7. The Red and the Black
8. Professor's House
9. The Water-Babies

Group 2: Spain and the Spanish speaking world COMPLETE
1. Paradise Travel ** Olympic: Colombia

2. Captain Alatriste 

3. Purity of Blood 

4. The Old Man and the Sea **1001 Book
5. The Scarlet Cloak 

6. The Return 

7. The Queen's Sorrow 

8. The Book of Murder 

9. Our house in the Last World
10. The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao ** 1001 Book
 

Group 3: British Writers 8/10
1. Sexing the Cherry  ** 1001 book
2. Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner ** 1001 book
3. The Book lovers' Appreciation Society 

4. Black Dogs  ** 1001 book
5. Vile Bodies ** 1001 Book
6. The Nine Tailors ** 1001 Book
7. Love in a Cold Climate ** 1001 Book
8. Landlocked

Group 4: Books not written in English 4/10

1. D. Maria II
2. Praça de Londres
3. O Gato e o Escuro
4. O Maior Flor do Mundo
 

Group 5: Travel 3/10

1. Attention. Deficit. Disorder

2. River Town
3. In the Heart of the Sea

Group 6: History 9/10
1. Castle Rackrent  **1001 Book
2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society 

3. Very Interesting People Queen Victoria 

4. The Alienist 

5 The Lost Daughter of Happiness
6. The Lady Elizabeth
7. Mademoiselle Boleyn
8. The Concubine of Shanghai 
9. Vengeance Is Mine: A Novel of Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, and Lady Rochford--the woman who helped destroy them both.

Group 7: Myths and Legends 5/10

1. The Lusiads   **1001 Book

2. Politically Correct Holiday Stories
3. The Snow Cow

4. Stardust (this is the audiobook read by the author)
5. Branca de Neve

Group 8 - Made into Film COMPLETE

Group 9: Olympic Challenge 8/10

1. Homo novus - valik hüperboole Estonia 

2. The Eye of the Leopard Sweden / Zambia 

3. This Body Guyana

4. Kisses in the Nederends Tonga
5. Being Here: Modern Short Stories from Southern Africa
Swaziland, Botswana
6. Baking Cakes in Kigali Tanzania
7. Hungry Ghosts Greece
8. Children of the Revolution Ethiopia

Group 10: Asia 9/10
1. Sacred Games
2. Inheritance 

3. The Siege of Krishnapur ** 1001 Book 

4. Mother's Beloved: Stories from Laos  ** Olympic: Laos

5. Tale of a certain Orient ** Olympic: Libya

6. Girls of Riyadh ** Olympic: Saudi Arabia

7. Funny Boy

8. The Singapore Grip ** 1001 Book, Olympic: Singapore
9. The White Tiger ** 1001 Book