Book meme
I’m not planning on doing a lot of ‘memes’ here, but I am planning on doing a lot of posts on books, and this meme, via Languagehat, is actually fun.
Ten books that I’m really glad I own and will definitely get around to reading
I don’t own 2500+ books that I haven’t read, like Steve, but 50 or so is enough for the purpose of this meme.
Foam of the Daze by Boris Vian
Gormenghast and Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake
I read the first book, and the first chapters of Gormenghast, when I was 16. One of my favorite books (assuming it holds up when I reread it). Thinking about it, I’m a little weirded out myself that I haven’t picked it up in a decade, but that’s me. I guess at some level I’ve been saving it as a treat, but that doesn’t seem too smart.
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
I didn’t know anything about the plot when I bought it eight years ago or so, even though I might have. Then I read Gemma Bovery and somehow didn’t realize what it was based on. Then I read a review of Gemma Bovery. Aaargh. It’s not even that good, or I mean it’s good, but slightly overrated. But good. I suspect Posy Simmonds other stuff is better; she did have a v. distinctive and pleasant style. Um, anyway.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
These two, I don’t even know what to expect, but am somehow sure I’ll love them. I guess I should hury read them before I find out. God, I’m so culturally illiterate.
Haven’t read any Nabokov, but sounds right up my alley. I got an Swedish translation, and was pleased it’s one of his few Russian books, but was dismayed to see it’s translated from the English translation. Shame on the publisher.
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
In Swedish, but maybe that’s a good thing if early 19th century prose is a bad thing. I generally read English language novels in English.
Tender Is the Night by F.Scott Fitzgerald
The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison
Winter’s Tales by Isak Dinesen
Sorta cheating, since I’ve read the first 10-20 pages of each of these. Then I’ve read other stuff by the authors.
Time and the Gods Six Story Anthology by Lord Dunsany
Definitely cheating, since I’ve already read a selection of the stories.
I’ll pass this on to Jeremy, Andrew, and Jackmormon, who all seem like the kinds of people who have piles of unread books.
October 9th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Wuthering Heights is awful. Skip it and fill in whatever gap you feel you have somewhere else…
Piles of unread books? I bought almost a dozen just last weekend in New York…
Two by Charlie Stross (Accelerando and Iron Sunrise), two by George R.R. Martin (Storm of Swords and Feast for Crows, both filed under guilty and probably dubious pleasures), 1776 by David McCoullough (despite the overly precious, faux-18th century printing), Albion’s Seed by David Hackett Fischer (which I used to own before the last transatlantic move, but which I had never read; though if the next 800 pages are as good as the preface, I’m very sorry to have waited), Old Man’s War by John Scalzi (about whom I have heard good things, and the paperback is out), Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt (also good preface, nice to see a detailed synthesis), Venice: Lion City by Gary Wills (also long on the list, hardback was cheaper than paperback), Pu-239 by Ken Kalfus (an apparently older book of Russia-related stories). Plus I finally got around to picking up Michael Burleigh’s The Third Reich: A New History, which of course isn’t quite as new six years after publication, but there you go.
Anyway, piles of books.
October 10th, 2006 at 2:37 am
My list is here.
October 10th, 2006 at 3:06 am
BTW the only one of your listed books that I have read is Tender is the Night — recommend it very highly though I guess at this point, you do not need that.
October 10th, 2006 at 10:47 am
MK, my list was not the Definitely Will Read list, it was just recently bought. At my usual pace, bought presently exceeds read by a little more than a year.
I liked your list (do you not have comments?); I read the Divine Comedy a couple of years back (took like a year to make whole journey, though obvsly other things were also read over that time) and got more out of it thank I think I would have at 18, more than half a lifetime ago, but would also have benefited from having some forum for comparison and discussion. Weren’t the Unfogged people going to do Paradise Lost?
Of the above, probably only the Fischer and the Burleigh qualify as Have Been Meaning to Read and Definitely Will Read RSN. This year was pretty good for that list, though, as I finally polished off Daniel Yergin’s The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power (not a bad set of things to think about late in GWB’s presidency), which I first attempted in 1993.
October 10th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
No, I have no comments — alas! Someday I will get into database design a bit more and rejigger my blog script and data format to support comments. Probably around the time I read The Man Without Qualities.