1001 Novels Challenge - UPDATE 15
I know what you are thinking? Has she seriously read a novel in the scant hours since she last posted? Well no. I actually read a short story, that for some reason or other is defined as a novel by the list compilers. Somehow it feels a bit like cheating on my part, but I'm not going to complain!
The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allen Poe
I'll admit I only really read this because it was short and because The Raven is a favourite poem of mine. I wasn't looking forward to it for one reason - torture!fic makes me queasy. More than queasy. I hate it. I can't watch torture films like Saw, and fiction is even worse because my mind can conjure up worse than any film.
So it was always going to be a painful read for me.
A double whammy came within the first paragraph when the writing was quite abstract and dreamy - but thankfully it settled down and became solid and compelling shortly after.
It's hard not to imagine yourself in the situation, because the writing is so clear, so strong, and so vivid. A couple of times I regretted eating the pizza I'd just scoffed.
The end made up for it though, because I wasn't expecting it to end with anything other than a gory death - or else a faide to black before a gory death. But the end made up for the sheer terror I'd gone through, so much so I was willing to completely overlook the dues ex machina.
1001 Novels You Must Read Before You Die
Starting Point: 27
Current Point: 38
Realistic Goal: 300 (I should finish, reading one a week, in about 5 years!)
Adams, Douglas: Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy
Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women
Austen, Jane: Emma
Austen, Jane: Mansfield Park
Austen, Jane: Northanger Abbey
Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice
Austen, Jane: Sense and Sensibility
Bronte, Anne: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Bronte, Charlotte: Jane Eyre
Carroll, Lewis: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Christie, Agatha: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Cunningham, Michael: The Hours
Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Hound of the Baskervilles
du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca
Dumas, Alexander: The Count of Monte-Cristo
Eugenides, Jeffrey: The Virgin Suicides
Forster, E. M: A Room With a View
Forster, E. M: Howard's End
Gaskell, Elizabeth: Cranford
Gaskell, Elizabeth: North and South
Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Ishiguro, Kazuo: The Remains of the Day
Lawrence, D. H: Lady Chatterly's Lover
Lee, Harper: The Kill a Mocking Bird
Levy, Andrea: Small Island
Lindegren, Astrid: Pippi Longstocking
Martel, Yann: Life of Pi
Nabokov, Vladimir: Lolita
Poe, Edgar Allen: The Pit and the Pendulum
Schlink, Bernhard: The Reader
Stevenson, Robert Louis: The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde
Stoker, Bram: Dracula
Verne, Jules: Around the World in 80 Days
Walpole, Horace: The Castle of Otranto
Wharton, Edith: The House of Mirth
Wodehouse, P. G: Thank You Jeeves
1001 Novels You Must Read Before You Grow Up (and yes, there are crossovers between the lists.)
Starting Point: 61
Current Point: 65
(For reference I'm only going to read books from ages 8+, anything below that age range was already read before starting this)
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher
The Story of the Root Children
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck
The Cat in the Hat
Green Eggs and Ham
Father Christmas
Burglar Bill
The Snowman
Can't you Sleep, Little Bear?
A Visit From St. Nicholas
Grimms' Fairy Tales
The Emperor's New Clothes
The Ugly Duckling
The House that Jack Built
Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories
Pippi Longstocking
The Worst Witch
Matilda
Tales from Shakespeare
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
A Christmas Carol
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
A Little Princess
The Secret Garden
Mary Poppins
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Hurrah for St. Trinian's
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
James and the Giant Peach
Stig of the Dump
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Magic Finger
The Carpet People
The Indian in the Cupboard
Goodnight Mister Tom
The BFG
The Demon Headmaster
The Sheep-Pig
The Snow Spider
Bill's New Frock
Truckers
Only You Can Save Mankind
Johnny and the Bomb
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Skellig
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Artemis Fowl
The Graveyard Book
Gulliver's Travels
Little Women
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole
Madame Doubtfire
Flour Babies
Witch Child
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Young Visiters
Around the World in 80 Days
War Horse
-------
My Private To-Read List
Books Read: 2
Further Reading
Forster, E. M: Maurice
Classics
James, Henry: The Turn of the Screw
Recommended
I Liked the Look of Them
Trashy But Fun
The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allen Poe
I'll admit I only really read this because it was short and because The Raven is a favourite poem of mine. I wasn't looking forward to it for one reason - torture!fic makes me queasy. More than queasy. I hate it. I can't watch torture films like Saw, and fiction is even worse because my mind can conjure up worse than any film.
So it was always going to be a painful read for me.
A double whammy came within the first paragraph when the writing was quite abstract and dreamy - but thankfully it settled down and became solid and compelling shortly after.
It's hard not to imagine yourself in the situation, because the writing is so clear, so strong, and so vivid. A couple of times I regretted eating the pizza I'd just scoffed.
The end made up for it though, because I wasn't expecting it to end with anything other than a gory death - or else a faide to black before a gory death. But the end made up for the sheer terror I'd gone through, so much so I was willing to completely overlook the dues ex machina.
1001 Novels You Must Read Before You Die
Starting Point: 27
Current Point: 38
Realistic Goal: 300 (I should finish, reading one a week, in about 5 years!)
Adams, Douglas: Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy
Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women
Austen, Jane: Emma
Austen, Jane: Mansfield Park
Austen, Jane: Northanger Abbey
Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice
Austen, Jane: Sense and Sensibility
Bronte, Anne: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Bronte, Charlotte: Jane Eyre
Carroll, Lewis: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Christie, Agatha: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Cunningham, Michael: The Hours
Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Hound of the Baskervilles
du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca
Dumas, Alexander: The Count of Monte-Cristo
Eugenides, Jeffrey: The Virgin Suicides
Forster, E. M: A Room With a View
Forster, E. M: Howard's End
Gaskell, Elizabeth: Cranford
Gaskell, Elizabeth: North and South
Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Ishiguro, Kazuo: The Remains of the Day
Lawrence, D. H: Lady Chatterly's Lover
Lee, Harper: The Kill a Mocking Bird
Levy, Andrea: Small Island
Lindegren, Astrid: Pippi Longstocking
Martel, Yann: Life of Pi
Nabokov, Vladimir: Lolita
Poe, Edgar Allen: The Pit and the Pendulum
Schlink, Bernhard: The Reader
Stevenson, Robert Louis: The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde
Stoker, Bram: Dracula
Verne, Jules: Around the World in 80 Days
Walpole, Horace: The Castle of Otranto
Wharton, Edith: The House of Mirth
Wodehouse, P. G: Thank You Jeeves
1001 Novels You Must Read Before You Grow Up (and yes, there are crossovers between the lists.)
Starting Point: 61
Current Point: 65
(For reference I'm only going to read books from ages 8+, anything below that age range was already read before starting this)
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher
The Story of the Root Children
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck
The Cat in the Hat
Green Eggs and Ham
Father Christmas
Burglar Bill
The Snowman
Can't you Sleep, Little Bear?
A Visit From St. Nicholas
Grimms' Fairy Tales
The Emperor's New Clothes
The Ugly Duckling
The House that Jack Built
Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories
Pippi Longstocking
The Worst Witch
Matilda
Tales from Shakespeare
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
A Christmas Carol
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
A Little Princess
The Secret Garden
Mary Poppins
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Hurrah for St. Trinian's
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
James and the Giant Peach
Stig of the Dump
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Magic Finger
The Carpet People
The Indian in the Cupboard
Goodnight Mister Tom
The BFG
The Demon Headmaster
The Sheep-Pig
The Snow Spider
Bill's New Frock
Truckers
Only You Can Save Mankind
Johnny and the Bomb
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Skellig
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Artemis Fowl
The Graveyard Book
Gulliver's Travels
Little Women
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole
Madame Doubtfire
Flour Babies
Witch Child
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Young Visiters
Around the World in 80 Days
War Horse
-------
My Private To-Read List
Books Read: 2
Further Reading
Forster, E. M: Maurice
Classics
James, Henry: The Turn of the Screw
Recommended
I Liked the Look of Them
Trashy But Fun