1001 Books Challenge: UPDATE 31
Well I have reached 50, which is just under 1/20th of the full list and 1/6th of my own personal target of 300.
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
I knew practically nothing about the novel before starting it. Wikipedia told me it was one of the first novels in what would become the 'Lost World' genre, but aside from that I was going in blind. It was written (again, Wikipedia tells us) by Haggard after a bet from his brother that he couldn't write anything as exciting as Treasure Island. I've not read Treasure Island yet, but I can safely assume that Haggard won his sixpence.
The story is narrated by Allan Quatermain, an Elephant Hunter, who undertakes a journey with two other man - the heroic Sir Henry Curtis and the prim naval officer Captain Good. They seek Sir Henry's lost brother, who was last seen heading out towards the mythical King Solomon's Mines. Quatermain, being in possession of a guide, joins them and they begin the perilous journey themselves.
I was expecting - rather nervously - for the story to be old fashioned in it's views. In short, I was expecting some racism. I was quite stunned when the situation is addressed by Quatermain at the start. He claims to deeply dislike the word 'n****r' and comments that he has found some native men more deserving of the term gentleman than some white settlers are. Though the despotic king Twala and his witch Gagool are presented as the sterotypical black baddies, Haggard makes it very clear that there are heroic black people too. Their servant and later friend becomes a heroic and good king who they are much saddened to leave, and Captain Good falls for the noble girl who nurses him through illness after he saved her life.
That said, the book is old fashioned in another way. There is no escaping the fact that Quartermain is an elephant hunter and ivory dealer - and all three men enjoy hunting. One chapter that has aged very badly shows the three stopping to kill a herd of elephants for ivory. This makes for difficult reading and from a critical standpoint advanced the plot very little. However, the book was written in a different time and for a different audiance, and I soon stopped caring cause from there on in the story hots up.
I won't go to far into the plot, but I'll state outright that I loved it. At it's heart it's a story of friendship - the three men become very close and at no point turn against each other or betray each other even when faced with great treasure. The book ends with the three of them closer than ever.
Which leads me onto one subject that wikipedia definately didn't mention...teh gayness. The homoerotic subtext is... well I don't read everything with a view to slashing it, but it was hard not to! From the start Quatermain tells us this is a boys-only story without a hint of petticoat (what might be termed Bromance now). Quatermain seems to have the biggest man-crush on Sir Henry ever (though to be fair, everyone has a man-crush on Sir Henry, and I outright fancied him myself at the end) and devotes much time to describing his viking physique, his nobility, his goodness, his excellence as a warrior, his intelligence, and his general awesomeness. At one point Quatermain (believing them all doomed) has a little cry on Sir Henry's shoulder. And this is before I make any jokes about the servant stripping off so they can admire his sacred snake (a tattoo proving his right to be king, but the joke is too good to abandon) or Captain Good being forced to go without trousers for half the novel because the natives admire his pale legs... the book ends with sir Henry inviting Quatermain to come and live in a house nearby so they can be together.
Ahem. Anyway, I'm not going to lie, I loved this novel. I cried at the end as we said goodbye to the characters, and I'm definately going to check out the sequels and other stories.
1001 Novels You Must Read Before You Die
Starting Point: 29
Current Point: 50
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
Bronte, Emily: Wuthering Heights
Carroll, Lewis: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Christie, Agatha: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Cunningham, Michael: The Hours
Dickens, Charles: Bleak House
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
Grossmith, George: Diary of a Nobody
Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Haggard, H. Rider: King Solomon's Mines
Hugo, Victor: Les Miserables
Ishiguro, Kazuo: The Remains of the Day
Kafka, Franz: The Metamorphosis
Lawrence, D. H: Lady Chatterly's Lover
Lee, Harper: The Kill a Mocking Bird
Levy, Andrea: Small Island
Lindegren, Astrid: Pippi Longstocking
London, Jack: The Call of the Wild
Martel, Yann: Life of Pi
Nabokov, Vladimir: Lolita
Orwell, George: Animal Farm
Poe, Edgar Allen: The Fall of the House of Usher
Poe, Edgar Allen: The Pit and the Pendulum
Queneau, Raymond: Exercises in Style
Schlink, Bernhard: The Reader
Shelley, Mary Woolstonecraft: Frankenstein
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
Wilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian Gray
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: 67
(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
Peter Pan
The Call of the Wild
-------
My Private To-Read List
Books Read: 6
Further Reading
Forster, E. M: Maurice
Ishiguro, Kazuo: Never Let Me Go
Classics
James, Henry: The Turn of the Screw
Recommended
Jones, Lloyd: Mister Pip (celebrity recommendation)
Larsson, Stieg: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (booksyoushouldread recommendation)
I Liked the Look of Them
Salamon, Julie: The Christmas Tree
Trashy But Fun
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
I knew practically nothing about the novel before starting it. Wikipedia told me it was one of the first novels in what would become the 'Lost World' genre, but aside from that I was going in blind. It was written (again, Wikipedia tells us) by Haggard after a bet from his brother that he couldn't write anything as exciting as Treasure Island. I've not read Treasure Island yet, but I can safely assume that Haggard won his sixpence.
The story is narrated by Allan Quatermain, an Elephant Hunter, who undertakes a journey with two other man - the heroic Sir Henry Curtis and the prim naval officer Captain Good. They seek Sir Henry's lost brother, who was last seen heading out towards the mythical King Solomon's Mines. Quatermain, being in possession of a guide, joins them and they begin the perilous journey themselves.
I was expecting - rather nervously - for the story to be old fashioned in it's views. In short, I was expecting some racism. I was quite stunned when the situation is addressed by Quatermain at the start. He claims to deeply dislike the word 'n****r' and comments that he has found some native men more deserving of the term gentleman than some white settlers are. Though the despotic king Twala and his witch Gagool are presented as the sterotypical black baddies, Haggard makes it very clear that there are heroic black people too. Their servant and later friend becomes a heroic and good king who they are much saddened to leave, and Captain Good falls for the noble girl who nurses him through illness after he saved her life.
That said, the book is old fashioned in another way. There is no escaping the fact that Quartermain is an elephant hunter and ivory dealer - and all three men enjoy hunting. One chapter that has aged very badly shows the three stopping to kill a herd of elephants for ivory. This makes for difficult reading and from a critical standpoint advanced the plot very little. However, the book was written in a different time and for a different audiance, and I soon stopped caring cause from there on in the story hots up.
I won't go to far into the plot, but I'll state outright that I loved it. At it's heart it's a story of friendship - the three men become very close and at no point turn against each other or betray each other even when faced with great treasure. The book ends with the three of them closer than ever.
Which leads me onto one subject that wikipedia definately didn't mention...teh gayness. The homoerotic subtext is... well I don't read everything with a view to slashing it, but it was hard not to! From the start Quatermain tells us this is a boys-only story without a hint of petticoat (what might be termed Bromance now). Quatermain seems to have the biggest man-crush on Sir Henry ever (though to be fair, everyone has a man-crush on Sir Henry, and I outright fancied him myself at the end) and devotes much time to describing his viking physique, his nobility, his goodness, his excellence as a warrior, his intelligence, and his general awesomeness. At one point Quatermain (believing them all doomed) has a little cry on Sir Henry's shoulder. And this is before I make any jokes about the servant stripping off so they can admire his sacred snake (a tattoo proving his right to be king, but the joke is too good to abandon) or Captain Good being forced to go without trousers for half the novel because the natives admire his pale legs... the book ends with sir Henry inviting Quatermain to come and live in a house nearby so they can be together.
Ahem. Anyway, I'm not going to lie, I loved this novel. I cried at the end as we said goodbye to the characters, and I'm definately going to check out the sequels and other stories.
1001 Novels You Must Read Before You Die
Starting Point: 29
Current Point: 50
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
Bronte, Emily: Wuthering Heights
Carroll, Lewis: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Christie, Agatha: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Cunningham, Michael: The Hours
Dickens, Charles: Bleak House
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
Grossmith, George: Diary of a Nobody
Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Haggard, H. Rider: King Solomon's Mines
Hugo, Victor: Les Miserables
Ishiguro, Kazuo: The Remains of the Day
Kafka, Franz: The Metamorphosis
Lawrence, D. H: Lady Chatterly's Lover
Lee, Harper: The Kill a Mocking Bird
Levy, Andrea: Small Island
Lindegren, Astrid: Pippi Longstocking
London, Jack: The Call of the Wild
Martel, Yann: Life of Pi
Nabokov, Vladimir: Lolita
Orwell, George: Animal Farm
Poe, Edgar Allen: The Fall of the House of Usher
Poe, Edgar Allen: The Pit and the Pendulum
Queneau, Raymond: Exercises in Style
Schlink, Bernhard: The Reader
Shelley, Mary Woolstonecraft: Frankenstein
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
Wilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian Gray
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: 67
(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
Peter Pan
The Call of the Wild
-------
My Private To-Read List
Books Read: 6
Further Reading
Forster, E. M: Maurice
Ishiguro, Kazuo: Never Let Me Go
Classics
James, Henry: The Turn of the Screw
Recommended
Jones, Lloyd: Mister Pip (celebrity recommendation)
Larsson, Stieg: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (booksyoushouldread recommendation)
I Liked the Look of Them
Salamon, Julie: The Christmas Tree
Trashy But Fun