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Dec 22, 20141 min read
271. Émile Zola - Germinal
Possibly the best book I have read this year. Zola completely turns 19th century fiction on its head and writes a book in which the...
Dec 14, 20141 min read
269. Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina
I quite enjoyed this, although it took ages to get going (around page 300!?). One of my problems was that none of the characters were,...
Nov 23, 20141 min read
264. Graham Greene - The Heart Of The Matter
Aeroplane reading en route to Copenhagen. I had thought this was my favourite Greene, but was disappointed this time round. I understood...
Sep 17, 20141 min read
246. Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis
Enjoyed ‘The Trial’ enough to read another Kafka, but Metamorphosis has less weight; it is very internal and apart from Gregor’s family,...
Sep 13, 20141 min read
244. Franz Kafka - The Trial
Bought this in 1972, a few years ago; wonder what I made of it then? I thought it was really good and quite funny – hard going in places,...
Aug 24, 20141 min read
237. D. H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley's Lover
Haven’t read any Lawrence for ages; I think that no.223 inclined me to read another novel of thwarted love across the classes. The sex is...
Aug 17, 20141 min read
209. Graham Greene - The Third Man
Never read this either; written as a film script, (don’t think I have ever seen the film?) it is a brief but well-constructed story. The...
Jun 26, 20141 min read
225. Graham Greene - Stamboul Train
Pretty good. A relatively early Greene, about a rail trip from London to Istanbul in the 1930’s. As the train progresses — Ostende,...
Jun 18, 20141 min read
222. Thomas Mann - BuddenBrooks
If I have read Thomas Mann before, it was 'Death in Venice' 40 years ago. This, especially the first half, was a wonderfully stately...
Jun 11, 20141 min read
217. Charles Dickens - Little Dorrit
One of the summer plans! Thought I’d take (to Spain) a Dickens that I didn’t know at all, never televised, so no baggage. Not sure what...
May 10, 20141 min read
206. James Joyce - Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man
Read this (copiously) as an A-level set text about 40 years ago and couldn’t answer the question on it then. I think the question was...
Mar 9, 20141 min read
187. Honoré de Balzac - Eugenie Grandet
A proper story at last. I hadn’t realised how early in the 19th century Balzac was writing; 1820’s/30’s. So there is lots of classicism,...
Jan 11, 20141 min read
176. Albert Camus - The Outsider
Don’t know what prompted me to re-read this. It is very short, and I wasn’t feeling well when I read it and wrote the above. It is...
Jan 6, 20141 min read
174. Thomas Hardy - Jude The Obscure
Another A level text, but I loved this on re-read after it must be 40 years. The complicated love story between Jude & Sue was so...
Dec 30, 20131 min read
172. Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Idiot
This was a challenge; I can’t say I enjoyed it at all. Seemed to be very unstructured and unfocussed; I couldn’t work up any enthusiasm...
Dec 22, 20131 min read
171. George Eliot - The Mill On The Floss
This was an A-level set text, and I read my old copy from the time, which is almost ruined by asinine adolescent observations. I will get...
Aug 31, 20131 min read
140. George Eliot - Silas Marner
Bought this in 1976 and don’t think I have ever read it. It is bloody good. Quite simple, short, and beautifully compressed tale of...
Jun 3, 20131 min read
112. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
Trying to read some old books, preferably in paper, before we fly off to Spain. I enjoyed this more than I expected; the key bit of...
May 25, 20131 min read
108. William Shakespeare - Macbeth
Was aiming for 'Hamlet', but couldn't navigate the complete works. Read this as a play about order/disorder/order restored, and focussed...
May 4, 20131 min read
101a. Leo Tolstoy - War And Peace
Can't give this a number (see no.89), but I have finally finished 'War & Peace'; it is a huge book. i would like to re-read it, but would...