Watching The Movie Counts, Right?

[redbrunja]

So, the_sun_is_up found a list of 1,001 books to read before you die.

Below, I've marked which ones I've read in bold and which ones I've read part of, heard of, intend to read, etc in italics. Plus snarky comments, because who doesn't love snarky comments.

19.The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon - while this wasn't my type of book at all, it was very well written.

24.Fingersmith – Sarah Waters. I read part of this and had to return it before we got to the neat lesbianism parts.

42.Atonement – Ian McEwan. Does watching the movie count?

49.Life of Pi – Yann Martel - I've read so much praise about this I'll likely never read it.

63.The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood This book just came up in my Editing & Publishing class. I am intrigued.

67.House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski I totally intend to read this.

85.Tipping the Velvet – Sarah Waters I've heard about this book before this list, but the title and flap copy made me put it on my wishlist.

93.Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden I tried this and got bored after the first chapter.

133.The Shipping News – E. Annie Proulx Again, does watching the movie count?

157.Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Peter Høeg I read a third of this and then set it aside. I think I was too young for it and really should give it another try.

180.The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien Deserves the praise it gets.

183.Possession – A.S. Byatt I greatly enjoyed the movie...

195.Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel SO MUCH HATE. AND THEN HE DIES BECAUSE THE SEX IS THAT GOOD AND SHE KILLS HERSELF TO BE WITH HIM IS A LAME ENDING. LAME LAME LAME. Although I liked the whore-soldier sister.

223.Beloved – Toni Morrison Justifiably famous.

227.Watchmen – Alan Moore & David Gibbons I appreciate this more that I love it, but I'm glad I read it, if only because it's so seminal.

242.The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood ...in which Atwood writes down a hell that seems personally designed for me.

301.The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams I adore the opening to this book. It's hilarious.

320.Interview With the Vampire – Anne Rice I told the story about my mom making me return this because I was too young to read it, right?

345.Crash – J.G. Ballard No, but I'm required to read another Ballard book for a class this quarter.

430.The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John Le Carré I'd really like to read this. Has anyone on my flist read it? Is it good? Would I enjoy it?

456.To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee I greatly enjoyed this book and have been craving a reread.

467.Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote I keep trying to watch the movie and not managing it.

506.The Story of O – Pauline Réage If I want to read rape-tastic smut, I'll poke around the Naruto section of adult fanfiction.whatever the url is.

521.The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway I've already done my Hemingway time.

535.The Third Man – Graham Greene Is this book what the movie The Third Man is based off of?

610.The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien I had this read out loud to me. The illustrations were fantastic.

660.The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett So on my to-read list.

676.Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D.H. Lawrence As is this on.

738.Rashomon – Akutagawa Ryunosuke I watched the movie, that's good enough.

781.The Hound of the Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Beekeeper's Apprentice ruined me for Doyle's Holmes.

788.The Awakening – Kate Chopin I did not know they could write that hot in the 1800s.

794.Dracula – Bram Stoker Waiting on my bookshelf.

801.The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman OMFG I LOVE THIS SHORT STORY SO FUCKING MUCH. It's deliciously creepy, too.

804.The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle I've read a nice chunk of these.

868.Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll Another one that is literally on my bookshelf.

896.Moby-Dick – Herman Melville No fucking way and I reading this.

897.The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne I've also done my time reading Hawthorne. If someone never assigns "Young Goodman Brown" ever again it will be too soon.

904.Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë I read half of this and then got bored and wandered away, right after she was about to get married. Seriously, I used to have such classy taste in literature.

908.The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas The book is actually quite boring. With fail gender dynamics to boot.

911.The Pit and the Pendulum – Edgar Allan Poe EITHER ESCAPE OR DIE, I DON'T CARE WHICH, JUST DO IT FAST.

916.The Fall of the House of Usher – Edgar Allan Poe Deliciously gothic.

931.Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Way to much pretty is good, ugly is evil. I dropped it two chapters in.

936.Emma – Jane Austen I read this 'just because' years and years ago. I told you I used to have classy taste.

940.Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen I'm not sure if I finished this or not, but I really liked it.

948.The Mysteries of Udolpho – Ann Radcliffe The very first gothic novel. I SO want to read it.

978.Pamela – Samuel Richardson Apparently, this is all smut. I'm intrigued.

1000.Metamorphoses – Ovid Reading this made wandering through museums in France SO MUCH MORE ENJOYABLE.

Comments

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

(Also, uh, the diary of Anne Frank? When did that ever stop being required reading?)


I don't know, but I have read it. ....although it was one of the less interesting holocaust books I've read *ducks thrown things*

42.Atonement – Ian McEwan. Does watching the movie count?
And watching the movie made me never want to read the book.

Did you really not like the movie?

I really need to attempt Jane Austen again sometime. I tried a while back and hated Sense and Sensibility, but I may have been too young for it.

Honestly, I am really pleased with myself that I picked up Emma just because when I was quite young. I believe I finished it, although I missed SO MUCH and remember SO LITTLE of the actual book. I'm watching a really great adaptation at the moment, though.

And it's kinda like beating your head through a brick wall of extremely wordy prose.

That sounds so unappealing. Does he have short story that I could read just to say I've read Proust?

[sekaigo.livejournal.com]

I think the diary is important mostly as a humanizing element, even though--or particularly because--it's not that astounding on its own. There have certainly been better books written about the holocaust, mostly, I imagine, because those were written as books, but the diary is more subtly horrifying to me because of how ordinary it is.

Did you really not like the movie?
I watched it a couple years ago and I don't remember all the details, but I hated it. I recall disliking everyone except for the younger girl and the guy's soldier buddy and being dissatisfied with the ending. It's a film I might like to rewatch sometime and see if I like it any better, though.

That sounds so unappealing. Does he have short story that I could read just to say I've read Proust?
Honestly, I think if it doesn't sound appealing to you, it's probably not worth it. (Though you might try reading a bit in the library or something, because it didn't sound appealing to me and I wound up loving it anyhow.) Remembrance of Things Past--assuming that the rest of the books follow the model of the first one-- is sort of a huge, dreamy, half-fictional memoir in which the narrator wanders around France and smells the roses (a lot) and... every so often there are references to lesbian affairs?

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

There have certainly been better books written about the holocaust, mostly, I imagine, because those were written as books, but the diary is more subtly horrifying to me because of how ordinary it is.


Yep, exactly. It's a wonderfully humanizing document.

It's a film I might like to rewatch sometime and see if I like it any better, though.


I liked it, but right at the ending they just went a little bit too dark for my tastes.

I feel like reading 'Fun Home' was enough of an experience with Proust.