Books #42

[Harlot O'Scara]

The Wolf Hall trilogy is genuinely on my list of my favourite books of all time.

People seem to absolutely love them or can't even finish the first one with nothing in between. I think Mantel's writing style is very Marmite.

 

[ahkrin]

I enjoyed Wolf Hall, couldn't get into Bring Up the Bodies until I listened on audiobook and have had 3 hours of the 38 hour audiobook for The Mirror and the Light left for about 2 years because I know what is about to happen and don't want it to.

Mad that Flowers for Algernon didn't make the top 100. And All Quiet on the Western Front is one of my favourite books of all time.

 

[ahkrin]

That Reddit list has The Outside and The Stranger for Camus. Wonder if it would have had enough votes to be top 100 if they were consistent with the translation.

 

[Carapop]

That Reddit list has The Outside and The Stranger for Camus. Wonder if it would have had enough votes to be top 100 if they were consistent with the translation.

Excellent catch! I didn’t realise it was the same book.

 

[LaBlonde]

The Wolf Hall trilogy is genuinely on my list of my favourite books of all time.

People seem to absolutely love them or can't even finish the first one with nothing in between. I think Mantel's writing style is very Marmite.

agreed! the whole trilogy is a masterpiece imo and i also love a place of greater safety by her. i get the lack of quotation marks can be annoying but also the writing quality is so that i think/hope people can get over it!

 

[emmer_moans]

I’ve tried so many times to read Wolf Hall and just can’t get on with it so I hope not!

Looking at the number of votes books are getting on the list with as few as 4 so it does make you wonder how some of those classic big hitters haven’t made it. In the one hand it’s refreshing that it won’t just be a variation on the same lists we’ve seen before, but I think it has the potential to be controversial!

I started the Wolf Hall audiobook once but was bored to tears after an hour. I'm just not very interested in that time period so I think I had a mental block on it, and the length of it as well just intimidated me when I'm not into that time period. So I DNF'd it.

Also mentions of Madam Bovary the other day...I listened to the audio book which turned out to be abridged version and I finished it but was very glad it was the short one because it was quite depressing as the character spirals and was quite frustrating to me I'm not sure I would have finished the unabridged version. I chose abridged because I liked the narrator's voice more in the previews

Also, while I am at it, I was also bored to tears by Lady Chatterley's Lover. I get that for it's time it was like but the characters were all so boring and I just.didn't.care. Lots of political waffle in it too. Luckily this was also an audio book that was thankfully included in my membership so no additional cost to me. I ended up listening on 1.5x just to finish it.

Don't get me wrong I usually appreciate a Classic (even sad Hardy books) but some classics are quite depressing and I don't get why people love them so much. Looking at you, Wuthering Heights ...

 

[veronica71]

I’ve read Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies twice - once when they first came out and then again before reading The Mirror and The Light. Love them even though I hate the ending. It’s a period I am obsessed with so I can see it maybe easier to read if you know already who the characters are.

I’ve read two of the guardian list so far - Dracula at sixth form and White Teeth although I’m not 100% sure I have read that I’ve read lots of books and some bloody amazing ones so I’m never sure about these lists!!!


currently reading Andrew Robert’s biography of Churchill and it’s brilliant but bloody hell it’s long- I’ve been reading it for over two weeks and still a third to go. Can’t wait to see how it ends

 

[SaintLeo]

Wolf Hall makes the list, but only at number 34! Glad to see The Age of Innocence in the top 40. I think that might have been one of my nominations.

 

[Carapop]

Awh yay for God of Small Things!

Fricking hate Great Expectations with the fire of a thousand suns.

Toni Morrison is coming up a lot, I desperately need to read her.

 

[BoogleC]

Only just getting round to looking at the list so far. But glad to see Giovanni's Room on there, I love that book and think about it often

 

[LaBlonde]

Wolf Hall makes the list, but only at number 34! Glad to see The Age of Innocence in the top 40. I think that might have been one of my nominations.

should be top five! that book is an actual work of art 🥲

i’m going to write an angry letter about the placement of the brothers karamazov - which should also be top five. too much dickens for my taste, and the lack of anthony trollope/wilkie collins is an OUTRAGE.

if there isn’t some dumas in the top 20 i’m going to the guardian’s office.

 

[Carapop]

should be top five! that book is an actual work of art 🥲

i’m going to write an angry letter about the placement of the brothers karamazov - which should also be top five. too much dickens for my taste, and the lack of anthony trollope/wilkie collins is an OUTRAGE.

if there isn’t some dumas in the top 20 i’m going to the guardian’s office.

I thought of you when I saw the count of mounty didn’t make the cut!

There is so much dickens

 

[StrawberryBanana90]

I’ve tried to do the thing where you write each book you have on your TBR shelf on a slip of paper and put it in a jar to pick one out. Great in theory but the first one I pulled I was like “nah not in the mood to read that right now”

It’s gotten to the point where I’m wondering why I bothered buying these books - some have been collecting dust for years! Is it time to just purge if I haven’t picked it up in so long?

 

[veronica71]

I tried Dickens about 20 years ago and got so confused and never tried again. Maybe I should.

I've read four now!!!! Handmaids Tale and Wolf Hall

 

[Carapop]

I’ve tried to do the thing where you write each book you have on your TBR shelf on a slip of paper and put it in a jar to pick one out. Great in theory but the first one I pulled I was like “nah not in the mood to read that right now”

It’s gotten to the point where I’m wondering why I bothered buying these books - some have been collecting dust for years! Is it time to just purge if I haven’t picked it up in so long?

Oh gosh I feel that, but in the digital realm. I have over 500 and last week there wasn’t a single one that appealed. Very tempted to do an ordinaryjelly but not sure I have the discipline.

 

[LaBlonde]

I thought of you when I saw the count of mounty didn’t make the cut!

There is so much dickens

the revenge arc i’m about to go on to right this wrong will be more epic than the book itself

i know!! i wish people would realise that dickens has so many contemporaries who are better than him. trollope for one is just so much more readable. the only one i’ve ever enjoyed was a tale of two cities (and maybe bleak house, but i’m still angry that i followed that whole legal case through hundreds of pages only for him to be like lol they threw it out of court i guess idk here’s another guy with a silly name that matches his personality i’m so wild lol).

 

[mindlessness]

should be top five! that book is an actual work of art 🥲

i’m going to write an angry letter about the placement of the brothers karamazov - which should also be top five. too much dickens for my taste, and the lack of anthony trollope/wilkie collins is an OUTRAGE.

if there isn’t some dumas in the top 20 i’m going to the guardian’s office.

I was wondering about Trollope! I really enjoy his books on audio.

I'm glad Wide Sargasso Sea made it to 50! It's a great accompaniment to Jane Eyre.

Also especially pleased to see The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at 31. Muriel Spark is fab.

These lists bother me (because I disagree with them) but I also always end up adding new books to my wishlist...

I am very annoyed Tess of the D'Urbervilles didn't make it to the top 100.

 

[Carapop]

the revenge arc i’m about to go on to right this wrong will be more epic than the book itself

i know!! i wish people would realise that dickens has so many contemporaries who are better than him. trollope for one is just so much more readable. the only one i’ve ever enjoyed was a tale of two cities (and maybe bleak house, but i’m still angry that i followed that whole legal case through hundreds of pages only for him to be like lol they threw it out of court i guess idk here’s another guy with a silly name that matches his personality i’m so wild lol).

I’ve only read Great Expectations and hated it so much that I refused to read anything else by him, the story was great but there were just huge chunks of text that added nothing but words. But then it was more words more money wasn’t it.

Unpopular opinion, I actually did like the film adaptation with Ethan Hawke.

The top twenty are being shared in the morning! I’m not placing much stock in this list but it’s fun to play along.

 

[LaBlonde]

I was wondering about Trollope! I really enjoy his books on audio.

me too! can you forgive her? (well the whole palliser chronicles) in particular is SUCH a great book - and his characters feel like real people, which dickens rarely does for me. people should talk about him in the same way they talk about dickens, who is just so overhyped imo.

 

[Eureka]

I’ve tried to do the thing where you write each book you have on your TBR shelf on a slip of paper and put it in a jar to pick one out. Great in theory but the first one I pulled I was like “nah not in the mood to read that right now”

It’s gotten to the point where I’m wondering why I bothered buying these books - some have been collecting dust for years! Is it time to just purge if I haven’t picked it up in so long?

I follow an account on Insta called Ritchie Reads and he has a spin wheel he uses to pick his next read. I am very invested in it, the excitement of who gets picked is nearly more fun that hearing his thoughts on the actual books.