Cecrow - 2023 TBR Challenge

Primary List:
1. The Confessions - Jean-Jacques Rousseau (2023/01)
2. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov (2023/02)
3. The Guns of August - Barbara Tuchman (2023/04)
4. ISOLT #5: The Captive - Marcel Proust (2023/03)
5. Joseph Anton - Salman Rushdie (2023/06)
6. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (2023/05)
7. Moon Witch, Spider King - Marlon James (2023/07)
8. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy (2023/07)
9. The Twelve Caesars - Suetonius (2023/08)
10. Women in Love - D.H. Lawrence (2023/09)
11. ISOLT #6: The Fugitive - Marcel Proust (2023/10)
12. Shardik - Richard Adams (2023/11)

COMPLETED 2023/11

Alternate List:
1. The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan (2023/03)
2. Among Others - Jo Walton (2023/01)
3. Beloved - Toni Morrison (2023/03)
4. Selected Short Stories of Saki - H.H. Munro (2023/04)
5. Fifth Business - Robertson Davies (2023/04)
6. Obasan - Joy Kogawa (2023/06)
7. Prisoners of the North - Pierre Berton (2023/06)
8. Use of Weapons (Culture #3) - Iain M. Banks (2023/08)
9. The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan (2023/10)
10. De Profundis - Oscar Wilde (2023/09)
11. Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome (2023/08)
12. Great Events of the 20th Century - Reader's Digest (2023/09)

COMPLETED 2023/10

This year I'm turning fifty! At first I thought I'd celebrate with re-reads of favourite books as a sort of victory lap. That's an idea. Or - I could clean out the bottom of my TBR pile, starting with books I've tried and failed to read before, and authors I've disliked and grudgingly thought I should try again. Enliven that with some other stuff I discovered down there, allowing room for my ongoing Proust battle, continuing my tours of Dickens and Ancient Rome, and capping that with a history book I always meant to read "someday" but then avoided for half a century. Did I mention this is also my lucky 13th consecutive go at this challenge? No one will question my ability to party after this.

I’m turning fifty in 2023 too! I didn’t put as much thought into my list as you did though.

I recognize some of the titles on your list - of course the Dickens one. Your addition of The Guns of August inspired me to add it to my list. I had it on a prior year’s list but never got to it.

Definitely interested in your thoughts on the Master and Margarita - it’s been a while since I read it but remember enjoying it, something about vodka and a cat that stick out.

What is the 501 for?

>3 LittleTaiko:, I've read some Tuchman for the challenge a couple years ago, wanted to read more, and it pairs nicely with another book I'll read in 2024 about the leadup to WW2.

"501" marks titles I can cross off my other challenge, to forge a path through as many of the 501 Must-Read Books as possible (or until I can't generate any interest in the remainder.) I'm tracking that challenge in a different LT group I'm administering: https://www.librarything.com/topic/133916#n7957401

oh wow! advance greetings to you both, Cecrow and LittleTaiko! what a marvelous milestone ^.^

also, i love this reading list. more than a handful of these are in my 'i wish i could read' books. i've only read master and margarita, and its been a while (before LibraryThing!). would be looking forward to your thoughts.

I am impressed with how early you've set your list. Here's hoping or a successful 2023 :)

Master and Margarita was the last minute addition, it was "Sense and Sensibility" until I finished that up. The rest was settled on a few months ago. And I'd say my 2024 list is maybe 75% locked in at this point. I like to work ahead!

>7 Cecrow: you're very disciplined! :D

>8 riida:, I think that's the polite word for it, lol

#1 The Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau is determined beyond all bounds to be absolutely honest with his readers, and he lets all his guards down (or so he claims.) He spills the dirt as possibly no autobiographer did before him. You learn everything about his sexual education and appetites, his petty thefts, his assessment of his personal weaknesses. There's little indication he puts any gloss over anything. Take for example the touching deathbed scene of an employer from his youth, following his long and favourable portrayal of her character: "At last, unable to speak and already in the throes of death, she gave a great fart. 'Good,' she said, as she turned over. 'A woman who farts cannot be dead.' These were the last words she uttered." Rousseau's story can be had from Wikipedia of course, but then you'll be missing out on the man's voice and his storytelling ability. Beware, however, there is a darker side to his tale. Where he suffers guilt about this or that minor incident from his past, none of those are his acts of pedophilia which he mentions offhand (unless you count his guilt in one instance due to his being married at the time.) Given this memoir was widely published and he doesn't bat an eye, that tells you a lot about the state of childhood in 18th century France.

I keep started off with something tough that puts me behind right at the beginning of the challenge. Gotta get smarter about this! I'm more than halfway through Among Others, and as far as the first World War in Great Events' coverage of the 20th century.

Actually, I think your strategy might work better in the long run. I start off easy and then have a pile of more challenging books at the end of the year. Need to get better at distributing my reads more evenly.

I have this book on my shelves and am now more inclined to pick it up. Sounds weirdly intriguing.

#2 Among Others by Jo Walton

A decent novel that's more about genre fiction than of it. Mo is in quite the pickle at the start of the novel, but everything's fine because she has lots of good science fiction and fantasy books to read. I love books, don't get me wrong, but even I don't blindly believe that's true. She also knows a thing or two about actual magic, and the author presents a pretty nifty take on how magic might work in the real world without our noticing, but the ending really surprised me when suddenly it's a whole lot more than she ever let on, so that was weird. Also, crazy boyfriend. Maybe dump that guy.

>12 Cecrow: i dont know why, but i kind of feel like i want to read this book now ^_^ it feels cozy in a poignant kind of way, maybe...it also feels like the kind of plot that appeals to bookworms :p

I think cozy is the right word here. Young Welsh girl in a boarding school, dealing with family issues. Add magic and fairies.

#3 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

How many times in my adult life will I read a serious adult novel about a witch flying over Moscow on her broomstick? Not many, not many. It's the kind of book I might hand to someone and say "This one's a bit crazy, but give it a chance and see what you think." Written in Soviet Russia before 1940 but published in 1966, it's a veiled critique of Russian life under communist rule. The metaphorical caricatures are creepy and hilarious in turn. I find it's very enjoyable if you read the story as happening literally, one gonzo thing after another. It's much less enjoyable or comfortable if you read between the lines. Reminds me of "Life of Pi" that way. I prefer the version with the talking cat.

>15 Cecrow: i love your review :D this is indeed one of the weirdest books i've read...thou weird does not quite capture it :D i watched a youtube vid about why the delay in publishing and that made it more fascinating to me too (tho i cant remeber what they said in the vid anymore 0.o)

i remember thinking that this book was like dante's inferno, but whimsical :p

#4 Beloved by Toni Morrison

This was the first of a few reluctant reads for me that I deliberately put in this year's challenge. In this case it was for the pathetic reason that I saw the movie version with Oprah Winfrey twenty plus years ago and couldn't find an ounce of appreciation for it. The movie version deliberately holds the viewer at a distance, but Morrison holds the reader in a bear hug and the effect is markedly different. The characters' inner lives are shared with us in intimate detail - their griefs, fears, dreams, desires. Morrison brings a kind of nobility to their travails and the trials they have survived and continue to live through, their perspective on life that experience has taught them. The ghost element of the story is introduced with a shade of magical realism - no one questions whether ghosts are real, all seem to have experience with them and know how they work. But few of them realize how closely that element has become fused with their daily lives. It's a brilliant story, a brilliant way to tell it, and Morrison is a master of her craft.

As I'm putting down Morrison and picking up Proust again, I found this interesting and timely comparison from the #1 review of Beloved over on Goodreads: "In a weird way, this felt a bit like the anti-Proust: it's about memory, but instead of being a plotless, enchanting, European meander through a picturesque past, Beloved is a brutal and ruthless American cousin with rough, bloody hands, running through the woods screaming." I call that accurate.

love your reviews of Morrison. I love her works...but I cant seem to remember ever reading (or finishing) any of her books. i should remedy that.

#5 The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan

Probably this is the kind of book you only read if you already agree with everything he is going to say. Sagan is straight-ahead pro-science and anti-belief. I bought this during Trump's presidency, thinking it might be some kind of remedy for how I was feeling about that. I didn't get to it in time but no regrets, this was absolutely worth my reading if only for the sake of his tutoring me in how to describe my position on the topic of rationality and critical thinking: the essential nature of these skills, how sad it is that they seem to be in decline among the general population, and the consequent risk to the preservation of democracy. Hopefully that sentiment is nothing more than a symptom of my evolving into a grumpy old man.

>20 Cecrow: interesting book (if bordering into controversial ^_^)

growing up a catholic girl, it was a small shock to me when i first realised that people i tend to admire (like Sagan) are probably/self-confessed atheists. big fan of critical thinking though, and it does, as you pointed out, seem at times to be a rapidly deteriorating skill. although maybe there have been developments in the topic brought about by modern technology or events or similar that us older folks are not sensitive to? it would be interesting to read a similar book but written by someone younger than me...

Thanks for the suggestions. When looking for essay samples on the internet, I came across this website: https://www.topwritersreview.com/reviews/homeworkhelpglobal/ There may be various websites here that may help me locate the best essay sample.

#6 The Captive (In Search of Lost Time, v.5) by Marcel Proust

Over the last couple of these books I've begun relating less to what's going on and become frustrated with it more. The narrator becomes so jealous of his girlfriend in this volume, she basically becomes his prisoner, thus the title. I've grown to enjoy Proust's style, but I didn't care for the narrator's mad, possessive, controlling jealousy, however sorry he may prove to be afterwards, and it imposed some distance that wasn't there previously. Still, between and around this, he makes more good observations about life: snobbishness, procrastination, ... and of course jealousy and love. This and the last two volumes were published after Proust's death and may not be all that he would have had them become, but I haven't noticed any drop in quality yet.

I'm halfway through Tuchman's history, and several stories into Saki. Also nearing the end of the Roaring Twenties section in the 'Great Events' book.

Look at you getting through a Proust book so early in the year. It's been interesting to follow along with your thoughts.

Envious that you are already halfway through Tuchman. I need to get that one lined up on my Kindle so I don't forget to actually read it for the challenge.

#7 The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

This covers the first month of the first World War, from the politics that led into it through the dynamic actions of armies on the move, concluding just as the action bogs down into trench warfare. The introduction for this book positions its publication in 1962 as an event of historical importance in itself, the book that made Tuchman's stellar reputation and which she never relinquished. I knew her work already from reading "A Distant Mirror" a couple of years ago, and wanted to read more. As a buff of World War I & II history, I found this wonderfully engaging and I think I would have appreciated the style she brings to it regardless. We get to know all the key players, their quirks and foibles, and not one of them goes unscathed for reputation; they are all just human beings making human decisions under trying circumstances, and they are often wrong. We see strategic decisions large and small that added up to enormous impacts and consequences. She also does not shy away from the tragedies and horrors, especially those that took place in Belgium. Easy five stars.

25 - Great review - really looking forward to reading this later this year.

#8 Selected Short Stories of Saki by Hector Hugh Munro

'Saki' was the pen-name for H.H. Munro, a primarily short fiction British author who died in World War One. His reputation and works have long outlived him, perhaps not to the extent of his being a household name but often quoted and referenced (as I've encountered three or four times since adding this to my TBR pile.) I don't find they live up to their billing. Most are simple plots with thin humour, some of them take-downs of the high society types I've been reading about in Proust. It's only the circumstances that enliven them: a talking cat, a tiger hunt, reincarnation, etc. Microaggressive racist elements occur. This was a bit of a lemon.

#9 Fifth Business (The Deptford Trilogy, vol.1) by Robertson Davies

Fantastic, which is contrary to my teenage opinion when I didn't make it past the second chapter. Roberston Davies was often mentioned in the same breath as Margaret Atwood while he was alive, part of the upper echelon of Canadian literature. The narrator is telling his life story upon his retirement as a college professor, describing how fate has cast him in the role of 'fifth business': not the hero, heroine, villain or confidante, but a side-player always required to be on hand for the lives of others to be propelled forward - including on the World War I battlefield, which seems to be frequently appearing in my challenge this year. Additionally he has found wonder in the world, witnessed miracles he cannot explain, and learned how to mesh them with his view of a rational universe. Additionally again, it doesn't hurt that at fifty years he receives at last the true insight into who he is and what his life means, while I'm within a month of that milestone myself. I've already gone out and bought the sequels.

#10 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

I did not actually have great expectations going into this one, after Two Cities was a bit of a letdown, and for already knowing this novel's broad outlines. Snooty Estella made an enormous impression when I skim-read this novel as a teen, as representing all girls my age. Obviously a tragedy, as I didn't know at the time that Dickens was among the least qualified authorities I could turn to for an accurate depiction of women. If only I'd paid more attention to Biddy, but I was no wiser at heart than Pip. Reading the novel now, I can see Estella is a victim of Miss Havisham's poison bitterness. I encountered nothing dry or difficult on this outing, as Dickens moves his plot right along through opening chapters that are his most engaging since Copperfield. He's versatile with his first-person male voices; Pip is distinct from David and just as strong a character. This will be in the top five when I try ranking Dickens' novels after completing them next year.

I have a good start on Rushdie's excellent memoir, and World War II has just broken out in my survey of the 20th century's great events. Good timing, since Obasan takes place in that setting.

I enjoyed catching up on your thread! Lots of interesting reads.

You definitely liked Great Expectations better than I did. I didn't dislike it but just felt that Pip was too much of an idiot for my taste. Loved Biddy though.

He got very swept up by his good fortune, didnt he? I also didn't like how the stakes for Pip were fairly low and the ending dragged on and on. It's the romantic anguish that mostly worked for me, and Miss Havisham is iconic. Too true about the frustration of knowing who's good for you not being aligned with the heart's desire. Stupid heart! Lol

#11 Joseph Anton: A Memoir by Salman Rushdie

When the Ayatollah of Iran condemned author Salman Rushdie to death for having written and published The Satanic Verses, Rushdie writes how he was forced to give up his normal every day life and become a man of principle. He was forced to take a stand in defence of literature against religious persecution, forced to raise the issue's profile among politicians and the press, forced to become far more than just a British citizen and a writer. He was also forced into hiding under an assumed name, with police protection against men who openly stated their intent to kill him or at least wished for his death. It's difficult to imagine reading death threats against oneself in the news, seeing them spoken on television, and seeing that, somehow, nothing can be done about it and there appears to be no way of ending the danger. It's unsustainable, of course, and Rushdie describes how, as the years go by, he gradually claws his way back towards something approaching normality, inch by inch.

This memoir was published in 2012, after things were as settled as they were ever liable to be. Even so, just last year he was attacked on stage and nearly killed. Rushdie is not a perfect man but nobody deserves this kind of life, hounded by irrationalism and madness, made a political pawn, living under lifelong and constant danger for having done nothing worse than write a work of fiction that today can be found in any bookstore nearly the world over and has been read by millions without incident or injury to Islam. What harm has it done, next to what the reaction's done? The book burnings, the Japanese translator murder, the Norwegian publisher shooting, the Italian translator stabbing, numerous Islamic moderates killed ... There are some crazy people on this planet. Absolutely The Satanic Verses will be in my challenge next year, and this was the best possible pre-reading for it.

Close to finishing Obasan, then it's back to Berton and picking up the second volume of Marlon James' fantasy trilogy.

>33 Cecrow: i read satanic verses in my teens...i remember it being a difficult read because of the complex imageries and issues it was discussing...also, i was still quite naive back then and was living in a smaller bubble. i remember thinking that i can picture why it disturbs religious people, but i did not understand the level of hostility...again, maybe it was my small bubble...

your review kind of wants me to re-read it and see if i can understand better...i have midnight's children on my tbr, too...maybe i should start with that first...

>34 riida:, I read and didn't especially like Midnight's Children (for this challenge in 2013, as it happens), but I'm determined to try Rushdie again, maybe multiple times. He's an author whose fiction I very much want to like, just may require a bit more work than usual on my part to appreciate.

#12 Obasan by Joy Kogawa

This thoroughly adult novel describes the experience of one Japanese Canadian family subjected to our country's internment policies during World War II. Not only were they relegated to tightly controlled areas in Canada's interior, but all of their property was confiscated and sold for the benefit of government coffers. Japanese Canadians were not compensated until several decades later in the 1980s, when the oldest generations who lost all they had were already dead. The novel quotes headlines and politicians' justifications from the 1940s that fortunately sound outrageous today. Kogawa's capturing of the hardships that were imposed is aided by her personal experience of them as a child herself. Internment was a policy based on fear and fed by racism, a dark blot on the record of a country that prides itself on its democracy. It really can happen anywhere.

>35 Cecrow: uh oh...not the ringing endorsement i was hoping for :p the size of the book intimidates me already...i guess rushdie is one of those authors you feel you have to read in spite of better judgement :P

>36 Cecrow: that...is sad...

#13 Prisoners of the North by Pierre Berton

Pierre Berton was the Barbara Tuchman of Canadian history, popularizing neglected stories about our country's storied past. This is the 13th or 14th of his fifty books I've read, and it's the last he published before his death. It's fitting, then, that he used it to revisit the Canadian northland where he was born, his favourite topic. Despite all the coverage he'd previously done, most notably in Klondike and The Arctic Grail, he found five more noteworthy figures to feature in short essays: a gold-seeking adventurer, an explorer, an explorer's widow, a hermit, and a poet. He wrote some earlier essay collections in this same style that I'd like to track down the remainder of. I also think it's time to look into a biography of this author himself, whom I've read so much by.

#14 Moon Witch, Spider King (Dark Star Trilogy #2) by Marlon James

Marlon James, award-winning literary author, tackles the fantasy genre in an African mythology setting. This is not a fantasy trilogy for the faint of heart. I don't know if it's reflected in sales but I see there's a marked drop-off in the number of LT readers who picked up this second book after the brutal narrative of Black Leopard, Red Wolf. James is not shy about sex and violence or combinations of the two, all coated in harsh language; in fact it's difficult to find a page without reference to either. In this second volume he doesn't tone it down, but he does switch the viewpoint to a female character and goes back in time, presenting a clearer backstory to what happened in the first. He also writes in an easier to follow style. It's a better book than the first stylistically, a better narrator than the first sympathetically. Looking forward to the third when it comes out in a couple of years.

>40 Cecrow: oooh...i didnt know the series is brutal...i have black leopard somewhere, but havent gotten around to it yet. i think i'd still like to give it a try, i'm intrigued by the african mythology. but tnx for the potential trigger warnings!

#15 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

A certain Beatles song kept rolling through my head, you know the one. Jude is a fair depiction of my younger self about thiry years ago, believing I had the world figured out until love showed up and spoiled all my carefully laid plans. In university I disliked Hardy's novels for how stupid his characters were. Now, having experienced being stupid myself since then in almost exactly the same fashion, I have to swallow that down since it's liable to become an unfair dislike of how well he nails the way it happens. As romantic tragedies go this is a top shelf premise (and you thought Romeo-Juliet were star-crossed, whew), if you can handle its message that love does not actually always win in the end every time.

#16 Use of Weapons (Culture #3) by Iain M. Banks

The Culture is a utopian society where people have moved beyond want or need, looked after by benevolent AI, militarily all-powerful. I'm three novels in and nothing's threatened that; rather, each story presents how the Culture tinkers with other societies it encounters, using agents of various talents to effect certain political events. It's their agents who have to face the moral quandaries and dangers of getting this interference to work. And sometimes the Culture's true objectives are not what they appear. A writing instructor has cautioned me against using trick endings; do them wrong, and you've self-destructed what's otherwise good writing. Kind of what happens here, except that these books are so very good they can't be cut down even when an ending goes awry. I'm perfectly happy to brush off this one's silly ending as one simple mistake in an otherwise well crafted and thought-provoking novel.

>42 Cecrow: nice review. i've never read hardy, but i think i'll like this book

>43 Cecrow: another series i need to start. i read The Wasp Factory years ago and i liked Banks' writing style.

#17 Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome

Three silly men in England with a wonderful propensity for doing everything wrong undertake a pleasure voyage up the Thames. This landed on my challenge after I was already populating it with other books I had some trepidation about approaching. In this case my hesitation was based on wondering if it would be worthwhile. It's as slight a read as I'd anticipated, albeit painless. If you see this one crop up on a "must read" list like I did, know that you can take it or leave it. Unless you are English yourself, since there it sold so many copies on launch that its publisher wondered if they were being eaten. In that case you might try it with salt.

>45 Cecrow: love the review ^_^ this one has been on my cross hairs for a while. i love british humour! but i read pg wodehouse and did not quite enjoy it, so i also hesitated with 3 men...

>45 Cecrow: - I was a bit disappointed in this one too. I’m normally a fan of British humor but this time not so much. Maybe my expectations were too high since so many book friends loved it. Plus it was referenced by a favorite author of mine, Connie Willis, in her book To Say Nothing of the Dog.

>46 riida: - Sorry you didn’t enjoy PG Wodehouse. I adore his books and always pick one up when I need something to improve my mood.

I was surprised to discover some of Steinbeck is very good for a laugh, but you have to know which ones; I wouldn't point to Grapes of Wrath for example, but Cannery Row is great.

>48 Cecrow: - Totally agree about both books. Travels with Charley also had some amusing moments and is now one of my favorite Steinbeck books.

#18 The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius

It took some doing to decide which Roman authors and works to read, in which order, and I spread doing it across several years, but I can see the finish line from here. Suetonius offers a gossip-filled capable summary of the lives of the first twelve Caesars of Rome - generously counting Julius Caesar as the first, after whom the position was named but who famously did not live to claim the title. Augustus was august, Tiberius was terrible, Caligula was crazy, Claudius was clueless, Nero was nefarious, and the next six are more briefly summarized. This isn't a straightforward history like Tacitus' Annals, but it offers juicier details.

>50 Cecrow: nice! i'm very fascinated with caligula and nero...i try not to ask why ^_^ i did not know there were twelve ceasars...i thought there were only 5 or 6. sounds like a scandalous read (?)

>51 riida:, actually there were a whole lot more than twelve, especially if you include the Byzantines. Wikipedia has the list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_emperors

Scandalous? I'd say. Name any crime today, a Roman emperor probably did it.

>52 Cecrow: oh yeah...i recognize some of the other names (barely)...like aurelius of stoic-fame...

something about the depravities of the roman emperors that feels...more delectable than their modern counterparts ^_^ actually, the scandals of royal families in different cultures and throughout history are probably just innately interesting ^_^

#19 De Profundis (aka, "From the Depths") by Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde might top the list of people I would not want to receive such a letter from; an accusation and character assassination filled with painful, painfully described truths. Somehow Lord Alfred Douglas survived receiving it, which might be the greatest proof of Wilde's statements about his uncaring or immature lack of empathy. If you're not familiar with the background: Wilde was jailed for homosexuality, in the ancient dark ages when such a thing was possible (oh, about 100 years ago) after being charged by Lord Douglas' father with being a 'posing sodomite'. The relationship was certainly a close one, probably intimate, but Lord Douglas had little or nothing more to say to Wilde after Wilde went bankrupt, was incarcerated and his artistic reputation lay in ruins. This letter, which managed to survive and be made public thanks to a more loyal friend, sets the record straight: an explanation, not a defence. It's a harsh read without being depressing, except for mourning his lost brilliance and the art he might still have gone on to create.

>54 Cecrow: a tragic end to a literary genius. i've only read dorian grey so far, but i enjoyed his witticisms most of my life

#20 Great Events of the 20th Century: How They Changed Our Lives by Reader's Digest (Canada)

Canadian popular history coffee table book, published 1977 (which makes that a pretty gutsy title.) An explanation is in order. This was a fixture in my parents' home that I was fascinated by as a child. It is filled with curiosity-inducing illustrations and maps that I flipped through and examined over and over ... gave me a bizarre nightmare about the contorted ballet dancers performing Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. I vowed I would read this whole book someday and here I am, done. It is 500 pages presented as a series of essays, each devoted to one "great event". The first two-thirds or so are at least as helpful as Wikipedia at providing good summaries. The latter third starts to fade a bit; still some good material, but the 1970s perspective hadn't had time to ripen yet. I love their last selection, however: the environmental movement, which was just beginning to awaken at that time to the danger we were fast heading towards, but not underestimating the challenge with its urge for us to tackle the problem as one planet. Glad I finally read this, have a soft spot for it, but reluctant to recommend.

P.S.: In the chapter expressing angst about world population, it put this bonkers image in my head: "At this rate, according to an Einsteinian calculation ... within 6,000 years the mass of humanity will form a sphere expanding away from the earth at the speed of light." That's right: we'll literally be making so many babies that our globe-spanning sphere of human flesh will be expanding at light speed. Someone at Princeton came up with this nonsense and now I want the movie where it happens. Maybe not.

>54 Cecrow: - I’m sure Wilde managed to skewer him properly. My favorite play is The Importance of Being Earnest and I was fascinated by Dorian Gray when I first read it.

>56 Cecrow: - Also appreciate the backstory here. That is a crazy thought about the population - fairly sure the movie would give me nightmares.

>56 Cecrow: wow, sounds like you had a similar experience to my "eaters..." read :) also, i love these kinds of books. i think its why i loved atlases when i was young.

>57 LittleTaiko: i also want to see this movie now! ^_^ i scare easy tho, so yeah, this is nightmare inducing stuff...could be fun tho :D

#21 Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence

Another author I failed to appreciate in my school days and thought I'd give another chance. Didn't work this time. This is supposedly his best novel, so that's bad sign. His theme here is ideal love, and his story idea is to demonstrate through his plot and characters' travails that it's unattainable. The theme is fine, but the execution is terrible. Lawrence appeared to believe that perfect love might be real, but human beings are so changeable in their emotional balance that they can only attain it for short spurts. The result is characters who come off as bipolar. One moment she loves him, the next she hates him, the next she doesn't think about him anymore, the next she's going to die without him. Relationships have their ups and downs, lovers have their jealousies and petty battles ... sure, all of that happens. Not to the extremes with motive-less switchbacks that are shown here. The result feels as though Lawrence is writing about love second-hand, as if someone had told him about it and he'd never actually felt it himself. Doubting that's true, he really doesn't have an excuse. I couldn't relate, and I won't be back for more.

Ooof, that does sound dreadful. Thanks for taking one for the team.

What LittleTaiko said. Definitely will be staying away from that one.

#22 The Fugitive (In Search of Lost Time, v.6) by Marcel Proust

Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you've got til it's gone? Our obsessive, controlling narrator awakens to discover his girlfriend has (wisely, finally) fled his home, and he is flung into despondency - but still not a whole lot of remorse. I began to think I'd been unfair to Lawrence because isn't Proust doing the same thing, with his narrator who dreams of what he misses out on because of Albertine, but then when she's gone he can only miss her? But no, Proust's narrator was in love with her always, it is only how he behaves and speaks on the surface that is contrary, whereas Lawrence's characters are contrary at the root. Why am I still talking about Lawrence?? Proust is excellent as ever, even in this next-to-last volume that he didn't have opportunity to fully edit before his death. The world is grateful he at least completed his draft so that we have the complete story, and it still reads (mostly) wonderfully. Needed to see more remorse, though.

>62 Cecrow: wow! you're almost done with proust! very impressive, and seems you've been enjoying it ^_^ you cant seem to shake lawrence off yet...guy has staying power :p

I hate not to give a well reputed author a fair shake but yeah, Lawrence just is not my cup of tea.

#23 The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Sixteen interconnected short stories about four mother-daughter pairs: the mothers who moved to California from China, and their daughters who were born and live as Americans. There are some wonderful insights shared here about the intersection between Chinese and American culture, and about mother-daughter relationships, in the course of touching on a number of life's many facets: childhood, mental health, careers, marriage, etc. Every one of the sixteen stories is wonderfully crafted without exception and could stand on its own, but together they also comprise this solid novel that emphasizes the importance of arriving at an adult-to-adult relationship with your parent and of bringing one's culture and family origins into proper perspective. The 1990s movie is on Disney+, and there's a good Netflix documentary about the author that I need to rewatch.

>65 Cecrow: i remember watching the movie when i was in university and how i cried so much...i think a re-watch is in order! thank goodness for Disney+

>65 Cecrow: That sounds like a lovely read.

I feel like I read this back in the day, but maybe I only saw the movie? Sounds like something I should read (possibly reread) since it's the type of book I usually enjoy.

Also, I am so impressed that you only have one book to go and loads of time to finish it in.

#24 Shardik by Richard Adams

Rounding out my list of books I once tried is this outside example, which I never actually did try but had a copy of for several months after loving his Watership Down. I tried The Plague Dogs first and thought that was terrible (to the extent of never wanting to try it again, even now). After that I parted with Shardik without having read a word.

The (ginormous) bear went over the mountain to see what he could see (because of a forest fire.) And what he encountered was this fantasy world's native peoples ready to worship him as a figure out of legend, which winds up having all kinds of religious and political repercussions. We never get the bear's interior life, unlike the rabbits of Watership. This is very much about people and the impact of this fabled creature appearing among them. My take is that the bear is just a big dumb animal, so the crazier the interpretations became the more entertaining it got. Adams is not a humorist and the ending gets harsh before it's over. This was good, maybe even unique, but only Watership is the must-read.

That about wraps it up. Given this was a year of several books that I half dreaded tackling, things could have gone a lot worse: Jude the Obscure, Women in Love, Beloved, Fifth Business, Shardik and even Great Expectations were all works or authors I didn't care for in the past. This time they were all fantastic except Lawrence. The only justifiable conclusion is, I had no taste in literature when I was studying it in school. Education is wasted on the young. I even read and enjoyed some Rushdie fiction on the side (Quichotte). The only tried-and-failed title/author that didn't get into my challenge is Catch-22; gotta find that for my TBR pile.

There was an unusual amount of non-fiction in my list this year. I had to move some things out of order, particularly around March when I was in danger of three non-fiction books being read in parallel with no fiction in sight. Dry as that threatened to be, none of those were disappointing either. Of the remainder Saki was the lone culprit that disappointed. I didn't expect that, given his high reputation. Well, you can't like 'em all, right D.H.?

A satisfying way to finish off fifty years. Let's do another.

Congratulations on completing your challenge!

>69 Cecrow: you had me at ginormous bear ^_^

>70 Cecrow: wow! congratulations!!! ^_^

and with more than a month left too! i still have 3 in my TBR, which is already the best its ever been, but i'm struggling to finish! already, my mind wants to build my TBR list for next year :D

ps...i also currently have my eye on catch-22...still thinking if i should put it on next year's list or not

>70 Cecrow: - Congratulations!!!

Belated congratulations on finishing the challenge! Looks like you had a great reading year.