Book 75 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

7 out of 10. Classic love story with ghosts and a very modern writing style, but I don't remember one nice character in the book and they're nearly all dour Yorkshiremen/women who give nothing away. Cathy must be one of the most selfish and wilful heroines in the history of literature and Heathcliff the most miserable hero. He's only happy once he's in the grave (sorry if this gives it away). Were they really all so sickly in 19th century England? Everyone seems to take a cold after being out in the rain, and some of them die of it!

Book 74 The Worst Journey in the World by Aspley Cherry-Garrard

9/10. Best travel book I’ve read. The book is mostly taken up with an account of Scott and his push for the South Pole 1911-13. However, the worst journey of the title occurs in the previous winter to Scott's ill-fated trip. Cherry-Garrard, Bowers and Wilson travel in the antarctic winter to collect emperor penguin eggs for research purposes. The only light they had was the moon and stars, there were 100 mile an hour winds and no hope of rescue if they got into difficulties. They had to thaw their way into their sleeping bags before they could sleep at night! At one point, during a blizzard, the tent blew away. I will never moan about being cold at work again!

Book 73 The Monk by Matthew Lewis.

8/10 Very racy for a book written by a teenager in 1797. Proper gothic novel. Horror, sex, murder, incest. Quite concise too for 18th century novel, though I found it dragged a bit in the opening establishing chapters. Once Ambrosio (the Monk) begins to fall from grace however, the pace doesn't let up. Although the themes may seem quite familiar now, this book was the first and it became very influential.

Book 72 The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

9/10. The story of a family who get uprooted from the deep south of USA to go with their father to preach to the "heathens" in the Congo. It's told from the perspective of his wife and 3 daughters who all get their say in separate chapters along the way. The book slowly gets inside your head like I imagine Africa does and stays with you for some time. Worth reading and comparing with Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (book 55) which gives the African perspective.

Book 71 Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor

9/10 Whew! What a hard read, but gripping too-a real page-turning history book. You get every perspective from Hitler and his generals to the ordinary soldier on either side of the front line. Especially interesting is how the German 'squaddies' celebrated Christmas any way they could whilst surrounded by Russians. You can really picture the hardships on the Eastern front. How did anyone survive? Also recommended is the follow-up Berlin, though read them in order. I didn't!

Book 70 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

7/10. I was a bit disappointed by this one after reading the reviews and seeing the it won a Pulitzer Prize. It's a long story (maybe a bit too long and rambling) about comics books, Jews in post war New York & wartime Prague and relationships. Maybe a bit too rambling in places, though I did enjoy the part with the Golem.

Book 69 What A Carve Up by Jonathan Coe

9/10 Very funny, good story with a proper ending. Kind of a satire on the Thatcher years but more than that and definitely worth a read. It's bookended by World War II and the First Gulf War and uses the movie of the same name (with Sid James and Kenneth Connor) as a metaphor. I laughed out loud in the first chapter which doesn't happen very often.

Book 68 Breakfast At Tiffanys by Truman Capote

8 ½. Pleasant depiction of relationships and cracking character in Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn in the movie). She is supposed to be Marilyn Monroe whom the author had a fling with. Lyrically written and nice short novella form. Nomination for best opening paragraph (possibly even better than Lolita).

Book 67 If This Is A Man by Primo Levi

Yet again, I don't feel I can rate this book which details the story of how Levi survived the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War. How he kept his humanity whilst all around were losing theirs seems almost a miracle.

Book 66 The Diary Of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

I can't give this book a score. I did enjoy reading it but it seems a bit too trite to rate the book above or below another. What I will say is that since you know what eventually happened to Anne it colours everything else in the book. Interesting contrast with how the Franks kept their humanity in self-imposed captivity whereas it all evaporated for Primo Levi in If This Is A Man (book 67)

Book 65 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

8/10. Susie Salmon is brutally murdered but stays around to watch over her family and try to exact revenge. I didn’t like the book much at first. It's a bit too much small town USA but it grew on me. I liked the last third of the story as she takes leave of her family. Very satisfying end.

Book 64 The Crimson Petal And The White by Michel Faber

9/10 A big book in every way, a Dickens for the 21st century. Believable characters, a satisfying plot and very rude! The main character (Sugar) is a teenage prostitute in the East End. The story tells how she manages to better her situation and clips along over 800 pages. You can almost smell (and touch) Victorian London in this book.

Book 63 Middlesex by Geoffrey Eugenides

9/10 Cracking story with themes of genetics, gender identification, and the American dream of a Greek immigrant family from the 20’s to the present day, with the backdrop of American and Greek/Turkish political history. Nothing to do with the English county of Middlesex, but the cover is quite apt as you will realise if you read the book.

Book 62 The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

6/10 Typically long winded Victorian novel. Good story idea and the opening is quite creepy, but it would have been twice the book if 1/3 the length. I understand that this was one of the original serials, hence the length, but it does drag in places. Maybe the comparison with House of Leaves (read this straight after) made it seem all a bit tame.

Book 61 House Of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski

9.9999999999 out of 10. Can’t stop thinking about it. Hard to explain.

Needs


to


be


read……………………….....................................................................................

Never read anything else like this book. Creepy story, coded footnotes, film reviews. One chapter a maze of words, next you read 100 pages in 10 minutes. Whew! I just wish it wasn't so damn collectable. I'd love a hardback copy but they're worth a fortune.

Book 60 Master and Margarita by Michail Bulgarkhov

8 out of 10

The Devil comes to Moscow and gets up to all sorts of mischief. An underground classic in Russia until 1966. You need a degree in Russian politics and literature to get all the references (or a copy with footnotes), but multi layers and biblical parallells keep the interest up until the end. Definitely worth a read. This book has been quoted by Russian generals: "Annushka has spilled the oil".

Book 59 A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

6 out of 10.

Bit of a chore reading this book, although it had been recommended. The hero is a fat waster with no redeeming features & comedy is a bit too strained. I never really got Tom Sharpe either I’m afraid. I understand that it almost didn't get published. Did I miss the point?

Book 58 Life Of Pi By Yann Martel

8 1/2 out of 10

My kind of book. Nice story, enjoyed the did he/didn’t he? ending. Good take on the shipwrecked mariner story. Bit gory in places but none the worse for that. Also enjoyed the philosophical/religious parts of the tale. Made it a bit more meaty somehow.

Book 57 The Secret History By Donna Tartt

9/10. Good story, well drawn characters and good air of mystery throughout. Nice study of how philosophy can go wrong and what happens when you try to cover up a murder. 600 pages and not one word too long. One to read again.

“I don’t know how I can persuade the dean that we have a divinity in our midst”

Book 56 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson

8 out of 10.

Bit of a bloke's book/road trip/buddy movie (Johnny Depp!). Good story, enjoyable gonzo journalistic style (and cartoons by Steadman), but descriptions of massive drugs and alcohol consumption made me feel really queasy!

Book 55 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

8 and a half out of 10. Record of a lost way of life in the Congo. How Europeans tried to impose their values over African tribal ways. Okonkwo is a very strong character but ultimately even he has to bow to the colonial opressor. Could this still happen in the 21st century? Sadly I think it could (and probably does).

Book 54 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

8/10. Beautifully written but I didn't enjoy the story because it doesn't go anywhere and in spite of myself found that I couldn't approve of anything that Humbert did. Still the first page is a cracker.

Book 53 The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

8/10. Nice story, rambled a bit but I enjoyed reading it. I'm sure most of the philosophy went over my head. Found it hard to identify with a man who is so unfaithful. Bears out my experience of Czechs being barking mad!

Book 52 Fingersmith by Sarah Walters

8/10. Ripping yarn from a master storyteller. Good sense of time and place which you don't always get in a historical novel. Cf The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Reads like a Victorian novel but with modern economy of style.

Book 51 Touching The Void by Joe Simpson

9/10 Fantastic descriptions of an almost unimaginable ordeal. Will almost certainly have to see the film and read some more of his books.

101 books

This will be a list of the 101 "Books to Read Before You Die" as published by Ottakar's Books on their website (before they were taken over by Waterstones). I have read 75 so far and will try to put a short review of each the books I have read, although I read many of them some years ago.

Here's the list:


A Clockwork OrangeAnthony Burgess
Nineteen Eighty-FourGeorge Orwell
Of Mice and MenJohn Steinbeck
Alias GraceMargaret Atwood
American PsychoBret Easton Ellis
PerfumePatrick Suskind
One Hundred Years of SolitudeGabriel G. Marquez
All Quiet on the Western FrontErich Maria Remarque
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon
AtonementIan McEwan
The Bell JarSylvia Plath
The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald
BelovedToni Morrison
The Big SleepRaymond Chandler
Brave New WorldAldous Huxley
Breakfast at Tiffany'sTruman Capote
The Diary of Anne FrankAnne Frank
Catch 22Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the RyeJ.D. Salinger
Cider with RosieLaurie Lee
The Color PurpleAlice Walker
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoyevsky
The Crow RoadIain Banks
DraculaBram Stoker
And Then There Were NoneAgatha Christie
Captain Corelli's MandolinLouis de Bernieres
The Crimson Petal and the WhiteMichel Faber
The Daughter of TimeJosephine Tey
A Confederacy of DuncesJohn Kennedy Toole
The Code of the WoostersP.G. Wodehouse
An Evil CradlingBrian Keenan
FingersmithSarah Waters
The God of Small ThingsArundhati Roy
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-timeMark Haddon
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?Philip K. Dick
Fear and Loathing in Las VegasHunter S. Thompson
The French Lieutenant's WomanJohn Fowles
The Hitchhikers Guide to the GalaxyDouglas Adams
The Hound of the BaskervillesArthur Conan Doyle
Great ExpectationsCharles Dickens
Ham on RyeCharles Bukowski
Hey Nostradamus!Douglas Coupland
If This Is A ManPrimo Levi
What A Carve Up!Jonathan Coe

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things Jon McGregor
An Instance of the FingerpostIain Pears
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A HatOliver Sacks
House of LeavesMark Z. Danielewski
Huckleberry FinnMark Twain
I Capture the CastleDodie Smith
In Patagonia Bruce Chatwin
Jane EyreCharlotte Bronte
Jude the ObscureThomas Hardy
Life of PiYann Martel
LolitaVladimir Nabokov
Long Walk to FreedomNelson Mandela
Lord of the FliesWilliam Golding
The Lord of the RingsJ.R.R. Tolkien
The Lovely BonesAlice Sebold
Madame BovaryGustave Flaubert
MiddlesexJeffrey Eugenides
Midnight's ChildrenSalman Rushdie
The Master and MargaritaMikhail Bulgakov
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's NestKen Kesey
Oranges Are Not The Only FruitJeanette Winterson
The MonkMatthew Lewis
The Name of the RoseUmberto Eco
New York TrilogyPaul Auster
Northern Lights Philip Pullman
The OdysseyHomer
The OutsiderAlbert Camus
The Poisonwood BibleBarbara Kingsolver
PossessionA.S. Byatt
Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen
A Prayer for Owen MeanyJohn Irving
Rabbit, RunJohn Updike
The ReaderBernard Schlink
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified SinnerJames Hogg
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Raymond Carver
The Ragged Trousered PhilanthropistsRobert Tressell
RebeccaDaphne du Maurier
The Remains of the DayKazuo Ishiguro
The Secret HistoryDonna Tartt
The Selfish GeneRichard Dawkins
SiddharthaHermann Hesse
Slaughterhouse 5Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Falling on CedarsDavid Guterson
Sophie's WorldJostein Gaarder
A Suitable BoyVikram Seth
StalingradAntony Beevor
Things Fall ApartChinua Achebe
To Kill A MockingbirdHarper Lee
Touching the VoidJow Simpson
TrainspottingIrvine Welsh
WaterlandGraham Swift
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kindera
The Wind Up Bird ChronicleHaruki Murakami
The Worst Journey in the WorldApsley Cherry-Garrard
The Woman in WhiteWilkie Collins
Wuthering HeightsEmily Bronte
A Time of GiftsPatrick Leigh Fermor

Can you suggest any books that might have been included? I for one was disappointed that Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes wasn't on the list.