1000 Novels You Must Read

Agent

dgaf ngaf cgaf
hard to argue with this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/22/1000-novels-science-fiction-gothic-books

esp good to see Vathek in there. the ballard interview is pretty good also: 'I embraced surrealism - like a lover - and psychoanalysis, which closely abutted surrealism. Together, they represented what I wanted to do' [...] "What happens if you regard the whole of reality as a vast video game? I suspect you find yourself in an overheated realm rather close to The Atrocity Exhibition . . . Like its most notorious chapter, "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan", it all seemed more than a little far-fetched, but now, in 2008, we call it everyday reality. At the time, 1976, Reagan seemed a vital key to what was going wrong, both with America and the worldwide media landscape. He had become governor of California, but I was convinced he would make it to the presidency. Today only bad actors can lead a nation, as Reagan and Blair showed. Poor Gordon Brown needs six months at Rada and a tryout at the Old Vic." - JG Ballard
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah Vathek is good fun (a lot of humour in it I thought as well), The Monk is great, I've never actually read The Castle of Otranto.... although I've, er, seen the animation by Svankmajer - something about a giant helmet I seem to remember, it was all a bit confusing. Possibly because it had no subtitles.
Surprised that they don't mention Melmoth The Wanderer there which always seems to be the other one that comes on the same list - not that I've read that either.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
They really should have named this article "1000 Novels You'll Never Read Because We're Going To Ruin The Endings For You".


Was flicking through the ''Crime'' edition today and felt a teensy bit outraged when I came across the entry for ''Enduring Love'' (one of the very few I've read), which was essentially a list of all the novel's main plot points. I'm not a big fan of the book, but one of the definite pleasures in reading it for me came from the tension McEwan built up concerning whether or not the hero and his girlfriend/wife were going to survive or not.

Could they not think of 200 words to say in its favour instead of recounting its entire plot? :confused:
 

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
Lists are created for creating discussions, it's free linkage for the Grauniad.
I don't mind lists, they can be helpful - but the endless lists of lists just make it all seem so impossible. All this music, all these films, all these books, all this art (Grauniad had a 1000 pieces of art as well - would have involved a lot of airmiles if one was to see them all). So they are neither here, nor there.

I had an idea for a project: basically read all the winners of the Nobel price for literature - from Sully Prudhomme to Marie Gustave Le Clézio.
Yup I had to look them up.

105 authors and counting. One a month would make it roughly 9 years.
I'll report back when done.
 
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