Thursday, February 22, 2007

Booklist

I finished Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins today.

Still to go are:

1. Will in the World - Stephen Greenblatt
2.A Nyonya in Texas - Lee Su Kim
3. The French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles
4. An Autobiography - Bienvenuto Cellini
5. Where I Came From - Joan Didion
6. Moonfleet - J. Meade Falkner
7. Billy - Pamela Stephenson
8. The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis - Alan Jacobs
9. The Jungle is Neutral - Spencer Chapman
10. Lighthousekeeping - Jeanette Winterson
11. Specimen Days - Michael Cunningham
12. Wodehouse: A Life - Robert McCrum
13. Remembering Babylon - David Malouf
14. All The Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
15. The Plot Against America - Philip Roth
16. All My Dreams Came True: A Journey of Life, Love and Death - Abigail Judd Bishop
17. Stones for Ibarra - Harriet Doerr
18. After Henry - Joan Didion
19. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts - Maxine Hong Kingston
20. Pepita - Vita Sackville West
21. Storylines - Bruce Chatwin
22. Shalimar the Clown - Salman Rushdie
23. The Great War for Civilization - Robert Fisk
24. Past Mortem - Ben Elton

Think Maxine Hong Kingston will be next.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm intrigued by the Wodehouse biography - Jeeves kept me laughing throughout my post-paper insomnia in college. Lots of goodies here to dive into while waiting for the snow to melt!

Susanna said...

Looooot of reading. I think it's good--keeps your brain active & informed.

Andrew said...

I've read one--bloody one--book off that list. (It's The Plot Against America, by the way, which only brought me to the conclusion "Philip Roth is a wanker.")

Anonymous said...

Oh, my God, girl! You'll be so knowledgeable when you complete this list! Wish I could tell you that I read books of value and great education - but it would be a lie - I read trash - mostly murder and mayhem. To the tune of about one book every two days.

Nessa said...

Wow, what a great list. How did you put it together? I read The French Lieutenant's Woman in high school and I don't remember it much. I've not read any of the others and only heard of a few of the authors. Will you give recommendations?

Jenn said...

Ling: I love Jeeves too. Also Bertie. Also Lord Emsworth. In fact the whole caboodle. I only read the first bit of the Wodehouse biography - sort of the standfirst - and it was hilarious. Think the rest of it will be in keeping, although some unnice stuff happened in his life...

Susanna - active and informed - right. I feel my brain sort of turning to mush as we speak.

Andy: I haven't come to that one yet. I read The Human Stain by Philip Roth which I quite liked. Also Sabbath's Theater was quoted extensively by some scholars - I think I came across these articles when I was researching for my essay on Foucault.

Jackie: Don't count on it. I thrive on my ignorance. Some words find their way in, others flutter away...sigh. When I go back to JB I only read Agatha Christie and children's books.

Nessa: Most of the ones I have read so far are pretty good. Um, what about Confessions of an Economic Hitman? There's blood and gore and conspiracy to the hilt. I would recommend Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. Really good book. Also Timelines by Arthur Miller. I'm reading Will in the World right now - the Greenblatt biography of Shakespeare and it is riveting.

I ended up with so many books because of a trip to England where I bought a library and two booksales from whence I emerged with piles and piles of books and aching arms.

Jenn said...

Coming back to this post now I can say that I've done 13 books on this list...Songlines was absolutely beautiful. Sad that the absolutely handsome and fascinating Bruce Chatwin had to die.