What are you planing to read in September?

[My name is red]

Things never go as they are planned when it comes to literature but may be you have a few books in your mind...
Last month i had to focus on my studies so i tried to keep myself from reading so hard that my list is kinda ready for september.

First i wish to finish the book i've already started:In Cold Blood.(But I'm not really sure because i found 'the american family' and 'the american house'picture really boring in the book and i usually do in general.)
And the others;
Almost Transparant Blue by Murakami
Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Billiards at half past nine by Heinrich Böll
The Ogre by Michel Tournier
Maybe;
The Gambler by Dostoyevski

And i'd like to finish a book i've abandoned before for no reason;Lily of the Valley by Balzac

I woud appreciate if you share what you think of these books if you've read.

[mal4mac]

Dostoevsky's "the Gambler" is nowhere near as good as his major works. It doesn't have their psychological depth or memorable characters.

Jude the Obscure is fantastic, probably Hardy's best novel. Maybe the best novel in English, if you exclude Dickens. It's as black as pitch though!

I saw the TV adaptation of "Buddha of Suburbia". It did not inspire me to read the book.

[NickAdams]

Last night I put together a list of books that I wanted to read this month, so I'll share it now.

Inferno - Dante Alighieri (I read this one in August, but I started it again and will read it a third time.)
Paradise Lost - John Milton
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
IV Poems, Short Fiction and Criticism - Samuel Beckett
ABC of Reading - Ezra Pound

I probably won't complete them all this month, that's why Pound has settled to the bottom.:p

I haven't read any of the books on your list, although some are on my general list as well, but I've completely abandoned reading Murakami after reading The Elephant Vanishes.

[kelby_lake]

The Faerie Queene (fat chance I'll finish that by the end of the month)
Tess Of The D'Ubervilles
Pale Fire
Birdsong

[Adagio]

As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner

I hope you get time to read As I Lay Dying. It's such a fantastic novel!

A rough list:

Faulkner's Light In August (reading now)
Faulkner's Sanctuary
Voltaire's Candide
Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio
Borges' Labyrinths
Coetzee's Disgrace

Leaving for university on the 25th and have a busy month ahead of me. I hope I make it through them all.

[NickAdams]

I hope you get time to read As I Lay Dying. It's such a fantastic novel!

A rough list:

Faulkner's Light In August (reading now)
Faulkner's Sanctuary
Voltaire's Candide
Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio
Borges' Labyrinths
Coetzee's Disgrace

Leaving for university on the 25th and have a busy month ahead of me. I hope I make it through them all.

Faulkner is such a gut-punch. I naturally read novels and such as artifacts, but Faulkner seizes me. I read Sanctuary first and then Light In August and I thought they were wonderful. It is often said that Light In August is a minor work, but Faulkner does an amazing job and he breaks standard rules of story telling with great success.

Winesburg, Ohio has been on my reading list for some time, but Labyrinths is fantastic.

[Desolation]

Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare by Henry Miller

I'm also considering rereading Celine's Journey to the End of the Night, even though it's only been 6 months since I read it originally...Joyce's Ulysses and Nietzsche's Gay Science are also in consideration.

[Drkshadow03]

Dostoevsky's "the Gambler" is nowhere near as good as his major works. It doesn't have their psychological depth or memorable characters.



Out of curiosity, what would you consider Dostoevsky's major works?

[lupe]

My main objective is to finish "Les Bienveillantes" (The kindly ones) from Jonathan Littell (currently on page 399/1400). If succeed, there are many other unread books on my shelve to pick from.

[promtbr]

Inferno - Dante Alighieri (I read this one in August, but I started it again and will read it a third time.)
Paradise Lost - John Milton
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
IV Poems, Short Fiction and Criticism - Samuel Beckett
ABC of Reading - Ezra Pound


I am not worthy *kneels lowers-raises arms in suplicating motion*

Ricks and Badiou's secondary Beckett lit crit are names that were given to me by a Beckett worshipper I respect (a published poet in England)




I've completely abandoned reading Murakami after reading The Elephant Vanishes.

Why abandoned? (recently read Wild Sheep and am officially a fan)


My September TBR list is purposely all 2009 possible Nobel prize candidates:

The Green House -- Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) -reading now

The Same Sea-- Amos Oz (Israel)

The Outer Dark-- Cormac McCarthy (USA)

The Death of Artemio Cruz-- Carlos Fuentes (Mexico)

Rituals-- Cees Nooteboom (Netherlands)

The Marx Family Saga-- Juan Goytisolo (Spain)

The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro-- Anthony Tabucchi (Italy)



---

[dfloyd]

The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Possesed, and The Idiot.
The Gambler is a good read as is A Raw Youth. But I would read the big four first before the Gambler et al. I think the only Dostoevsky I haven't read is the Insulted and Injured. Can't seem to find a good copy. the one my library has is in too small of type for someone of my age.

[Desolation]

The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Possesed, and The Idiot.
What about Notes from Underground?

[Barbarous]

I include Notes as one of Dostoevsky's best.

I plan on reading a ton of Wallace Stevens' poetry, continue reading Bleak House by Dickens and The Years by Woolf, and hopefully start a new book, haven't decided what yet.

[NickAdams]

I am not worthy *kneels lowers-raises arms in suplicating motion*

Ricks and Badiou's secondary Beckett lit crit are names that were given to me by a Beckett worshipper I respect (a published poet in England)


:lol:

And now you have handed those names to me, thanks. I will google them.



Why abandoned? (recently read Wild Sheep and am officially a fan)


Although The Elephant Vanishes is a collection of his earlier short stories, some I believe he said he no longer like himself, I just didn't find anything in it for me. I may like his work in novels, but I don't know if I can forgive him. ;)

How is Vargas Llosa?

[stlukesguild]

I am currently reading Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Der Rosenkavalier (The Cavalier of Roses). Hofmannsthal was a brilliant German (OK... Austrian) writer known especially for his librettos for Richard Strauss' operas. Der Rosenkavalier is one of these and I am reading it again (or should I say I am reading it for the first time while not listening to the actual opera.) Beside the fact that Hofmannsthal is a marvelous writer, I am reading this work specifically in preparation of sorts. I plan on giving my wife (and myself) a gift of a trip to New York and a performance of Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera as a Christmas gift. I have long been a major fan of Strauss and the performers scheduled for the January performance at the Met are phenomenal:Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Christine Schäfer, Eric Cutler, Thomas Allen and Kristinn Sigmundsson.:banana::banana::banana:

[Dark Lady]

I'm currently reading Madame Bovary. This was't planned, although I did intend to read it soon, but I realised I had forgotten to take a book to uni and had a two hour gap. Since I had finished the book I was reading (The Book Thief) the day before I decided to go in search of a second hand book shop and there it was on the shelf.

After Madame Bovary I'm not sure because I've just started my Post-Graduate Diploma in Education and have been advised by a tutor to read some YA fiction to gauge what sorts of things interest the age group I'll be teaching. Have been trying to find out what they're into and so I might end up reading things like The Giver this month.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Just finishing off a few things, Sentimental Education, a re-read of Hyde's Oscar Wilde Biography, a few poems and short stories. As university is looming I plan to go over a little theory in preparation for a reflections of critical theory class, and for my dissertation I will be re-reading Dorian Gray for the sixth/seventh time, other than that I'm not sure. In all likely hood more stuff on Wilde, Sloan, Ellman, his early lectures in America, letters, etc, which are re-reads, or I might to over his works again, actually I fancy reading some of his earlier weaker plays, like Vera; we'll see, it all depends on the direction of my dissertation, which is far from formalised yet, I may still end up with doing Milton, but I doubt it in all practicality.

[Scheherazade]

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/6136/bookhlo.jpg (http://img24.imageshack.us/i/bookhlo.jpg/)

[stlukesguild]

Sher... I feel for you...:p

[toni]

First off, there are a couple of books that I have yet to finish reading before I make a list. Currently, I am in the last few pages of Things we didn't know about Shakespeare, halfway through Madame Bovary, and the last third of Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
After hopefully finishing the aforementioned books, I plan to revisit Shakespeare's works - particularly his Histories. I would also most probably dive in to Franz Kafka's short stories this September, after doing a intense research on his life the past month.

[Dark Lady]

halfway through Madame Bovary,

I'm about halfway through as well. What are your thoughts so far?

[mal4mac]

Out of curiosity, what would you consider Dostoevsky's major works?

Of the works of his that I have read:

"Notes from the Underground"
"Crime and Punishment"

"Notes from the Underground" comes with "the Gambler" in the "Oxford Classics" Jane Kentish translation. "The Gambler" seemed like an unnecessary filler after the masterwork. Also, I wasn't that impressed with the translation. And the paper has gone yellow. I will probably try the Pevear translation in the Everyman hardback for the re-read. ("Notes" demands to be re-read several times over a lifetime!)

[sixsmith]

Currently reading "A House for Mr Biswas" by V.S Naipul. A truly outstanding novel.

Next up is "The Waves" by Virginia Woolf. Also on the horizon is "Homicide: A year on the killing streets" by David Simon (creator of The Wire)

[crystalmoonshin]

La multitud errante by Laura Restrepo
The Trial by Kafka
The Castle also by Kafka
The Trial of God by Elie Wiesel

[Mariamosis]

I hope to finish Dostoevsky's 'The Idiot'

Then I would like to move onto:

Jack London's 'The Iron Heel'
Theodore Dreiser's 'The Financier'
William Faulkner's 'The Sound and the Fury' &
Emile Zola's 'The Masterpiece'

[Scheherazade]

Sher... I feel for you...:pWhy on earth? :p

It is not a text book; a voluntary purchase and I am really looking forward to reading it (OK, I have already started reading it).

I read teaching related books for fun and I am obsessed with the cognitive theory.

*flashes a geekish grin*

[dfloyd]

are certainly worthwhile reading, but the four fiction works I listed are the ones usually considred as his best. Like all listings, this is subjective. But if you havent' read the big four listed above, you can't really have an opinion on what is his best.

[Desolation]

I've honestly never heard The Possessed/Demons mentioned as a major work. The big three I hear are always The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, and Notes from Underground, with The Idiot thrown in from time to time.

[Barbarous]

Well, Desolation, get used to it! Demons is definitely one of Dostoevsky's best, and what I consider a well balanced part of the Shakespearean 4 (Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, C&P, Demons). If you enjoyed the more political side to Notes from the Underground and maybe Crime and Punishment, then Demons is the perfect Dostoevsky novel for you.

[Drkshadow03]

I've honestly never heard The Possessed/Demons mentioned as a major work. The big three I hear are always The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, and Notes from Underground, with The Idiot thrown in from time to time.

See, this is EXACTLY why I asked the question. I knew the big three/four, but I figured there would be people that would add titles and say, "no, this is where it's really at!"

[joebob]

well i've already read billy budd and heart of darkness this month... (both kinda eh). although i did learn tons of new words from melville

I'm reading moby dick right now, and loving it, but besides that all i have planned is dostoevsky's demons. and on a side note: what's the best translation for that?

[Jason Lycurgus]

Demons is the only Dostoyevsky I have started and then not finished - maybe I'll have to go back to it.

[Desolation]

Well, Desolation, get used to it! Demons is definitely one of Dostoevsky's best, and what I consider a well balanced part of the Shakespearean 4 (Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, C&P, Demons). If you enjoyed the more political side to Notes from the Underground and maybe Crime and Punishment, then Demons is the perfect Dostoevsky novel for you.
It sounds really good. I don't think I'll be able to get to it this year, but I'm going to add it to my list.

[dramasnot6]

A bit of feminist theory (especially thinking about finally getting around to The Feminine Mystique),an American History textbook, and some Chinese fiction.

[NickAdams]

I'm adding the Library of America edition of Longfellow's works. I wanted to step back from Dante without submerging myself into another large work. I could've picked up Beckett for this purpose, but I enjoyed Longfellow's translation of Inferno so much that I wanted more from that sweet voice.

[Jason Lycurgus]

Just back from the bookstore - don't imagine I'll finish all these but I have quite a bit of free time at the moment so who knows.

Blood Meridian by McCarthy (currently reading and enjoying a good deal)

Just picked up:

The Cossacks and Other stories by Tolstoy
Demons by Dostoyevsky (found a new translation - this may have been part of the problem earlier)
Ask The Dust by John Fante
Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver

ought to be a good month.

[Barbarous]

well i've already read billy budd and heart of darkness this month... (both kinda eh). although i did learn tons of new words from melville

I'm reading moby dick right now, and loving it, but besides that all i have planned is dostoevsky's demons. and on a side note: what's the best translation for that?

I recently read Demons and I recommend the Robert A. Maguire translation.

[Lynne50]

Just finished Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. Someone here on Litnet suggested it to me (I apologize for my faulty memory) and I am so glad they did. I have read comics, but not in a 'graphic novel' format. Not only did this book give me a new appreciation for comics, it also gave me a better understanding in terpreting modern art. Thank you for the suggestion.
Next, I've started Everything is Illuminated. Read Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud and loved it. But the next read, I want to read an older book. Any suggestions? Which should I attempt, Brothers Karamazov or Don Quixote? As you can see, I wrote 'attempt' because school is starting soon and it may take a long time to get through either of them.

[Delarge]

@ Lynne: read The Brothers Karamazov, it's a much better work.

My TBR for september:
Finishing "The Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie
Finishing "Don Quixote" byt Miguel Cervantes (been working on it for 3! years now.. Damn it is boring)
"Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger

And read up for my physiology finals :(

[Maida]

September is going to be a busy month, I already feel it, but I do plan on doing some well needed reading. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, After Dark by Haruki Murakami, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, and of course anything that catches my eye in the bookstore.

[The Comedian]

Other than my obligatory reading? Swan's Way

[jbunniii]

Just finished Updike's "Rabbit at Rest."

Currently plowing through the second half of David Kennedy's "Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War (Oxford History of the United States)." It's a good, albeit necessarily brisk read: for example, the author distills the Manhattan Project into ten pages, which left me wanting more. I am adding Richard Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" to my long TBR list.

I haven't decided what is next, but I am thinking maybe Peter Matthiessen's "The Shadow Country." That will probably wrap up September. Reading time is all too scarce lately.

[rimbaud]

well after finishing steppenwolf-hesse which i find it extraordinary my to read list is:

As I Lay Dying
Thus Spake Zarathustra
something from Zola
then something From Pushkin

[mal4mac]

Finishing "Don Quixote" byt Miguel Cervantes (been working on it for 3! years now.. Damn it is boring)(

Why spend three years reading something you find boring? I read it in three months and found it one of the most interesting & funny books I have ever read. Maybe it's the translation? Grossman's translation is great, but I found another translation unreadable.

[Page Turner]

Why spend three years reading something you find boring? I read it in three months and found it one of the most interesting & funny books I have ever read. Maybe it's the translation? Grossman's translation is great, but I found another translation unreadable.

Pretty much what I was going to say. I thought this was a very funny book, not at all what I had imagined.

[Delarge]

I'm always reading 2-4 books at the same time and always finishes the books, how boring they might be. I can't have a book standing on my shelf that I haven't read - mild case of OCD i guess :redface:

To me Don Quixote is just not funny and the characters pretty dull. It does have it's moments though; I really liked some of the stories told by the different people they meet through their jurneys. It's just not my kind of humor nor genre ("The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" the funniest book I've ever read).

@ mal4mac: I'm reading a danish translation (i'm danish...), it's an allright translation, not great, but ok..