No idea what book to read!

[Nico87]

Well, to be honest, I have too many books sitting on my bookshelf that I haven't yet found the time to read.

I'll just list the books that tempts me the most, and try to let you guys decide for me!

Tolstoy

War & Peace
Anna Karenina
The Cossacks

Dostoevsky

Brothers Karamazov
Crime and Punishment
Demons
The Double and the Gambler
The Idiot
Notes From Underground

Nabokov

Lolita
Pnin
Pale Fire

Bulgakov

The Master and Margarita

Hammett

The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest (3-in-1 edition from Everyman's Library)

Waugh

The Sword of Honour Trilogy

Heller

Catch-22

Rand

Atlas Shrugged

Vote ahead!

[DanielBenoit]

Notes from the Underground is always a good start ;)

[Mariamosis]

I have only read 'Lolita', 'Crime and Punishment', 'Pnin', 'The Idiot' and half of 'Notes From Underground' out of that list. Out of those 4.5 I would recommend 'Crime and Punishment'.

[Dark Muse]

Well I would have to say Notes From Underground, I quite loved that book, and out of the books which I have read from your list, it is my favoirte.

[Adagio]

The Brothers Karamazov or Anna Karenina.

[kelby_lake]

Lolita, The Master and Margarita, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot.

[bazarov]

:argue:

Crime and Punishment, Anna Karenina, Master and Margarita

:nod:

[billl]

I have read all the Nabokov, and just a little Dostoevsky. Nothing of the others.

I recommend Pale Fire.

[five-trey]

The Brothers Karamazov

Its a journey, but a great novel.

[Veva]

My favourite of these are Lolita and The Idiot... :goof:

[kasie]

Close your eyes, put out your hand, take a book from the shelf, read it - you can't really go wrong with the selection you have before you, so if you can't decide, let chance do it for you.

[mal4mac]

Start with the best, i.e., Tolstoy & Dostroevsky. Start with the shorter/earlier works. I would Mix in the "lesser" authors. You can have too much of a good thing...

The Cossacks - greatest short novel ever? Follow that :-)
Notes From Underground - others rate this the greatest.
Catch-22
War & Peace
Crime and Punishment
The Sword of Honour Trilogy (1) _ I haven't read this, so I'm basing this on 'other Waugh'. I'm guessing he'll provide some light relief :-)
Anna Karenina
The Idiot
The Sword of Honour Trilogy (2)
[You might want to buy the Everyman hardback collection of Tolstoy's shorter works at this point!]
Demons
The Sword of Honour Trilogy (3)
[Tolstoy]
Brothers Karamazov

Hammett would also be good "light reading" to intersperse if things are getting a bit heavy! Especially if you fancy light adventure rather than light comedy.

The other works don't look that appealing to me, except perhaps for "The Master and Margarita", which I haven't read but want to.

I have read and don't rate too highly, but might just be worth reading (as you've bought them):

Lolita
The gambler

Recycle immediately :-):

Atlas Shrugged

This list is looking a bit "Russian heavy" to me. If you fancy a change, intersperse something lighter but equally great. Try some Dickens or a Shakespeare play. Or Don Quixote.

[Barbarous]

Pale Fire and Th Idiot all the way.

[Nico87]

The Sword of Honour Trilogy (2)
[You might want to buy the Everyman hardback collection of Tolstoy's shorter works at this point!]

I have! I have both volumes of Collected Stories, Everyman's Library hardback editions.

Anyway, I actually ended up reading The Gulag Archipelago vol. 1, after considering adding Cancer Ward to the list above. I bought each of the three volums in unabridged hardcover editions two years ago, published by Collins & Harvill Press, London, back in the 70's. It's a heavy read, alot of stuff covered, but I actually feel where determined to read through each of the three volumes by mid-November.

I have a few Dickens books aswell;

Bleak House
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
A Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations

[mal4mac]

Anyway, I actually ended up reading The Gulag Archipelago vol. 1, after considering adding Cancer Ward to the list above. I bought each of the three volums in unabridged hardcover editions two years ago, published by Collins & Harvill Press, London, back in the 70's. It's a heavy read, alot of stuff covered, but I actually feel where determined to read through each of the three volumes by mid-November.


I gave up on Gulag after about fifty pages - too much heavy detail for me. There's an abridged version that I might try. I like his novels though - "First Circle" and "One day...". I must read Cancer Ward.