2011 11-Authors Challenge

[Scheherazade]

Update:

1. Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger) - 9/10 KitKats! Would have been 10 but I really wished the book was a little longer. Loved every single page of it.

2. Barbara Vine (A Dark Adapted Eye) - 8/10 A murder/mystery written superbly. What made the story even more interesting to me is the fact that the main characters involved are female and story's told by a female narrator too. Hard to put it down.

[Veho]

My update:

Finished my first of the eleven: D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover. I liked it very much, a flaw would be its repetitiveness, however it's a flaw that doesn't affect my appreciation of the book and the ideas that are narrated.

My next author will probably be Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca).

I like this thread and reading others' posts.

[Dark Muse]

I just finished my first book for the challenge.

China Miéville: The City & The City - 9/10

At first I was a bit reluctant to read this book because the main focus of the plot revolved around a detective solving a murder, and in general I do not read crime fiction and detective novels, but I love surrealism and alternative realities so I was really intrigued by the concept of these two different cities coexisisting within the same location.

Over all I really enjoyed this book, though I do have some mixed feelings about certain aspects of it. On the one hand I found the realistic approach the author took to the concept was an interesting one, and the way in which it was an examination of urban life, society, politics, and so forth. On the other hand I have to admit a part of me was hoping for a bit more "fantastic" moments and perhaps hoping that it would bend the bonds of reality even further than it did.

[The Comedian]

The list:

1. Poetry -- Selected Poems by Paul Verlaine. -- Check (4/5)
I bought this book a while ago to participate in the poetry reading group on Litnet. But work and responsibilities took me away from the thread, so I never read a word of it.

2. Fiction -- [U]Wieland[/U] by Charles Brockden Brown. --Check! (3.8/5)
I'm planning to renew/refresh my interest in early American literature

3. Philosophy --The Sense of Beauty by George Santayana. I like reading philosophy and a colleague told me that Santayana knew his way around a sentence, so I'm all in.

4. Fiction -- The Third Man by Graham Greene. I've never read much detective fiction. It's time.

5. Non-fiction -- Beyond the Aspen Grove by Ann Zwinger. I love nature/environmental non-fiction. And Zwinger has been inexcusably absent from my reading habits. Time to amend that mistake.

6. Drama -- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard. Never read it or anything else by Stoppard. And this book was given to me by a friend in grad school. Eleven years ago I told him I'd read it. Better late than never.

7. Poetry -- Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins. He's a great contemporary American poet. And I've never read a thing he's written.

8. Non-fiction -- Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum. Bought it in a used book store for $.75. It looked interesting and the Collins book (above) borrows its title.

9. Poetry -- Selected Poems by Giacomo Leopardi. See the reason posted for the Verlaine selection.

10. Fiction -- The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. A friend told me I should read it. I said "sure". That was four years ago. Another one of those "it's about time" books.

11. Comics -- Silver Surfer: Requiem by J. Michael Straczynski. Sounds interesting.

I just finished Wiedland, by the early American author Charles Brown. It was a good novel, told from the female perspective as an epistle to a generic reader about the build-up and conclusion to a religious dementia. A story that would greatly appeal to a modern audience -- religious delusions, slaughter, isolation. The language was strong. The plot development was tedious at times, but not poor overall. I'm glad that I read it.

[Rores28]

1) Frankenstein - Mary Shelley 3.7/5
2) Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs - Chuck Klosterman 3/5
3) Night - Elie Wiesel 3.9/5

4) The Truth about the Drugs Comapnies - Marcia Angell 4/5
5) The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison - 4.2/5

6) Nudge - Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler - 3.8/5
7) Cat's Cradle - Vonnegut - 3.8/5

8) Borges in 90 Minutes - Paul Strathern - 2.5/5

[Big Dante]

Just finished my 3rd.
It was The Invisible Man by H.G Wells.
Next is The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

[TheFifthElement]

Update:
1. Homer - The Odyssey
2. Gabriel Josipovici - Heart's Wings and other stories
3. Linda Grant - We Had It So Good

Still not sure about the Grant novel. I need to make my mind up. It was interesting, but in the end I didn't really care and technically the book was odd: shifting tenses and perspectives gave it a transient and bewildering and strangely distant feeling. Hmm.

Oh, I also read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight but as I don't know who wrote it I guess I can't class that one as a new author. It was very enjoyable in any event. I read the Simon Armitage version. I've definitely read him before

[IJustMadeThatUp]

I just finished "The Virgin Suicides," by Jeffrey Eugenides. It is on a list of books that I have started but failed to finish. There are at least eleven books on this list, and I hope to make my way through most of them this year.

Excellent book, by the way. I was surprised. I mean, I knew it was good, but I didn't expect to like it, but I did.

I love love love that book Qimi! I just found the language and mood of the book sadly beautiful. I haven't read it for years and am too scared to read it again in case I've outgrown it.

I really want to join this one! 11 is do-able with uni I think..

1. The Forsyte Saga - John Galsworthy

I'll examine my to-read pile soon for my next author.

[aliengirl]

Update:

1. Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco - 10/10
2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - 6/10
3. The Monk by Matthew Lewis - 8/10. It was a real Gothic treat, full of mystery, horror, and sprinkled with a good sense of humour. I think it is highly underrated.
Next is 'Wide Sargasso Sea' by Jean Rhys. I've already finished the first half.

[JuniperWoolf]

H'okay. Eleven works by authors who's books I have neeeever read. Here goes:

1. Choke by Chuck Palahniuk.

2. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

3. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (ugh...).

4. On The Road by Jack Kerouac (double ugh...).

5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

6. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

7. Moby Dick by Harman Melville (I'll finally trudge through that chapter on whale breeds).

8. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

9. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

10. Anthem by Ayn Rand.

11. The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

I'll edit a line through the ones that I read throughout the year. Fun, fun fun!

I had to change a couple of mine because of what's available to me. Damn living in a secluded area, my local library doesn't even have any Poe. Anyway, I'm about half way through the Divine Comedy and Moby Dick and I just started Joyce.

[Big Dante]

Four down now, just finished The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Number five shall be Slaughterhouse 5 which I am now halfway through.

[TheFifthElement]

I had to change a couple of mine because of what's available to me. Damn living in a secluded area, my local library doesn't even have any Poe. Anyway, I'm about half way through the Divine Comedy and Moby Dick and I just started Joyce.

My goodness you're reading all of those at the same time? Yikes. How do you keep it all in your head?

Why the 'ugh' over Kerouac? I enjoyed On the Road and will pass on some advice I received from a Kerouac afficionado: read The Original Scroll it's much better than the edited version.

Anyways, if you PM me your address I've got a copy of Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Poe which you'd be welcome to. Nowt special, but in need of a good home

[Dark Muse]

I just finished my first book for the challenge.

China Miéville: The City & The City - 9/10

At first I was a bit reluctant to read this book because the main focus of the plot revolved around a detective solving a murder, and in general I do not read crime fiction and detective novels, but I love surrealism and alternative realities so I was really intrigued by the concept of these two different cities coexisisting within the same location.

Over all I really enjoyed this book, though I do have some mixed feelings about certain aspects of it. On the one hand I found the realistic approach the author took to the concept was an interesting one, and the way in which it was an examination of urban life, society, politics, and so forth. On the other hand I have to admit a part of me was hoping for a bit more "fantastic" moments and perhaps hoping that it would bend the bonds of reality even further than it did.

H.G. Wells: The Time Machine - 9/10

Generally I am not really into sci-fi but I figured Wells is a classic, so I should give him a try and all in all I ended up quite enjoying this book. I did find that it was a bit slow at the start, but once he actually began to travel back into time and was telling of his adventures it really picked up. I have always liked those kind of adventure stories which involve traveling to strange new places and encounters with strange and new creatures/people.

[Yorick]

I'm in. My first is going to be City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende, I think. Or maybe The House of the Spirits. I dunno yet.

[Rores28]

1) Frankenstein - Mary Shelley 3.7/5
2) Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs - Chuck Klosterman 3/5
3) Night - Elie Wiesel 3.9/5

4) The Truth about the Drugs Comapnies - Marcia Angell 4/5
5) The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison - 4.2/5

6) Nudge - Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler - 3.8/5
7) Cat's Cradle - Vonnegut - 3.8/5

8) Borges in 90 Minutes - Paul Strathern - 2.5/5

9) Six Pixels of Separation - Mitch Joel - 3/5