Thursday, August 16, 2007

Outmoded Authors Challenge Reading List

I've drawn up a reading list. My goal will be to read as many titles on the list as possible:

  1. Janet Frame, Owls Do Cry
  2. Italo Svevo, Zeno's Conscience; As a Man Grows Older
  3. Freya Stark, The Southern Gates of Arabia
  4. G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday; Any of the Father Brown mysteries
  5. May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude
  6. Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano
  7. Djuna Barnes, Nightwood
  8. Radclyffe Hall, Well of Loneliness
  9. W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge; Of Human Bondage; The Magician; The Moon and Sixpence

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

dang! except for maughan i haven't of any of those! it'll be cool to see what you make of them.

Anonymous said...

Same here. I do have read all of the Maugham's. :)

Ana S. said...

I read "The Man Who Was Thursday" a few years ago (because Neil Gaiman mentioned it was one of his favourite books) and I enjoyed it a lot. I've been wanting to read the Father Brown books ever since.

Happy reading!

Rebecca H. said...

Hmmm ... if you're reading Nightwood, maybe I will too.

Stephanie said...

That's a heck of a reading list! I don't think I've heard of most of those authors. Can't wait to read the reviews!

darkorpheus said...

Jean Pierre I haven't read much of these authros either. A bit of Maugham, a bit of Chesterton's essays and his Father Brown mysteries -so I'm looking forward to it.

Will try to post about my thoughts on them - but the truth is, I'm usually lazy, and often I decide I'll read another book rather than write about the one I've finished. Bad blogger!

Matt ALL the Maugham? Any recommendations? You know what, I think I'll have to go through your blog for the Maugham archives. ;p

Nymeth Hee. I actually first picked up the Father Brown mysteries because of a recommendation by Gaiman. *smiles* I fell in love with Chesterton after that. I think Father Brown is a better detective than Sherlock Holmes, and Chesterton writes so beautifully at times. Once, I had to copy down his description of the colour red, simply because of the prose.

Dorothy We'll compare notes. And i promise to blog about it. Really. But then, it could be so experimental that I can't make heads or tails out of it.

Stephanie Do swing by the Outmoded Authors Challenge blog site then. Maybe reading the various reviews and thoughts of the participants, it might make you feel like picking up one of the titles.

Book blogs have this way of recommending us to new books. That's what I love about it. My knowledge of books and authors are constantly expanding and tested as I read more of the blogs.

I love it.

Anonymous said...

Journal of a Solitude is enjoyable reading. However, don't believe everything Sarton says. Her solitude in the book was not as solitary in real life. She often had visitors and frequently spent time away from home.

Anonymous said...

Oops...not all the Maugham, just the ones you listed under #9, and The Painted Veil.

I'm still searching for a copy of The Gentleman at the Parlor, a part novel and part travelogue of his wandering through Southeast Asia. :)

Anonymous said...

I have Journal of a Solitude on my list too. I am still trying to figure out how many books I want to sign up for. I really like your list and it reminds me I'd like to add some Maugham to mine.

darkorpheus said...

Matt I fi recall correctly, Vintage UK keeps an extensive backlist of Maugham in print - but I don't think it's the case for his US publisher. Maybe that's why you have problem locating it?

Good luck on your search though.

Iliana Great! Read some Maugham with us. What's the Maugham on your list?