Friday, December 12, 2008

100 Books To Read 2008 Version 2.2

This an aspirational list - the key is just to try to read as many as I can.



  1. Arabian Sands • Wilfred Thesiger
    [21/11/2008 ~

  2. With Billie • Julia Blackburn
    [07/11/2008 ~

  3. The Name of the Rose • Umberto Eco
    [translated by William Weaver]
    [03/09/2008 ~

  4. The Idiot • Fyodor Dostoevsky
    [translated by Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky]
    [11/07/2008 ~

  5. The Histories • Herodotus
    [24/04/2007 ~

  6. The Surgeon's Mate • Patrick O'Brian
    [18/04/2008 ~

  7. The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama • Pico Iyer
    [11/04/2008~

  8. Touchstone • Laurie R. King
    [08/04/2008 ~

  9. The Stress of Her Regard • Tim Powers
    [07/04/2008 ~

  10. A Voice From the Attic: Essays on the Art of Reading • Robertson Davies
    [13/11/2007 ~

  11. Seduction and Betrayal • Elizabeth Hardwick
    [17/03/2008 ~

  12. Weight • Jeanette Winterson

  13. The Looking Glass Wars • Frank Beddor

  14. Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers • Leonard Koren

  15. The Neverending Story • Michael Ende

  16. The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol
    [translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky]

  17. The Worst Journey in the World • Apsley Cherry-Garrard

  18. War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy
    [translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky]
    [01/01/2008 ~

  19. 三国演义 • 罗 贯 中
    [26/12/2007 ~

  20. In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust
    Swann's Way
    In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower
    The Guermantes Way
    Sodom and Gomorrah

    The Prisoner & The Fugitive
    [Translated by Carol Clark & Peter Collier]
    [26/11/2007 ~
    Finding Time Again
    [Translated by Ian Paterson]

  21. Kristin Lavransdatter • Sigrid Undset
    [Translated by Tiina Nunnally]
    [27/08/2007 ~

  22. The Three Musketeers• Alexandre Dumas
    [Translated by Richard Pevear]

  23. The Book of Disquiet • Fernando Pessoa

  24. Good Morning, Midnight • Jean Rhys

  25. After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie • Jean Rhys

  26. Orlando • Virginia Woolf

  27. The Napoleon of Notting Hill • G.K. Chesterton

  28. Rebecca • Daphne Du Maurier

  29. Jane Eyre • Charlotte Bronte

  30. The Masterpiece • Emile Zola

  31. The Plague • Albert Camus

  32. The Myth of Sisyphus • Albert Camus

  33. Cheri and The Last of Cheri • Colette

  34. Earthly Paradise • Colette

  35. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette • Judith Thurman
    [09/12/2006 ~

  36. Flaubert In Egypt • Gustave Flaubert

  37. Bel-Ami • Guy de Maupassant

  38. Gargantua and Pantagruel • François Rabelais [translated by M. A. Screech]

  39. Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy, Book I) • Robin Hobb

  40. Royal Assassin (The Farseer Trilogy, Book II) • Robin Hobb

  41. Assassin's Quest (The Farseer Trilogy, Book III) • Robin Hobb

  42. A Canticle for Liebowitz • Walter M. Miller Jr.

  43. Slow River • Nicola Griffith

  44. In Praise of Shadows • Junichiro Tanizaki

  45. Vermeer In Bosnia: Selected Writings • Lawrence Weschler

  46. Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling With D.H. Lawrence • Geoff Dyer

  47. Pashazade [Arabesk Trilogy Book I] • Jon Courtenay Grimwood

  48. Effendi [Arabesk Trilogy Book II] • Jon Courtenay Grimwood

  49. Felaheen [Arabesk Trilogy Book III] • Jon Courtenay Grimwood

  50. Fledgling • Octavia E. Butler

  51. The Ionian Mission • Patrick O'Brian

  52. Under the Volcano • Malcolm Lowry

  53. Love Medicine • Louise Erdrich

  54. Molloy • Samuel Beckett

  55. Love • Stendhal

  56. The Red and the Black • Stendhal

  57. The Charterhouse of Parma • Stendhal

  58. Walden and Other Writings • Henry David Thoreau

  59. Essential Writings • Ralph Waldo Emerson

  60. The Twelve Caesars • Suetonius

  61. Candide • Voltaire

  62. Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape • Barry Lopez

  63. The Little Prince • Antoine de Saint-Exupery

  64. An Unexpected Light • Jason Elliot

  65. The Carpet Wars • Christopher Kremmer

  66. The Shadow of the Sun • Ryszard Kapuscinski

  67. The Places in Between • Rory Stewart

  68. The Power and the Glory • Graham Greene

  69. The Heart of the Matter • Graham Greene

  70. The Solace of Open Spaces • Gretel Ehrlich

  71. A Match to the Heart: One Woman's Story of Being Struck By Lightning • Gretel Ehrlich

  72. Bleak House • Charles Dickens

  73. The Iliad • Homer

  74. Three Bags Full • Leonie Swann

  75. The Stones of Florence and Venice Observed • Mary McCarthy

  76. Venice • Jan Morris

  77. Darkmans • Nicola Barker

  78. The Married Man • Edmund White

  79. The Salterton Trilogy • Robertson Davies

  80. The Leopard • Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

  81. • Jorge Luis Borges


  82. Ghosts of Spain • Giles Tremlett

  83. Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics • Rebecca Solnit
    [26/04/2008 ~ 13/08/2008]

  84. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly • Anthony Bourdain
    [27/05/2008 ~ 11/07/2008]

  85. Into Thin Air • Jon Krakauer
    [03/01/2008 ~ 12/01/2008]

  86. The Wild Places • Robert Macfarlane
    [12/01/2008 ~ 26/01/2008]

  87. Cyteen • C. J. Cherryh
    [29/12/2007 ~ 01/02/2008]

  88. Shadow of the Silk Road • Colin Thubron
    [21/01/2008 ~ 26/02/008]

  89. A Time to Keep Silence • Patrick Leigh Fermor
    [10/02/2008 ~ 02/03/2008]

  90. Cleopatra's Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire • Judith Thurman
    [16/02/2008 ~ 20/03/2008]

  91. The High King (Chronicles of Prydain, Book V) • Lloyd Alexander
    [24/03/2008 ~ 24/03/2008]

  92. Taran Wanderer (Chronicles of Prydain, Book IV) • Lloyd Alexander
    [23/03/2008 ~ 24/03/2008]

  93. The Castle of Llyr (Chronicles of Prydain, Book III) • Lloyd Alexander
    [22/03/2008 ~ 23/03/2008]

  94. The Black Cauldron (Chronicles of Prydain, Book II) • Lloyd Alexander
    [21/03/2008 ~ 22/03/2008]

  95. The Book of Three (Chronicles of Prydain, Book I) • Lloyd Alexander
    [21/03/2008 ~ 21/03/2008]

  96. The Strangers in the House • Georges Simenon
    [Translated by Geoffrey Sainsbury]
    [22/03/2008 ~ 24/03/2008]

  97. Monsieur Monde Vanishes • Georges Simenon
    [Translated by Jean Stewart]
    [24/03/2008 ~ 05/04/2008]

  98. The Riddle-Master's Game • Patricia A. McKillip
    The Riddle-Master of Hed
    [24/03/2008 ~ 05/04/2008]
    Heir of Sea and Fire
    [05/04/2008 ~ 06/04/2008]
    Harpist in the Wind
    [06/04/2008 ~ 07/04/2008]

  99. The Fortune of War • Patrick O'Brian
    [23/03/2008 ~ 16/04/2008]

  100. Falconer • John Cheever
    [16/04/2008 ~ 22/04/2008]


Alternatives (What a lot of them!):
  • Her Smoke Rose Up Forever • James Tiptree, Jr.
    • Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates • Patrick Leigh Fermor

    • The Marsh Arabs • Wilfred Thesiger

    • House Rules • Heather Lewis

    14 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    Flaubert in Egypt sounds like a fun read.

    You're always so ahead of the game. I don't even have a list for this year!

    darkorpheus said...

    Hey, welcome back.

    It's only January. Lots of time to draw up a list. What's your plans for this year after all that travelling?

    Anonymous said...

    I'm preparing for the defense of my thesis, which is scheduled for April. I'm GSI (grad student instructor) for two classes this term so I'll have a lot of free time to read. :)

    Just started the 2nd book for Russian Challenge: The Kreutzer Sonata by Tolstoy.

    I'm thinking about the Chunkster Challenge...trying to come up with books that are more than 450 pages other than War and Peace. Right off my mind is Pillar of the Earth, which I have read couple years ago.

    darkorpheus said...

    Matt The Chunkster Challenge? You have too much time to read. ;p

    But good luck with the defense of your thesis. But hey, it's April. Lots of time to read.

    Anonymous said...

    Thank you.

    I think for now I'll stay with Russian and Chunkster challenges. I still want to be able to read the stuffs I want to read, like biographies and history.

    Carl V. Anderson said...

    What a fantastic list! Several on their that I'd like to get to sometime in my lifetime.

    Anonymous said...

    There are a few on your list I really want to read, especially The Histories by Herodotus. I read The Farseer Trilogy a few years ago after all my friends telling me how great it was, but I was really disappointed so I hope you like it more than I did. I haven't quite set myself a list like this, but with the challenges I am aiming to complete I may as well have. Good luck with it!

    darkorpheus said...

    Hi guys - sorry for the late reply. Haven't been spending a lot of time on this blog recently.

    Matt Good for you. The year is not out of its diaper yet (as Stefanie puts it) -- but I suddenly find myself overwhelmed with not enough time. I need to keep the commitments down, just so that I have time to do and read the things I want.

    Carl The list will always be about books I want to get around to them in my lifetime. :)

    I guess keeping a list like this helps make sure some of these books will eventually be read.

    Rhinoa I really hope I get around to finishing "The Histories" this year.

    I'm sure you'll have no problem with your reading challenges -- your reading speed is just unstoppable. :)

    I have a few friends who have been bugging me to read Robin Hobb's books for ages - like 9 years. I think it's about time to give in, so that at least I know what they are going on about.

    Yogamum said...

    Tagged you on a book thingy:
    http://yogamum.wordpress.com/2008/02/10/lots-of-memey-excellence/

    serene said...

    hey- not sure if you've done this meme yet (you probably have actually...), but in the off chance that you haven't, you should definitely do it- it was made for you!
    http://nhw.livejournal.com/939967.html

    darkorpheus said...

    Serene Actually, have not done it.

    Anonymous said...

    Looking at your reading update reminds me that I need to pick up The Idiot again. I just finish Anna Karenina and am writing a reading guide of it for the freshman/sophomore seminar. It has been a Russian summer here! :)

    Doc Martian said...

    I just finished Moby Dick. Still digesting it. Kind of like if 'The Dark Knight' were 9 hours long.

    hints of lucifer's rebellion in ahab hints of god's forgiveness in the white whale. nice in that you can sense the end of whaling in it. not that its right away... but it seems something fading away instead of a fresh new thing. talk of perseus and alexander whaling where in Melville's time its a bunch of scalawags and people running away from the world... like oilmen today. i can't say I recommend it to you. any more than i'd recommend a gorey safari movie to you... but if you ever get into saga... the kalevala... the iliad... the mabinogion (a humanistic welsh saga that i DO recommend to yah), le morte darthur, the eddas of snorri snurlsson, then moby dick would be a good addition to those... ooh... ever read musashi by eiji yoshikawa? there's a single volume edition that's a monsterous beast.

    hmmm.... riding the iron rooster by paul theroux.

    i'm a recovered biblioholic. talkin' to you is like livin' dangerously. ;)

    Cheers!
    Doc

    darkorpheus said...

    Matt - I'm back on The Idiot now that I'm done with Rebecca Solnit. It is - as you say - a sweet book. :)

    Doc - I have come to terms with the fact that I am not likely to ever finish reading Moby Dick.

    But I was looking at the Mabinogion recently. Might just pick it up one day.

    As for Musashi, I was reading the Chinese translation of it actually. English translations of Japanese literature often feel awkward to me.