The Observer Book List
1.
Don Quixote by Miguel
De Cervantes
Also on the Norwegian and the Sybervision lists -
2. Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
Also on the Sybervision list -
3.
Robinson Crusoe by
Daniel Defoe
(September-October 2008)
Also on the Sybervision list - I got the feeling while I was reading this of Cast Away a lot. I know there were several people out there who thought that movie was boring. Well the book came across the same way. It just seemed to drag on for me. Every other page at the beginning I was expecting him to become ship wrecked, then when he finally was, nothing exciting happened. For a book that seemed to be billed as an action-adventure novel I got none of that through the narrative. It's not a totally bad book and I enjoyed the plot, I just felt it was really slow at times. I found it amusing how no matter what Robinson did he seemed to end up on the short end of things, although I found it irritating that all Native Americans/ Native Islanders were referred to as savages and cannibals. I can see how they might be thought of that way in the story until you meet them but Defoe continued to show them eating humans. Sorry but cannibalism was not that widespread.
4. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (2002)
Also on the Norwegian and Sybervision lists - An enjoyable book that seems like fantasy but in reality was a political commentary on his time. Very enjoyable. Another book I read for my college class that I feel I should go back and read again now that I have a little more time and little less pressure to read it.
5.
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
(May - July 2008)
Also on the Sybervision list - Although it is a rather long book (my copy was over 850 pages) I did greatly enjoy reading it. The author is more of a narrator then an impartial observer. He readily makes comments throughout the book that makes you feel like you are sitting by a fire listening to him relay the story. It was definitely a different approach then most I have read and I greatly enjoyed it. The story was exquisite. It is about a bastard, Tom, who was abandoned by his mother to be raised by a very benevolent man. Although I did not readily agree with some of the lessons at the end of the book (how birth makes more of a difference on who the boy is, not just his character) I still enjoyed it and the ending did bring a tear to my cheek. I thought that how the author kept making Tom's situation worse and worse that there was no way to bring him back in a believable manner, but it worked out and rather well at that. I definitely enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone with a few months to read it.
6. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
7. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
Also on the Norwegian list -
8. Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
Also on the BBC list - This book was actually better than I was expecting. Once I got passed Austen's round-about way of speaking the book actually intrigued me. The story is about a female in her early twenties among the upper class social scene of rural England. She has vowed to never marry in order to not stress her father, so then she tries to hook up her friend Harriet. The problem comes when Emma realizes that she is really bad at doing this and eventually causes more problems then if she had just left everything alone. The story wraps up very nicely in a happily-ever-after ending. Although I enjoyed it I do not recommend it mainly because of the language is difficult to follow at times. Also she could have used "by the bye" far less.
10. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (2004)
Also on the Sybervision list - The classic story of man trying to be God. A quick an easy book to read; I read it in 2 days. The story is presented in a unique way, as journal articles, not typically done although remarkably similar to Dracula. It makes the reader feel what is going through the doctor's mind. The book shows that the real monster, that one Dr. Frankenstein created, was in fact himself, and that the monster ended up having more humanity than the doctor was even capable of.
11. Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
12. The Black Sheep by Honore De Balzac
13. The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal
14. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Also on the BBC list -
15. Sybil by Benjamin Disraeli
16. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Also on the Sybervision and the BBC lists -
17.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
(May 2006)
One of the 2 on the 4 main lists - A very weird book, not at all what I thought it would be. I considered this to be what is termed "chic lit" (as seen on Jeopardy). I couldn't have been more off. This is one of the most depressing books I have read yet. It is more of how Satan himself can corrupt people in retched beings but in the end sometimes they pull through. Most of the story takes place as a flashback of one of the former housekeepers. It is a little confusing and un-enjoyable at first because of the erudite language she used, but after a few chapters I got used to it. After the flashback it shows an orphaned child, Heathcliff, brought back to the house who is shunned by all, who eventually takes over everything. Since most of this is known at the start of the story, it is interesting to see how everything comes about and to see how two separate families who differ in everything (intelligence, strength, and health intermingle). On my must read and it should be on yours.
18. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (December 2003)
Also on the the Sybervision and BBC lists - Another on my must read list. It follows the life of the title character as she starts in an orphanage and eventually goes on to live with Mr. Rochester. A fun romantic novel with an air of mystery.
19. Vanity Fair by William Thackeray
Also on the Sybervision list -
20. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (2001)
Also on the Sybervision list - I read this book as part of a literature class I was in and I did not understand everything about it. The beginning was extremely slow and has a tendency to drive people away from the book but it does get better fairly quickly. The story is an example of morality in a Puritan society where the main character must wear a bright red "A" to symbolize her adultery. The storyline follows her trials and tribulations in her society of Biblical law.
21. Moby Dick by Herman Melville (August-September 1998)
Also on the Norwegian and Sybervision lists - Forced to read in my high school senior year I was not looking forward to this book. It has the most memorable first line of any book out there except maybe A Tale of Two Cities. The story line is the classic of a man trying to take control of his fears and being destroyed in the process. The book reads slowly and the chapter describing whales escapes my understanding as to why it is even in the book. Not a recommendation by me but maybe just because I read it when I would not appreciate it.
22.
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
(April 2010)
Also on the Sybervision, Zane, and Norwegian lists - The first thing I noticed while reading this book was how well is flowed. One idea flowed into another, most of it without a break or pause. Seemingly unconnected thoughts were put together seamlessly in a string of narrative that I could only hope to replicate. I loved reading this book, especially after Canterbury Tales, since the language was so much easier to follow and I'm not trying to decipher what the author is saying, I'm just enjoying the words. I did have some problems with the book though. The first being the very weak female characters, especially the main character. She seemed mostly to be reacting to events in her life and not being proactive in any of her choices. Nothing she did was really in response to what she wanted and more in response to what someone else wanted. And her child was the most useless of characters, almost inconsequential for 99% of the story. So, even though it did have some weak points, it was a marvelously written story and I would definitely recommend this as a must read.
23. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (July-August 2007)
Also on the BBC list - The story is about a mysterious woman escaped from an Asylum who crosses the path of the main character (Walter Hartright) and who happened to be intimately intertwined with his events afterwards. The narrative follows several different people who were associated with her story through until the end of it. This is a mystery so I will not give away any of the more interesting points and ruin the story for those who wish to read it but I can say it is a love story and that at the end everything turns out well. I recommended this book to anyone since it is very easy to read, flows naturally and is enthralling from the get go. The climax seems to come a bit early but even though the narrative slows down a bit it never stops. Very entertaining.
24. Alice's Adventures In
Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (August 2010)
Also on the BBC list - In one word, bizarre. This is the first time I have read the book, but I have seen both the Disney version and the Tim Burton version and both of them made more sense than this book. As my friend put it, that must have been some good opium he was on when he wrote this. The story jumps around randomly and it goes from one situation seemingly into an entirely different situation with no rhyme or reason to why. But when you think about it, it makes sense. This is a story about a dream. But it is also a story as described by a child. So you have a dream where things have a habit of just happening in the words of a child who often will jump around and make up things that don't really make any sense, all woven into this magical land where nothing makes sense and things just happen. Although I was greatly dumbstruck at first, the story began to grow on me. Nothing really happened in the story by the end but aren't most dreams are like that. At one point, you just wake up. The book is very well written. It just flowed as I read it, with each sentence and each section flowing into the next. Although you knew the situations didn't fit together the narrative was never jarring between different point. The sentences weren't choppy and it made for a rather enjoyable read to see what would happen next. So I will place this on my to read list, mostly due to the fun that reading the book could instill on a child or an adult who wonders what it is like to think like a child.
25. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Also on the Sybervision and the BBC lists -
26. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
The only one on all 5 lists
(Norwegian,
Sybervision, BBC, and
Zane)-
Now to state first off I thought
this was one of the most well written stories I have ever read. Tolstoy just
flows with descriptions that make you feel you understand everything that is
going on. The characters are extremely well developed and even though they are
Russian (which has a tendency to jump around with names a bit) it is still easy
to follow who is who. I enjoyed several of the references to early communist
culture (the book takes place about 30 years before the communist revolution)
and several of the characters' personality polarities and themes that are
emphasized in the book (religious vs non-religious, upper vs lower class, etc.).
Onto my main gripe with the story; it seems like two separate stories going on
at the same time. The "main" one should be the one with Anna but I got the
feeling that for the most part it was the story line centered around Levin (who
supposedly represented Tolstoy himself). The story about Anna I felt was
enjoyable and well written. It focused around her leaving her husband for
another man which that relationship slowly dissolves over the length of the book
as well. While the story with Levin, although in parts were very good, I felt
was very political and sometimes unimportant to anything. The whole last section
(after the Anna story line was wrapped up) felt out of place and forced and left
me wishing the book would just end. All in all I very much enjoyed the first
half of the novel but the second half seemed to drag on a bit. I am not going to
recommend this on my list and personally would not consider this the greatest
book ever. But being that it is on so many book lists it probably should be one
that you read.
28. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
29.
The Brothers Karamazov by
Fyodor M Dostoyevsky (July - September 2006)
On the Norwegian and the Sybervision lists - This book read a lot like Crime and Punishment, which is the reason why I liked it. I probably would put it on my must read list but Crime and Punishment is already on the list and I thought that Crime and Punishment was a much better book. Overall I though the book was extremely well written, but long (~800 pages) and I did not fully understand the point of the epilogue. The story is about 3 (maybe 4) brothers all from the same father but different mothers. All of them have widely varied personalities ranging from borderline psychotic to deeply religious to the non-religious academic. The story culminates in a murder that we as the reader know the brother did not commit but he is put on trial for. I like the way the story was written, with us knowing more than the people in the trial and the ending for the most part made sense; again except for the epilogue. So if you are in the mood for a long but relatively uncomplicated read, I recommend this one.
30. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (2005)
Also on the Sybervision list - The story follows an American moving to Europe and having to adapt from the free thinking of America to the more rigid thinking of England at the time. A very well written and easy to follow novel. Kind of unmemorable in my mind though. I enjoyed reading it and it flows very well but I cannot remember the plot overly well, hence the reason it does not make it to my must read list.
31.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark
Twain (1996ish)
Also on the Norwegian, Zane, and the Sybervision lists - As most children I was forced to read this in school, a couple of times. Its actually one of the better novels most kids read (unfortunately closed-minded people try to ban this novel). It gives the "kid's adventure" that Mark Twain is known for but also has the racial issues of the time with the escaped slave Jim and how Huck eventually learned to just see him as a friend. A book that should be read just because of the criticism it receives from the ignorant people who can't get passed the language.
32. Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
33. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
34.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by
Oscar
Wilde (July 2009)
Also on the Sybervision list - A rather enjoyable book about a man who (unintentionally) sells his soul so that he may remain the Adonis that he is. Dorian Gray starts out pretty naive until he is told by a painter that he is the most beautiful person he has ever seen. After the portrait that he paints is complete, Dorian sees it and realizes that the painter is correct. At the same time he meets another man, Lord Henry, who says that it is a pity that he will lose his beauty at such a young age, prompting Dorian to sell his soul to maintain his current appearance.. Since that time Lord Henry had steadily corrupted Dorian, acting as a Satan character, leading him down a dark path. Fantastic book. The ending is perfect and unexpected. I recommend it to anyone interested in reading a fairly short enjoyable read. Wilde does go off on some tangents at times and some of Lord Henry's speeches are difficult to follow but enjoyable none-the-less.
35. The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith
36. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
37. The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
38. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (September 2005)
Also on the Sybervision list - This book was fantastic. I highly recommend it to anyone especially dog lovers. It is gripping and it is intense, so much so it makes you want to read more and to top it all off, its short. Only about 80 pages. I read it in about 2 days and did not try that hard. It is about a dog, Buck, who was kidnapped from California and taken to Alaska to be a sled dog. The book is entirely through the dogs perspective but it does not have any of the cheesy "dog voices". Not once do you hear what they are saying but you get how he is feeling, especially among his interactions with other dogs and humans. Again I highly recommend, you won't be disappointed.
39. Nostromo by Joseph Conrad
Also on the Norwegian list -
40. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Also on the BBC list -
41. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Also on the Zane list -
42. The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence
43. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
44. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
45.
Ulysses
by
James
Joyce (March-April 2007)
Also on the Norwegian and BBC lists - This book is often listed as one of the best books of the 20th Century although I have some problems with it. The main problem with this book is it is written in an odd style, where no 2 chapters are similar in vocabulary, style or even concept. Some examples include one chapter written like a play, one with newspaper type headlines and one that illustrates the evolution of the English language over time. Overall the book is based off of the Odyssey set in modern day (early 19th century) Ireland. The author uses his language and format style to illustrate several different portions of the book. Had I read this book in a class where they could explain the information to me this would have been much better, but I didn't. I actually broke down and looked up the book online to help explain what was going on and after that the book became much better, but it is still a very difficult book to read to the point where some of the sections are completely unintelligible. Although the parts I did get I could tell where this book was groundbreaking at its time, I'm just not going to recommend this book to anyone anytime soon.
46. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Also on the Norwegian list -
47. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
48. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1996?)
Also on the Sybervision, Zane, and BBC lists - Like almost every kid, I had to read this, but it was so long ago I do not really remember the gist of it. The book follows the life of a man in the 1920's who created his fortune while living around people who inherited their fortunes. Two separate worlds clashing over what is proper. Reading reviews on this book leads me to believe that this is either a book about religion, poverty to wealth, love or something else entirely. A must reread in my mind, now that I am older.
49. The Trial by Franz Kafka
Also on the Norwegian list -
50. Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway
51. Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Also on the Norwegian list -
52. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
53. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Also on the BBC list -
54. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
55. USA by John Dos Passos
56. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
57. The Pursuit Of Love by Nancy Mitford
58. The Plague by Albert Camus
59.
1984
by
George
Orwell (February-March 2007)
Also on the Norwegian and the BBC lists - I can understand why this is one 3 out of the 4 lists. It is a very powerful novel dealing with a totalitarian society and how one might survive in that society. The problem I had with this book was the utter hopelessness of it. Through every page, every paragraph of the book you had a hope that this may end all right and that everything will be right in the world again. But after all is said and done, you knew that it wouldn't. A very depressing book but a definite must read, if only to show and warn people just might be possible. Because you never know.
60.
Malone Dies
by
Samuel
Beckett (July-August 2008)
The entire Trilogy is also on the Norwegian list - Even though only Malone Dies is on this list (likely the best of the three) I am reviewing the entire trilogy. The Trilogy at first reminded me of Ulysses, which if anyone has noticed, I despised. But Beckett soon broke away from the incessant ramblings that plagued that novel and gave two really good stories, Molloy and Malone Dies. The novels are written with all emotion removed and in a rather cryptic way that keeps the reader guessing as you read on. The second half of Molloy seems like the second half of the story, but as you read you get the feeling it may be the prelude to the first half. Malone Dies at first seems to be completely disjointed from the first novel but reading on you get the feeling it may be Molloy and is just a continuation of the first novel. In the third novel The Unnamable, Beckett returns to the rambling speech that is full of run-on sentences saying nothing. If it was not for the last novel I might recommend this but the last novel killed it for me. Unfortunately you need to read all three to get the entire feel for the novels. So although I somewhat enjoyed parts of it, I can not recommend this as a novel to be read.
61. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1996ish?)
Also on the BBC list - I never really understood why this book became a cult classic and was a favorite for killers and sociopaths. The book is a rather depressing novel about a 16 year-old adolescent, just kicked out of prep school and learning to deal with the adult world of "phonies." Its a very well written book and really enjoyable to read, I just could never understand what made it a cult novel. A must reread book, to hopefully solve this mystery and so I can place it on my must read list.
62. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
This story goes way back for me. I remember growing up and watching the cartoon but I don't believe I ever read the book outright. So, I read it this time with my daughter and I realized that I would prefer to stick with the cartoon. The sentence structure is often very difficult to read and, I don't know about other books but reading this outloud I noticed a ton of "said so and so" after someone said something. Which, can get rather tiring after a while and really destroys the flow of a good book. Also, this book reminded me of why I like the Dahl books, it was because of the language. Dahl has a habit of using large words in context, words that you wouldn't usually find in a children's book. In Charlotte's Web, White also uses some large words but it is immediately followed by "I don't know what that means, what does that mean?". That is great for teaching children new words, but I prefer the other method, if you use the word in context well enough, you don't have to explain the meaning. So all in all, it is a touching story, and I did tear up a little at the end, but I wouldn't really recommend this to other people to read.
Also on the BBC list - For a book that took ten years to write, you can tell. The story is so in depth and the languages that were created so complete that you can almost feel like this is an actual world. Word of advice, read The Hobbit first then expand into this book because The Hobbit flows into this book. Also watching the movies after reading these books gives you so much insight that upon first viewing I missed. The characterization in some of the best I have ever read. Unfortunately the movies did not portray my favorite character in the book which was Tom Bombodil and anyone who has read this would probably agree with me. Again the book is fantastic, you just need to read it to appreciate it. Definitely on my must read list.
65. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
66. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Also on the BBC list -
67. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
68. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Also on the BBC list -
69. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Also on the Norwegian and the Zane lists -
70. The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
Also on the Norwegian list -
71. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Also on the Norwegian list -
72. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
73. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Also on the Sybervision and BBC lists -
74. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Also on the BBC list -
75. Herzog by Saul Bellow
76. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Also on the Norwegian and BBC lists -
77. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
78. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre
I rather enjoyed this story but I am not sure if it should go on my must read list. It is rather vulgar through most of the story but it tells a very good tale. The story seems to be partly about a black man living in a intolerant society. I read comments elsewhere that this is a work about living as a black person during the early 20th century but I do not think so. That plays a part of it but it seems to be just background for the real story. The deeper story is about a man learning about his roots (his people) and learning that family is more important than anything else. The flow of the story carries it along at a great pace and you never know what might happen next, but it all works. Ok, I will put this on my list but with a warning that this has very harsh language but it is not used randomly and fits into the story very well.
80. The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge
81. The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
82. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino
83. A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul
84. Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
85. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
86. Lanark by Alasdair Gray
87. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
Also on the BBC list - The BFG is children's book about a little girl who discovers a Big Friendly Giant (AKA BFG). There is also other giants along with the BFG who are not so friendly, because they eat people. So the little girl convinces the BFG to take the bad giants down. This actually is a rather gruesome story for a child but as I read online it is the perfect children's book, although the making up of words does get a bit tiresome after a while. The story has clear cut morality issues and includes a heroine who is just your everyday kid. It is a good story for kids that parents do not need to be too worried about. Enjoyable, just not my cup of tea.
89. The Periodic Table by Primo Levi
90. Money by Martin Amis
91. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
92. Oscar And Lucinda by Peter Carey
93. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
94. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
95. LA Confidential by James Ellroy
96. Wise Children by Angela Carter
97. Atonement by Ian McEwan
The entire trilogy is also on BBC list - This the review for the entire trilogy where this is the first book (under the UK title). The entire trilogy is on the BBC list as His Dark Materials. The story is a cross between The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, less in depth than Rings and less preachy than Narnia. The cross between the two stories that takes the best of both. Very quick and easy to read. The plot is about parallel universes and how a couple kids are destined to save us all. It is well written and a very fast read (about 1000 pages in about 2 weeks). In the end all the plot lines get wrapped up neatly, although I disagree with how it ended although there was no other way it could have gone. The story is very enthralling not letting me put it down the further I went into the story.
99. American Pastoral by Philip Roth
100. Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald
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