Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

So after a very long break, and an even longer amount of procrastinating, I decided to pick my next book using the scientific method of a random number generator. And the first book the computer picked was this one.

I'm enjoying it. At least I think I am. It's the most difficult book I've ever read and I'm not entirely sure why. Is it because my knowledge of India's history is negligible? Is my head just not in the right place? I haven't read any of Salman Rushdie's books until now, and I'm wondering whether I should have picked The Satanic Verses instead?

If anyone has read it I'd love to hear. I'm determined to finish it, no matter what.

I'm back!

I've put this gap-filling project on hold while I drag myself through the final stages of my degree, but as of next Friday I am all done (I HOPE), so it's time for me to get back into this!

Trouble is, I don't know where to start. My mental state is in no condition to tackle anything too difficult right now (Iliad!), so I wanted to ask you guys - what book should I read next?

Here's where I'm at right now:

1. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
2. The Iliyad - Homer
3. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
4. The Power of One - Bryce Courtney
5. Ulysses - James Joyce
6. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
7. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
8. Animal Farm - George Orwell
9. Lady Chatterley's Lover - DH Lawrence
10. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
11. Persuasion - Jane Austen
12. The Boat - Nam Le
13. My Brilliant Career - Miles Franklin
14. Carpentaria - Alexis Wright
15. Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
16. Dirt Music - Tim Winton
17. Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
18. 1984 - George Orwell
19. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
20. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
21. Middlemarch - George Eliot
22. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
23. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
24. The White Earth - Andrew McGhan
25. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
26. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
27. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
28. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
29. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
30. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
31. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
32. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
33. Everything I Knew - Peter Goldsworthy
34. Wanting - Richard Flannagan
35. A Fraction of the Whole - Steve Toltz
36. Schindlers Ark - Thomas Kennally
37. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
38. The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
39. The Eye in the Door - Pat Barker
40. The Ghost Road - Pat Barker
41. The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
42. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
43. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
44. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchel
45. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
46. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
47. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
48. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
49. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
50. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
51. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
52. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
53. 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
54. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
55. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
56. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
57. The Monkeys Mask - Dorothy Porter
58. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
59. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
60. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
61. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
62. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
63. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
64. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
65. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
66. The Diary of Anne Frank - Anne Frank
67. Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
68. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
69. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
70. The Poisonwood Bible- Barbara Kingsolver
71. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
72. Watership Down - Richard Adams
73. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - Ken Kesey
74. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
75. The Good Earth - Pearl Buck
76. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
77. The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
78. The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
79. Tbe Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
80. East of Eden - John Steinbeck
81. The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
82. March - Geraldine Brooks
83. The Thornbirds - Colleen McCullough
84. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles - Haruki Murakami
85. Middlesex -Jeffrey Eugenides
86. Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card
87. The House of Spirits - Isabel Allende
88. Sophie’s Choice - William Styron
89. The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
90. The Gathering - Anne Enright
91. Life & Times of Michael K - J M Coetzee
92. The Sea – John Banville
93. The Red Queen – Margaret Drabble
94. The Divine Comedy - Dante
95. The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
96. The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields
97. Hideous Kinky – Esther Freud
98. The Bonfire of the Vanities – Tom Wolfe
99. Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer
100. Breakfast at Tiffanys - Truman Capote

Amanda's End of the Year Update

At some point, I lost track of which months I checked in, so I decided to just wait until the end of the year to give a final tally. I doubt there's anything left on my list that I'll be reading in the next 19 days, so I'll just give my stats now.

My full FitG list is here.

So far, I've read 32 of my 100 books, and started to read but abandoned 4. They are as follows (with links to my reviews):

Alexie – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
Asher – Thirteen Reasons Why
Austen – Mansfield Park
Bechdel – Fun Home
Black – Tithe
Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451
Burnett – The Secret Garden
Caletti – Wild Roses
Cather – Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chesterton – The Man Who Was Thursday
Collins – Woman in White
Forster – A Passage to India
Gaiman – The Graveyard Book
Gaiman – Stardust
Greenberg – I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Hanff – 84, Charing Cross Road
Johnson – Suite Scarlett
Maugham – Liza of Lambeth
McEwan – Atonement
Nabokov – Ada, or Ardor
Paton – Cry, the Beloved Country
Pratchett – The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Snyder – The Witches of Worm
Solzhenitsyn – One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Steinbeck – East of Eden
Tammet – Born on a Blue Day
Turgenev – Fathers and Sons
Westerfeld – The Last Days
Westerfeld – PEEPS
Westerfeld – So Yesterday
Woolf – A Room of One’s Own
Zusak – The Book Thief

Abandoned:
Bronte, C. – Villette
Doctorow – Little Brother
Martel – Life of Pi
Shelley – The Last Man

My stats for the full FitG list look like this:

-Classics/Modern: about 50-50%
-YA: about 25%
-Fiction/Nonfiction: 94/6%
-By women/men: about 33/67%
-Translations and World Lit: aprox 25%

Stats for what I've read (including the 4 abandoned books):

-Classics/Modern: 50-50%
-YA: about 42%
-Fiction/Nonfiction: 86/14%
-By women/men: 36/64%
-Translations and World Lit: 11%

What this says to me is that I've been reading a lot of YA, more nonfiction than I expected, and less translations and world lit.

Also of this list, I liked 14 books, disliked 12 (including the 4 I abandoned), and was pretty neutral about 10. Not bad for a gaps list, I don't think!

I'm looking forward to knocking out another chunk of these in 2010!

I have a confession to make...

So I'm reading Carpentaria by Alexis Wright, and I have stalled.

I have stalled because it is one of the most amazing books I have ever read, and I'm only going to get to read it for the first time once! All I want to do now is run away to the Northern Territory (and I'm so jealous of my friend, who is already there). It's such a wonderful lyrical story that captures the top end perfectly. No wonder it won the Miles Franklin.

I had the same problem the first time I read To Kill A Mockingbird. I remember finishing it and wishing I could have that experience over again. Does this happen to you guys? And how do you keep going?

Amanda's progress - July & August

Well, I haven't been reading too many books off my list this last little while. Too many other reading challenges I've been trying to complete! Altogether, I've read 4 more in the last two months. Here's what I've read, with brief thoughts about each book and links to the full reviews. All my reviews are located at The Zen Leaf.

1. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf - I would have preferred to listen to this one on audio, but it was pretty good. Still hard to get through like all Woolf seems to be. 3.5 Stars.

2. East of Eden by John Steinbeck - Excellent book, though not as good as the Grapes of Wrath. A little heavy handed with the biblical references near the end. 4 Stars.

3. So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld - A standalone Westerfeld book that doesn't get anywhere near as much attention as it deserves. This ranks among my favorites of his. 4.5 Stars.

4. The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld - Eh. B-grade. Too many big white worms. Everything was too convenient. This is the first disappointing book by Westerfeld I've ever read. 2.5 Stars.

Okay, hopefully September will bring me back with another good set of progress on this challenge. So far, I'm at 24 books read, 3 skipped.

Matthew, Progress Report

I've been thoroughly absent lately, what with getting married and all, but I did manage to make some progress on my list:

Finished:
Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri
Paradiso by Dante Alighieri
Candide by Voltaire

Currently Reading:
The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Persian Expedition by Xenophon

I'll add some reviews for the above sometime in the next few days, but for now I'm just going to collapse on the couch for awhile and be really glad my wife and I don't have any more wedding planning and preparation to do.

Progress for July

July was a moderately productive month, I guess. Read a bunch of good ones. EVERYBODY! READ EMILY BRONTE AND WILLIAM BLAKE'S POETRY! IT'S THE BEST!
Songs of Innocence and Experience (Review)
Beowulf (Review)
Eugene Onegin (Review)
Cranford (Review)
The Comedians (Review)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Review)
Complete Poems of Emily Bronte (Review)
The Jungle (Review)
Agnes Grey (Review)

and another of Shakespeare's plays: As You Like It (Review)

June Check-In

This month I read 6 books off my list, and started a seventh that I had to abandon halfway through. Here's my list, with brief thoughts about each book and links to the full reviews. All my reviews are located at The Zen Leaf.

1. The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett - This was my first book by Pratchett and my introduction to Discworld. I enjoyed it more than I expected. 4 Stars.

2. The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett - Cute book, I probably would have liked it better if I'd read it as a kid. 3 Stars.

3. Wild Roses by Deb Caletti - This is the best book I've read in years. Deb Caletti is fast becoming my favorite modern author. She writes books that ought to become classics. 5 Stars.

4. Atonement by Ian McEwan - I know everyone loves this book, but I just hated it. I had to force myself through every word. Sorry. 1 Star.

5. Tithe by Holly Black - Disappointing. I expected this to be wonderful, but it failed in almost every way. Bad writing, inane characters, glorification of unhealthy lifestyles...etc. 2 Stars.

6. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather - My favorite Cather book so far. This is the only book I've ever read that makes me want to visit New Mexico. 4 Stars.

7. Villette by Charlotte Bronte (abandoned) - I really wanted to like this one. Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books. In Villette, I just couldn't get past the awful writing and the horrible prejudice of the narrator. One day I do plan to go back and try to read the second half of the book, but for now, I had to put it away. I've heard it gets much better.

That brings my total to 20 read, 3 abandoned.

I finished Middlemarch!!

I was literally reading the last pages as I walked home from the train station last night, but I did it!

It's definitely a book that I will need to read again, a few times I think. There was something very unsatisfactory about the ending that I can't quite put my finger on. I stopped despising Rosamond, so I guess that's something.

Next book for me is not for this project - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It's definitely filling in the gap of Victorian Zombies however =D

May Check-In

Project Fill-in-the-Gaps is still going great! I read less books from that category this month, but I tried to lower my reading volume tremendously this month anyway, so that makes sense. Here are my reads for May, with links to the full reviews and a sentence or two about my thoughts (see link for full thoughts):

1. Liza of Lambeth by William Somerset Maugham - The only major Maugham book I hadn't read, this one was okay but definitely not his best. 3 Stars.

2. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Excellent book, much better than the majority of Russian lit I've read. Highly recommended. 5 Stars.

3. The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley Snyder - A children's book by one of my favorite children's authors, this one frequently shows up on banned books lists (for no reason, in my opinion). I liked it, but would have liked it better had I read it as a kid. 4 Stars.

4. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher - A heartbreaking and un-put-downable book. Don't start this at 2 in the afternoon. 5 Stars.

5. The Last Man by Mary Shelley - A complete waste of time. There's a reason Mary Shelley was known for Frankenstein instead of this one. I had to abandon this one halfway through. 1 Star.

6. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton - Beautiful book, and still relevant today. Highly recommended. 4 Stars.

That brings my totals so far to 14 read, 2 abandoned. See you next month!

Becky: And That Makes Five

I've read a total of five now. New since my last update: The Warden by Anthony Trollope and The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.

I'm currently working on two more:

Middlemarch by George Eliot

and

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope.

Christy : Progress Update

I finished my first book on my list - Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor. I will follow with a more detailed review later, but I will state that I really enjoyed the book and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a mystery with a dark twist. On to the next book!

First 10 down!

Project Fill in the Gaps is going well! Since I started on April 1st, I've knocked 10 books off my list. Here they are, with links to the full reviews and a short sentence or two about what I thought:

1. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - Not my favorite Austen, but more well-rounded character development than the other books.

2. The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton - This one left me completely bewildered, and I no longer marvel that, until recently, I'd never heard of this classics author.

3. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - Fabulous book, mystery and intrigue! I can't wait to read more of his.

4. Stardust by Neil Gaiman - My favorite Gaiman book so far, fast and easy to read, far superior to the movie.

5. PEEPS by Scott Westerfeld - Westerfeld continues to impress me. Who knew you could learn so much about biology from a vampire book?

6. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - A disappointing graphic novel memoire about Bechdel's sexuality and her relationship with her father. I was expecting much more from this, and it didn't deliver for me.

7. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - Don't hate me, but I didn't love this book. It felt too gimicky to me. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.

8. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev - Better than most Russian literature I've read, but still not superb. The second half is much better and faster than the first.

9. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg - Written along the same lines as The Bell Jar, this one didn't deliver. I could never feel connected with the narrator. The Bell Jar is highly superior.

10. Life of Pi by Yann Martel - My first casualty of the Fill in the Gaps project. I didn't get beyond page 36 of this one. Sorry. It's just not my sort of book. I have a nice copy that I'm giving away here.

So, 10 down, 90 to go, and I'm only a month in! Not bad.

The Red Queen - Margaret Drabble

I'm about halfway through The Red Queen, and I'm really enjoying it. (You know a book is good when it makes a train ride go much faster!). If it wasn't for silly things like work, uni and sleep I'm sure I would have finished it by now, I'm so drawn in!

Has anyone else read it?

Becky's First Three Books

Hi! I'm just checking back in. I've been able to read three books so far.

Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar
Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen
The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling

Of the three I've read, I've liked two. I'm currently reading The Warden by Anthony Trollope so I hope to have my fourth book read soon. I *hope* to take part in Middlemay if time permits.

Moby Dick - Herman Melville

I have finally finished it! I never thought I would, as reading Moby Dick was like reading a particularly heavy brick, but I did it. And as much as I thought I would hate it, now that I've finished I can say that it wasn't that bad. There were parts that I hated (that were generally about how to chase, kill, string up, decapitate, dismember and destroy a whale), but there were some parts that were really quite lovely.

If you have this book on your list, I wish you luck - it's the closest I'm ever going to get to running a marathon!

(I blogged about it, if you're interested)

first book down!

Erm, I wasn't sure if you guys wanted me to cross-post my book reviews here or not. I post on The Zen Leaf. I just finished my first book on my 100 list, Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. I thought I'd put my progress here and ask what you guys want to do for reviews. Just post progress here? Or post the reviews? If posting progress, how often? With each book, monthly, weekly, quarterly, etc? I'm happy to oblige, either way. Just let me know. :)