Top 5 (or 10) Wednesday

[Peacefield]

I'll have to think more on this, but War and Peace also comes to mind for me, as well as The Iliad and The Odyssey.  

 

I'll also say that several of Iain Pears' novels are close to or over 600 pages and while at first they seemed intimidating, once I started I felt good and was overwhelmingly happy that I read them by the time I finished.

[nursenblack]

I have a few I own that I'm intimidated by and a couple that I don't own but have thought about reading.

 

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb - It's on my shelf and so impressively big.

 

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald - On my shelf

 

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - Not a huge book, but guess I'm afraid I won't like it as much as I want to.

 

Kafka on the Shore - by Haruki Murakami - on my shelf-  Heard so much hype about this author that I'm a little afraid to start it.

 

House of Leaves by Mark A. Danielewski - It's been on my wish list for awhile, but I'm a bit scared of experimental fiction.

 

 

 

[chaliepud]

For me it's probably just the Stephen King books I own, The Stand and 11:22:63, only really because of their size! I will read The Stand this year though!

[chaliepud]

For me it's probably just the Stephen King books I own, The Stand and 11:22:63, only really because of their size! I will read The Stand this year though!

[woolf woolf]

I'm intimidated by books depicting a specific mentality of scarceness and misery which I have experienced mostly with latin american authors. This has led me to leave some books unfinished, and I currently avoid literature from Africa and South America. I think there's an underlying effect, in that my school teachers liked those books to the extent we often had to read excerpts in class or the integral versions as an extracurricular activity. From those I completed, I'll name The Postman by Antonio Skármeta and The Pearl by John Steinbeck.

[Madeleine]

Yep Mill on the Floss for me too, as I've never read any Eliot although I've seen and enjoyed various TV adaptations, and I took the plunge with Mrs Gaskell last year, another classic author I'd never read before, and loved North and South.

 

Also Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - I saw the TV series a few years ago so I know the basic story which should help, but it's huge!  But then I've staggered through all 5 of Song of Ice and Fire, and was fine with those apart from the 5th one.

 

I've read the first Outlander book and enjoyed it, so be brave Athena...you can do it!  I think some of the later books are meant to go on a bit too long, but the first few are fine, so I've heard.

[frankie]

This is a good one, it seems that people have come up with their titles very easily this time  

 

Off the top of my head, the ones that intimidate me (I'm going with books on my TBR pile): 

 

Possession by A. S. Byatt

House of Leaves by Mark A. Danielewski 

Alastalon salissa by Volter Kilpi 

The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

[Anna Begins]

Mine are:

 

The Crimson Petal and the White (size and subject matter)

The Shining (too scary)

A Strangeness in my Mind- Organ Pamuk (600+ pages)

The Ocean at the End of the Lane (never read any Gaiman)

The Bone Clocks (too much magic realism?)

 

The Stand more than makes up for the length!

[Athena]

Nice to see so many responses .

 

For me it's probably just the Stephen King books I own, The Stand and 11:22:63, only really because of their size! I will read The Stand this year though!

11/22/63 intimidates me too, though aside from its length I'm also worried about the time period it takes place in, because I don't know a lot about the '60s in the US, and often the slang and references make it difficult for me. I do plan to read it eventually though.

 

 

 

Also Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - I saw the TV series a few years ago so I know the basic story which should help, but it's huge!  But then I've staggered through all 5 of Song of Ice and Fire, and was fine with those apart from the 5th one.

 

Pillars of the Earth is quite huge! I do recommend it .

 

I've read the first Outlander book and enjoyed it, so be brave Athena...you can do it! I think some of the later books are meant to go on a bit too long, but the first few are fine, so I've heard.

That's good to hear .

 

Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien

This one intimidates me too.

 

The Stand more than makes up for the length!

Agreed .

[Kylie]

Nice to see so many responses .

 

This is one of the easier questions to answer!

 

I'm intimidated by Tolstoy and Virginia Woolf and Moby Dick (and probably loads of others that escape me at the moment).

[Peacefield]

Mine are:

 

The Shining (too scary)

 

But it's oh-so deliciously scary and fabulous, Anna!!   I love this one, definitely in my top 10! 

[bobblybear]

For me it's

 

House of Leaves by Mark A. Danielewski

War and Peace by Fydor Dostoevsky
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami (again I passed over it at the library this morning)

 

I do hope I'll get around to them at some point, but I've been saying that for a while now.

[Athena]

War and Peace by Fydor Dostoevsky

I think War and Peace is written by Leo Tolstoy and Crime and Punishment is written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Which one did you mean?

[bobblybear]

I think War and Peace is written by Leo Tolstoy and Crime and Punishment is written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Which one did you mean?

 

You're right!   I meant War and Peace.

[Athena]

This week's topic is Favorite Mothers / Maternal Figures. I presume because it's Mother's Day in some countries. In the Netherlands it's on the 8th of May, but maybe in the U.S. it's different? (I think the creator of T5W is from the U.S.).

 

Nothing comes to mind for me just yet for this question to be honest.

[Peacefield]

Mother's Day in the US is also on the 8th of May too, Athena .

 

The first mother's/maternal figures who come to mind for me are Marilla Cuthbert in Anne of Green Gables, Caroline Ingalls in the Little House on the Prairie series and Mrs. March in Little Women.

 

I might think of more as the day goes on...

[woolf woolf]

I tried to think of mothers in books I read, but scrolling through the small list I couldn't remember anyone significant except Mrs. Ramsay, from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. The story was written mostly from her point of view. From what I can recall, she was a kind and considerate woman, whose posture balanced her husband's partial absence and distraction demanded by his academic writing; I believe one of her thoughts expressed in the book was how she had to relinquish any professional or intellectual endeavour in order to provide to her family's chemistry.

[chaliepud]

I'm having a hard time thinking of many, though I'm sure there are lots I can't think of at the top of my head!

 

Definitely Letty from We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, she isn't your conventional good mother but she has a wonderful strength of character and by the end of the book she was amazing.

 

Also, Rabbit from The Last Days of

Rabbit Hayes by Anna McPartlin, a fun, loving and inspirational character.

 

The mother in Things I Want My Daughters To Know by Elizabeth Noble is also brave and inspirational.

[Chrissy]

1) The first name that sprang into my mind was Molly Weasley from JK Rowling's Harry Potter series.  Loving, nurturing and a kick-ass witch (I'm thinking of her 'exchange' with Bellatrix in the Deathly Hallows). She adores her own children, and immediately identifies the lack of motherly love in Harry's life and seeks to fill his life with love and second helpings and encouragement. 

 

2) Honoria Lucasta Delagardie, The Dowager Duchess of Denver and the clever, batty and inclusive mother of Lord Peter Wimsey from the series by Dorothy L Sayers. 

 

3) Thursday Next, literary detective from Jasper Fforde's fabulous Thursday Next series. This may be considered an odd choice, but I love how Thursday wants her children to be who they are, even if she may at times take a detour to get to that way of thinking. She would kill for her loved ones, and not in that fluffy bunny way of foot stamping and shouting, but in a she-would-get-hold-of-a-tank-and-squish-any-enemies way.   My kind of gal! 

 

I may add to the list later as more spring to mind. 

[frankie]

This week's topic is Favorite Mothers / Maternal Figures. I presume because it's Mother's Day in some countries. In the Netherlands it's on the 8th of May, but maybe in the U.S. it's different? (I think the creator of T5W is from the U.S.).

 

 

Mother's Day in the US is also on the 8th of May too, Athena .

 

In Finland as well   

 

Mother's Day was in March in the UK, I believe.  

 

No one in particular comes to mind... Oh! Anastasia Krupnik's mother Katherine! She's so cool So nice and intelligent and supportive. 

Edited April 29, 2016 by frankie

[julie]

This question has me wracking my brain .  Do you know, the books that seem to have memorable parents to me, are Fathers . Some of my favorite books had really good dads in them.

 

This will be an odd answer, since she isn't "biologically " the mom, but I immediately thought of Pip's older sister in Great Expectations , who was "bringing him up by hand " . Poor Joe ended up also being brought up by hand himself !  I always thought that line was so funny , although I don't suppose it was meant to be .

[nursenblack]

Mother's Day in the US is also on the 8th of May too, Athena .

 

The first mother's/maternal figures who come to mind for me are Marilla Cuthbert in Anne of Green Gables, Caroline Ingalls in the Little House on the Prairie series and Mrs. March in Little Women.

 

I might think of more as the day goes on...

 

Yes, definitely these come to mind.  I can't think of any more that really stand out for me.

[willoyd]

I had a list of eight, but three have already been mentioned, which conveniently leaves 5! ..........

 

Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice - one of the great comic characters in literature, and actually surprisingly successful in her own way!

 

Mother in The Railway Children - an amazing mother under huge pressure, the glue that keeps the family together;

 

Mimsie Potts in Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang - unforgiveably written out of the Disney film;

 

Mrs Brown in the Paddington Bear stories - copes with everything thrown at her, and Paddington throws a lot!!

 

Mother Wolf in The Jungle Book - nobody messes with her!

 

I don't think it's much of a surprise that most of these characters are from children's books, and ones that I grew up with. 

 

(BTW, the other three I was going to mention were Ma Ingalls, Mrs Ramsay and Molly Weasley).

 

Thinking about it, I've just finished a really enjoyable book all centred on mothering - perhaps too soon to judge whether a 'favourite' or not, but certainly worth adding to the list:  Taylor Greer in Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees, who acquires a daughter by accident and has to learn to step into motherhood.

Edited May 1, 2016 by willoyd

[willoyd]

I was away on school residential last week, so missed the thread on books that intimidate, so this is my late contribution!

 

It was interesting to see how many people are intimidated by War and Peace.  All I can offer is that I think its reputation is simply founded on its size.  I've read it twice now, and both times I've found it to be an absolutely brilliant story, so please don't let the size get in the way.  As with most older books there are passages where the author appears to go off at a tangent and philosophise, but these are easy to identify and skim over if wanted, whilst still fully enjoying the narrative itself.  It's a big book because it covers a lot of characters and a fairly significant chunk of time, but it is also an extremely powerful book.  Oddly, most people I know who have read Tolstoy rate Anna Karenina as his masterpiece, whereas I found that one to admire rather than enjoy, with War and Peace being a much easier read.

 

What I find with most classics is that I need to give them time; they are not the sort of book that one can pick up, read a few pages, and put down.  They require a degree of immersion and a willingless to let the words dictate the flow. I found that especially with Virginia Woolf, a writer where I can only read by completely letting go and letting the words flow over me, giving myself time to let the pictures develop.  It's a whole different way to reading compared to most modern books.  Having said that, I would definitely avoid The Waves if reading Woolf for the first time - I found that (un!)comfortably the hardest of her books to read.  The problem is, though, that once in tune with the language, I often find it hard to subsequently pick up a more modern piece of writing as they feel desperately thin and under-written!  As a result of all this, I tend to leave classics to the school holidays, when I can sit down and tackle them properly - but then they were written for people who had more time than we allow ourselves nowadays.

 

The books which I find intimidating, if that is the right word, are those where I struggle to extract meaning.  I've thus virtually given up on Henry James, who seems to get more and more convoluted and obscure as his writing career develops.  Three specific books however, stand out for me as particularly difficult.

 

The one of these that has defeated me is Finnegan's Wake, where I simply can't handle Joyce's language - it reads as complete nonsense to me, and I just can't see how anybody copes with more than a few pages. The other two I remain determined to crack.  Having tackled Don Quixote a couple of times without success, I find that challenging, simply, I think, because it seems to take so long to do very little; both times I've tried I've found myself grinding to a halt, but there's still a part of me that wants to read it through, although I have to admit that John Carey's assessment of it in his autobiography does make me wonder!  Paradise Lost also looms large after a couple of attempts.  It's been frustrating because I feel there is something there most definitely worth reading.  I've now obtained a commentary to read alongside it, to help my understanding, and aim to tackle it again later this summer.

Edited May 1, 2016 by willoyd

[Athena]

Some interesting answers here, thanks to all for answering .

 

This week's topic is:

 

Authors You'd Want To Meet at Book Expo America & Bookcon; posted with links of which authors are attending these conferences (see here, here and here if you're interested, original T5W link is here). I propose we widen this by making our topic 'Authors You Want To Meet', including maybe deceased people. I think maybe that would be more interesting for us here (since I don't think anyone here is attending these American conferences and we don't all read popular YA titles).