Hayley's 2012/13 Reading List

[Hayley]

The last reading log I started became quite neglected but this year I'm determined to make it more organised. Along with my actual reading!

I always have so many plans of what I'm going to read during the Summer holidays and I think I've only read 2 of the books I had in mind! I'm being a very good this year though and trying to get a good head start on my course reading list (I think I'm going to need it!).

So here it is... (I've split them into the sections we're studying them in to make it easier for me to see where I've gotten to on each one).

 

(For the Modernism section of the course...)

• As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
  
• Tender Is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
  
• Dubliners - James Joyce
  
• Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
  
• The Complete Fiction of Nella Larson: Passing, Quicksand, and the stories - Nella Larson
  
• Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh
  
• Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
  
• Selected Short Stories - Virginia Woolf
  
• (Also Poetry by W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, Hilda Doolittle, Gertrude Stein, Mina Loy and others but these haven't been specified yet)
  

(For Popular Literary Genres...)

• Murder's in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter, William Wilson and The Man in the Crowd - Edgar Allan Poe
  
• The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
  
• A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle
  
• Pudd'nhead Wilson, The Stolen White Elephant and A Double-Barrelled Detective Story - Mark Twain
  
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christi
  
• The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett
  
• The Conjure Man Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem - Rudolph Fisher
  
• The Naked Sun - Isaac Asimov
  
• A Rage In Harlem - Chester Himes
  
• In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
  
• Total Recall - Sara Paretsky
  
• "Ghosts" (from The New York Trilogy) - Paul Auster
  

(For Literature of the First World War...)

• Regeneration - Pat Barker
  
• The Forbidden Zone - Mary Borden
  
• A Month In the Country - L.J. Carr
  
• Howard's End - E.M. Forster
  
• Goodbye To All That - Robert Graves
  
• The Penguin Book of First World War Stories
  
• The Poems of Wilfred Owen - Ed. John Stallworthy
  
• The Annotated Collection of Poems - Edward Thomas
  
• The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry
  

(For Dissertation...)

• Dombey and Son - Charles Dickens
  
• Little Dorrit - "
  
• The Christmas Books - "
  

 

The one's I've read so far this summer are in bold by the way

[Hayley]

Ok, not to get around to the reviewing part. I'll go in order of the list so far...

 

Dubliners by James Joyce:

At first I couldn't make my mind up whether I liked this book or not. When I really thought about it I felt like not much was happening, and I was worried it was going to become boring very quickly. BUT, even though it isn't exactly action packed, there is something quite compelling about looking into people's 'normal' lives. Joyce deals with his characters in such a delicate way that it often takes until nearly the end of a story for the actual tragedy of it to sink in. Also, being set in a time of political unrest in Ireland, there are undertones of larger historical events.

I used the Penguin modern classics version, which does have useful notes in the back, explaining some of the historical references that you may not otherwise understand. I did think some of the notes were unnecessary though, (actually quite a lot of them), particularly one's about street names. I think I read the note "this is now O'Connell street" about fifteen times, and I just didn't think these were necessary.

[Hayley]

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

 

I think I can honestly say that this is the strangest book I have ever read. I have the Norton Critical edition of this book, which doesn't have a normal blurb, so I had no idea what to expect when I started reading. At first, I thought the transformation (or metamorphosis) he undergoes (into some kind of insect) was metaphorical, or a dream. Then as I carried on reading, I realised this was actually what the book was about.

After this realisation it was kind of like looking at a piece of abstract art. I felt like I was reading something very artistic and profound, but I hadn't got a clue what it was supposed to mean. And the ending didn't make it much clearer. After reading some of the criticism included in the back of this edition, I am starting to get it a bit more (I think) but it's definitely not the book to go for if you're looking for an easy read.

I did think the actual style of writing was really very good though. Considering just how... odd... the plot is, the fairly informal, basic writing style makes the setting and characters still seem viable.

I would definitely recommend reading it if your up for a bit of a mental challenge though

[vodkafan]

The Kafka book sounds interesting Hayley. Also, can you tell me what time period The Dubliners is set in? I am just reading a book set against the background of the Potato Famine in 1847...I had heard of it but did not realise just how bad it was..it is a shameful bit of English history we were not even taught about in school.

[Ben]

I've wanted to read Metamorphosis for ages now, but it's one of those I've always managed to put off (as you can probably imagine). You sound like you've got some good books to study this term. I've had a disappointing reading summer too, neglecting lots of books that I wanted to get around too. I'm also planning on being better this year, though, so I'll look forward to catching up with your thread and reading your thoughts.

[Kylie]

What a great reading list, Hayley! I have a lot of those books on my TBR pile and wish list. I look forward to reading your thoughts on them.

 

I remember being completely surprised when I started reading Metamorphosis. Like you, I had no idea what to expect, but I had the idea that Franz Kafka was very intellectual and that it would be a tough read. The first line blew me away and was not at all what I was expecting!

[Hayley]

Sorry for the delay, I've been much busier for the start of term than I was expecting!

 

 

The Kafka book sounds interesting Hayley. Also, can you tell me what time period The Dubliners is set in? I am just reading a book set against the background of the Potato Famine in 1847...I had heard of it but did not realise just how bad it was..it is a shameful bit of English history we were not even taught about in school.

It's set in the early twentieth century, I don't think it gives any specific dates but there's reference to real events you can work out the time frame from. I don't recall there being anything particularly to do with the potato famine though, there's more of a hint towards political unrest and the divide between Catholics and Protestants.

I agree that it's a bit strange we we aren't taught about the potato famine at school too now you mention it! What book is it you're reading?

 

 

I'll just make a quick note in general on the poetry I mentioned above, it would be too long and not very interesting to go through them all. I have to admit I am really not a fan of modernist poetry. By the time I got to the line in Gertrude Steins 'Tender Buttons' which said "sugar is not a vegetable" I was ready to rip it up (all 63 pages of it) and have a good rant. I think it's because I like to get into a poem or a book and be able to really think about it, analyse it and work it out; but these types of poems literally have no meaning, or have unlimited meanings (which amounts to the same thing) and I just don't entirely see the point of reading a series of random sentences. This was my least favourite though, my favourite was probably Hardy's The Darkling Thrush, which I'm happy to say did make sense, had some beautiful imagery and a very pretty, thought provoking ending.

 

I promise to come back later and actually review the rest of the books! And thanks for reading and commenting, it does give me much more motivation to keep up the reviews

[Hayley]

Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

 

I mentioned in another part of the forum (can't remember where now...) that I found this book a little difficult to get on with. The structure is a little unusual for a start. The story swaps between various characters and scenes in a sort of snapshot style, which can get a little confusing, as there's sometimes nothing particular to define the change, so I often found myself having to go back a page to remember who was being talked about. There was also very little punctuation, which made it difficult to work out the meaning of some of the sentences without really studying them.

The story itself was good, really quite emotional and an honest take on the state of society in England during the first world war. Personally though I found one persons story very interesting, while the other was quite boring.

It's definitely not one of my favourite books, by quite a long way. I don't think it's a bad book by any means, I think it's very clever, written in a very unique way and a good social commentary. I just think it may be an acquired taste... like mustard

[Hayley]

Ok, I haven't posted in this for so long I actually couldn't find it haha! I'm really not very good at this...

I do have an excuse, I've had an extremely busy term, and to be honest, it's not much less busy now in the Christmas holiday!

There are some books on the list which I only read part of and even if I do get round to reading them it won't be soon, so I'll give a short explanation here...

 

As I Lay Dying: This one I didn't finish mainly because I just didn't have time with assignment deadlines, and it was taking a long time to read as the narrative is very choppy and confusing. Quirky is probably the word for this book, it has meaning behind it, but it also has an entire chapter of 5 words 'my mother is a fish'. (just in case, I'll point out that that isn't a spoiler. Nobody turns into a fish). I can see what others would enjoy in it, but it just wasn't my kind of book.

 

Decline and Fall: I actually did want to read this and probably will keep it to read in the future, it was literally a case of running out of time. It does actually seem like it could be quite funny.

 

In Cold Blood: This was quite a long book, and I would have struggled to read it all in time, but to be honest I just really didn't like it. It is a true story of a mass murder in America, but written in a fictional style so obviously with made up or embellished scenes. It just made me feel very uncomfortable reading it. Not only is it a completely different experience reading a description of somebody being murdered when you know it really happened, there are also things like a girls diary in there, which I felt probably shouldn't have been published in the first place. It also made me feel quite angry that the author (who developed a close, if not romantic, relationship with one of the murderers when he was interviewing them for the book) tries to create sympathy for the murderers, to the point where it feels he is trying to justify what they did. I won't be finishing this one!

 

Total Recall: I really wanted to read this one, but it was just too long and I didn't get time. It is an interesting combination of a modern detective story, including business scams and murder, with the war crimes of the holocaust. The main character is a brilliant example of a strong female detective. I think a lot of the time in books and film, writers are afraid to give their strong female characters feminine traits, as though this will make them seem weak, and that's not the case in this book. V.I (the detective) is smart, strong and is allowed to worry about what she's going to wear occasionally. This just makes it feel much more relatable, she seems far more like she could be a real person. I will try to finish this one in the future.

[jtsonphone]

yeah,me too,I've wanted to read Metamorphosis for ages now, but it's one of those I've always managed to put off,thanks

[Ben]

Hey Hayley, hope you had an enjoyable first semester. Interesting that you didn't enjoy In Cold Blood - I've been wanting to read it for a while now. Also bought Metamorphosis not too long ago so I hope to get to that soon; probably one for early next year when my brain gets in gear again (it goes mushy over the Christmas period).

 

Your reading list sounds great, and I hope you get some fantastic reads next semester.

[Hayley]

Yeah The Metamorphosis is definitely worth a try, but be prepared to be confused

 

Thanks Ben, I did have a good first semester, if a little bit hectic towards the end, I hope you did too I wouldn't say not to read In Cold Blood, it is at least an interesting experience to read it. I'm very sure that you'll see what I mean about the uncomfortable feeling it creates when you start it though.

 

Ok so here's another... getting there slowly

 

Nella Larson - Quicksand and Passing

I've only included Quicksand and Passing because these are the only two stories I read from the collection, although they are the main ones.

I really enjoyed these short stories, particularly Passing. At a basic level, they are stories which deal with issues of race in the Harlem renaissance era, it's the writing which makes them special. Both are very tragic, and beautifully, emotionally written, you really start to feel sympathetic to the main characters as they struggle against issues which seem completely out of their control. At the same time though, you don't necessarily like them as people, which I think is particularly clever of Larson

I would definitely recommend, especially as they are such quick reads!

[Devi]

What are you studying Hayley? If you don't mind me asking.

 

Happy reading in 2013!

Edited December 28, 2012 by Devi

[Hayley]

Sorry for the extremely late reply Devi! I'm studying English Literature - or was, I just finished a few weeks ago

 

I am really bad at keeping my reading list up to date! Things got even more hectic after Christmas though, being my last year I had a lot of essays, exam planning and a dissertation to do (also my hard drive died and I had to completely re-do most of the dissertation - that wasn't fun!). I AM going to finish this though, eventually!

 

Edgar Allan Poe - The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter, William Wilson and The Man in the Crowd:

 

I actually really liked these, although I will admit they are generally a little odd. In a way I think it's the fact that they are odd and that they challenge your expectations that makes them special . The Murder's in the Rue Morgue and The Purloined Letter are probably the most generic of the four, but they're so clever and the endings are completely unexpected. William Wilson and The Man in the Crowd are the kind of stories you feel like you need to read twice. They don't feel difficult to read at all, and you think you're following the story, until the conclusion just completely throws you, and suddenly you feel like maybe you were reading it wrong the whole time, and it didn't at all mean what you thought it did. They're so unusual that it's quite hard to explain, I would definitely recommend reading all of them though, the writing is brilliant.

 

Wilkie Collins - The Moonstone:

 

I really enjoyed this book, although I do know quite a few people who really hated it, and I can't work out why! It's often said to be the first English detective novel, which to be honest made me think it was going to be very predictable and generic, but it isn't at all. Without giving away any spoilers, the plot is centred around the theft of an Indian diamond, which came to England as spoils of war. Various people are accused, with huge twists completely throwing your expectations, but ultimately it becomes a matter of proving ones innocence when all the evidence seems entirely conclusive. Behind the brilliantly written plot, there is also a much deeper message, which questions English imperialism and the fear of the foreign which was still present in Victorian England (the novel was published in 1868 - actually it was serialised in Dickens' journal 'All the Year Round', the two of them were very good friends, which I thought was interesting, and I'm going off topic...). The style of the narrative is also very cleverly done. One of the characters of the novel asks all the other characters (who were in the house on the evening of the theft) to write to him explaining what they saw, and it is through these letters (combined with a first person narrative) that the reader learns the whole story. This is made even better by the fact that the characters themselves are brilliant, very individual, quirky and unforgettable, so that you look forward to hearing the next persons voice. Again, I would definitely recommend it!

[Athena]

I have The Moonstone and an omnibus of Edgar Allen Poe's work on my shelf, I'm glad to hear you liked them .