Sunday, February 02, 2014

25 Big Novels That Are Worth Your Time

Flavorwire has a list of 25 Big Novels That Are Worth Your Time:
In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust (4215 pages)
Look at Me, Jennifer Egan (544 pages)
Conversation in the Cathedral, Mario Vargas Llosa (608 pages)
Middlemarch, George Eliot (880 pages)
A Book of Memories, Péter Nádas (720 pages)
J R, William Gaddis (752 pages)
Don Quixote, Miguel De Cervantes (992 pages)
The Making of Americans, Gertrude Stein (926 pages)
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens (736 pages)
The Instructions, Adam Levin (1026 pages)
Tree of Smoke, Denis Johnson (720 pages)
Life and Fate, Vasily Grossman (896 pages)
A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth (1488 pages)
Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell (1472 pages)
Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, Marguerite Young (1198 pages)
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace (1104 pages) (on my tbr list)
Les Misérables, Victor Hugo (1488 pages)
A House for Mr. Biswas, V.S. Naipaul (576 pages)
2666, Roberto Bolaño (912 pages)
Ulysses, James Joyce (736 pages) (on my tbr shelf)
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy (1296 pages)
Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak (704 pages)
The Ambassadors, Henry James (544 pages)
My Name Is Red, Orhan Pamuk (688 pages)
Moby-Dick, Herman Melville (704 pages)
I've read the 10 I've put in bold type. Another list of books to read. Just what I needed! /sarcasm But, actually, I probably will check and see if my local bookseller has any of these on the shelf, because, well, how can I not.

via Memphis Reads

8 comments:

  1. Congratulations on plowing through Proust. I have all three volumes on my shelves but only managed to finish Swann's Way and Within a Budding Grove. I have every intention of reading all one of these days. This is a good list to keep, as there are several I haven't read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i actually enjoyed the proust. i have the old moncrieff translation in a 2-volume edition with books 1-3 in the first volume and the next 4 in a 2nd volume.. i've kept it thinking i'll read it again some day. i'd love to read the new translation.

      Delete
  2. I have read a few of these but like Sanda I'll be keeping the list. Always welcome book lists.

    Darla

    ReplyDelete
  3. I´m preparing to start on Proust with a friend. I suppose we both need the support, and we both really want to. Perhaps not all the volumes, but we´ll see. I think the Llosa one has a very beguiling title, it sounds like something I would be drawn to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. this is the first i've heard of several of these books, including the llosa. i'll definitely be checking into the ones on the list i haven't read. i

      Delete
  4. I've read three of your ten and one you haven't read. Glad you shared this, because I'm looking for a good book to read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sometimes i'm in the mood for a doorstop of a book, and sometimes i'd rather have a quick read i can finish in a day. i saw a list yesterday for books you could finish during the super bowl ;)

      Delete