The 305 Greatest Books - #192: Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. The book can be found on the Observer Book List.

Having just read Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, I really enjoyed his writing style and wanted to read his other book that was on my list, Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Researching it, I discovered it was a children's book and was fairly short (~210 pages), which means I could likely finish it off fairly quickly. Turns out I could, I was able to read the book in four days, so that was the good part. The bad part is that, while it is a fine book, it does not deserve a place anywhere near this list. Within the story, Rushdie combines the feel of Alice in Wonderland and Dr. Seuss to present this whimsical fairy tale where a father and son are sent to save the Sea of Stories from those intent on destroying them. Rushdie litters the prose with jokes and word play, to the point it becomes practically insufferable. And while this is a children's book, the word play I could see giving children a difficult time to delve into the story. It took me a chapter or so before I was comfortable with it. I have run into this issue with the Observer list with numerous of the entries and I am starting to think that the list compiler purposefully chose this book over Rushdie's other works because he wanted something less popular. Overall, even though it is quick, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, despite Rushdie's sometimes clever wordplay. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #191: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. The book can be found on the Norwegian, BBC, and My Book Lists.

Salman Rushdie has become a rather infamous author over the last several decades, mostly because of another work of his, the 1988 work The Satanic Verses and the proceeding fatwa that was placed on him by the Ayatollah of Iran in 1989. Midnight's Children (1981) did not receive that sort of reception, however it is one of the few books I have left on my list that is on multiple 100 Greatest lists. Midnight's Children is about the life of Saleem Sinai who was born at the stroke of midnight on August 15th, 1947. Coincidently, the same day as India's Independence day from British rule. And because of this, Saleem had been gifted with "powers" (?), or maybe it is better termed "gifts". But not only him, but everyone born within that first hour of independence also had a wide range of gifts. And while that story sounds like it could be a fantastic fantasy novel, that is not this novel. While the book is named "Midnight's Children", the other children of midnight barely play a role within the novel, except here and there, and even then, they are sparingly used. So, if this book isn't about the powered people, then what is it about? And that is a good question because I'm still not entirely sure. We follow the course of Indian history, and Saleem's life, from a couple of generations before he is born, until he is in his thirties. And while Indian history plays a backdrop to the novel, at times it is directing the novel. Everything that is happening to him is due to India's primary players, people who actually do exist and events that had actually happened. And while the novel left me unfulfilled at the end, with an ending that wasn't really an ending, and characters plot lines that many of which were just left off or ended abruptly, I think that was the point of the story. And it made me think, while I didn't get the ending I wanted, the book ended in a way that it deserved. The writing style though I absolutely loved. So much so, that I immediately bought Rushdie's other book on my list, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, to begin reading immediately (a book that was referenced in Midnight's Children despite being written afterwards). So, yea, I would recommend this book because it was highly enjoyable, but prepare to have your expectations subverted. If you familiar with Indian history though, I feel you would get much more out of this book than those who are not (such as myself).   

The 305 Greatest Books - #190: The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford. The book can be found on the Observer Book List.

Ford's dedication letter at the beginning was interesting because he notes that the original title for the book was "The Saddest Story" and he changed the name to The Good Soldier in jest when his publisher requested a new title since the world was within the midst of WWI and they wanted something that would sell better. The book has actually nothing to do with war, or even the acts of a soldier. The principle character, Colonel Edward Ashburnham, just happens to have been a "good soldier" and therefore he became the namesake of the book. The book is written in a stream-of-conscience method which means that the plot line jumps around terribly. And while the story is fairly simple, my brain jumbled up characters, and I could never remember if we found out so-and-so died or if that was one yet to be revealed. I did have to Google some characters deaths because I just couldn't remember if they were mentioned (they were). The story is written in a first person POV by one of the main characters, John Dowell, who relays this story as it was relayed to him. He and the wife of another couple are the surviving members of this pair of rich couples who became the best of friends. However, as the story progresses and we discover how the spouses, as well as other people in their orbit, died, we learn that not everything was as straightforward as the author initially made it sound. And while the story was interesting I found it hard to empathize with these rich people who had nothing to do all day. Besides that, the passage of time has rendered a lot of this tragedy to become not as bad as other books, and in many instances real life, have portrayed. And so while it is an interesting story, and enjoyable if you can keep the plot threads straight, I wouldn't consider this one of the best stories every written but not a bad summer book read.

The 305 Greatest Books - #189: Bleak House by Charles Dickens

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Bleak House by Charles Dickens. The book can be found on the BBC Book List.

Bleak House is my final Dickens' novel on my list and probably the hardest one for me to get through. At one point, I was around 1/3rd of my way through the book, I googled "Why is Bleak House so terrible". The return results were actually rather encouraging. I found that many people consider the first portion of the book (about where I was at) to be difficult to follow because the story bounces around a LOT. However, people had said it gets better from there and that a lot of people consider it his best work. That helped and so I kept going forward, and while the book did indeed get more streamlined and better, I never fell in love with the book as many people did. I was even told I was outright wrong for disliking the book (not maliciously). The problem is that so many of the characters were just overly simplified stereotypes in one way or another and they were just grating on my nerves. Add on top of that a story plot that bounced from one chapter to the next without a clear storyline. It just got to be a lot. There were also few characters that I actually enjoyed. Even the main character, Esther Summerson, whom much of the story was told from a first person perspective, would repeatedly relay other characters telling her how wonderful she was. Gag me with a spoon. This was obviously also written as a serialized story with each and every chapter from 8 to 14 pages in length, and while that made the story easy to digest, it allowed Dickens to just write and write and write, creating a very bloviated novel. Overall, I believe having finished it that if I went back would actually probably like it better now, however I have no desire whatsoever to do that. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #188: Beloved by Toni Morrison

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Beloved by Toni Morrison. The book can be found on the Norwegian and My Book Lists.

Beloved definitely gave me the vibes that I was not tall enough to ride this emotional roller coaster. It is hard to discuss this book without getting into major plot spoilers, but in general the story is about a former slave family set during the the times right before and after the Civil War. While the story is a decade or so after the Civil War, flashbacks and remembrances occur before and during the war. This book definitely doesn't pull it's punches in regards to slavery and how people were treated during those times. The impetus for the novel was an event shortly after the main character, Sethe, ran away, where an infant is found bloody and dead. However, the text is confusing at the beginning and I wasn't sure if it was at first written cryptically or I was just not understanding it. But as the story continued, I realized that the narrative was purposely obscure and that the reason for that was eventually laid out for the reader. The novel is rough, and rightfully so. The harsh truths are the reasons that Beloved won the Pulitzer Price for Fiction and was likely the reason Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize in Literature. It is a good book, with an interesting story thread. It is a fascinating read, both with how bluntly she depicts slave life, but also how that story is interwoven with this poltergeist-esque story as they are living in a haunted house. I cannot recommend this book enough. It is beautifully written and is definitely a story that pulls you in, while also educating you about the horrors that had engulfed our society at the time.

The 305 Greatest Books - #187: The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The book can be found on the Observer, BBC, and My Book Lists.

This is one of those books I would classify as your standard middle school novel, that I however was never tasked to read. Even though I had never read this before, this is one of those stories that has permeated society to the point that many (most?) people could give you a generalized overview of the story. The story follows a group of boys who are stranded on a deserted island and how their "society" degrades from there. What I was not expecting, but makes sense, is that this is a dystopian novel about essentially the aftereffects of a nuclear war. Comments had been made almost in passing throughout the novel, but it was interesting how the reader is bounced around between some hopeful characters interacting with those who "know" more about what has been going on in the world. On top of all that is just the general fall of society into barbarism with certain members of society fighting back against it with rules and those members losing over time to the more aggressive, violent members of society. I found the debates between the different members of society to be the most interesting, since these are life and death debates in their world and yet also brought down to a child's level. Absolutely wonderfully written. It is so easy to fly through the story (it being extraordinarily short helps), and it is gripping. I flew through the whole thing in less than a week and read half of it in about a day. It was also much darker and gruesome than I was anticipating for a story where children are the focus. There is some notable geological problems with the story, which also gets me giddy all over. However, overall, this book was a lot of fun and one that I would highly recommend. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #186: Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Dead Souls by Nicolai Gogol. The book can be found on the Norwegian 100 Greatest Book List. 

I had been interested in Gogol ever since reading The Namesake, where the primary character in that story is named after the author of this story. Dead Souls is the only story by Gogol on my list, and it has been waiting patiently for me to read it ever since I read The Namesake probably about 20 years previously. Dead Souls starts out with a translators note, which made all the difference in understanding this book. In Russia, during the 1800's, a peasant was bound to the land and subject to the landowner. Each peasant pays the landowner a tax and the landowner then pays the collected taxes to the government for every person, or "soul", that is on the property. The number of souls that each landowner owes money on is determined during the census, which has large gaps in time (the story takes place in a gap of 18 years between censuses). If a peasant was to die during that time between censuses, the landowner would still owe taxes on that peasant until the next census identified them as dead. These are the "dead souls". The premise of the novel is that a businessman named Chichikov has come up with a scheme where he goes around buying up the dead souls of the landowners. The first volume of the book basically follows him around as he attempts to buy these dead souls off of various people until the last chapter of the volume where we find out his background and why he is doing what he is doing. And let me tell you, I read that section three times and I still couldn't figure it out the reasoning. This is the whole premise of the novel so you would think it should be well laid out, but no, not a clue. The second volume of the story helped to make some sense of it but it still doesn't make total sense. It may be an issue where things are done differently now, so his scheme wouldn't work, or that there are key parts that are not explained since they would be known at the time, or it could be that his scheme doesn't actually make sense and there was no fixing it so the author just glossed over that fact, either way, it made for a disappointing read since that was the whole premise of the book. (I could explain but I don't want to give too many spoilers). I have always been a fan of Russian literature, and while the author was born in present day Ukraine, he lived in the Russia of the time and wrote in Russian. Generally from what I have read, translations from Russian to English are usually very well done, this one included, and it made reading and understanding the text to be a breeze. I greatly enjoyed that part. But there are issues with the story, besides just the enigmatic justification for the story. Apparently, Gogol had based his publishing volume 2 of the story contingent on volume 1 doing well. However it apparently didn't, so he ended up destroying parts of the manuscript. So there are parts of sentences, pages, and even whole chapters just missing from the story (and noted as such by the translator). So whatever happens in Volume 2 is sometimes summarized by the translator because an unknown number of chapters is just ... gone. I had hoped it would be something akin to The Mystery of Edwin Drood, but no such luck. It just feels incomplete and lacking in the end. Not enough answers for the questions raised and a lackluster finish to a story that started out interesting.  

The 305 Greatest Books - #185: Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih. The book can be found on the Norwegian 100 Greatest Book List and My Personal Book List. 

I believe that Season of Migration to the North may be the first book I have read that was originally written in Arabic. And this book almost makes me want to understand Arabic because the prose was so beautifully written that I can imagine it would be tenfold better in the original language. The story is about a man, the narrator, who encounters a stranger in his community, Mustafa. From that point forward, Mustafa's history becomes of paramount importance to the narrator, so much so that Mustafa has some degree of influence over the narrator, as well as many other people. I really enjoyed this book. The prose is wonderful and the story is engaging. There were a few parts that had me squeamish and I'm not how how much of them were related to the Arabic culture of the time (set in the 1920's, published in 1969) or how much of it was just inclusions by the author. I imagine a bit of both. The treatment of women in the story was also heavily dated, but also surprisingly progressive in many ways. However, with all that aside, this book has left me with many questions about the story and Mustafa's influence, which, while the story appears to address, I don't believe the author fully answers. Leaving a bit of a mystery especially once the ending comes about. Overall, I'd say this is a must read.

The 305 Greatest Books - #184: The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is The Decline of the West by Oscar Spengler. The book can be found on the Sybervision Book List.

Spoiler warning: I hated everything about this book. Reading this book has been several years in the waiting. It is one of the last two books I had on the original 100 Greatest Books list I started, the Sybervision Book List (a list from a now defunct company). The book was an attempt at cataloguing the progression of history up to the 1920's when the book was written from a rather Euro-centric point of view, specifically a German point of view. However my problems with this book are almost immediate. I don't know if it was the particular translation, which also was atrocious, or the original text, however I feel it was a mixture of both. This translation, which seems to be the one most commonly around, was by Charles Francis Atkinson also from the 1920's. The text is almost incomprehensible at times. The ideas the author was trying to get across got lost more often than they were found and frequently the author (I assume it was the author) would leave words in their original Greek or other language, of which the reader couldn't even begin to decipher. My favorite parts though (sarcasm) were when the translator felt the need to constantly add his two cents in to the text. Like, shut up, this isn't your book. The topics are also widely all over the place. He jumps around the timeline across centuries within sentences of each other and fails to use the "BC" or "AD" identifier on times more often than not. And a lot of his concepts are downright just wrong. He has an entire chapter about how Darwin was just wrong and although he doesn't mention his alternative, it seems he is in favor of Lamarck but his reasoning is inconsistent. The book reads much like this was a literary essay or textbook where the author was just given access to a series of Encyclopedias, to the point that on nearly every page the translator cites an encyclopedia entry. It's dull, difficult to follow, and at many times it is just inaccurate. However, there were some light points. I did find some of his information intriguing, when I could decipher the text. I appreciated the agnostic approach to religion within the text. And he appeared to have some insight into the evolution of Germany at the time, which he was opposed to. His overall point was the Europe at this time was the pinnacle of society, however it had become stagnated since the Middle Ages in many cases and was slowly going to be overun by Asian society and ideals. So overall, it was terrible. I honestly don't understand how anyone could praise this work, although an abridged version might be much easier to follow and if one only sticks to Volume 1. Then maybe?

The 305 Greatest Books - #183: The Gypsy Ballads by Federico García Lorca

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is The Gypsy Ballads by Federico Garcia Lorca. The book can be found on the Norwegian Book List. 

Comprising 18 poems, each about 2 pages in length, The Gypsy Ballads, is by far one of the shortest works on this list. And since it is so short it is hard for me to properly do it justice. That, and I am no expert in poetry. Also, while I feel the translator did his utmost best to translate these poems into English to put across the same feeling as they did in their original Spanish, there is something inherently lost when you move from one language to another in any form of literature, most of all poetry, which relies not only on the words choices of the authors but also the cadence of the lines, and even how the words look on the page. All that being said I rather enjoyed this short work. Since it was so short I wanted to take my time and absorb each of the works in their own right and slowly analyze of the metaphors that were being used. While a poetry expert would be able to extract far more than I ever could, I did enjoy the poems as they were presented to me. The introduction in my edition helped me to get into the mindset required to understand most of the work and even rather gather information about a lot of the metaphors presented. While some of the poems were rather gruesome, especially towards the end, they were written in order to shock the reader purposefully to the atrocities being committed against the gypsy people. Other of the poems were sweet and soothing to read. His poetry formats also bounced around with some being more free verse while other rhyming. Overall, even though it was short, I also rather enjoyed it. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #182: Wise Children by Angela Carter

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Wise Children by Angela Carter. The book can be found on the Observer Book List. 

I went into this book expecting a nice short read and got something I definitely wasn't expecting. The story follows the interpersonal familial relationships of Dora Chance, twin sister to Nora and child of another set of twins, Melchior and Peregrine Hazard. The question of which twin they are the children of is up for discussion during the text and becomes one of the major plot points. But that is not all, the story generally follows the lives of Nora and Dora through Dora's recollections as she thinks back on her life. While we are traveling through her life we also get hoards of other family jumping in and out of the story. To the point that I was very lost as to who was who and how everyone was related. I did find a family tree online after the fact, and there was a dramatis persona at the end of the book (because everything in it is a huge spoiler for the book), and while the dramatis persona helped, the family tree would have helped me much much more. The story though bounces around quite a bit, making it difficult to follow who is who and what their relationship is in everything. Add into all of that that the author doesn't always spell out who is who, or waits to do it. So sometimes the reader is just left wondering if they missed something. For instance, a main character is just identified as "Wheelchair" for a good chunk of the book but takes forever to tell us who she actually is. I noticed online that this book is noted for it's open feminism and support of the women's liberation movement and that is a definite plus in my eye, however this book definitely has one major flaw that is insurmountable for me to get past. And that is the raging incest throughout the book. While some interfamilial relations were frowned upon in the book (rightfully so), others such as cousins and niece-uncle were not only not frowned upon but celebrated in the end. It became overly much. There was also comments about slaughtering a pet pig and eating it after the owner died that pushed me over the edge. And so while I feel it has some strengths to it, I can't recommend it for many reasons. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #181: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. The book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists. 

I went into Rebecca having high hopes. It is in the top 21 books on the BBC Big Read list and several of my friends commented how fantastic a book it was when I started. So, although I don't like to have expectations going into a book, I definitely had mine. And they were beyond exceeded. Rebecca is a mystery novel, with most of the plot taking place as a flashback in the first person perspective of the central unnamed viewpoint character. Our main character is a servant of a less than ideal person when she meets this mysterious man, Maxim de Winter, whom she falls in love with and ends up marrying over a very short time period. Afterwards she is swept away to his mansion, Manderley, where she is thrust into the world of the aristocratic, complete with a whole host of servants whom now wait on her. The only problem is that there is something that falls over everything that our main character does in the story, and that's the shadow of Maxim's recently dead wife, Rebecca, whom was adored by nearly everyone. I was not prepared for the many twists and turns that the story took. While there is a sense of dread over the entire book, you kept waiting for the next shoe to drop, and each time I was surprised. The only one I caught on to before it happened was the final one as the book came to a close, but even that one had me flipping back to the first few chapters, before the flashback, to see how the story ties into them. This book was just so much fun to read. And while the story did drag a little bit in the middle, I feel that the story, and how the text just flowed off the page, made this by far a fantastic page turner. It is a definite recommend from me. 

The 305 Greatest Books - #180: In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is In Search of Lost Time (AKA Remembrance of Things Past) by Marcel Proust. The book can be found on the Norwegian, Observer, and Zane Top 10 Book Lists.

    In Search of Lost Time holds a couple of places in my heart. First and foremost, it is by far the longest book I have ever read. It is ranked as one of the longest books ever written and clocks in over 4,000 pages depending on the print and page size. However a better estimate is the word count which is 1.175 million words. For comparison War and Peace has only 0.56 million words. So this book is essentially two War and Peace length books. It also took me over a year to read because it is a brain strain. He writes in VERY long sentences. Counting out the words of one notable sentence had me at 203 words for that sentence alone. 

     The book itself is broken down into seven volumes (these seven were then places into the four physical volumes that I had read and pictured above). The first volume of the story is probably the most famous and is often read as a standalone story, Swann's Way, however it was never meant as its own story. The text is also formatted without many paragraphs, about one per every two pages, and conversations flowed within the paragraphs instead of being seperated out into unique line breaks, as is the standard format. This means it generally took me about an hour to read 20 dense pages and I was often mentally exhausted after that from trying to follow the story. Another note of accomplishment is that this book was the last of the Zane's Top 10 books for me to finish, marking the first list I have successfully completed. 

    The story itself was ... interesting. It follows the remembrance of Proust's own life through his memories. And while the story generally flows in chronological order, he had a tendency to have tangential thoughts for pages at a time, where he will jump forward in time or ponder some theoretical question he had been grappling with. While I enjoyed the linear part of the story, the theoretical parts got to be a bit old after a while, especially when he would re-harp on the same essential questions over and over again. This story was also surprisingly "modern", with the author extensively tackling the subject of homosexuality. For a novel written in the early 1900's I was not expecting this pervasive look at homosexuality of the time. Here is though, one of the primary problems I had with the central part of the story. This is when the main character, presumably Proust himself, essentially kept his girlfriend "kidnapped" (for lack of a better word) in his house because he had assumed she was sleeping around with other women and he was jealous (maybe?). He would ponder many times over if she liked women, for 100's of pages at a time, with him never satisfactorily answering his own question (however as the reader I felt it was satisfactorily proven a yes). Many of the men also in the book led secretive homosexual lives, with one engaging in full on sadomasochistic acts during the latter parts of the novel. When he first delves into this aspect of the book he seemed to be weighing the morality of it, however eventually it seemed to me that he had accepted that side of society and proceeded right along (except when related to his girlfriend). Like I said, while this was completely unexpected, it was definitely not unappreciated on my part. 

     While there were parts of the story that were repeated ad nauseum, there were many parts I found fascinating. As time went by, we had the evolution of technology and how it changed. From the first telephones through the widespread use of the automobile, and how they impacted the characters lives.  But time in this book was tricky, where it wasn't until the end of the book that I understood that this was all written as his memories. Time fluctuated through the book sporadically, to the point that you never really knew how much time had passed at any given point. Parties he attended took 100's of pages to depict but then years would fly by in the blink of a page. The book was also very "real", where deaths just happened as in real life, with most happening without a satisfactory reason that one would often find in stories. And for a book that seemingly went on forever there were many aspects that never got explained. There was a contemporary court case, often known as the Dreyfus Affair, that was constantly brought up and influenced the characters majorly, but was never actually explained within the story itself. Proust mentioned many times about his infirmity, but barely delved into what exactly he had. And there were other things that Proust felt he didn't need to explain, I assume because he felt a contemporary audience would understand. The book also didn't really have the flow of a "normal" novel. There was no literary action. There was no definitive conclusion. It just sort of winds down at the end, which presumably was when he started writing the book (since this was his memoirs of a sort). 

     Overall this is a difficult book to sum up and recommend to people. It is a monumental task to undertake and finish. It is also a difficult book to engage with and consistently stay engaged with. However finishing it I feel like I summited a literary mountain that I will proudly wave my flag upon. So while I am proud to have finished it and I found it worthwhile for the most part, I don't think I could recommend it to others to tackle unless they wanted the same goals as I. 

The 306 Greatest Books - #179: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor. The book can be found on the Observer Book List.

In general, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont took me by surprise. It is a fairly short book, with the version I read being just under 200 pages, which is what prompted me to read this book on my list; a quick break while I read through a much longer book. The premise of the story is about an older woman, Mrs. Palfrey, who was looking for a place to live while she was no longer able to, or no longer wanted to, live on her own but had not yet reached the stage of needing a nursing home. The Claremont then became her home, a hotel with a bunch of long time residence, mostly all older in age. One day, while she was walking home, she slips outside a young man's apartment, Ludo, who helped her up and eventually became the replacement for her negligent grandson. And this gets to the core of the story. Mrs. Palfrey is living a lonely existence. Her daughter and grandson have essentially abandoned her and she has no one. And while loneliness may seem at the heart of the story, it was also a rather funny story. Making this a seriously hard book to peg down. I had laughed out loud during several instances of the story. The core of the story is about how older people just kind of get ignored in our society (even back in the 1920's when this takes place) and left to their own devices, forgotten and ignored. But they aren't the only ones. Ludo was also dealing with his own loneliness. As well as all of the characters. They all had their own "things" they were dealing with, leaving everyone to feel all by themselves. As the story wrapped up, it ended with a profound sense of loss and sadness in a situation that I don't wish on anyone but I know countless people go through everyday. The book was excellently written and a joy to go through, with each heart breaking moment counterbalanced with a laugh. I have to recommend this book because it was so, so good. But in the end, it definitely was not an uplifting story at all, but an accurate one about life. Also note that Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is not written by the actor Elizabeth Taylor, but the author Elizabeth Taylor, who are two distinctly different people (as far as I can tell). 

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The 306 Greatest Books #178 - The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. The book can be found on the Observer Book List.

The version of The Thirty-Nine Steps that I had purchased was marketed as one of the best mysteries of all time, so I was excited because I love a good mystery. The book was also incredibly short, barely passing 120 pages in the hardcover version I had, making all the more appealing to me. However, the story immediately set me off, being rather antisemitic in several of comments throughout the first chapter. The first chapter was also very difficult to follow with characters written as if they were talking with an accent making it difficult to read and understand. I have trouble enough listening to people's accents and understanding them, I don't need to read them and also not understand them. Although, after the first chapter, the story kicked into high gear and was fairly straightforward to follow along with. Accents were limited and the story was clear cut. I do feel like I missed a chunk of the purpose that was mixed into the first chapter and by the time I got to the end I felt like I missed some parts along the way. The book is set shortly before the outbreak to World War I with a person in an apartment building being murdered, while the guy who's room he escapes to is essentially framed for that murder. Police are involved trying to track him down as well as a shadowy organization. Overall, it was alright and at times very unbelievable. I wouldn't equate it as a "great" mystery by any stretch of the imagination, but it was short and fun and fairly easy to read although I still don't know if I missed parts or they were being purposely obtuse. 

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The 306 Greatest Books #177 - The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists.

The Alchemist was actually something of surprise to me. I was expecting a dry historical tale, or something of the sort. However, what I was given was completely unexpected. This is essentially a folklore tale, told as if sitting around a campfire, about a kid who has been given a glimpse of a possible treasure in his future through his dreams and is told to pursue his dreams no matter what. What unfolds is a sheltered youth from Spain who experiences new cultures and new experiences as he transverses across the Sahara in pursuit of his dreams. Although the story does get a bit preachy in parts, it maintains a good balance of preachy to open-mindedness about what is out there and how all religions are different aspects of similar things. The story also emphasizes the reader to follow their dreams, despite hardships that may get in their way, and whatever obstacles may befall them. The path will be easy at the start, but as you get closer and closer to your dreams the path gets more and more difficult, with many opportunities to turn from the path, but if you keep going eventually your dreams can come true. It's a fairly uplifting and heartwarming tale and one that has a surprising bit of humor in it despite the negatives that befall the main character. Even as he gets disheartened at times he always finds himself in pursuit of his dream/ And there lies an analogy to the reader that as times get difficult, it just means you are getting closer to your dreams. This is a story that I can't help but recommend because not only is it short (a favorite feature of mine), it's fun and I could barely put it down. 

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The 306 Greatest Books #176 - Medea by Euripides

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Medea by Euripides. The book can be found on the Norwegian Book List.

Medea is an ancient Greek play from 431 BCE and a very quick read. I read it in about 2 hours, and I took my time. The story is about a woman, Medea, who's husband leaves her and gets married to another woman, the princess of Corinth. And because of her "attitude" she is forced into exile from Corinth by the King of Corinth, the princess' father. And that's about it. The play mainly involves how she handles this rejection by not only her husband, but by nearly everyone around her. I would say it is a morality tale but there is no justice served by the end of the story. Nearly everyone is dead and no punishments are dished out. It is an interesting look at an ancient take on the "lover spurned" story and the vengeance that results. 

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The 306 Greatest Books #175 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. The book can be found on the Observer, BBC, and My Book List.

The Count of Monte Cristo actually ended up being one of the longer books that I have read at 1,200 pages, which doesn't seem that long compared to some books, but this was a densely typed up book for those 1,200 pages. And although it was very long, and took me three continuous months to read, I actually greatly enjoyed it. The story follows Edward Dantès, who gets accused of a crime and locked away for many years. While in solitary confinement he befriends an abbe who is also locked up and helps him to not only escape but how to unearth a vast treasure. Upon his escape he plans meticulously at retribution against those that have wronged him. And while the story could potentially get tedious, it never actually does. It remains fresh and enjoyable throughout. The beginning part of the story takes place during the exile and eventual return of Napoleon, a period of time in French history that I am not as well acquainted with, and I found this little insight from the French point of view fascinating and how these events helped shape what the story became. My favorite parts were towards the beginning, while he is in prison, but even the latter half that turns into a Jane Austin novel, are also remarkably fun and enjoyable. My biggest problem was just keeping everyone straight and who did what to who and how they all are related to Edward, or the Count of Monte Cristo, as he eventually became known. Overall, this was an excellently paced novel and very well written, and I am putting it on my personal greatest books list as a recommend. 

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The 306 Greatest Books #174 - Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. The book can be found on the Observer Book List.

Jim Dixon is a first year college professor who seems to be on the verge of losing his job and keeps blundering at any attempts to make things better. On the surface this would seem like an ideal book for me as a former college professor who did also only teach for one year (through no fault of my own though, as I was only hired as a one year temporary fill-in). The book is surprisingly funny and often subtle about it's humor. The characters are all extremely well written and you very quickly get the sense of what each character is and how you should feel about them. And even though the book is slightly male-orientated and misogynistic, it's actually far better than many contemporary works that are hailed far more than this book is. So, overall, I enjoyed reading this. I do however have a problem with it being considered one of the "100 Greatest Books of all time". It's not. I mean it is a good book, and an enjoyable read, but I would classify it as "fine". There is nothing overly special about the book and nothing to write home about. I would recommend it as a quick, humorous, look at the life of a first-year college professor, but other than that it's really just a burner book, read it and move on.

The 306 Greatest Books #173 - Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. The book can be found on the Observer and BBC Book Lists.

The phrase "Catch-22" has become transcendent from the original novel from which it was sparked but I never fully understood what a "Catch-22" was or how exactly it originated. I knew that it was something that was impossible because of conflicting events. You couldn't do A unless you did B first, but you couldn't do B unless you did A first. So it ends up being something impossible. However, I have now learned what it means in respect to the novel. Catch-22 is a war novel set during the latter days of World War II. In here a "Catch-22" is something that happens in response to a soldier trying to get discharged from the army because they was felt they were mentally unfit, or in essence "crazy". All one had to do was go to the doctor and tell them you were crazy to get discharged. However, if you were able to tell the doctor that you were crazy, then you had to be sane enough to know that, and so you were not in fact crazy and therefore couldn't be discharged. The story of the novel itself plays out much like a M*A*S*H or an F Troop (if anyone still remembers those shows) which are all satirical military stories. Throughout the novel there constantly are incidents and conversations that are downright laugh out loud funny. But as the novel proceeds, you can tell that the tone shifts from humorous to more serious as many of the main characters start to die or be killed off. It is an interesting take on the genre and one that I was fully invested in. At least, at first. As I proceeded through the novel I noticed that the vast majority of the characters were all male, most of whom were white, which would make sense for the time period and setting it was set in. However, all of the women in the story were either prostitutes or treated as such. All of them barely had any dialogue, if any at all, and most of them were treated in the worst ways possible. Sexual assault was treated as a joke while rape and murder were blown off by the local police because the woman didn't matter. The blatant misogyny was a bit overwhelming, but not only that but the complete disregard for women at all in the novel. They were set pieces to be used or abused as needed and then discarded when their time was over. And so while I can understand why this could be considered a great novel of its time, it has not weathered the test of time very well and I can't recommend that people wade into it unless they really want to.