100 classic novels in 365 days.

It is great you want to read the great works over the next year (although there are many not on your list yet, John Updike, Philip Roth, Don Dellilo), but the time frame is not practical; even if you stop watching T.V and read while riding the bus. Read 3 a month and you will have your hands full. And even then, if you don't take the time to think about what you read, what's the point?
 
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good luck man, I just started my own personal classic novel challenge at the beginning of the year, but it's a little more relaxed pace...... my goal is 12 classics in 12 months (I'm also reading 12 non-fictions as well) so far I've knocked out Catcher In The Rye and I'm about 1/3 of the way through The Great Gatsby. I almost have to read these books in private though cause everytime someone sees me reading them they almost ruin them for me by going "oh I read that in high school, has so-and-so happened yet?"
 
Just an aside, agian, if you only pick one Salinger, "Nine Stories" or even the Zooey half of "Franny & Zooey" are absolutely amazing. I think far superior to "Catcher." "Nine Stories" especially.
 
Well your list is made up of classic or modern literature which is right up my alley.

A few I didnt see on your list of the top of my head (theres many many more of course).

All quiet on the western front - Remarque (I read this in under a day - so it might fit your task.
Sputnick Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami
The Leopard - Lampedusa
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
Soul mountain - Gao Xingjian (also wrote One Mans Bible - which is an absolute literary monster if your interested in that).

All books that left a mark on me.
 
Have not read the entire thread yet...
I have the Catcher in the Rye around here somewhere.
Another old one I can't depart with is The Day of the Triffids 1967 although I've not read that since I was a kid.

A book I liked was Sleepers which was made into a feature with Kevin Bacon.
The movie was a total disgrace to the book. I was p-oed when I saw it. The first 1/2 (book) I loved. The second half was what it was.
 
Sad Max said:
You know Lavinia Currier...?
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My old writing partner had worked with her on the script for that, and then on her next film, which I'm not sure ever got made. He is a pretty well known story doctor in NYC. So I met her through him. Haven't spoken to her in some time. So not sure what she's up to now.
 
thematthewbone said:
I was just wondering if anyone else had ever tried something like this before? And if so any words of encouragement, advice...maybe?
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My advice is don't do it. Better to pick a few books that stike a nerve and read them three times. Director Mike Nichols (The Graduate) said, "If you want to be a director watch A Place in the Sun 50 times." Watching a great film 50 times will profit you more than watching someone's top 50 film list because you begin to really understand lighting, editing, writing, directing, etc.

Reading is a part of writing so read those great books but chip away at your list over a period of years. And when you go to a museum take an hour with one Van Gogh rather than going through a check list of paintings that you thought you saw, but really didn't.
 
Mark Harris said:
My old writing partner had worked with her on the script for that, and then on her next film, which I'm not sure ever got made. So I met her through him. Haven't spoken to her in some time. So not sure what she's up to now.
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So far as I have been able to find out, she hasn't directed (or worked in film) since Passion in the Desert. Because after seeing Passion I was eager to see whatever else she might have done...

...on the off chance that you intersect with her again, please tell her FWIW I thought she made a really wonderful movie. I still listen to tracks from the score, while I write.

Scott W. Smith said:
My advice is don't do it. Better to pick a few books that stike a nerve and read them three times.
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I'll have stretches during which I will read through three or four novels/histories/whatever in rapid succession, then find myself coming back to the texts repeatedly, absorbing something new with each reading, over the next few months or couple of years.

Just another approach; keeps you from repeatedly treading through the same text over and over without a break.

Heart of Darkness, King Rat, and Lord Jim - hard to go far wrong, with Conrad (or, when he's channeling Conrad, Clavell).
 
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Scott W. Smith said:
My advice is don't do it. Better to pick a few books that stike a nerve and read them three times. Director Mike Nichols (The Graduate) said, "If you want to be a director watch A Place in the Sun 50 times." Watching a great film 50 times will profit you more than watching someone's top 50 film list because you begin to really understand lighting, editing, writing, directing, etc.

Reading is a part of writing so read those great books but chip away at your list over a period of years. And when you go to a museum take an hour with one Van Gogh rather than going through a check list of paintings that you thought you saw, but really didn't.
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I agree with you 100%

I did something similar (reading through classics) a few years back. I canceled my TV subscription and just read a novel a week after I got home from work. I was up to my 15th book when I finished War and Peace. That book was the best I read and I just felt like reading it again. After that I decide to focus on specific novels and read them a few times. Much more enjoyable and rewarding that way then to just rush through something just to say you read it.

Also agree on the Museum approach, far better to let something linger and enjoy its wonder than to glimpse it and walk on by.
 
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