Reading 1001 discussion

It's time to vote for our March botm. Remember that voting is different, see instructions. Do not send them to me but to the new shelf personality email.
Books over 600 pages are not included and books that have been past botm in 2024 are not included. Voting for the botm starts 15th and ends on the 24th when the winners will be announced.
Randomizer selection: Only books that have not been previous botm (*) in past 10 years (2016 +) will be added to the randomizer. Each book you choose that has not been previously botm in the past 10 years will be fed into the randomizer for an opportunity to be chosen by the randomizer.

Books are from van Heerden through West for March 2026.

HOW TO VOTE:
Please send your choices by email, 1001secondedition@gmail.com to the new shelf personality. Everyone gets one free vote. if you have participation points you can have up to 4 additional votes. You can use them all on one choice or you can make 5 different choices. Please see how to obtain participation points in the Annual Point Challenge explanation.

Etienne van Heerden - South Africa
1. Ancestral Voices 1986, 272 pages

Vassilis Vassilikos - Greece
2. Z 1967, 406 pages

Luís de Camões - Portugal
3. The Lusiads, 1572, 288 pages

Ivan Vazov - Bulgaria
4. Under the Yoke

Giovanni Verga - Italy
*5. The House by the Medlar Tree, 1881, 312 pgs botm 2022

Jules Verne - France
6. A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, botm 2012
7. Around the World in Eighty Days, botm 2010

Tarjei Vesaas - Norway
8. The Birds, botm 2014

Simon Vestdijk - Netherlands
9. The Garden Where the Brass Band Played, 1950, 312 pgs

Boris Vian - France
10. Froth on the Daydream, 1947, 221 pages, also known as Mood Indigo.

Gore Vidal - US
11. Myra Breckinridge, 1968, 264 pages

Enrique Vila-Matas - Spain
12. Bartleby & Co., 2000, 178 pgs

Xosé Neira Vilas - Spain
13. Memoirs of a Peasant Boy, botm 2014

Elio Vittorini - Italy
14. Conversations in Sicily

Jorge Volpi - Mexico
15. In Search of Klingsor, 1999, 416 pgs

Voltaire - France
*16. Candide, botm 2010, 2016

Joseph von Eichendorff - German
17. The Life of a Good-for-nothing, 1826, 109 pages

Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen - German
18. The Adventurous Simplicissimus, 1668 434 pages

Heinrich von Kleist - German
*19. Michael Kohlhaas, botm 2020

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - US
20. Breakfast of Champions. 1973, 303 pages
*21. Slaughterhouse-Five, botm 2010, 2011, 2018
22. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, 1965, 290 pgs
23. Cat’s Cradle, 1963, 179 pgs

Alice Walker - US
24. The Color Purple, botm 2012
25. Possessing the Secret of Joy, 1992, 288 pgs
26. The Temple of My Familiar, 1989, 416 pgs

Horace Walpole - UK
27. The Castle of Otranto, botm 2012

Alan Warner - Scotland
28. Morvern Callar, 1995, 242 pages

Omitted Indigo, Marina Warner, botm 2024

Herbjørg Wassmo - Norway
29. The House with the Blind Glass Windows, 1981, 384 pgs

Keith Waterhouse - UK
30. Billy Liar, 1959, 187

Sarah Waters - UK
31. Fingersmith, botm 2014
*32. Tipping the Velvet botm 2018

Winifred Watson - UK
33. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, botm 2014

Evelyn Waugh - UK
*34. Brideshead Revisited 2016 botm
35. Vile Bodies
*36. A Handful of Dust, botm 2020
omitted, Decline and Fall, botm 2024

Charles Webb - US
37. The Graduate, botm 2014

Heruy Wolde Selassie - Ethiopia
The New World, 1932, reportedly there might be a translated copy but can you find it? I'm not including this in the potential books. Author wrote in Amharic

H.G. Wells - England
38. Tono Bungay, 1909, 414
39. The Invisible Man, botm 2012
40. The Island of Dr. Moreau, 1868, 153 pages
41. The War of the Worlds, 1898, 192 pgs
42. The Time Machine, 1898, 118 pages

Irvine Welsh - Scotland
43. Trainspotting, 1993, 431 pages

Eudora Welty - US
44. The Optimist's Daughter

Nathanael West - US
45. Miss Lonelyhearts

Rebecca West - UK
46. Birds Fall Down, 1966, 488 pgs
*47. The Return Of The Soldier, botm 2020
Thinking Reed omitted, botm 2024
48. Harriet Hume, 1929, 288 pgs

That's it folks. What have you read? What would you like to read in March? Don't forget to use the new method to vote. Thanks so much for being here in 2026.

I have read 25 of these which is more than usual. I am interested in The Lusiads although more for the history than literature. I have only read one Evelyn Waugh and only one Alice Walker so would be happy to go there.

I have only read 12 of these. The only Walker I have not read is The Temple of My Familiar.

I've read 31 of these including the two that were excluded. I am most interested in reading Gore Videl's Myra Breckenridge.

Slim pickings this month. I have read close to 30 (including the omitted ones). There is only one of them on my TBR shelf and I am not overly excited about it:

- The Garden Where the Brass Band Played (Vestdijk)

Not sure what I will do. I could be swayed towards Trainspotting (Welsh) if there are other takers.

I have read 21 of these, more than usual. I would be most interested in Myra Breckinridge or Conversations in Sicily.

Interesting list! I've read a lot of the Ws but not many of the Vs.

I haven't read The Temple of My Familiar and could go for that one.

I'd like to read Froth on the Daydream/L'écume des jours, but the English edition is expensive here and I think also in North America, so I won't vote for it, but I'll get it in French.

My top two are the Vidal and Trainspotting, I’ve read Alice Walker although it looks like I don’t have reviews because it was pre Goodreads so I’ll have to work on that!

Diane wrote: "I have only read 12 of these. The only Walker I have not read is The Temple of My Familiar."

That's coming up on my TBR shelf.

I've read 24 of these (half) which is also more than my usual, probably my most ever actually. Helped by having read all 4 Vonneguts, both Vernes and 4 of the 5 HG Wells.
Not many of these are in my long TBR shelf- the highest one is the Froth on the Daydream I mentioned- as Rosemary said not easy/cheap to get but I can get at university library in English or French. If you happen to be in Portland OR they have a paper copy and maybe you can get it by interlibrary loan. Temple of My Familiar is next down for me and I will likely vote for that one which Diane and Rosemary also endorsed. Memories of a Peasant Boy (written in Spanish) I also want to read soon- not at many libraries but the Kindle English translation is just $4 when I last looked.

Just a note, the Vian isn’t necessarily expensive in translation - it depends on which translation you are looking for. The one most available is titled Mood Indigo, which two of the four English translations have been called. But the fact that there are 4 translations in 70 years does make me think it’s probably one to try in the original if possible, although it’s probably hard for that same reason.

Jenna wrote: "Just a note, the Vian isn’t necessarily expensive in translation - it depends on which translation you are looking for. The one most available is titled Mood Indigo, which two of the four English t..."

Oh yes, much cheaper under that title! I didn't realise it was the same book. I have ordered a French edition anyway.

Gail wrote: "I have read 25 of these which is more than usual. I am interested in The Lusiads although more for the history than literature. I have only read one Evelyn Waugh and only one Alice Wa..."

Being Portuguese, I've read it, in the original, plenty of times. As far as the history depicted goes, it is so intensely skewed that I'm not even sure one can learn much other than "we're the bestest and we kill Moors, hell yeah!"

Jenna wrote: "Just a note, the Vian isn’t necessarily expensive in translation - it depends on which translation you are looking for. The one most available is titled Mood Indigo, which two of the four English t..."

This is one of several French books which are best read in the original because it would be hard to preserve some of the wit and the play-on-words that the text offers. Almost all of Perec falls in the same category, for example.

Thank you Nocturnalux, I guess I can skip that one then.

I can get behind Myra Breckingridge.

A bit more than 24 hours before the voting ends. This is a close race, so make sure to email your vote(s) to 1001secondedition@gmail.com within the next 24 hours, if you haven't already done so.

Votes were cast on only 4 books this month, with two very definite leaders. However, the winner for the popular votes is:

Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal

The random pick among the other three remaining books is:

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (submitted by Jenna)

What will you read in March?

I've read Trainspotting, and thought highly of it (4*).

I am interested in Myra Breckinridge, but - probably not surprisingly - I can't seem to access it through the library. If it is still available on the internet archive in March I will make an effort to read it.

Valerie wrote: "I've read Trainspotting, and thought highly of it (4*).

I am interested in Myra Breckinridge, but - probably not surprisingly - I can't seem to access it through the lib..."

It is a short story so try looking in some short story collections. That is how I found it.

I read Trainspotting in 2025 so might try joining the discussion but probably won't reread it.

I plan to read Myra Breckinridge which I found in a collection.

Kristel wrote: "Valerie wrote: "I've read Trainspotting, and thought highly of it (4*).

I am interested in Myra Breckinridge, but - probably not surprisingly - I can't seem to access it..."

Thank you for this comment, because it spurred me to search the library catalogue in a different way and I found it! I'm not sure why it didn't show up the first time.....

I will try and read Myra Breckinridge.

I will read Myra Breckinridge. I am not sure about Trainspotting, it’s a book I’ve always avoided but I feel I may actually be impressed if I read it.

I've read both of those, but I've received my copy of L'écume des jours, and I will concentrate on slowly reading that in March.

I opened it to see how simple or complicated the language looked, and I stumbled on a passage where one of the characters is creating "pianocktails" - cocktails mixed to match music. It has something in common with matching books with wine!

On Trainspotting: I find with Irvine Welsh's books that the dialect is difficult at first but if I "hear" it in my head as I read, I soon get used to it. I also do this when reading French and when reading Shakespeare etc. It's slower than taking in the words directly by seeing them, but it stops my eyes glazing over and losing the sense of whole paragraphs. Sometimes my lips even move :)

If you never hear Scottish accents, it would probably help to go to YouTube to hear someone read from the book if that's a possibility, or to hear ordinary people from Edinburgh talking, and get attuned to it.

To Rosemary’s point about the accents, I remember the movie as incredible and it’s one of the reasons I picked the book - and that’s a great way to hear the dialect. I’m realizing now that we called our babies “wee weans” (years later) because of this movie.

I have read both of these and probably will not reread either. However, I can get caught up on a couple chunksters that my Random Challenge turned up, one over 600 pages and one over 700 pages.

I've read Trainspotting ten years ago and thought well of it and although some bits are unpleasant I rated it four stars.
I'm going to pass on Myra B. at this time- not all my GR friends rated it well.

With a bit of luck, I might be able to read both, as they are easily available here and reasonably priced.