Reading The 1000 Books to Read Before I Die

“Survival had to start with me. In my experience, a castaway’s worst mistake is to hope too much and do too little.” Yann Martel, Life of Pi  Life of Pi By Yann Martel To me, if a story grabs you as you are reading the first pages then the trip is going to be fantastic.  That is what exactly happened to me when I began reading Life of Pi .  This is the first book I have read by the author Yann Martel. Life of Pi is a popular book published in 2001 and the winner of 4 Academy Awards including Best Director for Ang Lee.  Honestly when I saw that Life of Pi was listed on the 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die , I was anticipating a book about a kid and a tiger on a boat.  What I did not anticipate was how much more to the story there was, and how much I was going to love reading this book.     The book takes place in the mid to late 1970s first in India, then for 7 months in the Pacific Ocean.  I have always been fascinated by In...

“The long, long ambiguity of Edgewood, the stifling sense of mysteries continually propounded, never solved, the endless waiting of purposes to be made clear and directions pointed out—all over.” John Crowley Little, Big Hello 1000 Bookies!! The latest book I completed off the list of 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die is a fantasy novel by John Crowley entitled Little, Big .  At 564 pages this book was big, not little and candidly a tough read for me.  I believe my wife was happier that I finished the novel than I was, she then would stop listening to me complain about the story during our morning jogs.  Little, Big is an acclaimed novel but its charm was lost on me.  Books are like wine; you like what you like no matter the awards or medals they win.  I was not wild about Little, Big.   The book was released in 1981 and has received acclaim in literary circles.  James Mustich writes about the story, “[C]alling it fantasy isn’t quite right, f...

If It Bleeds  By Stephen King A Review by Jonathan Hanson As a lifelong fan of Stephen King, I always look forward to his books. In fact, I previously reviewed my favorite book from his catalogue, IT. His newest book, If It Bleeds , is a collection of four novellas. Over the years, Mr. King has written a wide variety of short stories and novellas: Four Past Midnight , Nightmares & Dreamscapes , Skeleton Crew, Everything’s Eventual, etc. I really enjoy his collections because it allows the reader to explore various aspects of King’s writing, from the eerie and gory to the subtle and supernatural. In fact, some of the most famous movies based on Stephen King books were short stories: Rita Hayworth & the Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile , The Mist , and Jerusalem’s Lot are some examples. This new book contains four novellas, one of which is a sequel to earlier works. “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” is about the friendship formed between a young boy and a w...

“Age has its despairs, yet without its dimension, our lives lose their shape: A timeless life, without growth or change, would be drearier that the day is long” James Mustich Tuck Everlasting Hey 1000 Bookies!!!  After spending the most recent blog posts on books based in Great Britain, we arrive at our next destination of TreeGap, which I assume is located in the mid-western United States.  Our latest stop along the 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die is taking us to the 1880s and the novella, Tuck Everlasting .  This book, written by Natalie Babbitt, is a popular young adult book.  Written in 1975, Tuck Everlasting continues to be a favorite of school kids to this day.  The book is a quick read at 137 pages.  I sorely wish I had read this book when I was a teen or pre-teen.  The message that Tuck Everlasting contains about the understanding and the importance of death in our lives is a point of view most young people need to consider. The stor...