I have also made some calculations. Today included, I have 239 days' time to read 99 books (I've already finished the first one on my list). That means I have to be able to read an entire book in just 2.4 days, or 57.93 hours.
Let's assume the average book has a length of 300 pages. I would have to read 125 pages a day, or, on average, 5.17 pages an hour, every hour. Since I cannot read while I'm at school or while I am sleeping or eating, I have to cancel out some hours from my calculation. In a 24-time period, I use up roughly three hours for reading; however, I am more than capable of increasing this amount, but not in the near future, since I am currently going through my Abitur tests and consequently spend much of my time studying. Let's use four hours. In 2.4 days I would have spent 9.6 hours solely on reading. I would have to read 31.25 pages an hour in order to complete a book within 2.4 days and using the reading schedule that I have hitherto utilized. In minutes, that would 576 minutes every 2.4 days, which entails a reading speed of 0.52 pages a minute, or roughly half a page per minute. When I put it that way, the project sounds viable. However, this is just a proposed, ideal case. In reality, several books on this list are under 200 pages long, while others are close to 500 pages in length.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see how far I can go. Even if I don't complete the list, I won't despair, because I can always start a fresh list next year and simply try harder (and start earlier). Either way, it's a win-win situation: I get to read books, and that's all I really want.
76.
The sequel to The Twelve Chairs. It is just as interesting as the first book, and just as memorable.
For those who are acquainted with the tale of the golden calf from the Hebrew Bible, the title may be a hint to what the story is about ;)
77. Taras Bulba and other Tales with The Inspector General - Nicolai Gogol
I love funny things. Who doesn't? Gogol is highly amusing, and his satires and criticisms are still very true today. Dead Souls was biting and sharp, but at the same time very enjoyable, in particular the passages where Gogol describes food. *mouth waters*
78. Little French Masterpieces - Theophile Gautier
Like with Daudet, I know little about Gautier, but I have heard good things about his writing. I therefore plan to read this little collection of Gautier's best stories.
For those of you who are or have been at one point students of a German-speaking high school, you are in all likeliness well acquainted with E.T.A. Hoffmann, specifically his dark-romantic fragmentary novel, Der Sandmann. It is an important asset to the German literary curriculum. Although it is more or less forced upon students, I have met very few students who did not end up liking Hoffmann. His style is very unique and not in any way boring, and he possessed an admirable, if quite bizarre, imagination.
For the non-German audience, Hoffmann is perhaps best known for the story The Nutcracker.
80. Die Leiden des Jungen Werther - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This is another German classic that is read in almost every school. None of the German classes in my grade had read this book, but I have leafed through it and read some passages that were so heartfelt und sorrowful that it was almost amusing - amusing, as in 'curiously funny'.
81. Effi Briest - Theodor Fontane
Fontane had the talent to write astonishingly beautiful sentences. He could string phrases along and create a vivid and detailed picture in the reader's mind. It is difficult to use the German language in such a way that the result looks pretty, if not breath-taking, but Fontane was one of the few writers who succeeded in this endeavor.
However, writing beautifully and writing a story are not synonymous.
For all the august literary talent that Fontane possessed, Effi Briest still came off as very boring and cheesy - at least, it seemed so to me, to my German teacher and to many other fellow students. Effi Briest has all the plot of an oversimplified Anna Karenina or Madame Bovary, and the descriptive floweriness of a field of purple dahlias.
I have presently alluded to the fact that I had to read this novel, an exemplary piece of bürgerliche Realismus, for German class; however, I have not finished it. I got bored mid-way. But I despise leaving books unfinished unless they are truly horrid, so I will give Effi Briest another shot.
82. Monsignor Quixote - Graham Greene
The idea of putting the story of Don Quixote into the modern day (or, well, the modern day when the book was written) sounds interesting, especially considering the juxtaposition of Quixote's chivalry code with the today's political idealism is a great opportunity for bold satire indeed.
Or, as the movie is called, Three Days of the Condor. Why three? Because six days would be far too long on film. I guess.
Yes, I've watched the movie, directed by Sidney Pollack and starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway, and yes, of course, it was a good movie. After watching the film, I'm now eager to read its source material.
84. Demon Box - Ken Kesey
Does it involve a box full of demons?
Or maybe a stereo system?
Either way it sounds cool.
85. Survival in Space - Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Lebedev
I am not reading this book out of personal interest, but rather for survival. Soon, this book is going to as wide-spread as first-aid manuals, as mankind ventures ever further into space. I will need to be prepared in case I travel to the moon on vacation. Alway be prepared, that's my motto.
86. Die Liebe in den Zeiten der Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Love in the Time of Cholera, one of Marquez's most famous works. Considering Marquez is already a terrific author, this book must be, like, double-terrific. Or quadruple-terrific.
87. Fabian - Erich Kästner
I don't have many novels by Kästner, but I am determined to read through whatever I have from him. He was a damn good writer and a damn good poet. Die Zeit Fährt Auto, anyone?
88. Das Haus Tellier - Guy de Maupassant
Maupassant's stories range from woefully cynical to sharply satirical to absurdly hilarious. A bit, in a way, like Chekhov. Don't get me wrong - both writers were terrific, and I admire Maupassant's style and plot twists very much. That's why he's on my list, isn't he?
89. Pariser Abenteuer - Guy de Maupassant
My chief curiosity in reading this book is to compare it afterwards to Paris Peasant by Louis Aragon, and to see the changes that occured in Paris before the turn of the century and after. I can also juxtapose both Paris' to the Paris of today, since I have been to said metropolis.
90. Little French Masterpieces - Prosper Merimee
This is where the story of Carmen started. Merimee recorded this tale, which was apparently inspired by a true story, with the intentions of a good-humored satirist and traveler. The composer Bizet took this humorous story, toned the humor down several notches until it became a tragic, semi-romantic tale, and turned it into one of the world's most recognizable operas.
91. The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
I absolutely refuse to watch the musical or any film adaptations. Don't ask me why. I just don't want to see them. However, the story itself is vaguely curious, so made the decision to read the book, but not to watch any kind of adaptations. Okay, so I really dislike romantic films. I despise them.
Romantic books I can still stomach. Half-way.
92. A Daughter of the Snows - Jack London
London's stories revolve around a bizarre time in the American history, while simultaneously depicting society as it still is today, in all its glory and its horrors. Every character is a unique, living creature, with his own background, mentality and creed. This was the case with White Fang and it was the case with The Star Rover. I have no doubt that it is true in the case of this story, A Daughter of the Snows, which I, to be frank, have high expectations for. I am especially looking forward to this because I am well aware of how diverse London's interests and story themes were, quite similar to Fitzgerald's. Not many people realize that the man who wrote The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night also wrote The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and The Curious Case of Bejamin Button. It is equally unknown to most that Mark Twain wrote a rather serious, alternate historical piece revolving around Joan of Arc, a historical figure he had great respect for and deep fascination in. Yes, a writer has more than one side, even if that side is the most famous one.
This is a collection of a great deal of essays and comments and whatnot from many different writers on many different subjects. Some of the included authors are George Bernard Shaw, Aldous Huxley, T.E. Lawrence, Bertrand Russel and many, many more.
I have no idea where the first volume is, though, or if I've ever had it.
94. Great Russian Short Stories
Another great collection, this time it is a collection of famous short stories by famous Russian writers, such as Chekhov, Pushkin or Kuprin.
95. Wie der Stahl Gehärtet Wurde - Nikolai Ostrowski
Ostrovsky was a bad-ass. He was THE bad-ass of all bad-ass. He fought in the war, he was wounded and, in an absolutely excruciating state of health (blind and paralyzed, I believe), he wrote some of the most powerful, impressive literature I have ever set eyes on. The Storm-born, which I have read (albeit in German - Die Sturmgeborenen), was unfortunately an unfinished work, as Ostrovsky died before he could properly finish it. Poor guy did not lead a very long life. But a book that he DID finish was How the Steel Was Hardened, which tells of the October Revolution in the early 20th century.
96. Pharaoh 1 - Boleslaw Prus
There are not that many fictional, historical books set in Ancient Egypt, and even fewer are worth my while. Prus takes the hierarchical society of Egypt, with its monarch and its slaves, and uses it to bring across an interesting message about society.
Or so I am assuming. I don't know, I haven't read the book yet.
97. Pharaoh 2 - Boleslaw Prus
Second volume of the above-mentioned book.
98. The Human Comedy - William Saroyan
As opposed to the Divine Comedy :)
Saroyan is funny, and it has already become fairly obvious that I like funny writers or funny anything really. I'm looking forward to reading this.
99. Meister Antifers Wunderbare Abenteuer - Jules Verne
I don't know who Master Antifer is, but apparently he had a wonderful adventure.
Yay, I love wonderful adventures!
100. The War in the Air - Herbert George Wells
This.
Sounds.
Awesome.
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