Zero's 2009 Challenge

After finishing 333 books last year I may try to pull back a bit but I still plan on listing some big numbers in 2009.

001. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga 01/01/09
002. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 01/02/09

003. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 01/03/09
004. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink 01/04/09

005. Anthony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare 01/05/09
006. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome 01/06/09

007. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle 01/07/09
008. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett 01/08/09

009. The Prague Orgy by Philip Roth 01/09/09
010. The Summing Up by W. Somerset Maugham 01/10/09

011. The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith 01/11/09
012. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey 01/11/09

013. Nadja by André Breto 01/13/09
014. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco 01/14/09

015. The Invisble Man by H. G. Wells 01/15/09
016. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri 01/16/09

017. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera 01/17/09
018. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood 01/18/09

019. A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne 01/18/09
020. Three Exemplary Novels by Miguel de Unamuno 01/19/09

021. The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich 01/19/09
022. "The Fox" by D.H. Lawrence 01/20/09

023. The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy 01/21/09
024. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare 01/21/09

025. The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer 01/23/09
026. Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck 01/24/09

027. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. I by Edward Gibbon 01/25/09
028. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood 01/26/09

I have a copy of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that I have not read yet. What did you think of it? Is it within the reach of a layman?
--BJ

Gibbon glosses over a lot of history from Augustus through Marcus Aurelius ("pre-decline" Rome) so it would be beneficial to have a basic knowledge of the first century or two of empire. Other than that I didn't have any problems keeping up (maps come in handy) although Gibbons covers everything -- a lot of dull patches in there.

I'm not over-anxious to open Vol. II.

What you do get from Vol. I is a very powerful idea of how the decline "felt" and thoughtful insight into the spread and institutionalization of Christianity. That said, if you're only interested in the history of Rome and not English literature there are surely better sources available.

029. Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust 01/26/09
030. The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle 01/26/09

Thanks for the review. This is one of those works that I have always wanted to read but have never gotten around to reading. Do you recommend anything regarding the first century or two?
--BJ

I watched a lecture series on the history of ancient Rome a few years ago from the Teaching Company which provided a great outline. Beyond that I've read 'Historiae' by Tacitus and 'The Twelve Caesars' by Suetonius which more than fill in the gaps of Gibbon's coverage (he assumes his reader is already versed in the basics of earlier Roman history as he treats it lightly). Not that it's necessary to begin with a command of the events and personages, just helpful.

Thanks for the recommendations! I love the Teaching Company as well although we pretty much have the science ones. I am thinking that I will order a few books next week, so I will try to get one of those books.
--BJ

031. Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth 01/27/09
032. Coraline by Neil Gaiman 01/27/09

033. Rabbit, Run by John Updike 01/29/09
034. Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster 01/29/09

Wow, how do you find so much time to read all these books? I'm envious.

Also, how was The Unbearable Lightness of Being? It's on my TBR list.

Believe me, my reading schedule is water tight.

As far as I'm concerned, 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' more than lived up to its reputation; wonderful book.

035. Introduction to the Philosophy of History by G.W.F. Hegel 01/30/09
036. Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee 01/30/09

037. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey 01/30/09
038. Qur'an by Muhammad 01/31/09

039. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 01/31/09
040. The Funeral Party by Ludmila Ulitskaya 01/31/09

041. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger 02/01/09
042. The Tin Drum by Günter Grass 02/03/09

043. Embers by Sándor Márai 02/05/09
044. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James 02/05/09

045. Richard III by William Shakespeare 02/06/09
046. The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne 02/07/09

Your mix of books is terrific. How do you choose what to read next?
--BJ

The mix is largely the result of my 999 challenge ~ keeps me hopping around subjects and time periods.

047. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer 02/08/09
048. The Essays by Francis Bacon 02/08/09

049. Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald 02/09/09
050. Confessions by Augustine of Hippo 02/10/09

051. James Joyce by Edna O'Brien 02/11/09
052. "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Leo Tolstoy 02/12/09

053. My Fantoms by Théophile Gautier 02/13/09
054. The Graduate by Charles Webb 02/15/09

055. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 02/16/09
056. In the Dutch Mountains by Cees Nooteboom 02/18/09

057. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 02/19/09
058. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence 02/20/09

059. Sula by Toni Morrison 02/21/09
060. A Sorrow Beyond Dreams by Peter Handke 02/21/09

061. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie 02/21/09
062. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe 02/22/09
063. The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman 02/23/09
064. Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth 02/24/09

Did you like Moll Flanders? Have you read Robinson Crusoe? I have been thinking about Defoe lately. I tried to read RC back in high school, but never really got into it. It could just have been too much homework that week and the book was due back to the library. I can't really recall. But I have been thinking of giving him another try.
--BJ

I didn't much care for either 'Flanders' or 'Crusoe' which are perfectly lowbrow entertainments, by all means readable but no better than a typical episode of 'The Wire' or 'Lost'.

Thanks! I think I will wait on those books for now. Too many other choices! :) Have a great day!
--BJ

065. Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy 02/26/09
066. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis 02/28/09
067. The Captive by Marcel Proust 02/28/09
068. The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier 02/28/09
069. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco 03/02/09
070. Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem 03/03/09

071. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene 03/04/09
072. Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightma 03/05/09
073. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy 03/05/09
074. Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman 03/06/09
075. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 03/08/09

How did you like Einstein's Dreams? It looks great from the LT description and reviews, I'm tempted to add it to the TBR list.

I found 'Einstein's Dreams' exceptionally offensive insofar as it plagiarizes the concept and, within the limited abilities of the author, the style of Italo Calvino's 'Invisible Cities'. I highly recommend the later title instead of Lightman's counterfeit.

Wow, good to know! Thanks, zanix.

Just wanted to say I find your list very impressive! :)

I'm going to read Sodom and Gomorrah by Marcel Proust sometime this year. Is any good?

Thank you!

'Sodom and Gomorrah' is more of the same from 'The Guermantes Way' but with lots of homosexuality added to the mix. Thus far, I only hold the first two volumes in the highest regard but things seem to be picking up going into the final stretch. I should be finished with the whole 'Search' next month and I admit it will be a relief to be done with the brilliant but ponderous Proust even though I genuinely admire him.

076. "The Beast in the Jungle" by Henry James 03/11/09
077. The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse 03/11/09
078. Oh What a Slaughter by Larry McMurtry 03/12/09

079. The Fish Can Sing by Halldór Laxness 03/13/09
080. The Quiet American by Graham Greene 03/13/09

Still haven't started Swann's Way yet. Don't know why I won't just dive in! I read "The Quiet American" last year and liked it. Have you read "Our Man in Havana" also by Greene? It is really short, but pretty funny. It also has a movie; I guess they both do. Haven't read anything by Laxness yet, although I have heard lots of good things. Have a terrific weekend!
--BJ

The Quiet American is one of my favourite Greene novels, along with The Heart of the Matter. I remember liking The End of the Affair too, but I read it so long ago that I barely remember, and I was also probably too young to fully appreciate it...I just love Graham Greene in general, highly recommend :)

#54 -- Well, Proust is quite the investment, between the page count and style he's enough to give any reader pause. Thus far he has been worth the effort for me. Outside of his "entertainments" I find Greene to be one of the best popular writers of the 20th century (if not the best.) Laxness is probably my find of the year, I love his sense of humor.

#55 -- 'The Heart of the Matter' is next on my Greene list (slotted for April or May.) I thought 'The End of the Affair' was fantastic, certainly worthy of a reread.

081. Shogun by James Clavell 03/14/09
082. To Siberia by Per Petterson 03/15/09
083. The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton 03/15/09
084. Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo 03/16/09
085. Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad 03/17/09

086. The Life of Thomas More by Peter Ackroyd 03/18/09
087. The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman 03/19/09
088. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy 03/20/09

089. Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman 03/21/09
090. Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 03/22/09

091. Paradise Lost by John Milton 03/23/09
092. Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche 03/24/09

093. Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck 03/25/09
094. The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 03/26/09

095. The Fugitive by Marcel Proust 03/28/09
096. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami 03/28/09

097. Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid 03/29/09
098. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut 03/30/09
099. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington 03/31/09
100. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys 03/31/09

What did you think of Moth Smoke?
--BJ

Meh... just a potboiler with a heavy dose of social criticism, but I've read worse.

101. Rabbit Redux by John Updike 04/03/09
102. The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh 04/04/09

103. The Bell by Iris Murdoch 04/06/09
104. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton 04/07/09
105. Disquiet by Julia Leigh 04/08/09

I noticed that you read 3 Margaret Atwood books this year and was wondering what you thought of them.
--BJ

The Handmaid's Tale was superb (the "historical notes" at the end was a brilliant idea), I thought Onyx and Crake was terrible, and The Penelopiad was sort of a throw-away exercise but fine so far as that went. I must admit, however, that speculative fiction isn't really my bag.

Thanks for the info! :)
--BJ

106. The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin 04/10/09
107. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem 04/11/09
108. Man in the Holocene by Max Frisch 04/14/09
109. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie 04/14/09
110. The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper 04/15/09

Favorite books to date (of 2009)?

Excluding rereads (most notably The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Siddhartha)

My big three so far:

Portrait of a Lady
Invisible Man
Three Exemplary Novels (this one may just be me)

Other notables: Austerlitz, The Fish Can Sing, The Handmaid's Tale, Jude the Obscure, Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Pillars of the Earth, The Power and the Glory, The Quiet American, The Slave, A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Waiting for the Barbarians

Plenty of other good books but that covers the standouts thus far other than The Guns of August and Travels with Charlie in non-fiction.

Thanks!

111. Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse 04/16/09
112. Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert 04/18/09
113. Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham 04/19/09

114. Justine by Lawrence Durrell 04/20/09
115. Balthazar by Lawrence Durrell 04/21/09

What did you think of Justine? Are you reading the entire Alexandria Quartet? I have book 1, but I haven't read it yet. Have a great day!
--BJ

I thought Justine was fantastic but I was less enamored with the rest of the quartet (although I will certainly reread it in the future.)

116. Time Regained by Marcel Proust 04/23/09
117. Chess Story by Stefan Zweig 04/24/09
118. Mountolive by Lawrence Durrell 04/24/09
119. Clea by Lawrence Durrell 04/26/09

I only have book 1. Do you think I should go ahead and get the complete set? Seems like I read that they are related but not really sequels. Thanks for the info on Justine. :)
--BJ

The first book can stand on its own; the second two just explain away the romance and then the mystery that made it so appealing (they're an intellectual exercise in perspective and context.) If you don't care for Justine there's no point in continuing the series so you needn't worry about completing the set at this point.

Thanks!
--BJ

120. Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos 4/28/09
121. "The Diary of a Superfluous Man" by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev 4/29/09
122. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe 04/30/09
123. Beowulf 04/30/09
124. By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño 04/30/09

125. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle 05/01/09
126. Billy Budd by Herman Melville 05/01/09
127. The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham 05/02/09
128. The Dying Animal by Philip Roth 05/02/09
129. False Dawn by Edith Wharton 05/02/09
130. Rock Crystal by Adalbert Stifter 05/03/09

131. On the Nature of Things by Lucretius 05/03/09
132. Man in the Dark by Paul Auster 05/03/09
133. King Lear by William Shakespeare 05/03/09

134. "The Call of Cthulhu/The Thing on the Doorstep" by H.P. Lovecraft 05/04/09
135. Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler 05/04/09

136. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane 05/05/09
137. Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare 05/06/09
138. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian 05/06/09

Are you going to read the rest of the Master and Commander series? I think there are quite a few.
--BJ

Twenty! I'm only committed to the next couple books before I decide to take on the whole series (6980 pages no less.)

If you don't mind, and you remember, could you let me know if you think it is worth the whole series after you read the others? I saw the movie, which piqued my interest in the book. I have heard good things about the first one, but nothing really about the others. Have a great day!
--BJ

I'll keep you posted (the first was pleasingly atmospheric and neatly populated by personable seamen but the story ran a bit thin.)

139. All My Sons by Arthur Miller 05/08/09
140. Rameau's Nephew by Denis Diderot 05/08/09

141. Private Lives by Noël Coward 05/08/09
142. Adam Bede by George Eliot 05/09/09
143. Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare 05/09/09

144. How Fiction Works by James Wood 05/10/09
145. Anthem by Ayn Rand 05/10/09

146. Doors Of Perception by Aldous Huxley 05/10/09
147. Jesus, Interrupted by Bart D. Ehrman 05/11/09
148. Astrophel and Stella by Philip Sidney 05/11/09

149. First Love by Ivan Turgenev 05/12/09
150. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene 05/13/09

151. Discourse on Inequality by Jean-Jacques Rousseau 05/13/09
152. The Europeans by Henry James 05/14/09
153. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare 05/14/09

154. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 05/14/09
155. Losing Mum and Pup by Christopher Buckley 05/15/09

156. Pericles by William Shakespeare 05/17/09
157. Apology by Plato 05/17/09
158. The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro 05/18/09

159. A Letter Concerning Toleration by John Locke 05/18/09
160. Travels in Scriptorium by Paul Auster 05/19/09

161. Gun, with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem 05/20/09
162. God and the State by Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin 05/21/09
163. Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant 05/21/09

164. The Double by Fyodor Dostoevsky 05/22/09
165. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster 05/23/09

166. Youth, a Narrative by Joseph Conrad 05/23/09
167. Venus in Furs by Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch 05/24/09
168. On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin 05/25/09

I also have On the Origin of Species on my tbr, but I was wondering if it is necessary to read The Voyage of the Beagle first. Did you read that book, too? I have heard that Darwin is quite readable, so I am looking forward to reading this. Thanks.
--BJ

'On the Origin of Species' is quite a pleasant read, as far as science research goes, and completely self contained. 'The Voyage of the Beagle' has jumped a few spots on my TBR list.

169. Watchmen by Alan Moore ill. Dave Gibbons 05/25/09
170. Anathem by Neal Stephenson 05/26/09

171. The Devil's Pool by George Sand 05/26/09
172. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwel 05/27/09

173. Suttree by Cormac McCarthy 05/29/09
174. Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo 05/29/09
175. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne 05/30/09

176. "Sarrasine" by Honoré de Balzac 05/30/09
177. The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald 05/30/09
178. Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy 05/31/09

179. The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett 05/31/09
180. "The Marquise of O" by Heinrich von Kleist by Heinrich von Kleist

181. Mathilda by Mary Shelley 06/02/09
182. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarqu 06/03/09

-- 50,000 pages --

183. The Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus 06/04/09
184. A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell 06/05/09
185. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon 06/06/09

186. Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller 06/07/09
187. Adrift on an Ice-Pan by Wilfred Grenfell 06/07/09

188. The Master by Colm Tóibín 06/09/09
189. The Interrogation by J.M.G. Le Clézio 06/11/09
190. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry 06/11/09

191. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño 06/16/09
192. Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker 06/17/09

Lots of stuff on your list I'll never get to, then towards the end I see Gun by Letham and then Appaloosa by Parker.

I like both authors and these two books for considerably different reasons, curious on your take on both.

Other than 'The Fortress of Solitude', which was a big let down, I've found the two other Lethem books I've read this year to be quite entertaining. 'Appaloosa' was a bit too run-of-the-mill and one-dimensional for my taste.

193. Tempest-Tost by Robertson Davies 06/18/09
194. "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 06/19/09
195. Native Son by Richard Wright 06/19/09

196. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn 06/20/09
197. Hunger by Knut Hamsun 6/21/09
198. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev 6/21/09

199. Leaven of Malice by Robertson Davies 06/22/09
200. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson 06/24/09

201. Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo 06/24/09
202. Light in August by William Faulkner 06/25/09
203. A Mixture of Frailties by Robertson Davies 06/27/09

Hey, zanix!
What did you think of Pedro Paramo? I am always looking for good books for my daughter to read in English or Spanish about Latin America. Thanks.
--BJ

At 120 odd pages and a milestone in Latin American letters it'd be hard to pass up; it is the very direct inspiration for 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' to give you a sense of the atmospherics of the book (but without the repeated references to the male member if that is a concern.)

204. A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell 06/29/09
205. East of Eden by John Steinbeck 06/30/09

206. The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 06/30/09
207. Cosmos by Witold Gombrowicz 07/02/09
208. Salammbô by Gustave Flaubert 07/02/09
209. Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville 07/02/09

210. Night Games by Arthur Schnitzler 07/04/09
211. The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams 07/05/09

212. The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy 07/06/09

213. Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín 07/07/09
214. King John by William Shakespeare 07/08/09
215. A Writer's People by V. S. Naipaul 07/10/09

216. The Acceptance World by Anthony Powell 07/11/09
217. The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle 07/11/09
218. "De Profundis" by Oscar Wilde 07/12/09

219. Raintree County by Ross Lockridge 07/13/09
220. David Golder by Irene Nemirovsky 07/14/09

Hey, zanix!
I just returned to town and saw your info on Pedro Paramo. Thanks for the info, it sounds like a good book. My daughter has read One Hundred Years of Solitude in both Spanish and English (there was a mixup in an assignment for her Spanish class -- the book assignment had been withdrawn, but she didn't know!), so I think that she would really enjoy this one. Have a great day!
--BJ

221. How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom 07/14/09
222. Angels and Insects by A. S. Byatt 07/16/09
223. Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee 07/16/09
224. The Setting Sun by Dazai Osamu 07/17/09
225. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery 07/18/09

226. The Fall of Constantinople 1453 by Steven Runciman 07/18/09
227. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez 07/19/09

228. "The Book of Urizen" by William Blake 07/20/09
229. The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Şafak 07/20/09
230. In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar 07/21/09

231. The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith 07/22/09
232. Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour 07/23/09
233. Niels Lyhne by Jens Peter Jacobsen 07/25/09
234. Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein 07/25/09
235. Villette by Charlotte Brontë 07/26/09

236. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford 07/26/09
237. Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje 07/27/09
238. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini 07/28/09
239. The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Guevara 07/29/09
240. The Shipyard by Juan Carlos Onett 07/29/09

241. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore 07/30/09
242. Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian 07/31/09

243. The Human Factor by Graham Greene 08/01/09
244. The Five Jars by M.R. James 08/01/09
245. Fanny Hill by John Cleland 08/02/09
246. His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle 08/03/09
247. On the Edge of Reason by Miroslav Krleža 08/03/09
248. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields 08/04/09
249. L'Étranger by Albert Camus 08/04/09

250. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogo 08/06/09
251. Middle of the Night by Paddy Chayefsky 08/07/09
252. Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake 08/08/09
253. The Man Who Watched Trains Go By by Georges Simenon 08/08/09

254. Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon 08/10/09
255. The Song of Roland 08/10/09

256. The Jolly Corner by Henry James 08/11/09
257. Out of Africa by Karen Blixen 08/12/09
258. On the Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau 08/13/09
259. A Tomb for Boris Davidovich by Danilo Kiš 08/13/09

260. Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinsk 08/14/09
261. Photo Shop Murder by Young-Ha Kim 08/15/09
262. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam 08/15/09
263. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay 08/15/09

264. The Egyptian by Mika Waltari 08/18/09
265. The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa 08/18/09

266. L'Ingénu by Voltaire 08/19/09
267. Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme 08/20/09

268. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller 08/21/09

269. Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake 08/23/09
270. Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih 08/23/09

271. Child of God by Cormac McCarthy 08/24/09
272. Ironweed by William Kennedy 08/24/09

273. Snow White by Donald Barthelme 08/25/09
274. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez 08/25/09
275. Child of Dandelions by Shenaaz Nanji 08/25/09

276. At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien 08/26/09
277. The Eternal Husband by Fyodor Dostoevsky 08/27/09
278. Oroonoko by Aphra Behn 08/27/09
279. The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever 08/29/09
280. Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake 08/30/09

281. The Dead Father by Donald Barthelm 08/30/09
282. Epicoene by Ben Jonson 08/30/09
283. Edward II by Christopher Marlowe 08/31/09
284. Eve's Ransom by George Gissing 08/31/09
285. Memories of Altagracia by Salvador Garmendia 08/31/09
286. Reality and Dreams by Muriel Spark 08/31/09

287. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe 09/03/09

288. The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 09/04/09
289. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce 09/04/09

290. Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky 09/05/09

291. Moonheart by Charles de Lint 09/06/09
292. Minotaur by Benjamin Tammuz 09/08/09
293. The Provoked Wife by Sir John Vanbrugh 09/08/09

294. The Possessed by Fyodor Dostoevsky 09/10/09
295. Pensées by Blaise Pascal 09/11/09

296. Volpone by Ben Jonson 09/11/09
297. Summer by Edith Wharton 09/12/09
298. Spoils of Poynton by Henry James 09/12/09

299. The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar 09/13/09
300. The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil 09/14/09

301. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe 09/15/09
302. Vices Are Not Crimes by Lysander Spooner 09/16/09
303. Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon 09/17/09
304. Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth 09/17/09
305. The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad 09/18/09

306. Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong 09/20/09
307. Vain Art of the Fugue by Dumitru Tsepeneag 09/20/09
308. Far Eastern Tales by W. Somerset Maugham 09/21/09
309. The Old English Baron by Clara Reeve 09/21/09
310. An Introduction to Metaphysics by Henri Bergson 09/23/09

311. Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne 09/24/09
312. The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner 09/25/09
313. Historia Calamitatum by Pierre Abélard 09/26/09

314. Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow 09/27/09
315. "The Figure in the Carpet" by Henry James 09/27/09

316. Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson 09/28/09
317. Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson 09/30/09
318. Kokoro by Natsume Soseki 09/30/09

319. Sanctuary by Edith Wharton 10/01/09
320. Summer Crossing by Truman Capote 10/03/09

321. Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan 10/05/09
322. Borges and the Eternal Orangutans by Luís Fernando Verissimo 10/05/09
323. The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois 10/05/09

324. Rabbit is Rich by John Updike 10/07/09
325. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell 10/08/09

326. Wage-Labour and Capital by Karl Marx 10/08/09
327. Typee by Herman Melville 10/10/09
328. L'invitation by Claude Simon 10/10/09
329. The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria 10/11/09
330. Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman 10/12/09

331. Madame de Treymes by Edith Wharton 10/13/09
332. Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton 10/14/09

333. Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant 10/15/09
334. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge by George Berkeley 10/16/09

335. Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris 10/18/09

336. The Crime of Father Amaro by Eça de Queirós 10/20/09
337. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf 10/20/09
338. The Tree of Wisdom by Nagarjuna 10/20/09

339. Hannibal: One Man Against Rome by Harold Lamb 10/21/09
340. The Bolivian Diary by Ernesto Guevara 10/22/09

341. Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi 10/23/09
342. The Art of War by Sun Tzu 10/24/09
343. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 10/24/09
344. Wittgenstein's Nephew by Thomas Bernhard 10/24/09
345. Adieu by Honoré de Balzac 10/25/09

346. Samuel Adams: A Life by Ira Stoll 10/26/09
347. The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea by John Micklethwait 10/27/09

348. The Trumpet-Major by Thomas Hardy 10/28/09
349. Don Juan by Lord Byron 10/30/09
350. Bliss and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield 10/31/09
351. My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse 11/02/09
352. Napoleon's Wars by Charles Esdaile 11/04/09

353. Ravelstein by Saul Bellow 11/05/09
354. Viper's Tangle by François Mauriac 11/06/09
355. The Tunnel by William H. Gass 11/08/09

356. Dispatches by Michael Herr 11/09/09
357. Völsungasaga 11/09/09
358. The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo 11/11/09

359. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa 11/13/09
360. The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian 11/13/09

361. Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell 11/13/09
362. Jamila by Chinghiz Aitmatov 11/14/09
363. The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 by Paul Krugman 11/14/09

364. Foundation by Isaac Asimov 11/15/09
365. The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare 11/15/09

366. The Wasteland by T. S. Eliot 11/16/09
367. King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard 11/16/09
368. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot 11/19/09
369. Empire of Signs by Roland Barthes 11/20/09
370. Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov 11/20/09

371. Sir Dominick Ferrand by Henry James 11/21/09
372. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa 11/22/09

What did you think of King Solomon's Mines? I have long been curious about that book.
--BJ

Other than being a trend-setter I wouldn't consider it much more than above average "mens adventure" fiction (for the times.)

373. Auto-da-fé by Elias Canetti 11/22/09
374. Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy 11/23/09
375. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth 11/24/09
376. The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love by St. Augustine 11/25/09
377. Downstream by Joris-Karl Huysmans 11/26/09
378. Moon Palace by Paul Auster 11/27/09
379. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis 11/27/09
380. The Mystery of a Turkish Bath by Rita 11/27/0
381. Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov 11/28/09
382. The Lifted Veil by George Eliot 11/28/09
383. The Crow Road by Iain Banks 11/29/09
384. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim 11/30/09
385. First Apology of Justin Martyr by Justin Martyr 11/30/09
386. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane 11/30/09

387. Baudolino by Umberto Eco 12/02/09
388. Macbeth by William Shakespeare 12/02/09
389. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein 12/03/09
390. Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat 12/03/09

391. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin 12/04/09
392. The Palace of Dreams by Ismail Kadare 12/05/09
393. The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren 12/06/09
394. Herzog by Saul Bellow 12/07/09
395. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch 12/08/09
396. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño 12/11/09
397. Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim 12/12/09
398. Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith 12/12/09

399. Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu 12/13/09
400. The Color Purple by Alice Walker 12/13/09
401. Life of Pi by Yann Martel 12/15/09
402. Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos 12/16/09
403. Myles Before Myles by Flann O'Brien 12/17/09

404. The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon 12/18/09
405. Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann 12/19/09

406. Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom 12/21/09
407. The Book of Night Women by Marlon James 12/23/09
408. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah 12/24/09
409. Sky Burial by Xinran 12/25/09
410. Professor Martens' Departure by Jaan Kross 12/25/09
411. The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster 12/25/09
412. How Green Was My Valley Richard Llewellyn 12/26/09
413. The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell 12/27/09
414. The Pupil by Henry James 12/27/09
415. The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honoré de Balzac 12/28/09
416. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor 12/28/09
417. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis 12/28/09
418. The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster 12/28/09
419. Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn 12/29/09
420. Samson Agonistes by John Milton 12/29/09
421. Falling Man by Don DeLillo 12/29/09
422. Giraffe by J.M Ledgard 12/30/09
423. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles 12/31/09

424. The Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt 12/31/09
425. The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton 12/31/09