The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Classical World by Robin Lane Fox

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe

I can see the influence of Goethe on Schopenhauer with this.

Rather enjoyable emo literature.

The Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche

Nice, entertaining diatribe against Christianity, read while hanging out with 7th-Day-Adventist Indonesians on the south coast of Java.

Liza of Lambeth by Somerset Maugham

As generally happens when reading the full complement of a favourite author's works, the highs of initial brilliance are replaced by the lows of missteps.

This was Maugham's first novel, and though the trademark sympathy for fun-loving people is apparent, it's pretty ordinary.

Is this the only Maugham novel written in the third person?

Notes From the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Hilariously, devilishly, morosely good.

I think of Nick Cave as the musical embodiment of Dostoyevsky -- depressing, but funny.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

For a brilliant book, it still needed some mighty trimming in parts.

I suppose it's one of the shortfalls of the realistic kind of writing Tolstoy employed that it can drag in parts because the scenes portrayed are somewhat dull and the writing won't let itself be entertaining enough in its own right to save a dull sequence of events.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Seriously, how did this ever become the great American novel? How could this interest anyone over ten years of age? I suppose the sympathetic depiction of African Americans is much less powerful these days, but even when concessions are made for that, I still can't get past the simple language and harebrained schemes that made it impossible for me to enjoy.

A huge disappointment.

The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Any Sherlock is good Sherlock. Nevertheless, this is one of the lesser Sherlocks.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

OK I suppose, but a Booker?

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis

Too many details in what could have been an entertaining book.

The Bell by Iris Murdoch

The primary problem of a philosopher: an over-analysis of situations that don't make much sense.

So stuff happens, and instead of just leaving it at that, Murdoch has to start talking about something like "guilt touched by a hint of sadness as one's love for another is seen to pass".

What upsets me most about that style of writing is the precision of the words that simply do not match the imprecision of emotions -- it's the illusion of understanding, the illusion of making sense, and it makes everything rather unbelievable.

The Wisdom of Father Brown by GK Chesterton

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Apparently Huckleberry Finn's epic is better. Can't see how that would be hard.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Letter by Somerset Maugham

Supreme short stories set in the tropics and reread in the tropics.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Not as good as I would have hoped -- the linguistic tricks are what I think about on a day-to-day basis and not particularly as hilarious as others might think them to be.

My Man Jeeves by PG Wodehouse

Amusing and as one would expect a Wodehouse to be.

This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Islam: The Straight Path by John Esposito