The height of human wisdom

My favourite excerpt from War and Peace today was...


"Nothing has been found out, nothing discovered" Pierre again said to himself. "All we can know is that we know nothing.  And that is the height of human wisdom"


Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace
Book V, Chapter I

Seize the moments of happiness

Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! 

That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. 

Book IV, Chapter XI

The necessary society of clever women

“Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the society of clever women."”  


Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace
Book I, Chapter IV

Kicking off with Tolstoy

Time to start the fun bit - working down the list.  I thought I would start with a big one, an epic, to get the ball rolling.


Following the maxim "go large, or go home" I decided to kick off with Tolstoy's 'War and Peace'.


I already have a copy of the book, but it is currently in a cardboard box along with everything else in my bookshelf, as we bought a house in June and we move house in 2 days time.  I realise that I may not have mountains of free time for reading and bubble baths (my absolute favourite place to unwind with a good book) in the foreseeable future, so I have also made use of my audible account to buy the unabridged audiobook too, narrated by Frederick Davidson and published by Blackstone Audio Inc.  The translation of this version is by Louise and Aylmer Maude.  I know that there is always furious debate about which translations give the most authentic interpretation of Tolstoy's own nuances and connotations, so I will use my book (when it get's unpacked) as a cross reference for my own benefit.


The audiobook weighs in at 10 mins shy of 61 hours of listening time, so this should keep me occupied in the coming weeks as I pack up my life into boxes, clean the rented house from top to bottom, make umpteen trips back and forth between my old place and the new place (40 minutes in the car each way).


I will be starting tonight as I cook, I will dock my ipod n the kitchen and get started on the journey into Tolstoy's story about the French invasion of Russia in the 1800's and effect that the Napoleonic era had on Tsarist Russian society.  Really looking forward to it!

The Lit List

My Book List so far....

1.    Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë

2.    Jamaica Inn – Daphne Du Maurier

3.    Iliad – Homer

4.    War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

5.    Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

6.    1984 – George Orwell

7.    Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

8.    Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift

9.    Lord Of The Flies  - William Golding

10. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

11. Tess of The D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

12. Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

13. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

14. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë

15. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

16. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

17. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  - Philip K. Dick

18. Murders In The Rue Morgue – Edgar Allen Poe

19. Middlemarch – George Elliot

20. The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

21. Bleak House – Charles Dickens

22. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

23. The Time Machine – HG Wells

24. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

25. Foundation – Isaac Asimov

26. Ulysses – James Joyce

27. Paradise Lost – Milton

28. The Pearl – John Steinbeck

29. Twenty thousand Leagues Under The Sea – Jules Verne

30. I Claudius – Robert Graves

31. The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler

32. East Of Eden - John Steinbeck

33. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

34. Odyssey – Homer

35. Midnight's Children – Salman Rushdie

36. Diceman - George Cockcroft

37. To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee

38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis de Berniéres

39. Persuasion – Jane Austen

40. Animal Farm – George Orwell

41. Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco

42. Lord Of The Rings – JRR Tolkien

43. Cat’s Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

44. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – John Le Carré

45. Neuromancer – William Gibson

46. A Perfect Spy – John Le Carré

47. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

48. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

49. 100 Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

50. Cider With Rosie – Laurie Lee

51. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
52. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
53. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

An Odyssey in Literature

I have always had a desire to read as many of the books that are considered to be Literary classics as possible.  Some of these are ancient classics, and some are modern classics, many are classics of English Literature, others are classics from other languages and cultures.

It is my birthday today and next year is a milestone birthday (ouch).  Life is rushing past so fast so I have decided to make a formal plan to start ticking these greats off my list, as frankly, I am not getting any younger!  (My Gran says she is glad to hear I am 'bettering myself')

I already have a decent number of these books under my belt, having read them already, so rather than revisiting them all again in written form, I plan to approach this book list in a different way.  I will read many of these books, particularly the ones I have not read before, but in revisiting the ones I have already read, I plan instead to listen to them, as read by some fantastic narrators.


I have been a bookworm from early childhood, and always have a pile of books by bed, I will always love the feel of a book, the smell of the ink and the paper, that will never change.  But, in recent years I have also become a fan of audiobooks.  A well read audiobook can really bring a story to life, and add another dimension to the stories remembered from the written words I have previously enjoyed.  Also, when all the accents are done perfectly, it really adds a lot of drama and authenticity to the story hearing it that way.    Audiobooks are an opportunity to be listening to fantastic stories, instead of tacky radio stations, while I work at my desk, in the studio, travelling, or pottering around the house.  I look forward to chores and driving now, as I can immerse myself in epic stories of love, heroism and adventure while I go about my daily grind.  

This list will be evolving and expanding.  As a start point, I asked the people in my life and my followers in the twitterverse too, to give me suggestions of their personal much loved classics for my list.  My next post will have the first 50 essential books we came up with between us for my list.