Some Thoughts On The 27 Remaining Novels

Let’s take a look at the 27 books I have left to read from the Time list, shall we?

Here’s what’s left:

1. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), by Muriel Spark 160
2. The Berlin Stories (1946), by Christopher Isherwood 256
3. The Heart of the Matter (1948), by Graham Greene 297
4. Housekeeping (1981), by Marilynne Robinson 219
5. Lucky Jim (1954), by Kingsley Amis 256
6. The Painted Bird (1965), by Jerzy Kosinski 234
7. Play It As It Lays (1970), by Joan Didion 240
8. To the Lighthouse (1927), by Virginia Woolf 272
9. Under the Net (1954), by Iris Murdoch 256
10. At Swim-Two-Birds (1938), by Flann O’Brien 336
11. Brideshead Revisited (1946), by Evelyn Waugh 368
12. Herzog (1964), by Saul Bellow 400
13. Naked Lunch (1959), by William Burroughs 320
14. On the Road (1957), by Jack Kerouac 304
15. The Sheltering Sky (1949), by Paul Bowles 352
16. Tropic of Cancer (1934), by Henry Miller 318
17. White Noise (1985), by Don DeLillo 336
18. The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), by William Styron 480
19. Midnight’s Children (1981), by Salman Rushdie 446
20. White Teeth (2000), by Zadie Smith 464
21. The Adventures of Augie March (1953), by Saul Bellow 536
22. A House for Mr. Biswas (1962), by V.S. Naipaul 576
23. Light in August (1932), by William Faulkner 512
24. The Man Who Loved Children (1940), by Christina Stead 576
25. Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), by Thomas Pynchon 784
26. The Recognitions (1955), by William Gaddis 976
27. Ulysses

Some things that jump out at me.

• I still have two Saul Bellow novels remaining (Herzog and The Adventures of Augie March). Interesting that I’ve avoided him to this point. Mere coincidence, really.
• The Recognitions is nearly 1,000 pages. That one is going to be a beast.
• I have another Woolf novel (To The Lighthouse) and Faulkner novel (Light in August) still to read. Considering my first experience with those two authors wasn’t very good, it’s safe to say I’ve been procrastinating.
• In total, I still I have several novels remaining from authors with more than one book on the list—including Graham Greene, Woolf, Faulkner, Evelyn Waugh, Bellow, and Thomas Pynchon.
• I’m particularly dreading Tropic of Cancer and Naked Lunch.
• I’ve heard great things about Brideshead Revisited, so I’ve actually been saving it until later on the list.
• In my mid-20s, I often said On the Road was my favorite novel. I haven’t read it since then, so I’m interested to see how I respond to that one.
• And, of course, as a reminder, I added Ulysses to the Time list to make the 101 number. With that, it will be the final novel I read during this project.

So those are some quick, off-the-cuff thoughts about what’s left. I’ve already decided which five novels I’ll read next, and I’ll let you guys know that on Monday.

Anything from the remaining novels stand out to you?