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Fidel Namisi's Playful Notes

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    Fiction Books I Have Read

    %% #review #flashcards %% I came across a piece of advice once by Louis Lamour where he advised keeping a list of books read. He didn't give the reason why. I've had to work out a reason for myself. When I scan the list below of books I've read, two things happen:

    1. I remember the story, most of the time. If I can't even remember the story in broadstrokes, it means the book had zero impresson on me and isn't worth reading a second time.
    2. I start to see a pattern when it comes to books I thoroughly enjoyed. This helps me to know myself better. For instance, I'm a sucker for any book that has a father-son story at it's core.

    Below is an ever growing list of books I've read. It's ever growing because:

    1. I add to it as I remember.
    2. I add to it as I read more.

    I also include my overall impression from time to time.

    Todo:

    • Remove duplicates.
    • Remove memoirs/ biographies and put them elsewhere.

    List of Novels I've Read

    1. The River Between
    2. The Great Siege of Fort Jesus
    3. The Black Widow Society
    4. Anna Karenina
    5. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
    6. A Journey to the Centre of the Earth
    7. The Graveyard Book
    8. The Lord of the Flies
    9. Around The World in Eighty Days
    10. Robinson Crusoe
    11. The Three Musketeers
    12. The Count of Monte Cristo

      The last 3 chapters of this book are the best last 3 chapters of any book I've ever read.

    13. Crime and Punishment
    14. King Solomon's Mines
    15. She
    16. Moby DickMoby Dick
      My impressions from Moby Dick.


      It's a hard book to read. The first time I tried reading it was in high school. I couldn't finish it. The second time was in university. I still couldn't finish it. The third time was a charm, in 2019-2020.
      The way the guy combines the styles of novel writing and play writing is astounding.
      His facility for quoting and referencing other works, especially scripture, is next-level.
      The main character, Captain Ahab. Wow. Speechless.


      Lesson to remember. ...
    17. Wuthering Heights
    18. Jane Eyre
    19. Emma
    20. The Turn of the Screw
    21. The Jungle Book
    22. Pride and Prejudice
    23. Nigger of the Narcissus
    24. Hard Times
    25. The Old Man and the Sea
    26. For Whom The Bell Tolls (Unfinished)
    27. Great Expectations
    28. The Man Who Was Thursday
    29. All the Sherlock Holmes stories
    30. All the Father Brown stories
    31. Black Widow Society
    32. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
    33. The Harry Potter Series
    34. Oliver Twist
    35. A Journey to the Centre of the Earth
    36. The Lost World
    37. A Study In Scarlet
    38. The Man Who Was Thursday
    39. The BFG by Roald Dahl
    40. The Woman in White
    41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
    42. The Nigger of the Narcissus by Joseph Conrad
    43. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
    44. The Prisoner of Zenda
    45. The Three Musketeers
    46. The Hobbit
    47. The Silmarillion
    48. Death Comes for the Archbishop (nearly finished it)
    49. The Lost World
    50. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
    51. The Old Man and the Sea >I liked this book so much, and it made such an impression on me that I never want to read it again.
    52. Uneasy Money by PG Wodehouse
    53. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
    54. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    55. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
    56. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
    57. Animal Farm by George Orwell
    58. Mine Boy
    59. The River Between
    60. The Life and Times of Michael K.
    61. Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
    62. Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Marquez
    63. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
    64. The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
    65. Kidnapped by RL Stevenson
    66. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
    67. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
    68. Peter Pan by J.M. Barry
    69. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol

      I enjoyed the nonsense rhyme. And the colorful characters. Not so much Alice.

    70. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol
    71. The Wizard of Oz

      Can't remember much about it.

    72. The Call of the Wild by Jack London

      This I read in high school. I still remember being on the edge of my seat.

    73. White Fang by Jack London

      I read this back to back with the Call of the Wild. I think I enjoyed White Fang more. That wolf felt more human than Buck in the "The Call of the Wild."

    74. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

      I read this in high school. I still remember the chapter where Toad sees a car for the first time and goes crazy over it. Hilarious. And the beautiful, wistful chapter titled "The Piper At The Gates of Dawn." One of the most beautiful chapters I've ever read in my life.

    75. The Road by Cormac Mccarthy

      I have no words to describe this book. It's up there in my top 3 of all time, along with the "Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Lord of the Rings."

    76. No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
    77. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
    78. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
    79. Inferno from The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
    80. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
    81. Danny The Champion of The World by Roald Dahl
    82. The Autobipgraphy of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
    83. Q&A by Vikas Swarup
    84. The Secret Garden

    SCREENPLAYS

    1. Rabbit-Proof Fence
    2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings by Philipa Boyens and Peter Jackson
    3. The Gladiator
    4. Usual Suspects
    5. Schindler’s List by Zaillian
    6. Singin’ in the rain
    7. Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino
    8. Tin Men by Barry Levinson
    9. Diner (partially) by Barry Levinson
    10. Chinatown by Robert Towne
    11. The Third Man by Graham Greene
    12. On the Waterfront by Budd Schulman
    13. La Grand Illusion by Jean Renoir
    14. Taxi Driver by Paul Schrader
    15. Do The Right Thing by Spike Lee
    16. Sullivan’s Travels by Preston Sturges

    PLAYS

    1. Twelfth Night by Shakespeare
    2. Henry V by Shakespeare
    3. Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare
    4. Antigone by Sophocles
    5. The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter
    6. Our Town by Thornton Wilder
    7. Long Days Journey Into Night by Eugene O’neil
    8. True West by Sam Shepard
    9. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
    10. Tartuffe by Moliere
    11. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
    12. Once in a Lifetime by George Kaufman
    13. You Can’t Take It With You by George Kaufman
    14. Merrily We Roll Along by George Kaufman
    15. The American Way by George Kaufman

    SHORT STORIES

    1. The Turn of the Screw

    2. The Man Who Would Be King

    3. Dusk by Saki

    4. Mr. Know-All by Somerset Maugham

    5. The Night the Ghost Got In by James Thurber

    6. The Fight by Dylan Thomas

    7. The Dwarf by Ray Bradbury

    8. No Witchcraft For Sale by Doris Lessing

    9. A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Conner

    10. The River by Flannery O’Connor

    11. The Second Death by Graham Greene

    12. Bella Fleace Gave A Party by Evelyn Waugh

    13. The Bull that Thought by Rudyard Kipling

    14. The Boarding House by James Joyce

    15. The Lady’s Maid by Katherine Mansfield

    16. Chateau Beigainvillaea by H.E. Bates

    17. The Tone of Time by Henry James

    18. Out of Darkness

    19. Country Lovers

    20. Looking for A Rain God

    21. Certain Winds From the South

    ACADEMIC/ NON FICTION

    1. Story by Robert McKee
    2. From Word to Image (Storyboarding)
    3. The Ultimate Filmmaker’s Guide (almost finished)
    4. The Art of Film Acting by Jeremiah Covey
    5. Directing Actors by Judith Weston
    6. Elia Kazan: A Life
    7. Making It Big In Shorts