Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

Have any of you guys encountered books that were really hard to find? I'm currently looking for The Manila Rope by Veijo Meri but can only find it for £34 on amazon and I not spending that much on a list book!

Also I wanted to confirm the books that I don't think have been translated into english (yet), in case it saves others time spent researching :).

La Regenta/The Regent's Wife - Leopoldo Alas

New World - Heruy Walda-Sellase

The Taebaek Mountains - Jo Jung Rae although when I googled it just now there are articles from 2012 saying it was going to be published in english, but they haven't materialised yet!

So, what hard to find books have you encountered? Do you know of any that aren't available in english or are out of print?

I think there was a similar post a while back, but it doesn't hurt to bring it up again.

Halbzeit by Martin Walser seems to be one of those books. Hard to find in German, its original language, and impossible to find in English (correct me if I'm wrong), so I'm assuming it was never translated.

I'm sorry if I'm repeating topics! I did have a browse to see if there was anything similar but it must have escaped my notice :/.

Thanks for the heads up, Sandi! I'll add to my book notes.

I found the old topics, but they aren't half as informative as your first post here!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Kat wrote: "Have any of you guys encountered books that were really hard to find? I'm currently looking for The Manila Rope by Veijo Meri but can only find it for £34 on amazon and I not spending that much on ..."

Kat, it looks like La Regenta has been translated into English (see Penguin edition linked here).

As for difficult-to-find books, I think Land 3 Volume Set is pretty rare, especially in the 3-volume set that is an extension of the first English translation that was published in 1996.

My strategy has been to use my school's extensive library as much as possible to borrow rare books while I still can! And I, too have been wondering if that Taebaek Mountains translation is actually happening or not . . .

I don't think La dama número trece (Lady number 13) has been translated into English, but there is a French translation: La Dame n°13

I also seem to remember there are some Dutch books on the list as yet without English translations, like Gimmick!.

Sandi wrote: "Halbzeit by Martin Walser seems to be one of those books. Hard to find in German, its origin..."

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_W..., it has been translated into English, but I can't find any trace of it online.

[edit: This page: http://www.themodernnovel.com/german/... says there is no translation]

You can find some hard to find books here:

https://openlibrary.org/

I received an Amazon gift card for Christmas and I decided to use it exclusively for list books. I was surprised to see how many were out of print, and some used copies were extremely expensive.

But I'm not far enough along to be burdened by hard to find books.

Jamie wrote: "Kat wrote: "Have any of you guys encountered books that were really hard to find? I'm currently looking for The Manila Rope by Veijo Meri but can only find it for £34 on amazon and I not spending t..."

Thanks Jamie! I can't beleive I didn't know there was a penguin edition - the only ones that ever came up in searches anywhere were all in Spanish.

I think I remember conversations about Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg being a hard one to find, and looking at amazon (UK) the prices range from £1.76 to £85.34... might pick this one up now while I can.

you can find Cutter and Bone at the link i provided. you can download
it freely

Thank you for the link to openlibrary.org. Very useful. Cutter and Bone - and many other ebooks - can be borrowed as ebook for 2 weeks. (I wonder how it works? Does the ebook expire after 2 weeks?)

j, The books auto-expire (removed from your device: computer or handheld) after 2 weeks. You can always borrow it again. You can read it in browser, epub or pdf.

Mekki wrote: "you can find Cutter and Bone at the link i provided. you can download
it freely"

I would love to use open library but it doesn't work on my kindle, so I have to find my books through other means (one of the reasons I asked for help and recommendations!).

Mekki wrote: "You can find some hard to find books here:

https://openlibrary.org/"

The search or browse options could use some work. I am missing the option of searching in lists. There got to be a list of borrowable 1001-books. Anyone have a link? Or just a list of 1001 books?

Kat wrote: ...it doesn't work on my kindle,..."

I have read some book on my kindle from the site, you first need to go on the website from your kindle, then download the kindle version book. to access the kindle version you have to go to your downloads on the top left, click on the download to open the book. Recently I read House of Dolls that way.

Hope that helps. I have a Kindle Fire HD 8.9.

Thank you for taking the time to write that Rachel! Sadly my kindle is too old to do that, but one day I'll get an upgrade (or an iPad) and I'll be all over open library, haha!

Thought people might be interested-- back in 2012 Knowledge Pen announced they had a contract to translate and publish Taebaek Mountain Range into English. I finally found an update on that. Looks like the current expected release date is October 2016. Here's the link I found: http://www.knowledgepen.com/eng/trans...

Edit: I also wanted to remind people of the fantastic site WorldCat.org. It searches libraries worldwide and can tell you if your library (or one near you) has the book you're looking for. It was mentioned in the older of the threads linked above, but I thought it was worth another mention.

And...If you're lucky, your library might have a system to request books from far away libraries. Mine does--as far as I know I can request them from across the country--but it's the first one I've come across that does that.

Kat wrote: "I'm currently looking for The Manila Rope by Veijo Meri but can only find it for £34 on amazon and I not spending that much on ..."

I'm not really surprised that you have a hard time finding it, I wasn't even aware that it had been translated. I am actually more surprised it's on the list at all. (Of course I haven't read it but I know the story, I have probably seen the movie...) It's not that high on the list of "Must read books for Finns", either, so you have my permission to change it to some other Finnish classic. :-)

Tytti wrote: "Kat wrote: "I'm currently looking for The Manila Rope by Veijo Meri but can only find it for £34 on amazon and I not spending that much on ..."

I'm not really surprised that you have a hard time f..."

I might take you up on that :p, any recommendations?

Kat wrote: "I might take you up on that :p, any recommendations? "

Well, Seven Brothers is the one book every Finn should read (the first/second novel written in Finnish), along with The Unknown Soldier already on the list. The Egyptian is probably the most famous and often said to be the best Finnish book ever written, a bestseller at its time in the US so it might be easy to find. Of course there is also Under the North Star by Linna but it's a trilogy.

Anything by F.E. Sillanpää is a good choice, he won Nobel in 1939 (though the Soviet Union had just invaded Finland and the Winter War had started so that might have gotten some extra votes for him). I guess many of his books are quite sad, but probably very Finnish, too, he wrote about the peasantry and nature. From other authors I know The Railroad has been translated but other than that... From the more modern books Purge is probably the most hyped, it has won several awards, too.

Awesome, cheers for that Tytti!

Hi Kristen, thanks for mentioning WorldCat. Interlibrary loan is the service you mentioned your library offering (obtaining items from other libraries on loan on your behalf). This is a standard library service and all sorts of libraries offer it - from public to medical. Sometimes this service is offered at a charge - this is only to make up for postal charges and any loan charges other libraries impose - never to make a profit (unless the lib is in a for-profit institution). :)

I love using interlibrary loan. My library only charges $2 and it's well worth the cost.

I also check betterworldbooks.com. It's a great place to find used books and they donate a book to charity for every book you buy.

For me I read so many books on kindle, so I'm thinking I will read this list for so many years, I will just leave the ones I cannot find for when I'm older. Chances are absolutely that they are then released on kindle :)

I agree, Winter!

I found quite a few for free on Kindle. I plan to read the ones I have and have access to and then start searching. That should be quite a few years in the future.

Kat wrote: "Have any of you guys encountered books that were really hard to find? I'm currently ....Also I wanted to confirm the books that I don't think have been translated into english (yet), in case it saves others time spent researching :). La Regenta/The Regent's Wife - Leopoldo Alas...."

La Regenta is also available on Kindle now for a dollar- it may not have been available when you 1st posted. Those who don't have or want to buy a Kindle, you have the option of downloading the Kindle app to your computer (or even phone) and reading it on that, but on a kindle would be a lot better. I bought a used one on ebay cheap.

You can also use Calibre to convert.

A Ballad for Georg Henig is pretty hard to find, but I got a card for the local state university and they had it there, along with a lot of other list books not in the county and city library systems. Those who have a public university nearby should check into whether it will give them a card. Mine won't let me access the ebooks, only paper, but they have tens of thousands of those.

Out of print books which are expensive can be resold to recoup at least most of your cost, though this is a bother to do. I plan to put some of mine up for sale when I retire soon and have more time to do this.

Kirsten wrote: "I love using interlibrary loan. My library only charges $2 and it's well worth the cost.
I also check betterworldbooks.com. It's a great place to find used books and they donate a book to charity..."

I've used interlib loan a few times. There are some disadvantages- you never know when you're going to get the book, so harder to plan. Also they often give you only a few weeks to have it and no renewal option, so for long books that can be inconvenient. If I can buy the book for $5 or less I'd rather do that, but nice for books that are expensive or just not for sale.

Here's a related question- maybe it could be a thread on it's own:

What's the most obscure, least-rated list book you've read?

Foe me it's probably Thomas Of Reading that I read recently, which has about 60 ratings. It's very old, from 1599.

George wrote: "A Ballad for Georg Henig is pretty hard to find, ."

Funny! My local library had a Danish translation. It was one of the first I read when I started to read 1001-books systematically. I picked that because of the high ratings and because it was easy to get.

George wrote: "Here's a related question- maybe it could be a thread on it's own:

What's the most obscure, least-rated list book you've read?

Foe me it's probably Thomas Of Reading that I read re..."

A Day Off 40 ratings
Pavel's Letters 74 ratings
and number 3 is actually:
A Ballad for Georg Henig 820 ratings

George wrote: "What's the most obscure, least-rated list book you've read?

Foe me it's probably"

probably?

You know you can sort by number of ratings? If you have a shelf like 1001 or 1001-read, just sort by number of ratings. Click settings and pick "num ratings" if you dont have it.

BTW current standing for the list is most obscure:

The New World 4 ratings
Geur der droefenis 14 ratings
Cataract 17 ratings

There are 13 books with less than 40 ratings.

The one I read with the least ratings is Cataract by Mykhaylo Osadchy, with 17 ratings. When I read it back in 2014, it had less than 10 ratings.

I've been trying to find a copy of Almost Transparent Blue by Ryū Murakami in English, and while it's listed everywhere, nobody has one in stock - not used or anything. Also, my library system doesn't have a copy, nor do the ones they interlibrary loan with. I don't know why it bugs me. I have plenty of other books to read in the meantime, but I do hope it eventually ends up as an ebook at least.

Another one that I would like in an edition that I can't find is this version (published by Howard Fertig) of Storm of Steel : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... The reason is that I've read several reviews of the Penguin translation from German speakers/readers and they say the book is changed in tone by the newer Penguin translation. I do wonder which one is recommended by the list people, but if I'm going to read a translation, I'd like it to be as close to the original in tone as possible. I could be wrong about this. I've only heard this from my German friends. My German reading isn't sturdy enough, I don't think. Oh well. Those are two I'd like to find eventually.

Ella wrote: "I've been trying to find a copy of Almost Transparent Blue by Ryū Murakami in English, and while it's listed everywhere, nobody has one in stock - not used or anything. A..."

I'm pretty sure they have Almost Transparent Blue on openlibrary.org if you desperately need something to read ;)

Lotte_ladybird wrote: "I'm pretty sure they have Almost Transparent Blue on openlibrary.org if you desperately need something to read ;)."

Well there's a ringing endorsement ;-p -- and I do see it there. Thanks, though somehow my yearning has quieted a bit. (I think it's just that I want all the Murakami lines filled - no matter who the Murakami is, and I've read all the other Murakami books on the list.) Thanks!

Ella wrote: "Lotte_ladybird wrote: "I'm pretty sure they have Almost Transparent Blue on openlibrary.org if you desperately need something to read ;)."

Well there's a ringing endorsement ;-p -- and I do see it..."

Ella wrote: "Lotte_ladybird wrote: "I'm pretty sure they have Almost Transparent Blue on openlibrary.org if you desperately need something to read ;)."

Well there's a ringing endorsement ;-p -- and I do see it..."

Haha, I know the feeling! I have a list of the most represented authors on the list in my Passion Planner with a little dot for each book. Once I've read one of the books I colour in the dot.. yes, I'm a total geek LOL

As far as difficult goes, I'm going to find the non-English books the most challenging I'm guessing. I belong to a University library system with ILL and Worldcat, so I think everything else is doable. The non-English untranslated ones to my knowledge are:

The Port - Antun Soljan
Back to Oegstgeest - Jan Wolkers
Gimmick! - Joost Zwagerman
Margot and the Angels - Kristien Hemmerechts
Smell of Sadness - Alfred Kossman
The Taebek Mountains- Jo Jung-Rae
The New World - Heruy Walda-Sellasse
Lady Number Thirteen - José Carlos Somoza

I frequently see Halftime (Walser) and Camera Obscura (Hildebrand) as being non-English, but I found them listed as in English via Inter-library-loan. I ordered Halftime, so we'll see.

Taebaek Mountains is not in English- but it is in French (my second language). I'm currently reading it but my goodness it is looooong. It's 10 parts- each ~360-400pgs. I'm on book 5. Also disappointed that none of the other non-English books seem to be in French.

Also trying to boot-leg translate New World via OCR and google. Thank goodness the book is so short, because it is a long-ass effort. I've read/translated 15 of the 80 pages. I just casually work on it when I have the time.

I also bought Lady number 13 over kobo, and want to find a way to quickly convert it with a loose translation as well. Should be much easier to convert Spanish than Amharic, but it is 3x as long as New World.

I will be forthcoming with my bargain-basement translations as they happen- but no guarantees for timeline lol. (Except for Taebaek- hell no I'm not touching that 4000 page behemoth again once I'm done lol).

As far as least reviewed book I've read goes: Pilgrimage (Richardson) the full 4 volume version only has 3 ratings (including me)! each separate volume has more reviews though: between 131 (first volume) and 22 (last volume).

Cataract now has 25 reviews (including mine), and is the least reviewed book that I've finished if we don't count pilgrimage.

As far as books I'm reading but not finished: New world has 6 now, and Taebaek has 18.

Amanda wrote: "Cataract now has 25 reviews (including mine), and is the least reviewed book that I've finished if we don't count pilgrimage."

That's the one by Mykhaylo Osadchy, right? I read that not too long ago--I didn't see your review...did you like it? I couldn't really get into it--though I think it would have been a lot more relevant 40 years ago.

Yep that's the one. I really liked it (gave it 4 stars) it wasn't fun, but I found the different accounts of how his peers tried to hide their stories and their "transgressions" interesting as well as historically valuable.

I could see it being more relevant 40 years ago: but given how censorship against dissidence esp. on social media (like Hong Kong right now) is a growing problem again, I think it is also timely.

....and my first attempt to get halftime in english was a bust. They sent it to me in German.