Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Because I love books

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? The ones I have read are in bold:

THE ALCHEMIST • Paulo Coelho (Read it in one day on a plane flight from the U.S. to South Korea...should probably read it again)
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND • Lewis Carroll
ANIMAL FARM • George Orwell
ANNA KARENINA • Leo Tolstoy
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES • L M Montgomery
ARTEMIS FOWL • Eoin Colfer
THE BFG • Roald Dahl
BIRDSONG • Sebastian Faulks
BLACK BEAUTY • Anna Sewell
BLEAK HOUSE • Charles Dickens
BRAVE NEW WORLD • Aldous Huxley
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED • Evelyn Waugh
BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY • Helen Fielding
CAPTAIN CORELLI’S MANDOLIN • Louis de Bernières
CATCH 22 • Joseph Heller
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE • J D Salinger (Stupid, stupid book. And don't tell me I don't catch the themes and symbolism.)
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY • Roald Dahl
A CHRISTMAS CAROL • Charles Dickens (Now this is a book with great themes and symbolism. Cited by President Monson as "inspired.")
THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR • Jean M Auel
COLD COMFORT FARM • Stella Gibbons
THE COLOUR OF MAGIC • Terry Pratchett
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO • Alexandre Dumas (One of my favorites)
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
DAVID COPPERFIELD • Charles Dickens (My favorite book of all-time)
DOUBLE ACT • Jacqueline Wilson
DUNE • Frank Herbert
EMMA • Jane Austen
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD • Thomas Hardy
GIRLS IN LOVE • Jacqueline Wilson
THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS • Arundhati Roy
THE GODFATHER • Mario Puzo
GONE WITH THE WIND • Margaret Mitchell
GOOD OMENS • Terry Pratchett
GOODNIGHT MISTER TOM • Michelle Magorian
GORMENGHAST • Mervyn Peake
THE GRAPES OF WRATH • John Steinbeck (I HATE STEINBECK)
GREAT EXPECTATIONS • Charles Dickens (Solid read)
THE GREAT GATSBY • F Scott Fitzgerald
GUARDS! GUARDS! • Terry Pratchett
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS • J K Rowling (Just classic)
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE • J K Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE • J K Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN • J K Rowling
HIS DARK MATERIALS • Philip Pullman
THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY • Douglas Adams
THE HOBBIT • J R R Tolkien (Can't remember much, it's been too long)
HOLES • Louis Sachar (So-so book, but Shia is the man)
I CAPTURE THE CASTLE • Dodie Smith
JANE EYRE • Charlotte Brontë
KANE AND ABEL • Jeffrey Archer
KATHERINE • Anya Seton
THE LION,THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE • C S Lewis (Another great read both for the story and for the themes. Remember when I got to go to a movie theater on my mission?)
LITTLE WOMEN • Louisa May Alcott
LORD OF THE FLIES • William Golding (Read this book a few months ago. Somewhat interesting, but I'll never read it again)
THE LORD OF THE RINGS • J R R Tolkien (Fun stories but I wouldn't necessarily recommend them)
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA • Gabriel García Márquez
THE MAGIC FARAWAY TREE • Enid Blyton
MAGICIAN • Raymond E Feist
THE MAGUS • John Fowles
MATILDA • Roald Dahl (Good times...good times...)
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA • Arthur Golden
MIDDLEMARCH • George Eliot
MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN • Salman Rushdie
MORT • Terry Pratchett
NIGHT WATCH • Terry Pratchett
NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR • George Orwell
NOUGHTS AND CROSSES • Malorie Blackman
OF MICE AND MEN • John Steinbeck (I HATE HATE STEINBECK)
ON THE ROAD • Jack Kerouac
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE • Gabriel García Márquez
PERFUME • Patrick Suskind
PERSUASION • Jane Austen
THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH • Ken Follett
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY • John Irving
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE • Jane Austen (A really good book)
THE PRINCESS DIARIES • Meg Cabot
THE RAGGED TROUSERED PHILANTHROPISTS • Robert Tressell
REBECCA • Daphne du Maurier
THE SECRET GARDEN • Frances Hodgson Burnett (The musical is one of my favorites, too.)
THE SECRET HISTORY • Donna Tartt
THE SHELL SEEKERS • Rosamunde Pilcher
THE STAND • Stephen King
THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER • Jacqueline Wilson
A SUITABLE BOY • Vikram Seth
SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS • Arthur Ransome
A TALE OF TWO CITIES • Charles Dickens (Famous for its ending and its beginning quotes)
TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES • Thomas Hardy
THE THORN BIRDS • Colleen McCullough
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD • Harper Lee (Need to read this again)
A TOWN LIKE ALICE • Nevil Shute
TREASURE ISLAND • Robert Louis Stevenson (If you're looking for 1800s entertainment, this is good)
THE TWITS • Roald Dahl
ULYSSES • James Joyce
VICKY ANGEL • Jacqueline Wilson
WAR AND PEACE • Leo Tolstoy
WATERSHIP DOWN • Richard Adams (Probably the most underrated great book I have ever read. I love it but never hear anyone mention it)
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS • Kenneth Grahame
WINNIE THE POOH • A A Milne
THE WOMAN IN WHITE • Wilkie Collins
WUTHERING HEIGHTS • Emily Brontë

Total I have read on this list: 25. Obvously slants British which is bad in some ways. On the other hand, my boy Charles Dickens is represented well. This time next year I'll hopefully have at least six more of these marked off.

5 comments:

  1. I've read 20 of those. I'm impressed you've read The Alchemist. Not too many people have, but it's one of my favorites. Get something different out of it with every read.

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  2. i've only got 21. i'll chalk that up to you being 3 years older than me.

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  3. Thank you for acknowledging the idiocy that is The Catcher in the Rye.

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  4. 27 from Dad. A sporadic but voracious reader.

    Wow, how bad do you hate Steinbeck? Never read one of the books, guess I never will

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