Meme: Another 100

I found this meme on Carrie's Reading to Know blog and even though I've started my "100 Books You Must Read Before You Die" list, I thought I'd post my answers to this anyways. Here goes:

Rules:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading or read and hated. (Since blogger doesn't give the option of striking out, I put asterisks next to the ones I don't intend to read and bolded and put asterisks next to the ones I've read but disliked.)

Books that I am uncertain as to if I will read are not marked by anything (i.e. I'm undecided about reading Dracula, doubtful I will, but I've not settled). Books that I don't know anything about are likewise unmarked. This does not mean I will read them, nor does it mean I won't -- I just don't know enough at this time to comment.

5) Reprint this list in your own blog.


1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible (Over the years I've read the Bible, but this year I'm working through reading the entire Bible in 2008, over halfway through!)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
***8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell ***
***9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman***
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (I've read some, but not all, eventually I will.)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
***18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger***
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
***25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams***
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
***28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck***(Started it, refused to finish it, might try again someday.)
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma- Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (Why is this on here again? It's a repeat of 33???)
***37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini***
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres (Saw the movie, didn't know there was a book.)
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
***42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown*** (Read this book for Book Club, but can't recommend it.)
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
***49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding *** (Hated this book!)
*** 50. Atonement - Ian McEwan*** (Have no wish to read. Depressing story.)
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding (Read this, but can't recommend it.)
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
*** 83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker ***(Saw the beginning of the movie and hated it, turned it off, have no desire to read the book.)
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
***94. Watership Down - Richard Adams*** (Read part of this when I was younger, hated it. Not sure I'll ever finish it.)
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute (I totally forgot about this book. I seem to remember it was good.)
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare (Again, why is this on here, if above complete works is listed?)
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables– Victor Hugo

There are, according to this list, a lot of books I've yet to read. Most of the ones that are neither italicized or bolded or even marked with asterisks are books I've never heard of or know little about. I did notice there were a great number of Thomas Hardy books, which is interesting and no books by Oscar Wilde or E.M. Forster. Interesting...

The 100 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Part 3)

Putting together my own "100 Books" list has left me feeling like I am running a marathon. I started off strong and fast -- the first 25 books were easy to list, but I have been steadily growing slower as the numbers get higher... will I ever reach the end?

This post will include books 51 through 75 and several are books I've yet to read, but based on my own readings and the recommendations I've received I believe these books should be on the list. Of course... as author of the list, I reserve the right to amend it at a later date as necessary.

Please note these books are listed in alphabetical order. Other than that there is no order as to which comes first, except to say I thought of the first fifty books before I came to these, so they fall to the bottom end of 100 for a reason -- I either forgot about them (for shame!) or they weren't worthy of reaching to the top.

51. A Room With A View by E.M. Forster
52. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle+
53. Aesop's Fables by Aesop+
54. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
55. Carry On Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Lantham
56. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
57. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
58. Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster
59. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens*
60. Democracy in America by Alexis DeTocqueville*
61. Emma by Jane Austen*
62. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift*
63. Heidi by Sarah Stephen*
64. The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorn*
65. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling*
66. Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
67. The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett*
68. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
69. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
70. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
71. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
72. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
73. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
74. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery*
75. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte*+

+ Aesop's Fables -- I realize there are 600 fables, so when listing this on my 100 Books list I had in mind a small collection (not complete), though if you felt inclined to read all the Fables, well then, good for you!

+ The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes -- I wanted to include Sherlock Holmes, but it was a difficult choice as to which book or compilation of short stories to include. In the end I chose the first compilation of short stories (12 in this book). I believe this book is a good introduction to the famous detective and since it consists of short stories it is a little lighter than diving into a novel. Overall a good place to begin when first meeting Holmes.

+ Wuthering Heights -- I almost didn't include this book on my list. I have never read it, but I did see the old 1930s movie and I hated the story. However, after a recent conversation with a friend (who's book selections I very much respect) I decided to put it on my list and read it. Then I can seriously judge whether or not it deserves a final resting place on my Top 100 list.

The 100 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Part 2)

Putting together my own "100 Books You Must Read Before you Die" list has brought me to several conclusions.

First, it's really really hard. There are so many books out there how does one choose 100?

Second, I am realizing how many books I want to include on this list, but haven't read so I'm going to amend my previous statement of listing only books I've read in this 100 list and include books I have not read... After all, if it's my list of books I must read before I did, wouldn't it make sense to include books I've not yet read... else I will have reached my goal and I'm not yet ready to leave earth. (The books in my list that I have not yet read are marked with an *, so whenever you see a * know it to mean: "This book deserves a place on the list, and I hope to read it in the near future.")

Third, not all the books I have on this list are books I loved. This isn't a list of 100 books I love, though most of them are books I thoroughly enjoyed. Some of the books are on this list not as a favorite, but for some other special reason. For example, I might not like the story, I might have had very mixed feelings about it, but I felt it was really well written and thus it really is worth the experience of reading it. Or perhaps it wasn't the best written story in the world, but it's SUCH a wonderful tale that it has to be on this list. Either way, this is my list so it will contain the 100 books I wish to declare "Must Reads". Don't agree? I'd love to see your list, maybe it'll give me more ideas of books to add. Who says I have to stop at 100 books... How about 1000?

Fourth and last, I have marked specific books with a + symbol. This means I have a special comment to make about this particular book, so look at the bottom of the post if you are curious to learn more.

Books 26-50 in alphabetical order:

26. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
27. Around the World In Eighty Days by Jules Verne
28. The Holy Bible (perhaps I should have listed this first)
29. Bleak House by Charles Dickens*
30. Besty-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace +
31. The Count of Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas*
32. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley +
33. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
34. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
35. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
36. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo +
37. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling*
38. King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard
39. The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton
40. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
41. Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
42. The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
43. Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare
44. Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
45. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn
46. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas*
47. Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
48. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
49. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame*
50. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

Look for the next twenty-five books on my list in the upcoming weeks.

+ Betsy-Tacy -- is the first in a series. I had a difficult time picking just one book from this series (as I did with the Anne series and the Little House on the Prairie series, All Creatures Great and Small series, Narnia series, etc. etc.). It didn't seem fair to list all the books as they would take up much of my 100 titles. In the end I chose the first title from each series (i.e. Betsy-Tacy, Anne of Green Gables, Little House in the Big Woods, etc. etc.) as a starter book. If you read it and enjoy it, then it might just wet your appetite to read the rest in the series, which I hope it does as they all merit your time.

+ Frankenstein -- I didn't like this story. I really found it too sad and dreadful to finish and yet... for others it may be an excellent read. I had to list it because it is truly a classic and there is a good message to be learned from this book, but even so, consider it a "maybe" on my list --meaning it's not one my hard set "Must Read" books. (Another of these would be East of Eden.)

+ The Hunchback of Notre Dame -- This is an excellent story. I started this book and it was a chore to finish (it's long and Hugo was long-winded), but in the end I was so glad to have read it. It will require pushing through some very dry and dull parts (particularly when Hugo rambles on about the architecture of the bridges in France), but if you've made it through Les Miserables, you can make it through Hunchback... and if you haven't... well, trust me, you're missing something. If it's a real struggle for you then I advise locating an unabridged audio book version and, no, that's not cheating.

The 100 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Part 1)

You may have seen such lists on the Internet, you might have even jotted down some of the titles to add to your "To Read List", but have you ever thought of making your own list?

I asked myself that question and realized that, no I hadn't, but why not!? I've looked through the 100 book lists before and even the 1001 book lists. I've found several books I have read, several I want to read, and even some that I have no interest in ever reading no matter what the list says, but I've never made my own list... until now.

This blog post will include the first 25 of my 100 books I recommend you read before you die (watch for upcoming posts with the remaining 75 book titles). This list will only include books I've read, since it seems weird to recommend a book you've never read. Once I'm done I may post a separate list of highly recommend books by others that I have not read, but plan to... we'll see.

And so here they are -- the first 25 my 100 in no particular order (except that I alphabetized them for this list):

1. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
2. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
3. All Creatures Great And Small by James Herriot +
4. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery +
5. East of Eden by John Steinbeck +
6. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
7. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
9. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
10. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder +
11. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
12. The Lion, The Witch, And the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis +
13. Middlemarch by George Elliot
14. North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell
15. The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
16. Persuasion by Jane Austen
17. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
18. The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
19. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
20. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
21. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy +
22. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
23. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
24. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
25. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

What would you include if you had such a list?