Sunday, December 2, 2007

And Now You Will See How Ignorant I am!

And now, I give you this book meme (Stolen from Ian and Tal). This shows you the great gaps in my intellectual upbringing. I will say, however, that I would be open to reading any of them that I currently have not so perhaps someday my chronic ignorance will be cured!

Instructions: In the list of books below, bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you want to read, put (#) the ones you don't want to read, put a (+) in front of the ones on your bookshelf, and asterisk the ones you've never heard of. I italicized the ones I want to read the most. I'd read them all - or at least give them a try.

1. +The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) - I've not read this, but Ogre loved it - a lot. This fact makes me feel like I should at least give it a try.
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell) I read this about the seventh grade when all girls want a Rhett Butler ;) Love it.
5. +The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien) We have at least two full sets of this collection. Sarge loves it. I feel guilty not having read any of them.
6. +The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Tolkien)
7. +The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery) Sappy but a feel good story.
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. +Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (Irving)
15. +Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) Great Book.
16. +Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Rowling) Who doesn't love Harry?
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King) I was on a big Stephen King kick at about 15 years of age but never read this one. I highly recommend The Dead Zone.
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. +The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (JD Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) Of course I love this book!
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) Amazing. Great Book
25. The Life of Pi (Yann Martel) I really want to read this one. I'm curious!
26. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. +The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis) I have actually read part of this aloud to the boys. I should re-start it and maybe finish this time?
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. +The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. +The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) Brutal, harsh, amazing book. I absolutely loved it. Life Changing.
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. +Bible Okay, so I've read part of this but I think reading all of it would be beneficial over the long run.
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) I have Tolstoy's Resurrection which I will read first.
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) .
48. +Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt) I loved this book. Teacher Man I don't recommend.
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. +Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough) Another book I read as a teen. It was great. So was the miniseries.
59. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrew Niffenegger) This book is probably at the top of my must-read list just because of Natalia.
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) I have read the Mayfair Witches Trilogy but not this. I highly recommend them.
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones' Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell) I looked at this book once and frankly the sheer size of it scared me off.
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) Another I read to the boys I think.
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay) It's now in the queue.
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) This book has intrigued me for a while too.
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (EB White) I loved this as a kid. I am reminded to read it to the boys now.
81. Not Wanted on the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard's First Rule (Terry Goodkind
85. Emma (Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer) I was on a big Jeffrey Archer kick for awhile too. This one is good.
91. In The Skin of a Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) I have read a lot of Ludlum because my step-dad is a huge fan. Most of his books, like Tom Clancy's are pretty similar but an acceptably entertaining story.
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

4 comments:

Ian said...

Oh! Oh! You must read The Stand! Both of you!

We three should all cure our ignorances and pick something off these lists that none of us has read but that all of us want to.

Tal said...

Isn't King just a gaint misogynist? It seems to me that he kills off his strongest female characters just for the sake of it...but I'll try it if you tell me to Ian.

Wanna start from the top? Rohinton Mistry?

Ian said...

He's not a giant misogynist... there were a couple instances where I was like "Ooh, okay Stephen," but it's not like The Stand is an anti-woman crusade. I think the best character in the book is a woman (and a black one to boot).

Starting from the top sounds good. So, Rohinton Mistry's Fine Balance? I've never heard of it. How adventurous.

Ian said...

Okay, here's the whole list of the ones the three of us haven't read, including the ones some of us marked #. If there are any that you're totally adverse to, we can cross them off. (Confessions of a Shopaholic is the only one that I wouldn't at least give a try.)

A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
A Prayer for Owen Meany (Irving)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
Dune (Frank Herbert)
The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
Great Expectations (Dickens)
The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
War and Peace (Tolstoy)
Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)
Les Miserables (Hugo)
The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
Shogun (James Clavell)
The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
The World According to Garp (John Irving)
The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
Not Wanted on the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)
Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
Blindness (Jose Saramago)
In The Skin of a Lion (Ondaatje)
The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
Ulysses (James Joyce)