Book Meme

[xwacky]

This time, it's helen_c's fault.

According to "The Big Read", the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.  Well, let's see...

Here's what to do:

• Look at the list and bold those you have read.
• Italicize those you intend to read.
• Underline the books you LOVE.
• Strike out the ones you thought SUCKED.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien  (One of these days, I'll finish reading it.  But I've seen the movie adaptation countless times by now)
   
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (I want to read this series with my son)
   
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Harding  (I loved the Roman Polanski's movie adaptation where Nastassja Kinski starred as Tess)
    
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete works of Shakespeare  (Yeah, I'll finish this too, one of these days)
    
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. 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  (Another one I'm yet to finish.  In fact I don't think I've finished any of the Tolstoy novels)
    
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh  (it's not on my read-list, but I'm interested in listening to the audio play where Jamie Bamber voiced Sebastian)
    
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
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 (I really love the movie version where Gwyneth Paltrow starred as Emma)
    
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
37. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
38. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
39. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
40. Animal Farm - George Orwell
41. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (I had a jolly good time reading it.  Although I loved Angels and Demons better)
    
42. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
43. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
44. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
45. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
46. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
47. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
48. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
49. Atonement - Ian McEwan
    
50. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
51. Dune - Frank Herbert (I couldn't finish the sequels though)
    
52. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
53. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
54. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
55. The Shadows of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
56. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
57. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
58. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
59. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
60. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
61. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
62. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
63. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
64. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexander Dumas
65. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
66. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
67. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
68. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
69. Moby Dick - Herman Melville  (another hard one for me to finish)
    
70. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
71. Dracula - Bram Stoker
72. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
73. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
74. Ulysses - James Joyce
75. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath  (I thought about reading this, but was afraid being depressed by it)
    
76. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
77. Germinal - Emile Zola
78. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
79. Possession - AS Byatt
80. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens  (hee, I've seen adaptations on TV, and read children's versions to my son, I've yet to read the real thing)
    
81. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
82. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
83. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
84. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
85. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
86. Charlotte's Web - EB White
87. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (hubby loves Albom's books.  Per his recommendation, it's on my read-list)
    
88. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
89. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
90. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
91. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
92. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
93. Watership Down - Richard Adams (I have the DVD only, not the book)
    
94. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
95. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
96. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
97. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
98. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (I love the book and its adaptations:  the movie - French version, and the Broadway Musical)

Hmmm, the list is short of two books, or did I mess things up?!

I don't have any book to strike out from this list.  If I hate a book I'm reading, I simply stop and toss it off my bookshelf.  Looks like I'm indeed not that well-read.  This also reminds me I have a lot of readings to do.  If only I can find time...

 

Comments

[helen-c.livejournal.com]

Ah, Dune... I like the first one, and God Emperor of Dune (might be my favourite of the series). The last two ones are pretty much unreadable... Lord knows I tried, but I ended up skimming through to the end...

It does lack two, but apparently, on some versions of the list, Hamlet is cited near the end (and we have complete works of Shakespeare at the top), and they also separated The Witch and The Wardrobe from the Narnia Chronicles. Go figure...

[xwacky.livejournal.com]

The last two ones are pretty much unreadable... Lord knows I tried, but I ended up skimming through to the end...

DITTO!

Thanks for your explanation about the two missing books. I can see why The Lion, the Which and the Wardrobe got taken off the list due to the redundancy (It's odd how they separated that one book from the Chronicles), but Hamlet...

It's just The Complete Works of Shakespeare is such a big tome, it's hard to read it entirely. Hamlet on the other hand, is a different story. I can say I read Hamlet, but not the Complete Works... *g*

[silwyna.livejournal.com]

Oh fun, I'm going to do this too :) (and totally blame you for it again ;) ).

We seem to have the same taste in books :)

[xwacky.livejournal.com]

We seem to have the same taste in books

I've noticed that once I learned you are also a fan of Inspector Richard Jury! :D

And go ahead, blame me away! ;)

[suffolkgirl.livejournal.com]

Oh, you must finish Lord of the Rings! Although I must admit I have probably re-read the first book the most out of the three. The part where they return to the Shire (which wasn't in the films is very good).

His Dark Materials is quite good - loved the first book and it's much better than the recent film.

[xwacky.livejournal.com]

*realizing I need a LOTR icon*

Yeah, I will finish LOTR books. I started it, then Peter Jackson's movie came out. I REALLY loved the movie (Fellowship of the Ring). I'm kinda ashamed I never gone back to finish the books.

I'm kinda disappointed with The Golden Compass too. Although I will support the movie and hope they would make the sequels. If nothing else, to encourage people to read the books. ;)

[ammonite7.livejournal.com]

I'm checking everyone's postings on this list to see if there are comments on books I haven't read. Guess I'll have to check out His Dark Materials now. Goody.

[xwacky.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that series sounds very interesting. The way I understand it, the movie either left off or downplayed a lot from the book to avoid controversy. Too bad, this only means I'll HAVE TO ready the book! :D

Heading over to see your meme...