One hundred books

I ordinarily ignore memes like these, but when it’s books, I’m caught like a starving fish. :) From Katherine, then, we have the 100 Books meme. Final comments at the bottom.

Legend: Books I’ve finished are in bold, books I’ve started (but not finished) are in italics, and books I’ve been planning to read have an asterisk (*).

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) — one of my favorites
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)*
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)*
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (J.R.R. Tolkien) — while these did take me a year or so to read, I’m very much a fan
6. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (J.R.R. Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (J.R.R. Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) — one of my favorites
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (J.K. Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (J.K. Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling)* — I saw the movie but never read the book
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) — another of my favorites
21. The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)*
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)*
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
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) — not my favorite of the Narnian books, but still good
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 (George 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) — I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)*
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy) — loved it
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
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 (Charles Dickens) — currently reading it for the first time
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card) — great tale, but I wish there were less profanity/vulgarity
54. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) — I didn’t care so much for this
55. The Great Gatsby (Scott Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling)* — again, saw the movie but still haven’t read the book
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) — one of my favorites
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy) — currently reading (and have been for 6+ months)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davies)
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 (Victor Hugo)*
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) — I started reading it in Thai, actually
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Helen Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)*
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)*
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (John Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)*
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)*
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) — disturbing :)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In the Skin of a Lion (Michael Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (William Golding) — also disturbing :)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)*
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
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)*

Looking over the list, goodness, there’s a lot I haven’t read yet. Out of the 100 books, I’ve read 25, and I’ve partially read four more. I’ve been planning to read 17 more of them, but the rest — 54 in sum — I’ve either never heard of or haven’t heard enough to be interested. This will be a good reading list to expand my horizons and try books I might not have otherwise looked into. Mmm. (It really is a good thing I’m graduating in April, because I don’t know how much longer I can last. ;))

Ha, I’ve only read eight of those.. My preferred genres tend to be a bit different…

:)

I would stay very very far away from some of the books on the list that you haven’t starred or italicized…The Notebook for example. Bah. Exactly the kind of book I hate. For starters it’s by Nicholas Sparks which is a *major* strike, and second-it’s one of those books with an overly sappy plot formulated to make women cry. It’s not about people I believe in or care about. If I want a romance that’ll make me cry-I’ll read Little Women and wait until Beth dies or Anne of Green Gables and cry with joy when Marilla tells Anne she can stay at Green Gables-if I’m going to cry over a book I want it to have *earned* it.

Rant over. I should show you my list of books to read…

I noticed that you didn’t have an asterisk by Angels and Demons, which is a shame, because that book is 10 times better than the Da Vinci Code. More action, better plot, less sacrilegious. I’m so happy they’re making it into a movie, because it’s much better! You should read it!

I’ve read 21 and part of 3. I think all the ones I’ve read are ones you have read, are reading or want to read. Where I’m lacking is books like 1984, Brave New World and Lord of the Flies (the books I really aught to read, but haven’t read because they aren’t exactly pleasant books. On the other hand, Les Miserables isn’t exactly a book full of sunshine, but I’ve read that).

I’m glad to see To Kill a Mocking Bird on your list of books to read. It’s excellent. I also recommend the movie with Gregory Peck.

I was surprised that you haven’t marked any of Steinbeck’s books for reading. I haven’t read any of his either, but I’ve always considered that a bit of a deficiency.

First off, I have no idea why this post has 7,000 views. Maybe it’s because it has “Harry Potter” in it a few times. ;)

Joni: Good to know. I didn’t know too much about The Notebook, but I’ve gotten the impression that it’s not one I’d be particularly interested in. And yes, I too much prefer books like Anne of Green Gables. Don’t forget to let me see your list of books to read.

Marisa: I’m not so sure Dan Brown is really my style. Back on my old Bookland blog (which is now quite defunct), I posted about The Da Vinci Code, and then about Digital Fortress. (As for why Dan Brown’s not my style, the second post is the more pertinent.) I’ll admit that the upside-down/backwards thing with the title is really cool, definitely. :) Who knows, maybe I’ll try Angels and Demons sometime and see if things have changed.

Laura: 1984 and Brave New World and Lord of the Flies are definitely disturbing. I think it’s perhaps good to read them once, to keep in mind what society can degenerate into, but I wouldn’t feel any obligation to read them more than that. I certainly don’t plan to return to them. (Well, I can see myself re-reading Lord of the Flies. But not the other two.)

I guess I do plan to read Steinbeck’s books, eventually, but they’re so far down on my list that I decided not to mark them. It seems like most of what I’ve heard about them has been along the lines of blah. Nobody really passionate about him. But now that I’ve decided to become a literature librarian (as of this morning; I’ll post about it later), it behooves me to read as widely as possible, to take in the whole sum of literature or die trying. So I shall read Steinbeck. :)

Ben: Digital Fortress was lame. I guessed the answer to the final puzzle about 100 pages before the end. But I really liked The DaVinci Code. The fact that some of the characters believe Christianity to be designed by man doesn’t deter me from believing–their evidence can also be used to support Christianity. It just depends on your mindset. There are plenty of people like those characters in the real world, and I don’t mind them, so why discriminate against them in books? It’s an argument you have to learn to deal with. (Plus, the Bible, as compiled, is invented by man, though the text is inspired by God. The books are chosen in a relatively arbitrary manner. But that’s another story.)

Is this a good time to mention that 1984 is one of my favorite books? And that I really want to read Brave New World?

Is this a good time to mention that 1984 is one of my favorite books? And that I really want to read Brave New World?

Ditto and ditto. I’ll probably read 1984 once every other year, and Brave New World is coming up soon on my “to read” list. Dystopian fiction is so… relevant.

Since I too, am a book lover, I just can’t resist doing this one. As well as I can remember, I have read about 25 off of this list. There are 14 of them that you have read, Ben, and another nine are ones that you are planning to read or have started. The other two are Steinbeck’s and ‘blah’ seems about right to me.

Just a few more comments on specific books: I am one of those people who was very skeptical about Harry Potter when I first heard about the books. My daughter who was in Germany at the time–about 2000–told me about them. I thought, “No, wizards and magic are just not my thing.” Well, I went over to Germany to be with her when she had a baby and was persuaded to give them a try. It took a while to get into the first one but once I got in a ways, that did it. I read three of them before coming back home. I definitely think J.K. Rowling has done a service in bringing the spirit world to life, however it really is. And I love Professor Dumbledore!

The same daughter, last year, convinced me to see The Lord of the Rings movies. I had resisted ever seeing any of those because I tried to read The Hobbitt back when my kids were in Jr. High and thought it was so great. I just didn’t think it was good, try as I might and never made it through it. So I was prejudiced against the whole works. Well I loved the movies and got to see all three within a two-weeks time period! :) I’m ready to try the books and have Fellowship of the Ring on hold from the library right now. Usually I’ve found books to be better than the movies but those movies were so good that I don’t know…(I did the same thing with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I tried reading the book a long time ago and decided I didn’t like it. Then my son got the movie last year and I watched it with his kids, and loved it.) I really love the battle-between-good-and-evil theme in all these stories and the gospel doctrine that is in them. So now I’m in the process of finishing the last two of that series of books. I already liked C.S. Lewis because of The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity which I read years ago. I am definitely going to read more of his books!

Lastly, back in the ’80’s when I was doing my visiting teaching, the lady mentioned that she thought I would like Anne of Green Gables. I had not so much as even heard of those books but I took her up on it and of course, I loved those too! And then ‘they’ came out with the delightful movies of them, mmm. :)

Okay, I feel like I’ve probably taken up too much space and time (of whoever reads this) but it’s fun to talk about books!! Now I’ve got to make myself a list of all the books I’ve ever read. Thanks!

Liz: Yes, I’m thinking I might have been a bit too hasty in my judgment there. I may eventually go back and finish it; we’ll see.

Connor: I can’t handle much dystopian fiction. Sure, it’s relevant, but it’s so…depressing. :)

Shirley: Hmm, I don’t think I’ve done a Harry Potter-specific post ever (at least not a standalone), so thank you for giving me tomorrow’s post topic! :) If you liked Harry, you might want to try reading some of Diana Wynne Jones’s books — the Chrestomanci quartet is a good place to start. (Wikipedia will tell you all you need to know.) I agree that the LOTR movies were very well done. They almost perfectly captured the feeling of Middle Earth — the music, the cinematography, the dialogue, everything. As for the books, I personally love them, but some (ahem, you know who you are) find them long-winded. I’d recommend reading them as you would an ancient myth or saga — that’ll put you in the right frame of mind to receive it. It’s not a Dan Brown book by any stretch. For C.S. Lewis, you should try reading The Great Divorce next, and then if you want something drastically different, read his Space Trilogy. Anne of Green Gables is delightful, and the journals of L.M. Montgomery (the first volume, at least) have much the same flavor.

Ah, I could talk about books forever. :)

Sure, it’s relevant, but it’s so…depressing. :)

I guess the same could somewhat apply to the scriptures, couldn’t it? They’re full of doom and gloom. Luckly they’re balanced with a message of hope and repentance, unlike most dystopian fiction.

Aye, there’s the difference. Dystopian fiction is painted in bleak, grey tones, like a perpetually overcast day. The scriptures have their storms, yes, but sunrays are poking through the clouds, and every once in a while the sky clears and all is well. And dystopian fiction acts as if things will only get worse, whereas the scriptures’ perspective is that things will get very bad and then become very good. (Well, very good if you’re on God’s side. :))

I guess I just have a perverse obsession with apocalyptic world views, and that’s why I like dystopian fiction. It gives you a chance to explore the millions of ways the world could be complete screwed up, and isn’t.

…and isn’t.

I could argue that point, but it’s late… :)

Connor and Liz,

I don’t have the desire to read much dystopian fiction nowadays. I think I reached my quota in high school after having read 1984, Brave New World, Handmaid’s Tale (on my most-despised book list), and We. If you like 1984, you should read We. It was written by a Russian (Yevgeny Zamyatin) shortly after the revolutions in the early twentieth century. Orwell admitted it influenced his writing of 1984. We is certainly my favorite out of those four.

Liz and Connor: Don’t get me wrong — I don’t think that the world is all a bed of roses, or that dystopian fiction is too far from reality. I’m sure in many ways it’s truer than we realize, and my own feeling is that the world will gravitate more and more in that direction as the curtain falls on this part of the universe’s history. I do think everyone should dip into it from time to time, to keep us from getting complacent, but I myself need a diet of more sunshine and less shadow.

Ann: Thanks for your comment — I’ll have to check We out. It’s about time for another dive into dystopia. But maybe I should wait until after finals… :)

[…] In the spirit of my post a few days ago and as a variation on a theme by Rodgers and Hammerstein, I’d like to ask y’all what your favorite books are. You can list as many or as few books as you want. If you want to go into detail on why you like them, great; if not, that’s fine, too. If you’d rather list an author instead (meaning the bulk of what he or she wrote), that’s totally legit. Let’s say that the scriptures don’t count, since they’re rather a given for most of us. You can list fiction or nonfiction or anything in between. And we’ll all understand that the lists are not complete, since it’s awfully hard to remember all the books you’ve read and liked. Consider this a group to-read list. :) […]