Sunday, November 25, 2007

Book Meme, Danno!

Professor tagged everybody with this meme in an effort to embarrass everyone over the amount of classic literature we’ve never read - not to mention some contemporary standouts worth… uh …mentioning, too. And she succeeded. It’s pretty damn embarrassing.

But there it is. And when you get to the bottom, be sure to look and see if you’re one of those I feel like tagging with this one.

Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read. Italicize the ones you want to read. Don't alter the ones that you aren't interested in.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) - atheist that I am, I found this a delectable read!
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) - I think I read this for a h.s. assignment…or maybe I just saw the movie?
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
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) - minus one glaring error, another delectable read!
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) - the only Irving I’ve read is Cider House Rules and it blew me away, so I’d definitely read another Irving
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King) - this one clued me in on the secret…forget his straight horror stuff - Stephen King is simply a fantastic writer!
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) - not even in school, believe it or don’t!
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) - UGH! High school required reading. A sure cure for insomnia if I ever saw one! (Professor left no instructions how to label it if you only read some of it!)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom) - heard Mr. Albom speak at one of our clients’ conventions. Good stuff!
31. Dune (Frank Herbert) – I really, really tried to read this one, but never could get through Chapter 1 awake.
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks) - if the movie is half as good as the book, then I don’t need to read it; the movie wrecked me big time!
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell) - in h.s., though don’t remember much of it
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) - because Professor gushed about it, so I’s curious
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom) - though, being atheist, and all, I gather the premise of this one would be hard to swallow
45. Bible – have I mentioned the atheist thing, yet?
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) - because I love, love, love the sandwich!
48. Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt) - I heard a lot of buzz about this one
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) - another h.s. assignment; remember little about it except the retarded guy kills a puppy and doesn’t realize it…and then… a woman? Hmmm. What’s that say about me? I remember the puppy dying, but not sure about a woman…
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)
59. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) - ?? in h.s., maybe?
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) - I keep hearing more and more about this author…gotta give him a look
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) - the movie confused the hell out of me…I only hope the book is better
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones's Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (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) - when I was a kid…stoopid book made me cry
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck) - woops…or was THIS the one with the retarded guy and the puppy and maybe the woman?
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)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding) - h.s. again (shiver)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) - this one is sitting on my shelf, waiting for me
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) - I think. In h.s.
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce

The choices to put on this list are seemingly infinite, I realize, but there are some great classics missing, like Dracula (Bram Stoker), for instance. That book was way ahead of its time for its imagery and graphic detail, WAY better than any film, classic or modern, that ever attempted to retell the story. And what about The Green Mile (Stephen King)? I know, it’s not a classic in the… uh …classic sense, but it’s a damn fine read! And I highly recommend The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien.

Have you read this far? TAG! You’re it!

11 comments:

A said...

Wow, what highschool did I go to? I was never required to read any novels for class. Now I feel all gipped and dirty. LOL

Anonymous said...

didn't they make you watch Lord of the Flies in Jr. High, too? that afternoon is burned into my memory...

Beth said...

I had to read for high school, but you're way behind. Do you not read now?

Tony Gasbarro said...

Lilith - What school DID you go to? No required reading?! Some of ours were specifically assigned by teachers, others were students' choices, from a teacher's list.

anon - I do remember being sat sat down to watch LOTF. I don't remember when or where it was, but it was some time in school.

Beth - I don't read so often these days. I'm (supposed to be) writing.

tiff said...

Ahahahaha! This title cracked me up.

Was there a post below it?

kenju said...

I loved the title too, Farrago! I just may do this one, but it has to wait until Christmas decorating is over and done!

Ultra Toast Mosha God said...

I'm reading all the wrong books.

Greyhound Girl said...

List looks good. If you have time to only read one book in the next 6 weeks, then I say The Kite Runner- WONDERFUL!

Middle Girl said...

My list would look a lot like yours with a few exceptions.

Greyhound Girl said...

And I loved Things they carried. And the only S. King book I've ever read is The Green Mile and it was truly great!

word verification: luckhex- isn't that an oxymoron?

Tony Gasbarro said...

Who you calling a moron?! AND I'm oxy?

Ouch! I thought you were my friend.

:^(


;^)