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Friday, August 11, 2006

the ubiquitous book meme

I've seen this meme on several blogs and finally decided to import it and give it a go. How many of you have this on your blogs? I enjoy seeing the differences in what we read.

Look at the list of books below. Highlight in red the ones you’ve read, highlight in green the ones you might read, leave the ones you won’t read in black, italicize the ones on your book shelf, and (place parentheses around the ones you’ve never even heard of.)

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audry Niffenegger
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
(The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon)
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
1984 by George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaba by J.K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Crytonomicon by Neal Stephenson
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement by Ian McEwan
(The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zago)
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Dune by Frank Herbert
The History of Love by Nichole Krauss


I hesitate on the green because I have passed some of them over time and time again. I love Atwood, but have failed for years to read The Handmaid's Tale, maybe because I heard so much about it when it was first published that I didn't feel I needed to actually read it.

Although I do still have a couple of these books on my shelves, I am no longer a book collector and rarely keep fiction even when I buy it. I've given away boxes and boxes and have more boxes in storage. But I so rarely re-read that those in storage should be disposed of as well. I've read 96 books so far this year...I have neither the money nor the room to keep what I won't read again. Now non-fiction does threaten to take over my house, but fiction comes mostly from the library or friends. What would I do without a library?

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for commenting on my blog. It's good to find a fellow Anne lover. I enjoyed all the Anne books but the first is still the best. I'm impressed with how many of these books you've read. I think I had read less than half. You will enjoy "Girl in Hyacinth Blue."

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  2. Wow, jenclair, that's the redist (or should I say readist) list I've seen. I second Framed's comment - "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" is excellent. I'm curious why you don't intend to read "Poisonwood Bible"?

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  3. Framed: I think there are more Anne readers than we can imagine. The books have been around for such a long time and never seem to go out of date. How many young girls began their reading careers with L.M. Montgomery, I wonder.


    Booklogged: I started it once and for some reason never took to it. Sometimes that has less to do with the book itself than with the circumstances in your life. I do remember having it by my bed for quite some time before giving it away. Now I feel bad about that as it was a gift.

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  4. I, too, started Poisonwood Bible and never finished it...I love Kingsolver, too, so I was disappointed not to have liked it much...Mine was a gift, also...=-(

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  5. Kate - Glad you enjoyed the blogging llama! I find his enthusiasm makes me smile.

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  6. Hi Jen!

    I noticed One Hundred Years of Solitude and Middlesex were in black. Are you never going to read them? They are two of my all time favorites! I just finished Jodi Picoult's "Second Glance" and really enjoyed it, more than her other novels.

    This is a wonderful blog, I must check in more often....
    Hugs,
    Mary

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  7. So good to hear from you, Mary!

    I started Marquez's The General in His Labyrinth years ago, didn't like it, and put it aside. When Solitude was published, I hesitated because of my earlier experience with Marquez. Somehow, in spite of the reception it first received and gradually becoming a classic, my interest is mostly that it is a novel that "should" be read. I'm not a great fan of magical realism, although I love fantasy.

    I mean--I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I have not read either of these books, but obviously not embarrassed enough to seek them out. Maybe I should reconsider...

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  8. Glad to see the Phillip Pullman books in green - definitely worth trying out. I passionately loved the first book, liked the second one, but the third one was only so-so.

    I'm embarrassed to admit I've never managed to read through an Austen novel, tho I love the movie adaptations and watch them over and over again. I think I need a book on tape so that I can hand quilt while listening.

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