The BBC’s List of the Top 100 Books

I found this list on another blog, Shutterboo, and thought it would be a great challenge.  If you want to join me on this literary quest, just copy/paste the BBC’s List and get started.  Please check back with me when you finish one on the list- it’d be fun to hear about the book!

Currently Reading:

Unhooked Generation: Lots of talk about the Generation ME and my sister’s own dating issues made me pick up this book.  I am enjoying this book- lots to ponder and I really think if you’re single and looking, male or female and in the Generation X demographic, you could benefit from this book.  I am benefitting even though I’m happily married. The book just makes you think about how you look at things and how we came to be the Generation ME.  My sister ruled a guy out because he wears white running shoes with his jeans.  Does his choice in footwear really say something about his inner workings or is it just as simple as he likes to be comfortable?  It’s a must read for those of you ruling out someone on something as superficial as that.  The book looks at certain things our generation is doing and why it’s sabatoging us in the relationship arena. 

The girl with the dragon tattoo:  Just started this one… but my book club friends raved about this one and the 2nd one, The girl who played with fire.

The sweetness at the bottom of the pie:  Book Club selection- the protagonist is an 11 year old girl who solves the mystery in this story. 

The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle – this made the paper as some parents objected to this book being required reading by students.  I just want to see what all the fuss is about.  [2/23 - temporary break- it's due back and someone's waiting for it- will pick it back up at Ch 8 pg 121.  So far... it just makes me sad really].

2/23 – i’m dreading this book- Good Omens.

Random.org gave me #68 – so this is next up…. 

68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

I’m taking a Sookie Stackhouse break and catching up with Dead as a Doornail  instead….

Just Finished: 

• Crime And Punishment  Fyodor Dostoyevsky  

 I don’t understand why the characters go from the shortened first name to the full name (Dounia to Avdotya Romsnovna) at different times, and then to the surnames- argh!!  But the story is compelling.  I found this website from another person with the same issue as me- they have broken down the list of characters by names and roles.  Cool Beans!

• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  by Lewis Carroll. illustrations by John Tenniel - fun!  I forgot how nonsensical it was and loved the history of the illustrations in the Afterword.  Ready for the movie now!
• Hotel on the Corner of  Bitter and Sweet -  very good read- I love happy endings!
•  Loving Frank - This was a good story with a tragic ending.  Throughout the book, I went back & forth between agreeing and disagreeing with her choices.  She was a strong woman and I respect her for that.  I can’t say the same for Frank Lloyd Wright!  Of course, the facts of the affair were correct, but the dialog is the creation of the author.   It will surely be a good discussion next week at book club.

The BBC LIST!

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee     ♥
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis   ♥
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens   Sep 09 Great Read!
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott    ♥
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice‘s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll   Feb 2010

31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett    ♥
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen   ♥
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky    Jan 2010

61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding   ♥
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel   ♥
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

Books read 2009/2010

City of Fallen Angels  - it was interesting, but took a while.  I didn’t realize it was a history of the Fenice Theater in Venice- and the colorful (and real) characters who had a role in the fire/rebuilding in some way.  So I liked that.