It’s all about me tonight.
I found two interesting things on Reading is my Superpower tonight. The first was a nice shout-out to me for my post on Notes on a Scandal. Thankfully, the blog’s author agreed with my assessment of book vs. movie and gave me a nice little mention. You can see it here.
The second thing is a cool post over at Cam’s Commentary. He found a list of books that you’re supposed to go through and categorize as books you: 1) have read; 2) have on your shelf; 3) have never heard of; 4) want to read; or 5) wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. He also has some very entertaining conjecture on how the list creator came up with the list, whether certain books are included just to reveal the flaws of the person categorizing it, what the creator’s biases are, etc. His post is a funny read. And it inspired me to categorize the list myself. I realize that I am risking alienating or repulsing EDIWTB readers with my answers, but hopefully if you’re a faithful reader of the blog, you’ve already decided that you agree with some of my taste in books. So here goes…
Instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole, put a cross+ in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk* the ones you’ve never heard of.
1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. + Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
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)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) [Sorry – I started this one. I don’t like John Irving.]
15. + Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) [Started this one too.]
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. * Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King) [Don’t get me started on Stephen King]
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)
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)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook(Nicholas Sparks)[OK, the movie wasn’t awful. Saw it at a Movie Mom thing where you bring your newborn… was pleasantly surprised.]
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell) [Shouldn’t I have read this somewhere along the way?]
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)[Kind of embarrassed that I have and have read this.]
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)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. + Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) [Yeah, I know. I should read 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)[Again, kind of embarrassing]
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)[Started this.]
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. * Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
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 (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ 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)
81. * Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (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)
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)
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)
Clearly I am not an Irving fan; I haven’t read a single Harry Potter; and there are some major gaps in my reading of classics.
Take the quiz too and let me know what you find out about yourself.