100 books meme
May. 21st, 2003 01:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lobelia321I have just found out what this meme means. It's the BBC's 100 favourite books, voted for by members of the public. Now, I have seen one or two programmes revolving around that book thing and disapprove of them deeply for a variety of reasons (which I will bore you with if you really, really want). Still, being the bookworm that I am, I cannot help but be drawn into this meme.
* means I've read it.
- means I tried
* 1984, George Orwell school; loved it
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
* Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll read as child in German
*Animal Farm, George Orwell school, again - hm, was this a 70s fad or a Sydney thing, getting school girls to trawl through Orwell?
* Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy the best novel ever, ever written
* Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery yup, girly stuff, *g*
Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer well, my son is on at me to read this one so no doubt I will within the next few weeks
The BFG, Roald Dahl many children's books passed me by as I didn't learn English until I was 11 and had some catching up to do - but if they had included "Jim Knopf" on this list.... see icon :-)
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
Bleak House, Charles Dickens
* Brave New World, Aldous Huxley yup, school again, and 'Love me till you drug me, honey' became a jingle between my friend and me
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
* Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding oh god, I could only skim this it was so awful; like eating too much treacle
* Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres I liked this despite knowing it is pretentious crap
- Catch 22, Joseph Heller I am not a Catch 22 woman. I can't help thinking, that like Monty Python, it is primarily a boys' thing, especially boys who were pubescing in the 1970s
* The Catcher In The Rye, JD Salinger yup, but do I remember it? No.
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel Ack, I've never even *heard* of this one
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky aha! am on page 45!
* David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson now I have read some of her books but can't remember the titles....
* Dune, Frank Herbert o my gad! I can't believe this is here. But yes, I read, during my sci fi phase which lasted from 1975 to 1978; and hubba, did I have a crush on Paul Atreides and did I want to *be* a Bene Gesserit, or however they were called (I was ideologically very unformed)
* Emma, Jane Austen second-best novel ever written; am abject Austen-fan
* Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy yes, wonderful
Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
* The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy I adore this book; a jewel
The Godfather, Mario Puzo the very idea of this bores me
* Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell I lived for this in my tender teenage years; read it twice in a row and wept at a different point each time; however, have not re-read since.
Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian Michelle who?
* Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake oh gads, another teenage sin -- I liked it then but fear that I would find it pretentious rot now; still that clambering evil thin guy was an interesting and macabrely sexy personage, now what was his name?
The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
* Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
* The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald school again!
Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
* Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling Alas, yes, plouged through all the Potters, reading them aloud to my son; but I don't like them, I object to them on literary and ethical grounds; the later ones are atrociously badly edited and all of them are hollow at their moral centres
* Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, JK Rowling ditto
* Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling ditto
* Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling ditto
* His Dark Materials trilogy, Philip Pullman I adore and love this trilogy. Now here's a moral centre! This is Dante for children. I could bore on and devote an entire post to this.
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams
* The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien well, duh
Holes, Louis Sachar Oooh, I *want* to read this, primarily because the UK cover is so great: that lizard! Yes, I always judge books by their covers, and I think one should. How else to justify the publisher's job?
I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
* Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë Yup, and I love it. Almost as much as I love that one set in Belgium with the wonderful love interest teacher - ack, the title escapes me - no, it's back: "Villette"
Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer Ack!!!!
Katherine, Anya Seton Er, who?
* The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, CS Lewis Yes, yes, yes, comfort reading extraordinaire. I re-read selected Narnia books every other year. More moral centres! My favourites currently are "Silver Chair", followed by "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and "Horse and His Boy"
* Little Women, Louisa May Alcott in an abridged English-for-foreigners version when I was 11
* Lord Of The Flies, William Golding excellent book
* The Lord Of The Rings, JRR Tolkien obviously -- but only twice
* Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez loved this when I read it; it still has the sand of the beach holiday I read it on in the creases of its Raubdruck pages
The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
Magician, Raymond E Feist
* The Magus, John Fowles What a dumb pretentious arty-farty load of codswallop.
Matilda, Roald Dahl
Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
* Middlemarch, George Eliot
* Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie I loved this at the time. A very 80s po-mo moment.
Mort, Terry Pratchett
Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
On The Road, Jack Kerouac
* One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez Another defining po-mo 80s novel. I loved the Picador cover of my paperback version, a lovely pale watercolour group portrait. Hm, I remember the cover better than I do the novel... No wonder I became an art historian and not a literary critic.
* Perfume, Patrick Süskind
* Persuasion, Jane Austen *falls at feet of Austen*
The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
* A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving La de da. Always readable but leaves little memory trace. Ultimately a yawn.
* Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen I just re-read this last week! For the 17th or so time, I believe.
The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
The Ragged Trousered Philantrhopists, Robert Tressell
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
* The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
* The Secret History, Donna Tartt read this in February; quite good but not fantabulistic; nice slashy moment, though
The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
The Stand, Stephen King
The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
* A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth oh, my third-favourite novel; I love, love, love this book but have only read it twice -- although some chapters more often; and heh, there is a *very* nice slashy moment buried in there at about page 800-something
* Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome adored this when I discovered it on a holiday in Japan, aged 13
A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
* Tess Of The D'urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
* The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough oh my gad, this is on people's favourite lists? Well, I ripped through it at the time, I admit.
* To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee school, again
A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
* Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Twits, Roald Dahl
Ulysses, James Joyce I *want* to read this.
Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
* War And Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Watership Down, Richard Adams round about page 3 I had a violent gagging reflex and had to stop
* The Wind In The Willows, Kenneth Grahame
* Winnie-the-Pooh, AA Milne
* The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins I love this book!!
* Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
---------------------------------------------------------------
My very own top ten favourites
* means I've read it.
- means I tried
* 1984, George Orwell school; loved it
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
* Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll read as child in German
*Animal Farm, George Orwell school, again - hm, was this a 70s fad or a Sydney thing, getting school girls to trawl through Orwell?
* Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy the best novel ever, ever written
* Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery yup, girly stuff, *g*
Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer well, my son is on at me to read this one so no doubt I will within the next few weeks
The BFG, Roald Dahl many children's books passed me by as I didn't learn English until I was 11 and had some catching up to do - but if they had included "Jim Knopf" on this list.... see icon :-)
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
Bleak House, Charles Dickens
* Brave New World, Aldous Huxley yup, school again, and 'Love me till you drug me, honey' became a jingle between my friend and me
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
* Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding oh god, I could only skim this it was so awful; like eating too much treacle
* Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres I liked this despite knowing it is pretentious crap
- Catch 22, Joseph Heller I am not a Catch 22 woman. I can't help thinking, that like Monty Python, it is primarily a boys' thing, especially boys who were pubescing in the 1970s
* The Catcher In The Rye, JD Salinger yup, but do I remember it? No.
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel Ack, I've never even *heard* of this one
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky aha! am on page 45!
* David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson now I have read some of her books but can't remember the titles....
* Dune, Frank Herbert o my gad! I can't believe this is here. But yes, I read, during my sci fi phase which lasted from 1975 to 1978; and hubba, did I have a crush on Paul Atreides and did I want to *be* a Bene Gesserit, or however they were called (I was ideologically very unformed)
* Emma, Jane Austen second-best novel ever written; am abject Austen-fan
* Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy yes, wonderful
Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
* The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy I adore this book; a jewel
The Godfather, Mario Puzo the very idea of this bores me
* Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell I lived for this in my tender teenage years; read it twice in a row and wept at a different point each time; however, have not re-read since.
Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian Michelle who?
* Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake oh gads, another teenage sin -- I liked it then but fear that I would find it pretentious rot now; still that clambering evil thin guy was an interesting and macabrely sexy personage, now what was his name?
The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
* Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
* The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald school again!
Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
* Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling Alas, yes, plouged through all the Potters, reading them aloud to my son; but I don't like them, I object to them on literary and ethical grounds; the later ones are atrociously badly edited and all of them are hollow at their moral centres
* Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, JK Rowling ditto
* Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling ditto
* Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling ditto
* His Dark Materials trilogy, Philip Pullman I adore and love this trilogy. Now here's a moral centre! This is Dante for children. I could bore on and devote an entire post to this.
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams
* The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien well, duh
Holes, Louis Sachar Oooh, I *want* to read this, primarily because the UK cover is so great: that lizard! Yes, I always judge books by their covers, and I think one should. How else to justify the publisher's job?
I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
* Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë Yup, and I love it. Almost as much as I love that one set in Belgium with the wonderful love interest teacher - ack, the title escapes me - no, it's back: "Villette"
Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer Ack!!!!
Katherine, Anya Seton Er, who?
* The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, CS Lewis Yes, yes, yes, comfort reading extraordinaire. I re-read selected Narnia books every other year. More moral centres! My favourites currently are "Silver Chair", followed by "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and "Horse and His Boy"
* Little Women, Louisa May Alcott in an abridged English-for-foreigners version when I was 11
* Lord Of The Flies, William Golding excellent book
* The Lord Of The Rings, JRR Tolkien obviously -- but only twice
* Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez loved this when I read it; it still has the sand of the beach holiday I read it on in the creases of its Raubdruck pages
The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
Magician, Raymond E Feist
* The Magus, John Fowles What a dumb pretentious arty-farty load of codswallop.
Matilda, Roald Dahl
Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
* Middlemarch, George Eliot
* Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie I loved this at the time. A very 80s po-mo moment.
Mort, Terry Pratchett
Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
On The Road, Jack Kerouac
* One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez Another defining po-mo 80s novel. I loved the Picador cover of my paperback version, a lovely pale watercolour group portrait. Hm, I remember the cover better than I do the novel... No wonder I became an art historian and not a literary critic.
* Perfume, Patrick Süskind
* Persuasion, Jane Austen *falls at feet of Austen*
The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
* A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving La de da. Always readable but leaves little memory trace. Ultimately a yawn.
* Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen I just re-read this last week! For the 17th or so time, I believe.
The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
The Ragged Trousered Philantrhopists, Robert Tressell
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
* The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
* The Secret History, Donna Tartt read this in February; quite good but not fantabulistic; nice slashy moment, though
The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
The Stand, Stephen King
The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
* A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth oh, my third-favourite novel; I love, love, love this book but have only read it twice -- although some chapters more often; and heh, there is a *very* nice slashy moment buried in there at about page 800-something
* Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome adored this when I discovered it on a holiday in Japan, aged 13
A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
* Tess Of The D'urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
* The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough oh my gad, this is on people's favourite lists? Well, I ripped through it at the time, I admit.
* To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee school, again
A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
* Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Twits, Roald Dahl
Ulysses, James Joyce I *want* to read this.
Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
* War And Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Watership Down, Richard Adams round about page 3 I had a violent gagging reflex and had to stop
* The Wind In The Willows, Kenneth Grahame
* Winnie-the-Pooh, AA Milne
* The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins I love this book!!
* Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
---------------------------------------------------------------
My very own top ten favourites
- Leo Tolstoy, 'Anna Karenina'
- Jane Austen, 'Emma'
- Jane Austen, 'Pride and Prejudice'
- Jane Austen, 'Northanger Abbey'
- Jane Austen, 'Mansfield Park'
- Jane Austen, 'Persuasion'
- Vikram Seth, 'A Suitable Boy'
- Italo Calvino, 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveller'
- Andrea di Carlo, 'Cream Train'
- Christine Noestlinger, 'Gretchen Sackmeier' (I needed to have one pure, unadulterated comfort thingy in here, *g* - although for comfort I do tend to go to Austen, mainly because I can virtually mouth the lines along with the script: effort needed is next to nil)