(no subject)
will be traveling to Europe starting November 2nd, and will wrap up my trip November 16th. If any of you love art museums, cafes, and slasher company, let's connect! My itinerary (I think) is as follows:
London: Nov. 3rd and 4th
Paris: November 5th - November 10th
Florence: November 11th - November 12th
Rome: November 13th - November 15th
We fly out in the wee hours of the 16th from Rome, and have a 2 hour layover in Amsterdam at 8:35 a.m. before departing for Detroit.
I am traveling with my sister, who loves femmeslash, and would appreciate any recommendations. :)
According to ishtar79, these are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (as of 30 September 2007). As usual, bold what you have read, italicize what you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. Add an asterisk to those you've read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina *
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude*
Wuthering Heights*
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey* This one I've read in multiple translations, but the Fagles is by far my favorite.
Pride and Prejudice* I can't tell you how many times I've read this. Every summer, I re-read at least one Austen novel, and that usually leads me to re-reading all of the Austen.
Jane Eyre*
A Tale of Two Cities*By FAR, my favorite Dickens. Sidney Carlton is Snape, you know? Damn, am I consistent.
The Brothers Karamazov* Is it pretentious to say my favorite Dostyevsky? Because they're great books. Still, after my Russian lit class, I'm fairly certain they need to put Prozac in the water over there.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies Fascinating book. I love a good microhistory.
War and Peace Okay, so I read this...but I skimmed all the battle scenes, which is a good half of the book. So maybe this shouldn't be bolded. Still, I'm NEVER going back to read the battles.
Vanity Fair I think it's true that I'll read anything made into a movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis. If he had a busier career, I'd be much more well-read.
The Time Traveler's Wife****I closed this book, then opened it again the next day and re-read it. It is sparse and beautiful, and if she doesn't finish her next book soon, I'm going to shake it out of her. :)
The Iliad** Stick with the Fagles; you won't regret it.
Emma** Every Austen? Automatic star.
The Blind Assassin I read everything by Atwood, but I'm really hit or miss on whether I like it. I loved this one. She is in top form.
The Kite Runner I see why everyone loves this, but I'll never re-read it.
Mrs. Dalloway Oh, Virginia Woolf! One of my favorites! Not in a creepy The Hours way, but in the silence of the characters.
Great ExpectationsOh, the Summer of Dickens. How I miss it.
American Gods Neil Gaiman is one of the authors from this generation who will be prized by every other generation. I firmly believe that.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Fun reading, but as you can tell from the title: a little pretentious.
Atlas Shrugged Why I read this, I don't know. I hate Ayn Rand. She's a good enough writer that she convinces people that being selfish is a virtue, and I've never quite forgiven her for that. Hell, I even thought so after the Fountainhead, which I think is a superior book.
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel** Really amazing first book. I'm proud to be from the same town.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera** An exquisite book. Everyone should read it, and I'm glad Oprah has been championing Marquez.
Brave New World** I like this better than 1984, although it seems as if we are in a society that combines the two. I wish George Bush didn't consider these operating manuals instead of warnings.
The Fountainhead This is a well-written book. Don't read it. You won't be a better person for it.
Foucault's Pendulum This is a book that you will need to stop and think about after each chapter. Like a physics book, if you don't understand the basic underpinnings, you will be lost in the middle, and frustrated at the end. If you can bear with it, it will be worth it, I promise. I want to re-read it, but I get stupider as I age, and I'm afraid I won't understand it at all. :)
Middlemarch
Frankenstein I just discovered recently that she wrote this after a miscarriage, when she felt that men would never be able to handle creating life without women. That makes this a very intriguing book to me. I read a bunch of her mother's writing in my Restoration lit class in college, and they make me proud to be women.
The Count of Monte Cristo I think Dumas is an amazing storyteller.
Dracula Read it again before you read the Historian. It will really add a lot.
A Clockwork Orange Liked the book, LOVED the film. That doesn't happen often, unless it's Kubrick.
Anansi Boys** Gaiman? I adore him. To the stalker level, which is why I'm not allowed in Minnesota anymore. :) Okay, that's a lie, but they'd be smart to stop me. :P
The Once and Future King** One of the formative books of my childhood.
The Grapes of Wrath One of the books that made me a raging liberal.
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons : I own three copies of this book: HC, PB and Illustrated. I still can't get past page 50.
The Inferno Read the whole Divine Comedy, yes? I never understand just reading the Inferno. It's like watching the first part of the miniseries. If only they would make this into a mini-series, it might unite us culturally. Who would play Virgil? I say De Niro.
The Satanic Verses** Amazing book. I love when Rushdie adds humor to his texts; it takes them from the esoteric to the sublime.
Sense and Sensibility** I think this is my favorite Austen. (I like Emma, but she's too much like me for comfort.)
The Picture of Dorian Gray** I wish Wilde had written more.
Mansfield Park*
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
To the Lighthouse*
Tess of the D'Urbervilles* Thomas Hardy is to be revered. This book caused a week-long depression, and upsurge of feminism, in my college years. Everything he writes is deeply embedded in truth.
Oliver Twist
Gulliver's Travels*
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay* I love this book, and I think his wife is an equally skilled writer. (Ayelet Waldman, in case you weren't sure.)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury** Everyone should read this book.
Angela's Ashes : a memoir I read this on my lunch breaks when it came out. After the death of the fourth child, I started sobbing in the lunchroom, and said: "If one more kid dies, I am DONE with this!"
The God of Small Things Am I the only one who noticed the Twincest? I think those Booker Prize people didn't really pay attention.
A People's History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere Lovely Gaiman. *sigh*
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being*** In my top 10 books of all time.
Beloved*
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves* Great, funny style guide.
The Mists of Avalon* She redefined the genre.
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita ** The first chapter is a brilliant way to set the stage. I love Nabakov. Read Ada.
Persuasion*
Northanger Abbey*
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Fascinating. I particularly like how he said that increased abortion rights equalled lower crime, and the Right didn't target it. That's what happens when you put it in the MIDDLE of the book. Everyone knows Republicans don't read that far. :P
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an Inquiry into Values
The Aeneid
Watership Down** This scarred me. Deeply. It was brilliant, but I was too young.
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit** Best read aloud. Make up a tune for the songs.
In Cold Blood : A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers
London: Nov. 3rd and 4th
Paris: November 5th - November 10th
Florence: November 11th - November 12th
Rome: November 13th - November 15th
We fly out in the wee hours of the 16th from Rome, and have a 2 hour layover in Amsterdam at 8:35 a.m. before departing for Detroit.
I am traveling with my sister, who loves femmeslash, and would appreciate any recommendations. :)
According to ishtar79, these are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users (as of 30 September 2007). As usual, bold what you have read, italicize what you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. Add an asterisk to those you've read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina *
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude*
Wuthering Heights*
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey* This one I've read in multiple translations, but the Fagles is by far my favorite.
Pride and Prejudice* I can't tell you how many times I've read this. Every summer, I re-read at least one Austen novel, and that usually leads me to re-reading all of the Austen.
Jane Eyre*
A Tale of Two Cities*By FAR, my favorite Dickens. Sidney Carlton is Snape, you know? Damn, am I consistent.
The Brothers Karamazov* Is it pretentious to say my favorite Dostyevsky? Because they're great books. Still, after my Russian lit class, I'm fairly certain they need to put Prozac in the water over there.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies Fascinating book. I love a good microhistory.
War and Peace Okay, so I read this...but I skimmed all the battle scenes, which is a good half of the book. So maybe this shouldn't be bolded. Still, I'm NEVER going back to read the battles.
Vanity Fair I think it's true that I'll read anything made into a movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis. If he had a busier career, I'd be much more well-read.
The Time Traveler's Wife****I closed this book, then opened it again the next day and re-read it. It is sparse and beautiful, and if she doesn't finish her next book soon, I'm going to shake it out of her. :)
The Iliad** Stick with the Fagles; you won't regret it.
Emma** Every Austen? Automatic star.
The Blind Assassin I read everything by Atwood, but I'm really hit or miss on whether I like it. I loved this one. She is in top form.
The Kite Runner I see why everyone loves this, but I'll never re-read it.
Mrs. Dalloway Oh, Virginia Woolf! One of my favorites! Not in a creepy The Hours way, but in the silence of the characters.
Great ExpectationsOh, the Summer of Dickens. How I miss it.
American Gods Neil Gaiman is one of the authors from this generation who will be prized by every other generation. I firmly believe that.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Fun reading, but as you can tell from the title: a little pretentious.
Atlas Shrugged Why I read this, I don't know. I hate Ayn Rand. She's a good enough writer that she convinces people that being selfish is a virtue, and I've never quite forgiven her for that. Hell, I even thought so after the Fountainhead, which I think is a superior book.
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel** Really amazing first book. I'm proud to be from the same town.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera** An exquisite book. Everyone should read it, and I'm glad Oprah has been championing Marquez.
Brave New World** I like this better than 1984, although it seems as if we are in a society that combines the two. I wish George Bush didn't consider these operating manuals instead of warnings.
The Fountainhead This is a well-written book. Don't read it. You won't be a better person for it.
Foucault's Pendulum This is a book that you will need to stop and think about after each chapter. Like a physics book, if you don't understand the basic underpinnings, you will be lost in the middle, and frustrated at the end. If you can bear with it, it will be worth it, I promise. I want to re-read it, but I get stupider as I age, and I'm afraid I won't understand it at all. :)
Middlemarch
Frankenstein I just discovered recently that she wrote this after a miscarriage, when she felt that men would never be able to handle creating life without women. That makes this a very intriguing book to me. I read a bunch of her mother's writing in my Restoration lit class in college, and they make me proud to be women.
The Count of Monte Cristo I think Dumas is an amazing storyteller.
Dracula Read it again before you read the Historian. It will really add a lot.
A Clockwork Orange Liked the book, LOVED the film. That doesn't happen often, unless it's Kubrick.
Anansi Boys** Gaiman? I adore him. To the stalker level, which is why I'm not allowed in Minnesota anymore. :) Okay, that's a lie, but they'd be smart to stop me. :P
The Once and Future King** One of the formative books of my childhood.
The Grapes of Wrath One of the books that made me a raging liberal.
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons : I own three copies of this book: HC, PB and Illustrated. I still can't get past page 50.
The Inferno Read the whole Divine Comedy, yes? I never understand just reading the Inferno. It's like watching the first part of the miniseries. If only they would make this into a mini-series, it might unite us culturally. Who would play Virgil? I say De Niro.
The Satanic Verses** Amazing book. I love when Rushdie adds humor to his texts; it takes them from the esoteric to the sublime.
Sense and Sensibility** I think this is my favorite Austen. (I like Emma, but she's too much like me for comfort.)
The Picture of Dorian Gray** I wish Wilde had written more.
Mansfield Park*
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
To the Lighthouse*
Tess of the D'Urbervilles* Thomas Hardy is to be revered. This book caused a week-long depression, and upsurge of feminism, in my college years. Everything he writes is deeply embedded in truth.
Oliver Twist
Gulliver's Travels*
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay* I love this book, and I think his wife is an equally skilled writer. (Ayelet Waldman, in case you weren't sure.)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury** Everyone should read this book.
Angela's Ashes : a memoir I read this on my lunch breaks when it came out. After the death of the fourth child, I started sobbing in the lunchroom, and said: "If one more kid dies, I am DONE with this!"
The God of Small Things Am I the only one who noticed the Twincest? I think those Booker Prize people didn't really pay attention.
A People's History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere Lovely Gaiman. *sigh*
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being*** In my top 10 books of all time.
Beloved*
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves* Great, funny style guide.
The Mists of Avalon* She redefined the genre.
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita ** The first chapter is a brilliant way to set the stage. I love Nabakov. Read Ada.
Persuasion*
Northanger Abbey*
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Fascinating. I particularly like how he said that increased abortion rights equalled lower crime, and the Right didn't target it. That's what happens when you put it in the MIDDLE of the book. Everyone knows Republicans don't read that far. :P
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an Inquiry into Values
The Aeneid
Watership Down** This scarred me. Deeply. It was brilliant, but I was too young.
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit** Best read aloud. Make up a tune for the songs.
In Cold Blood : A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers