Because I can't sleep
Ganked from
wayzgoose: World Book Day readers' poll meme which claims average reader has read only 6 books on the list:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Haha, you bet your sweet arse I did! Oh poor misunderstood Colin Firth Mr Darcy. It's the original chick lit, wot. Admire just how long the discussion on the Austen men can go on for.
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
No.
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Meh, couldn't care less about the story when I first read it in Yr 8. Then came the ITV adaptation of Jane Eyre, with the incredibly steamy kissing scenes and the smouldering Toby Stephens. Felt a bit bad about making fun of Stephens' dye job, but became smitten by his sideburns.
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
One of my favourites and the gold standard for the coming-of-age novel.
6 The Bible
Once, I finished it and was surprised to learn there more. Something called the New Testament. Never bothered to read the rest.
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
No, because I hate Heathcliffe and I especially hate Cathy. I could never make it past a few chapters. However, I do so enjoy Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. If we could replace Bronte's book with the song, we should.:
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
Classic! Orwell's been a literary hero, ever since male parental unit made me and my sister watch the animated version of Animal Farm (yes!) at the tender age of 6 and 4 (true!). And guess what -- we were living in Communist Romania at that time. There's so much in this novel that we can identify with; I wonder how Orwell would find the similarities grim, or even funny.
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Many fundamentalists will view this as a point in their favour, but I don't care. This set is what made me truly cognisant in my atheism. It didn't convert me, mind. The best I can explain it is that something happened during reading these books that made me realised I was an unbeliever. It also inspired me to tell my mother that I'm going to beat the holy living shit out of the angel Gabriel. Yeah, that's a weird one.
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Saw the old black and white film with John Mills; miles better than the new one with Ethan Hawke. Pip's way more sympathetic played by Mills.
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
Like Wuthering Heights, hated the characters. Sal tells me Christian Bale is in the movie adaptation. I would confirm, only it's got Winona Ryder. Brr...
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
ARGHHHHHH MUST YOU TORMENT HARDY?!!! I remember listening to the radio adaptation of this and wanting to cry out 'What did I ever do to you Hardy? Why do you hate your readers?' All his main characters suffer, rarely are there any happy endings, there are loads of instances of stupidity, and it takes forever for something to happen. Mostly for those who enjoy unhappiness.
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare*
Yes. In comic form, no less.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
No.
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Nope.
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
But have forgotten most of it.
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
For the snobbish factor.
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
I was pretty shocked it wasn't like the Disney cartoons. And they're English!
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Haha, no. Movie sucked too.
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
After the guff I've given Hardy, I have to admit liking this tale. Happy ending yay! And guy gets girl, despite context makes it seem a bit patronising. At least there's the hope the two will have an equal relationship.
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
I quote lines from the book quite often. Embarassingly, the first time I truly read the book for English I misinterpreted the hauntingly beautiful passage of Simon's disappearance. Still have no idea what happened. The black and white 1960s theatrical version is disturbing and gorgeous, even for today's standards. And who can forget the awesome Simpsons parody?
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Never finished this overhyped claptrap. UGH.
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
NOOOOOO!
68 Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
I loved the TV movie as a kid, but was really squicked in the end she got together with her cousin and not the hot boy gardener (who died off screen, wtf?). But then what did my silly 8 year old self know? Adult Colin was played by none other than Colin Firth!
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
Heard the radio adaptation; meh.
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
No. Life's too short.
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Oh, my excuse for not reading Plath? I like Ted Hughes better. *ducks*
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Disney version count? Drat. How about the muppet version? The one with Michael Caine?
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Can only associate Marlon Brando's bloated face with this novel now.
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
I wept.
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
I think that bloody Rod Stewart/Sting/Bryan Adams song for the film ruined any chance of me reading the book. Scarred for life, I am.
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
Yawn. How about them Dodgers?
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
YES. But I've never seen either of the films. Gene Wilder scares me.
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Radio adaptation again, and this is surely a humanist classic. Love conquers all.
wayzgoose: World Book Day readers' poll meme which claims average reader has read only 6 books on the list:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Haha, you bet your sweet arse I did! Oh poor misunderstood Colin Firth Mr Darcy. It's the original chick lit, wot. Admire just how long the discussion on the Austen men can go on for.
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
No.
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Meh, couldn't care less about the story when I first read it in Yr 8. Then came the ITV adaptation of Jane Eyre, with the incredibly steamy kissing scenes and the smouldering Toby Stephens. Felt a bit bad about making fun of Stephens' dye job, but became smitten by his sideburns.
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
One of my favourites and the gold standard for the coming-of-age novel.
6 The Bible
Once, I finished it and was surprised to learn there more. Something called the New Testament. Never bothered to read the rest.
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
No, because I hate Heathcliffe and I especially hate Cathy. I could never make it past a few chapters. However, I do so enjoy Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. If we could replace Bronte's book with the song, we should.:
Click to view8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
Classic! Orwell's been a literary hero, ever since male parental unit made me and my sister watch the animated version of Animal Farm (yes!) at the tender age of 6 and 4 (true!). And guess what -- we were living in Communist Romania at that time. There's so much in this novel that we can identify with; I wonder how Orwell would find the similarities grim, or even funny.
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Many fundamentalists will view this as a point in their favour, but I don't care. This set is what made me truly cognisant in my atheism. It didn't convert me, mind. The best I can explain it is that something happened during reading these books that made me realised I was an unbeliever. It also inspired me to tell my mother that I'm going to beat the holy living shit out of the angel Gabriel. Yeah, that's a weird one.
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Saw the old black and white film with John Mills; miles better than the new one with Ethan Hawke. Pip's way more sympathetic played by Mills.
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
Like Wuthering Heights, hated the characters. Sal tells me Christian Bale is in the movie adaptation. I would confirm, only it's got Winona Ryder. Brr...
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
ARGHHHHHH MUST YOU TORMENT HARDY?!!! I remember listening to the radio adaptation of this and wanting to cry out 'What did I ever do to you Hardy? Why do you hate your readers?' All his main characters suffer, rarely are there any happy endings, there are loads of instances of stupidity, and it takes forever for something to happen. Mostly for those who enjoy unhappiness.
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare*
Yes. In comic form, no less.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
No.
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Nope.
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
But have forgotten most of it.
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
For the snobbish factor.
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
I was pretty shocked it wasn't like the Disney cartoons. And they're English!
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
Haha, no. Movie sucked too.
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
After the guff I've given Hardy, I have to admit liking this tale. Happy ending yay! And guy gets girl, despite context makes it seem a bit patronising. At least there's the hope the two will have an equal relationship.
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
I quote lines from the book quite often. Embarassingly, the first time I truly read the book for English I misinterpreted the hauntingly beautiful passage of Simon's disappearance. Still have no idea what happened. The black and white 1960s theatrical version is disturbing and gorgeous, even for today's standards. And who can forget the awesome Simpsons parody?
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Never finished this overhyped claptrap. UGH.
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
NOOOOOO!
68 Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
I loved the TV movie as a kid, but was really squicked in the end she got together with her cousin and not the hot boy gardener (who died off screen, wtf?). But then what did my silly 8 year old self know? Adult Colin was played by none other than Colin Firth!
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
Heard the radio adaptation; meh.
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
No. Life's too short.
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Oh, my excuse for not reading Plath? I like Ted Hughes better. *ducks*
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Disney version count? Drat. How about the muppet version? The one with Michael Caine?
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Can only associate Marlon Brando's bloated face with this novel now.
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
I wept.
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
I think that bloody Rod Stewart/Sting/Bryan Adams song for the film ruined any chance of me reading the book. Scarred for life, I am.
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
Yawn. How about them Dodgers?
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
YES. But I've never seen either of the films. Gene Wilder scares me.
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Radio adaptation again, and this is surely a humanist classic. Love conquers all.