Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Why has he gone where I cannot follow?
Oh, dear. The closer Doctor Who approaches, the more I post, and the more I segue into an area marked 'random'. Still, I saw this over at sam42's place, and thought it was time I shamed myself.
"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ.
1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - LEIK WHOA, PEOPLE.
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - Again. So good.
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - FAVOURITE.
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
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
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
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
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
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
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
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
68. Bridget Jones's 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
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
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
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
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
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
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
30 out of 100. I know that's not the absolute definitive reading list, but...hmm. Maybe I should set myself some targets.
But this list is bringing back so many memories of books that I adored reading, and still do; the George Orwells (as well as Down and Out in Paris and London), To Kill a Mockingbird, Roald Dahl, The Kite Runner...
Also, I'm convinced that the makers of this list are slightly psychic; they put Rebecca, Birdsong, and The Time Traveler's Wife right next to each other, three books which I love completely. I read Birdsong around November 11th, and it made me cry; it's the most moving novel I've read in a long time. Rebecca is glorious, and makes me itch to write a screenplay with Ralph Fiennes as Max, Michelle Williams as Mrs de Winter, and Jaime Murray as Rebecca. I have no idea why I'm so specific about that.
And The Time Traveler's Wife is...oh, I can't describe it. Perhaps I should be a little ashamed that my favourite novel ever is a contemporary one, but oh. It is clever, moving, emotional, funny, and the ending always brings a lump to my throat. Henry and Clare work like a gut-punch, I swear.
I sometimes wonder if this readiness, this expectation, prevents the miracle from happening. But I have no choice. He is coming, and I am here.
I cheated a little on War and Peace, as I'm 400 pages into it and love it, but it'll be a long haul to the finish. I'm saving it for next month; I have an eleven-hour flight to China, and it'll be the perfect opportunity to storm through.
And, damn it, I STILL haven't read Hamlet or Hitchhiker's Guide. I need to get on that.
Whew. That's the most HTML I've used on any post, I think.
In other news, I appear to have Gareth David-Lloyd on the brain. Or rather, his voice. Mmm. Thank God for tomorrow. He hasn't spoken in any of the trailer yet; I think the Powers that Be are storing up his voice for maximum impact.
...or not. But it's nice to think that they are.
I feel slightly guilty for not talking about Eve enough (as I have a crush the size of a house on her as well), but Gareth is invading my brain today; I'm not sure why. I've had Bam Bam in my head since this morning. I don't know the words, I don't really know the tune, and as yummy as Gareth's voice is, I'm not highly keen on his singing one. Sorry. And yet, I've spent all day muttering under my breath, "Do the Bam Bam, do the Bam Bam..."
Damn you, Gareth. Or possibly not.
Anyway, to sum up, YAYTOMORROW!
See you then. Just a warning; I will not provide any kind of intelligent discourse on the episode, and if you can see dogs migrating in their thousands towards the Midlands area, you'll know why.
Eeep!
P.S:
...muh? Was I meant to be doing something important?
Damn, but they're gorgeous.
"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ.
1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - LEIK WHOA, PEOPLE.
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - Again. So good.
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - FAVOURITE.
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
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
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
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
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
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
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
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
68. Bridget Jones's 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
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
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
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
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
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
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
30 out of 100. I know that's not the absolute definitive reading list, but...hmm. Maybe I should set myself some targets.
But this list is bringing back so many memories of books that I adored reading, and still do; the George Orwells (as well as Down and Out in Paris and London), To Kill a Mockingbird, Roald Dahl, The Kite Runner...
Also, I'm convinced that the makers of this list are slightly psychic; they put Rebecca, Birdsong, and The Time Traveler's Wife right next to each other, three books which I love completely. I read Birdsong around November 11th, and it made me cry; it's the most moving novel I've read in a long time. Rebecca is glorious, and makes me itch to write a screenplay with Ralph Fiennes as Max, Michelle Williams as Mrs de Winter, and Jaime Murray as Rebecca. I have no idea why I'm so specific about that.
And The Time Traveler's Wife is...oh, I can't describe it. Perhaps I should be a little ashamed that my favourite novel ever is a contemporary one, but oh. It is clever, moving, emotional, funny, and the ending always brings a lump to my throat. Henry and Clare work like a gut-punch, I swear.
I sometimes wonder if this readiness, this expectation, prevents the miracle from happening. But I have no choice. He is coming, and I am here.
I cheated a little on War and Peace, as I'm 400 pages into it and love it, but it'll be a long haul to the finish. I'm saving it for next month; I have an eleven-hour flight to China, and it'll be the perfect opportunity to storm through.
And, damn it, I STILL haven't read Hamlet or Hitchhiker's Guide. I need to get on that.
Whew. That's the most HTML I've used on any post, I think.
In other news, I appear to have Gareth David-Lloyd on the brain. Or rather, his voice. Mmm. Thank God for tomorrow. He hasn't spoken in any of the trailer yet; I think the Powers that Be are storing up his voice for maximum impact.
...or not. But it's nice to think that they are.
I feel slightly guilty for not talking about Eve enough (as I have a crush the size of a house on her as well), but Gareth is invading my brain today; I'm not sure why. I've had Bam Bam in my head since this morning. I don't know the words, I don't really know the tune, and as yummy as Gareth's voice is, I'm not highly keen on his singing one. Sorry. And yet, I've spent all day muttering under my breath, "Do the Bam Bam, do the Bam Bam..."
Damn you, Gareth. Or possibly not.
Anyway, to sum up, YAYTOMORROW!
See you then. Just a warning; I will not provide any kind of intelligent discourse on the episode, and if you can see dogs migrating in their thousands towards the Midlands area, you'll know why.
Eeep!
P.S:
...muh? Was I meant to be doing something important?
Damn, but they're gorgeous.