Stolen from Mere
I'm going to change it up here and add the italics to those I've started, but never got around to finishing, lost, left at home when I moved, etc. The ones I've actually read are bolded.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell- Here's one of those books that got pushed aside for other, quicker reads just because I'm always anxious to read as many things as I possibly can. I usually have two or three of them going at one time. JSMN was crampin' my style. I adore the quarter of it that I actually finished, it's just a long freakin' book.
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment- Someone recommended I get into some Russian literature because it was the dark deep sort of stuff that I'd like. This is what I picked up. Big mistake. Should have started with Kafka.
Catch-22- I can read this over and over again. The sequel is kindof a drag, though. That's one of the novels I'm working on at the moment.
One Hundred Years of Solitude- I was introduced to Gabriel Garcia-Marquez through high school english class. We read Chronicle of a Death Foretold and it fucking sucked. But then I saw that he'd come out with a new book with the word 'whore' in the title so I found myself interested again. However, as the book was new and only came in hardcover, it was way more than I wanted to spend. Still in the mood to spend my money, I picked up this one in its stead and was pleasantly surprised. He writes just enough florid prose-y stuff and factual plot stuff. Very good read.
Wuthering Heights- I'm avoiding this one like the plague.
The Silmarillion- I had a whole freakin' family tree written out to try and help me follow this book, but there is so much name dropping and fake language usage that I couldn't understand most of it.
Life of Pi : a novel- One of the novels I'm working on at the moment. I'm about ten pages in, though, so no opinion yet.
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote- One of my favorite books ever. This is one of the rare books that is a shit-ton of reading, but managed to keep my attention all the way to the end. I love this book.
Moby Dick- Who hasn't read it? I'm a big fan of relisting the "necessary reads" of literature because of Charles Dickens how outdated everything is, but I'd definitely keep this.
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey- This is the only book I've ever bought and read the cliffnotes for besides Sound and the Fury. I still haven't finished Sound and the Fury, though, so it's a little less embarrassing.
Pride and Prejudice - Uhh, I saw the movie. Does that count?
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities- I wish this book didn't have Sydney Carton in it or I'd be able to hate it properly. I'm torn between hating Charles Dickens and acknowledging what a brilliant character he created.
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner- Nothing too great to report here. I liked it for the new cultural setting. It's one I don't find very often in literature .
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations- Hated it. Hate Dickens. Want to burn it.
American Gods This is the book that I think most influences how I think about what America is.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius- My friends from home would know this as "The Stapler Book" because he ends his introduction/acknowledgments with simply: "Here is a drawing of a stapler"... and there it is. It was a little emo and outlandish, but I enjoyed the book immensely.
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha- It is what it is. I liked the book's ending better than the movie's, at least. Way more realistic.
Middlesex- I picked this up once and will probably not pick it up again until I am completely out of other books. I think I got a chapter and a half in before I got sick of it and put it back on my shelf. A shame, too. It came highly recommended.
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West- The book had interesting insight. I still don't like the show. Sue me.
The Canterbury Tales- I can't wait until I have enough time to waste in order to fit a Chaucer course into my schedule. I love this stuff.
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault's Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein- I know the secret to reading Mary Shelley. Read the first line of the paragraph. If it pertains to the plot, finish the paragraph. If it's about a tree, skip it. The book is so much better that way.
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula - Another one of my favorites. A classic classic.
A Clockwork Orange- The dude made up his own language. How awesome is that?
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath- If I hadn't read Of Mice and Men first, I might have hated John Steinbeck after reading this fucking book. Thankfully, it did not stop me from moving on to his other works such as Travels With Charley, which is an adorable, adorable read.
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984 - Eh.
Angels & Demons
Symbology, water polo, and women.
The Inferno- If I hadn't read it, I might not have caught half the things going on in Shiver.
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray- yay gay people! Actually, Wilde's writing style pisses me off, but go him for having the brass ones to publish this.
Mansfield Park
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest- This should be named a classic. Assuming it isn't already.
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist- Yep. Still would like to beat Dickens to death[again] with a board full of rusty nails.
Gulliver's Travels- I liked the cartoon better.
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time- I disagree with you here, Mere. Having an autistic brother made me really connect with the dad. I loved the point of view of the whole story being completely and utterly screwed by this kid so you had to formulate your own story from the jibber-jabber Chris provided. [Is his name Chris? I forgot already.]
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury- Like I said, I have the cliffnotes waiting for me should Faulkner keep screwing with my head.
Angela's Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five- Everyone made a big hype about it. Still don't see what the big deal is.
The Scarlet Letter- Outdated. Should be taken out of the school curriculum. Justin would strangle me if he heard me say that.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves- Very informative. I can't remember half of it, though.
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye- I'm glad I read this in school because I doubt I would have liked it if I hadn't been discussing and analyzing it so much. I find that to be the case with a lot of things I read.
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an Inquiry into Values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit- I'm not really a Tolkein fan. Let's face it. The dragon scene? Fucking bullshit. I was so mad. What a let down.
In Cold Blood : A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences- I did see the Capote movie, which made me want the book, so I'm considering this started although not officially.
White Teeth
Treasure Island- I did a project on it in the second grade and I got a star for reading such a hard book. I haven't picked it up since. I think I know the Muppet version better than I know the book at this point.
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers
Bastard out of Carolina
That's it! Feel free to make recommendations.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell- Here's one of those books that got pushed aside for other, quicker reads just because I'm always anxious to read as many things as I possibly can. I usually have two or three of them going at one time. JSMN was crampin' my style. I adore the quarter of it that I actually finished, it's just a long freakin' book.
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment- Someone recommended I get into some Russian literature because it was the dark deep sort of stuff that I'd like. This is what I picked up. Big mistake. Should have started with Kafka.
Catch-22- I can read this over and over again. The sequel is kindof a drag, though. That's one of the novels I'm working on at the moment.
One Hundred Years of Solitude- I was introduced to Gabriel Garcia-Marquez through high school english class. We read Chronicle of a Death Foretold and it fucking sucked. But then I saw that he'd come out with a new book with the word 'whore' in the title so I found myself interested again. However, as the book was new and only came in hardcover, it was way more than I wanted to spend. Still in the mood to spend my money, I picked up this one in its stead and was pleasantly surprised. He writes just enough florid prose-y stuff and factual plot stuff. Very good read.
Wuthering Heights- I'm avoiding this one like the plague.
The Silmarillion- I had a whole freakin' family tree written out to try and help me follow this book, but there is so much name dropping and fake language usage that I couldn't understand most of it.
Life of Pi : a novel- One of the novels I'm working on at the moment. I'm about ten pages in, though, so no opinion yet.
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote- One of my favorite books ever. This is one of the rare books that is a shit-ton of reading, but managed to keep my attention all the way to the end. I love this book.
Moby Dick- Who hasn't read it? I'm a big fan of relisting the "necessary reads" of literature because of Charles Dickens how outdated everything is, but I'd definitely keep this.
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey- This is the only book I've ever bought and read the cliffnotes for besides Sound and the Fury. I still haven't finished Sound and the Fury, though, so it's a little less embarrassing.
Pride and Prejudice - Uhh, I saw the movie. Does that count?
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities- I wish this book didn't have Sydney Carton in it or I'd be able to hate it properly. I'm torn between hating Charles Dickens and acknowledging what a brilliant character he created.
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner- Nothing too great to report here. I liked it for the new cultural setting. It's one I don't find very often in literature .
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations- Hated it. Hate Dickens. Want to burn it.
American Gods This is the book that I think most influences how I think about what America is.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius- My friends from home would know this as "The Stapler Book" because he ends his introduction/acknowledgments with simply: "Here is a drawing of a stapler"... and there it is. It was a little emo and outlandish, but I enjoyed the book immensely.
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha- It is what it is. I liked the book's ending better than the movie's, at least. Way more realistic.
Middlesex- I picked this up once and will probably not pick it up again until I am completely out of other books. I think I got a chapter and a half in before I got sick of it and put it back on my shelf. A shame, too. It came highly recommended.
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West- The book had interesting insight. I still don't like the show. Sue me.
The Canterbury Tales- I can't wait until I have enough time to waste in order to fit a Chaucer course into my schedule. I love this stuff.
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault's Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein- I know the secret to reading Mary Shelley. Read the first line of the paragraph. If it pertains to the plot, finish the paragraph. If it's about a tree, skip it. The book is so much better that way.
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula - Another one of my favorites. A classic classic.
A Clockwork Orange- The dude made up his own language. How awesome is that?
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath- If I hadn't read Of Mice and Men first, I might have hated John Steinbeck after reading this fucking book. Thankfully, it did not stop me from moving on to his other works such as Travels With Charley, which is an adorable, adorable read.
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984 - Eh.
Angels & Demons
Symbology, water polo, and women.
The Inferno- If I hadn't read it, I might not have caught half the things going on in Shiver.
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray- yay gay people! Actually, Wilde's writing style pisses me off, but go him for having the brass ones to publish this.
Mansfield Park
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest- This should be named a classic. Assuming it isn't already.
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist- Yep. Still would like to beat Dickens to death[again] with a board full of rusty nails.
Gulliver's Travels- I liked the cartoon better.
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time- I disagree with you here, Mere. Having an autistic brother made me really connect with the dad. I loved the point of view of the whole story being completely and utterly screwed by this kid so you had to formulate your own story from the jibber-jabber Chris provided. [Is his name Chris? I forgot already.]
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury- Like I said, I have the cliffnotes waiting for me should Faulkner keep screwing with my head.
Angela's Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five- Everyone made a big hype about it. Still don't see what the big deal is.
The Scarlet Letter- Outdated. Should be taken out of the school curriculum. Justin would strangle me if he heard me say that.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves- Very informative. I can't remember half of it, though.
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye- I'm glad I read this in school because I doubt I would have liked it if I hadn't been discussing and analyzing it so much. I find that to be the case with a lot of things I read.
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an Inquiry into Values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit- I'm not really a Tolkein fan. Let's face it. The dragon scene? Fucking bullshit. I was so mad. What a let down.
In Cold Blood : A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences- I did see the Capote movie, which made me want the book, so I'm considering this started although not officially.
White Teeth
Treasure Island- I did a project on it in the second grade and I got a star for reading such a hard book. I haven't picked it up since. I think I know the Muppet version better than I know the book at this point.
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers
Bastard out of Carolina
That's it! Feel free to make recommendations.