I wasn't going to bother with this list after I saw it, since I haven't even heard of a large portion of them. So I'm just going to link to a copy of the full list and post the ones I HAVE reada which will be a much shorter list.

The list comes from the book by the same name as this post. The actual list is here: http://queerbychoice.livejournal.com/503604.html

Books I HAVE read! (More than I expected!)

1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
2. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
4. Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote
5. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
6. The Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger
7. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
8. Animal Farm – George Orwell
9. Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
10. Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
11. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
12. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There – Lewis Carroll
14. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

Books I Attempted to Read (But did not, finish, mostly because they sucked.)

1. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth (Too verbose.)
   
2. Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe (Wrong part of Africa, Americans are dumb.)
   
3. On the Road – Jack Kerouac (Fitzgeraldian. AUGH.)
   
4. The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne (Ceerap.)
   
5. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas (I was in 8th grade, so I'll try again later.)
   
6. The Trial – Franz Kafka (BAH.)
7. Siddhartha – Herman Hesse (Depressing.)
   
8. The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton (Boring as all hell.)
   
9. The Lord of the Rings – J. R. R. Tolkien (Couldn't get into it.)
10. Emma – Jane Austen (Should try again, but also couldn't get into it.)
    

Would like to read:

1. Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris – Paul Gallico
2. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
3. Bunner Sisters – Edith Wharton
4. After the Death of Don Juan – Sylvie Townsend Warner
5. Les Misérables – Victor Hugo
6. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
7. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
8. The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo
9. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
10. Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
11. Tarzan of the Apes – Edgar Rice Burroughs
12. The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells
13. Dracula – Bram Stoker
14. The Time Machine – H. G. Wells
15. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
16. Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
17. The Portrait of a Lady – Henry James
18. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
19. Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
20. We – Yevgeny Zamyatin
21. Cry, the Beloved Country – Alan Paton
22. Thursbitch – Alan Garner
23. Life: A User’s Manual – Georges Perec
24. Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D. H. Lawrence
25. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – John Le Carré
26. The Black Prince – Iris Murdoch
27. Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
28. 2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke
29. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
30. A Kestrel for a Knave – Barry Hines
31. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
32. Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson
33. The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
34. The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides
35. The Robber Bride – Margaret Atwood
36. The Invention of Curried Sausage – Uwe Timm
37. Cat’s Eye – Margaret Atwood
38. Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco
39. The Cider House Rules – John Irving
40. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson
41. Contact – Carl Sagan
42. White Noise – Don DeLillo
43. Neuromancer – William Gibson
44. Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

I am surprised that 1984, Chaucer, and Athol Fugard are nowhere to be found on this gigantic list. The original LJ poster mentioned the lack of Shakespeare, but those are technically plays, not books. Still no excuse, eh?

I keep a small shelf for my own collection of faves and classics. Among them not mentioned here, Good Omens by Pratchett & Gaiman, Memoirs of a Geisha, and the Narnia Chronicles. I also highly recommend The Princess Bride, Sharon Shinn's Archangel books, and Torey Hayden's One Child.

Posted at 11:50 PM. 0 bibliophiles demanded a sequel.

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Mini Reviews (2006, January-June)

Since time and interest don't allow for every book to get its own lengthy review, I'm going to do some mini-reviews. Clod save us all.

This install comes from the 2006 50 Book Challenge, which is going great guns, thanks. Books 1-20 were read during this time period. This mini review includes:

• Yentl's Revenge (Essays on Judaism and feminism)
• Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern #1)
• Diary of a Viagra Fiend (Humor)
• How I Paid For College (Bildungsroman, real life)
• Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Pyramids! (Discworld)

I didn't get much reading done until May because I was doing so much for school, and reading for pleasure when I should've been reading for class seemed like slacking. Luckily I came to my senses right before finals. And I still made the Dean's List. So nyah!

Yentl's Revenge
Edited by Danya Ruttenberg
Read: March 2006
Rating: Fascinating
biographical, contemporary, non-fiction, school book

Read for the same class as For The Love of God, this is a collection of essays by Jewish feminists. (Take a moment to let that sink in.) The class was about how feminism is being applied to various religions--a vast topic. Judaism and Feminism haven't been dating for very long, but their relationship is as complicated as any other.

I most enjoyed Bubbe Got Back (about being a Jewish girl with curves), Parenting as a Religious Jewish Feminist (in Israel, dressing her daughter in traditionally male religious attire), You Take Lilith, I'll Take Eve (who was the real rebel?), and On Being a Jewish Feminist Valley Girl (from stereotype to free thinker). The women who contributed to this book come from a wide range of backgrounds and their opinions are varied--even somewhat undecided. It's an excellent look into real lives, and I do highly recommend it.

My copy is currently on loan to a Jewish friend whose mother will plotz if she finds out.

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Dragonflight
By Anne McCaffrey
Read: High school, reread April 2006
Rating: Beloved
classics, fantasy, dragons, loved it, romance, sci fi, young adultI love this book. I think this was my third time reading it, and I could've cried because the copy from our local library was nearly falling apart. I didn't want to give it back!!The planet Pern was colonized by humans in our distant future, but the event was so long ago at the time of the novel that it seems like a legend. No one really understands what the purpose of the massive Weyrs is, or why the dragons and their riders deserve tithes from all the surrounding agricultural lands. The old ways are falling out of practice... but the time is coming when the Weyrs and dragons will be necessary for Pern's survival once more. F'lar, a wingleader, is itching to make the needed changes but he needs a strong weyrwoman to lead the whole of Pern. Could that bent, dirty scullery maid in a dominated hold possibly be the young, fiery spirit and keen mind needed?It's an awesome book, although it does have flaws. The progression of events is sometimes too easy, and Lessa and F'lar's relationship could've done with some more depth, but it's still fantastic. Even with a few more years on me, more books in the series read, and several years of writing under my belt, I still love it. It's historically and culturally significant because it stars a strong scifi woman heroine and was published in the 1970s. My parents have some other books from that time still on the shelf. Barbarians and girls with burstings boobs, the lot of them. Lessa was savior and birth of a new subgenre, and for that I salute Ms. McCaffrey.

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Diary of a Viagra Fiend
By Jayson Gallaway
Read: April/May 2006
Rating: Fun
contemporary, nonfiction
How could it not be fun? How could I not pick it up? A library find that I couldn't pass up. This is a collection of columns/essays/whathaveyou from Jayson Gallaway about his many sordid misadventures.And, yes, the Viagra is a major one.He does some very stupid things, but portrays all the boozing and drugging with excellent wit and kept me laughing through most of the book. There are some fantastic quotes tucked away. If it's your sort of humor, you will adore it.

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How I Paid For College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater
By Marc Acito
Read: May 2006
Rating: Fabu
biographical, contemporary, boys kissing boys, loved it, young adult
We FINALLY have some more for the Boys Kissing Boys category! Whoohoo! And, yes, everything in the above title does take place. Delicious.

This is the story of Ed Zanni, a New Jersey teen with a passion for theater in 1980s. He's all set to go to Juliard after graduation--until he pisses off his father, who refuses to pay for any of it. Soul crushing, dream crushing! But Ed's friends aren't the sort to leave him high and dry. He's actually good at acting and they want to help him: His girlfriend, the guywholikesthegirlfriendbutmakesEdsweat,too, the foreign minx, the geeky neighbor no one really likes, and Ed's bestest friend Paula who herself is a year older and currently attending Julliard. Together they wreak some neighborhood chaos, stir up their libidos... and make plans to get Ed to Julliard no matter what it takes.

It really is a master of a first novel. It's very funny, a great portrayal of its time, as well as an awakening of self, and the struggle between your real family... and the wretched one you're born into. Highly recommended for anyone in the 17 and up bracket.

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Diary of a Young Girl
By Anne Frank
Read: June 2006
Rating: Necessary
biographical, classics, nonfiction, young adult (?)
For some reason we never read this while I was in school. I saw the 'definitive edition' at Strand Books and decided it was time.The biggest thing I'm left with is the feeling that if Anne had lived, she would still have made her mark on the world... and I keep wondering how and what she would have done.She was a feminist, and quite progressive for her time. She was also very ballsy, and truly wanted to be a writer. I imagine that if she had lived she would have gone on to be a part of the women's movement and perhaps brought feminism to Judaism much sooner than Yentl's Revenge (see above). She would have been on news programs to mouth off about abortion and equal wages. She was no dummy about politics or the world, either. I see in the young girl someone preparing to be an adult I would have greatly liked and respected. It is bizarre to read the diary of such a young girl, knowing that she'd only be 77 this year and could well be alive now... but I am older than she ever was allowed to be.It's fascinating for me, because I recognize all those Growing Up elements. At the younger end, she believes herself to be as mature as she's going to get. Later she rereads those entries, edits them, and looks back at them with something like pity. I've done the same thing so many times...For writers, it is a must. For girls, it is a must.

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Pyramids!
By Terry Pratchett
Read: June 2006
Rating: Fun
fantasy, dragons, deities,
A good, standard Discworld novel. It delivers all that one would expect: A lightish, interesting, entertaining and humorous read. Perfect.This time Pratchett takes us to a kingdom very much like Egypt, only not. They build pyramids to their dead pharoahs--but these pryamids are magic. Their mass and form leads them to gather magic at a tremendous rate, and every evening that magic must flare off in a brilliant display of light. It's all very normal if you live there, of course. Teppic inherits the throne when his father dies, and makes the mistake of agreeing to having the biggest pyramid ever built for the former King Pteppic. Alas, this wreaks havoc with the magic... and everythign else in the kingdom. Meanwhile, King Pteppic is still hanging out near his body in ghostly form, and his son Teppic is now a trained Ankh-Morporkian assassin (he needed a way to pay the bills for all those pyramids, you see).

A one-off, though I would quite like to see more of this place. Not quite as good as Small Gods, but certainly better than Equal Rites.

Posted at 11:49 PM. 0 bibliophiles demanded a sequel.

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Wednesday, July 12, 2006
30 Books To Read Before You Die

A survey of British librarians has turned up this list. I'm not doing so well, really. But I'll go through the list and point out what I have read, what I already have waiting on my shelf to be read, and what I really wasn't ever planning on trying to read.

From http://wordwing.com/content/view/55/88/

The Top 30

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (10th grade. Good book.)
The Bible (by God!) (I'm waiting for a college prof. to recommend it. Otherwise I'll try later.)
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien (Have tried. ...and failed. Not really impressed. May the legions of Tolkien-lovers strike me down.)
1984 by George Orwell (Fantastic. J'adore. 11th grade.)
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (I need to build my collection of Dickens in general...)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (My friend Stan is IN LOVE with this book. I bought her a copy years ago, but have yet to read it myself.)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (There's a copy from Strand sitting 4 feet away right now.)
All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman (EVERYONE tells me to read these!! Maybe I finally will...)
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (...the movie ruined it for me. No. Sorry.)
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding (This is important to read. Once. Never again. 7th grade.)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (Another one that everyone loves. Yet to read.)
Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne (I should reread these. I don't remember them very well.)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (Edit 7/20: Did buy it. $0.25 at the library is the best.)
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham (I think I had an abridged version when I was way too young to appreciate it.)
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (YESYESYES!)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (I think I dug it out and it should be on my to-read shelf now...)
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (I do very much want to read this one...)
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Eh, my friend who has read EVERYTHINGINTHEWORLD wasn't keen on it.)
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (I have that! $.25 at the library! On the to-read shelf.)
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

The rest aren't really on my radar. A shame, I know. Should I actively seek them out? Right now I've got:
5 read.
8 actively planning to read.



As listed on http://wordwing.com/content/view/55/88/

Posted at 12:51 AM. 2 bibliophiles demanded a sequel.

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