Books, Books, Books
…that’s all you ever see!
[Bubandpie] has a hundred,
And I have a few.
(Actual entry from my grade two autograph book. Crystal handed it back to me explaining that she had thought up an awesome rhyme to end that poem, but then forgot what it was. Any guesses?)
Becky has tagged me for the book meme that’s been going around based on the 100 greatest novels of all time as voted by the general public. (Actually, she didn’t tag me so much as cordially invite me. See the honesty, there? I’m working on it.) I’m an ornery type, so instead of simply bolding the ones I’ve read, or adding a complicated coding system indicating whether I’ve read the book once, or many times, or not at all, or want to read it, or thought it was "meh," I’m going to chop the list up into categories and add whatever kind of commentary I feel like. If you want to see the list in the original order of popularity, go here.
(Despite Crystal’s autograph-signing claims, I did not own one hundred books when I was eight years old. I do own considerably more than one hundred books now, but you should note that I have read less than half of the list below, a record I was initially somewhat ashamed of, but the work of hacking up the list into categories has cheered me up considerably. You’ll see why.)
Books I’ve Read Once (And That Was Plenty)
1. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
2. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Tolkien)
3. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Tolkien) (good books, glad I read ‘em, don’t plan to read them again)
4. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
5. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
6. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
7. Confessions of a Shopoholic (Sophie Kinsella) (not that that will stop me from reading the sequels, mind you)
8. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) (to find out more about why I hated this novel, you can read my comments on Gwen’s posts – I hated the book but I loved her posts about it!)
9. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
10. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford) (What can I say? I went on a multi-generational saga binge when I was fifteen.)
11. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
The Red-Faced Files
I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t read…
12. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
13. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) (an omission that seriously impeded my ability to explain important intertextual references in another novel that I taught this term)
14. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) (are you noticing the theme? I’m seriously behind on my Great American Classics)
15. A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
16. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
The Not-Nearly-So-Red-Faced Files (otherwise known as the What Were They Thinking? Files)
I might go so far as to say that I’m quite proud of not having read…
17. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
18. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
19. The Stand (Stephen King)
20. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
21. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
22. The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Mitch Albom)
23. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
24. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
25. The Celestine Prophesy (James Redfield)
The Essentials (Books That Made Me Who I Am Today)
26. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) (surprise, surprise)
27. Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
28. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
29. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)
30. Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë)
31. The Bible
32. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
33. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Helen Fielding)
34. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
Cracking Good Reads
35. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling)
36. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (J.K. Rowling)
37. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (J.K. Rowling)
38. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling)
39. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
40. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
41. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
42. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
43. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling)
44. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
45. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
46. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
47. 1984 (George Orwell)
Great European Classics
48. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
49. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
50. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
51. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) (which goes to show, I think, that I was far more ambitious in my reading at age 15 than I am today)
52. Les Miserables (Hugo)
Overrated
53. Great Expectations (Dickens)
54. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley) (to see why I hated this book, read my comments on The Poisonwood Bible, only substitute "Noah" for "Nathan Price")
57. Emma (Jane Austen)
58. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields) (love Austen, love Shields – but these aren’t their best books)
59. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
60. Ulysses (James Joyce) (you don’t have to read it to know it’s overrated)
I’m Not In Oprah’s Book Club
61. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
62. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
63. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
64. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald) (though I love her play, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet))
65. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
66. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
67. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
68. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
(The sad part is that this isn’t even an exhaustive list of the Oprah’s book-club selections that made the top 100: The Poisonwood Bible and Anna Karenina got the Oprah nod as well, for a grand total of ten books, or 10% of the whole list. Thought I'd save you the trouble of doing the math yourself there.)
Wouldn’t Mind Reading
If, say, I was at the cottage and the only source of reading material was a shelf stacked with these books, I’d probably pick one up.
69. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
70. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
71. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
72. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
73. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
74. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
75. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
(I actually own three of these books – Life of Pi, Of Mice and Men, and The Bourne Identity – but somehow haven’t gotten around to reading them, hence the stranded-at-the-beach-with-no-other-reading scenario.)
Wouldn’t Mind Reading Again
76. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
77. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
78. Fifth Business (Robertson Davies)
79. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
80. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
81. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
No, Thanks
82. Dune (Frank Herbert)
83. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
84. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
85. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
86. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
87. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
88. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
89. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
90. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
91. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
92. Shogun (James Clavell)
93. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
I’ve Never Actually Heard of These Books
94. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
95. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
96. Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) (yes – apparently I have been living under a rock)
97. Tigana (Guy Gavriel Kay)
98. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind) (I like the title, though!)
99. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
100. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer) (I’ve heard of the author, though – isn’t he the one Bridget Jones humiliates herself in front of at the book launch?)
This was surprisingly time-consuming, so no tags here – participation is strictly voluntary.
58 good cooperations:
Wow you were ambitious tonight. This reminds me how much I miss reading, really reading. Not reading when I am so exhausted I can barely concentrate. Not reading parenting magazines or even InStyle which I really love. Just reading for the pure joy of of getting lost in a novel.
I have always said that since becoming a parent I missed two things from my past life: reading and sleep. I don't mind that I often used to see two movies every weekend and now I might see one year. I don't miss the leisurely restaurant dinners that went on for hours. All that I can handle.
Reading. I miss it. You have inspired me to at least try harder to carve out more time for reading.
I've only heard of and now partially read Kite Runner because a friend of mine was reading it last year when we were on a field study together, and when he finished it he looked around for someone to take it from him, and I did. (He doesn't like keeping books, which I don't get, but I was more than willing to take it because he said it was good.) I never peruse the book section at Costco (ie. very popular novels) unless I'm with someone who wants to look at them, because I'm just not up on new books.
As for The Power of One, I have it on good authority (beyond the "top 100 list") that it is a very good read. I think it's one that my good friend has read multiple times, which is typically a good sign.
And wow! Overall, I'm impressed. :) And I like your categories, most of all. Much better than a random, and not necessarily ideal top 100 list.
Lastly, really? You managed to miss out on To Kill a Mockingbird AND The Catcher in the Rye? Both of those were required reading for me, I believe in grade 9.
This reminds me to reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. What a great book.
Please tell me you've read Nine Stories, if not Catcher in the Rye. Those are my favorite short stories ever.
I remember once sitting in just stupified horror while a friend earnestly described "CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR" as a really great book. Um...
Our essentials are pretty much identical, with the excemption that I really do not like the Handmaid's Tale. So I guess that's made me who I am as well.
So much to say! Maybe it's best if I do the meme myself. I love the way you've laid it out...
Don't read Saramago's Blindness but do, DO read his The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. I'd be interested (fascinated, actually) to hear/read what you have to say about it.
And THANK YOU for saying that Great Expectations was overrated. This has weighed on me since we read it in class in Grade 7. I hated it but no one in my class agreed with me (I was inclined to think I was the only one who read it).
Beck: I learned everything I needed to know about sex (before I'd had it) from Clan of the Cave Bear, so I guess that it (partly) made me who I am today. :)
How fun! I'm really tempted to do this myself - its so up my book-obsessed alley -- but it does look time consuming.
I have to say though - based on the books you liked and disliked, we probably have pretty similar taste. And if so, you are missing some really really fantastic books. Tale of Two Cities is probably my all time favorite. To Kill a Mockingbird is fantatstic. Also great are Prayer for Owen Meany, Memoirs of a Geisha, Life of Pi, the Kite Runner, and Angela's Ashes.
And I have to STRONGLY disagree with anyone who suggests that Great Expectations is overrated. The movie - yes. The Book - true art.
But...there are so many great classics that I too have never read or read and disliked. So many books....so little time. I actually feel this pain.
The thing about Great Expectations is that there wasn't even anything about it that irritated or bothered me. I just can't bring myself to care about it very much.
Bleak House on the other hand...now there's true art.
I have read four in your "No, Thanks" section and you are so, so right.
You will have to let me know what you think of I Don't Know How She Does It.
Okay, keeping my own faves out of this since this is your post (lol, hard) (except I must plug Purple Hibiscus...ignorant American publishers keep calling her the new Chinua Achebe which is really insulting since they aren't alike at all other than both being African from Nigeria)
Books I’ve Read Once (And That Was Plenty)
1, 2, & 3. Lord of the Rings: You know, the graphic novel I got for my daughter is quite good. I might even like it better, in a way. She LOVES it.
4. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) I have been called all manner of names but I. Do. Not. Like. This. Series.
6. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant) Oh really? I thought it good.
8. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) I saw your comments but Gwen still has me sold.
Skipping the melodramatic 80s books...
The Red-Faced Files
I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t read…
12. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) This is a loss. I do suggest...if you have a moment...?
13. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) You know, a little ambivalent here. I consider it a must read educationally, but do not rate it among my faves.
14. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) See above.
Skipping blowhardy Brits...
The Not-Nearly-So-Red-Faced Files (otherwise known as the What Were They Thinking? Files)
17 & 18: Dan Brown...I count this a must-read for anyone with fiction publishing aspirations or who teaches writing for publishing. You MUST read how someone took Albert Zuckerman's formula literally. It's like a lovely, precise and clean geometry proof. I like math.
Skipping the self-indulgent and preachy rest...
The Essentials (Books That Made Me Who I Am Today)
Exquisite list, esp anything by Montgomery and Du Maurier
Cracking Good Reads
Also a fabulous list.
Great European Classics
If Oprah had been around in the day, Tolstoy would have been on her show.
The Russians...hmm...
Overrated
Any Dickens or Melville is overrated IMO as are Book Club for Grownups books (usually).
I’m Not In Oprah’s Book Club
You DID NOT just diss my boy Marquez...nobody puts magical realism and South American lit in a corner! GASP! You dissed him twice! Are you going to go after Allende, Borges and Amado too? Do as you will with Cortazar and Esquivel...
Diss Oprah book club dramatic and unecessary angst things such as White Oleandar (gag gag) as much as you like.
Oprah has occasionally hit some targets but in general...I avoid it if it has the sticker, esp. during her angsty period, like the aforementioned White Oleander.
Wouldn’t Mind Reading
Most of these...I'd say yes. If you have time. I was not a fan of Life of Pi, despite my book club adding an extra session to convert me. I do not like preachy things that try too hard and work to hide events and mesages in not-so-subtle ways. It felt...manipulative. Like an Oprah book.
I am surprised John Fowles did not merit a mention. :) Oh and Russo. Richard Russo.
No, Thanks
Since you skipped Dan Brown, eschewing Ken Follet makes perfect sense. I've read all the rest; they are not on my bookshelf. Enough said. Excepting Mists of Avalon.
Did you ever read The Keeping Days? I just got a box of childhood books from Mom and there it was. Along with all of my Shakespeare. LOL.
I might have to give this a go...
Can't shut up about books...
B&P...are you...kidding about Bleak House? I do not mean this offensively. It's just...I remember thinking getting a cavity drilled would be more enjoyable. Although, the interminableness of the novel certainly illustrated the point of the neverending lawsuit very well. I thought. :) And I tried to grasp the serialization point...
I learned something new!! I had no idea that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was titled something different elsewhere!
You are bookish in the loveliest way, B&P!
And lastly...had you already seen this Jane Austen makeover?
http://bibliophilebullpen.blogspot.com/2007/03/jane-austen-make-over.html
I think you could do quite a post about THAT.
I have seen this meme going around, but I like the way you tackled it!
It is exhausting, even to read, so I can only imagine doing it. But, please if there is one thing I can comment on after reading all that is "A Prayer for Owen Meaning" is worth a read. I have read it three times (I seem to pick it up once a decade) and it is really good. One of my favorites along with "The Handmaid's Tale".
"The Life of Pi" I totally enjoyed, but only read it once, so cannot pimp as much.
What do you mean you only read Lord of the Rings once??? I think I read that series 6 times as a teenager.
Please add one to your gotta read list: "There Is No Me Without You"
It is incredible.
Mary
I love your categorizations, if only because it was so fun to both agree AND disagree with some of your choices.
I am scarily under-read in many classics and I'm not sure if I think I should do something about it or pretend I'm 85 and have no time left in my life to worry about what I SHOULD read and just spend time reading what I want.
I love To Kill a Mockingbird so much that I don't know if I should encourage you to read it. There is something about it that pierces me straight through the heart. My response to it is so strong that I can't trust that it is about the story/writing and not just some essential Mary thing that it touches in me. I suspect it might be the latter, though, because the movie does it for me, too.
I'm thinking of taking this meme and personalizing it by picking the nearest 100 books from my collection and then highlighting which ones I've read, etc.
I will have to do this one. I may even borrow your categories, especially I'm Not in Oprah's Book Club.
We have a lot in common, on this list, but I have to urge you to read Skin of a Lion, Owen Meany, and Garp.
Good lord. I just looked at the original list and DaVinci Code beat P&P. Just shoot me now. This is what happens when you let the public (or Oprah) decide things.
OK... I"ll have to read everyone's comments in a minute, but two books in your never read and don't really want to category are in my top five of all time list: In the Skin of a Lion and One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Of course, I loved Not Wanted on the Voyage too so you may want to take that with a grain of sale. (I also loved the Power of One when I was 15, and it's set in South Africa, though I'm a bit surprised it's in the top 100... )
I love how you've categorized them. Now I want to do it too.
hee hee, that would be take it with a grain of salt, not sale.
Aha! I figured out the last line of Crystal's poem.
Books, books, books,
that's all you ever see!
[Bubandpie] has a hundred,
and I have THREE!
Wow. You put some effort into this. Catcher in the Rye was THE book that changed me from an average reader into a voracious reader. I second the person who suggested Nine Stories, and Franny and Zooey as well. Salinger will always hold a special place in my heart.
Julie - I did enjoy The Red Tent - just not enough to read it again. Most of the books in that category were pretty good, actually (my comment on The Poisonwood Bible was a bit misleading, here, I think).
As for Marquez - blame Oprah, baby, not me. I put all the OBC books in there, except for the two that I'd already put in another category.
And - The Keeping Days!!! GASP!! I've put out a couple feelers to see if anybody but me LOVED those books, and the only one to bite so far has been TrudyJ.
CG - Yay! Somebody played along with my Finish This Autograph game!
I loved, loved, loved The Kite Runner. It's one of those books people either hate or rave about.
I won't post a big long list of anything here, but...I think we have similar tastes and I'll just say that I think that The Stand and Pillars of the Earth will surprise you. The Stand is actually astoundingly good. I would almost go so far as to say "brilliant". Pillars of the Earth is very unlike all the other Ken Follett spy intrigue type novels. I hesitated too, because though I love historical fiction, I'm really not into the spy genre.
Of Mice and Men is my favorite Steinbeck novel bar none. And believe it or not, the movie w/John Malkovich and Gary Sinise is a pretty decent interpretation of the story. I enjoyed all the European classics on your list except Anna Karenina. I just found it very hard to slog through for some reason.
If you enjoy Margarate Atwood I highly recommend Alias Grace. I know A Handmaid's tale is kind of her defining work, but I like Alias Grace more.
Atlas Shrugged, Mists of Avalon were highly overreated IMO, but I really enjoyed Angela's Ashes, and Clan of the Cave Bear, the entire series.
I love book chatter, so thanks! A fun thing to read on a Saturday morning.
B&P, my best friend Emily and I were diehard LM fans. We read all of the books, sometimes outloud and acted out scenes and yadda yadda yadda.
(I still have the complete Anne collection. I have subsequently bought one of those "limited edition hardback illustrated illuminated keeper" editions for my daughter. It's gorgeous.)
Anyway, that should perfectly well set us up as the type of kids we were and explain why we OF COURSE read The Keeping Days over and over and LOVED the Norma Johnston books. Glory in the Flower is coming to mind.
I think we liked it better than Judy Blume.
Also:
* A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
* Jacob Have I Loved, and
* Alan and Naomi
I'm sure you've heard about the disturbing quality of Fall on Your Knees, but it is so beautiful that I will pretend it is not an Oprah selection and heartily recommend it to you. Lots of Jane Eyre allusions and the best depiction of the relationship between little girls that I've ever read.
We're going to have to agree to disagree on Not Wanted on the Voyage. I loved it--specifically Lucy.
I have read Wally Lamb's books--you're not missing anything.
A Prayer for Owen Meany--loved it when I read it fifteen years ago or so, but have no idea whether or not it stood up to time. Also loved Life of Pi though, as I've said to everyone who will listen, not as much as Self.
Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kaye. Kaye is a major Canadian fantasy author, and while I do love Tigana, his writing is very flowery, and not for everyone. However, if you like Tolkein, he has a high fantasy series that has as main characters five university students from Toronto, which I think is worth reading.
Tigana is good--it's an unusual fantasy, in that magic is almost entirely peripheral to the plot, which is more concerned with politics, power, and self-determination.
BA - The funny thing is, hubby just came upstairs after reading my post (but not yet your comment) to say how much he disliked The Stand - thought it was boring and poorly constructed. Fascinating how the same book can produce such opposing reactions! That's why I keep wavering on Life of Pi - every time I read a rave review and decide to pick it up, somebody else mentions that they didn't like it much, and I go back to wavering.
Time to get cracking on Steinbeck, Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird! I blame your high school English teacher for causing you to miss out on those essentials.
Oh, and you pierced me right through the heart by dissing Emma. Otherwise, I like how you categorized things.
It's amazing to me that all those Harry Potters made it on the list. What a phenomenon!
I've read 66 books on this list now.
I have way too much time on my hands. I wish they would hurry up and give me a kid already.
By the time this adoption is final, I may have read all 100.
Who am I kidding. There are books on that list you couldn't pay me money to read.
The Secret Garden. Absolutely looooved that book as a child. I still have my tattered copy.
Ahh! A whole cadre of readers! How refreshing!
I'm with you on the Dickens. I'm totally ambivilant about him myself.
I'm surprised at many of the books on those list, particularily the omissions. I would have added at least 10.
Um Wow. I don't even know how to comment on this because I have like 100 things to say. So I'll resort to saying something lame like ... great list.
Ooh! I'll have to do this sometime when I have a couple of hours to kill. I'm not surprised that I love all the books you put in the "made me who I am" category (with the exception of the Bible - I'm a heathen & have only read parts.) Although, I would add a few to my list - The Catcher in the Rye is one. I haven't read it since high school, but I read it at least 10 times in a couple of years. Probably because it was banned from my school library! LOL! My youngest son's name, Holden, came from that book.
I actually just finished reading the Kite Runner. I thought it was a bit over rated, but that's just me.
i'm so on this. your list is inspiring, even if i shook my head in incredulty (sp? i'm kinda drunk) once or twice.
you must get off your computer and start reading to kill a mockingbird RIGHT NOW. it's one of my all-time favorites!!
Jane Eyre and The Secret Garden - of course!
I'm actually surprised that you haven't read Guy Gavriel Kay given that we like the same fantasy authors. His style may not be for everyone, but I think he's amazing. Tigana is probably my favourite.
I hate to say that you should read Kite Runner, because people saying that usually make me want to run away from the book. However..it's so not my usual type of book, and yet I loved it. Really.
So late. So tired.
You must read Fall on Your Knees. I loved it. Truly. But then I loved the Poisonwood Bible and, um, they are a bit similar so ... nevermind.
terrific. funny, i put a grapes of wrath quote on my post yesterday...and the Secret Bees book..it's pretty worth it.
I too posted this meme on my blog but did not really add any commentary. So I thought I'd come visit you and comment on a title that I was surprised to see on the list in the first place. It is a rather eclectic list, so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised.
I want to comment on Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. I read this book at the prompting of my 12 year old granddaughter. I was (and am) excited about my granddaughter's desire to involve me in her reading life. After reading it, I decided I need to have a careful conversation with both her mother and her father about paying attention to what the kids are reading.
My first reaction was that the author is terribly insulting to his adult readers. I'm assuming that he didn't intend to write this for pre-teens and teens (this assumption is based upon content that I will get to in a minute), yet it is written for the reading comprehension of a 12 year old. Among other things, Goodkind drops HUGE hints (so huge that they aren't even hints) as to who is really doing what and why and repeats these "not hints" as though the reader is, well, 12 and has the attention span of a gnat.
I could get past the insults to the adult reader, but since Goodkind is unofficially writing for 12 year olds here I was surprised to find that the content included plenty of sado-masochism (a good portion of probably the last 1/3 of the almost 1000 page book). I am truly baffled by the author's "schizophrenia" in writing style vs. content. This book is filled with very adult content that takes an adult perspective in order to apply anything redeeming to the plot.
This could have been a good book if the author would have just written to his adult audience and not insulted them with his writing style. I found some great potential themes such as the "problem of pain," friendship, trust, and social welfare issues just to name a few. Unfortunately, these got lost amongst the titillating bits and the overexplanations.
Well, wish me well this summer when I spend some time with 12 year old granddaughter and discuss this book with her. She is clearly excited to "talk books" with me and I am happy that she is open with me about her reading. I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about.
I too did this meme.
One mans' junk is another mans' treasure seems to be true!
Jen - I smiled when I saw that quote, after admitting my ignorance of all things Steinbeck (though I think we were shown the movie in grade 9 history class). That quote was very compelling, though! (It occurred to me that the movement from "I" to "we" describes what happens in the blogosphere, though appropriating the quote for that purpose would be to court another go-round of the privilege argument, since becoming a mother isn't really quite the same as losing one's farm!)
I have so many comments I think I'll have to do this myself... however I just want to say that I love the way you did the categories!
Opinionated me says:
I have read several of those on your haven't read list, in part because I read most of Steinbeck in Jr High. Why? Because we got to choose which books to read and I went for the shortest ones! Oh, and read Catcher in the Rye a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I think I would not have liked it so much if I'd read it in jr high.
I am sadly lacking on classics. My sister is (professionally) a victorianist, so I have kind of shied away from classics.
Oprah notwithstanding, I really enjoyed A Fine Balance. And as I recall, it was a pretty big chunk of a book, so I wonder how many of O's accolites finished it.
Don't bother reading John Irving or The Secret Life of Bees. JI is so over-rated and one-note. Blech. SLOB (ha!) is one of those "young white girl learns life lessons from wise black women" annoyances. Why is that Sue Monk Kidd so popular?
Oh, and I hated poisonwood bible. The characters were flat and that bugged me. Where is the growth, the depth?
The thing about The Stand, is that it masquerades as a conventional tale of post-apocolyptic conflict. It has all the deliciously macabre elements with which King woos his dyed in the wool horror fans.
I think a lot of people dismiss it as quintessential Stephen King and King himself is often dismissed as a serious writer because of his chosen genre. But the man really is quite brilliant and The Stand evinces that quite clearly.
When you look a little deeper, you begin to realize that it's really a stunningly well-crafted allegorical that chronicles the age old struggle between good and evil in a contemporary style.
There is some incredibly clever and profound symbolism, but it's not obvious. At times, it's almost completely obscured by the macabre and the gruesome, which is why I think it is often mistaken for a typically sensationalistic King novel.
And believe me, I'm the first to cry foul upon encountering an inconsistent, implausible or plain old crappy plot, but I think that the Stand is incredibly well constructed and exhaustively researched.
The characters are rich and well developed. I can't stress enough how much I love the characters in this book. They are among some of the most richly and effectively humanized characters that I have ever come across.
The Stand is old enough now (it was first published in '78) that some pop culture elements seem dated. But the story itself is classic.
Now I wish you would read it just so I could see if your view matches mine or your husband's!
BA - I taught an advanced writing class a few years ago in which one of my students (an exceptional writer herself) submitted a rhetorical analysis of a chapter from Stephen King's book, On Writing. I've had a new respect for him since then (I'm with you on the easily dismissed thing) - but I don't think I can stomach the horror elements myself.
The way you divided the list is a real classic. Love it. I actually read all of Gabaldon twice because I love how she sends up the bodice ripper genre while doing it and earning lots of money.
And Handmaid is the best Atwood ever, IMNSHO. And go for Geisha, but forget the movie.
You forgot one category where I find a lot of books: vis, Pure Junk that puts me to sleep. Auel, for example.
Love this meme.
I found your site from Miscmum's site. Glad I stopped by! I really enjoyed your votes on these.
I'll be stopping by again and probably again after that....
Yay for finding new great blogs!
Jamie
After reading a few other reactions to this meme, yours was easiest to read - the categories were good. Two books on your "never heard of" list were good - Kite Runner and Power of One. I'd recommend moving them to a list of books to read...
I'm baaaack...
I've noticed on the comments here and on at least one other blog that did this meme that there are some strong anti-Secret Life of Bees sentiment.
I enjoyed the book a lot, myself. It is definitely a book with a lot of southern characteristic, though, which I am usually fond of, and that might be why I enjoyed it more than others.
Just wanted to get my 2 cents in on this particular book.
P.S. I don't recommend The Mermaid Chair, however. There are plot points that are so irritating that it makes reading it a chore (to me at least).
Okay, you have to read To Kill a Mockingbird and Brave New World. You really do.
Catcher in the Rye, eh, I could take it or leave it. I've never really understood what all the hype was about with that one.
The other ones on your Red Faced list I can't speak to, because I haven't read them either. *Hangs head in shame*
P.S. I think you would actually like Mists of Avalon. No joke.
My husband hates it, though, so I could be wrong ;)
I'm giggling a bit as I read your list. Some of my all-time favorites (The Red Tent, The Poisonwood Bible) were on your "Not again" list (though I hate the whole Shopoholic series). Some of your "Essentials that made me who I am" didn't do much for me at all. And then I truly enjoyed, just as a good read and nothing more, but still, a good read, a number of your "Proud I Haven't Read" list! Opposite tastes? ;)
But do go read To Kill A Mockingbird. Truly.
Feh on the Kite Runner. Left me cold. However, you really should read The Stand. I loved it, and read it more than once.
I'll have to do some variation on this meme myself. Loved your treatment of it!
I'd seen that book meme elsewhere and it just made my head hurt. Your rearrangement was a much better way of carving up that list.
You did a much better job with this meme than I did! Very readable--congrats.
I'd put 12-14 and 16 on the must read list. How in the world did an Anne Rice book make the Top 100? Oh my. Thanks for the list.
Hi
I came across your blog, read your efforts at the meme and was inspired to have a go. Found I'd read 48 of the titles, which I figured wasn't bad.
Thanks for the challenge. My list is up on my blog.
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