let's talk about books
Sep. 10th, 2019 11:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
howsmyenglishHello from Oaxaca! We got back from Guatemala, which was very interesting and pretty (more later), spent a night in Mexico City and drove for hours and hours yesterday to get here before midnight. Today, I am tired, partly sick and the only thing I want is hide from people. Which is exactly what I'm doing. And which is why I'm happy that I saw this list in NN's (I'm waiting for an OK to name the journal, since the post was locked) journal back when we were in Guatemala, and I can spend some time now thinking only about books.
Apparently, the BBC says, an average person (even though I've no idea who that might be) will have only read 6 books out of the following list.
A very good friend of mine said once about my husband that "it sometimes turns out that he has read everything". And she was right. I went over this list with him and he has read at least 3/4 of it. I'm less well-read. So, here are my honest answers. I'm not going to tell you which books I know all about and have not read for exactly that reason, but I will add lots of comments! Also, I'd love your input, especially about the books I haven't read. Do you think I should? Why? And anything else you'd like to say!
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien --- tried several times, not my kind of a fairy tale
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte --- the film I watched as a child totally freaked me out, but I do think that I should read it one day
4 Harry Potter series
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte --- I do think that I should read it one day
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott --- I do think that I should read it one day
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier --- who's that? I've heard the name sooo often, but my oh-so-well-read husband has heard of it only once - when I read the title to him...
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks --- funnily enough, right after we went through this list, we saw this book on a shelf in the place where we were staying that night. I've really read enough about wars in my life...
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffeneger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot --- well, I'm reading it right now, but I've only a few hundred pages more to go :)
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 --- I honestly tried... no idea what, how, who, why...
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh --- also, tried, couldn't stick somehow, don't remember why
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky --- well, this is probably the only one of his that I haven't read...
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame --- I loved the film! should I read the book?
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 --- tried, stopped after (during??) the rape scene
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 --- will read one day
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez --- there's a restaurant or a pub in Antigua Guatemala, called Macondo, I couldn't help crying, when I saw it, no idea why...
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins --- about this one my strange husband said "no, you don't need to read it... but... wait... actually, you do like this kind of stuff..." He did not elaborate about the "kind of stuff" he meant, but I am going to at least look it up
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood --- even though I know nothing about this book (and I'm not sure whether I ever read anything my Margaret Atwood (I might have), this book keeps coming up in articles, conversations, other people's posts... I might look it up one of these days
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding --- will read one day
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 --- I have the feeling that I did, but I didn't... maybe, I got it and forgot?
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 --- this is something that I keep seeing on the horizon, but I've never yet dared to try...
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 Mitchel
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
Apparently, the BBC says, an average person (even though I've no idea who that might be) will have only read 6 books out of the following list.
A very good friend of mine said once about my husband that "it sometimes turns out that he has read everything". And she was right. I went over this list with him and he has read at least 3/4 of it. I'm less well-read. So, here are my honest answers. I'm not going to tell you which books I know all about and have not read for exactly that reason, but I will add lots of comments! Also, I'd love your input, especially about the books I haven't read. Do you think I should? Why? And anything else you'd like to say!
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien --- tried several times, not my kind of a fairy tale
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte --- the film I watched as a child totally freaked me out, but I do think that I should read it one day
4 Harry Potter series
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte --- I do think that I should read it one day
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott --- I do think that I should read it one day
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier --- who's that? I've heard the name sooo often, but my oh-so-well-read husband has heard of it only once - when I read the title to him...
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks --- funnily enough, right after we went through this list, we saw this book on a shelf in the place where we were staying that night. I've really read enough about wars in my life...
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffeneger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot --- well, I'm reading it right now, but I've only a few hundred pages more to go :)
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 --- I honestly tried... no idea what, how, who, why...
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh --- also, tried, couldn't stick somehow, don't remember why
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky --- well, this is probably the only one of his that I haven't read...
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame --- I loved the film! should I read the book?
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 --- tried, stopped after (during??) the rape scene
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 --- will read one day
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez --- there's a restaurant or a pub in Antigua Guatemala, called Macondo, I couldn't help crying, when I saw it, no idea why...
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins --- about this one my strange husband said "no, you don't need to read it... but... wait... actually, you do like this kind of stuff..." He did not elaborate about the "kind of stuff" he meant, but I am going to at least look it up
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood --- even though I know nothing about this book (and I'm not sure whether I ever read anything my Margaret Atwood (I might have), this book keeps coming up in articles, conversations, other people's posts... I might look it up one of these days
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding --- will read one day
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 --- I have the feeling that I did, but I didn't... maybe, I got it and forgot?
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 --- this is something that I keep seeing on the horizon, but I've never yet dared to try...
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 Mitchel
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
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Date: 2019-09-10 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-10 06:01 pm (UTC)What are the others?
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Date: 2019-09-10 06:10 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-09-11 03:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-10 10:59 pm (UTC)Wind In The Willows is a children's book so not sure if it's charm would last into adulthood.
48 is a big television drama in UK at the moment that everyone except me is crazy about, it's a misogynistic dystopia story.
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Date: 2019-09-11 03:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-11 05:47 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-09-11 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-14 02:28 pm (UTC)It's an interesting list which I think reflects a section of the reading public - the ones who bothered to add books to the list, the ones who were watching the BBC at the time, etc. etc. Quite a few of the books are on quite a few school and college reading lists. The others have mostly been widely reviewed and discussed.