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"The piercing was too sexual. It was too declarative. It made her look like a child who'd already rejected parenting."
~page 76, Remedies by Kate Ledger
The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.
Instructions:
• Copy this list.
• Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety.
• Italicise the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt.
• Tag other book nerds.
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
The King James Bible
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) – George Orwell
His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
Complete Works of Shakespeare
Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
Middlemarch – George Eliot
Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
Emma -Jane Austen
Persuasion – Jane Austen
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
Animal Farm – George Orwell
The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Atonement – Ian McEwan
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Dune – Frank Herbert
Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
On The Road – Jack Kerouac
Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
Dracula – Bram Stoker
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
Ulysses – James Joyce
The Inferno – Dante
Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
Germinal – Emile Zola
Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
Possession – AS Byatt
Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
The Color Purple – Alice Walker
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
Watership Down – Richard Adams
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
Hamlet – William Shakespeare
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
I have read 44 out of this list. Not bad at all...How about you? Consider yourself tagged!
Follow Friday, is hosted by ParaJunkee, Book Blogger Hop, is hosted by Jennifer (Crazy-For-Books), and
Follow Friday 40 and over is hosted by Java
Jennifer asks, "What is your favorite book cover?"
I like covers which touch me somehow. How can I answer which is my favourite cover? There are too many and for very different reasons. Somehow I don't really understand this question.
Do feel free to explore my blog. You will definitely find something that interests you as I read wide range of genres, except maybe for a few. I also write poetry. You can read that on my other blog, rooted. Now go, explore both of my blogs! And follow them, if you like!! I follow blogs I like via Google Reader...
Enjoy!
Literary Blog Hop is hosted by The Blue Bookcase. If you features book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion, you too can join in!
This week's question is:
What makes a contemporary novel a classic?
Discuss a book which you think fits the category of ‘modern classics’ and explain why.
A novel which has the timelessness feel to it can be taken as a classic. Any novel, contemporary or otherwise, that fits this spirit can be termed as a classic. Now what is a modern classic? For some it might be a contradiction of sorts. A modern novel which is classic. But why not? If it expresses life with beauty and truth artistically, and has a lasting effect, then it is definitely a modern classic. It also has to have an universal appeal. When each one of us connect to that in some way or identify with that somewhat, that novel is termed as a classic. Therefore themed books which depict, love, hate, death, that struggle for life, faith, belief along with emotions touch all of us in one or the other.
I name certain authors which are taken as modern classic authors..Few of those are John Steinbeck, John Kerouac, Orhan Pamuk. J.M. Coetzee, and Gunter Grass. They depict society of different places yet we can identify with their writings. Because the human spirit can never die and unifies all of us.
I can mention so many books but I will only mention one. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. Why? It maybe an tongue in cheek account of travesty of war but it is precisely that which makes it a timeless classic as it tells us about the ramifications of war.
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What authors and books are you most thankful for?
I am thankful to any author who writes timeless books. Modern, or otherwise. Add any book that gives me pleasure....be it poetry, crime fiction or science books..
Mailbox Monday has moved over to Knitting and Sundries, for the month of November.
I received two books, in the past week, thanks to authors/publicists:
1) Trapped in Mystery Island by John Howard Reid
Police sergeant Merryll Manning is on vacation on an island in the Florida Keys for a Murder Mystery weekend. The plan is to solve the mystery and win a cash prize of $5,000.00. Easier said than done. Merry has his teenage-looking girlfriend Susan Ford along for the trip. Susan isn't above using her sexuality to keep Merryll flustered and under her thumb.
2) Blood of My Brother by Jame Lepore
When Jay Cassio's best friend is murdered in a job clearly done by professionals, the walls that he has built to protect himself from the world of others begin to shatter. Dan Del Colliano had been his confidante and protector since the men were children on the savage streets of Newark, New Jersey. When Dan supports and revives Jay after Jay's parents die in a plane crash, their bond deepens to something beyond brotherhood, beyond blood.
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Well, trying to read Trapped in Mystery Island by John Howard Reid without much success!!
What truths do you remember learning in fiction?
Title: Tintin and Red Rackam's Treasure
Author: Hergé
ISBN: 0316358142
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company/1991
Pages: 64
Continued from The Secret of the Unicorn, this album introduces Professor Cuthbert Calculus, who is very deaf but so ingenious. Thomson and Thompson too join them in the treasure hunt.
With rollicking adventure they do find the Unicorn but no treasure! However, in the later part they do find the treasure in an unexpected place.
With the usual humour, Tintin and Captain make a great team. Professor Calculus endears himself to us and we can never tire of Thomson and Thompson's stupidity. With beautiful art work, this album to, is a keeper like all others.
And at least, my reading slump disappeared for a while!
Follow Friday, is hosted by ParaJunkee, Book Blogger Hop, is hosted by Jennifer (Crazy-For-Books), and
Follow Friday 40 and over is hosted by Java
ParaJunkee asks: How long have you been book blogging??
I have been book blogging since 2006. It has been more than four years now.
Jennifer says: "Since Thanksgiving is coming up next week, let's use this week's Hop to share what we are most thankful for and what our holiday traditions are!"
I am simply thankful to be surrounded by my family and friends. I cannot ask for more...
Do feel to explore my blog. You will definitely find something that interests you as I read wide range of genres, except maybe for a few. I also write poetry. You can read that on my other blog, rooted. Now go, free to explore both of my blogs! And follow them, if you like!! I follow blogs I like via Google Reader...
Enjoy!
Who would you rather borrow from? Your library? Or a Friend? (Or don’t your friends trust you to return their books? And, DO you return books you borrow?
I can borrow from anywhere..friends or/and library. And I do make it a point to return borrowed books. My friends do trust me in that regard!!
But nowadays, I end up buying books. And hoarding them for a while before I give those away!
Literary Blog Hop is hosted by The Blue Bookcase. If you features book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion, you too can join in!
This week's question is:
Is there such a thing as literary non-fiction? If so, how do you define it? Examples?
I would say yes, for the existence of literary non-fiction. It can broadly defined as creative nonfiction, literary journalism, and of course, the literature of fact. It is that branch of writing which makes use of writing style and creative vision that are connected with with fiction or poetry. That technique is employed to describe or report about actual people, places, or events. I think travelogues, autobiographies, biographies, memoirs, essays fall into the category. I also think scientific books too can be taken as literary non-fiction. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a true account which reads like a novel. The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol 1-3 along George Bernard Shaw's essay collection, Naom Chomsky's writings are few examples...
The path home was overrun with weeds and hanging vines. Norman hiked through the mess as best as he could, slapping the mosquito against his neck as he tried to keep his fishing pole from tangling in the park's tall grass.
"Connor is dead--- really dead! God help me, I saw his body! And his room was smashed up."
~~Page 106
Synopsis:
Police sergeant Merryll Manning is on vacation on an island in the Florida Keys for a Murder Mystery weekend. The plan is to solve the mystery and win a cash prize of $5,000.00. Easier said than done. Merry has his teenage-looking girlfriend Susan Ford along for the trip. Susan isn't above using her sexuality to keep Merryll flustered and under her thumb.
Lately I find that I am unable to leave comments on those blogger blogs with embedded comment boxes. Either it takes too long to load or it doesn't open at all. And even if I comment, typing those word verification takes a lot of my time. To leave a comment, I have to click three or more times.
I don't see any point wasting so much of a comment-ers time. If you want others to visit you and leave comments, make it user friendly. If not then, I suppose that is your loss. Because I am not going to waste my time clicking again and again....to leave a comment.
I have the same issue with intensedebate and such likes. I dislike typing my email each time I comment and then that captcha verification....
Thought I would say it here again although I did a post about this a few months back.
How you find that "extra hour" to read on a normal day?
Literary Blog Hop is hosted by The Blue Bookcase. If you features book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion, you too can join in!
Follow Friday, is hosted by ParaJunkee, Book Blogger Hop, is hosted by Jennifer (Crazy-For-Books), and
Do you read war stories? Fictional ones? Histories?
I do read War stories. I have read a lot of books which have dealt with WWII. Those include novels, Memoirs and of course, Histories.
Following are few of the War books I have read
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarqu
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
A Farewell To Arms by Joan Hohl
Cold Mountain: A Novel by Charles Frazier
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
"I haven't said a word to the bastard since the night I turned thirteen. I was strapped to the bed. It was my birthday present to myself."
~Page 646, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
Title: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Author: Stieg Larsson
ISBN: 9781849162753
Publisher: Quercus/2009
Pages: 743
The last of the millennium trilogy seemed very long to me. Maybe because I am going through a reading slump. I really wanted to know so much more about Lisbeth Salander yet my reading was pretty slow. This has more narration than action. And tries to tie all the loose ends about Salander.
Starting from where The Girl Who Played With Fire left off, it makes the reader yearn to save her life and protect Salander. She is seriously injured and is in the hospital with no visitors allowed. And she is also accused of couple of murders. In this novel, we learn how much wrong has been done to her since she was 12 years old, a mere girl. All this to save her father from being exposed and along with him, the nexus of certain government officials of Sweden.
Blomkvist along with well wishers of Salander is determined to save her from this nexus. We get to meet Dr. Teleborian, the evil doctor who is instrumental in locking up Salander.
Despite her isolation, and along with the help of her friends, we find Salander again in her elements. This novel has political undertones and of course the courtroom scene is such that one can't waver from it till the end.
I will say this again that Larsson has created memorable character in Lisbeth Salander and not only her, his depiction of the evil characters is also very good. I say Lisbeth Salander is not going to die in the mind of the readers for a very long time to come.
Your assignment this week, if you choose to play along, is to ask your readers for recommendations. Choose a genre–any genre–and ask for recommendations. You can be as general or as specific as you like. Consider it as an “I’m looking for….”
The second part of the assignment is to write a list of recommendations and share them with your readers. Choose a genre–any genre–and share your list of favorites. I think of this as “If you’re looking for….”
“I’m looking for….”
I read varied genres, but somehow I can't read YA much or fantasy. Can anyone recommend some good books on the above genres? I would really appreciate that.
“If you’re looking for….”
I read a lot of Crime Fiction. So one can check my archives for that. But there are some authors I have read before I started blogging. I would like the lovers of crime fiction to check out Erly Stanley Gardner. His Perry Mason books are very very good. The courtroom scenes are superb and the lanky detective Paul Drake is very memorable. Just find hid books and start reading NOW.
Please highlight one of your favorite books and why you would consider it "literary."
I have been reading a lot of Crime fiction for the past two years. However, I used to read varied genres and still do. Literary fiction and classic literature have always been on my reading list. (Despite my current reading slump, I have many of those books lined up on my tbr pile).
How does one highlight only one literary fiction when there are too many to recommend? Out of some of the literary fiction I read in 2010, I recommend the following. Do check out the review to know why I recommend it.
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She said she wanted to be like the trees, that she had read they were most trusting of creatures because they put their roots down in one place, knowing they'd be there for their entire lives."~Page 41
Title: the Language of Trees
Author: Ilie Ruby
ISBN: 978-0061898648
Publisher: Avon HarperCollins/2010
Pages:339
One only has to look at the trees to learn all about roots, being totally grounded or be down to earth. Every part of a tree speaks to us. Reaches out to us. This novel too does that for the reader. Yet we find the novel in the realms of what is nowadays called magical realism. Roots (of ones own self) and flying (that of the mind) go hand in hand.
Grant Shongo is back to his roots in Canandaiga, to deal with his broken heart. His wife has left him and he knows that only solace he will get is by coming back to his childhood home. He also knows that his Seneca blood will not let him rest until he deals with a past tragedy. The spirit of a young boy, haunts him.
Melanie and her sister are unable to get over the death of their younger brother, Luke, which happened more than a decade ago. Almost eveyone who had been connected with Luke, has not been able to get over it. Then Melanie disappears all of a sudden leaving her boyfriend, Lion and their newly born son, Lucas...
Echo O'Connell, too comes back to the place she calls home after 15 years. When she meets with Grant again, she knows that, she can't go back, leaving her first love. But before both can find love love again, they have to face the past, the spirits of the place, the whisperings of the trees. Echo has to let Grant know, what he really is. Only then the healing can overcome the past tragedy, the spirit may leave to rest eternally.
How the lives of Grant, Echo, Melanie are connected by a spirit? Why is Luke not ready t leave yet? The secondary charracters are all essential for the story and have been well etched out by the author. I really loved the language in the Language of Trees, both literally and figuratively.
