Books Read in 2011

For record-keeping purposes:

• Interview with the Vampire, Ann Rice 
• The Help, Kathryn Stockett 
• Crossing to Safety, Wallace Stegner 
• Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
• The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
• No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy
• I Am Not a Serial Killer, Dan Wells
• Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
• Mr. Monster, Dan Wells
• The Distant Hours, Kate Morton
• Animal Farm, George Orwell
• Shadow of the Hedgemon, Orson Scott Card
• Confederates in the Attic, Tony Horowitz
• Shadow Puppets, Orson Scott Card
• Ender in Exile, Orson Scott Card
• The Winter Sea, Susanna Kearsley
• In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, Nathaniel Philbrick
• Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson
• Shakespeare: The World as Stage, Bill Bryson
• What the Dog Saw, Malcolm Gladwell
• The Forgotten Garden, Kate Morton
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson
• Matched, Ally Condie
• Spook, Mary Roach
• Crossed, Ally Condie
• Bossypants, Tina Fey
• Before I Go to Sleep, S.J. Watson
• The House at Riverton, Kate Morton

I love how I look at this list and when I read what and can tell exactly where a book bogged me down for months, which happened multiple times. However, I read some very lovely books last year, and I have a stack on my shelf ready for this year. Yay! 

Winding Down

This is my, "I need to go to bed but I'm not quite there yet so I'll wind down with a post" post.
The teacher fair was interesting. I interviewed with one really crazy school and talked to the HR people from Alpine, and then I got a bunch of pamphlets and applications from lots of other places. It's a really weird feeling, thinking about possibly getting a job that would pay $30,000+ after years of making virtually nothing. What will I do with that kind of money? It's such a real job! I just can't decide if I'm ready to jump into teaching full time, and it's crazy trying to figure out where to go if I do. I like the idea of Alpine because I could be down here and still socialize with friends and roommates without living here per se. But didn't I want to get out of Provo? I'm putting in an application for Davis and maybe Salt Lake districts too, but really . . . hmm.
In other news, I finally found a book to read. I've been having a hard time getting into anything (not to mention my experience with Milkweed - I was reading it and the book VANISHED! I have NO IDEA where it went) and I have started about 10 books with no success. I have a huge stack on my shelf, all books that I very much want to read, but I've been having a hard time committing to any of them because I'm so scatterbrained right now anyway (too much to think about, no additional brainpower to devote to postmodernism). Hopefully this will be the spring of Tender is the Night and The Road and Their Eyes Were Watching God, and East of Eden. And actually, I am really thinking about reading Don Quixote this spring/summer, because I have this beautifully appealing new translation on my shelf and it's lovely. Anyway. All of this makes the book I finally settled into very funny, because it's much longer than all but the last two books that I just read, and probably more complicated and more depressing. I don't know why, but the other day I had the weirdest desire to read Ken Kesey. I read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest last year, and I can't even tell you how much I loved it, and I guess it was just time for another. So I went to the Provo library the other night (aren't you proud of my for not buying it?) and checked out Sometimes A Great Notion. And it's about 700 pages. And so far I am loving it. I remember my dad telling me about the movie once upon a time, so I actually know one of the major plot twists, and it's sad. Not surprising - so was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. But I really hope I can cruise on through it, because I want to finish a book. And I want it to be this one.
And now I'm going to bed.

The General Specific

Stuff you should probably check out (because I have recently, and you know you want to be like me):

• Band of Horses new CD, Cease to Begin. Fantastic. I particularly like "No One's Gonna Love You" (not depressing, but it sounds like it's going to be, yes?" and "Islands on the Coast."
  
• Ian McEwan's Atonement, which I just finished. The whole book is worth it for the effect of the last page. It was so good, and I actually got my blog's new name from it! McEwan is a lot of fun to read(I have to admit, though it may ruin my credibility, that I enjoyed imagining Robbie as James McAvoy, since he's playing him in the movie. But that doesn't mean I didn't recognize the actual merits in the book - it's kind of like the way To Kill a Mockingbird got better when Atticus became Gregory Peck.)
  
• Enchanted. Adorable, made fun of Disney without really making fun of the good things about it, had two very attractive men. (I'm sorry Jennie, but I think James Marsden is great, and he was hysterical in this one.)
• Let It Snow, Baby, Let It Reindeer - Relient K's new Christmas CD. This is why: "What's a partridge? What's a pear tree? I don't know, so please don't ask me - but I can bet those are terrible gifts to give." Also, the Narnia reference that is track 9.

Things you shouldn't check out:

• Next, starring Nicolas Cage. Sorry friends, but there's a reason you didn't hear about this movie when it came out earlier this year. Just don't even bother.
  

So we have a CD, a book, a movie, and a Christmas CD, plus I steered you away from a waste of time - I think we've covered our bases for today. Yes? Good? On we go.

Self Control

I may be unable to concentrate for more than a few seconds when I'm trying to do homework, but today I was proud of myself when I went into the bookstore.
I went in because we read this really amazing essay by Annie Dillard in my teaching writing class, and I decided that, since I've been meaning to since I was a freshman here at BYU, it was high time I checked out her stuff in earnest. Plus, I was going to eat dinner in the Cougareat and I didn't have anything interesting to read, and I wanted something.
So first I stopped in the bargain books section, where I found a $30 copy of A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 for $7.99. Amazing! Must buy! Will leave here whilst I continue looking.
Next I found Anne Tyler's The Accidental Tourist for $4.99. I don't know much about this book, but I once read a book by Anne Tyler that was quite good, and didn't they make a movie of this one? (Yes. I just looked it up.) It seemed like a good book, and it was sort of cheap . . .
Next I found Too Late the Phalarope by Alan Paton. I don't even remember how much this was, but it wasn't much, and I loved Cry, the Beloved Country. I'd never even thought of finding something else that he had written - this was my chance!
I also found The Book Thief, which is finally out in paperback. I've been dying to read this book - it looks so cool! And it was 25% off (I left the bargain books section) and felt so good and ready to read in my hands . . .
I also found Shannon Hale's new book, Book of a Thousand Days. I love the look of this book, and I especially love the feel of the hardback copy. I'm so excited to read this book, and there it was, in all its brand new glory . . . with all its brand new price.
I avoided the Robin McKinley books on purpose. I'll be borrow DragonHaven from Sam one of these days, and I don't want to fall in love with it first and lose my cool.
Finally I found the essay section, where there were exactly two Annie Dillard books. One was $13, and one had three of her books for $20!
Now here's why Annie Dillard is awesome: not only is she an incredible writer, she is also and incredible model for teaching writing. I'm totally investing in my career here.
However, $20 was more than I was really planning to spend today, so one by one, I said goodbye to the other books I wanted to buy.
I went into a bookstore for something specific, and I came out with it and nothing else. Let us all take a moment to consider this, and then you can all send your awe and admiration my way.

This is How I Disappear (the male species can just ignore this one)

I'm done. I really can't say anything about what I thought without giving something away, but to the fangirlies still out there reading it -
PLEASE TELL ME WHEN YOU FINISH! IMMEDIATELY IF NOT SOONER!

I am very nearly in pain because Miri is the only one I know who has finished it so far. Need...support...group....

Meanwhile, I will listen to the new Eclipse playlist (thank you Stephenie Meyer for giving us this other way to obsess, and thank you Mike Shorten for having everything Muse has ever done and passing it to Miri who passed it to me. It makes collecting the songs much easier) and wait for you all to CALL ME!

On a Scale from One to Nerd... AWESOME!

Here we are at Harry Potter night at the BYU Bookstore. I borrowed Lili's scarf and tie while she and Nicole stood in frames behind the Prestidigitation class and were wizard portraits. Nicole's skirt was SO BIG!
Some of the craziness at the party.










My friend Tim and his wife - Muggles dressed as wizards trying to dress as Muggles. I wish you could see the whole outfit, but it was too crowded to get a good shot.
Me with my friend Lauren. We have shared many a book obsession over the year. (Not a typo.)
Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. We're pretty sure they practiced these sneers in the mirror, but they are denying it.

Oh, how wonderful it all was. I'm glad I went to experience the final show.

Megan, you just finished the readingest semester of your life. What are you gonna do now?

Read, naturally. Today I finished up my crazy spring semester - note to everyone: do NOT take two hard core English classes and a grammar class during spring semester unless you want to spend your entire existence with a book in your hand. So now I'm making plans for my summer reading. Of course. The other day I was bored in my grammar class, so I started making a list, which I am now going to post. Feel free to make recommendations, but the list is already impossible. I'm excited.

MEGAN'S SUMMER READING LIST (impossible version)
* indicates must-reads

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
Jude the Obscure* (Thomas Hardy)
Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse* (Louise Erdrich)
Jacob's Room (Virginia Woolf)
Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

MINDLESS FROTH:
Austenland*(Shannon Hale)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows* (J.K. Rowling)
Eclipse* (Stephenie Meyer)
River Secrets (Shannon Hale)
Dreamland (Sarah Dessen)
A Great and Terrible Beauty (Libba Bray)
Shackleton's Stowaway (Victoria McKennan)
A Northern Light (Donnelly)
the Georgia Nicholson books I haven't read yet (Louise Rennison)

POSTMODERN:
Reading Lolita in Tehran* (Azar Nafisi)
The Crossing* (Cormac McCarthy)
Cities of the Plain* (Cormac McCarthy)
Tracks (Louise Erdrich)
The Shipping News (Thanks Jolly and Lindsey)
CLASSIC(ISH): (The biggest section... probably the one I'll read least from. Sad.)
All Quiet on the Western Front
Middlemarch (George Elliot)
The Moon is Down (John Steinbeck)
East of Eden*(John Steinbeck)
Tender is the Night (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)
Testament of Youth (Vera Brittain)
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (T.E. Lawrence)
Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
A Passage to India (E.M. Forster)
Where Angels Fear to Tread (E.M. Forster)
Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)
The Color Purple (Alice Walker)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Alex Haley)
Dracula* (Bram Stoker)
Madam Bovary (Gustave Flaubert)

MISC.:
Ophelia* (Lisa Klein)
Hamlet's Dresser (Bob Smith)
The Beauty Myth
Survival of the Prettiest
A Room of One's Own* (Virginia Woolf)
Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis)
In Search of Mockingbird
How I Found the Strong
Eats, Shoots and Leaves (Lynne Trusse)
Dandelion Wine* (must read during summer - Ray Bradbury)
Enchantment* (Orson Scott Card - recently added because I found out my book club was reading it and needed a light vacation book. :))


So yeah. Some of those have been on the list for years, and obviously there is no way I'll get through many of those, but I have to have them all written down for maximum efficiency. Good times. Yay summer!

Why I Love Postmodernism

This is a pre-writing activity, because I have been sitting at my computer for several hours, and I just can't seem to write my final paper. Since the pressure is on now and it seems much easier to write on my blog than anything else, here goes.

• Thing one that I love - this uber-amazing picture of Jacques Derrida, father (of sorts) of postmodernism. The man is a rock star.
  
• I love questioning things that have been previously in the realm of the sacredly unquestionable. This does not make my belief in those things less firm - on the contrary, it makes my understanding deeper and more meaningful when I accept something on its own terms and not based on the fact that society told me I should believe something.
• I love the feeling of kinship I have with people in other cultures and walks of life when I read a postmodern novel. Instead of condemning a group of people without understanding them, I have the opportunity to listen to that group and redefine ethics for a new situation. I don't think this redefinition is less ethical - it's a more valid way to make judgments. You can't dismiss the kid with the pieced lip until you've talked to him, and you can't dismiss black fathers or Vietnam veterans or anorexics or anyone else until you've tried to understand them from their point of view.
  
• I love the way everything in a postmodern novel can and does mean something. If Violet is a hair dresser, how can understanding black women's relationship with hair add to out understanding of the novel and the culture as a whole? How many other books influenced this book? A genealogy chart at the beginning of the book could mean Faulkner influenced it, and any random quote could be straight out of Dante or Shakespeare, and there's a reason for it to be there.
  
• I love the way you can't accept anything just because everyone has always accepted it. Look what that kind of thinking got us in the past: slavery, the Holocaust, Manifest Destiny, the objectification of women (and a lot of the rest of the population of the world), entire people's wiped out - all because someone turned their truth into Truth, said God sanctioned it, and then used God as an accuse for committing all kinds of heinous crimes against humanity. Just because one person thinks that the Bible gives everyone the right to hate Jews does not mean everyone should go out and throw them into a death camp - see?
  
• I love how hopeful everything is, even when everything about the actual story is painfully tragic. Sometimes your story gets broken, so you improvise until you get back to where you want to be. Broken doesn't have to mean lost and gone forever. Sometimes the best way to fix a broken past is to repair the present and future.
• Also - sometimes postmodern novels are hard to read, especially if you are a Mormon and don't like reading certain words or about certain things. I love how my class got to talk about this - first, it's okay to be offended by those things, but the postmodern novel is not glorifying dysfunctional behavior - it's trying to give you a context for finding truth, and you can't do that by only reading about happy things. Second, although it's okay to be offended by certain words and events in the novel, what offends you more? Is it the fact that they are describing the event, or is it the fact that things that horrible actually happen? Something to think about, whether you expose yourself to the actual novels or not.
• Everyone gets to tell their story. The only way to fix it is to tell it, and not to have to depend on someone else to tell their version. All versions of a story are valid, and you don't have the truth until you've listened to every true version. Trippy in practice, but very cool.
  

Okay. Hopefully that will get me started. Yay for the blog window being more fun than the Word document.

Not Slacking . . . Much

For those of you who didn't think I had a good reason for disappearing during the last few months. When I said I needed to read, I meant it. Keep in mind the fact that I wrote at least a page for almost all of the books for class.
A list of the books I've read since January - * indicates I didn't finish the book but plan to, + indicates I had already read it (so I probably skimmed it.):

Before school started:
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

For English 420 (Adolescent Lit):
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
Carrie by Stephen King
The Only Alien on the Planet by Kristen D. Randle
Breaking Rank by Kristen D. Randle
Tenderness by Robert Cormier
Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
The Raven Ring by Patricia C. Wrede
Seven Daughters and Seven Sons by Barbara Cohen and Bahija Lovejoy
Gypsey Rizka by Lloyd Alexander
My Name is Sus5an Smith. The Five is Silent by Louise Plummer
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Christ Crutcher
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
An Experiment in Criticism by C.S. Lewis
Radical Reflections by Mem Fox
Lives on the Boundary by Mike Rose*

For English 362 (American Lit 1865-1914)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain+
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
(Lots of short stories, poems, etc.)

For fun during and between Winter and Spring Semesters:

On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God by Louise Rennison
Knocked Out by my Nunga-Nungas by Louise Rennison
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones

Spring Semester

For English 345 (Literature and Film) :
We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love by Robert A. Johnson
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen+
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte+
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy*
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis+ (I did reread this entire book - all 75 pages.)
Shadowlands by William Nicholson

For English 365 (Contemp. American Lit: Postmodernism):
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Jazz by Toni Morisson
Eve's Apple by Jonathan Rosen
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich*
Mama Day by Gloria Naylor

We May Be Some Sorta Crazy: The Adventures of Team Estrogen in Tempe

Well, we did it. We drove to Arizona for a glorified book signing, and we made it back - alive and with our dignity mostly intact.
The trip was absolutely amazing. We drove down through rain and snow and dark of night right (listening to the Twilight and Eclipse playlists, naturally) after I got out of class on Friday, and on Saturday morning we got up bright and early to go kayaking with our dear friend Chelsea Walker, who inadvertently gave us the name for our expedition. There was a sticky note in her car that said "teamestrogen.com" at the bottom... well, we were there because we were in love with a fictional vampire, so it seemed to fit.
After a stop at In-N-Out for lunch and a few minutes at the Mesa temple, we went back to our hotel for some major primping. I did almost nothing toward getting myself ready - Jennie curled my hair, Lili put my hair up, and Lauren did my makeup. I read The English Patient throughout the process in a futile attempt to not get any further behind in my school work.
We were all feeling a little silly when we went to the prom, but we pulled up and saw several middle-aged ladies in frilly dresses and we started to feel better. Then we found out that there were girls there from Canada and Los Angeles, New York and even London - well, driving down from Provo didn't seem like much of a stretch.
Stephenie Meyer was there and read the first chapter of Eclipse to us (it was hard to hear, but luckily we also got a couple of copies of the special edition of New Moon, so at dinner afterwards we read it to each other.) Stephenie told us that she realized that most of us had come to the prom stag, so she brought some options for us for prom pictures. Then she proceeded to introduce us to Edward and Jacob. Amazing. The actors couldn't quite live up to our expectations of course, but it was definitely enough to get all of those girls squealing.
There was supposed to be dancing at the prom, and there was music - everything from Muse to Crowded House to the Beach Boys - but there was no dancing. So we danced anyway and had a blast, and I'm pretty sure everyone else wished they could be as cool as we were.
The drive home was beautiful - we could see so much more of the gorgeous desert in the light (haha) and we stopped at Glen Canyon Dam to take some dam pictures.
We got home in time for ward prayer and got all kinds of crap for what our guy friends perceive as our "problem" (several offers were made for aid in forming a self-help group) but we didn't care. We knew it was geeky, but it was also fantastically fun, and why would we miss out on something so amazing just because we get funny looks when we say we drove 10 hours to get to a book signing?
This is one for the record books.
For your view pleasure, a few pictures from our expedition:

Trying to entertain ourselves in the car for several hours was a hard job

Well, they didn't want their noses to get sunburned on the river...

In-N-Out = amazing, and so does Chelsea for carting us around Gilbert and Mesa

This is scary business. Ah, the price of beauty.

But wasn't it worth it?

Getting my books signed by Stephenie Meyer!

Can't . . . wait . . . for August . . .

Yeah, everyone else wishes they were this cool.

Yay for the spinny dress!

Showing off our nail/making butterfly motions.

And we basically destroyed our room.

I saw this street on the way to the prom . . . we couldn't resist the photo op.

A dam picture. It was really hard to smile for this because we were looking right into the dam sun.

There are SO many more amazing pictures, but this gives you a pretty good overall view of our trip. Sadly, I don't have one of me falling into the Salt River, but I'm sure what you can imagine is better.
We may be some sort of crazy (thanks Blue October) . . . but I like us.

There's a reason it was a bestseller, and you haven't grasped it yet.

Today I finished reading Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, and it was absolutely delightful. What didn't delight me was that I waited so long to read it because I wasn't incredibly impressed by the movie (and I'd never heard of the book until the movie came out.) It was fun, and the guy who plays Char is quite attractive, but it was kind of silly. Turns out they completely ruined the story! There is almost nothing in the movie that comes from the book, especially not the end. What on earth was going on with the crazy plotting uncle? Seriously!
I've decided that there should be an ordinance against making fantasy movies on low budgets and without someone who absolutely adores the book. (Lord of the Rings was a good fantasy movie because it had the right director/screenwriters and a HUGE budget, plus everyone working on the movie was dedicated to Tolkien's vision. I don't expect every movie to be on this scale, but honestly. If you can't do it right don't do it. And actually, Ella would have been easier the way it was written!) I realize that it's an adaptation, but that doesn't mean you have to change the entire (and already lovely) story.
I'm cringing at the thought that someone might do the same thing to Twilight. It could be good . . . but it could be so bad. Everyone keep your fingers crossed like two crossed things that they do it right or drop the project altogether.

Down With Dirty Books

I'm doing an assignment on censorship for my Adolescent Lit class, and I just looked up the list of 100 most frequently challenged books. There were quite a few on there that I'd read - I mean, Harry Potter was right there near the top, and the most challenged book is Scary Stories, which I'm pretty sure we all read in elementary school. My roommate Mandy just bought them in October to read to her 7th grade practicum class on Halloween. But my favorite challenge was number 88: Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford.
Where's Waldo?
Really?
I looked it up to see if I could find out why - apparently there is an "exposed woman" in the beach scene. It was changed in later editions, so don't worry.
Insidious book, bombarding our eyes with centimeter high naked cartoon women. Down with such trash! Burn it! Also Harry Potter. Evil!
My teacher had a different story. She said it was challenged because apparently there is a picture in which Waldo is looking in a mirror and he has no reflection! Meaning . . . what? He's a vampire? A devil? I prefer to believe the first story, if only because there is some actual case for objecting, but I wouldn't put it past those Harry Potter hating book burners. (I'm sorry, did that sound like an attack? Because it was.)

Yeah. Keep up the good work, people. Protect our children.

Please Forgive Me

Please forgive me if I act a little strange,
For I know not what I do.
Feels like lightning running through my veins
Every time I look at you . . .
-David Gray (also on the Twilight playlist)

Stephenie Meyer should be paying me to advertise her books. I've recommended Twilight to half of the girls in my ward (and a few boys), the girls who sit next to me in Women's Chorus (who were victimized because I was going crazy while I was in the middle of the book and had to be in class instead of reading), several of the girls in my adolescent lit class, and some of my roommates' moms. However, I'm not going to write to Stephenie Meyer asking for a commission, because last night I discovered a reason for my great satisfaction when a girl tells me she is reading the book.
It drives the guys crazy.
Now, I'm not saying I'm bitter, but I have been in the past, and I think this is a much more constructive form of retaliation than sitting around eating ice cream and wishing I was on a date. I'm just raising the bar.
This is my gift to the women of the ward who have been rejected or are dissatisfied - they find comfort in the perfect love story. And my gift to the boys of the ward . . . who now have to compete with Edward.
I'm pretty sure I sound like a lunatic and a cat-woman in the making right now, but you girls who have read it know what I'm talking about. Also, I've extended the invitation to the boys, and two have read it so far. I don't see how this could hurt them, and it definitely helps us. :)
So girls, this is for you. Enjoy, obsess, read all of the supplements, dream, listen to the playlist, read the entire book in one sitting and then reread it.
And boys, this is for you. Good luck. (Snicker.)

Book Mania

Got this from Katherine and Janssen - why not?

In the list of books below, bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, put a # in front of the ones you won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.
1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) - not sure why, but someday I'll find out what the hype was all about.
+2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
+3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) I hated the movie, but Sam says the book makes everything better. We'll see. Eventually.
+5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (J.R.R. Tolkien)
+6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (J.R.R. Tolkien)
+7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (J.R.R. Tolkien)
+8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
*9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
*10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
+11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) -I'll probably read this before Da Vinci Code - I've heard it's better.
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (J.K. Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)- I got about 6 chapters into this one in high school. I'd like to try again.
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
+16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (J.K. Rowling)
*17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
*18. The Stand (Stephen King)
+19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling)
+20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)- favorite book ever.
+21. The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)-also a favorite. I think I've read it 4 times.
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)-I'll be reading this one soon for Adolescent Lit
+23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
+24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
+26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
+27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
+28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
*31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
#32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (George Orwell)
*35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
*36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)-I saw the movie in AP World History- fabulous.
*38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant) - we used to talk about this a lot during my freshman year. We wanted to turn our apartment into the red apartment. It was all on hearsay though - I'll have to read it to see if that was a good thing or not.
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
*41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
*42.The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) Katherine said it was good, so I guess I'll be adding it to the list.
*43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
+45. Bible
+46. Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
+47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)-not sure about whether or not I'll read this.
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
*50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
+52. A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
+53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
+54. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Scott Fitzgerald)
*56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
+57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling)
*58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
*59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
*60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
+61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) -made it halfway through and started reading Spindle's End instead
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)-I sort of want to read this, but my brother said it was pretty dark, so I'll probably skip it.
*65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davies)
*66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Victor Hugo) - again, made it halfway through, got distracted.
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
#71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Helen Fielding)-probably not.
*72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)-don't know anything about this except it was a movie.
+75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
*76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
*78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
*79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
+80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
*81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (John Steinbeck)
+83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
+85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
+87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
*88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
*89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)-love his short stories. I could try this one.
*91. In the Skin of a Lion (Michael Ondaatje)
+92. Lord of the Flies (William Golding)-another I'll be reading soon for Adolescent Lit.
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
+94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) - best book of 8th grade
*97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
*98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
*99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Book Tag

Rules of the Game:
1. Find the nearest book to you.
2. Name the book and author.
3. Turn to page 123.
4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page.
5. Copy out the next 3 sentences and post to your blog.
6. Tag three other people.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

After that they made up a few verses of their own and converted the result into binary. Lakes! Daffodils!
For the record, this is a weird book. And as for the tagging, I'm going to say Janssen, Katherine, and Lili. Have fun, kids.

We Read to Know We're Not Alone . . .

I thought this quote was appropriate as a title since it's a reference to a movie about C.S. Lewis, because today C.S. Lewis justified my existence. If you've read my list of 100 things (or have talked to me just after I've finished an amazing book) you know that I get a little too into most of what I read. My favorite kind of book is the kind that I think about for weeks after I've finished it. (See #48 on aforementioned list.)
So today I was reading C.S. Lewis's An Experiment in Criticism (don't worry, it's for a class) and I wanted to hug him when I got to the following (which was on page 3. The paper on the book is definitely due on Friday. Yes I'm awesome.): "The first reading of some literary work is often, to the literary, an experience so momentous that only experiences of love, religion, or bereavement can furninsh a standard of comparison. Their whole consciousness is changed. They have become what they were not before."
This is how I feel! My favorite books were the ones that completely changed who I am (even if it's just until I read the next book). I know exactly what kind of experience he means! The rest of the book is pretty great too, but I'm glad that my reaction to some books places me among the literary in the eyes of Mr. Lewis.

Be My Escape

I feel that I should explain a few mentions of a certain book that has been causing me to pull my head into my shell like a turtle in order to more fully enjoy its glory. (That's a metaphor for the way I've been living in my room. Half the time people come over and my roommates tell them I'm not here because they haven't heard a peep for hours.) For my Adolescent Literature class I decided to read a vampire book. I'd heard about it from a few trusted sources, and hey, I liked Robin McKinley's Sunshine (or at least the copy that Sam edited with Disney Princess post-its) so I figured this best-selling set of vampire romances might be right up my alley.
I've never been so glad or sorry that I was right.
I read both Twilight and New Moon in the space of four days. I started Twilight after class on the first day of school and finished it the following Wednesday after class (following the most agonizing day of Women's Chorus I have ever experienced. I finished a chapter just before I went to class and left Bella lying (bleeding, unconscious) in a pile of glass with a hungry vampire just a few feet away. The suspense very nearly killed me) and started New Moon the same night. I finished it the following day at about 3am, bringining my total pages for the week to somewhere around 1100. It sure didn't take that many pages for me to fall head over heels in love with the vampire Edward Cullen though. I have never been so jealous of a fictional female as I am of Bella Swan.
I've now read almost all of the supplemental material on the authors website and the main fan website, I've collected about 30 songs from the playlists the author has created to go along with the book (Blue October's "The Sound of Pulling Heaven Down" is fantastic) and I have never felt more ridiculous in my life. However, it is comforting to know that I'm not alone. I brought most of my roommates down with me, and Jennie just started Twilight, so soon it will be all of my roommates who speak English. I'll leave it to my roommate Lili to describe our latest and most ridiculous scheme (there's a link to Lili's blog under my links), but I will say this: falling in love with fictional characters is unhealthy . . . and wonderful. Bring on the bite.