Currently reading (and paying attention to):
Herland & Selected Stories Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe (Audiobook)
The Tempest William Shakespeare
Flatland E.A. Abbott
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism Vincent B. Leitch
Gay and Lesbian Criticism and Queer Theory
~~ Judith Butler
~~ Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
~~ Bonnie Zimmerman

Finished:
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism Vincent B. Leitch
Gay and Lesbian Criticism and Queer Theory
~~ Gloria Anzaldua --> Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Chapter 7
~~ Adrienne Rich --> Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Experience
~~ Monique Wittig --> One Is Not Born a Woman
~~ Barbara Smith --> Toward a Black Feminist Criticism
The New Atlantis Francis Bacon
The Penelopiad Margaret Atwood
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Jeanette Winterson
The Allegory of the Cave Plato
There Will Come Soft Rains Ray Bradbury
Y the Last Man Books 7 - 10 Brian K. Vaughan
The Bean Trees Barbara Kingsolver

Previous Years
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2002-2004

Thank you all for all the fabulous book suggestions! If anyone wants some ideas for summer ready, you should check out the comments.

My comments: Terry Pratchett RULES. I LOVE his stuff - of course my favorite is Good Omens with Neil Gaiman. But you all reminded me how great he is so I borrowed Small Gods from Scott this weekend.

I've read The Time Traveler's Wife, and it is awesome.

I've read a lot of Jane Austen in school. But I've pre-ordered the audiobook for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!

I also have already downloaded the audiobook The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.

Ann Patchett wrote a great graduation speech that I wrote a paper on, and I'd be happy to read her books.

Most of the rest of the suggestions I have not heard of, so I have happily bookmarked the entry and will be checking them out this summer. Thanks everyone!

Okay everyone, please leave a comment:

1. What do you recommend to me for summer reading?
2. What is your own favorite summer book, even if you don't think I'll like it?
3. What book have you always wanted to read but never got around to?

Wow, finally finished my first book since January. Taking a break from school has wrecked my reading list for this year.

I finished The Strain, a vampire book I was really excited about because it was written by Guillermo del Toro, the writer/director of Pans Labyrinth and El Orfanato.

The book starts out generations ago as a young boy's grandmother tells him this ridiculously scary story just to convince him to finish his soup. It had definite Stoker undertones and I was excited to hear more of the story. But then we flash forward to present time and at that point it became a Stephen King/Michael Crichton book. Honestly, I was a little disappointed. I had expected the book to have a meatier story, but it was more of a good summer read instead.

However, was it good? Yes. Take it as a scary summer read and you'll love it. It only took a couple days to get through, and it had a good enough ending to keep me settled until book two of the trilogy comes out. What I really liked was the return to old timey, SCARY vampires that are deformed and kill humans. No sparkles, no love making, no dumb teenage girls falling in love with the decrepit things. Just pure horror. The only problem I had with it was that the story takes place over 3-4 days and nights, and the four heroes of the story are awake for the entire time. Come ON now. I know, I'm picky, but please.

So, great piece of literature it is not, it doesn't give Stoker a remote run for the money, but it does entertain and scare. I'm happy I can finally turn the lights out when I go to bed tonight.

Donald Justice - Love's Strategems

But these maneuverings to avoid
The touching of hands,
These shifts to keep the eyes employed
On objects more or less neutral
(As honor, for the time being, commands)
Will hardly prevent their downfall.

Stronger medicines are needed.
Already they find
None of their strategems have succeeded,
Nor would have, no,
Not had their eyes been stricken blind,
Hands cut off at the elbow.

Buffy has this love/hate relationship with Judge Judy. She hates that we have to watch every episode of Judge Judy every day (and she comes on five times a day), but she secretly loves Judge Judy herself. I catch her quoting Judge Judy all the time ("If it doesn't make sense, it's not TRUE!!"). And sometimes she'll have her back turned to the TV as she types away on MySpace, and suddenly she'll turn around and yell "You tell 'em, Judge Judy!" at the screen.

So when she found out about Judge Judy's book, "Beauty Fades, Dumb is Forever", I wasn't surprised when she asked me to find it at the library. And I'm glad she did, because I'm reading it and it's a fantastic book for women to read, teens and grownups. She writes about everything any mother would want her daughter to know: Take care of yourself first, make sure you can support yourself without a man, don't give your boyfriend your credit card, don't co-sign a loan for anyone, and in general, don't put your own life in a position where you must depend on anyone else (man or not).

I love that Judge Judy is open about her own mistakes: her own first marriage which ended in divorce, the fact that she left everything to move to her first husband's city, that she takes full responsibility for the end of her second marriage (though she remarried that husband within the year).

We all make mistakes, we all have things to look back on and regret. But there are many things that we can learn without making the mistake first. So I'm glad that Buffy actually listens to what Judge Judy says and I'm glad she's reading this book. Because in reality, the Judge Judy show isn't about the individual court cases, it's about trying to teach the viewers how to live their lives in a smarter way. ("WHY don't you have a job? GET a job!", "Why aren't you in school? Go to school!", "Why did you believe him? He's a LIAR!" etc.)

We can say that these are obvious lessons, that we should know these things without Judge Judy, but the fact is that I would bet 100% of you women out there have done something stupid, made some stupid choice, that had to do with a man. So I hope for my daughter that she learns these lessons early, without first hand experience. And I hope that Judge Judy stays around for a long, long time.

A girl can't have too many good role models, that's what I say.

Also: get the book from your library and read it. It's hilarious and a good read, even if you think you're too smart for it, haha.

I finished New Moon this weekend, and I'm glad you all commented in agreement about it because if this had been the first book of the series I would never have read the next one, if I had even finished this one. The last 100 pages were okay - well, until the last ten pages when Bella is being Bella again, and like Lanie said, I just want to smack the crap out of that girl.

I really liked her in the first book, but from the beginning of this book I disliked her - rude, thoughtless, EMO, thoughtless, willing to lead people on to get what she wants, wanting what SHE wants regardless of the effect on others. Did I mention thoughtless and rude? She's just not a role model. And she annoys the crap out of me. I don't know why this series didn't go down in flames after book 2.

So I guess I'll try book 3, but I'm not going to buy it, I'll just wait until the library has it and I'll read other good books until then. I'm over halfway into my second reading of Kitchen Confidential, and then it's back to Middlesex. I have two books on hold for me at the library, don't remember which they are, and another ("Girls" that Ipek recommended) that Amazon might deliver to me sometime in my lifetime. Seriously, I've already received two other things that I ordered AFTER that order.

Okay, back to reading I go!

I started the New Moon book, #2 of the Twilight series. And though I'm only about 150 pages in, I definitely don't like it as much as the first book. First of all, Edward is nowhere to be found, heh. And Bella is just moping moping moping. At first, I wanted to just smack her, "GET OVER IT ALREADY", heh, but I remembered back to high school when my first love broke my heart, and okay, I reacted in the exact same way that Bella did. So... I GET it. But I don't want to READ about it, okay? I'm assuming Edward must reappear somewhere in this book, and it better be sooner rather than later, because I can't take more of this moping.

Okay, rant over. I'm also reading Middlesex, which is awesome, but when New Moon arrived yesterday I knew I could get through it quickly so I decided to do that one first. I'm still in the mindset that I only have a very short period of time to get in "fun" reading, so I'm still unconsciously trying to whiz through the books at ungodly speeds. After these two I want to re-read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, and Scott got me a book called Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. And Ipek recommended "Girls" to me, which Amazon is taking its sweet time sending me. If anyone else has any suggestions, please send them on! Despite what my brain has been trained to believe, I actually have all the time in the world to get through a zillion books. I wonder how many I'll get through this year?

Ignore the entry right below this, it's just a marker for my "What am I reading?" page.

My Fabulous Book List - 2009

The shortest list ever due to no school:

Finished 2009
Y the Last Man Books 1-6 Brian K. Vaughan
The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver
The Annotated Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
Transformed by Triathlon: The Making of an Improbable Athlete Jane Booth
The World is Flat Thomas L. Friedman
The Woman Triathlete Christina Gandolfo
Triathlons for Women Sally Edwards
Naturally Thin Bethenny Frankel
Why We Suck Denis Leary
Between the Bridge and the River Craig Ferguson
Gingerbread Girl Stephen King (Audiobook)
The Strain Guillermo del Toro
The Great Train Robbery Michael Crichton
Beauty Fades, Dumb is Forever Judge Judy Sheindlin
Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle For Workers' Rights At Wal-Mart Liza Featherstone
Cell Stephen King
Girls: a paean Nic Kelman
Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain
New Moon Stephenie Meyer

Other Years
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2002-2004

For the next two weeks in my Global Understanding: Literature of Southeast Asia class we are studying Midnight's Children by Salmon Rushdie.. I FREAKIN' LOVE this book. It still involves the partitioning of India, a subject I will be happy to never revisit again after this semester, but I LOVE his writing. I would definitely try another book by Rushdie if they are all like this.

Has anyone else read something by Rushdie? Did you like it? I am curious to know if the other books are written in the same way - and also if I'm just the crazy one for loving this one so much. But I really really do love it. If you haven't read it? I recommend giving it a try.

I've been studying 19th Century British Literature this summer.
I finished Frankenstein, which was good, but started to bore me to tears towards the end.
I finished Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde which was also good, but short, and a little... amateurish (sorry, RL Stevenson).
Now I'm reading Dracula, which was written towards the end of the century, and I LOVE it.
The writing is very modern so it's not difficult to read at all, it's SUPER scary, and I've just been devouring it as fast as I can. It is so so so interesting!

So I'm recommending it. I don't often recommend the books I read in school, because really, who wants to read Old Arcadia or Faerie Queene or Jew of Malta just for fun? Only a crazy English major. But Dracula... that is a really really good book. If you haven't read it before, you should read it. Great summer reading too!

GAH, I'm only halfway done, I have 200 pages to go and I can't read fast enough!!!

Sorry for the book lists, I had to create new entries for them instead of logging them all in the same entry. Apparentely MovableType doesn't like entries that get that long, heh. So anyway, the newly up-to-date reading list is correctly linked over on the right there --->
And there are links to those old lists in the entry. If anyone cares, haha. I'm pretty sure it's only me who cares, but I do like keeping my log. So now I can stay up to date again.

Carry on. Nothing more to see here.

My Fabulous Book List - 2008

Finished 2008
Winning by Losing Jillian Michaels
The Historian Elizabeth Kostova
Twilight Stephenie Meyer
Overlook Michael Connely
Remember Me? Sophie Kinsella
The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies Vito Russo
Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall Richard Barrios
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories Nathan Englander
Goodbye Columbus: and Five Short Stories Philip Roth
An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber Colley Cibber
Midnight's Children Salmon Rushdie
The Complete Stories Bernard Malamud
The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer
Cracking India Bapsi Sidhwa
Oroonoko, The Rover, and other Works Aphra Behn
The Roaring Girl Thomas Middleton, Thomas Dekker
The Home and the World Rabindranath Tagore
Epicoene or The Silent Woman Ben Jonson
How I Found America: Collected Stories of Anzia Yezierska
American Jewish Fiction: A Century of Stories
"Defense of Poesy" Sir Philip Sidney
"The Schoole of Abuse" Stephen Gosson
"A Reply to Stephen Gosson" Thomas Lodge
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity Judith Butler
Shakespeare's Dramatic Genres Lawrence Danson
Theories of Comedy David Galbraith
What now? Ann Patchett
Understanding English Grammar Martha J. Kolln
Exercises for Understanding Grammar Martha Kolln
Dracula Bram Stoker
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism
~~~Edgar Allan Poe
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
Frankenstein Mary Shelley
Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
Potential: The High School Comic Chronicles of Ariel Schrag Ariel Schrag
The Ruins Scott Smith
Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Thurston
The Waste Land and Other Poems T.S. Eliot
The English Patient Michael Ondaatje
Ovid's Metamorphoses : The Arthur Golding Translation of 1567 Ovid
Edmund Spenser's Poetry Edmund Spenser
~~~The Faerie Queene
~~~The Amoretti
~~~The Epithalamion
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia : The Old Arcadia Sir Philip Sidney
Elizabeth I Christopher Haigh
Chaucer's Major Poetry Geoffrey Chaucer
~~~The Book of the Duchess
~~~The Prologue
~~~Knight's Tale
~~~The Pardoner's Tale
~~~The Nun's Priests Tale
~~~The Miller's Tale
~~~The Reeve's Tale
~~~The Wife of Bath's Tale
~~~The Prioress's Tale
~~~Chaucer's Tale of Sir Topaz
~~~Chaucer's Retraction
The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer transl. Neville Coghill
Hamlet (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism) Susanne Wofford
¡Avance! Intermediate Spanish
Album: Cuentos Del Mundo Hispanico
Critical Theory Today Lois Tyson
The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms Ross Murfin, Supryia M. Ray
Chaucer's Major Poetry Geoffrey Chaucer
~~~The Book of the Duchess
~~~The General Prologue
"The Lady of May" Sir Philip Sidney
"The Four Foster Children of Desire" Unknown
"Letter to Queen Elizabeth" Sir Philip Sidney
"The Quene's Majestie's Passage"
"Speeches by Queen Elizabeth" Elizabeth I
"Homilies on Obedience and the State of Matrimony"
"On a Dream about an Encounter with Queen Elizabeth" Simon Forman
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
Queen of the South Arturo Perez-Reverte
Seeing Me Naked Liza Palmer
Moon Acapulco, Ixtapa, and Zihuatanejo Bruce Whipperman

Other Years
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2002-2004

My Fabulous Book List - 2007

Finished 2007
Till We Have Faces CS Lewis
The Metamorphoses of Ovid Ovid
Situaciones ed. Valette
Bedford Companion of Shakespeare Russ McDonald
Heroides Ovid
La Morte Darthur Sir Thomas Malory
Norton Anthology of Shakespeare ed. Greenblatt
~~~Troilus and Cressida
~~~Winter's Tale
~~~King Lear
~~~As You Like It
~~~Hamlet
~~~Henry IV Part I
~~~The Merchant of Venice
~~~A Midsummer's Night Dream
~~~The Taming of the Shrew
The Erotic Poems by Ovid ed. Peter Green
~~~The Amores
~~~The Art of Love
~~~Cures for Love
~~~On Facial Treatment for Ladies
Classical Myth Barry B. Powell
The Jew of Malta Christopher Marlowe
The Washingtonienne Jessica Cutler
Little Beauties Kim Addonizio
Laugh'n' Learn Spanish Lynn Johnston
Ramona la Chinche Beverly Cleary
Too Much Tuscan Sun Dario Castagno
Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl's Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me? Jen Lancaster
Bitter is the New Black Jen Lancaster
Can You Keep a Secret? Sophie Kinsella
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic Alison Bechdel
Shopaholic and Baby Sophie Kinsella
Metamorphoses of Ovid Ovid and David Mandelbaum
Women in the Classical World Elaine Fantham
!Trato hecho! Spanish for Real Life McMinn/Garcia
Puntos de Partida Part 2 Knorr
Archaeology: The Science of the Human Past Sutton/Yohe
Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology Kenneth L. Feder
The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Package 1 (Volumes A and C)
~~~The Iliad - Homer
~~~The Odyssey - Homer
~~~Poetics - Aristotle
~~~The Oresteia - Aeschylus
~~~~~Agamemnon
~~~~~The Libation Bearers
~~~~~The Eumenides
~~~Oedipus the King - Sophocles
~~~Antigone - Sophocles
~~~Medea - Euripides
~~~Lysistrata - Aristophanes
~~~Apology of Socrates - Plato
~~~Aeneid - Virgil
~~~Metamorphosis - Ovid
~~~The Song of Roland
~~~Thorstein the Staff-Struck
~~~Inferno - Dante
~~~Purgatorio - Dante
~~~Paradiso - Dante
La Perdida Jessica Abel
Pompeii Filippo Coarelli
The Marketplace Laura Antoniou
Smart Women Finish Rich David Bach

Other Years
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2002-2004

My Fabulous Book List - 2006

Finished 2006
Laugh 'N Learn Spanish: Featuring "For Better or For Worse" Lynn Johnston
Puntos de Partida Part 1 Knorr
Silicon Valley, Women, and the California Dream Glenna Matthews
Major Problems in American Women's History Mary Beth Norton
Women in Labor Allison L. Hepler
Women of the American South Christie Anne Farnham
Beauty's Release A.N. Roquelaure
Eleanor Roosevelt: a Personal and Public Life J. William T. Youngs
Writing About Literature Edgar V. Roberts
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories Ernest Hemingway
~~~The Snows of Kilimanjaro
~~~The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter K A Porter
~~~Old Mortality
~~~Noon Wine
Troilus and Cressida William Shakespeare
The Awakening and Selected Stories Kate Chopin
~~~At the 'Cadian Ball
~~~The Storm
~~~The Kiss
~~~Story of an Hour
The Lady with the Little Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904 Anton Chekhov
~~~Gooseberries
~~~The Lady with the Little Dog
~~~The Bishop
~~~The Bride
~~~Man in a Case
"Troilus and Criseyde" Geoffrey Chaucer
Diary of a Madman & Other Stories Nikolai Gogol
~~~Diary of a Madman
~~~The Nose
~~~The Overcoat
Edgar Allen Poe: Complete Tales and Poems
~~~The Balloon-Hoax
~~~The Fall of the House of Usher
~~~The Cask of Amontillado
~~~The Black Cat
~~~The Tell-Tale Heart
My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student Rebekah Nathan
The Ways of White Folks: Stories Langston Hughes
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
Lost in a Good Book Jasper Fforde
The Penelopiad Margaret Atwood
"Trifles" Susan Glaspell
The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison
The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Story of an Hour Kate Chopin
A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf
Much Ado About Nothing William Shakespeare
Italian Farmhouse Cookbook Susan Herrmann Loomis
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
The Lovely Bones (audiobook) Alice Sebold
Citizen Girl Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
The Nanny Diaries Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
The Devil Wears Prada Lauren Weisberger
The Undomestic Goddess Sophie Kinsella
The Reluctant Tuscan: How I discovered My Inner Italian Phil Doran
The Second Assistant Clare Naylor and Mimi Hare
Norton Anthology of English Literature - Twentieth Century
The Prophet's Hair Salman Rushdie
Scholar and Gypsy Anita Desai
Mannequin, On Not Shotting Sitting Birds Jean Rhys
~~~Katherine Mansfield
~~~Virginia Woolf
~~~Chinua Achebe
The Dumb Waiter Harold Pinter
Endgame Samuel Becket
Shopaholic & Sister (Audio) Sophie Kinsella
Bergdorf Blondes (Audio) Plum Sykes
Tales of the City Armistead Maupin
Shopaholic Ties the Knot (Audio) Sophie Kinsella
Shopaholic Takes Manhatten (Audio) Sophie Kinsella
The Lost Language of Cranes David Leavitt
Vindication of the Rights of Women Mary Wollstonecraft
Stone Butch Blues Leslie Feinberg
Orlando Virginia Woolf
Beauty's Punishment A. N. Roquelaure
1st to Die (Audiobook) James Patterson
Funny Boy Shyam Selvadurai
Company (Audiobook) Max Barry
Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period
~~~Mary Wollstonecraft
~~~Elizabeth Barrett Browning
~~~Jane Austen
~~~William Blake
~~~Robert Burns
~~~William Wordsworth
~~~Samuel Taylor Coleridge
~~~Percy Bysshe Shelley
~~~John Keats
~~~Lord Byron
~~~Sir Walter Scott
Bridget Jones's Diary (Audiobook) Helen Fielding
Confessions of a Shopaholic (Audiobook) Sophie Kinsella
Good in Bed (Audio) Jennifer Weiner
Good Omens Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Rubyfruit Jungle Rita Mae Brown
The Color of Magic Terry Pratchett
Elementary Statistics MyMathLab
ShopGirl Steve Martin
The Laramie Project Moises Kaufman
Going Postal Terry Pratchett
The Truth Terry Pratchett

Other Years
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2002-2004

My Fabulous Book List - 2005

Finished 2005
The Art of Discworld Terry Pratchett
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty A. N. Roquelaure
Interpersonal Communication Julia T Wood
Norton Anthology of English Literature M.H.Abrams
.....Beowulf
.....Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
.....The Faerie Queen
.....Twelfth Night
.....Gulliver's Travels
.....Paradise Lost
.....The Rape of the Lock
Destinos - Student Edition
Destinos - Workbook
When the Wind Blows James Patterson
Practical Algebra A Self-Teaching Guide Selby/Slavin
Until I Find You John Irving
Art & Fear David Bayles
Three Genres Stephen Minot
For Matrimonial Purposes Kavita Daswani
The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc Loraine Despre
Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger
Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd
Sushi for Beginners Marian Keyes
Deception Point Dan Brown
The Pearl John Steinbeck
Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
Environmental Science Eldon Enger
Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volume E
World Literature Rosenberg
The American Promise Vol. II Roark
Tortilla Flat John Steinbeck
Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. D
Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. C
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
Sorrow Mountain Ani Pachen (have not finished)
Cannery Row John Steinbeck
Beloved Toni Morrison
The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco

Other Years
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2002-2004

I finished The Queen of the South around 2am. It was pretty good. Very slow and depressing for the first half, then the main character goes through a change and you have to swallow an unbelievable premise - which I never do very well, but then, after all the slowness, there is the biggest, longest shootout I have ever come across in a book. Huge gun battle taken right from a Bruce Willis movie, right at the end of this slow, deep, depressing book. And then it ends, without anything resolved.

So there were problems with it, yes. On the other hand, I really liked the author's writing, and I tend to love stories written by Spanish and Mexican authors. Plus, there was a definitely believable twist at the end that did surprise me and makes me want to go back and read the whole beginning over again.

So I do recommend it - just know that it is slow going at first.

Now I have no more excuses to not read Chaucer's Book of the Duchess or The Great Gatsby, so here I go.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, fuck MEEEEEEE.

Robert Jordan is dead. Which is a tragedy in itself, because the man was a genius.

But it also means that those of us who have slogged through 10,000+ pages of his Wheel of Time series WILL NEVER HAVE AN ENDING.

I hope hope hope he had someone who knows what he is doing who can finish writing the series for him. This is the suckiest news about books that I have heard..... ever.

:-(

I just remembered I have a new Robert Jordan book at home, that would have been great to read this weekend! Well, I have that vacation with Scott coming up, so I can do it then too. Two more weeks! And then school starts!

The BOREDOM is getting to me. Yup.

The Ways of White Folks: Stories by Langston Hughes.
I like it a lot, and it's helping with my boredom at home.

I have read 13 books and 4 plays since summer started. I think that's pretty good, eh?

Just finished Pride and Prejudice today, and I absolutely LOVED it. It was just okay the first half, but then the second half I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

Definitely a girl book though.

So remember those stacks and stacks of books I have all over the house? And remember those bookbcases from IKEA that I bought back in... oh I don't know, March or April? that have been sitting in their boxes in the living room ever since because I didn't have screws to anchor them to the wall?

Heh.

Anyway, I got the screws finally, and I actually used a power tool to screw one of the bookcases to the wall, and then I put together the other bookcase and anchored it to the wall, and then I PUT ALL THE BOOKS INTO THEM.

And do you know, even though I have a big bookcase jam-crammed with books already, these TWO new big bookcases are already jam-crammed with books too. And the living room is all picked up now! No more stacks of books all over the floor and on every flat surface!

Now the maids can vaccuum. And dust. And I don't want to hear anymore crap from them.

Hee.

We're only into June and already I've read more books than I did last year!!

I finished The Nanny Diaries last night and this is what I have to say:

a) Not the ending I had hoped for
b) This book is very well written
c) Almost doesn't even qualify as fluffy summer girl reading because it does have a point to it
d) Nanny Diaries and Devil Wears Prada basically have the same story line, but Nanny Diaries is much much MUCH better and really outshines DWP.
e) I wish someone could have adopted Grayer at the end.

I'm giving this book a Thumbs Up and a Must Read, and I'm knocking even more points off DWP just because it pales so much in comparison.

I have 2-1/2 more weeks to complete six books that I want to read (before school starts again). I have finished two already and am on my third. Shall we take bets as to how many I will finish?

Ohmigod, this book gets better and better and better - totally not what I expected!
I definitely recommend this book to everyone, whether it's an audio or paper book, you should all read this!

WOOOO

I downloaded my first book: Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner.
This was a book I had heard was good, but didn't know much about.
And I'm really surprised, because I REALLY REALLY like it.
I thought it was much more of a light comedy, and it is a little, but it's also kind of serious and sad, and anyway, I am really glad I chose this one.
I wasn't sure how it would work to listen while working, but it's working just fine. I've been working away, and better able to block out everything around me out while I concentrate.
Next up when this is done: Bridge Jones Diary

Holy Moly I just bought a 30GB iPod from Amazon.com right now.
I think I'm going to faint.
I could go to Target and get one right now, but at Amazon I don't have to pay taxes, shipping is free, and there was a 5% discount, bringing my total to $284.

I don't know what else to say about spending so much money on an unnecessary item other than Holy Moly, because otherwise I'm going to start swearing.

I leave work in ten minutes. I will then:

1. Go to school and a) have them send my final transcript to the university, b) buy my English Lit book (that's what happens when you only have 7 units, you turn into a slacker (SLACKER!).
2. Go to bank, deposit child support check
3. Go home, make... spaghetti or something for the kids...
4. Go running
5. Eat spaghetti or a soup
6. Read English Lit book

I finished Ruby Fruit Jungle. Excellent. You all should read it, especially if you're a woman, and not necessarily because you're a lesbian, because in my opinion this was a women's book whose lead happened to be lesbian.
It was good though.

I have never been reading so many books, mostly non-school related, all at the same time. I just have too many really good books that I want to read, and I start looking at them, then I start paging through them, and then... I'm halfway finished.

This is going to be a productive reading year I think.

Ok, that was actually an error to have the book list be here, it's an old list that I keep under the link on the right - "What am I reading?". I switched the date on it, and now here it is, heh. But you can always check that link, it is the one thing in my life that I ALWAYS keep up to date.

Okay, so Megs asked what were my favorites. Many from the list were read for school, but also most were good.

Beloved - you all must read.
Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday - you all should read.
Handmaid's Tale - you all better read.
For Matrimonial Purposes - very good, very interesting, very sweet. Girls will like it.
Time Traveler's Wife - One of my top ten all time favorites. I sobbed through it.
Secret Life of Bees - I really liked it, but I've met many who have not. I recommend giving it a try.

And personally I loved all the Dan Brown and Terry Pratchett books. Terry Pratchett is a British writer who does good satire, some will love him, some won't get it. But I love him. However he wrote a book called "Good Omens" with Neil Gaiman which is one of the FUNNIEST books by far and in my top ten all time favorites.

John Irving is one of my favorite authors, but he bombed with "Until I Find You". Do NOT waste your time.

So that's it, my recommendations from 2005. And now we are off to 2006!

My Fabulous Book List - 2002-2004!

Finished 2004
Mama Terry MacMillan
Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser
The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. A and B
The American Promise: A History of the United States Vol. 1
Oceanography: An invitation to marine science
Current Issues and Enduring Questions
Aztec Blood Gary Jennings
The Tao of Pooh Benjamin Hoff
The America We Deserve Donald Trump
A Widow for One Year John Irving
The Graduate Charles Webb
World of Ideas Lee A. Jacobus
For Matrimonial Purposes Kavita Daswani
Surviving the Applewhites Stephanie S. Tolan
The Vampire Lestat Ann Rice
When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession Irvin D. Yalom
Pandora Anne Rice
Murder in the Dark Margaret Atwood
Archangel Michael Conner
Andromeda Strain Michael Crichton
Timeline Michael Crichton
Disclosure Michael Crichton
Jitterbug Perfume Tom Robbins
Smoke and Mirrors Neil Gaiman
And Never Let Her Go Ann Rule
Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need Dave Barry
Daughter of China : A True Story of Love and Betrayal Meihong Xu & Larry Engelmann
New Spring Robert Jordan
Seize the Night Dean Koontz
Rising Sun Michael Crichton
Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain
Prey Michael Crichton
Crossroads of Twilight Robert Jordan
Feng Shui for Dummies David Daniel Kennedy & Lin Yun
Faking It Jennifer Crusie
The Western Guide to Feng Shui: Room by Room Terah Kathryn Collins

Finished 2003
Da Vinci Code Dan Brown
Angels & Demons Dan Brown
Complete Book of Running for Women
Good Omens Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit Jeanette Winterson
Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut
American Gods Neil Gaiman
The Red Tent Anita Diamant
Winter's Heart Robert Jordan
The Path of Daggers Robert Jordan
A Crown of Swords Robert Jordan
Lord of Chaos Robert Jordan
The Fires of Heaven Robert Jordan
The Shadow Rising Robert Jordan
The Dragon Reborn Robert Jordan
The Great Hunt Robert Jordan
The Eye of the World Robert Jordan

Other Years
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2002-2004

Finished 2002 (that I remember)
American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis
Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess (never finished)
House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski

Comic Subscriptions

WitchBlade
TombRaider
Danger Girls
Rising Stars
Strangers in Paradise
Buffy the Vampire Slayer

My Fabulous Book List - 2002-2004!

Finished 2004
Mama Terry MacMillan
Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser
The Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. A and B
The American Promise: A History of the United States Vol. 1
Oceanography: An invitation to marine science
Current Issues and Enduring Questions
Aztec Blood Gary Jennings
The Tao of Pooh Benjamin Hoff
The America We Deserve Donald Trump
A Widow for One Year John Irving
The Graduate Charles Webb
World of Ideas Lee A. Jacobus
For Matrimonial Purposes Kavita Daswani
Surviving the Applewhites Stephanie S. Tolan
The Vampire Lestat Ann Rice
When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession Irvin D. Yalom
Pandora Anne Rice
Murder in the Dark Margaret Atwood
Archangel Michael Conner
Andromeda Strain Michael Crichton
Timeline Michael Crichton
Disclosure Michael Crichton
Jitterbug Perfume Tom Robbins
Smoke and Mirrors Neil Gaiman
And Never Let Her Go Ann Rule
Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need Dave Barry
Daughter of China : A True Story of Love and Betrayal Meihong Xu & Larry Engelmann
New Spring Robert Jordan
Seize the Night Dean Koontz
Rising Sun Michael Crichton
Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain
Prey Michael Crichton
Crossroads of Twilight Robert Jordan
Feng Shui for Dummies David Daniel Kennedy & Lin Yun
Faking It Jennifer Crusie
The Western Guide to Feng Shui: Room by Room Terah Kathryn Collins

Finished 2003
Da Vinci Code Dan Brown
Angels & Demons Dan Brown
Complete Book of Running for Women
Good Omens Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit Jeanette Winterson
Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut
American Gods Neil Gaiman
The Red Tent Anita Diamant
Winter's Heart Robert Jordan
The Path of Daggers Robert Jordan
A Crown of Swords Robert Jordan
Lord of Chaos Robert Jordan
The Fires of Heaven Robert Jordan
The Shadow Rising Robert Jordan
The Dragon Reborn Robert Jordan
The Great Hunt Robert Jordan
The Eye of the World Robert Jordan

Other Years
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2002-2004

Finished 2002 (that I remember)
American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis
Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess (never finished)
House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski

Comic Subscriptions

WitchBlade
TombRaider
Danger Girls
Rising Stars
Strangers in Paradise
Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Boy, leave out one little ">" and you've suddenly read quite a lot of books, hahaha!

So I was going through the english department website of San Jose State University, and I found a link to something called "The Guilt List", which lists books every English Major should read. I was actually amazed at how many of the books I had NOT read yet. I decided to copy the list here to share with you all. I put in bold the books I have read (or the author if I had read other stories) and then underlined the ones that I actually have but have not read yet. If you guys want, you can do the same - I would love to know if any of you have read more than half of these. But anyway, just thought I would share:

Guilt List
(Any English major who hasn't read most of these has no right to joy.)

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart
Aeschylus. The Oresteia
Allende, Isabelle. The House of the Spirits
Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima
Aristotle. Poetics
Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice, Emma
Barrio, Raymond. The Plum Plum Pickers
Barth, John. The Sot Weed Factor
Baudelaire, Charles. Flowers of Evil
Bellow, Saul. The Adventures of Augie March
Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron
Boswell, James. Life of Johnson
Bradbury, Ray. Dandelion Wine
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights
Brooks, Gwendolyn. Blacks
Buck, Pearl. The Good Earth
Bulgakov, Mikhail. The Master and Margarita
Cather, Willa. My Antonia, Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales
Chekhov, Anton. The Lady with a Dog (and plays)
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim
Cooper, James Fennimore. Leatherstocking Tales
Crane, Stephen. Red Badge of Courage
Dante, Alighieri. The Divine Comedy
Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders
Dickens, Charles. Hard Times, Bleak House, David Copperfield
Doestoevski, F. M. The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie
Duras, Marguerite. The Lover
Eliot, George. The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch
Eliot, T. S. The Wasteland, The Four Quartets
Ellison, Ralph. The Invisible Man
Erdrich, Louise. The Beet Queen
Euripides. The Bacchae, Hippolytus
Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom!, The Hamlet, Light in August
Fielding, Henry. Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby
Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Maddox. The Good Soldier
Fuentes, Carlos. The Death of Artemio Cruz, Where the Air is Clear
Garland, Hamlin. Main Travelled Roads
Ginsberg, Allen. Howl
Goethe. Faust
Grahame, Kenneth. Wind in the Willows
Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key
Hardy, Thomas. Return of the Native, Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter, The Blithedale Romance
Hemingway, Ernest. Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises
Homer, The Iliad, The Odyssey
Howells, William Dean. A Hazard of New Fortunes
Hughes, Langston. Selected Poems
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God
James, Henry. Turn of the Screw, Ambassadors, The Portrait of a Lady
Johnson, Charles. The Oxherding Tale
Joyce, James. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Dubliners, Ulysses
Kafka, Franz. The Trial
Kennedy, William. Ironweed
Kerouac, Jack. On the Road
Keys, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon
Kinnell, Galway. The Past
Kingston, Maxine Hong. China Men
Lawrence, D. H. Sons and Lovers, Women in Love
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird
Lewis, C. S. The Allegory of Love, Experiment in
Criticism
London, Jack. Lorde, Audre. The Black Unicorn
Lowell, Robert. Life Studies
Machiavelli, The Prince
Mahfouz, Naguib. Midaq Alley
Mailer, Norman. The Naked and the Dead
Mann, Thomas. Death in Venice, The Magic Mountain
Marlow, Christopher. Dr. Faustus
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. A Hundred Years of Solitude, Chronicle of a Death Foretold
McCullers, Carson. Short Stories
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick, Typee
Jean de Meun. The Romance of the Rose
Middleton, Thomas. The Changeling
Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All
My Sons
Milton, John. Paradise Lost
Momeday, N. Scott. The Way to Rainy Mountain
Morrison, Toni. The Song of Soloman
Munro, Alice K. Selected Stories
Norris, Frank. McTeague
O'Connor, Flannery. Wise Blood, A Good Man is Hard to Find
Orwell, George. 1984, Animal Farm
Ovid. Metamorphosis
Paterson, Katherine. Jacob Have I Loved
Pynchon, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49
Plato, The Republic
Proust, Marcel. Swann's Way
Rich, Adrienne. Selected Poems
Richardson, Samuel. Pamela or Clarissa
Roethke, Theodore. Words for the Wind
Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses
Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye
Saroyan, William. The Human Comedy
Scott, Walter. Waverley, Ivanhoe
Shakespeare, William. The Major Plays
Shaw, George Bernard. Mrs. Warren's Profession
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein
Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony
Silone, Ignazio. Bread and Wine
Sophocles. Oedipus the King, Antigone
Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queen
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Cannery Row
Stegner, Wallace. Angle of Repose
Stendhal (Henri Beyle). The Red and the Black
Sterne, Laurence. Tristram Shandy
Stevens, Wallace. The Palm at the End of the Mind
Styron, William. Lie Down in Darkness
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William Makepace. Vanity Fair
Thurber, James. The Thurber Carnival
Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace, Anna Karenina
Trollope, Anthony. The Way We Live Now
Twain, Mark. Huckleberry Finn
Updike, John. Rabbit, Run; Trust Me
Virgil. The Aeneid
Wallant, Edward Lewis. The Pawnbroker
West, Nathaniel. The Day of the Locust
Wharton. Edith. The House of Mirth, The Age of Innocence
White, E. B. Charlotte's Web
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Ernest
Wolfe, Thomas. Look Homeward Angel
Wolfe, Tom. Bonfire of the Vanities
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dolloway
Wright, A. T. Islandia
Wright, Richard. Black Boy, Native Son
Yeats, William Butler. Collected Poems
Yourcenar, Marguerite. Memoirs of Hadrian
Also, Genesis, Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes, The Bhagavad Gita, Qu'ran, Song of Roland, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Ya know, I remember when you could order books from Amazon.com and expect to receive them within five days. Now it takes eleven days before they even SHIP the books???

So I already finished Handmaid's Tale, finished The Pearl (John Steinbeck), and now I'm finishing up Deception Point, which reads more like a Michael Crichton novel than a Dan Brown novel, but it's okay.

Now I have on order Sixpence House, recommended by my English Professor, The Time Traveler's Wife, and Welcome to Temptation, a perfect summer book.

Also on order, but from Half.com, Three Genres, for my Creative Writing class.

I'll get through all your suggestions before summer end!

Okay folks, it's time to start on my summer reading list.
So far I have lined up:

Jane Eyre
The Secret Life of Bees
East of Eden (a re-read)

So. What else should I read? Any suggestions for good summer reading?

In fact, I'm currently reading:

Mama, by Terry MacMillan.

Now, how can you lose when the book's opening line is this:

"Mildred hid the ax beneath the mattress of the cot in the dining room..."

After watching Super Size Me! and reading Fast Food Nation, I can no longer go into a McDonalds. I wanted to last night, I just wanted one little hamburger before the History Quiz, I was hungry... but I could not stand the thought of what I would be eating. I thought maybe chicken nuggets then... and immediately gagged. Seriously, if you want to give up fast food, read the book.

Read Print - free books for students, teachers, and the classic enthusiast.

A most awesome site.

Borrowed from Sabby, who really should read The Stand, Good Omens, and lots more John Irving:

The Longest Book List EVER:

*bold those you've read
*italicise started-but-never-finished
*underline those you own but haven't gotten to yet
*add three of your own
*post to your livejournal/blog

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. 1984, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Susskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. George's Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Gross-mith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews
201. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
202. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
203. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan
204. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan
205. Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan
206. Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan
207. Winter's Heart, Robert Jordan
208. A Crown of Swords, Robert Jordan
209. Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan
210. A Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan
211. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto
212. Microserfs, Douglas Coupland
213. The Married Man, Edmund White
214. Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin
215. The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault
216. Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice
217. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, John Boswell
218. Equus, Peter Shaffer
219. The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten
220. Letters To A Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke
221. Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
222. The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice
223. Anthem, Ayn Rand
224. The Bridge To Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
225. Tartuffe, Moliere
226. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
227. The Crucible, Arthur Miller
228. The Trial, Franz Kafka
229. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
230. Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles
231. Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther
232. A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen
233. Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen
234. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
235. A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
236. ALIVE!, Piers Paul Read
237. Grapefruit, Yoko Ono
238. Trickster Makes This World, Lewis Hyde
240. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
241. Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson
242. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
242. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
243. Summerland, Michael Chabon
244. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
245. Candide, Voltaire
246. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Roald Dahl
247. Ringworld, Larry Niven
248. The King Must Die, Mary Renault
249. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
250. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L'Engle
251. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
252. The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
253. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
254. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
255. The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson
256. Chocolate Fever, Robert Kimmel Smith
257. Xanth: The Quest for Magic, Piers Anthony
258. The Lost Princess of Oz, L. Frank Baum
259. Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon
260. Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde
261. Well Of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde
261. Life Of Pi, Yann Martel
263. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
264. A Yellow Raft In Blue Water, Michael Dorris
265. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder
267. Where The Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls
268. Griffin & Sabine, Nick Bantock
269. Witch of Black Bird Pond, Joyce Friedland
270. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH, Robert C. O'Brien
271. Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt
272. The Cay, Theodore Taylor
273. From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg
274. The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Jester
275. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
276. The Kitchen God's Wife, Amy Tan
277. The Bone Setter's Daughter, Amy Tan
278. Relic, Duglas Preston & Lincolon Child
279. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
280. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
281. Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry
282. The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum
283. Haunted, Judith St. George
284. Singularity, William Sleator
285. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
286. Different Seasons, Stephen King
287. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
288. About a Boy, Nick Hornby
289. The Bookman's Wake, John Dunning
290. The Church of Dead Girls, Stephen Dobyns
291. Illusions, Richard Bach
292. Magic's Pawn, Mercedes Lackey
293. Magic's Promise, Mercedes Lackey
294. Magic's Price, Mercedes Lackey
295. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary Zukav
296. Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Jack L. Chalker
297. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
298. The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices, Brenda Love
299. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
300. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison.
301. The Cider House Rules, John Irving.
302. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
303. Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland
304. The Lion's Game, Nelson Demille
305. The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, Stephen Brust
306. Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh
307. Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco
308. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
309. Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
310. Camber of Culdi, Kathryn Kurtz
311. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
312. War and Rememberance, Herman Wouk
313. The Art of War, Sun Tzu
314. The Giver, Lois Lowry
315. The Telling, Ursula Le Guin
316. Xenogenesis (or Lilith's Brood), Octavia Butler (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago)
317. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold
318. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
319. The Aeneid, Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil)
320. Hanta Yo, Ruth Beebe Hill
321. The Princess Bride, S. Morganstern (or William Goldman)
322. Beowulf, Anonymous
323. The Sparrow, Maria Doria Russell
324. Deerskin, Robin McKinley
325. Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey
326. Passage, Connie Willis
327. Otherland, Tad Williams
328. Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay
329. Number the Stars, Lois Lowry
330. Beloved, Toni Morrison
331. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore
332. The mysterious disappearance of Leon, I mean Noel, Ellen Raskin
333. Summer Sisters, Judy Blume
334. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo
335. The Island on Bird Street, Uri Orlev
336. Midnight in the Dollhouse, Marjorie Filley Stover
337. The Miracle Worker, William Gibson
338. The Genesis Code, John Case
339. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevensen
340. Paradise Lost, John Milton
341. Phantom, Susan Kay
342. The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Anne Rice
343. Anno Dracula, Kim Newman
344: The Dresden Files: Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
345: Tokyo Suckerpunch, Issac Adamson
346: The Winter of Magic's Return, Pamela Service
347: The Oddkins, Dean R. Koontz
348. My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
349. The Last Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
350. At Swim, Two Boys, Jaime O'Neill
351. Othello, by William Shakespeare
352. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas
353. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats
354. Sati, Christopher Pike
355. The Inferno, Dante
356. The Apology, Plato
357. The Small Rain, Madeline L'Engle
358. The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Richard E Cytowick
359. 5 Novels, Daniel Pinkwater
360. The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Juliet Marillier
361. Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
362. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
363. Our Town, Thorton Wilder
364. Green Grass Running Water, Thomas King
335. The Interpreter, Suzanne Glass
336. The Moor's Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
337. The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson
338. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
339. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
340. The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
341. Pages for You, Sylvia Brownrigg
342. The Changeover, Margaret Mahy
343. Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
344. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
345. Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo
346. Shosha, Isaac Bashevis Singer
347. Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck
348. The Diving-bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
349. The Lunatic at Large by J. Storer Clouston
350. Time for Bed by David Baddiel
351. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
352. Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre
353. The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley
354. Sewer, Gas, and Eletric by Matt Ruff
355. Jhereg by Steven Brust
356. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane
357. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
358. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
359. Road-side Dog, Czeslaw Milosz
360. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
361. Neuromancer, William Gibson
362. The Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
363. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr
364. The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault
365. The Gunslinger, Stephen King
366. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
367. Absalom, Absalom, William Faulkner
368. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
369. Dreamhouse, Alison Habens
370. Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
371. Prospero's Children, Jan Siegel
372. Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers
373. Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
374. Enchantment, Orson Scott Card
375. Cetaganda, Lois McMaster Bujold
376. Beauty, Sheri S. Tepper
377. The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector
378. The Patron Saint of Liars, Ann Patchett
379. Sexing the Cherry, Jeanette Winterson.
380. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin
381. Assassin's Apprentice, Robin Hobb.
382. The Axis Trilogy, Sara Douglass
383. Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie
384. Sabriel, Garth Nix
385. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
386. The Silence of the Lambs, Robert Harris
387. The Hot Zone, Richard Preston
388. The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin
389. The House with a Clock in its Walls, John Bellairs
390. The Wings of a Falcon, Cynthia Voigt
391. Gain, by Richard Powers
392. White NOise, by Don DeLillo
393. Koko, by Peter Straub
394. Trout Fishing in America, Richard Brautigan
395. Wind Sand and Stars, Antoine de Saint Exupery
396. The Monkeywrench Gang, Edward Abbey
397. The Making of the English Working Class, EP Thompson
398. The Female Man, Joanna Russ
399. We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? Achy Obejas
400. Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
401. Israel My Beloved, Kay Arthur
402. Narcissus in Chains, Laurell K. Hamilton
403. Spring-heeled Jack, Philip Pullman
404. The Happy Prince and other stories, Oscar Wilde
405. The Dark is Rising series, Susan Cooper
406. Macbeth, William Shakespeare
407. The Amityville Horror, Jay Anson
408. Fifth Business, Robertson Davies
409. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
410. The Five People You Meet On Your Way to Heaven, Mitch Albion
411. Night, Elie Wiesel
412. The Hours, Michael Cunningham
413. Forever Amber, Kathleen Windsor
414. Atlantis: Poems by Mark Doty
415. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamont
416. The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe
417. Jitterbug Perfume, by Tom Robbins
418. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson
419. Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut
420. Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton

I am currently reading Daughter of China, the true story of a woman my age who grew up in China, joined their army, and then was arrested and charged with crimes against her country because she fell in love with an American. She and the American both live in San Jose now, but this is a fascinating story. I can hardly put the book down. If you ever get a chance, you should read it, you will enjoy it, I promise.

I have already finished 8 books since New Year's, and am reading my ninth. I am pretty proud of myself.

Seize the Night however, really sucked if you want my opinion. And I wasn't that thrilled with Rising Sun either.

But I am enjoying reading so much this year!

Okay, Awnery finally guessed who I was referring to when I noted "Frank Berry" below. He was the older brother in Hotel New Hampshire. Awnery, you can get the dvd from Netflix I know, and I still haven't finished Son of the Circus either, after starting it twice.
Except for Son of the Circus, John Irving RULES.

Died from complications from plastic surgery! How horrible! I loved her stories!!!

One last thing.
This Book really blows. I love the Dummies books, and I love feng shui books but this one just goes overboard.

If anyone is interested in starting to clean up their house and organizing in the "feng shui" way, I would recommend The Western Guide to Feng Shui: Room by Room. This book makes sense. Almost every idea in the book makes some sort of sense if you think about it.

The Dummies book would have you hanging wall to wall mirrors all over your house, with a crystal in every single window, and your ceilings would be cluttered with brass wind chimes, bamboo windchimes, crystals and bamboo flutes. It even came right out and said the best thing would be mirrors all over your hallway walls. Not going to happen in MY house. And their Resources section ONLY lists the author's Feng Shui Master's mail order catalog which is just WAAAAAY overpriced. I am really disappointed in the book, and in the publishers at the Dummies place.

I guess all I need to know afterall was in the Room by Room book.

Okay, off I go to sleep now.
Good Night.

I finished "Faking It" and absolutely loved it. It's a girl book, it's light and fun, but she has great characters. If she wrote another book with these people I would definitely want to read it.
I think I'm going to be looking for more Jennifer Crusie books.

I found out I can use my Borders gift card over at Amazon.com, meaning I actually save money cuz there's no tax, and no shipping either. So I just bought:

The most recent Robert Jordan book
The Complete Illustrated Kama Sutra
Faking It by Jennifer Crusie
and
Feng Shui for Dummies
I can't seem to get enough Feng Shui books, I really love them.
And I still have $7 left over! I think I'll get a Pilates book next.

The Da Vinci Code

I'm reading the Da Vinci Code and it's really a great book. Dan Brown does some excellent research for his stories, and I think I like them more for what I learn than anything else.

Shanni gave me the book Good Omens for my birthday, I just finished it today.
I LOVED it, SO funny!
I had to rush to finish it because I'd told Scott how wonderful it was so many times that he couldn't wait to read it too.
If anyone's looking for a good book to read, I definitely recommend it.

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