book meme

[pallas_athena]

from velvetdahlia
"These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users. Bold what you have read, italicize those you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. Add an asterisk to those you've read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list."


Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion*
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby-Dick
Ulysses
The Odyssey*
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran: a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales*
The Historian: a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault's Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible: a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno*
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver's Travels
Les Misérables*
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela's Ashes : A Memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States: 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake: a novel
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics: a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an Inquiry into Values
The Aeneid
Watership Down*
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers*

This is a bit like intellectual striptease-- I feel a bit shy admitting to the blogosphere that I haven't read Jane Eyre, for example, or that I haven't finished Slaughterhouse-Five (I do intend to finish that one sometime, as well as Lolita and The Name of the Rose).
I also (mostly) haven't crossed out those that I couldn't stand because I had to read them for school: school is a bad place to decide whether or not you like a book. I've never read a Jane Austen novel for pleasure, for example, and I've only once read a Charles Dickens novel on my own initiative. It turns out that when it comes to nineteenth-century novels, I prefer the French and (increasingly) the Russians. Go figure.
I REALLY hated Mansfield Park, though, and I'm fairly sure I'd still find Joyce a huge pile of wank if I read him for the first time today. I know it's wank that's important to the history of literature, but still.

There is one book on this list that I've read but haven't bolded because it's just too embarrassing. If you've got this far, I'll leave it to you to guess.

If this meme interests you and you have the time, consider yourself tagged.

Comments

[myweddingornot.livejournal.com]

You're embarrassed about reading the Grapes of Wrath? Don't worry, I did too.

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

Actually, I haven't... should I?

[myweddingornot.livejournal.com]

It's an ok book - I read it in high school. The high school experience kinda ruined most books I read at that time.

[wolfinthewood.livejournal.com]

Oh, read Jane Eyre. Seriously. Well, okay, you might hate it; but I think it is one of the Indispensable Books. (May help that I first read it at fourteen, perhaps.)

Moby Dick is pretty good as well, but then, I like sea stories.

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

OK, OK, I'll read it! I mean, I liked both the BBC's recent adaptation and Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair, so I will probably like the original.

I too am fond of sea stories, and of Britten's operatic adaptation of Billy Budd, so I should probably read Moby Dick at some point too.

[laughingmagpie.livejournal.com]

Which one? Which one?

Was it 'Mists of Avalon'?? I'm sorta embarassed by that one, myself.... 'Oryx and Crake'?? I despise Atwood on principle, for instance. Was it 'Life of Pi' because you know I think it was a piece of hooey??

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

*looks shifty*

*says nothing*

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

*looks especially furtive at the mention of The Mists Of Avalon*

[albertbbun.livejournal.com]

Minion number two sends the following:

The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake: a novel
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an Inquiry into Values
The Catcher in the Rye
To the Lighthouse
Gulliver's Travels
Dune
The Prince
The Blind Assassin
Atlas Shrugged
Brave New World
The Grapes of Wrath
1984
The Inferno
Frankenstein
The Hobbit
Angela's Ashes : A Memoir*
The Poisonwood Bible: a novel*
A Short History of Nearly Everything*
Beloved*
Catch-22*
Slaughterhouse-Five*
Wuthering Heights
Jane Eyre
Mrs. Dalloway
Foucault's Pendulum
Treasure Island
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
On the Road
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States: 1492-present The

And the rest, whatevah.

from Im (first minion)

[albertbbun.livejournal.com]

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose*
Don Quixote
Moby-Dick
Ulysses
The Odyssey*
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies*
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad*
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran: a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian: a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World*
The Fountainhead
Foucault's Pendulum*
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible: a novel (one of my top 5 books)
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver's Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela's Ashes : A Memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States: 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon* (well I was young)
Oryx and Crake: a novel
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas (loved it)
The Confusion
Lolita (even if it is terribly clever etc)
Persuasion (the best Austen IMHO)
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics: a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an Inquiry into Values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit*
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

Im, my dear! Glad to see your ruthless lapine overlord is giving you some free time. I send you, as always, a hug across the ether.

Haha, everyone hates Ulysses. In your face, Joyce!

[myriadim.livejournal.com]

LOL. I miss you.

Ulysses. Completely unreadable - and I don't care how much 'un' that adds to my couth.

Although Slaughterhouse 5 would get my vote for probably the most irritatingly unreadable book I've ever tried to read.

hope you're well. Attempting to have a life outside work & Greens stuff, reports on success vary. Did the other minion mention we are off to New Zealand in a few weeks? Can hardly wait! And because I know you'll want to know - no, we're not doing any part or whole of a LOTR tour. Sorry ;-)

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

I miss you too, Im. I have faith that we'll meet again on one continent or other, though.

Hope you and Otherminion have a wonderful time in NZ, though!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

Bah!

[miriya-b.livejournal.com]

I love _Ulysses_! So there!

[artnouveauho.livejournal.com]

Thhhppphhhhtttt.