Random Late Night Thoughts

Okay, so I spent some amount of time pondering my list of books I can't live without...and then I went over to Kailana's Written World and read her post of comments about the article in the Guardian. Some of her comments were quite amusing, and overall I enjoyed my visit to her site. Quite honestly I don't have thoughts on all of the books...but thought I'd share the ones I do...

1. Pride and Prejudice...glad to see it on the list...glad to see it #1...it's a book that makes me happy just thinking about it.
2. Lord of the Rings...glad I read it...but quite honestly did it have to focus so much on Frodo??? Why couldn't it focus on the *interesting* characters???
3. Jane Eyre...not in my top 100...but whatever.
4. Harry Potter...won't go there...not a fan...but then again...I did only read the first book. I suppose the series could have gotten much better since then.
5. To Kill A Mockingbird...loved it.
6. The Bible....loved it...agree it belongs there...although I'm not sure how sincerely it was placed there...still I'm glad it beat some of the others on the list. It would be really sad if Bridget Jones Diary or Charlie and The Chocolate Factory beat out the Bible...
7. Wuthering Heights...naptime anyone??? When I was in high school "Wuthering Heights" or should I rephrase that... the sentence "I'm going to go read Wuthering Heights" actually meant "I'm going to go take a nap now."
8. 1984...read it and enjoyed it...don't know if it's one I'd go back to again...
10. Great Expectations. Quite possibly the world's most forgettable book. I've read this book twice. Twice...and if my very life depended on it...I couldn't remember anything about this book other than the name "Pip" and the fact that there's a weird old lady dressed in a wedding dress in it. None of the plot has stuck with me. Completely blocked from my memory. It must have been really awful for me to block it out that much...
11. Little Women. Sad but embarrassingly true fact about me...I didn't read Little Women until 2003...when I was in graduate school. I tried--oh how I tried to get through it in junior high and high school. But Beth would begin to get sick...and I just couldn't bear it. Also, love the fact that Joey (from Friends) had to put Little Women in the freezer :)
12. Tess of the D'urberville. Didn't hate this book. It's actually my favorite Hardy. But that isn't saying much. Little known fact about me: I voluntarily took a graduate course in Thomas Hardy having never read anything by him or about him before. True, there weren't many options open in summer school. But not the best way to spend the month of June...I loved the teacher...he was a favorite of mine...but Hardy is the most depressing author I've read to a certain point. But then again, I try to stay away from authors if I know they're depressing. So my experience isn't that vast.
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare...good to see an old friend...
15. Rebecca....again another old friend...this time from high school
16. The Hobbit...nice book...much more accessible than LOTR...I enjoyed it very much
20 Middlemarch...read it in graduate school...really enjoyed it...great class...but hard semester. It was the Fall of 2001... Isn't it odd how books are connected with certain memories...
21. Gone With The Wind....loved it...but then again you know that.
22. Great Gatsby...read it and forgot it shortly thereafter...
24. War and Peace. I'm waiting for the miraculous "third time's the charm" approach for this one since the first two attempts failed a little under halfway through.
29. Alice in Wonderland...loved it...
30. Wind in the Willows. I can't believe I missed out on this book as a kid simply because the copy I had growing up was so scary looking...but I found it as an adult and loved it.
31. Anna Karenina...mostly loved it...
33. Chronicles of Narnia...really love it...
34. Emma...would be much further down on my list...
35. Persuasion...how could anyone rank Persuasion lower than Emma???? It's so wonderful...
36. Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe...I think whoever compiled this list was a bit slow...since this one was already in "Chronicles of Narnia"...
40. Winnie the Pooh...glad there is Pooh on the list...
41. Animal Farm....some books should come with warning labels that they are emotionally disturbing and should never be read by the timid...poor me...who had put off Little Women so long...to be traumatized by Animal Farm because I didn't know what was coming. Seriously bad mistake.
46. Anne of Green Gables...loved it...can't express how much I loved it :)
47. Far From the Madding Crowd...why oh why is there so much Hardy????? Is it to taunt me???
54. Sense and Sensibility....Emma beat Sense and Sensibility???? Really???? How does stuff like this happen?
64. The Lovely Bones. Not my thing. It had me to a certain point. But why does this *ghost* of sorts have to come and take possession of a girl's body so she can have sex??? Why was that necessary?
65. Count of Monte Cristo. Loved it. Can't believe that it's ranked under Lovely Bones. Not to mention under Emma. It's so much better than most of what's on this list...
67. Jude the Obscure. Shudder. There are not enough words in ANY language to describe how much I hate and despise this book. Worst book ever written. It exists just to torture people.
68. Bridget Jones' Diary. I actually really like this book. Serious literature it isn't....but I'd rather read Bridget than so many others on this list. It's funny. It's accessible. It doesn't bore you to tears. It doesn't put you to sleep. And no matter what you think of this book....it's got to be better than Jude the Obscure...anything is better than Jude the Obscure.
73. The Secret Garden...loved it growing up.
79. Vanity Fair. Never made it through this one...I read up until she was grown up and leaving school...but never made it to when she was married. I hope that it's slightly better than the movie at least.
80. Possession. Liked it. Read it in college.
81. A Christmas Carol. Liked it just fine. Probably the only Dickens I've read and enjoyed.
87. Charlotte's Web. Liked it just fine. Loved Trumpet of the Swan.
97. The Three Musketeers. Liked this one very much. Certainly better than Jude. And much more enjoyable than Emma. Better movie version too.
98. Hamlet...is part of The Complete Works of Shakespeare...did they not have more than 100 entries...did they have to use repeats???
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Loved this book. Not sure quite how it made it onto a list of mostly classics. But it's worthy of reading at any age.
100. Les Miserables. The summer of 2000. My goal of the summer. I finished it. But I must admit I skimmed some of the battle scenes. But I'm glad I read it...