The BCC's "Big Read List"

I found this on Bookalicio.us and thought it was super fun!  If you choose to participate, post the link in my comments section so I can see yours too!

“Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here, in their The Big Read list. Instructions: Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read an excerpt.” In italics are ones I didn’t finish or hope to read soon.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter Series – JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. Nighteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Ubervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34. Emma – Jane Austen
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Correlli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41. Animal Farm- George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47. Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – Mark Haddon
60. Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66. On the Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones Diary – Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson
74. Noted from a Small Island – Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses – James Joyce
76. The Inferno – Dante
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emilie Zola
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepiece
80. Possession – AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance – Robinston Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88. The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet- William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

So I have read 21 of the 100. How did you do?

Happy Reading!

BrandiHeather

Audio Books: The Test for a True Reader

For Thanksgiving this year I drove down to my parents house in Florida.  It is about an 8 hour drive, and I was making the haul alone this time.  About an hour into the trip I was tired of flipping through radio stations and digging through old CD's (you would have thought I could have planned better, as I am a list maker...).  I was coming up to an exit with a Cracker Barrel (yummm) when I realized that they have the audio books that you can rent.  I've seen audio books in Borders and Barnes & Noble before but they were always so expensive that I never really wanted to give them a try.  I also don't really know when/where I would listen to them.  My commute to work is pretty short, and other than that when I'm in the car I want to jam!  

I decided that I would stop at Cracker Barrel and see about getting and audio book.  I figured, I've got seven more hours to go, I might as well "read" a book.  I browsed through the rack of audio books and found one that peaked my interest: Insatiable by Meg Cabot.  I love Meg Cabot and thought it would be a great book to try.  

After finding out that I have to put up the full amount of the audio book ($44.00) and would be reimbursed everything except for the $3.95 rental fee, I couldn't take it any longer.  I had to see what all the hype was about audio books.  I got back into the car, and continued the long trek.  I had a lot of things going through my mind going into this. 

What if I don't like the voice of the person reading me this book?

What if I can't follow along?

What if it is too fast? Or too slow?

What if I start to fall asleep listening to this?

What if, what if, what if...

Well, as it turns out, the voice of the lady reading the book was awful.  She sounded like a twelve year old girl that really enjoyed using accents and making funny sounds.  It wasn't hard to follow along with the story line....but after a full CD I thought -- "Wow, there are a lot of CD's in this case -- I wonder how long this book is."  16.45 hours, that's how long.  The woman girl reading the book read at a snails pace and I kept getting really bored.  At one point I really thought I was going to fall asleep if she didn't pick up the pace.  

Once I realized how long the book was and that there was no way I could stand to listen to the little girl any longer, I switched back to channel surfing the radio.  As soon as I made it down to my parents house I busted out the Kindle and downloaded the book.  

Needless to say -- audio books are not for me.  I am way too ADD and such a control freak that I have to read the books myself.  My boyfriend jokingly told me that the only way he thinks I would enjoy an audio book would be if I recorded it myself.  Half because I love to hear my own voice...

Have you tried audio books before?  Do you like them?  Am I missing something?  The thrill just wasn't there for me.  I'm sticking to regular books until someone gives me the secret!

Happy Reading!

Interview with a Non-Reader

So I challenged you all to come up with the best questions you could for my boyfriend, and the answers are in!

As I mentioned before, while I am an avid reader, my boyfriend is the complete opposite.  He would never "waste his time" reading a book when he could just wait for the movie to come out.  I wanted to interview him so that I (and hopefully some of you) could get an understanding from a non-readers point of view.  It really intrigues me that reading just isn't something that he likes to do -- I guess because I am so in love with it.

Here goes:

What kind of things do you enjoy doing for fun?

Playing video games & watching sports.

Do you not like reading because it takes a lot of time?  Do you find it hard to stay focused and interested?

Both.  It doesn't move fast enough for me.  I'd rather watch a two hour movie than read a three inch book.  It is a lot easier for me to remember important stuff that happens in the beginning of  a movie than to try to remember what happened in chapter two of a book.  I read slow, and I don't really retain things.  I love magazine articles -- articles that are about 8 pages in length are as far as it goes.  

What is it about reading that doesn't spark your interest?  Is there a type of story that you think would spark your interest?

It is time consuming, to me it is just boring.  I can't get lost in it like you do.  I think I would read non-fiction stuff.  I enjoy reading articles about science and technology.  I read Wired magazine cover to cover -- at the back there are longer stories...they are like "bleeding edge" technological things, like how they might be able to cure cancer in a few years or something like that.  

When did your interest in books leave you?  Did you enjoy reading as a kid?  Did your parents read to you at night?

I don't remember if my parents read to me.  I read in elementary school, but at that age I think it is somewhat forced upon you.  There was a book fair, and other reward programs to encourage reading.

 Do you think that required reading in schools turns children away from leisurely reading?

That makes sense -- the fact that you are forcing kids to read things that they couldn't care less about, yeah I guess.  But then again, I didn't want to sit through Algebra, but I had to.  There are a lot of things that I would change about our education system, but I don't think that is the point.  I don't remember required reading -- I either wasn't assigned it, or just didn't do it. I used to do those stupid tests all the time in the library.  You would read a book and then you could go to the library to take a five question test on it and win a prize.  I wouldn't read the book, but I would go in and take the test and most of the time I would pass it.  If I missed a question, I could just come back the next day and take it again.  It didn't encourage me to read, because I didn't have to read the book and I could still get the reward.

What books did you like as a kid?

The only books I ever remember liking are the Animorph books.

Would you read a non-fiction book, like something about The Atlanta Braves, or another sports team?

I would really be interested in a memoir of Bobby Cox.  If you were to get me a book like that I would read it.  

Is there a book out there that you've heard a lot about that you would like to read?  Like a NY Times Bestseller?

No, I don't really look at things where they talk about "hot upcoming books".  I couldn't even tell you what is on the top ten bestseller list.  I can guarantee you that if it is on the bestseller list I'm not going to read it.  The only reason those books get put on that list is because Oprah likes them and has promoted them on her show.  If she likes a book -- it is number one on the booksellers list. 

You enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies, would you ever consider reading the books?  Or a book like it?

No.  First of all, I've already seen the movies, so that would bore me to death to read about something I've already seen.  I know how it ends, so no.  Plus, those books are really long.

Would you try reading a graphic novel?

Uh, no...

What about an audio book?

No, I just wouldn't pay attention to it.  I think people that like audio books are people that enjoy reading in the first place.  The only reason to use them is because for some reason you can't read a book. 

What book was a required reading book that you just couldn't stand?  Or what book have you read or tried to read that you couldn't stand?

Honestly, I've read so few books I can't tell you. 

How many books do you think you've read in your life?

20?  I guess the Animorphs books would be about 8 or 9 of them...I've read 1984 by George Orwell.  I don't remember much of it -- I guess it didn't leave that big of an impression on me.  I can only remember a few parts -- I was really interested in politics at the time, so that's why I read it.

What was your favorite book growing up?

I remember liking the book Goodnight, Moon.  I remember being really young, and my aunt took me to a bookstore and really wanted to buy me a book.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that I didn't want a book, so I just picked up Goodnight, Moon because I knew that I liked it.  She wasn't very happy when she found out I already had a copy of it at home...

Did your family encourage you to read?

My mom reads all the time, but no I guess not.

How do you feel about other people reading?  I mean you know how much I love reading...

It keeps you out of my hair.  

No, at this point, you are pretty much obsessed with reading.  You've got the challenge to read 100 books this year, and you've got a blog with followers and stuff.  It doesn't really bother me, I'm not going to start some campaign about not reading or anything, but I'm not going to start reading. 

Do you see the value in reading?  Educational or otherwise?

Fiction books, no.  I don't see how it is any different than watching NCIS or something like that.  I don't see the educational value of reading a non-fiction book.  There is no educational value at all, in a fiction book.  Other than like historical context or something...but you could watch the movie Gone With the Wind and get just as much "educational value" out of it as reading the books.  I didn't get any educational value out of reading Animorphs...people don't turn into animals in real life. I would say a large portion of fiction books have no educational value at all. 

_______________________________________________

This was so interesting to be.  I love talking books with people, and it was nice to hear things from his perspective as a non-reader.  I honestly don't agree with 90% of what he has to say...but it was interesting.  I will definitely be looking into getting him a Bobby Cox memoir...and hopefully I can get him to review it for us on here!

I would really like to just mention how amazing he is.  He is so supportive of me, and I really appreciate him taking his time to do this interview with me.  I know he would rather have finished playing his video game, or watch a football game (I made sure all the games today were over - LOL). Thanks sweetie! I love you!

What did you think of the interview?  Do you have friends or family members that don't like reading either?  I wonder if they have the same feelings as my boyfriend...

Happy Reading!

A Challenge to My Readers!

The Ultimate Challenge!

I have a challenge, and I need your help!!  My boyfriend of seven years is not an avid reader, and it always intrigues me.  I am obsessed with books, and can't read enough!  It always seems to drive me a little crazy when he says things like "Why read the book, when you can just wait a few months for the movie to come out?"

I have come to the realization that not everyone is as awesome as us book lovers, and that is okay.  He has many other things that he enjoys doing, and I can respect that.  What I want to do is delve into his mind and figure out why it is that he doesn't like reading.



Why is it that some people read tons of books a year, while others would rather do anything else.  I mean the man despises books -- I don't think I could get him to read a book even if I wanted to.  I've tried buying him books that I think he would like, based on things in life that he is interested in, but it never fails -- they don't get read.  The only thing I have seen him read (aside from magazines about technology) is the Almanac.  I'm not saying there is anything wrong with it, but he could sit on the couch and read the Almanac all day long.
Different strokes for different folks right?

So -- here is where you come in.  What kinds of questions do you have for him?  Is there anything you are dying to find out from a non-reader?  Anything you would like to know, just leave it in the comments, and I will get everything compiled so we can figure out -- WHY!

Thanks for your help, and Happy Reading!

2011 Reading Challenge!!!!!!

So, as you all know, I am trying to read 100 books this year.  I'm at 72, and I've still got a month and a half...but I doubt I will make it to 100.  I think this reading challenge is just for me!  I haven't completely decided what my goal for next year will be, but I do agree with The Book Vixen, and I am going to out-do myself next year.  As this year comes closer to an end and I can see what my total count is, I am going to make a prediction for next year --- so stay tuned!

I encourage you all to join this challenge, and out-do yourself!

Happy Reading!

WWW Wednesday (2)

WWW Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Should Be Reading.  

To play along...answer the following!

- What are you currently reading?

- What did you recently finish reading?

- What do you think you'll read next?

Here are my answers:

Currently Reading: 

Recently Finished:

To Read Next:

((this is subject to change...I have so many on my TBR shelf, that I need to see what mood I'm in when I finish the book I am currently reading!))

I have been SOOOO busy these last two weeks.  I got a new position at work, and I feel like all of my free time to read is virtually gone. :(  However, I am finally getting into the groove, so I will be back on track soon!!  I hope you are bearing with me, and will continue to visit me as often as possible!  I love all my readers!! 

Happy Reading!

WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Should Be Reading.  

To play along...answer the following!

- What are you currently reading?

- What did you recently finish reading?

- What do you think you'll read next?

Here are my answers:

Currently Reading: 

  

Recently Finished Reading: 

Next to Read:

Happy Reading,

Could It Be...OCD?

My birthday was yesterday and my boyfriend got me a new red bookshelf for my birthday!

I already have one (in the other corner) that was STUFFED with books, so I've decided to get my books completely organized.  Now, I will admit that I am already bordering on neurotic when it comes to my bookshelf, so adding a whole second one (which was needed) threw me for a loop!  I couldn't decide which books "deserved" to be on the new bookshelf, and which ones didn't. 

I finally settled on having a bookshelf dedicated to the books that I've read, while the other bookshelf will be dedicated to the book that are on the TBR list.  So, now my books are all organized and ready to go.  I've ordered the "read" bookshelf a little differently than my TBR bookshelf, and we will have to see if I can let my OCD go enough to be okay with it.  

Since I tend to either donate, or give books away to friends/family when I am done with them, there aren't a whole lot of books that I've kept.  I couldn't get rid of any of my Jodi Picoult or James Patterson books, and I decided that they each will get their own little section instead of being in alphabetical order with the rest of the books.  The James Patterson books took up most of the last shelf, making it so I had to give him a second shelf!  I devoted that shelf to the Women's Murder Club series, because it was --- well, the best.

I am working on getting the TBR bookshelf put back together, but it is proving to be more of a challenge.  I've got a few ideas on how I want to organize it, but nothing is looking perfect yet...so we will see.  I will update to let you know what I decide.

How do you organize your books?  Do you keep all of the books that you've read, or do you share them with others?  

Happy Reading!

2010 100+ Reading Challenge

The 2010 100+ Reading Challenge is hosted by J. Kaye over at Home Girl's Book Blog.  Obviously the challenge is to read 100+ books this year.  I know I'm late in finding this, but on January 1st this year I decided that I was going to challenge myself to read 100 books this year.  I figured I might as well join this challenge to make it "official"!

You can find the list of books that I've read thus far in the side bar, and as of right now I am a little behind.  I've read 63 books so far, with 3 months left. 

I encourage you to stop by J. Kaye's Book Blog and join not only this challenge, but the other challenges that she is hosting as well.  I am going to go see what other challenges she has up right now, and see if any of them are ones I would like to participate in as well.

Happy Reading!

Banned Books Week Comes to an End

So banned books week is coming to a close.  I really wanted to participate in all the festivities, but it also happened to be deadline week at work, so basically nothing else gets accomplished.  I've been going around to all of the different blogs that I follow and reading up on everyone's banned books blog posts.  It is interesting to see what everyone else has to say.  

If you aren't an avid reader, you might not know what Banned Books Week is.  

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.  Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States. 

While surfing around the net, I found out a few interesting tidbits of information.  Did you know that THE DICTIONARY was banned at a California elementary school in January of 2010 because of the definition of "oral sex".  I mean COME ON people...seriously!?  I understand that people don't want their six or seven year old child reading about sexual activities and what not, but honestly -- give me a break.

I went through a bunch of different lists of banned books, and I found a bunch that I have read in the past, and that truly surprised me.  I guess I shouldn't be as surprised as I am considering...but it just blows my mind.  The First Amendment of the Constitution is freedom of speech...but it doesn't look like we really get that, does it?

I can completely understand that people wouldn't want their children exposed to books that have differing beliefs than they do, but I think that it is up to the parents to realize that they need to be monitoring their children.  I think that it is up to the parent to be responsible and pay attention to what their children are up to.

What books are you most surprised about being banned?

Happy Reading,

Bargain Books!

I've mentioned in previous posts that I am quite the bargain shopper.  I love my Kindle to death, however, it just isn't economical for me to buy books on the Kindle at the rate that I read.  Well, my good friend told me about an AMAZING thing...and I thought I would share with you all, and let you know what books I got!

A couple of months ago, we went through her bookshelf and got rid of all the books that she no longer wanted.  I took some of them, and the rest were to be donated to the library.  She's a busy girl, so it's been a while, but she finally took the books to the library this past weekend.  When she carried her box of books in, she noticed that there was a book sale going on.  Now the libraries around here do that a lot (I guess as a fundraiser --although at the prices, I'm not sure that they are making a whole lot of money -- but who knows).  I had been to the one at the Sandy Springs library a few years back, and had a ball.  At the Sandy Springs library there was an entire room just filled with paper backs, hardbacks and books on tape.  It was incredible.  I walked into a mecca of books!

Well my friends, at the Dunwoody library this weekend, you could go and fill up a bag of books (one of the paper bags from the grocery store) and pay $6 for the whole bag.  Don't act surprised---I filled up two bags!  I spent a total of $12 on 34 books! A few of the books were for my friend...but here are the ones I kept.

  

I mean -- SERIOUSLY!?  I will be set for at least 6 months?  That's not including all the books on my TBR shelf...which in case you were wondering there are 90.  Just sayin.

While I was at the book sale, one of the ladies I spoke with told me about a website that is dedicated to letting people know when and where there were book sales.  Check this out -- Book Sale Finder.  You go in and type in the state you are looking for a book sale for and they will list ones that are at libraries, non-profit organizations -- anywhere! 

Obviously, I won't be needing to go to another book sale for quite a while, and honestly I should probably consider having one of my own...

Another thing that I heard that upset me was about the budget cuts that are going on.  In DeKalb County (not my county, so I'm not sure how Fulton's budget cuts went), they cut the budget from almost 2 million dollars down to 200k.  Are you kidding me?  How are these libraries supposed to fill their shelves?  Are they going to have to start making people pay to check out books.  Honestly, I am appalled.  Last year they cut a lot of things out of the budget in the school systems (like physical education and music programs), and now this?  What is going to happen to our children?  I know there probably isn't a whole lot that I can do about this, but it sickens me that children are going to be growing up in a world without books. 

Where do you find that you buy books most often?  Do you go to bookstores?  Do you just check books out from the library?  If the library decided to charge a membership fee for renting out books, would you still go?

Happy Reading!