Create a list of 100 MUST READ books and then read them.

Audio-booked it!

1. Flatland, a Romance of Many Dimensions – Edwin A. Abbott
2. 1984 – George Orwell
3. The Crimson Petal and the White – Michel Faber
4. The Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Arnim
5. The Clan of the Cave Bear – Jean M. Auel
6. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
7. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
8. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
9. The Hobbit; or There and Back Again – J.R.R. Tolkien
10. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
11. Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie
12. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Brontë
13. Dracula – Bram Stoker
14. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
15. To Build a Fire – Jack London
16. White Fang – Jack London
17. Persuasion – Jane Austen
18. Emma – Jane Austen
19. Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
20. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
21. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
22. The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy
23. Swann’s Way – Marcel Proust
24. Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor – Richard D. Blackmore
25. Watership Down – Richard Adams
26. The Autobiography of Henry VIII, with Notes by his Fool, Will Sommers – Margaret George
27. Ulysses – James Joyce
28. The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides29. The Courage Consort – Michel Faber
30. Mistress of the Art of Death – Ariana Franklin
31. The Wasteland – T. S. Eliot
32. Orlando: A Biography – Virginia Woolf
33. Sarum: The Novel of England – Edward Rutherford
34. Time and Again – Jack Finney
35. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
36. Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier
37. Out of Africa – Isak Dinesen
38. Stag Line – Graeme and Sarah Lorimer
39. A Toast to Tomorrow – Manning Coles
40. Death Comes for the Archbishop – Willa Cather
41. Eric – Terry Pratchett
42. Men at Arms – Terry Pratchett
43. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe – Douglas Adams44. Under the Skin – Michel Faber
45. Tipping the Velvet – Sarah Waters
46. Some Rain Must Fall – Michel Faber
47. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
48. Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
49. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
50. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
51. The Meaning of Night: A Confession – Michael Cox52. The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield
53. The Fall of Atlantis – Marion Zimmer Bradley
54. Interesting Times – Terry Pratchett
55. The Suicide Club – Robert Louis Stevenson
56. Going Postal – Terry Pratchett
57. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch – Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
58. The Fire Gospel – Michel Faber
59. Amagansett; or The Whaleboat House – Mark Mills
60. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier61. The Glass of Time – Michael Cox
62. Russka – Edward Rutherford
63. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
64. Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald
65. The Mouse that Roared – Leonard Wibberley
66. Wives and Daughters – Elizabeth Gaskell
67. The Seagull – Anton Chekhov
68. Fingersmith – Sarah Waters
69. Affinity – Sarah Waters
70. The Last Town on Earth – Thomas Mullen
71. The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios – Yann Martel
72. The Savage Garden – Mark Mills
73. The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood
74. The Mezzanine – Nicholson Baker
75. Sphereland – Dionys Burger
76. North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell
77. The Elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barbury

I audiobook Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier as well. This may be my favorite novel of the mid-20th century. Listening to it allowed some parts, especially when Mrs. Danvers tries to get the narrator to kill herself, to sound postively spine-chilling.

Okay, I actually listened to the audiobook of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. No one will mistake it for the most riveting book ever written, but it is sometimes nice to read something lite.

I read this for English class, but it was still enjoyable. I think that Charlotte Bronte is the best writer of the three sisters.

I had already read “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to a the Galaxy” (the first in the series by Douglas Adams about Arthur Dent’s inter-galaxtic travels). It seemed like “Restaurant” had a more solid plot and, of course, it’s loaded with Adams’s wit and inventiveness. This made me want to read the rest of the series!

Wow! I ended up liking this book a lot more than I thought I would. The first few chapters are a little bit slow and it seems like the story is going to be a bit mawkish, but I didn’t find that to be a problem at all. Fantastic gothic elements and a really well-developed mystery.

Okay, so I’ve been working an The Enchanted April, and I’m about halfway through, but I’ve started rereading The Meaning of Night (that is rapidly become my favorite book, but it’s not getting me anywhere on my list!)

I finised the only narrative poem on my list yesterday. I did not understand it at all.

Okay, I still haven’t gotten to 100 books (and I’m counting novellas, narrative poems, and plays as books), but here’s the revised list. I’m open to suggestions on other books.

1. Flatland, a Romance of Many Dimensions – Edwin A. Abbott
2. 1984 – George Orwell
3. The Crimson Petal and the White – Michel Faber
4. Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
5. The Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Arnim
6. Six Wives, the Queens of Henry VIII – Dr. David Starkey
7. Clan of the Cave Bear – Jean M. Auel
8. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
9. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
10. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
11. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
12. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
13. Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie
14. The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
15. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Brontë
16. Dracula – Bram Stoker
17. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
18. To Build a Fire – Jack London
19. White Fang – Jack London
20. Persuasion – Jane Austen
21. Emma – Jane Austen
22. Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
23. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
24. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
25. The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy
26. Anne of Green Gables – L. M. Montgomery
27. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
28. Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
29. Swann’s Way – Marcel Proust
30. The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
31. Lorna Doone – Richard D. Blackmore
32. Watership Down – Richard Adams
33. The Autobiography of Henry VIII, with Notes by his Fool, Will Sommers – Margaret George
34. The King Must Die – Mary Renault
35. The Last Good Kiss – James Crumley
36. Ulysses – James Joyce
37. The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides
38. Room with a View – E. M. Forster
39. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
40. Snow Falling on Cedars – David Guterson
41. The Courage Consort – Michel Faber
42. Mistress of the Art of Death – Ariana Franklin
43. The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde
44. The Wasteland – T. S. Eliot
45. Orlando – Virginia Woolf
46. Sarum – Edward Rutherford
47. Time and Again – Jack Finney
48. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
49. Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier
50. Out of Africa – Isak Dinesen
51. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
52. Stag Line – Graeme and Sarah Lorimer
53. A Toast to Tomorrow – Manning Coles
54. Death Comes for the Archbishop – Willa Cather
55. Faust Eric – Terry Pratchett
56. Wintersmith – Terry Pratchett
57. Men at Arms – Terry Pratchett
58. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe – Douglas Adams
59. Under the Skin – Michel Faber
60. Tipping the Velvet – Sarah Waters
61. Some Rain Must Fall – Michel Faber
62. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
63. Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
64. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
65. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
66. Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood
67. The Meaning of Night: A Confession – Michael Cox
68. The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield
69. The Fall of Atlantis – Marion Zimmer Bradley
70. Interesting Times – Terry Pratchett
71. The Suicide Club – Robert Louis Stevenson
72. Going Postal – Terry Pratchett
73. Good Omens – Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
74. The Fire Gospel – Michel Faber
75. Amagansett – Mark Mills
76. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
77. Water for Elephants – Sarah Gruen
78. The Mercy of Thin Air – Ronlyn Dominque
79. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
80. The Glass of Time – Michael Cox
81. Russka – Edward Rutherford
82. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
83. Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald
84. The Mouse that Roared – Leonard Wibberley
85. Brida – Paulo Coelho