create a list of 100 must-read books and read them.

As with my movie consumption, I’ve decided to keep track of my book consumption on AllConsuming.net:
http://allconsuming.net/shouldlist/view/madamwitty

It’s too bad that I can’t sort the list according to whether it’s a movie or a book, though.

I finally finished The Brothers Karamozov in time to return it to the library! I quite enjoyed the second half of the book – it’s like someone turned off the ‘boring’ switch at page 450.

Now on to the next book. Not sure which one – I’ll pick one out when I visit the library tonight.

I finished Harry Potter #6 quite awhile ago – the Harry Potter books go quite quickly for me, even the later ones which are REALLY LONG. As expected, I liked the book.

I tried reading Don Quixote but just could NOT get through it. See this thread: http://www.43things.com/comments/thread/206407

I am currently reading The Brothers Karamozov, which I have been reading for awhile now. It is slow going, but at least I find myself able to concentrate. It’s hard for me to identify with the characters and I’m not really interested in all the commentary on Christianity. I am just about halfway through (450 pages out of 900!) and finally something exciting has happened, so I’m hoping the story will pick up a bit now. I’ve already renewed this book from the library twice, so I am trying to finish by the new due date so I don’t have to renew again. That gives me about a week and a half. I might be able to do it…

I read The Last Good Kiss (#26) and The Great and Secret Show (#28). Both were ok, I guess. I wouldn’t count them as a waste of time, but I wouldn’t recommend them to just anyone. I guess they’re an acquired taste.

I’m about halfway through Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (#19). It’s about as good as I expected (by which I mean, it is on par with the previous books in the series.)

Since my last entry I have read Pride and Prejudice (#1) and Green Mars (#20).

I am so glad I made this list and committed to reading these books. If not, I would have put down Pride and Prejudice after reading just a few pages. But I kept reading, and I ended up really loving the book! The beginning was kind of hard to get into, and the end seemed a bit rushed, but overall I really liked the characters and the storyline.

I was kind of disappointed with Green Mars. I really liked Red Mars (the 1st book in the series) because I am interested in the technical challenges that would occur in the colonization of Mars. But Green Mars got more into political challenges, which I am not very interested in. The middle third of the book was very boring to me, but I am glad I read all the way through to the end, which was actually pretty exciting.

I have some more books for my list. These were recommended by friends:
26. The Last Good Kiss – James Crumley
27. The Long Goodbye – Raymond Chandler
28. The Great and Secret Show – Clive Barker

Here is some sci-fi/fantasy for my list:

18. New Spring – Robert Jordan
19. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J.K. Rowling
20. Green Mars – Kim Stanley Robinson
21. The Sparrow – Mary Doria Russell
22. Shadow of the Giant – Orson Scott Card
23. The Puppet Masters – Robert Heinlein
24. A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M. Miller
25. The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula LeGuin

I just finished New Spring by Robert Jordan (#18) and I have to say it was very refreshing after having read the later books in the Wheel of Time series. I felt like the first half of the book was a little too drawn out, and the last half was a little too rushed, but overall it was back to the adventurey feel of the first few books of Wheel of Time. This book avoids what I didn’t like about the later books; they got too bogged down in politics & had too many storylines.

I can’t think of any off the top of my head, so I am going to start pulling from various ‘best books’ lists. Subject to revision:

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes
3. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
4. The Brothers Karamozov – Fyodor M Dostoyevsky
5. Faust – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
6. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
7. Around the World in 80 Days – Jules Verne
8. The House of the Seven Gables – Nathaniel Hawthorne
9. A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn
10. Animal Farm – George Orwell
11. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
12. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
13. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
14. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
15. Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
16. The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells
17. Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke

Hmm. 100 is a large number. I also can’t help but feel that there should be more sci-fi books on my list.