travelmickey

is so glad she remembered this site existed



I'm doing 37 things
 

travelmickey's Life List

  1. 1. Stop smoking completely
    7 entries . 58 cheers
    36 people
  2. 2. Weigh under ten stone
    4 entries . 4 cheers
    1 person
  3. 3. Exercise three times a week
    4 entries . 12 cheers
    281 people
  4. 4. Donate blood
    1 entry . 15 cheers
    2,166 people
  5. 5. Bid at a real life auction
    1 entry . 2 cheers
    1 person
  6. 6. Do basic photoshop training
    1 entry . 5 cheers
    1 person
  7. 7. Watch Channel 4's 100 greatest films
    12 entries . 9 cheers
    9 people
  8. 8. Read the Big Read's 100 greatest books
    40 entries . 12 cheers
    21 people
  9. 9. Take 52 amazing photographs this year
    4 entries . 12 cheers
    6 people
  10. 10. Get a travel article published
    7 cheers
    1 person
  11. 11. Visit 30 countries before I am 30
    8 entries . 21 cheers
    17 people
  12. 12. Own my own home
    4 entries . 8 cheers
    1,215 people
  13. 13. paint a picture
    3 entries . 12 cheers
    410 people
  14. 14. Become a PADI Master Scuba Diver
    1 entry . 3 cheers
    5 people
  15. 15. Stay in the ice hotel
    2 entries . 27 cheers
    33 people
  16. 16. Milk a cow
    1 entry . 7 cheers
    421 people
  17. 17. Get a byline in The Guardian
    2 entries . 4 cheers
    1 person
  18. 18. Visit every continent
    3 entries . 9 cheers
    1,304 people
  19. 19. bungee jump
    1 entry . 7 cheers
    2,957 people
  20. 20. Cruise the Nile in a felluca
    1 entry . 8 cheers
    4 people
  21. 21. write a novel and get it published
    1 entry . 5 cheers
    297 people
  22. 22. make a documentary film
    4 entries . 13 cheers
    531 people
  23. 23. Drive around Europe in a VW campervan
    2 entries . 19 cheers
    12 people
  24. 24. Run the New York Marathon
    1 entry . 11 cheers
    67 people
  25. 25. Walk the Santiago pilgrimage trail
    1 entry . 10 cheers
    7 people
  26. 26. visit the Taj Mahal
    1 entry . 10 cheers
    129 people
  27. 27. see the northern lights
    4 entries . 19 cheers
    14,848 people
  28. 28. see the pyramids in Egypt
    1 entry . 14 cheers
    193 people
  29. 29. Climb a live volcano
    2 entries . 17 cheers
    4 people
  30. 30. Go to Dharamsala and meet the Dalai Lama
    3 entries . 12 cheers
    6 people
  31. 31. go to Carnival in Rio de Janeiro
    1 entry . 12 cheers
    57 people
  32. 32. Sing karaoke and eat sushi in Japan
    4 entries . 8 cheers
    2 people
  33. 33. Learn how to bookbind
    9 cheers
    37 people
  34. 34. Read a newspaper in the Dead Sea
    4 cheers
    1 person
  35. 35. Find a Bookcrossing book
    2 entries . 7 cheers
    29 people
  36. 36. go to India
    1 entry . 3 cheers
    888 people
  37. 37. Swim the English Channel
    88 people
Recent entries
Read the Big Read's 100 greatest books (read all 40 entries…)
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden 1 month ago

62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden

I’m on a role now, and with the nights drawing in I might have finished this list by the time summer comes around again – well, perhaps not! Half-way perhaps…

Memoirs of a Geisha is an absolutely lovely book, with a heart-warming central character and an interesting insight into Japanese culture as well as the lives of geisha. The book’s been sitting on my shelves for years, so I am annoyed I didn’t make myself read it sooner, but it was well worth the 80p investment!

The score of 7.75 is a bit harsh seen as I could hardly put the paperback down, but I have to reserve the top scores for the truly earth shattering reads, and I’m not sure this is one of them. Well saying that it was highly enjoyable. Can’t wait to see the film now, which I have also been saving for years to enjoy…

7.75/10

Total: 43 books read – all in bold

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien

2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman

4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling

6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne

8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis

10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller

12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks

14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres

20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling

23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling

24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling

25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy

27. Middlemarch, George Eliot

28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving

29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck

30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson

32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett

34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute

38. Persuasion, Jane Austen

39. Dune, Frank Herbert

40. Emma, Jane Austen

41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery

42. Watership Down, Richard Adams

43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald

44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

46. Animal Farm, George Orwell

47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian

50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck

53. The Stand, Stephen King

54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth

56. The BFG, Roald Dahl

57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome

58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer

60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman

62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden

63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough

65. Mort, Terry Pratchett

66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

67. The Magus, John Fowles

68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding

71. Perfume, Patrick Suskind

72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell

73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

74. Matilda, Roald Dahl

75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding

76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt

77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins

78. Ulysses, James Joyce

79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens

80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson

81. The Twits, Roald Dahl

82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith

83. Holes, Louis Sachar

84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake

85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson

87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons

89. Magician, Raymond E Feist

90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac

91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo

92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel

93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett

94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

95. Katherine, Anya Seton

96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer

97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson

99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot

100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie



Read the Big Read's 100 greatest books (read all 40 entries…)
The Witch of Portobello 1 month ago

Paulo Coelho’s latest novel The Witch of Portobello was another holiday read, and despite being somewhat of a fan of his, I thought it was a lazy addition to his growing collection.

I’m sure he bashed it off in a couple of weeks and made millions from it, and the plot was so formulaic, it might have even taken less time to write.

My Mum bought it for me, so I feel mean for having been so dissapointed by it, but I’m glad to have got back in the reading swing of things. 4/10.



Read the Big Read's 100 greatest books (read all 40 entries…)
We Need To Talk About Kevin 1 month ago

It isn’t on the list, but We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver was good. A score of 8/10 I suppose. It did make me rethink having babies though, as until now I’ve always thought children were born ‘nice’!



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