A little background before we get started. My parents love to read. My mom can read in English though she’s slow and prefers Portuguese while my dad reads almost no English and primarily just reads in Portuguese. When I told them that the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library had a good sized section of books in Portuguese, my parents latched on and for the last few years, my dad has been making trips to the library every few weeks to pick up books.
Now, something about my parents. They’ll read nearly anything but they have a preference for mysteries and romances, and though we have, over the years, read some of the same books, this is the first time this has ever happened.
This past weekend I was in my parent’s kitchen getting some stuff out of the fridge for Dan’s surprise birthday BBQ (which, by the way, was a complete success) when I spotted a book on the counter. I’m nosey, so I checked to see what it was and was struck by the title. A second later (or however long it took me to translate the title in my head), I realized that we were reading the same book.
The book in question: Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go
I’m only partway through but he’s finished the book and in discussing it after dinner, he mentioned that he didn’t care for it because it was a bit too slow burn for him. I’m only 70 pages in and so far loving it, but I’m excited to finish so dad and I can have a little chat about it.
Just another reason why I love my parents. No surprise that I’m such a bookworm myself, it’s in the genes!
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading. Show all posts
That's not to say I'll actually read her new novel, "The Distant Hours" (Amazon lists it with a release date
Don't be thinking that I purposefully seek these out... they simply come across my desk and I take a look at the ones that might be interesting and this one is certainly one of the best. I can't say it gives much of the story but it's gorgeously stop-motion animated by Andersen M Studio of London. I've included a synopsis of Morton's new novel after the video.
Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives one Sunday afternoon with the return address of Millderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother’s emotional distance masks an old secret.
Evacuated from London as a thirteen year old girl, Edie’s mother is chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe, and taken to live at Millderhurst Castle with the Blythe family: Juniper, her twin sisters and their father, Raymond. In the grand and glorious Millderhurst Castle, a new world opens up for Edie’s mother. She discovers the joys of books and fantasy and writing, but also, ultimately, the dangers.
Fifty years later, as Edie chases the answers to her mother’s riddle, she, too, is drawn to Millderhurst Castle and the eccentric Sisters Blythe. Old ladies now, the three still live together, the twins nursing Juniper, whose abandonment by her fiancé in 1941 plunged her into madness.
Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Millderhurst Castle, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in the distant hours has been waiting a long time for someone to find it . . .
Here's something interesting. I've talked about book trailers in the past. Since I spotted my first one in 2008, the development in these trailers hasn't moved much. They're still a bit cheesy and they do little for me in terms of getting me interested in a book or series but today I read some news that may mark the beginning of a new life for book trailers.
Yesterday, Shelf Life posted a an interview with "Vampire Academy" author Richelle Mead. "Spirit Bound," the fifth book in the series, goes on sale next Tuesday
The trailer isn't awesome but it's one of the better ones I've seen but Penguin, the publisher, gets thumbs up for promoting directly to their audience: fans of other vampire fiction. That I've seen, this will also be one of the first book trailers I've ever seen on TV or at the movies. It's a trend I wouldn't mind seeing more of.
Wonder how many people will see this tonight or in the coming days and wonder when the new show starts? My one complaint: these people look NOTHING like I pictured the characters. Go figure.
You can watch the trailer here.
There is something off about this image though granted, you'd have to be familiar with both worlds to know what it is. Any guesses? I'm sure I can dig up a cool prize...
Now here's a battle I didn't even know existed, never mind the fact that it appears to have been raging for some time. The question at hand: PNR (ParaNormal Romance) vs. UF (Urban Fantasy).
My reading has always been quite mixed and I've never paid too much attention to where the material comes from (if you're familiar with any of my reading choices you'll note an disproportionately high amount of teen fiction in the mix) though I've always leaned towards fantasy. UF and PNR have been around for some time but I only came across the distinctions a few months ago when someone else was discussing Stephenie Meyer's series and though I didn't pay too much attention, I did start looking for websites that cover these two genres specifically, in hopes of uncovering another great series.
While browsing through discussions on Good Reads yesterday I came across "Popular PR You Hate," a discussion that quickly broke down into the difference between PNR and UF and though it eventually recuperated, this digression caught my attention. Frankly, I don't really see what the need for a distinction is but it obviously matters to someone. Does it?
Here's the difference between the two, just so we're clear on what we're dealing with here:
According to the Romance Writers of America, the main plot of a romance novel must revolve around the two people as they develop romantic love for each other and work to build a relationship together. Both the conflict and the climax of the novel should be directly related to that core theme of developing a romantic relationship, although the novel can also contain subplots that do not specifically relate to the main characters' romantic love. Furthermore, a romance novel must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending."As opposed to:
Urban fantasy is a subset of contemporary fantasy, consisting of magical novels and stories set in contemporary, real-world, urban settings--as opposed to 'traditional' fantasy set in wholly imaginary landscapes. The urban fantasy protagonist faces extraordinary circumstances as plots unfold in either open (where magic or paranormal events are commonly accepted to exist) or closed (where magical powers or creatures are concealed) worlds. A romantic subplot may or may not exist within the context of the story.Reading those two, I can't help but think that the difference is not apples to oranges but more like Fuji apples to Golden Delicious. Seriously.
of the new books in UF. I love this site.
And then I followed through and found a great post at Dirty Sexy Books which outlines books that blur the lines between the two. It's highly entertaining reading which elaborates on the distinction but I'm still not sure it really matters either way. This brings me to my final, still unanswered question: does it really matter? Are readers that choosy that they'll only read material from one given classification? I don't doubt that there are some people out int he world that are that choosy but when you walk into a bookstore, it's not as though they have these sub categories and you're usually relegated to the Fantasy section. It seems to me this is a bit of a mute issue but I'm curious if anyone else out there vehemantly disagrees?
Reading this short passage in P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast's new book "Hunted
And how weird is it that we're discussing the "Alien Quadrilogy
She smiled and suddenly she reminded me of the creature in Alien, that totally freaky old movie with Sigourney Weaver and the really scary alien that ate people.
- "Hunted", pg. 249
Not sure if it's lack of interest, short time span or just that very few people read this blog, I'm extending the deadline for the context until next Friday, March 6th.
Hope you'll consider participating...all it takes is a book and a camera! Details here.
It's easy to take it for granted when you walk into a bookstore to find hundreds if not thousands of books to choose from but even with all the freedoms allotted to us, there are still many books that are, for one reason or another, not easy if at all possible to find.
The Freedom of Expression Committee is a committee of the Book and Periodical Council and they monitor censorship issues in Canada as they pertain to books and every year they run "Freedom to Read Week" in an effort to shine light on the censorship issues.
Looking down the list of banned books is something else, especially when it includes titles like "A Handmaid's Tale" and "Snow Falling on Cedars" (really?).
There's a lot of action going on this week in support and even our Bookcrossing friends are getting in on the action but I want to do something a little special.
Until Friday, I will be running a contest and the winner will have a chance to win a book from the censored list. To enter, simply email me a photo or link to a photo in the comments, of you reading. It's pretty simple - I just ask that you keep it PG please!
Starting Saturday, I will post the photos and allow individuals to vote on their faves with the one receiving the most votes winning. That part of the contest will run until March 7th with the winner being announced on March 8th.
Get those cameras ready and send in your entries!
Thanks to Monica for the info on Freedom to Read Week!
I vaguely recall doing one of these lists a while back but I'd be damned to find it among hundreds of posts (some before tagging ever entered my little mind). I pulled this one off of I.A.M.'s blog. Apparently the BBC believes that the average person has only read six of the books on the list.
Instructions: Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read
1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen [X]
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien [X]
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
4. The “Harry Potter” series - JK Rowlin
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible - Various
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell [X]
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman [X]
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
12. Tess of the d’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. “The Complete Works of Shakespeare” - William 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 Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald [X]
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams [X]
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll [X]
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graham
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. “The Chronicles of Narnia” - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen [X]
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen [X]
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini [X]
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden [X]
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell [X]
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown [X]
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving [X]
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery [X]
47. Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood [X]
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding [X]
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert [X]
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen [X]
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 [X]
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon [X]
60. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov [X]
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt [X]
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’s Diary - Helen Fielding [X]
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker [X]
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett [X]
74. Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Inferno - Dante
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
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 [X]
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad [X]
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery [X]
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 Shakespear [X]
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
I guess I'm anomoly - I've read 29 of the titles on the list. How do you stack up? Share in the comments or post your own - just be sure to leave a note so that I can visit! :)
I've talked about book trailers in the past but even the one I tracked down that was good wasn't quite this good. It's more of a teaser and really only works, I assume, if you've read the series but I'm curious for those who aren't familiar with the "House of Night" series: does this do anything for you?
In an effort to stay ahead of the curve and in light of the fact that the books have been optioned in the hopes of a hit the size of Twilight, I recently picked-up the first novel in the “House of Night” series by authors P.C. Cast and her daughter Kristin Cast. The idea of a Vampyre Finishing School is indeed an interesting sounding premise but it’s far from what you get in the series. Four books of the proposed nine part series have been released and I’m pleased to announce that I’ve bought into the series; hook, line and sinker.
In the Cast’s vampyre world, which seems to run parallel to our own, vampyres aren’t created by being bit. Instead when they reach puberty, some individuals are “marked” with a sign on their forehead and forced to move into a local “House of Night”, a school that essentially prepares the fledglings for a transformation into vampyres. Unfortunately, not everyone who is marked successfully completes “the change” and a few individuals die in the process. In this parallel world, the vampyres have also “come out” and live amongst humans. These vampyres can also travel in the day (though it’s very uncomfortable) and there’s quite the gap in time from when you’re marked to when you make the change giving the young ones a chance to adjust to their soon to be new lives. The story marries the traditional idea of the vampyre with a more spiritual approach. The vampyres in these stories are highly matriarchal with the women having the most power, and they are forever attached to the Goddess Nyx.
A few thoughts on the specific books (very mild spoilers - promise):
“Marked” – The first novel in the series sets up the story nicely introducing the main players including heroine Zoey Redbird, her group of friends, her nemesis Aphrodite and high priestess Neferet. Though I enjoyed the story, I found the characters, especially Zoey, highly unlikable and the style of writing obnoxious. I realize that Mrs. Cast brought her daughter on board to help with the “teen speak” but it’s a bit much and I nearly put down the book on more than one occasion thankfully, the story is compelling enough to keep the reader interested. Even more than the teen speak, I was particularly unimpressed by the continued and repetitive cultural references that came up throughout the novel which will do the book no favours in the ageing process. In the end, it’s a light read that ends on a fairly major cliff-hanger.
“Betrayed” – More of the same. I came to dislike Zoey even more in book two and started to wonder what kind of example this girl is setting for other teens. A couple of boyfriends? Flirting with a teacher? What on earth? I realize that books in a series are almost guaranteed to sum up the previous novel at some point near the beginning for those that jump in part-way through but the recap here felt particularly forced and unnecessary. The story isn't that complicated; have faith that your reader will figure it out. It was at this point in the story that I started to realize that the Cast’s had probably written an insanely long manuscript or pitched a story idea that the publisher asked them to draw out over a nine part series because book two ends in even more of a cliff-hanger than book one.
“Chosen” – This is where the story really starts to pick-up. The writing is a bit less annoying and the cultural references less pronounced not to mention that the characters, a little more developed by this point, have started to take on a life of their own. No longer are we simply tied to Zoey but some of the side characters have begun to grow into integral key players. Admittedly, the only reason I kept reading was because of Loren Blake. Oh dear, I do have a thing for the bad boys.
I’m hard pressed to highly recommend the books because the series doesn’t start off particularly well but it develops quickly and the novels are addictive. On the one hand, I’m happy to see that teen sexuality isn’t pushed into the background and that sex is something which features prominently in the story (rather than simply pretending it doesn't exist). I wouldn’t be comfortable with a pre-teen reading this but then it’s nothing new that they haven’t seen or heard about on TV. Still, I’d probably hold off on a 13-year-old giving this a read unless you’re prepared to have “the talk”. Aside from the sexuality, there’s also the disclaimer of language and though easy to read, there is a fair bit of swearing in the series though again, nothing they’ve not heard at school.
The relationships, both with friends and boyfriends are complicated and not perfect love-stories which I liked though I’m still a little distraught by the whole Blake/Zoey aspect of things. It’s a relationship that seemed particularly forced and then quickly ended and though I have some moral issues with it, I must also admit that I found Loren completely engrossing; I would have liked this to be developed a little more.
Overall, though not brilliant, the “House of Night” series is highly addictive teen-lit with just enough racy bits to keep adults as enthralled as teens. Must reads? Not really but definitely worth a look for so called “beach reading”. I’m anticipating the other books in the series; “Hunted” is scheduled for release on March 10, 2009.
For loads more information and extras on the books, check out the official website and online community for the series.
Early in my highschool days, I was introduced to Margaret Atwood by an English teacher who pushed “The Handmade’s Tale” on us. It was part of a section on Canadian Fiction and together with a book of short stories which I think was titled “Inside Stories” though I can’t find a record of it anywhere online.
I still have a feeling that if I’d started with any other of Atwood’s work, I’d never have become a reader of her work but that novel peaked my interest and over the years, I did read a number of her short stories, essays and even a number of other books (my favourites include “The Robber Bride” and “Alias Grace”) but by the late 90’s, I’d lost interest. I had a run-in with the author at an event and what happened forever tarnished my blind and youthful admiration of the woman.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been meaning to revisit her work, particularly “Oryx and Crake” which has been sitting on my bookshelf for a few years, but whenever I think I’ll get to it, something else comes up. Aside from that, something else has become quite clear to me: Atwood is a great thinker. I don’t mean just a great storyteller but, as with many successful artists, she looks at things from outside the box. I first caught a glimpse of this after seeing her talk about religion but her most recent work has really cemented that thought for me.
After reading that short interview, I’ve decided to put my prejudice aside and before the end of the month, I’ll be making the trip into the bookstore to pick up my very own copy of “Payback.” It should make for an interesting read.
Early, very early (maybe too early) this morning, I read a great article written by Kim Voynarover at Cinematical regarding the "Breaking Dawn" backlash that I mentioned yesterday.
I considered simply posting this on Twitter but I thought it might be of interest to others who may be curious about the developing situation and who don't follow me or read Cinematical regularly. It's an interesting read, one that I agree with nearly 100% and Kim brings up and expands on a few of my thougths. Definitely worth checking out.
Sunday afternoon I devoted 2 solid hours of my day to "reading time", something I haven't done in a few months. With a stack of DVD's sitting on the coffee table, I curled up instead with a blanket and the last 300 pages of Stephenie Meyer's "Breaking Dawn".
I wasn't going to write anything extensive about the book, mostly because it was brain candy, but after reading something about the backlash for the book, I thought it may be worthwile to add my two cents. One of the reasons the "Twilight" series has been so popular has been the fact that it features an epic romance. It has nothing on Diana Gabaldon's Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall romance (now that's epic romance right there) but there's a certain innocence in Bella and Edward's relationship and the "can't have that" threads that run through the first three books are what really kept me interested. I always assumed it was just good storytelling - an impossible love - but I was not surprised to find out later, much later infact, that Meyer is very religious and thinking back to the novels, it was clear that she was purposefully keeping things relatively clean.
The other selling point was the female protagonist though to be honest, Bella stood out to me as someone girls would latch on to. She was awkward and sensitive and managed to get the perfect guy which could have some appeal to girls but other than that, she seemed a bit too meek for me - if I want to read about strong young women I'll turn to Tamora Pierce, so it didn't surprise me much when in "Breaking Dawn", Bella comes across much the same way as she did in the previous books: needy. Surprisingly, Meyer also infuses her with a streak of intelligence and power. Not a bad thing: we all have secret powers if we only know how to tap into them.
What I didn't expect was that people would latch onto the pregnancy part of the story so darn much. So yes, there is a clear anti-abortion message here but is that necessarily a bad thing? Could one not argue that it's pro-choice since Bella chose to continue carrying the baby? Worse still, do we really want to ruin a perfectly good and innocent story by looking into it this deeply? Depending on which side of the fence you're on, you could argue the series from both sides of the fence - there's plenty of fodder for both, but is that really necessary? I don't think it is.
Because I don't agree with the backlash, doesn't mean I absolutely loved the book. Yes, it kept me enthralled for a few hours and I loved re-entering the Cullen's lives but to be honest, the story took a turn I wasn't expecting and didn't much like. I preferred the danger of Bella and Edward's relationship. Take out the danger and I pretty much didn't care anymore. The entire thing became about the pregnancy and the resulting baby and to be honest, I didn't much care. I would have rather followed Alice and Jasper on their search but I'll take what I can get.
I still haven't managed to get through "The Host", it simply didn't suck me in like "Twilight" did and to be honest, I have a sad little feeling that Meyer will be unable to write anything worthwile outside of Twilight Series. I can see a few more not-so-well received books being pumped out before she decides to return to the Cullen's. Until then, I'm sure I'll find something else of interest - "Uglies" has come highly recommended and "Zombie Blondes" sounds interesting. I also have 2 bookshelves crammed with material...
My search for the book was a bit of a disaster. I started off on Saturday morning at Costco who had all of the other books in the series (I nearly re-bought them all - I'll have to do that next weekend) but not the new one. Wal-Mart didn't have them either. I spent the afternoon out and about so I didn't have a chance to stop anywhere else. I knew I was in trouble when I spotted a little girl of about 14, at Ridgestock holding the book. I made a bit of a scene with hubby, more as a joke than anything else.
I did manage to finally lay my hands on the book on Sunday morning when Cuz and I met hubby out at the car show in Coquitlam. There was a Chapters accross the street with an entire wall of books so I managed to pick-up my copy. I've been trying very hard to be reasonable about the reading schedule so I haven't been staying up late or anything but I have been overlooking things like DVD's and podcasts. I'll get to that at some point next week.
In the meantime, I have some thoughts about the book so far. There will be some ****MAJOR**** spoilers after the picture so if you plan on reading the book, you may want to skip the rest of this.
So I'm a little over 200 pages in and the following has all happened:
- Bella and Edward are married
- Bella and Edward have had sex (this is where the imagination comes into play since Meyer gives you very little - she's good that way)
- Bella is pregnant
- Bella is dying
- Jacob has left the pack
A while back I brought up a TIME article in which the author noted how Stephenie Meyer's novels are to quote, because I love the quote, "squeaky, geeky clean on the surface, but right below it, they are absolutely, deliciously filthy." At the time, I agreed wholeheartedly with the sentiment but over the last few weeks I've considered the statement and come to the conclusion that it's not completely accurate.
Fact is that the books are pretty squeaky clean. There's talk of kissing to the point of not being able to breathe and the topic of sex does come up, often tied with the subject of marriage. The filthy bit doesn't come from anything Meyer's says but rather from what she leaves out. I'm no longer 14 and innocent (I was sheltered OK?) so I can't imagine what goes through a 14 year old's head when she reads some of the steamier moments but I sure know what goes through my mind. That's the filthy bit - though it's also not all that filthy, Edward is 100+ years old.
Earlier today I was reading an interesting article over at Newsweek which took my second thought a little further. Reporter Susan Elgin talked to a few mothers and rather unsurprisingly found that a few of them saw the books as a doorway to speak to their daughters about sex. In a society where teen sex seems to be rampant, Meyer's books bring up the issue in a way that allows parents a dialog that doesn't include having to disswade their pre-teen and teen daughters from the actions being taken by their literary heroes. Bella and Edward aren't having sex and whenever it does come up, the question of marriage looms in the backdrop. The two are always intertwined. Though as they grow older girls will likely start thinking beyond the tie of sex and marriage, it's nice to see that they have a role model that, for the time being at least, is abstaining.
I borrowed this from from my friend Wrybread. Couldn't resist. He comments the apparently the average adult has read 6 of these books. If that's the case, I'm doing pretty well. My count so far: 32!
How it works:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them.
5) Cross off the books you hated.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - (Once was enough)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (Read #1. No interest int he rest)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen 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'Urbervilles - 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 Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller'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 (This is definitely on my list now!)
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 - C.S. Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (reading it right now!)
38 Captain Corelli'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-time - Mark Haddon (Didn't like it)
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 (This was brilliant beyond words. One of the best novels I've read in 5 years)
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 (It was a class assignment. Not that great)
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 Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
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 - Rohinton 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 (Really disliked this one. Was a hard one to get through though I am happy I've read it once!)
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 (Tried but couldn't do it.)
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
If you part-take in the fun, be sure to let me know in the comments. I'm always looking for new stuff to read...not that I need more books for my shelf.
The other day I posted some interesting developments in book promotion that has been dubbed "Book Trailers" and today I noticed some interesting marketing with "Writing Guru of the Moment" Stephenie Meyer.
By now you've noticed I'm a fan of the books but I'm also very impressed by Meyer's team and their creativity in spreading the word and excitement on the books and keeping the fans happy and involved. Sure, having a movie in the works doesn't hurt any but I'm particularly impressed by news around Meyer's book tour. These tours are nothing new: a book comes out, the author goes on tour to promote it and sign autographs. The difference here is the way in which they're approaching this. Meyer's publicity team is going further by incorporating music into the event even dubbing it the "Breaking Dawn Concert Series". 
If that's not enough, they've also recently announced that the tour will be recorded and used as webcontent to share with fans, free of charge. Talk about keeping your market happy.
This entire thing reminds me of the last time I saw Anne Rice, on tour with Pandora. The event ticket cost me $15 but it also included a screening of Interview with a Vampire but I must admit, that seems small compared to this marketing machine.
Details about "The Breaking Dawn Concert Series" can be found on the official website. If you're looking for information on book tours in general, I urge you to check out BookTour which allows you to sign up, find the author of your choice and track their upcoming tour events via email!
I *should* have known but I didn't. Shortly after I finished reading Stephenie Meyer's trilogy, I took all three massive books to a Bookcrossing Meetup where vanbiohazard took them home. I didn't think twice about it at the time but I can't tell you the amount of times I've kicked myself since then. I should have kept them and damned it, now I don't have them to refer back to. I just never knew this entire Bella/Edward story would blow up the way it has.
"Breaking Dawn" is due out a bit later this year (59 days and counting) but clicking around Meyer's site, I found a link to "Midnight Sun" which is essentially Edward's take on "Twilight". Now that's mighty interesting. The pdf to the first chapter is here but I don't want to read it until I have the original to compare it to. You know what that means right? Looks like I'll be dropping some money on the book. A second time. *sigh*
I've been in a bit of shock the last few weeks hearing and seeing various publications refer to author Stephenie Meyer as the new J.K. Rowling. Sure, there are a few similarities but as I see it, not enough to warrant the comparison - and that's not a bad thing either. I couldn't get into the Potter series but I entered Meyer's books on the ground floor and was hooked immediately.
I'm one of these people that has never been afraid to read from the teen section at the book store, mostly because over the years I've come to find that many of the fantasy stories I've enjoyed have come from there. I was looking for some new reading material last year when I noticed "Twilight" on the shelf. The cover caught my attention and taking a quick read of the inside cover, I decided it would be worth a shot - considering my love affair with vampire stories. I was sucked in from the first few pages and ran out before finishing to find the second book ("New Moon") in the series. By the time that was done, I only had a few short weeks to wait before book three, "Eclipse", came on the scene. I don't track best sellers so I had no idea just how big this entire Meyer thing was until the movie was announced.
In a recent TIME article, reporter Lev Grossman had this to say:
That's the power of the Twilight books: they're squeaky, geeky clean on the surface, but right below it, they are absolutely, deliciously filthy.
And that right there is the only explanation needed for Meyer's work. It's like Anne Rice for "geeky clean" teens, taking on some of Rice's themes from a different angle and using very, very different characters.
I like Meyer's stories and her method of storytelling so yes, I'm a pretty big fan. I'm curious to read her up coming sci-fi novel, "The Host", which is due on shelves in early May, mostly to see whether her style transcends the vampire genre and if she can be as successful without Edward. In the meantime, I'm holding my breath the fourth installment of the so called "Twilight Series" which is due later this year and of course, then there's the movie...
Photo from Flickr care of *Valaris*.
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