Wishful Thinking

This is my vacation reading list:

We are vacationing with children, so I'm pretty sure I will not complete all, or even half, of these books; but I do like having them close by.  I'm also thinking it may be time for an e-reader***.  (Recommendations, I have my eye on the Nook Color?)  I'll let you know if we can fit the kids in the car, after we cram in everything else. 

I would also like to point out that all, but one, of these books were gotten through Paperback Swap.  That includes the two hardbacks.  Not bad, if I do say so myself. 

***I would be happy to review any e-reader out there, you just need to give me one.  No return postage paid envelope would be necessary, I won't be returning it.  

Have You Read these Books?

There is a meme going around the virtual world (Facebook & the blog world) about what books people have read. I haven't found the BBC meme stating that most people have only read 6 of the books on the list. I have found a BBC link from 2003 with a very similar list, calling it The Big Read - Top 100 Books. (Sorry, it is the history major in me. I must find the primary source on a topic, otherwise it has no true basis. And Wikipedia DOES NOT count as a primary source.)

So, does this "meme" have no meaning? Um, no. I am a reader, and therefore I am predisposed to think everyone should have a well-rounded exposure to literature. Then again, if we want people to read, they should read what they enjoy, and many of these books would fall under "classical literature" and may not appeal to everyone.

However, it was still fun to see what I've read, from the list. I guess it is the competitive side of me.

The fact that I have read many of these books is a testament to my high school. They made us read, a lot. Maybe it was just the college prep kids who had to read. I don't know. What I do know is that if I walked away from high school with anything, it was a solid foundation in literature.

So, here is my submission to the meme, with many side comments. Because, I have an opinion on everything, and it is my blog.

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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. I believe that's untrue because my friends are very educated! (One friend commented that many of the books she has read, from this list, she read in French. Then again, she teaches French.)

• Bold those books you've read in their entirety.

• Bold & Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read only an excerpt.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Recently read, thanks to my Jane Austen Inspired Summer (which turned into a year.)

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

Watched the movies, enjoyed them. Never could get into the books.

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

I think I read this, not sure. I do remember reading Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys. A prequel, of sorts, to Jane Eyre.

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

I've listened to the books on CD, does that count?

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

11th Grade English.

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

High School English, can't remember which grade. Read it again in college, just for giggles.

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

12th Grade English, for my research/resource literature paper. Can anyone remember the name of those papers?

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Was never a Charles Dickens reader. I've tried.

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

What girl hasn't read Little Women.

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

I read the Mayor of Casterbridge, 12th Grade English, also by Thomas Hardy, that should count for something.

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

Romeo & Juliet, 8th Grade; Julius Caesar, 10th Grade; Macbeth, 12th Grade, I'm sure there were more. I can't remember.

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

Would like to see the movie.

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

It took several tries, but I did finally completed it.

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

Started, never finished. Teenage boy in angst, just couldn't get into it.

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

Part of my classics kick, after college.

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

Great movie, couldn't get into the book.

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

Felt that my life was not complete until I read this, so I read it. Now my life is complete.

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

It is very likely that I picked this up, flipped through the pages, and set it back down.

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

That is his first name "Fyodor". No wonder everyone just calls the poor guy "Dostoyevsky". When I first saw it, I thought it was a typo.

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

A little unsure about this one, though it does sound like an 11th grade assigned book.

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

Read this to the kids one summer. Oops, forgot about the language.

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

Late nights, nursing a baby.

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

Once again, listened to all of them on CD. Half credit?

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 Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

Saw the movie. Had to agree with the critics.

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

Movie! Though I know the book is always better then the movie, I have no desire to read the book. Especially if I saw the movie first. Which, for The Da Vinci Code, was pretty good.

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

It felt like it took me 100 years to read it. Very similar to The General in His Labyrinth. I felt like I was wondering around, in his labyrinth, for 100 years.

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

Again, what girl hasn't read it.

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

For a literature class, which I audited my senior year in college, when I realized I was about to graduate from a liberal arts college and have not taken a literature class.

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

Read it for giggles. Not exactly a "just for fun" read.

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herber

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

Like I mentioned above, I've tried, just not a Dickens kind of girl.

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Love this book! Actually, I read it by accident. Was supposed to read a different book for a class, and got the assignments mixed up. Very glad I had.

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

11th Grade English. We read a number of controversial books. I mean, our high school reading list consisted of 9, of the top 10, banned books (as of late 1980's/early 1990's).

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’s Diary - Helen Fielding

Saw the movie. Had absolutely no desire to read the book. Remember what I said about teenage boy angst? Well, grown woman angst makes me what to dope slap the main character. My apologies to Renee Zellweger.

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

Sat in a box, for a very long time.

76 The Inferno - Dante

Sat in the same box, as Ulysses, for about as long.

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 - E.B. 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

Saw the Broadway musical. It was on Broadway. That counts for something?

What have you read? Any books you are surprised not to see on the list? You were surprised to find on the list? And, what books did you read in high school, if you can remember? Did you school assign such risque books as Of Mice and Men and Catcher in the Rye?

A Rose by Any Other Name ...

My family spent 5 years living in England when I was young.

There is a small language barrier between English English and American English; for example you order chips at McDonald's when you want french fries.

And when you want an eraser, you ask for a rubber.

At least I did, after we moved back to the States. I was in 6th Grade and walked up to my U.S., male, teacher and asked him for a rubber. (For the record, I had no idea it meant something else in the States.)

It was a very interesting conversation, me asking for a rubber, and wondering why he was flustered and sweating. And, he ... well, I don't know what he was thinking, but when I finally said "eraser" he exhaled and the color returned to his face.

And, now JT is reading some of the British books I read at his age, and once again I find myself crossing that language barrier.

Now, when he came to me and asked what certain words meant I thought he had heard them from school. We are at that fun stage where he is hearing all kinds of sayings, and then trying them out at home.

To combat these interesting outbursts we have encouraged him to ask us about any new sayings or words he has heard, before trying them out himself. This strategy helps to cut down on outbursts, from all parties.

So, when he came to me and asked what "ass" and "blow you" meant I wasn't too surprised; though mentally, I was once again praising public schools, and the judgment of other parents who allow their children to hear these sayings at home.

Ahemmm

Well I answered the first word fairly easily, with a firm warning to never use the word. Before answering his second question I asked him where he heard these words.

"In the book you gave me to read"

What did I just say about parental judgment, and allowing kids to hear (or read) certain words.

The book he was reading was The Famous Five Together Again, by Enid Blyton. These books are about as benign as them come. The author was also British, and written in the 1960's.

The British have a thing for the word "ass." It seems to be everywhere, and on the benign side of bad language. In our house, not so much.

And, the term "blow you." I'm making the beat that it meant something completely different in 1960 England, then what it may mean in present day, U.S. Which is what I explained to JT.

:::sigh::: This is not talked about in the parenting books.

Old Books ... New Lives

With a reading child in the house it was time to pull out some of my favorite childhood books. These were my ultimate favorites from childhood, including the Little House on the Prairie series (can't wait to start reading these aloud) and several Snoppy cartoon books I had long forgotten about (and all read by by 7 year-old between Saturday and Sunday.)

Some books remained in the box as they are hanging by a binding thread. A number of books pulled out were ones I collected when I lived in England and am now excited to share them with my children. After rummaging through the boxes there were neatly displayed in the living room for the kids to find the next day.

I forgot I had these Blue Peter annual books, 5 or 6 total in my collection. Blue Peter is a television show for kids, much like ....? Well, I can't think of any U.S. comparisons. (Just another example of the poor programming, we in the States, are subjected too.) It is a live action show that does a bit of everything, informational and entertainment, for kids. And apparently still popular as they are still on TV after 50+ years. Wow, I wish they scheduled this on BBC America.

OK, so other gems I found was a set of Paddington Bear books. Actually, our kids have already been introduced to Paddington Bear, though they didn't really appreciate the books the first time around(probably a little young and with Dad reading allowed a little boring) until they saw a Paddington video. At that time my oldest got back into the books.

Another group of books were written by Enid Blyton. I have some from The Famous Five, Mystery books and my favorite the Malory Towers and St. Clare's series. The former were pulled out, better suited for a co-ed audience. The later are two series about girl's boarding schools. A topic a 7 year-old boy may not find interesting. However, I'm looking forward to digging into those books again. I loved my original set to pieces and recently acquired a new set of each series, thanks to a business associate of my Dad's. Now, when my daughter becomes a reader she to can enjoy these series, if I don't read these new books to pieces.

I could continue this list for several more paragraphs, however I want to hear from you. What books did you enjoy as a child and are looking forward to (or have already) introducing to your children. Leave a comment. Our household is always looking for new books to add to our reading list.

Summer Reading Update

If you read my July 6th posting you know we are on a reading kick in our house. The kids and I were reading Wind in the Willows (were, not so much now) and I've become a Jane Austen addict. Well, I just finished Jane Austen book number 3, three more to go. Persuasion was the latest book and I can't wait to see the movie versions. Next is Sense and Sensibility, like Persuasion it is a short one and hopefully it will not take long to finish (like Emma and Pride and Prejudice.)

We were reading Wind in the Willows to the kids, but that seems to have ended. No, we didn't finish the book, the kids just couldn't get into it. The kids did watch the video on our way to Canada and liked it, but there is a lot in the book the video doesn't cover. There is a lot I don't remember from when I read it (many, many years ago.) This may be added to my reading list, after my Jane Austen kick has ended.

Oh, and the car is finally swept, cross that off my list. The bags still need a good shake out but other then that life is almost normal in our house. Well, except for the table in our living room. This table is a holding table; library books sit here, all items to be moved to the basement and upstairs sit on the table, and all the stuff I unpacked and has yet to find a home is now sitting on this table. I should take a picture and show you the leaning tower of stuff sitting on this table.

And that reminds me, the pictures from our vacation are still on the camera. Better add that to my to do list.

Summer Reading

Last summer I traveled around the world the cheapest way possible, through books. First I visited Provence, France by reading Peter Mayle’s A Good Year, then traveled down to Tuscany, Italy with Under the Tuscan Sun, written by Frances Mayes. The summer ended with a second ocean crossing to Botswana, and read The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith.

Several summers ago I attempted to read E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s The General in His Labrinth. However, I did not get very far in either book. with two young children (at the time my oldest was 2) reading the books made me feel as if I was lost in a labyrinth, in the heat of the Indian sun.

This summer I’m traveling back in time and enjoying the works of Jane Austen. The idea of an Austen summer began when a friend introduced me to some books based on Jane Austen and her characters, The Jane Austen Book Club, Me and Mr. Darcy, Austenland. Then PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre presented the entire series of Jane Austen’s work this past winter. I was hooked. This summer I am reading her entire works, after each book rewarding myself with its TV adaptation. When I’ve finished all 6 of her books I’ll move onto the Jane Austen themed books. At the rate I’m going, I’m only on my 2nd Jane Austen book, I should be good for reading material through the winter.

As a family we are reading Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. We kicked off our family reading venture by seeing a kid friendly production of Wind in the Willows performed by the local university’s children’s playhouse. When we are finished with the book the kids will be rewarded for not whining each night that we read the book completing such a long book by seeing the stop-action movie adaptation, made in 1983. At least I hope we finish the book by the time we watch the movie. I bought it for our trip to Canada but at the rate we are reading the book may not be finished before our trip.

And now that I have shared our family's favorite books what is your family reading this summer?

Reading is Fun

Who knew the library could provide several hours of entertainment for my active children. We went today, the first time for many months, and spent about an hour and left with way too many books. What did my kids do for an hour at the library? The boys played on the computers and my daughter conducted a "class" with all the stuffed animals. What did I do? I picked out many of the books we brought home. I can't help it, I mean to limit myself to about 10 books and before I know it my arms are full, and my bag is stuffed.

From the time we leave the library my children have their hands on at least one book, and while in the car looking through them and passing them around. Once home the children were into the books, the only activities interrupting them were baths and dinner. In fact, when the babysitter arrived at 6:30 they made the poor girl read a good 5 to 8 books before she put them to bed. My kids love books, they always have, but the only time they are so enthralled in books is after a trip to the library or the Green Valley Book Fair. Looking ahead to the summer I'm wondering if the magic of books would continue to work if we made daily trips to the library.

The great news is that all those read books go on their summer reading list. Every summer our local library hosts a reading program where we read so many books, record the titles and return the list for a prize, or two. So, if you live in the area head to your local Massanutten Regional Library and sign up; and don't forget your goody bag, it has a coupon to the Massanutten Water Park.