Booking Through Thursday! - 100 Books!

I did it! I've read/listened to 100 books this year. My original goal was to read/listen to at least 100 books during the year but since it's only May I guess I'm going to double my goal to 200 books in 2010. Crazy I know - but I never watch TV, rarely watch movies and always listen to audio books while driving, cleaning, cooking, etc.
Some favorite quotes on reading:

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.~ Joseph Addison ~

When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading,just as I did when I was young.~ Maya Angelou ~

There are worse crimes than burning books.One of them is not reading them.~ Joseph Brodsky ~

No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.~ Confucius ~

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.~ Groucho Marx ~

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read.~Mark Twain ~

So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall. ~Roald Dahl

Booking Through Thursday

I was at Women's Conference last week so this is 2 weeks worth of reading. Total books so far this year 77.

Booking Through Thursday

I wonder when the reading bug is going to wear off?
I keep thinking I'm going to slow down on the amount I'm reading & listening to.
So far it hasn't happened. In fact my pace seems to be increasing. I'm surprised at how many books I made it through this week. I usually don't sit around reading unless I get in an hour before falling asleep. During the day I listen to audio books while being the mom, housekeeper, errand runner, etc. There was a night this week I woke up at 1 am and was wide awake. 3 hours later I had finished a book but was still wide awake. That at least added to my number of books this week.
For every book I read I seem to find another 2 or 3 books to add to my list of books I want to read. There will never be enough hours in the day to read everything I want to.
I read 6 books this week and listened to 2 for a total of 8 books this week and 62 books so far this year.

Booking Through Thursday

Well there is one thing in my life that I've been keeping up with.... READING! Or more accurately LISTENING to audio books. I don't have much time to actually sit and read but I love audio books! I love that it makes housework fly by and seem much more fun. It makes driving enjoyable. And of course it makes exercise less painful.
I'm blessed to have a great library nearby and to have access to an online library where I can download audio books for free. 54 books in 14 weeks means I'm averaging almost 4 books per week. That total is going to slow down because I'm about to start some bigger books that will take me a long time to get through. There are a few classics that I want to read or listen to. One of them is 46 hours long on audio which will take a couple weeks to get through.

Bright Blue Miracle by Becca Wilhite

Shiver by Maggie Shiefvater

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins

The Heart of a Healthy Marriage and a Happy Family by Wally Goddard

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

Booking Through Thursday

It was a great week for reading. I listened to 3 books and read 2. I got back in the habit of using my MP3 player with books downloaded from Utah's Pioneer Online Library. Why did I ever stop using it? I'm at 24 book so far this year.

I love to listen to Dr. Laura so I enjoyed this book about being a stay at home mom.

This book by Marie Ricks was ok. A few good ideas but there are other books I would recommend before this one.

Skip this book by Robert Cormier. Great writing but too much objectionable language and content.

Loved this book! The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. What a crazy name but what a great book.

Spiritually Centered Motherhood by Sherrie Johnson was also a wonderful book I highly recommend.
http://www.goodreads.com/inspiredby

That's A Wrap! 114 Books in 2009

Books I Read In 2009
1. Blue Noon (Midnighter's Book 3) by Scott Westerfeld
2. Counting Blessing - Wit & Wisdom for Women by Kerry Blair
3. Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling
4. Snow: A Retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Tracy Lynn
5. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
6. Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne Duprau
7. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
8. If Life Were Easy It Wouldn't Be Hard by Sheri Dew
9. House of Glory: Finding Personal Meaning In The Temple by S. Michael Wilcox
10. Strangling Your Husband Is NOT An Option by Merrilee Boyack
11. How to Be An Extra-Ordinary Teenager by John Bytheway
12. Golden: A Retelling of "Rapunzel" by Cameron Dokey
13. Believing Christ: The Parable of the Bicycle and Other Good News by Stephen E. Robinson
14. The Parenting Breakthrough by Merrilee Boyack
15. Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food by Jessica Seinfeld
16. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
17. The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman
18. The Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage by Laura Schlessinger
19. Mothering With Spiritual Power: Book of Mormon Inspirations for Raising a Righteous Family by Debra Sansing Woods
20. Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey
21. The Four Laws of Debt Free Prosperity by Blaine Harris
22. Holy Places: True Stories of Faith and Miracles from Latter-Day Temples by Chad S. Hawkins
23. The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
24. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
25. Dragonsong (Harper Hall Trilogy, Book 1)by Anne McCaffrey
26. The Stripling Warrior and Warriorette Workout by Shane Barker
27. Don't Cry Wolf by Clair Poulson
28. We Are Sisters by Marilynne Todd Linford
29. Dragonsinger (Harper Hall Trilogy, Book 2) by Anne McCaffrey
30. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)by Rick Riordan
31. Overheard at the Dance by Carol Lynn Pearson
32. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
33. The China Study by T. Colin Campbell
34. Dragondrums (Harper Hall Trilogy, Book 3) by Anne McCaffrey
35. Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident (Book 2) by Eoin Colfer
36. Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code (Book 3) by Eoin Colfer
37. Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception (Book 4) by Eoin Colfer
38. City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, Book 3) by Cassandra Clare
39. How to Talk to Your Child About Sex by Richard & Linda Eyre
40. Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony (Book 5) by Eoin Colfer
41. Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox (Book 6) by Eoin Colfer
42. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
43. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
44. Food Matters by Mark Bittman
45. The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester
46. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
47. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
48. The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards
49. The Book of Mormon
50. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
51. Eldest by Christopher Paolini
52. Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder
53. Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder
54. The Peacegiver: How Christ Offers to Heal Our Hearts and Homes by James L. Ferrell
55. Chalice by Robin McKinley
56. Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
57. A Wolf at the Door edited by Ellen Datlow
58. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
59. Eyes of a Stranger by Carol Warburton
60. Keeping It Together in a Pull-Apart World by Mary Ellen Edmunds
61. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
62. The Time-Starved Family by DeAnne Flynn
63. Austenland by Shannon Hale
64. Finding the Angel Within by Pamela H. Hansen
65. Wings by Aprilynne Pike
66. The Best Halloween Ever by Barbara Robinson
67. Walking into a Hug: 52 Weeks to a Home That's More Embracing by Janene Ustach
68. A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
69. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
70. Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
71. Too Much to Carry Alone by Camille Fronk Olson
72. Skinned by Robin Wasserman
73. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
74. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
75. Mary, Martha, And Me by Camille Fronk Olson
76. The Best School Year Ever by Barbara Robinson
77. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
78. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
79. Crashed by Robin Wasserman
80. Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
81. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
82. Rebel Angels by Libba Bray
83. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Marquez
84. Love That Lasts by Gary Lundberg
85. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
86. Behind Every Good Man by John Bytheway
87. I Just Got a Letter From Allyson Pringle by Anya Bateman
88. The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
89. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
90. Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
91. 1984 by George Orwell
92. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
93. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
94. Animal Farm by George Orwell
95. Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox
96. The Solace of Leaving Early by Haven Kimmel
97. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
98. Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys by Janet Kay Jensen
99. Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
100. First Meetings by Orson Scott Card
101. Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
102. The Crayon Messages by Christine Thackeray
103. A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card
104. Follow the River by Leif Enger
105. Peace Like A River James Alexander Thom
106. Lemon Tart by Josi Kilpack
107. Ender in Excile by Orson Scott Card
108. Empire by Orson Scott Card
109. Space Boy by Orson Scott Card
110. The Sound of Rain by Anita Stansfield
111. A Distant Thunder by Anita Stansfield
112. Winds of Hope by Anita Stansfield
113. Shelter From the Storm by Anita Stansfield
114. The Silence of Snow by Anita Stansfield

There were several other books I started but didn't finish. I also finished the Book of Mormon a second time. I had hoped to finish up the Old Testament this year but never did. I will get through it in 2010 since I will be teaching it in Sunday School and want to be able to tell my students I have read it cover to cover. Reading the Old Testaments makes me profoundly grateful to have the Book of Mormon.
I read 10 books by Orson Scott Card and think he is an amazing writer - I hesitate to recommend his books simply because they contain a lot of inappropriate language in them so reader beware. One book I wish I hadn't read was Love in the Time of Cholera - I hated it from beginning to end and it never got better - it should be on my didn't finish list but for some stupid reason I kept reading thinking it would get better - I doubt I'll ever read an Oprah book again!
I was trying to read more classics and started on that goal at the end of August but only made it through 4 before I started couponing and quit avidly reading.
I'm trying to figure out my reading goal for 2010. I'd like to hit 100 books and think I can do it again. I have committed to reading at least 75 books and should be able to pull that off with little problem. We'll see how the year starts off to see if I try for 100+. At one point I thought I'd hit 150 books this year but then my priorities shifted to couponing and saving money and that took a lot of my time.
My list of books that I want to read in 2010 is already quite long. There will never be enough hours to read everything I would like to read. But I'll do the best I can and make an effort to read as many as I can and still be balanced in other areas of my life.

100 Book Challenge

I DID IT!
I just finished my 100th book for the year 2009. At one point I was aiming for 150 books but once I started couponing I had to give something up and I decided 100 books was good enough.
So here they are in the order read:

1. Blue Noon (Midnighter's Book 3) by Scott Westerfeld
2. Counting Blessing - Wit & Wisdom for Women by Kerry Blair
3. Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling
4. Snow: A Retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Tracy Lynn
5. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
6. Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne Duprau
7. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
8. If Life Were Easy It Wouldn't Be Hard by Sheri Dew
9. House of Glory: Finding Personal Meaning In The Temple by S. Michael Wilcox
10. Strangling Your Husband Is NOT An Option by Merrilee Boyack
11. How to Be An Extra-Ordinary Teenager by John Bytheway
12. Golden: A Retelling of "Rapunzel" by Cameron Dokey
13. Believing Christ: The Parable of the Bicycle and Other Good News by Stephen E. Robinson
14. The Parenting Breakthrough by Merrilee Boyack
15. Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food by Jessica Seinfeld
16. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
17. The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman
18. The Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage by Laura Schlessinger
19. Mothering With Spiritual Power: Book of Mormon Inspirations for Raising a Righteous Family by Debra Sansing Woods
20. Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey
21. The Four Laws of Debt Free Prosperity by Blaine Harris
22. Holy Places: True Stories of Faith and Miracles from Latter-Day Temples by Chad S. Hawkins
23. The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
24. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
25. Dragonsong (Harper Hall Trilogy, Book 1)by Anne McCaffrey
26. The Stripling Warrior and Warriorette Workout by Shane Barker
27. Don't Cry Wolf by Clair Poulson
28. We Are Sisters by Marilynne Todd Linford
29. Dragonsinger (Harper Hall Trilogy, Book 2) by Anne McCaffrey
30. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)by Rick Riordan
31. Overheard at the Dance by Carol Lynn Pearson
32. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
33. The China Study by T. Colin Campbell
34. Dragondrums (Harper Hall Trilogy, Book 3) by Anne McCaffrey
35. Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident (Book 2) by Eoin Colfer
36. Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code (Book 3) by Eoin Colfer
37. Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception (Book 4) by Eoin Colfer
38. City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, Book 3) by Cassandra Clare
39. How to Talk to Your Child About Sex by Richard & Linda Eyre
40. Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony (Book 5) by Eoin Colfer
41. Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox (Book 6) by Eoin Colfer
42. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
43. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
44. Food Matters by Mark Bittman
45. The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester
46. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
47. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
48. The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards
49. The Book of Mormon
50. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
51. Eldest by Christopher Paolini
52. Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder
53. Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder
54. The Peacegiver: How Christ Offers to Heal Our Hearts and Homes by James L. Ferrell
55. Chalice by Robin McKinley
56. Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
57. A Wolf at the Door edited by Ellen Datlow
58. Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
59. Eyes of a Stranger by Carol Warburton
60. Keeping It Together in a Pull-Apart World by Mary Ellen Edmunds
61. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
62. The Time-Starved Family by DeAnne Flynn
63. Austenland by Shannon Hale
64. Finding the Angel Within by Pamela H. Hansen
65. Wings by Aprilynne Pike
66. The Best Halloween Ever by Barbara Robinson
67. Walking into a Hug: 52 Weeks to a Home That's More Embracing by Janene Ustach
68. A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
69. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
70. Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
71. Too Much to Carry Alone by Camille Fronk Olson
72. Skinned by Robin Wasserman
73. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
74. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
75. Mary, Martha, And Me by Camille Fronk Olson
76. The Best School Year Ever by Barbara Robinson
77. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
78. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
79. Crashed by Robin Wasserman
80. Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
81. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
82. Rebel Angels by Libba Bray
83. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Marquez
84. Love That Lasts by Gary Lundberg
85. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
86. Behind Every Good Man by John Bytheway
87. I Just Got a Letter From Allyson Pringle by Anya Bateman
88. The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
89. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
90. Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
91. 1984 by George Orwell
92. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
93. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
94. Animal Farm by George Orwell
95. Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox
96. The Solace of Leaving Early by Haven Kimmel
97. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
98. Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys by Janet Kay Jensen
99. Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
100. First Meetings by Orson Scott Card

I'll probably get in another half dozen books before the year is over. I'm almost done with Follow the River & Ender's Shadow and I have 2 more book group books I'll need to read as well as a couple others I'm hoping to finish before the end of the year.

I use goodreads to track what I read and to keep track of books I want to read. I've rated and reviewd every book I read this year. Try it out and become my friend on that site so I can see what you are reading.

Booking Through Thursday

What’s the saddest book you’ve read recently?
I can't remember feeling sad while reading a book lately. I'm reading Follow the River and I'd have to say there is some sad stuff in that book. Horrid details from an Indian attack. I tend to like happy ending kind of books so if I know a book has a unhappy ending I skip it. Many books I've read have sad moments in them but over all they are not sad books.

I've not finished any books this week. I've given up on the goal of 150 books this year and I'm just about to break 100 Books so I'm not longer driven to read. I think I'll stick with 100 books a year from here on out. I was on track to hit 150 but it's just too much for me right now. So this week I'll finish Follow the River and Children of the Mind.

Booking Through Thursday

Which do you prefer? (Quick answers)
Reading something frivolous? Or something serious? frivolous
Paperbacks? Or hardcovers? hardcovers
Fiction? Or Nonfiction? Fiction
Poetry? Or Prose? Prose
Biographies? Or Autobiographies? Biographies
History? Or Historical Fiction? Historical Fiction
Series? Or Stand-alones? Stand-alones
Classics? Or best-sellers? best-sellers
Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose? straight-forward, basic prose
Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness? plots
Long books? Or Short? short
Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated? illustrated
Borrowed? Or Owned? borrowed
New? Or Used? used

3 books this past week:

The Solace of Leaving Early - recommended by my cousin Amy. A little slow to start but I ended up really enjoying this one.
The Great Gatsby - for my list of classics. Better than I had thought it would be.
Don't you Marry the Mormon Boys - typical mormon fiction. I enjoyed the first half, however there are a lot of other lds fiction books I would recommend before this one.

Kathy's book montage

Kathy's favorite books »

This week I'm listening to Children of the Mind and reading Follow the River. Brian & I are listening to Ender's Shadow. When I make it through Follow the River I'll start Dreamquake. I may yet get the Old Testament finished...my goal is to have it done before the end of the year so I better get reading a little more often.

Kathy's currently-reading book montage

Kathy's favorite books »

Booking Through Thursday

What’s the most informative book you’ve read recently?
Informative? I'm really more of a novel kind of girl. I've recently started some informational books: How to Have a 48 Hour Day, It's Here Somewhere, & The Spectrum but I haven't made it through any of them. So I'd have to go to some church type books I read at the start of summer: Behind Every Good Man, Mary Martha & Me, Walking into a Hug and Too Much to Carry Alone.

This past week I finished 2 books:

Animal Farm & Dreamhunter

Dreamhunter is a fun read and I'll start it's sequel Dreamquake shortly. I've put it on hold at the library and am just waiting for it to come in. It's an interesting fantasy about The Place where dreamcatchers catch dreams and then share them with others as a form of entertainment, healing and other purposes I'm not give away.

Animal Farm takes care of one more book on my list of classics:
1984 by George Orwell
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov - probably skipping this one due to it's subject matter
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac - attempted but there is no point to this book so I quit after making it 1/4 of the way through
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald - just started

I actually enjoyed Animal Farm which was surprising. I have such low expectations for this list of classics! They are just not the kinds of books I love to read.

The next classic I'm tackling is The Great Gatsby. I know I saw a movie of this book but I can't remember the story.
I'm also reading The Solace of Leaving Early for an online book club my cousin started and Follow The River for the book club in my ward.

Booking Through Thursday

What's the biggest book you've read recently?
I'm attempting to read the Old Testament cover to cover. I've been at it for nearly 4 years. It's slow going. 200 pages left. I will get through it.

Other big books I've read this year include The Sweet Far Thing - 819 pages & Brisingr - 763 pages.

I'm currently working on my list of classics. These are the ones I've attempted to read in the last few weeks.

1984 by George Orwell - Did I love it? No. Was it worth reading? Yes.

ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell - Started this one today. So far it's quite entertaining . I'm sure I'll be at a total loss as to all the deep meaning and symbolism in this book since my knowledge of history is severely lacking.

ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac - I made a good attempt. I got about 1/4 of the way through and then gave up. There is no plot to this book. Beautiful writing but I really don't care about Sal's travels back and forth across the country, how many girls he & his friends sleep with or what stupid things he does along the way.

FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury - The one I've enjoyed most so far. This one is worth reading.

As far as other books I've read this past month:
Love in the Time of Cholera - Awful. Beautiful writing but terrible story. I kept thinking it would get better but it didn't.

Graceling - Loved this book!

Xenocide - Another one I really enjoyed.

Ella Enchanted - Great for the whole family. Kim & I both liked it.

I Just Got a Letter From Allyson Pringle - A typical LDS teenage fiction book. Entertaining but predictable.

I track and review everything I'm reading on Goodreads. Love the site!

1984 by George Orwell

I'm starting on my list of classics. First book 1984 by George Orwell. Anyone read it? I read the first 20 pages last night and so far it's holding my interest. I heard it has a lame ending so I'm going in with low expectations.
I'm also listening to Xenocide by Orson Scott Card. Not a classic and other than the fact that it contains too much language I'm loving it.

Book A Minute Classics

So in my quest to read more classics I came across the funniest website Book-a-minute classics. I think I could read a lot of classics if they were all like these:

Pride and Prejudice
By Jane Austen

Mr. Darcy:
Nothing is good enough for me.

Ms. Elizabeth Bennet:
I could never marry that proud man.

(They change their minds.)
The End

The Scarlet Letter
By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Evil Puritanical Society:
Because you have committed adultery, you must wear an 'A'. Harlot! Harlot!

Hester Prynne:
(The Evil Puritanical Society SNUBS Hester Prynne.)

Hester Prynne:
(They call her NAMES.)

Hester Prynne:
(They won't let her play any Evil Puritanical Society GAMES.)

Reverend Dimmesdale:
I can't take it anymore. I did it.

THE END

A Christmas Carol
By Charles Dickens

Ebenezer Scrooge:
Bah, humbug. You'll work thirty-eight hours on Christmas Day, keep the heat at five degrees, and like it.

Ghost of Jacob Marley:
Ebenezer Scrooge, three ghosts of Christmas will come and tell you you're mean.

Three Ghosts of Christmas:
You're mean.

Ebenezer Scrooge:
At last, I have seen the light. Let's dance in the streets. Have some money.

THE END

There we go 3 down 97 to go. ;-) I'll reach my goal of 100 books in no time.

Books to Read

So let's hear it for my sister in law Kirsten! She took my 5 lists of books to read and combined them and sorted them by how often then appeared. I'm going to read all the books that appeared at least 3 times. I've not read much of the 45 books since graduating from High School. I'll then pick from the remaining books to reach 100 total.


Title
1984 by George Orwell
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7 books on all 5 lists

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
ULYSSES by James Joyce
UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
20 books on 4 lists

A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving
A TOWN LIKE ALICE by Nevil Shute
ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
BELOVED by Toni Morrison
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
GRAVITY’S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon
MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams
THE MAGUS by John Fowles
THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
18 books on 3 lists

A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by William Faulkner
ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll
ANNA KAREINA by Leo Tolstoy
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara
AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS by Flann O'Brien
ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand
Atonement by Ian McEwan
BLEAK HOUSE by Charles Dickens
BLOOD MERIDIAN by Cormac McCarthy
CHARLOTE’S WEB by E. B. White
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Feodor Dostoevsky
DAVID COPPERFIELD by Charles Dickens
DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
DUNE by Frank Herbert
Emma-Jane Austen
FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley
GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens
HERZOG by Saul Bellow
HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte
LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa M. Alcott
LOVING by Henry Green
MADAME BOVARY by Gustave Flaubert
MOBY-DICK by Herman Melville
MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather
NAKED LUNCH by William S. Burroughs
NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST by Ken Kesey
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
Possession by A.S. Byatt
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen
RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier
TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
TESS Of The D’URBERVILLES, Thomas Hardy
THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand
THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN by John Fowles
THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood
THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
THE RECOGNITIONS by William Gaddis
THE STAND by Stephen King
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Grahame
THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
THE WOMAN IN WHITE by Wilkie Collins
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving
THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe
U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
VANITY FAIR by William Makepeace Thackeray
WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy
WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams
WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
WINNIE THE POOH by A(lan) A(lexander) Milne
WISE BLOOD by Flannery O'Connor
WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
75 books on 2 lists

A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
A Death in the Family by James Agee
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mxistry
A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
ARROWSMITH by Sinclair Lewis
AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS by H.P. Lovecraft
AUSTERLITZ by W. G. Sebald
BATTLEFIELD EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY by Robert Heinlein
CLARISSA by Samuel Richardson
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
Complete Works of Shakespeare
Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes
DOUBLE STAR by Robert Heinlein
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Dune - Frank Herbert
ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card
Falconer by John Cheever
Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury
FEAR by L. Ron Hubbard
FIFTH BUSINESS by Robertson Davies
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
Germinal - Emile Zol
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
GREENMANTLE by Charles de Lint
GUILTY PLEASURES by Laurell K. Hamilton
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
ILLUSIONS by Richard Bach
IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME by Marcel Proust
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
IRONWEED by William Kennedy
IT by Stephen King
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
KIM by Rudyard Kipling
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
MEMORY AND DREAM by Charles de Lint
Middlemarch - George Eliot
MISSION EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard
Money by Martin Amis
MOONHEART by Charles de Lint
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
MULENGRO by Charles de Lint
MYTHAGO WOOD by Robert Holdstock
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
ON THE BEACH by Nevil Shute
ONE LONELY NIGHT by Mickey Spillane
PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford
Persuasion - Jane Austen
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
ROBINSON CRUSOE by Daniel Defoe
SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
SHANE by Jack Schaefer
SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
SOMEPLACE TO BE FLYING by Charles de Lint
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury
SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION by Ken Kesey
SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron
STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert Heinlein
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert Heinlein
SUTTREE by Cormac McCarthy
Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
THE AWAKENING by Kate Chopin (1851-1904)
The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood
The Bible
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV by Feodor Dostoevsky
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexandre Dumas
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
THE CUNNING MAN by Robertson Davies
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
THE DOOR INTO SUMMER by Robert Heinlein
The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER by Tom Clancy
The Inferno – Dante
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
THE LITTLE COUNTRY by Charles de Lint
The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington
THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS by Robert Heinlein
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY by Henry James
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
THE PUPPET MASTERS by Robert Heinlein
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
THE SATANIC VERSES by Salman Rushdie
THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne
THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre
THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
THE TRIAL by Franz Kafka
THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
THE WOOD WIFE by Terri Windling
THE WORM OUROBOROS by E.R. Eddison
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
TOM JONES by Henry Fielding
TRADER by Charles de Lint
TRISTAM SHANDY by Laurence Sterne
TRUSTEE FROM THE TOOLROOM by Nevil Shute
Ubik by Philip K. Dick
V. by Thomas Pynchon
Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
WE THE LIVING by Ayn Rand
White Noise by Don DeLillo
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
YARROW by Charles de Lint
ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE by Robert Pirsig
ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
181 books on only one list

100 Best Books

I read a lot. I love to read, but I am not "well read".
I like to read young adult books, fantasy, historical fiction and paranormal romance. I'm not a huge fan of the classics so I decided to attempt to become more well rounded in what I read. I've set a goal to read 100 of the best books ever written. There is no time limit for the goal. I'm just going to accomplish it before I die. And if I die young then - oh well I'm sure I'll have better things to do in the next life than worry about not meeting my goal.

The only problem is just who says which 100 books are the best?

I found 5 different lists (at least I think they are all different) and don't know which one to choose.
To solve this problem I decided I'm going to read not from just one list but I'll pick 100 books total from the lists below. There is a lot of overlap between the lists but they are enough different that I should be able to come up with 100 books and not be forced to read the Complete Works of Shakespeare to meet my goal. Because I won't make my goal if I'm forced to read Shakespeare! I'll read at least 1 of his books but not all of them!
I know I was forced to read some of these books in high school and college but I'm not counting anything unless I can actually remember reading it cover to cover since I got out of school. (I know I skimmed a lot in high school or watched some movies or read the cliff notes.)

Wish me luck.

Oh, tell me which books do you think should make the list?

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
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 Traveler’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
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 - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
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 - Mark Haddon
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
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
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 Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zol
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 Mxistry
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
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

The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell
The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
A Death in the Family by James Agee
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
Deliverance by James Dickey
Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
Falconer by John Cheever
The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
Herzog by Saul Bellow
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Light in August by William Faulkner
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Loving by Henry Green
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Money by Martin Amis
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
Native Son by Richard Wright
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
1984 by George Orwell
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
Possession by A.S. Byatt
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
The Recognitions by William Gaddis
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Ubik by Philip K. Dick
Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
White Noise by Don DeLillo
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

ULYSSES by James Joyce
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
CATCH-22
DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
1984 by George Orwell
I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara
U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
KIM by Rudyard Kipling
A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
LOVING by Henry Green
MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
IRONWEED by William Kennedy
THE MAGUS by John Fowles
WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron
THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington

ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand
THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand
BATTLEFIELD EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard
THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee
1984 by George Orwell
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand
WE THE LIVING by Ayn Rand
MISSION EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard
FEAR by L. Ron Hubbard
ULYSSES by James Joyce
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
DUNE by Frank Herbert
THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS by Robert Heinlein
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert Heinlein
A TOWN LIKE ALICE by Nevil Shute
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
GRAVITY'S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon
THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
SHANE by Jack Schaefer
TRUSTEE FROM THE TOOLROOM by Nevil Shute
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving
THE STAND by Stephen King
THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN by John Fowles
BELOVED by Toni Morrison
THE WORM OUROBOROS by E.R. Eddison
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
MOONHEART by Charles de Lint
ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by William Faulkner
OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
WISE BLOOD by Flannery O'Connor
UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
FIFTH BUSINESS by Robertson Davies
SOMEPLACE TO BE FLYING by Charles de Lint
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
YARROW by Charles de Lint
AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS by H.P. Lovecraft
ONE LONELY NIGHT by Mickey Spillane
MEMORY AND DREAM by Charles de Lint
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
TRADER by Charles de Lint
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood
BLOOD MERIDIAN by Cormac McCarthy
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
ON THE BEACH by Nevil Shute
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
GREENMANTLE by Charles de Lint
ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card
THE LITTLE COUNTRY by Charles de Lint
THE RECOGNITIONS by William Gaddis
STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert Heinlein
THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury
THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
THE WOOD WIFE by Terri Windling
THE MAGUS by John Fowles
THE DOOR INTO SUMMER by Robert Heinlein
ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE by Robert Pirsig
I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS by Flann O'Brien
FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury
ARROWSMITH by Sinclair Lewis
WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams
NAKED LUNCH by William S. Burroughs
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER by Tom Clancy
GUILTY PLEASURES by Laurell K. Hamilton
THE PUPPET MASTERS by Robert Heinlein
IT by Stephen King
V. by Thomas Pynchon
DOUBLE STAR by Robert Heinlein
CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY by Robert Heinlein
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST by Ken Kesey
A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION by Ken Kesey
MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather
MULENGRO by Charles de Lint
SUTTREE by Cormac McCarthy
MYTHAGO WOOD by Robert Holdstock
ILLUSIONS by Richard Bach
THE CUNNING MAN by Robertson Davies
THE SATANIC VERSES by Salman Rushdie

THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
ULYSSES by James Joyce
1984 by George Orwell
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee
THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
DAVID COPPERFIELD by Charles Dickens
EMMA by Jane Austen
TESS Of The D’URBERVILLES, Thomas Hardy
THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne
WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Emily Bronte
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte
BELOVED by Toni Morrison
ANNA KAREINA by Leo Tolstoy
THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
HERZOG by Saul Bellow
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Grahame
U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
THE WOMAN IN WHITE by Wilkie Collins
THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
THE MAGUS by John Fowles
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving
DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes
TOM JONES by Henry Fielding
WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy
MOBY-DICK by Herman Melville
MADAME BOVARY by Gustave Flaubert
WINNIE THE POOH by A(lan) A(lexander) Milne
GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV by Feodor Dostoevsky
TRISTAM SHANDY by Laurence Sterne
LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa M. Alcott
VANITY FAIR by William Makepeace Thackeray
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen
IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME by Marcel Proust
THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand
GRAVITY’S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon
THE AWAKENING by Kate Chopin (1851-1904)
DUNE by Frank Herbert
A TOWN LIKE ALICE by Nevil Shute
ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll
CLARISSA by Samuel Richardson
THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexandre Dumas
THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY by Henry James
OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck
ALL THE KING’S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
CHARLOTE’S WEB by E. B. White
ROBINSON CRUSOE by Daniel Defoe
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Feodor Dostoevsky
THE STAND by Stephen King
REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier
I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
BLEAK HOUSE by Charles Dickens
ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand
ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by William Faulkner
THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
AUSTERLITZ by W. G. Sebald
THE TRIAL by Franz Kafka
WISE BLOOD by Flannery O’Connor
FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley

At least 1 book per month has to come from these lists. July's book was awful so I hope the book I read in August is better! If you have read something awful let me know and I'll try to skip it! Or something you think I'll enjoy let me know that too!

1/2 way there - 75 Books Read!

I just finished my 75th book this year. I've listened to about 30 audio books and read the other 45. Most definitely need to officially change my goal to 150 books this year.

I've been asked how I have time to read so much. I don't have time! But I make time and I multitask. I am usually reading at least 4 or 5 books at a time. 1 church book, 1 novel, 1 book on my mp3 & 1 book on CD. I keep the CD in the kitchen and listen whenever I'm doing dishes or cleaning. My mp3 is used when I'm cleaning the rest of the house, driving in the car, shopping, exercising, folding laundry, etc. I take a book with whenever I'm going somewhere I know I'll have to wait. I try to read for at least 30 minutes at night. I go to the library at least once a week and use Utah's Online Library to download mp3 audio books. I love the site Goodreads and use it to keep track of what I've read and what I want to read.

Currently I'm listening to Inkspell on my mp3, listening to Love That Lasts on CD, listening to Speaker for the Dead with Brian, reading Behind Every Good Man and reading If I Stay. And I'm also reading the Old Testament which I have been trying to get through for the past 3 years.

Catching Fire

One of the best books I read last year was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Today I had the chance to read the ARC of it's sequel Catching Fire. It is an AMAZING book. It arrived in the mail around 2:00 this afternoon and I couldn't put it down nor could I go to bed until it was finished. It was that good. A great read until the last page. I can't believe it will be over a year until book 3 comes out. What a long wait to find out how the series ends!

I highly recommend this series. If you haven't read The Hunger Games go read it. The sequel Catching Fire gets released on September 1st.

Curled up with a good book

I spent a good portion of the afternoon curled up reading a book. It's been a while since I've actually taken an afternoon to "read" a book. I listen to a lot of books on audio because I don't feel guilty "listening" because I can multitask and clean or exercise or drive while listening. When I do read I am typically on the treadmill or just getting a few pages in before heading to bed or while rocking Kylie. To actually take a couple hours and just ignore everything while I read is something I rarely let myself do. All the kids have friends over, Brian is off showing houses, I should have really been cleaning but got sucked into a book and knew I could finish quickly so I did. Ah what a relaxing afternoon... but now it's back to reality and the messes created by having over a dozen kids at my house today.

100 Book Challenge - 1/4 Of The Way

I'm 1/4 of the way to my goal of 100 books this year! If I keep up at the rate I am going I'll be at 150 books by year end. Not sure if I'll make it to 150 but I should easily hit 100! I've read a lot of "easy" reads and got a good start so I'm going to start a few "meatier" books.

Books I've Read in 2009

1. Blue Noon (Midnighter's Book 3) by Scott Westerfeld

2. Counting Blessing - Wit & Wisdom for Women by Kerry Blair

3. Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling

4. Snow: A Retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Tracy Lynn

5. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey

6. Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne Duprau

7. Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

8. If Life Were Easy It Wouldn't Be Hard by Sheri Dew

9. House of Glory: Finding Personal Meaning In The Temple by S. Michael Wilcox

10. Strangling Your Husband Is NOT An Option by Merrilee Boyack

11. How to Be An Extra-Ordinary Teenager by John Bytheway

12. Golden: A Retelling of "Rapunzel" by Cameron Dokey

13. Believing Christ: The Parable of the Bicycle and Other Good News by Stephen E. Robinson

14. The Parenting Breakthrough by Merrilee Boyack

15. Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food by Jessica Seinfeld

16. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

17. The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman

18. The Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage by Laura Schlessinger

19. Mothering With Spiritual Power: Book of Mormon Inspirations for Raising a Righteous Family by Debra Sansing Woods

20. Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey

21. The Four Laws of Debt Free Prosperity by Blaine Harris

22. Holy Places: True Stories of Faith and Miracles from Latter-Day Temples by Chad S. Hawkins

23. The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

24. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

25. Dragonsong (Harper Hall Trilogy, Book 1)by Anne McCaffrey

Mother It Monday

Ah I've fallen down on Mother It Monday. Since it is Monday I thought I'd share a great book I just finished reading. My SIL Kristen recommended it to me several months ago and I finally got around to reading it!
Mothering With Spiritual Power: Book of Mormon Inspirations for Raising a Righteous Family by Debra Sansing Woods

This is a fabulous book and worth buying. The author chose 25 "mothering" scriptues from the Book of Mormon and relates them to being a better mother. A great exercise in likening the scriptures unto ourselves. It's a short, quick book to read and is packed with wisdom, advise and hope for being a better mother. As I read each scripture I marked them in my own set of scriptures to help me remember what what within the pages of this book.