Barbara's Random Thoughts

I feel like this blog has become a one-trick pony lately...I'm posting almost solely about reading. (Ok, maybe it's just today.) I'll branch out soon. In the meantime, and in keeping with the previous post, here's a glimpse at my bookshelves. This is kind of a weird list, but I'm a sucker for these kinds of things, so here you go.

Review the following list of books. Boldface the books you've read, italicize those you might read, cross out the ones you won't, put an asterisk beside the ones on your bookshelves, and place brackets around the ones you've never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) Although I'm curious, I've heard so much about its completely shoddy writing that I doubt I'll pick it up.
The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
*The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
*To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
*The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman) I've read (and own) the first of these. I might read the other two. I've heard they're good, and I'm open to reading them, but I have a feeling the later ones are gonna make me mad, given what I've read about Pullman and his agenda. I did like the first one, though.
*Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J. K. Rowling)
The Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story (George Orwell)
Catch 22 (Joseph Heller) Not high on the list, but I might get around to it someday.
*The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
*The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Mark Haddon)
Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
* Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
*1984 (George Orwell)
*Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J. K. Rowling)
*One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) I just don't think I'll ever bother.
*Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut) (Kristy, I again apologize that I told you to read this. I didn't mean to give you nightmares.)
[The Secret History (Donna Tartt)]
*Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
* The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)
Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides)
Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell) This one is definitely on my list--I've read such great reviews.
*Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
*Atonement (Ian McEwan) Just haven't gotten to it yet. Maybe on the plane to South Africa...
*The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway) Hemingway. Sigh. Maybe someday.
The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood) I'm interested. But again, not high on the list.
The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath) This isn't a refusal. I just don't think I'll ever get to this one.
Dune (Frank Herbert)
Sula (Toni Morrison) I liked Jazz, but I'm not compelled to read Morrison's entire oeuvre. I went on a rather lengthy quest with a roommate to find this book for her, for a class at Biola. I think half the class ended up being offended by the book. Heh.
*Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier) I read such rave reviews of it that I picked it up once at a library book sale. I'm just never really in the mood for the Civil War.
*The Alchemist (Paulo Coehlo)
White Teeth (Zadie Smith) One of the MSS I had to read for my publishing program was compared to this. Didn't compel me to pick it up.
The House of Mirth (Edith Wharton) I like Wharton. Someday.

Via: Sheila.

Labels: reading