So it's about that time that I do a "what are you reading/knitting?" post so I can get recommendations from my amigos. Actually, just my amigas reply, so there are no amigos--sorry, fellas.
And since I am still knitting on the same baby mitten that I started two weeks ago, I don't need any more discouragement about knitting or procrastinating to knit. . .
This weekend I picked up an older travel book: Pete McCarthy's "McCarthy's Bar". This is a half-Irish guy who (in this book) travels through West Cork. While it is dated--published in 2000 when Ireland was in pounds sterling and most of the neighborhoods we live around now were just fields--there are some good tips. Like if you're driving on a road with grass growing down the middle of it, you are certainly on the wrong road. Been there; done that!
This book was billed as "Bill Bryson without the boring bits." Now I really try to love Bryson's stuff, but his first book I read "A Walk in the Woods" about hiking the Appalachian Trail, was the best and I was laughing out loud. I've read his book on Australia, small-town America, and John is reading his tales from the UK, but they all just are not as funny.
So below is a list that I borrowed from Beccy, who's my new favorita Chica here in Ireland. She borrowed it, too, and I invite you to borrow it as well. Just fun! So here you go. . .
Instructions: Look at the list of books below.*Bold the ones you’ve read*Italicize the ones you want to read*leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
1.The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) ooh, spooky and good!
2.Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) it's been a while. . .
3.To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) We considered the name "Harper" for a girl for a long time; when I told John I hadn't read this book he retorted "Weren't you like an English major or something? Can't you read?"
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (J.R.R. Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (J.R.R. Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (J.R.R. Tolkien) these all ran together after a while
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) of course
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10.A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11.Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling)
12.Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) Better than Da Vinci? Possibly!
13.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (J.K. Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) I tear up just thinking about it and memories with my awesome college roommate who introduced me to Irving
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16.Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (J.K. Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King) I've actually wanted to re-read this one
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(J.K. Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) long time ago
21. The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien) started but could not finish
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) angst--yay!
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) my favorite book for many years--Jo was my favorite!!!
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel) loved it!
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) Whah??? No thank you!
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) Oh, Heathcliff!!!
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) read the whole series in China
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) Who is John Gault?
34. 1984 (George Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) this was big medicine in college, but I never read it
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay) So good!! So glad it is on the high school reading list for kids!!!!
38. I Know This Much is True(Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) such a magical book; gut-wrenching every time
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella) Like, I LOVE it!!!
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom) everyone should read this
45 Bible not the whole thing yet
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) possibly the best first line ever
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb) possibly my first Oprah's book club book
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) soo good
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough) trying to read another of her books but finding it difficult
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) just couldn't get into it
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) I swear reading this book in high school changed my life!
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) Yes, yes, yes! I heart Gabo!!! Read it in English and in Spanish!! Hate to be obnoxious, but it really was better and more mystical (is that possible???) in Spanish!
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jone's Diary (Helen Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez) I own the most beautiful hardcover edition I bought in Spain (in Spanish) but I have not cracked it! Maybe when I get back to the States and get it out of storage
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams) gosh, this is depressing
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth(Pearl S. Buck) not sure how I missed this one
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) Seriously, the movie was so much better
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) Pony boy!!!!
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100.Ulysses (James Joyce) I sort of feel obligated to read this, but I struggled with Dubliners, so perhaps I need a Joyce tutorial first.
49 that I've read. 3 I started but didn't finish. 14 I want to read (or at least pick up and decide if I want to start and/or continue).
There's not a lot that I am dying to read right now, except Shopaholic and Baby, but it is pricey even in paperback and we have a house full of novels people have generously given us.
And of course all of the pregnancy, baby, and parenting books that are starting to collect some dust right about now (I had some burnout and need a break!).
How about you?
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6 comments:
I agree - Angels and Demons was a lot better than the DaVinci Code....
and sorry, HATED Anna Karenina. (I am probably the only person who did) The book was so long and dry. The movie was a heck of a lot better.
I was knitting a blanket, but I complicatded the pattern so much that when I lost a stitch, it was unrecoverable. Now I'm binding off and making a kitty blanket...my kitty has a lot of blankets.
I'm reading "The Dubliners". So sad...too frustrating!
Karmyn: You're right about Anna Karenina--after about the first paragraph it went down hill. But I slogged on through! Funny how the movies are better a lot of the time!!!
Min: I end up with a lot of tidbits that go to the dogs. Then I try to knit something for the dogs and don't finish. Sigh. Way to go for reading The Dubliners. . .I'm obligated to get into Joyce here, but. . .I've forgotten a lot of what they taught back at UT!
You've read loads Sabrina and not one Harry Potter book!
Little Women is one of my all time favourites although I haven't reat it for years. I love Jo and always cry when she turns Laurie now. I watched the old black and white movie the day I came home from hospital having had Dillon. I bawled my way through and my poor hubby wondered what was going on. I blamed it on those baby blues but she still didn't marry Laurie...yeah, yeah I know the Professor was the right choice.
Beccy: somehow I missed the entire Harry Potter franchise entirely--I haven't even seen one movie
I'm guessing I'll read them all when they are all finished and come out in the compiled edition (that's how I made it thought Tolkein and CS Lewis)
I haven't seen the b&w movie of Little Women in a long time--should rent it!
I meant to say there is one book you haven't read that I would really, really recommend: The Kite Runner, an excellent book.
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