Laura listed her 20 top favorite actors and it's a yummy list. Worth a visit to the post just to gaze on the gorgeous and evocative faces. Here's her annotated list - I've crossed out the ones I'd change : Cary Grant (he's simply the best), Tyrone Power Humphrey Bogart (how could she leave Bogie off - in his character-driven roles there's no one better), Dana Andrews Gary Cooper, Robert Montgomery (one of my all-time favorites), William Powell (ditto), Joel McCrea (ditt0), Robert Taylor (usually ditto but not the westerns), Robert Mitchum, Richard Widmark, Ray Milland, James Stewart, Stewart Granger Fred MacMurray (early, not once he became silly), John Wayne Spencer Tracy, Gene Kelly Errol Flynn (in his not snazzed-up films), Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Charlton Heston Walter Huston, Ward Bond Ronald Coleman / Lawrence Olivier / Raymond Massey (trade-off between them), Fredric March, Randolph Scott (not listed in any particular order). I'll watch almost anything most of these guys are in and thank heavens for TCM!

Labels: actors, blogs (others'), movies

Slow computer and busy week.  I've done all the onboard speed and functionality tests, with marginal improvements but many websites are still loading so slowly that it's insane.  Or timing out altogether.  So frustrating.  Like much technology, once you're used to it, you really really depend on it and regret its absence or laggardly performance.

Labels: blogs (others'), computers

Linda has been showing some terrific photos of Paris recently as she strolls around and looks at all kinds of things. The Art Deco grate cover in the shape of a butterfly is oh-so-Parisian and quite lovely. I often recommend checking her out but now is particularly good because it's a clear reminder that beauty for both eye and soul can and do and will persist.

Labels: blogs (others'), photos, places

I, like Betsy, have been startled at Bill Clinton's magnanimousness and generosity about McCain. But she says it so much better than I would have:

Democrats must be pulling out their hair as Bill Clinton makes his apologia tour for the McCain-Palin ticket. He's talked about why Americans like Sarah Palin. He went on The View and talked about why Americans admire John McCain so much. He was quite kind to McCain when Clinton was on Larry King. . . . In describing their relationship, Clinton said of McCain: "I like him and I admire him." He went on to note that the Arizona senator had helped him normalize relations with Vietnam and fight the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo.

What especially caught my eye in her post was her pointing out that Clinton "defended McCain on postponing the debates to work on the financial crisis and reminded us that McCain was the one who wanted more debates" because I thought I remembered that "McCain wanted more debates" and indeed that turns out to be the case. So if McCain's behavior the last few days is a ploy on his part, I guess it's in hopes that voters will believe how very serious he is about the financial situation.

Labels: 2008 election, blogs (others')

Considering the hurricane that utterly devastated Galveston on September 8, 1900 (details here), it seems particularly frightening to consider what Ike might be like today and this weekend. The path is eerily similar but Ike's size actually seems wider. At leat 6,000 people were killed in Galveston and, altogether, the hurricane killed more than any the Johnstown Flood, the San Francisco Earthquake, the 1938 New England Hurricane and the Great Chicago Fire combined. It's alarming to think that some residents aren't leaving when you consider what the consequences can be. Even non-alarmist weather guru Alan Sullivan thinks it's going to be pretty bad due to the water surge which may reach 25 feet according to some estimates. (That's like four normal height men standing on top of each other.) He says "[m]any structures will fail in the prolonged wave action of Ike. Don’t be shy about summoning help now, during the last few hours in which it might be possible." The excessively alarmist coverage of the last few hurricanes may have lessened the probability of many people taking them seriously this time. I hope this will be over reaction too.

Incidentally, just in case there aren't enough controversies and arguments about things like pigs and lipstick and resumé substance, apparently the intensity of some of this fall's hurricanes may be on account of the relatively cool summer we've had this year and the interplay of various water and air temperatures and moistures. Oh boy.

Labels: blogs (others'), weather

There's a new button on my left sidebar announcing and linking to the "Lit Flicks Challenge." It lasts until the end of February 2009 (six months). The LFC plan is 5 books/pieces of literature that have been made into movies (read them) and at least 2 movie adaptations of same (watch them) and review them. LFC's proprietor is Jessica; her brother, Blake, is running a corollary challenge whose idea is 5 movies adapted from books (watch them) and at least 2 of the books those movies are based on (read them).

Aside from the sheer pleasure of these challenges, there will be monthly activities and giveaways. Jessica deserves a ton of praise for this (does praise come in tons?) and for her "regular" blog, The Bluestocking Society, which is great, where she writes about and reviews lots and lots and lots and lots of books. Blake's blog is all about movies and reviews, and also needs to be added to one's day.

To start the challenge, a participant is instructed to answer 4 questions. Here goes:

1. Are you more likely to see a movie if it’s based on a book?
   Honestly, I don't think so. I vacillate between thinking I do and thinking I don't so I guess the truthful answer is no.
   
   
2. Do you prefer to read the book first or see the movie first?
   No preference. But whether I approach either with an open mind is a mine field inside my ridiculously judgmental head. I'm puzzlingly prejudiced about books and authors, completely irrational about it, really, so if my internal voice says the author is "good" I'll feel thrilled to watch the movie or read the book in either order whichever presents itself first. (Note to meme: one reason I'm excited about this challenge is to be forced to read and watch things on a schedule and therefore possibly foil the judgmental obnoxious voice in my head.)
   
   
3. List one movie that was better than the book it’s based on, and one book that is better than the movie.
   Tom Jones was without a doubt the most boring movie I have ever seen. Considering that it's based on a quite ordinary but enjoyable novel by Henry Fielding, and that the screenplay was written by John Osborne who is absolutely one of the last century's most exciting playwrights (Look Bank in Anger, The Entertainer, Luther. . .), I never understood why it didn't work at all for me but I've gotten better nights sleep "watching" it than under medication.
   
   Believe it or not, my choice for the second part of the question is the 1988 tv version of Anna Karenina (WAIT! don't despair of my taste - I'll explain). I loathed the book when I read it when I was really too young to understand it, but it still makes me want to throw a book at Anna's head because she's so relentlessly pouty and unwilling to do anything to fix her situation. But in this version, Paul Scofield conveys an astonishingly two-part emotional impact - on the one hand, loving and care-taking but on the other utterly stodgy and almost imprisoning of his wife and child whom he, nonetheless, clearly and vividly loves. Since I found Scofield very attractive, this portrayal of a man who could not be dashing and exciting even though he wanted to appeal to his wife clicked with me and finally made me understand Anna's misery. Furthermore, Jacqueline Bisset was superficial yet conveyed affection and tenderness so wasn't the idiotic flibbertigibbet that Anna seemed to me in the book. In other words, I understood, appreciated and cared about the emotional truth of the characters because of this movie even though it had eluded me in the book.
   
   
4. In your opinion, what film is the most accurate representation of the book?
   There are several in contention but the winner is the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion. I thought the subtlety and richness of the characters was every bit as deep as Jane had written them and, amazingly, brought quietly and yet intensely to three-dimensional life. It's such an over-used word, but the "truth" of the characters was absolutely intact.
   
   I must also mention Amy Heckerling's Clueless. As attested to by the Writer's Guild of America's giving her screenplay the best writing award, Heckerling retained Austen's Emma's characters at the core of their emotional lives, and the essential plot, while changing everything on the surface. It was brilliant.
   
   And I need to add something about another movie from a book. When I was quite young, I saw the Audrey Hepburn/Mel Ferrer/Henry Fonda version of War and Peace which was directed by King Vidor. (It's pretty funny to see "writing credit: Leo Tolstoi".) I was absolutely bowled over by the cinematicness of the experience and was deeply moved by Natasha's and André's love for each other although in the end I was even more touched by Pierre's great love for Natasha and for Russia. Anyway, the experience was so profound that I spent several months reading a wonderful 2-volume edition of the book that is now almost in tatters because I loved it so much. I have no idea whether it really is the best adaptation of a book into a movie but I know that watching it changed my movie-going and reading it changed my reading and reading it would not have happened, at least not then, without having seen the movie.

I'm a bit startled - and embarrassed - to see that evidently I really like literary chick-lit but so be it. I also like many adaptations of detective books (Dorothy Sayers' Peter Whimsey stories, for example) and I thought the British tv series of Jeeves and Wooster (with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry) infused the two men with liveliness and depth.

Labels: blogs (others'), books, good ideas, movies

1.  The glassy surface on the Hudson River between incoming and outgoing tides is so startling even though we see it fairly often.  Trees and structures on the other side of the river are reflected like a painting or like that fantastic K-Mart advertisement after 9-11 that showed the towers as reflections in the river . . . but absent from the shoreline.

2.  In the elevator this morning an office acquaintance asked if I had any new photos of t2cgitw and when I said yes she got off at my floor to come look at them.  Generous interest in others is rare and surprising and appreciated.  I must learn to do it more because I am actually interested but often worry that it will annoy people when, in fact, I know quite the opposite from my own experience.

3.  Sitting on my front porch on my slatted porch swing on a sunny day, looking at the bright green leaves and the blue sky beyond, waving at people as they walked by and waved and smiled. . . .

(H/T Kellogg Bloggin')

Labels: blogs (others'), people, places

Thanks to Norm for linking to these extraordinary 39 photos.  They are too marvelous to resist linking to them here as well.  No wonder it was the most watched Olympics.

Labels: blogs (others'), photos, sports

Any rare readers, please gather lots of kind thoughts, prayers, best wishes, whatever you can, and send them to Kate. Life often doles out more than we think we can bear but she's really having to cope with too much at the moment. Our collected energy might help a little.

Labels: blogs (others'), friends

I have no personal use for a kennel in northern New Jersey, having neither a dog nor a residence anywhere near there, but Highland Kennels is apparently one of Color Addict's web clients. It's a nice website - informative and fun to look around. A kick just to look at the pictures. If I had a dog and lived in the area and wanted to let my dog go to a playgroup, I'd definitely go there.

Labels: blogs (others'), web design, websites

The blog What Kate's Reading is worth a stop now and then even if you don't want to join in on her giveaway of a copy of a Jude Devereux book. But if you do, better get cracking since the deadline is this Friday. Meanwhile, it's a fun exercise to consider who is (are?) your favorite flawed hero?? And a corollary question: who are flawed heroines and are they as much fun??!

Labels: blogs (others'), books, fun

Color Addict - who definitely is a major and serious cat devotee - displayed this conversation between two cats today.  Which is well complemented by the all-cat version here.  And which suggets that cats can talk perfectly clearly, it's just that we misguided humans don't always understand very well.

As follow-up, watch this one to see what another cat thinks of the first conversation.  It's all the funnier since many cats don't seem to be able to see tv but this one clearly does and clearly likes what (s)he sees.

Labels: blogs (others'), cats, fun, youtube

The blogs listed here in the lefthand column are ungettable-to today because of an I.E. abort error that started last night and altogether prevents reading. A clue is a long long pause when you click on the url.

These blogs are getting the I.E. abort error. Do they use Site Meter? If so, Site Meter might be the problem. Barb the Evil Genius Dadvocate Dustbury Music and Cats Penniless in Paris Semicolon Small World Reads Texas Scribbler Wide Awake Café

These blogs are not getting the I.E. abort error. Do they use Site Meter? If so, Site Meter isn't the problem. Color Addict I am a Cheeseburger Laura's Musing Present Simple Regular Life Seablogger Spiced Sass

Apparently Seablogger was advised that Site Meter was causing the problem so Alan removed S.M. and his blog works fine now. But since everyone was fine yesterday (which I know personally because I did in fact visit) it's puzzling what happened. Why would S.M. suddenly be incompatible with sites that used it all along. Did Site Meter or I.E. change something on August 1st? I can't switch to Firefox since I've had major security problems with Firefox but I also want to be able to read my faves.

Update: Site Meter has apparently fixed their update so it plays nice with I.E.7 again. Whew.

Labels: blogs (others'), web design

From Small World Reads (via Semicolon) I learned that Joanna at Lost in a Good Story is hosting The New Classics Challenge and it sounds wonderful! It's all based on Entertainment Weekly's list of new classics - which is an odd list to say the least - but it's all in good fun and who can argue with picking bunches of books to read and talk/write about, right?!

The Rules:

1. Copy the list, post it and bold the titles that you have already read.
   
2. Choose at least 6 other books from the list; read and review them between 8/1/2008 and 1/31/2009.
   
3. Go back to Lost in a Good Story and post links to your reviews.
   
4. In January 2009, cast your vote for which one of the 100 books on the list is your favorite (and write a post on why). The winning book will be sent to a lucky winner chosen by the scientific method favored here in the blogosphere, i.e. names in a hat.
   
5. Have fun! :-)

The List
Bolded titles I've already read; I've asterisked ones I thought were especially good.
Orange titles are on my list for the Challenge.
1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
R4. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
*41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
*47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
*55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
*57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
R65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
*88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

Hope some of my own rare readers (as Alan would say) will join me.

Labels: blogs (mine), blogs (others'), books, reading, writing

Happy 3rd blogiversary to Laura! The 6th was Laura's own birthday and apparently today is her blog's. She's definitely one of the good guys, always articulate and verbal, always fun, informative and interesting to read. She thinks and writes with a vibrant combination of rationality, emotion and sense and covers a wide variety of subjects in the process so visiting her blog is like visiting with a friend. Which is why I often bring a cup of coffee! Besides, anyone who loves old movies and Disneyland as much as she does must be seriously okay.

Labels: anniversaries, blogs (others'), good people

I read this article and suspect the real issue is that every now and then Blogger's mechanics just don't work very well. I've been snagged myself, though not in a long while, thank goodness. The annoyance about them is that there are so many users that sometimes they really can't handle it - and their customer service is awful as far as responding to questions or cries for help. Also it's owned by Google now and there are always concerns when something is used by outspoken individuals but run by people in a large company with goals that may be rubbed the wrong way by the aforementioned users. Given the huge number of users, however, my guess is that many more would have been disabled if it had really been intentional, but I may be wrong.

Main and awesome point for me staying is that Blogger is free (!) and provides those of us who want one, a place to learn tons by messing around with html and web design, without any ifs ands or buts.

Labels: blogs (mine), blogs (others'), politics, web

In one of those fortuitous click-throughs that happens when browsing blogs, I came upon Postcard from Provence. This amazing site is Julian Merrow-Smith's daily painting diary. He paints pottery, natural objects, found treasures, landscapes, etc. near his home in the South of France. His work is really lovely, a style you don't see much any more. His paintings are for sale by auction on the site (clever idea!).

Labels: art, blogs (others'), great link(s)

Passing it on from D.S. and with thanks also to Rene's Apple whence it originated: Sergei Nakariakov, playing Bach's "Air on the G String", on fluegelhorn.



One of my favorite pieces and so beautifully played. Have a wonderful day.

Update. Here's a 7+ minute clip of him playing part one of Mozart's KV495 for horn and orchestra. It's as mellow as the Bach but longer. And it's astonishing to hear a flugglehorn so beautiful, for those of us who remember it from jokes more than beauty.

Labels: blogs (others'), great link(s), music, youtube

Time magazine has compiled a list of 50 fabulous websites. I liked them all especially these:

Gas Buddy (time-tested and VERY helpful)
Howcast (much better than others like it)
Itotallylikeloveit (this is a delight)
Omiru (amazing, fun and useful)
Wikitravel (I basically am not a fan of wikis (topic for another day) but this is terrific)
Health.com (much better tone and therefore more useful (to me anyway) than the others)
Serious eats (Mario Vitali and lots of interesting stuff)
Mapjack (digital mapping made fun and visually appealing)
Mint (financial planning/scheduling made fun)
Nymbler (names made wild and crazy)
Picnik (photo editing gone easy as well as wild and crazy)
SearchMe (results of searching moving to a new level)
Someecards (not your average card shop, not even average e-card shop)
WebSudoku (no need for explanations)
CarbonRally (either silly or awesome, not sure yet)
Colourlovers (awesome)
FreeRice (tons of fun, instructional AND worthwhile, all in one!)
Kiva - and some others (personal loaning sites, very interesting and useful)
Petfinder (holy cow, I mean mackerel, I mean . . .)

Enjoy!!

Labels: blogs (others'), good ideas, great link(s), websites

It all began when I saw edog's list. I'm a tad competitive about some things (understatement) so I had to check and see how I measured up. I copied the list into Excel and bolded the ones I'd read and added them up, but then I noticed that the last one was numbered 100 in text but was on the 98th line. Upon further investigation, I discovered that #44 and #51 were missing entirely so I tried edog's code thinking maybe the printed version had swallowed something but no. I went to The Big Read website sure they'd have the original list but found nothing even remotedly like this. (They've got their books for this summer's recommendations and all kinds of intellectualizing gobbledeegook about Americans and reading but no 100s.) I tried all manner of internet searches and found all manner of lists of books but none were these. Finally I returned to edog and saw he said he'd gotten the list from "Sheila" so after a bit of sleuthing on his site I found her link (Sherri Blossoms) but her list was missing 44 and 51, too. So I clicked her from whence (Moonrat) but again they were missing. I kept going back and back and back . . . six times in all until eventually I got to halo4's list which, blessedly, included the two books (wonder what happened? was it a simple case of Blogsphere Telephone?). In the end, here we are. See rules at the end of the post.

THE LIST - of which waaayyyyy too many are collections, children's and/or school books and/or science fiction. Since this list is unobtainable except via other blogs, I do not know but am curious as to who compiled it and with what criteria in mind. It seems like a mix of "important" books and best sellers and "pc" and "favorites" from its compiler(s). Meme and list writers should include their source. Anyway, be that as it may . . . .

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 (I read one so I get 1/6 of a point)
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 (I gave myself 1/2 a point)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 *Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 *War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
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 (hated it as a kid, like it now)
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (didn't understand it at 15, love it now)
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 **Persuasion - Jane Austen (Anne Elliott is one of my favorite people in the world)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres (started it, didn't like it)
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (started it, didn't like it)
40 *Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (marvelous idea but not crazy about the book)
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving (a good friend adores this)
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 (does watching the movie count?)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert (hated the movie, sorry)
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons (no way)
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 (Dirk Bogarde made it come alive)
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
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 (you must be kidding)
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie (that's SIR Rushdie to you)
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 (marvelous)
75 Ulysses - James Joyce (MUST read this)
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (loathed it, have major issues with her)
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 (never even heard of this)
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 (another collection; sheesh)
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (ugh; cute until you're 11)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (I hate anthropomorphizing)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute (I've read others of his though)
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 *Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (love lots of his stories)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (hated the musical too; so sue me)

So bottom line is I've read lots of them (72-4 depending on how you count) although I feel I should have read them all but I guess no one can be expected to have read every book in the world. Plus, the older I get the more readily I put aside a book that I don't like after 50 or 100 pages.

THE RULES : such as they are:
   (1) bold titles you've read,
   (2) italicize those you intend to read,
   (3)(a) underline those you liked
* (3)(b) tag those you adore with an asterisk, and
   (4) strike out those you didn't like.

Labels: about me, blogs (others'), books, writing