Bookishness
Being snowed under with work (yay!), I don't have time for much, so I'm using the Book Meme currently making the rounds to cheat my way through today's entry.
Actually, my first reaction to the list was, "This is it? It's awfully short!"
Well, I survived middle school by burying myself in books, and spent a time as a bookstore owner, so I guess no surprise there.
Reading the list, it seems very strongly slanted in certain directions/genres. And it seems somewhat unfair that certain authors have *two* entries, especially as the entries are in the same genre (and even the same series). So I don't know how much the meme really reveals about our reading habits... there are many genres that are either underrepresented or not represented at all, some of which I happen to read, for instance. But it's a fun excercise, nonetheless.
Anyway:
Meme instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones you've never even heard of.
(in mine I left the ones I haven't read a bit darker, as the bold didn't show up too clearly... the reason "The DaVinci Code" is bright but not bolded is because I am reading it now, so I've read *part* of it, but not all)
The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
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
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
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)
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert
Actually, my first reaction to the list was, "This is it? It's awfully short!"
Well, I survived middle school by burying myself in books, and spent a time as a bookstore owner, so I guess no surprise there.
Reading the list, it seems very strongly slanted in certain directions/genres. And it seems somewhat unfair that certain authors have *two* entries, especially as the entries are in the same genre (and even the same series). So I don't know how much the meme really reveals about our reading habits... there are many genres that are either underrepresented or not represented at all, some of which I happen to read, for instance. But it's a fun excercise, nonetheless.
Anyway:
Meme instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones you've never even heard of.
(in mine I left the ones I haven't read a bit darker, as the bold didn't show up too clearly... the reason "The DaVinci Code" is bright but not bolded is because I am reading it now, so I've read *part* of it, but not all)
The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
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
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
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)
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert
posted by Eileen at 8:29 PM
3 Comments:
Snap! I did the same today. Just whacked from a busy day!
I'd highly recommend Cryptonomicon. And folks are pushing The Kite Runner hard in my comments. :)
What sort of work do you do, Eileen?!
How did you manage to never hear of The Lovely Bones?
So, nothing you wont' read? At least on that list?
I liked the Kite Runner but the protagonist was a little pill. Wanted to shake the boy by the scruff of the neck half the book.
Post a Comment
<< Home