Book 4 - 'A Tale of Two Cities' (rank=63)

I'm being very slack with this book, but I'm not really enjoying it and I'm tempted to give up. I won't though, I'm halfway through now, so I may as well finish. Nothing really seems to happen in it, I don't like any of the characters, I don't know much about the period in history (i think it's just before the French revolution), and the book doesn't really bring it alive for me. I don't think I'm going to become a Dickens fan...

Book 4 - 'A Tale of Two Cities' (rank=63)

I've got into this a bit more now and things are starting to happen, but I still find the language a bit of a barrier. A few times I've had to reread sentences 2 or 3 times to get what he's talking about as they are long and strangely (to me) written. The story is starting to get more interesting now though and I like the characters. I'm not sure I'd choose to read a lot of Dickens, but he's not as much of a chore as I was expecting! On the other had, I found a new trilogy that I'm loving - Trudi Canavan, 'The Magician's Guild' etc. Have read two and am waiting for the 3rd to come back into the library so I can pounce on it. In the meantime, Dickens will keep me amply occupied!

Book 4 - 'A Tale of Two Cities' (rank = 63)

I've been reading this in fits and starts over my lunchtimes and have to admit to finding it a little hard going at the moment. I think I need to give it a bit of a blast in order to get into the style of writing. Dickens puts in a lot of omniscient narrator stuff which sits strangely for a modern reader I think, and the fact that it was originally in serial form (I imagine) probably doesn't help. I'm not very far through yet, but I have no idea really what it's about, or what is going to happen! The thing I think I find hardest about books of this period is that they often don't refer to people by name, or refer to them by several different names and it gets very confusing.

I'll give it a proper go over the weekend and see how I go.

Book 3 - 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' (rank = 28) - Finished

Apologies for the lapse between posts, those who read my personal blog will know that I have been recovering from a broken back. My inability to get to the library for a while, along with a desire to read light (as in literal weight) and light (as in content) novels, shelved my project for a while. However, I am back and am planning a foray to the library this afternoon, list in hand.

While in hospital I did read another from the list however - the fantastic 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' by John Irving. I had tried to read another of his, A Widow for a Year, without much success, so wasn't holding out much hope for this. However I was proved drastically wrong and I loved this book completely.

It follows the stories of 2 boys in their passage to becoming young men, and adults. The narrator is the best friend of the eponymous Owen, a tiny, high voiced anomaly with little regard for the normal ideas of society, or the normal behaviour of his peer group. To be honest, it is now a few weeks since I read it and some of the details are a little hazy. I will say though, it kept me compelled and entertained for a good half of the week I spent on my back in a hospital bed, unable to move whilst I waited for my surgery. Any book that can do that is worth reading, and I shall definitely read it again in the future, and try more of Irving's as well.

Try it. You'll like it. :o)

Book 2 - 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' (rank = 19) FINISHED

I finished this on the weekend and it is a testament to the quality of the book that even though I only had 3 pages to go approaching my tube stop, I put it away rather than rush through the final bit. If you really want to know, I finished it on the loo when I got home!

I found the last few chapters quite interesting as they whizz through time; suddenly bringing us from Pelagia's youth to her becoming a grandmother, albeit with quite a few significant events in between. I felt that the horrific events listed, including the German occupation, the earthquake, the deaths of various people close to Pelagia, were dealt with in such a way that although they were vivid, they were not emotive. Although I don't often cry at movies (Million Dollar Baby being an exception), I often tear up at books, but this one seemed to be more distant and detached. I don't think it detracted from the power of the novel, but I thought it was an interesting way to tackle the whole thing.

I very much enjoyed reading it, and will definitely look for more by the same author. I have 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' and '100 Years of Solitude' to choose from next - I'll see what kind of mood I'm in this evening!

Book 2 - 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' (rank = 19)

I am over halfway and still enjoying most of the book, although I get a little weary of some of the war bits, and Mandras' interactions with the ELAS or whatever they are called. I mainly enjoy the interactions between Pelagia and Captain Corelli, and I still like the priest who has come into his own and strides around the island in sole-less sandels, preaching torrents of Greek to incomprehending but delighted Italians, and incomprehending and irritable Germans. Psipsina, the rescued pine marten is also a delightful character!

I promise to finish it soon - it is amazing how my reading time has lessened now that I don't have a couple of hours on the tube each day!

Book 2 - 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' (rank = 19)

I was a little wary of this book as the movie was so disappointing, but I shouldn't have let that put me off as it is very rare that movie lives up to the promise of the book. (I thought 'The English Patient' was an exception, but I know some will disagree).

I'm about a quarter of the way in I think and still haven't met the eponymous character, but instead have been charmed (and occasionally disgusted) by a host of characters related to the story from different angles, including Metaxes, and Mussolini himself in a very funny stream-of-consciousness monologue. I love the way de Bernieres uses such a variety of styles and viewpoints, from letters, internal monologues and first person perspective, to more traditional 3rd person, omniscient narrator. The characters are vivid and interesting and even though they present some very different perspectives, they are all sympathetic in their own way. My personal favourites at the moment are Lemoni, a small and mischievous 6 year old girl, and the drunken, obese priest.

I am looking forward to meeting Corelli, as I hope to expel the vision of Nicholas Cage permanently from the role! Especially that appalling accent!

Book1 - 'Jane Eyre' (rank = 10) - finished!

It took me a little longer than anticipated, due to unplanned forays through other novels, but I reached the end of Miss Eyre (or, should I say, Mrs Rochester). It was much as I predicted, although I couldn't have forseen the somewhat melodramatic loss of an eye and sight in the other. And a hand as well? Or am I making that up. Anyway, it turned out happily for all concerned, with the possible exception of St John, who didn't seem like he ever wanted to be happy. I'm not sure what the author intended us to think of him, but I thought he was the most miserable so-and-so ever, and didn't feel in the slightest bit sorry for him at all. I was hoping the 'heathens' in India would make him into a nice chicken tikka and save the rest of us from his prosaic proselytising (nice bit of alliteration).

I did enjoy it, although I still much prefer 'Pride and Prejudice' and even 'Emma'. I'm glad I read it though, and it was no hardship to do so. I read an article in the Telegraph over the weekend, by Nick Hornby, which basically advised people not to struggle through books they aren't enjoying. There is a bit of snobbery about what people read, and Hornby thinks it is far better to read something you enjoy and read more, than to push yourself through a novel you don't connect with and put yourself off reading in the future. I have to agree, although I shall be going against his advice on occasion with this list I think.

Ah well, onto the next book, which I am partway into (got a good few hours in on the train back and forth from Devon), which is...(see above)

Book 1 - 'Jane Eyre' (rank 10)

I'm still going with Jane - thought I'd be finished by now, but I keep interrupting her with other 'quick fixes'. My mind is rebelling and in a lazy mood so I keep being distracted by one-dayer novels.
Anyway, poor Jane has found out that Mr Rochester (anyone else find it strange that his firstname is the same as his housekeepers surname, ie Fairfax) has a mad wife in the attic and has flown the scene, being saved from starvation by a rather interesting family. I am now past the bits I knew a bit about, so will be interested to see how it all turns out in the end.

I have been trying to think of an equivalent situation that could happen now. Obviously in this specific case, Mr R would have been able to get an annulment, and anyway, living out of wedlock is these days only shocking to very small, permed old ladies who smell of lavender - and with some of the story lines on Eastenders these days, probably not even them.

Will report back once finished.

Book 1 - 'Jane Eyre' (rank = 10)

I knew I'd find this easy going and I was right. I am very much enjoying it so far - Charlotte Bronte has a slightly different style to Jane Austen, but I find them both easy to tune in to. I knew bits of the Jane Eyre story, but not the whole plot (vague knowledge of Mr Rochester and the mad wife in the attic), and happily I don't know how it ends. I'm about a 3rd of the way through as I had a couple of other books to finish before I could start this one - usually I'll happily have 2 or 3 books on the go at one time, but for this challenge I thought it best to stick to one at a time.

It was interesting reading the introduction to Jane Eyre as well. The Brontes were a bit of an unlucky family it seems, dying left right and centre, and Charlotte only managing a year of marriage before she died, in her 30s if I recall correctly. I also hadn't realised that the 3 sisters only really wrote one major novel each, or that they originally published under masculine-sounding pseudonyms.

I should finish this by the end of the week, so I'll post again once I have...

I would welcome any comments from others about this book (just don't give any plot away!)

The first library foray...

Hurray! I have a library card! I searched the library for a while and found myself 2 books from the list – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (rated number 10 on the list); and 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I’m pretty sure I’ll whiz through Jane Eyre – I’m not sure why I’ve never read it before, being a fan of Jane Austen and similar novels. Besides, I already know most of what happens purely through assimilation – references to Mr Rochester and the mad wife in the attic are everywhere!

100 Years I’m not so sure about. I have previously read Love in the Time of Cholera by the same author, and slogged through it without really being able to say I liked or disliked it. In fact, I’m now racking my brains to remember what happens and all I’m getting is a vague memory of a parrot in a palm tree, and it dying somehow, causing some distress? There is the distinct possibility I’m thinking of the wrong book, but that’s what I recall.

I will report back once I’m fully into one or the other…

Interim Post...

Just a quick note to show I haven't forgotten this blog, I just don't have any proof of address yet, so I can't join the library. Think I might have to go Oxfamming and see if I can find any there. In the meantime, I'm reading a book called 'The Line of Beauty' by Alan Hollinghurst, which was recommended to me by my friend Angela.
I like it, but I'm not entirely sure about it yet. It's about a young Oxford student, newly open gay, discovering himself and his sexuality in London. He is staying with a college friend's family - a very wealthy family, the father of which is a Tory MP. It's not explicit, but there is the constant presence of Nick's attraction to various straight and gay men around him, and a kind of superfluity to the women (apart from the 2 he is staying with). I'll keep going with it, but nothing much has really happened so far...

Back to the Challenge...

Well, with the move behind me, I can settle back into my library habit, although I'll have to wait until I get a bank statement or something so I can prove my new address to the library. Meanwhile, I've given you the whole list, now here's my reading list from it:

NOT READ (42)
6, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
10, Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
12, Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13, Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14, Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15, The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
17, Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
19, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20, War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21, Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
26, Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
28, A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29, The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
32, One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
34, David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
36, Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37, A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38, Persuasion, Jane Austen
39, Dune, Frank Herbert
43, The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44, The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
47, A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48, Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
53, The Stand, Stephen King
54, Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55, A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
58, Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
60, Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
63, A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
67, The Magus, John Fowles
71, Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
77, The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78, Ulysses, James Joyce
79, Bleak House, Charles Dickens
84, Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
88, Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
90, On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91, The Godfather, Mario Puzo
94, The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95, Katherine, Anya Seton
100, Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

TO RE-READ (8)
4, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
8, Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
11, Catch-22, Joseph Heller
16, The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
42, Watership Down, Richard Adams
50, The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
64, The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
68, Good Omens, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

So, that's my 50. I'm not planning on any particular order, as with libraries you have to really take what you can find. I'll try to get started this weekend, so I'll post on Monday to let you know how I'm going :o)

My Top 6 - 'Cloud Atlas'

This was a bit of a funny one - I was recommended this book by Monique, a friend and colleague at Springfield, who didn't like it but thought I would! When she mentioned it, I also remembered someone else I met recommending it as well, so when I was given some book tokens, I bought it. Well, I must say, Monique has excellent judgement, as I loved it!

This is not really like one novel, it's more like 6 short novels which have been opened to the middle and laid flat one on top of the other, then closed again. I don't know if that explains it so say each book has a number, and the first half is A and the second half B, when you read it, the order goes: 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A, 6B, 5B, 4B, 3B, 2B, 1B. If that makes any more sense! The stories move in time from the late 1800s to a post-apocalyptic future, and while none directly relate to another in terms of protagonist or even theme, they all connect in some way. For example, the first 'book' is The Pacific Journals of Adam Ewing following an English lawyer who has gone to Australia on behalf of a client, and ends up stranded in the Chathams. The second book, Letters to Zedelgem (sp?) is about a young composer who travels to the Netherlands I think, to offer his scribing services to a very famous composer who is a syphilitic invalid and can no longer compose on his own. Whilst there, this young composer discovers The Pacific Journals... and secretly sells them to a rather shady dealer. For another example, there is a birthmark shared by more than one character, book 3 is then being considered for publication by a minor character in book 4 and so on. In one case, a character from one book is revered as a god by the next!

What amazed me is how clearly and beautifully David Mitchell writes in such a variety of styles. Once you realise the convention (the first book finishes in the middle of a sentence, the only one that does, which I think is to make you flip forward and realise what is going on), it is fun to pick up on all the through-themes, and once you are reading the second halves of each, you see even more. I don't know if it's for everyone, as I know a few people who gave up, not liking the jumping around, but it is a beautiful, thought-provoking novel, and written by a very talented storyteller. I haven't read any of his others yet, but I am planning to, and will be interested to see if they can live up to Cloud Atlas.

By the way, I have changed my blog template as I got a bit overwhelmed by the previous green. Hope I didn't confuse anyone!

My Top 6 - 'The Handmaid's Tale'

Anther book introduced to me during my 'Contemporary Women's Writing' paper. Margaret Atwood is a brilliant writer and I have since enjoyed many of her novels, including 'The Blind Assassin', 'Alias Grace' and 'Oryx & Crake'. 'The Handmaid's Tale' is still the one that I remember the best, and would happily read again (and again, and again...)

It follows the ordeals of Offred, the eponymous handmaid, who lives in a world sometime in the future where religion has taken over. She lives in the Republic of Gilead and her purpose is simply to breed - many of the wealthy women are no longer able to conceive, so 'handmaids' are brought in for this purpose. They have sex with the men of the house, but there is no love or passion, simply a mechanical transaction. Any transgression of any rule (and there are a lot), and failure to follow the strict doctrine means certain death for Offred (her name, Of Fred, simply marks her owner). However, as the story progresses, we see Offred grow in resolve, knowledge and strength, egged on to some degree by her male 'owner'.

The end is inconclusive and somewhat irritating, but I found it beneficial to read the book again knowing the ending. It's a bit like the movie Fight Club - once you know the end, it changes everything else.

It's been a while since I read this book, so I haven't been particularly specific or interesting in this post. Needless to say, if you are already an Atwood fan, and haven't read this book, get to the book store/library now! And if you've never read an Atwood, this is a good place to start. Have fun, and happy reading!

My Top 6 - 'The Time Traveler's Wife'

Amazingly, this is Audrey Niffenegger's first novel - I can't wait to read her next one. This is a stunningly beautiful book, again in the genre of Magic Realism. I think most people have heard of this book, it's already made it onto several 'modern classic' lists, and as soon as I had finished it I emailed everyone I could think of and told them to read it.

The tale follows the lives and love affair of 2 people - Clare and Henry. What is extraordinary about them is that they first meet when Clare is 6 and Henry is 36, but they marry when Clare is 22 and Henry 30. Impossible you would think, except Henry suffers from an extremely rare chromosomal condition that causes him to time travel, spontaneously and without warning, arriving naked and wary in unknown destinations. As you can imagine, this causes a few problems for their relationship, and some puzzling paradigms for the reader. For example, when Clare and Henry meet in 'real time', she has already met him several times during her childhood, but as he has not yet time traveled to meet her, he has no idea who she is. Clare later gives him a list of dates and times when he time traveled to her, so that the first time he meets her (aged 6), he can give young Clare the list, so that when she grows up she can give it to Henry, so he can give it to her...and so on.

Personally, I didn't find the changes in time too hard to cope with as Niffenegger always lists Henry and Clare's respective ages at the beginning of each section. Therefore, if Henry is 8 years older than Clare, they are in 'real time', anything else and he is time traveling. If you do find it confusing at first, persist, it's worth it. It's an incredible premise and I wish I'd thought of it myself, but I don't think anyone could have written it more beautifully and personally than Niffenegger.

There's an incredibly poignant section where they are trying to have a baby, and I still don't know how I feel about the last bit, but I won't tell you any more, you'll have to read it for yourselves.

My Top 6 - 'Keeping Faith'

Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult is a book I discovered all on my own. It had not been recommended by anyone, I hadn’t seen a review of it anywhere and I had never heard of the author before. I had book vouchers to spend for some reason, and I was browsing in the ‘Contemporary Fiction’ section when I found it, thought it sounded good and bought it. I have now read all of Picoult’s novels, and she has since become more well-known and widely read, but this one, Keeping Faith is still my favourite (followed closely by Plain Truth)
I think that’s because, as well as the kind of mystery aspects contained in her other novels, this one contains a large element of Magic Realism, which adds something extra and intriguing which sets it apart from your average John Grisham-type novel.

Basically, the story starts with Mariah, a woman with a young daughter (Faith), whose husband has just left her. We see quickly that Mariah is very needy, devastated by the betrayal, and not coping very well with her life. Her daughter, Faith is obviously affected by this, and begins talking to an ‘invisible friend’ whom she refers to as her ‘guard’. A normal reaction for a small girl faced with big changes at home you would think, but it soon transpires that Faith is actually talking not to her ‘guard’, but to God.

Slowly, through various acts and small miracles, word gets around and ‘pilgrims’ and news crews begin to gather at Mariah’s gate. Her mother comes over to help out, as Mariah can’t cope on her own, but there is another cloud on the horizon. Notorious ‘tele-atheist’ Ian, who travels around disproving weeping Madonnas and Jesus-shaped mould stains, hears of Faith and determines to prove Mariah a fake. When Faith develops stigmata, many people start to believe that this is a version of Munchausen’s-by-proxy (http://sids-network.org/experts/msp.htm). Faith’s father decides Mariah is unstable and opens a battle for custody of Faith which it looks like he will win…

Told from the perspective of several characters, but mainly Mariah’s, this is a story with no bad-guy, where you don’t really know what to believe. Picoult handles the situation diplomatically – she is not interested in making the reader believe that miracles are possible or impossible – what she deals with is the way an ordinary family deals with an extraordinary situation. I was glued to this book from beginning to end, and read it for a second time almost immediately. Highly recommended!

My Top 6 - 'Nights at the Circus'

If someone said I could only read one book, over and over again, for the rest of my life (heaven forbid!) I think I would have to pick this one. It's the most magical, amazing book, and although I have since read and enjoyed more of Angela Carter's writing, this book is definitely special.

The story follows an American reporter, Walser, who is trying to find out the true story behind the supposed 'Winged Woman', a cockney girl known as Fevvers. However, during the course of the interview, Fevvers, with the help of her fierce protector Lizzie, not only tells her story, but captivates, intrigues and enchants Walser until he doesn't know what to believe. Bemused and in love, desperate to know more, Walser joins the circus as a clown, and becomes part of a strange, dark and not-quite-real world presided over by an eccentric American Colonel (?) and his beloved and sensitive pig.

Throughout this tale we meet a variety of characters, each with their own triumphs and tragedies, and each adds in some way to Walser's quest. The world is one of magic, tragedy and coincidence, and written in a way that the text will weave its spell around you as deftly as Fevvers weaves hers around Walser. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Interestingly, I saw a production of this at the Lyric theatre in Hammersmith. While it was a good show in its own right, I felt that it did not live up to the richness and vibrancy of Carter's text, and the actress playing Fevvers was talented, but not quite voluptuous and gutsy enough for the role.

Read this book. It's compulsory!

My Top 6 - 'The Vintner's Luck'

I was introduced to this book by a 2nd year English paper at Otago. In fact 3 of my top 6 come from that class. It was called 'Contemporary Women's Writing' and I don't think there was one book on the list that it felt like a chore to read.

This book is by a New Zealand author called Elizabeth Knox. It is set on a vineyard in Burgundy and follows the life of a young man called Sobran who, as a young man, meets an angel called Xas in one of the vineyards and they make a pact to meet on the same day every year. Each year's meeting is documented by Knox, each titled by a vinter's term. Sobran grows and changes while Xas seems to remain a constant throughout. However, even an angel has thoughts and feelings, and when Sobran is struck by tragedy, their already intense friendship is taken to another level.

The last 3rd of the book is intensely moving, frightening and somehow both repulsive and incredibly compelling, but I'd be loath to ruin it for anyone who hasn't read it. It is one of the most beautiful books I have read and was an immediate placer in my top 6. Knox's subsequent novel, Black Oxen, I struggled with, but apparently her next (and I can't remember the title) is firmly back on form.

My Top 6 Books of All Time!

My personal top 6, none of which appear on the BBC list are as follows (in no particular order):

The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox

Nights at the Circus by Anglea Carter

Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

There are loads of other books I've loved and authors that I read everything by, but these 6 were books that touched my heart, that made me want to read them again for the first time, and that made me want to write to everyone I know, imploring them to read them too.

They all seem to come under the genre of Magic Realism, which doesn't seem to be a widely recognised genre, usually being lumped in with general fiction. In Magic Realism, the story is set in the world as we know it, usually contemporary, but extraordinary things happen within that world that are (usually) accepted by the main characters.

To give specific examples, in The Vintner's Luck, the main character has yearly meetings with an angel; in Night's at the Circus there is a winged woman and a whole array of larger-than-life (but still real) characters; in Keeping Faith, God appears to a young girl, causing her to perform miracles and the like; and in The Time Traveller's Wife, a man travels randomly and involuntarily through time.

I'll talk about each of them in more detail over the next few posts, in the meantime I'm going to try and figure out why my blog is putting in an extra line every time I press enter...

Introduction to the Challenge...

I have always been an avid reader from the first time I managed to read 'Hand Hand Fingers Thumb' to my babysitter aged about 3 1/2. I read a wide range of books, especially since studying literature at university a few years ago, but in the absence of a nearby book club, I have decided to set myself my own challenge - to read all of the books on the BBC top 100 book list.

This was a list nominated by the public, championed by various celebrities and then voted on by viewers. The final list looked something like this...

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

I worked out that I have read 58 of the books already, leaving me 42 to read. However, there were 8 on my ‘read’ list that I can’t remember well enough to comment on them, so I’ve decided to read them again, which leaves me with an even 50.

Over the next couple of weeks (as I am moving house and won’t be able to get to the library) I will post about the books on the list I have already read, and some other books I would definitely put on my ‘top 100’! For now, this is the first time I’ve posted to a blog using Word Blogger, so I’ll leave this post here and see if it’s worked…