By The Book

Yes, another meme. Beats discussing the phlegm and wretched coughing which are otherwise consuming my life. I've seen this on a couple of blogs recently. I do like to read, but certainly don't consider myself "well read." I mean I'm currently reading a 3rd grade book about a golden hamster! I'm sure Ren will not laugh at me upon reading this.

Anyway, here's the key for the following list:

In the list of books below, bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of:

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)-one of my favorites
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. + The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. + The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. + The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. +Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. +Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. +Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall On Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. +The Stand (Stephen King)-I read this years ago. I read a lot of Stephen King when I was in middle school and early high school.
19. +Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. +The Hobbit (Tolkien)-I've tried and can't finish this book!
22. +The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)-love this and read it multiple times
23. +Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. +Life of Pi (Yann Martel)-I have this on my stack of "to read" books.
26. +The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)-tried to read as a kid, but couldn't finish.
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)-I love Steinbeck, but never read this one for some reason.
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. +Dune (Frank Herbert)-I've tried and failed to get into it.
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. +Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. +1984 (Orwell)
35. *The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. *The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much Is True (Wally Lamb)
39. *The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. *The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. +Bible-well, I've read some of it
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
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)
51. +The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. *Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. +Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65.*Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
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)--I have this in French!
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)-one of my all-time favorites. Not sure why I don't have a copy.
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)
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)-I really enjoyed this in high school
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)-read multiple times
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Wow, more mortifying than I thought. I haven't even read a quarter of the books listed. Granted, I'm not even sure what this list is, but I know there are many on here that I should have read by now.

My Other Blog

Still under the weather here, so I don't really feel much like writing. In case you are mildly interested, I have been updating my photoblog a bit today. I post there often, participating in daily photo challenges and a weekly haiku challenge. I went overboard with the colorful theme this week and wrote not one, but seven haiku. Nothing brilliant, but once I get on a roll...

By The Numbers

We cleaned, they came and watched The Oscars®, I'm still sick.

# of pounds of E's famous meatballs that were consumed: 6

# of minutes prior to guests arriving that I jumped into the shower: 30

# of guests that squeezed into our tiny house: 47

# of video screens playing the awards show (including the bathroom): 7

# of photos of the festivities that I took: 0

# of Burger Bites I have left over, just for me: 5

# of cool, new tote bags I received: 1 (Thanks, Kenny!)

Oh, and most importantly:

# of years E and I have been married, as of today: 12