Reading Bucket List (Update)

Well, I promised I would do it, so here it is. It starts with BBC’s top 200 books, and then I might throw some of my own in the mix as it expands. We’ll see. I’d love to read all of these, but I know, from experience, that some of them just won’t happen. I can’t STAND reading Tolstoy. Italics mean I’ve read it, strike through means I’ve read it, rated it, and reviewed it. And I do plan on doing reviews for all of these books as I read and re-read them.

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
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. George’s Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick O’Brian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Grossmith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. LawrenceLife of Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews

If You Want Me – Once OST

This is a movie that I think is HUGELY underrated. The music in it is refreshing and romantic. The story is poignant and so touching, all the way to the end. But this isn’t about the movie. This is just about a song I want you all to hear.

 

I hope you all can appreciate it the way I do. It’s definitely one of those songs you listen to and wonder how it’s possible that the whole entire world doesn’t know and love it just as much as you do.

Pretty much all the music from this album is amazing. Just saying.

Sports Sunday

On Friday I got to go to the second day of the GLI games. It was a completely spur of the moment decision – I woke up at 9:00 and the first thing I thought of was the UM vs MSU game going on at the Joe that night. A few minutes later and I was buying a ticket for the front row blue line. It was my first hockey game I’ve ever attended alone and it was a really enjoyable experience. I met some awesome State fans and had fantastic conversation with everyone around me.

I was hoping that I’d get to write on both the third place game (Boston College vs Michigan Tech) and the championship game (Michigan vs Michigan State), but as it turned out, the third place game was seriously the most boring thing I have ever watched in my entire life. I’m not sure if it was because I don’t quite enjoy either of those teams, but it was seriuosly… awful. The play was slow as hell, none of the players could complete passing the puck to another player on their team, and there were more missed passes than shots on goal. It was just a case of bad vs. worse.

However, the Michigan State vs. University of Michigan was… God, I could write a book on that game. Let me just say that it was the absolute best game I have ever been to. Ever.

Scrabble Saturday – Obstreperous

Happy New Years everyone! I know it’s technically Sunday, but some days I don’t get around to writing before work, so the post has to come after work. Throw in the fact that tonight was New Years Eve and I played DD for my friends and… well, you get a late post. I’m sorry.

Anyway. Today’s word, due to the obstreperous drunkards I drove home, is – you guessed it – obstreperous.

Obstreperous is an adjective meaning “noisy, clamorous, or boisterous” as in: The obstreperous girls would not stop screaming the entire drive to the next house they wanted to be dropped off at.

It can also mean “resisting control or restraint in a difficult manner; unruly” as in: When we had to fit five people in each car, the obstreperous group would not listen to seating instructions.

So. That’s the word for today. Now, as it is … Holy crap. 5 am, and I need to be up in less than 5 hours… I’m going to sleep. But I wanted to keep to my post a day as best I could. So… goodnight!

 

PS I had a fantastic New Years, regardless of not getting home from work until 11:59:02, getting kicked out of a party by the house owner’s mother (who lives in california and was visiting), driving around obstreperous people for a half hour of my life I will never get back, and everything else. It was a good night 🙂 How was yours?

Fiction Friday: Pyralis and Storm

I’m sitting here at my kitchen table, eating a Sausage, Egg, Cheese bagel and a bagel with cream cheese and sipping on a hot cocoa and writing the world’s most obnoxious run on sentence.

Wow. This post is going to be fantastic if that’s any indication. It’s supposed to be Fiction Friday today, but I can’t think of a single thing I have written recently enough to post. So… I guess you get something I wrote a while ago? Maybe?

Oh, I know. How about a scene from the novel I started for NaNoWriMo? Be warned: I wrote this as a parody of paranormal romances. But, as it turns out, I care too much about my writing to really showcase the horridness that is a paranormal romance. So… It actually turned out decent, I think.

Reading List Update

I haven’t read enough this year to really go through my whole reading bucket list. Just know that right now I’m reading Crime and Punishment, Lord Jim, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and there’s a few more chilling on my bed that I pick up occasionally.

Also, I read Wuthering Heights this year. I read a lot of Jane Austen too, but Wuthering Heights was my favorite book of the year. Absolutely… amazing. I’d write a review, but not right now. I’m watching Supernatural and just trying to catch up on this blog. So I can’t be bothered. Maybe tomorrow >_<

This Years New Years Resolutions

So. My list for this year, revised from last years list with a few new ones added…

1. Talk less; listen more.
2. Be happy with who I am.
3. Stop biting my nails.
4. Write, write, write.
5. Read, read, read.
6. Floss like a boss.
7. Work up and out.
8. Help my parents out more.
9. Save some bread.
10. Don’t worry, be happy.

My mom is having a baby in the next week or two. So number 8 is coming from that. I need to help out with the baby and with my grandparents who are getting worse and worse health-wise. They’ve been in and out of the hospital a lot this month and my parents just can’t keep doing it all by themselves. So I’m going to help as much as I can. It’s the least I can do 🙂

Last Years New Years Resolutions

Alright, so I’m going to use today – as it is Tracker Tuesday – to go through my New Years Resolutions from last year and show off my list for this year. I already know – they’re going to be VERY similar. I apparently suck at working on improving myself.  So here’s my list from last year:

1. Score a hockey player.
2. Talk less; listen more.
3. Drop the diva.
4. Stop being a skeleton.
5. Stop biting my nails.
6. Write, write, write.
7. Floss like a boss.
8. Work up and out.
9. Save some bread.
10. Don’t worry, be happy.

Let’s see how much of this I’ve really accomplished, shall we?

Whoops!

So, obviously I messed up with the whole, you know, writing every day. But that’s alright. There’s always the new year coming up to start over. And I have no problem with starting this over. Really. I’m quite excited, actually.

But yes, I’m going to try to come back to this beautiful little blog of mine, because I’m starting a Stephen King diet.

What’s that you ask? Oh, it’s fantastic. I just follow what he says he does.

2000 words a day (Once classes are over, obviously) and then reading and writing for a minimum of 6 hours a day. So if I pump out 2k in 3 hours, I still have 3 hours of reading to do before my “meal” of the diet is done.

I’m super excited for it because I idolize Stephen King and I’m going to read all of his novels one day. This’ll be a good way to start it. So yes. Basically, hopefully, I’m back.

Goodbye Comley!

Coach Comley with the 2007 NCAA Trophy

I… don’t know how I feel about this. To say the least, I’m surprised beyond surprise. I didn’t see it coming, although I can’t say that anybody did. I took a little while to soak it in, to do some reading, and to make sure I was at least slightly educated on the topic before I barged in here trying to write a blog post on this. Coach Rick Comley, after nine seasons with Michigan State University, is ending his 38-year coaching career. Yes, that’s right… He’s retiring.

I don’t know a lot about statistics and what makes a great coach great – you know, what’s the coach’s fault, what’s the player’s fault, what’s the fault of just… conditions – but I can tell from his achievements that Comley was a great coach. Was, however, being a key word here.