Books--Bright and Shiny

I have been tagged by Shades of Bliss to wade through the book list below, sorting, sifting, sometimes finding gold--an exercise I welcome. In my library of over 1500 books you will find many of these titles, well worn but well loved. I am a reader. I usually keep going till I get to the good stuff and have only set aside about 3 books in my life (and one of them is on this list.) Sometimes on finishing, I am disappointed but usually the book gets to me and I am glad I've persevered.

I have another list somewhere of the best books of all time but I'll have to find it and you'll have to know it is a few years old so misses some of the new finds. Meanwhile here is the list sent, annotated by me:

Look at the list of books below.
*Bold the ones you’ve read.
*Italicise the ones you want to read.
*Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
*If you are reading this, tag it if you like.
1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) - loved it, for its ability to reach into my known world and come up with utterly believable tenets. Yea, Dan Brown!
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) - loved this and the movies, too.
3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) - I taught this to Grade 10 English classes and fell in love with it. What a shame it is Lee's only book. She hit gold with this one.
4. Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell) Read it years ago, loved it for its look into the war between the states and its effect on people.
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) - read when my son was reading. great series.
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien) - see above.
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien) - see above.
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) - I read this as a girl and reread the series on a trip to PEI with our kids in 1980.
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) and all the other books in this series too! Loved her characters and since I'm a great believer in true love, was able to identify with Jamie and his doctor wife.
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry) I read this a few years ago and was saddened immensely by the plight of India and its poor people. Thought Mistry wrote very well but too much 'human condition' for me.
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling) - read the first Harry Potter to please my nephew. It was good, interesting, but I wasn't inspired to read the rest. not my thing.
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) - another good one
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)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) I loved this book. Bronte was well able to make her readers identify with Jane's plight and amazingly the book is timeless. This is quite a feat in writing.
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien) - I read this before the Lord of the Rings series. Bilbo Baggins is pretty unforgettable. Good book.
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) - Haven't read it yet.
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) - loved this as a kid.
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) - very dark but good.
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) - read in a kiddie lit course I took years ago where I was first introduced to a number of wonderful children's authors.
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom) - an absolutely soul-stirring book. If you don't cry with this one, your tear ducts are gone.
31. Dune (Frank Herbert) - good book, read years agl
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks) - saw the movie!
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) - a fellow teacher introduced me to this and I was happy to meet Ayn Rand. This book would be good to reread as its theme of the dangers of making everything available to everyone at the expense of individual worth and individuality itself is timeless.
34. 1984 (Orwell ) - read it as well as taught Animal Farm. Both are instruments to make us think.
)35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) - I love King Arthur myths and Bradley sure can write them!
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) - may have read this, can't remember.
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 I've read parts but most of my bible knowledge comes from bible stories in Sunday School when I was a child. I have never sat down and read the whole book.
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) read as a child
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) - read this and like it very much.
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) saw the movie and should read the book. It's a tearing-your-heart-out kind of thing, though.
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) - I've read this, I have it, but for the life of me I can't remember the story right now!
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) - read it years ago.
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens) - studied this in grade nine, my first intro to Dickens. What a great author to explore.
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) - the sadness of this belies the title. I don't find Fitzgerald 'great' although I recognize his ability to create word pictures.
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence) - My favorite author for many years. I was lucky enough to teach this to Grade 13 classes. A super book.
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough) - read the book, saw the movie, lent the book and still mourn its loss because it was never returned. McCullough is a fantastic writer.
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) - read it, interesting, but I must tell you Atwood is just too sad for me. Her poetry shows a stupendous word picture ability which she carries into her prose but I just don't read her anymore. Life is too short to be depressed.
60. The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy) - had a gr. 13 student doing an independent study project on this so I read parts but I haven't made it a priority to read the whole thing. Some day.
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) - I've read this but I have to say Rice's witches books are 10 times better than her vampire books.
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) -
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo) - I read this in French at university and then fell in love with the musical years later. Hugo has created plot and characters to capture your heart. And the music from the musical is some of the best I've ever heard in a musical.
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) - Le Petit Prince--I read it first in French and then in English years later. A wonderful story and certainly not just for kids.
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje) - I read it and saw the movie and found both unsatisfying. If the reader has to go so much more than halfway towards the author in order to understand the book, then the author has missed the point.
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) - a marvelous find from my kiddie lit course.
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay) -one of my students introduced me to Kay and I have enjoyed his fantasy since then.
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) - a marvelous book I read as a young teenager from my mother's library.
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving) - saw the movie with Robin Williams but can't really remember it too much.
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence) - another Laurence treasure. It is so sad that she ended her life before writing more. She said she had no more books in her--a shame.
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White) -read this marvelous book as an adult and loved it. This is the mark of good kiddie lit.
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier) - another of my mother's books I read as a teenager. Very good.
84. Wizard’s First Rule
85. Emma (Jane Austen) - saw the movie but haven't read it yet.
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams) - a great find which I taught in my Gr. 10 Eng. classes.
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) - another good one, the forerunner of modern sci-ci.
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields) - read it but can't really remember it. What does that say?
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding) - I taught this to grade 12 English students and we all enjoyed this treasure about the power of the beast within us all.
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) - This was my first Ludlum and I really liked it but subsequent ones lost their appeal as there was a sameness to them.
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield) Tried reading this and ran, yes, RAN, from it.
100. Ulysses (James Joyce) I can't believe I haven't read this!

What an interesting exercise. Thanks to the starter of this tag game. I've had fun reliving all of these book memories. I would like to tag my friend, Betty, who will probably have to set up a blog to do it, but she is a reader and I think would like this. Go, Bet!