Ever See A Trailer For A Novel?

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BBC - The Big Read

After reading the comments posted on the entry below, I got curious. What IS the story with the BBC in relation to the list. After a quick Google search on 'BBC reading book list' I hit paydirt. Lo and behold, it is a very different list of reads than the 'BBC Reading List Meme' portrayed. Gone is the ultra-heavy reliance on British Classics. Many modern authors and many more genre are represented.

"In April 2003 the BBC's Big Read began the search for the nation's best-loved novel, and we asked you to nominate your favourite books.

Below and on the next page are all the results from number 1 to 100 in numerical order!"

That is a very different kettle of (silver)fish, I think you will agree. And yes, Nellie, it's still a mess of typing, for sure. So feast your eyes on the "original" list that started the meme and then look again at the metamorphosis it has undergone. Sure be some hate for modern novels out there somewhere...

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 (not that I understood it, mind you. It helped that I was drinking heavily back then)
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

Those on the original list which I've read are, appropriately, in red. So, from the original list, I've read 64 (I think, if I counted correctly). Still a lot of reading in this day and age, yet there are obviously some I ought to get on to and there's plenty I've read that would never appear on such an august list. What about you? Did you do more of less than in the entry 67 ways to waste your time and counting?

Allergies, Books and Enui

SWMBO is off gallivanting the countryside with her son. Son-in-Law is mowing the lawn. Iggy is wrestling with the big dogs. And I am cooped up in the trailer with the AC running to avoid all the allergens being whipped into the air by the power mower. On board are two Claritin, a Benedryl and a nasal shot of Nasonex. The eyes still itch.

I could be reading an honest-to-gawd book with pages and ink and everything as I have several in the works (Kim Harrison's White Witch, Black Curse, Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, Michael Zadorian's the Leisure Seeker) but that wolud require wearing reading glasses and they give me a headache. (I know; bitch, bitch, bitch).

SWMBO has the truck, so am stuck until her return. Then again, gas is almost at $3 a gallon, so not much driving just to take a ride at 7MPG going on in this gimp's life. Guess I'll go back to reading blogs.

CYA in the funny papers...




*SWMBO= She Who Must be Obeyed; ie. my wife and life-mate.

MEME Magic: Which Book Am I?

You're A People's History of the United States!

by Howard Zinn

After years of listening to other peoples' lies, you decided you've
had enough. Now you're out to tell it like it is, with all the gory details and nothing
left out. Instead of respecting leaders, you want to know what the common people have to
offer. But this revolution still has a long way to go, and you're not against making a
little profit while you wait. Honesty is your best policy.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Found this over at Tundra Medicine Dreams. She's a great read ... give her a try.

John M. Scalzi's Weekend Assigment #184: From the Top of Mount TBR

Anyone who does a lot of reading know about "Mount TBR": That's the pile of books you have just waiting To Be Read -- the books you want to get to, but haven't yet. This brings us to this week's Weekend Assignment: Weekend Assignment #184: What books do you want to read - but haven't yet? These could be new books, classic books you've just not gotten around to, books you've bought but haven't cracked the spines of, or a book you want to get but for some reason haven't. The salient characteristic is that you want to read it, but just haven't yet. Extra credit: Do you usually prefer the book or the movie?

Dear John,

While nowhere near as popular as you on oh, so many levels, I still manage a formidable TBR , in my case, list, as I am too poverty-ridden to be able to purchase too many books ahead. Still, there are a few.

Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series, Books 3,4,5 and 7 – I've actually acquired these, after reading Book 6, Thin Air, which I'd picked up off the rack at Wal-Mart and loved from the beginning.

Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars Revised & Updated

The Diabetes Diet: Dr. Bernstein's Low-Carbohydrate Solution (Both recommended by several PWD's I trust)

Thirteen by Richard K. Morgan

You Don't Love Me Yet: A Novel by Jonathan Lethem

Hell's Belles (Hell On Earth: Book 1) by Jackie Kessler

Twilight (Twilight, Book 1) by Stephenie Meyer

Magic or Madness (Magic or Madness Trilogy) by Justine Larbalestier

Pretties (Uglies Trilogy, Book 2) by Scott Westerfeld

Peeps (Bccb Blue Ribbon Fiction Books (Awards)) by Scott Westerfeld

The Pacific Between by Raymond K. Wong

Deadly Errors by Allen Wyler

End in Fire (Roc Science Fiction) by Syne Mitchell

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith by Cordwainer Smith

Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith

The Crazy Years: Reflections of a Science Fiction Original by Spider Robinson

The Counterfeit Heinlein (Gerald Knave Science Fiction Novels) by Laurence M. Janifer

The Robert Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana by J. Neil Schulman

Fat White Vampire Blues by Andrew Fox

Paddling in Paradise: Sea Kayaking Adventures in Atlantic Canada by Alison Hughes

Kabloona in the Yellow Kayak: One Woman's Journey Through the North West Passage by Victoria Jason

And that's just the books on my Amazon “Wish List”... there are many magazines, catalogs, newsletters and the like that weren't included but are amongst the daily or weekly "must read" piles.

Have a great weekend. All my love to your lovely wife and daughter. Good luck on your progress towards meeting the dread deadlines. I feel for you ... or is that just my iced tea glass I'm feeling for?

wil

Post Scriptus: I almost always prefer the book over a movie made therefrom. However, in the (thankfully rare) case of books made from movies, I have found the books to be sadly lacking. Little more than screenplays stripped of the script formating.

[AUTHOR NOTE: Just click on the link at the top to get a blank copy of this week's question and to have the link to the venue where you post your link to your answers. Don't post it here as only the rarest of cognoscenti ever read the Weekend Assignment here. Too much of an acquired taste, I fear. Something like stewed Monkey's Balls, I'm told...]

All Things Wand and Wandering -- Sans Spoilers

I did it. I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yesterday. My overall impression, without spoilers? Yes, well, right; I'll agree with John Scalzi, then. "It could have been shorter."

I rewarded myself by going to see "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" at the movies. My thoughts, without spoilers. I was saddened to find that this movie was the first in the series that could not stand alone. All the others can be judged on their own merits. This one will leave the non-fan scratching their head and muttering "What the fuck?" as they exit the theater. This is not a good sign for the future. Yes, they'll probably make movies of the remaining HP books. If they don't find a director with more vision and an independent spirit, the remaining movies will also be in the 'blah' class. And I do wish they'd insist on more acting classes for the principal actors. They really should be a bit more expressive by now. I am as fond as the next guy of watching young talent stretching themselves on the boards at the local high schools. I am less charitable when I have paid more than I did for my first car to get a ticket, a box of popcorn and a lemonade (only a slight exaggeration for effect). The special effects (FX) were nice.

Despite the less than rousing revue, I do suggest you read the book and see the movie. It's a cultural phenomenon, after all. Besides, it gives me a safe topic of conversation with grandchildren.

My REAL Fantasy Woman

From the Babes With Books Blogger blog!

MEME: Wednesday Mind Hump -- Ex Libris

Rfduck looks up from the Guitar Today his beak was buried in to exclaim, “Hello readers! Here we are again, doing another Mind Hump. I don't like today's theme (Floral Design Day), so we'll discuss books instead.”

What is the last book you read? Mount Misery by Samuel Shem, MD
Who is your favorite character in the book? The recovering alcoholic senior resident (I forget his name and the book is out on loan...)
Did you enjoy the book? Yes, and no. It IS too long by about 200 pages (paperback) and in need of an “Evil Editor” to cut it down to more manageable size. I cringed at some of the horror stories, having witnessed such abuse myself as a student.
Would you recommend the book to others? If you liked The House of God (also by Shem) you'l love this one. Otherwise, read the first 250 pages and if you are still involved at that point, go for the big finish, otherwise, put it down.

It's Coming

And I don't mean the Second Coming of Jesu Cristo, either. No, I'm referring to the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series. B. Dalton's and Waldenbooks have flooded my email box with announcements of the Immanence. I have given the Internet imps my email address, so I will be found on that final day -- the day one can order the tome, online, of course...