What’s Your All-Time Favorite Novel?

I’ve recently organized my classics reading list, and then I came across this meme at Word Lily! It’s a perfect fit, so I thought I’d toss in my comments and pass it along to you.

It all started with the BBC’s search for the nation’s best-loved novel, which resulted in a list of the 100 most-nominated books.

Now a meme is circling in which you apply font styling to the titles for those you have read, those you intend to read, and those you plan to stay far away from. To summarize my results:

• Looks like I have read only 19 of the 100 best fiction books (according to the BBC, at least). But most of those are favorites of mine.
• There are 24 titles that I intend to read, many of which are already on my classics reading list.
• Twelve books I have no intention of every reading—these are of no interest for a variety of reasons, most of which are silly, I’m sure, but with so many books and so little time, I must draw the line somewhere!
• The remaining books I am not familiar with enough to make a determination if I would or would not be interested in ever reading them; perhaps in the future when I need another read I’ll track down one of these mystery books.

Here’s the meme and the list stylized with my results—enjoy! (And join the fun!)

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.
5) Reprint this list on your own blog.

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 [Sorcerer's in USA] 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

Finding Utopia: Comparing More’s to God’s

A few years ago, my mom and I plodded through Crime and Punishment. It awakened my interest in classic lit, so I then re-read some (OK, lots!) by Jane Austen, then some by Charlotte Bronte. Soon I realized I had covered books by authors whose last names began with A, B, and D . . . so I decided to complete the alphabet and find classics by authors for each letter.

Initially I wanted to read them in alpha order, but now I am tackling whatever work is of interest at the moment. I figure after I’ve covered the whole alphabet once, I’ll just start again. What a fun way to broaden the scope of my reading!

My current read is Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. The little I knew of this work made me interested enough. But now that I’ve delved into it a bit, I’m finding it difficult to follow. So I read a few reviews and summaries in the hope that these will help me pick up the trail long enough to get hooked. We’ll see what happens on that front!

Something mentioned in one of the reviews has stuck with me though. More’s fictitious world is criticized as being stringent and narrowly defined according to his personal preferences. (To that I thought, “Duh—it’s his story!”) And I began to think of how difficult it is to concoct a perfect society. The trouble is that imperfect people live here, and to create a perfect world you need perfect people—and where will they come from?

All we know here is imperfection, so even if we can dream of a perfect world, how do we then create perfect people to keep up that perfect world?

Unless people are changed inside, the imperfection within is soon to seep out. It reminds of that humorous lament that “everywhere I go there I am”—you cannot get away from who you are, even if you pick up and move elsewhere. Likewise, you cannot find a perfect society to plant yourself into and expect it to change you.

The good thing is that God promised long ago to change us completely so that one day we would be able to live perfectly. Listen to His promise to us recorded in the book of Ezekiel:

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

Ultimately, I am grateful that I do not have to design a perfect life—God has promised to work the perfection of Jesus into my being as I yield to Him throughout my life. What joy there is when your heart simply wants to live honorable and rightly!

But this transformation is certainly a process, one that is full of successes and failures. No, this world is no Utopia, but one day all that will change. God’s up to something good. Can’t wait!

The Best Reason to Get Gussied Up

I’ve heard several times recently the adage that your life is not a dress rehearsal. And it’s got me thinking. This comment is typically said in exasperated tone to shake people into living their lives a different way.

At least once this has been how Stacy and Clinton (on What Not to Wear) have tried to encourage people to stop wearing ratty sweats to run their errands. Most often, the ratty sweats are donned out of comfort.  Ease. Security. Laziness. Whatever the reason, the WNTW hosts are adamant that errands are part of life; you do not pause life to run errands then start it up again afterward. Therefore, care should be taken to be presentable in the midst of life.

Taking this concept further, I realize that, metaphorically speaking, I tend to dress in my ratty sweats most days waiting for real life to kick in. My ratty sweats are not actual, tangible clothing. Rather, these are the easy, comfortable ways that I sit about in life because I think that real life is going to kick-in sometime in the perpetual tomorrow.

What am I waiting for?

I’m not sure really. Somehow I have become one of those gals in her mid-30s who is on hold, waiting for something earth shattering to occur as the sign that now life is happening.

<Lest you think I am a complete melancholic drip (some days I am quite chipper, I swear!), this post really is going somewhere positive and encouraging! Stick with me.>

All this reflective thought kicked in the other day when I read Chelsey’s post (at grace, grammar & good eats) outlining 101 things she wants to do in 1001 days. [This movement started here; you can post your list to the site and download a counter widget for your own site as a reminder that your life is in action. Anyhow . . . ]

Back in 2000, I made a list of the top 25 things I would like to do in my life. Then I promptly forgot all about it. But Chelsey’s post reminded me of my ancient list, so I did a computer search—voila! a blast from the past.

The list is like stumbling across your youthful journals—so familiar, but in a detached way. A few entries on the old list have come to pass and some are still on my mental list. Several others I would now remove—let’s just chalk those up to my youthful, naïve, pre-30-year-old self.

That list was concocted eight years ago. That’s 2,920 days. And I can only cross eight things off the list. (And I can hardly take credit for some of those things because I had little influence over the outcome!) What have I been doing all this time?!

Back in January and February, I posted often about 2008 resolutions (see posts: one | two | three | four). It is now Day 226 of 2008. Sixty-two percent of 2008 is now behind me. [sigh.] Can’t say I’ve been diligent to change out of my ratty sweats.

But now I am thinking of resolutions and change and transformation (my favorite!), and I would like to recommit. Or commit, because I really didn’t develop true resolutions for 2008. Maybe I could develop resolutions for the last part of 2008. With 139 days remaining, certainly I could get something done!

The 101 things in 1001 days movement has some interest. I like the action-oriented nature—my eight-year-old top 25 list had no implementation schedule, so it’s no wonder that few of those things have happened in the 2,920 days since.

So if I am going to make progress in living my life for real, I need some goals; a vision. Scripture says it best, in Psalm 29:18 NAS, “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law.”

Unless I keep my vision fixed (on God, first and foremost), I will be unrestrained. I won’t have reason or motivation to change or live fully. Basically, I will keep wearing what I have on because it’s comfortable. And I’ll keep waiting for real life to kick-in.

The King James Version of Psalm 29:18 says that without vision, people “perish.” Sitting around waiting for life is no life at all—that’s a death before bodily death.

All I know is that I don’t want to die in my ratty sweats. I’d rather go out in style, as one who is alive and kicking.

More to come.

Seven Things I Don’t Typically See At Home

Home for me is central Illinois—I live just a bit more than two hours south of downtown Chicago. But what a difference those 135 miles can make! Sometimes the contrasts are so stark they give my brain (and heart) a good jolt.

We returned yesterday from a quick weekend there, and I am glad to be back to my bubble where I can process and think away from the hubbub! As much as I love the city, it’s not the best place, long term, for an introvert. If I had to live there, I would need a quiet corner to block out the world or else I would get completely sapped of all functionality! But in small doses, I love it.

So for a short weekend trip, it was fabulous! There was much to be seen—here are a few things that made a lasting impression:

1) Pockets of people traipsing about in capes and hats, with magic wands and stripped socks. [Thanks to the Harry Potter convention Terminus.]

2) Hundreds of people, of every age and race, salsa dancing together in the park. [Hosted by Chicago's Summer Dance program. Here's a clip from one of last year's events. So fun!]

3) Forward-facing dog carriers (envision a seat or platform about 12 inches square) that strap to the chest to give your tiny pooch the best vantage on your walk. [Absolutely hysterical on first sight!]

4) Gloriously colored, silk- and bead-laden dresses at a decadent Indian wedding reception. [This is, in my opinion, the epitome of feminine dressing: silk, beads, stitching, yards of luxurious fabric . . . so lovely!]

5) Homeless people camped out on every street corner. [Breaks my heart and yet paralyzes me because I don't know what to do to really help. Dropping some coins seems so shallow, yet I would rather do something than nothing . . . ]

6) Hundreds of exuberant women walking for breast cancer awareness at the Breast Cancer 3-Day event. [Such events are for a wonderful cause and are typically carried out with class . . . but many in this crowd had shirts, banners, and accessories that were tacky. That part just seemed so unnecessary. Maybe the 60-mile hike made them a bit punchy?]

7) Dirty Dancing is now a musical. [OK, so I didn't see the musical—it opens in September—but I did see the bus boards advertising it.]

And that’s just a glimpse of all that Chicago has to offer!

The Kindle: Redefining the Reading Experience (Is This Blasphemy?)

Most bookworms would admit that reading is love. It’s more than just digesting a story or new information. It’s the wave of warmth that greets you upon entering the library or bookstore . . . it’s the weight of a book in your hands . . . it’s the scent of paper as pages are turned . . . ah, this is true bliss!

The marvelous experience of reading is the sum of its parts. [And if you add a warm beverage to the mix, the sum total is all the better!]

And so I wonder, how will the experience fair if one of those parts is altered?

Amazon has launched the Kindle, their “wireless reading device.” In other words, an electronic device that stores books and is supposedly able to deliver an equally satisfying reading experience in high-tech fashion.

That’s right. For just $359 (plus the books your wish to load in), you can hold a metal device in your hands that feeds you books at the touch of a button.

I’m not completely opposed to this invention, as it has several likeable qualities. It’s compact and can hold approximately 200 books (that makes my heart happy!). It’s portable, making it perfect for travel (a true help for a gal like me who just can’t seem to leave home without at least four books).

The benefits seem to meet my needs, especially for travel. And perhaps, if I got accustomed to this new reading experience during travel, I would begin to use it even in daily life.

I think I may be too set in my ways though. The thought of no pages to turn and no book to hold makes me sad. And stodgy thoughts invade my mind about technology ruining reading for generations to come. [sigh.]

Before the onset of computers—or even typewriters, for that matter—writers had one option: putting the pencil to paper. Back when typing became available as an alternative, did some writers have a reaction like the one I am having to the Kindle? Did writers of yesterday believe that purists—true writers—would get their hands into their work and not taint them with the use of mechanical devices?

Well, this writer’s hands feel most at home when connected to any sort of writing instrument, whether pencil, pen, or keyboard. There is room and need for all modes.

Maybe the same could be true in the realm of reading.

I do believe I’m safe for now though. Kindle sales have been impressive so far, but I don’t think my bookstores are going to shut down anytime soon.

So for my fellow bookworms, what would it take for you to give the Kindle a try?