it`s hard to pick a favourite book.
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apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.
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i never found the time to do my Charlie and the Chocolate Factory review and it opened this weekend to lukewarm reviews. it`s kind of saddening that in this summer of remakes and rehashes, the one glowing nugget in the steaming piles of dreck goes unappreciated.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is not so much a remake but a reinterpretation and before you get on your high horse about not messing with a good thing, bear in mind the author hated Gene Wilder`s Wonka and found the movie just a little to bright and cheery. this version may be filled with some bright colours but the tone is closer to the spirit of the book.
in HP news, i realise there is a camp of people that believes it`s cool not to have read the books or feel about the draw of the books, i say more power to them for their believes. i`ve continued to live without having seen Titanic, ever, so who am i to judge them. i`m just thrilled that in this period of tiny attention spans, that not just a single book but a series has ignited the imaginations.
i had my hardy boys and secret seven and famous five growing up, but i can`t recall a series of books that grew with me. each successive book in the HP series not only shows the growth of the characters, but a growth in the writing taking the readers along for the ride. it`s been seven years since the first book came out and the children and adults that started reading then are still anxiously awaiting the next book. because of hype? possibly, but more likely because we`ve become attached to characters we`ve watch grow and mature. if that makes me a geek then so be it, i`ve never shrugged away from that moniker.
when you have as many books as we do, you need a way to keep track of them for our own edification as well as insurance purposes.
for the last three months we`ve been making an effort at creating a definitive catalogue for our insurers, it`s been difficult entering each of books by hand in an excel spreadsheet but this weekend to my great joy, i have discovered a new tool that has made my life infinitely easier.
it`s called Books, it`s a tiny little application that; provided with the ISBN and internet connection; will pull in all the book information from a variety of sources not limited to Amazon, the Library of Congress and the British Library. from title to publication date, original price to current price, books provides an fantastic resource for anyone with a library. you can if you so desire acquire a barcode reader for entering your books into the database. the database itself is proprietary but exports to a number common formats including HTML, XML and tab delimitated text
there is even a lending details feature, you can keep track of who has what, for how long and when it`s due back, keeping someone like me who anxiously loans books out extremely happy.
however, the best thing about this wonderful application is that is it completely free. it is mac only but was created under the GNU Public License which means the code is readily available if desire to port it to another platform.
banned books week is September 25 – October 3 this year. that`s right there are still books that are challenged and banned in public libraries everywhere. my amazon list has been modified to include booksense picks; which are all challenged books.
according to a press release from the ALA the 10 most challenged books of 2003 were:
Alice series, for sexual content, using offensive language, and being unsuited to age group.
Harry Potter series, for its focus on wizardry and magic.
“Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, for using offensive language.
“Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture” by Michael A. Bellesiles, for inaccuracy.
“Fallen Angels” by Walter Dean Myers, for racism, sexual content, offensive language, drugs and violence.
“Go Ask Alice” by Anonymous, for drugs.
“It`s Perfectly Normal” by Robie Harris, for homosexuality, nudity, sexual content and sex education.
“We All Fall Down” by Robert Cormier, for offensive language and sexual content.
“King and King” by Linda de Haan, for homosexuality.
“Bridge to Terabithia” by Katherine Paterson, for offensive language and occult/satanism.
Off the list this year, but on the list for several years past, are “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, for sexual content, racism, offensive language, violence and being unsuited to age group; “Captain Underpants” by Dav Pilkey, for insensitivity and being unsuited to age group; and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, for racism, insensitivity and offensive language.
banned books week is also tied to the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression`s Campaign for Reader Privacy amendment to the Patriot Act. Under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the government can search your bookstore and library records without a court order, the amendment proposes to eliminate that section from the act.
edit
based on some queries here is some excepted info on how books are challenged from the ALA website:
A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others…
The American Library Association (ALA) collects information from two sources: newspapers and reports submitted by individuals, some of whom use the Challenge Database Form…
…Research suggests that for each challenge reported there are as many as four or five which go unreported.
Highlight the books you’ve read from the list below:
1. The Lord of the Rings — by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice — by Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials — by Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker`s Guide to the Galaxy — by Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — by J.K. Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird — by Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh — by A.A. Milne
8. 1984 — by George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — by C.S. Lewis
10. Jane Eyre — by Charlotte Bronte
11. Catch-22 — by Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights — by Emily Bronte
13. Birdsong — by Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca — by Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye — by J.D. Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows — by Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations — by Charles Dickens
18. Little Women — by Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli`s Mandolin — by Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace — by Leo Tolstoy
#SPLIT#
21. Gone with the Wind — by Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Sorcerer`s Stone — by J.K. Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets — by J.K. Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban — by J.K. Rowling
25. The Hobbit — by J.R.R. Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D`Urbervilles — by Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch — by George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany — by John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath — by John Steinbeck
30. Alice`s Adventures In Wonderland — by Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker — by Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude — by Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth — by Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield — by Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory — by Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island — by Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice — by Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion — by Jane Austen
39. Dune — by Frank Herbert
40. Emma — by Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables — by L.M. Montgomery
42. Watership Down — by Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby — by F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo — by Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited — by Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm — by George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol — by Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd — by Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom — by Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers — by Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden — by Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men — by John Steinbeck
53. The Stand — by Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina — by Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy — by Vikram Seth
56. The BFG — by Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons — by Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty — by Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl — by Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment — by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses — by Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha — by Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities — by Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds — by Colleen McCollough
65. Mort — by Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree — by Enid Blyton
67. The Magus — by John Fowles
68. Good Omens — by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards! — by Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies — by William Golding
71. The Perfume — by Patrick Susskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists — by Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch — by Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda — by Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones`s Diary — by Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History — by Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White — by Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses — by James Joyce
79. Bleak House — by Charles Dickens
80. Double Act — by Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits — by Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle — by Dodie Smith
83. Holes — by Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast — by Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things — by Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel — by Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World — by Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm — by Stella Gibbons
89. Magician — by Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road — by Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather — by Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear — by Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic — by Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist — by Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine — by Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel — by Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera — by Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love — by Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries — by Meg Cabot
100. Midnight`s Children — by Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat — by Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods — by Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach — by Alex Garland
104. Dracula — by Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc — by Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers — by Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker — by Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory — by Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal — by Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum — by Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure — by Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2 — by Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea — by Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Miserables — by Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge — by Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game — by Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls — by Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray — by Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun — by James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids — by John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose — by Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair — by William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga — by John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves — by Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible — by Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man — by Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging — by Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles — by Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession — by A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita — by Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid`s Tale — by Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World — by Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden — by John Steinbeck
134. George`s Marvellous Medicine — by Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters — by Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple — by Alice Walker
137. Hogfather — by Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps — by John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears — by Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers — by Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front — by Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum — by Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity — by Nick Hornby
144. It — by Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach — by Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile — by Stephen King
147. Papillon — by Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms — by Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander — by Patrick O`Brian
150. Skeleton Key — by Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music — by Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time by Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant — by Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets — by Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword — by Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo`s Nest — by Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness — by Joseph Conrad
159. Kim — by Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch — by Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick — by Herman Melville
162. River God — by Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song — by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News — by Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp — by John Irving
166. Lorna Doone — by R.D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late — by Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions — by M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches — by Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte`s Web — by E.B. White
171. Frankenstein — by Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass — by Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea — by Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose — by Umberto Eco
175. Sophie`s World — by Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby — by Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr. Fox — by Roald Dahl
178. Lolita — by Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull — by Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince — by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid — by Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist — by Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One — by Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner — by George Eliot
185. American Psycho — by Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody — by George and Weedon Gross-Smith
187. Trainspotting — by Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps — by R.L. Stine
189. Heidi — by Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers — by D.H. Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being — by Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy — by Tony Parsons
193. The Truth — by Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds — by H.G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer — by Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance — by Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad — by Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King — by T.H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar — by Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic — by Virginia Andrews
201. The Silmarillion — by J.R.R. Tolkien
202. The Eye of the World — by Robert Jordan
203. The Great Hunt — by Robert Jordan
204. The Dragon Reborn — by Robert Jordan
205. Fires of Heaven — by Robert Jordan
206. Lord of Chaos — by Robert Jordan
207. Winter`s Heart — by Robert Jordan
208. A Crown of Swords — by Robert Jordan
209. Crossroads of Twilight — by Robert Jordan
210. A Path of Daggers — by Robert Jordan
211. As Nature Made Him — by John Colapinto
212. Microserfs — by Douglas Coupland
213. The Married Man — by Edmund White
214. Winter`s Tale — by Mark Helprin
215. The History of Sexuality — by Michel Foucault
216. Cry to Heaven — by Anne Rice
217. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe — by John Boswell
218. Equus — by Peter Shaffer
219. The Man Who Ate Everything — by Jeffrey Steingarten
220. Letters To A Young Poet — by Rainer Maria Rilke
221. Ella Minnow Pea — by Mark Dunn
222. The Vampire Lestat — by Anne Rice
223. Anthem — by Ayn Rand
224. The Bridge To Terabithia — by Katherine Paterson
225. Tartuffe — by Molière
226. The Metamorphosis — by Franz Kafka
227. The Crucible — by Arthur Miller
228. The Trial — by Franz Kafka
229. Oedipus Rex — by Sophocles
230. Oedipus at Colonus — by Sophocles
231. Death Be Not Proud — by John Gunther
232. A Doll`s House — by Henrik Ibsen
233. Hedda Gabler — by Henrik Ibsen
234. Ethan Frome — by Edith Wharton
235. A Raisin In The Sun — by Lorraine Hansberry
236. ALIVE! — by Piers Paul Read
237. Grapefruit — by Yoko Ono
238. Trickster Makes This World — by Lewis Hyde
240. The Mists of Avalon — by Marion Zimmer Bradley
241. Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever — by Stephen Donaldson
242. Lord of Light — by Roger Zelazny
242. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay — by Michael Chabon
243. Summerland — by Michael Chabon
244. A Confederacy of Dunces — by John Kennedy Toole
245. Candide — by Voltaire
246. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More — by Roald Dahl
247. Ringworld — by Larry Niven
248. The King Must Die — by Mary Renault
249. Stranger in a Strange Land — by Robert Heinlein
250. A Wrinkle in Time — by Madeline L`Engle
251. The Eyre Affair — by Jasper Fforde
252. The House Of The Seven Gables — by Nathaniel Hawthorne
253. The Scarlet Letter — by Nathaniel Hawthorne
254. The Joy Luck Club — by Amy Tan
255. The Great Gilly Hopkins — by Katherine Paterson
256. Chocolate Fever — by Robert Kimmel Smith
257. Xanth: The Quest for Magic — by Piers Anthony
258. The Lost Princess of Oz — by L. Frank Baum
259. Wonder Boys — by Michael Chabon
260. Lost In A Good Book — by Jasper Fforde
261. Life Of Pi — by Yann Martel
261. Well Of Lost Plots — by Jasper Fforde
263. The Bean Trees — by Barbara Kingsolver
264. A Yellow Rraft In Blue Water — by Michael Dorris
265. Little House on the Prairie — by Laura Ingalls Wilder
267. Where The Red Fern Grows — by Wilson Rawls
268. Griffin & Sabine — by Nick Bantock
269. Witch of Blackbird Pond — by Joyce Friedland
270. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH — by Robert C. O`Brien
271. Tuck Everlasting — by Natalie Babbitt
272. The Cay — by Theodore Taylor
273. From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler — by E.L. Konigsburg
274. The Phantom Tollbooth — by Norton Juster
275. The Westing Game — by Ellen Raskin
276. The Kitchen God`s Wife — by Amy Tan
277. The Bone Setter`s Daughter — by Amy Tan
278. Relic — by Duglas Preston & Lincoln Child
279. Wicked — by Gregory Maguire
280. American Gods — by Neil Gaiman
281. Misty of Chincoteague — by Marguerite Henry
282. The Girl Next Door — by Jack Ketchum
283. Haunted — by Judith St. George
284. Singularity — by William Sleator
285. A Short History of Nearly Everything — by Bill Bryson
286. Different Seasons — by Stephen King
287. Fight Club — by Chuck Palahniuk
288. About a Boy — by Nick Hornby
289. The Bookman`s Wake — by John Dunning
290. The Church of Dead Girls — by Stephen Dobyns
291. Illusions — by Richard Bach
292. Magic`s Pawn — by Mercedes Lackey
293. Magic`s Promise — by Mercedes Lackey
294. Magic`s Price — by Mercedes Lackey
295. The Dancing Wu Li Masters — by Gary Zukav
296. Spirits of Flux and Anchor — by Jack L. Chalker
297. Interview with the Vampire — by Anne Rice
298. The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices — by Brenda Love
299. Infinite Jest — by David Foster Wallace
300. The Bluest Eye — by Toni Morrison
301. The Cider House Rules — by John Irving
302. Ender`s Game — by Orson Scott Card
303. Girlfriend in a Coma — by Douglas Coupland
304. The Lion`s Game — by Nelson Demille
305. The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars — by Stephen Brust
306. Cyteen — by C.J. Cherryh
307. Foucault`s Pendulum — by Umberto Eco
308. Cryptonomicon — by Neal Stephenson
309. Invisible Monsters — by Chuck Palahniuk
310. Camber of Culdi — by Kathryn Kurtz
311. The Fountainhead — by Ayn Rand
312. War and Rememberance — by Herman Wouk
313. The Art of War — by Sun Tzu
314. The Giver — by Lois Lowry
315. The Telling — by Ursula Le Guin
316. Xenogenesis (or Lilith`s Brood) — by Octavia Butler
317. A Civil Campaign — by Lois McMaster Bujold
318. The Curse of Chalion — by Lois McMaster Bujold
319. The Aeneid — by Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil)
320. Hanta Yo — by Ruth Beebe Hill
321. The Princess Bride — by S. Morganstern (or William Goldman)
322. Beowulf — by Anonymous
323. The Sparrow — by Maria Doria Russell
324. Deerskin — by Robin McKinley
325. Dragonsong — by Anne McCaffrey
326. Passage — by Connie Willis
327. Otherland — by Tad Williams
328. Tigana — by Guy Gavriel Kay
329. Number the Stars — by Lois Lowry
330. Beloved — by Toni Morrison
331. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ`s Childhood Pal — by Christopher Moore
332. The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon, I Mean Noel — by Ellen Raskin
333. Summer Sisters — by Judy Blume
334. The Hunchback of Notre Dame — by Victor Hugo
335. The Island on Bird Street — by Uri Orlev
336. Midnight in the Dollhouse — by Marjorie Filley Stover
337. The Miracle Worker — by William Gibson
338. The Genesis Code — by John Case
339. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — by Robert Louis Stevensen
340. Paradise Lost — by John Milton
341. Phantom — by Susan Kay
342. The Mummy or Ramses the Damned — by Anne Rice
343. Anno Dracula — by Kim Newman
344. The Dresden Files: Grave Peril — by Jim Butcher
345. Tokyo Suckerpunch — by Issac Adamson
346. The Winter of Magic`s Return — by Pamela Service
347. The Oddkins — by Dean R. Koontz
348. My Name is Asher Lev — by Chaim Potok
349. The Last Goodbye — by Raymond Chandler
350. At Swim, Two Boys — by Jaime O`Neill
351. Othello — by William Shakespeare
352. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas
353. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats
354. Sati — by Christopher Pike
355. The Inferno — by Dante
356. The Apology — by Plato
357. The Small Rain — by Madeline L`Engle
358. The Man Who Tasted Shapes — by Richard E Cytowick
359. 5 Novels — by Daniel Pinkwater
360. The Sevenwaters Trilogy — by Juliet Marillier
361. Girl with a Pearl Earring — by Tracy Chevalier
362. To the Lighthouse — by Virginia Woolf
363. Our Town — by Thorton Wilder
364. Green Grass Running Water — by Thomas King
365. The Interpreter — by Suzanne Glass
366. The Moor`s Last Sigh — by Salman Rushdie
367. The Mother Tongue — by Bill Bryson
368. A Passage to India — by E.M. Forster
369. The Perks of Being a Wallflower — by Stephen Chbosky
370. The Phantom of the Opera — by Gaston Leroux
371. Pages for You — by Sylvia Brownrigg
372. The Changeover — by Margaret Mahy
373. Howl`s Moving Castle — by Diana Wynne Jones
374. Angels and Demons — by Dan Brown
375. Johnny Got His Gun — by Dalton Trumbo
376. Shosha — by Isaac Bashevis Singer
377. Travels With Charley — by John Steinbeck
378. The Diving-bell and the Butterfly — by Jean-Dominique Bau — by
379. The Lunatic at Large — by J. Storer Clouston
380. Time for Bed — by David Baddiel
381. Barrayar — by Lois McMaster Bujold
382. Quite Ugly One Morning — by Christopher Brookmyre
383. The Bloody Sun — by Marion Zimmer Bradley
384. Sewer, Gas, and Eletric — by Matt Ruff
385. Jhereg — by Steven Brust
386. So You Want To Be A Wizard — by Diane Duane
387. Perdido Street Station — by China Mieville
388. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall — by Anne Bronte
389. Road-side Dog — by Czeslaw Milosz
390. The English Patient — by Michael Ondaatje
391. Neuromancer — by William Gibson
392. The Epistemology of the Closet — by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
393. A Canticle for Liebowitz — by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
394. The Mask of Apollo — by Mary Renault
395. The Gunslinger — by Stephen King
396. Romeo and Juliet — by William Shakespeare
397. Childhood`s End — by Arthur C. Clarke
398. A Season of Mists — by Neil Gaiman
399. Ivanhoe — by Walter Scott
400. The God Boy — by Ian Cross
401. The Beekeeper`s Apprentice — by Laurie R. King
402. Finn Family Moomintroll — by Tove Jansson
403. Misery — by Stephen King
404. Tipping the Velvet — by Sarah Waters
405. Hood — by Emma Donoghue
406. The Land of Spices — by Kate O`Brien
407. The Diary of Anne Frank
408. Regeneration — by Pat Barker
409. Tender is the Night — by F. Scott Fitzgerald
410. Dreaming in Cuban — by Cristina García
411. A Farewell to Arms — by Ernest Hemingway
412. The View from Saturday — by E.L. Konigsburg
413. Dealing with Dragons — by Patricia Wrede
414. Eats, Shoots & Leaves — by Lynne Truss
415. A Severed Wasp — by Madeleine L`Engle
416. Here Be Dragons — by Sharon Kay Penman
417. The Mabinogion (Ancient Welsh Tales) – translated — by Lady Charlotte E. Guest
418. The DaVinci Code — by Dan Brown
419. Desire of the Everlasting Hills — by Thomas Cahill
420. The Cloister Walk — by Kathleen Norris
421. The Things We Carried — by Tim O`Brien
422. I Know This Much Is True — by Wally Lamb
423. Choke — by Chuck Palahniuk
424. Ender`s Shadow — by Orson Scott Card
425. The Memory of Earth — by Orson Scott Card
426. The Iron Tower — by Dennis L. McKiernen
427.The French Lieutenant`s Woman — by John Fowles
428. The Four Feathers — by A.E.W. Mason
429. The Jester — by James Patterson
430. Cry the beloved Country — by Alan Paton
431. The Bell Jar — by Sylvia Plath
432. The Stranger — by Albert Camus
433. Stargirl — by Jerry Spinelli
434. The Fuck-Up — by Arthur Nersesian
435. Things Fall Apart — by Chinua Achebe
436. The Little Princess — by Frances Hodgson Burnett
437. The Awakening — by Kate Chopin
438. Shoeless Joe — by W.P. Kinsella
438. The Trumpet of the Swan — by E.B. White
439. Fall On Your Knees — by Ann-Marie MacDonald
440. Unless — by Carol Shields
441. The House of the Spirits — by Isabel Allende
442. Chronicle of a Death Foretold — by Gabriel García Márquez
443. The Neverending Story — by Michael Ende
444. Confessions of a Shopaholic — by Sophie Kinsella
445. Leaves of Grass — Walt Whitman
446. Firebrand — by Marion Zimmer Bradley
447. The Hunt for Red October – Tom Clancy
448. Fifth Business – Robertson Davies
449. The Terminal Man – Michael Crichton
450. The Devil Wears Prada – Lauren Weisberger
451. Desert Dawn – Waris Dirie
452. The Baghdad Diaries – Nuha Al-Radi
453. The Tain- translated by Kinsella
454.Glass Bead Game- Hermann Hesse
455. Oryx and Crake- Margaret Atwood
456. Rain of Gold (Lluve de Oro)- Victor Villasenor
457. Beyond lies the Wub, collected short stories of Phillip K. Dick, vol. 1
458. Neverwhere — by Neil Gaiman
459. A house for Mr. Biswas — by V.S. Naipaul
last night the good wyf and i sat and sorted out combined cd collections and put them in alphabetical order and as with the books we have more cds than shelving. this after a major culling after i arrived and another culling last night. we have a lot of music, a diverse selection that covers classical, hard rock, new wave, massive amounts of techno, compilations and soundtracks whose variety are quite impressive.
we also combined our mp3 libraries. i culled albums that i still own in their original format to make room on the 25Gb drive for the tunes that were rescued from the dying iMac. It`s interesting to see what compromises our 4800 tracks, some of it would not have graced my collection voluntarily and i`m sure there is some stuff in there that would make vic`s ears bleed if she were forced to listen to it as well but it`s nice to see the stuff there, like the books, it`s one of those signs that we`re one household, finally.
i`m doing the final clean up, with a collection this large it`s easy to miss overlaps, especially when we share musical tastes. when we stopped last night it was close to midnight and when you`re tired it`s easy to miss stuff.
we`ll the moving is done. the beds are up, we have clothes to wear and the kitchen is clear.
now we can start unpacking. the living room area is a sea of boxes. well if you can call boxes stacked 5` high and 8 – 10 deep, a sea. i should be unpacking but i`m a little overwhelmed at the moment, yesterday`s adrenaline is gone and i`m exhausted and every muscle in my body aches.
i`m hoping to catch a second wind momentarily. the boxes are all labelled and they are mostly books, i just need to start putting stuff on shelves, when vic gets home we can rearrange into an order we find amenable, what`s a little frightening is that these are just her books. there is still another 6 boxes of my books sitting in the basement of her mother`s house and we have nowhere to put them
we`re still moving boxes, that`s the plan for the next couple of days. on saturday evening we get the truck and the major items move early sunday. we`ve already moved three carloads of boxes and that`s pretty much the stuff that`s in day to day use. there is still the bookcases, the beds and the attic full of stuff. we have a lot of stuff.
i think when you`re moving you see clearly what your priorities are; the kitchen is pretty much moved and all the books that we had immediate access to. food and food for thought, pretty good priorities i think.
there are a couple things the rental company need to come fix forthwith but the apartment is very liveable. it seems like we have a lot of space now, but once all of our stuff is moved in i sense a lot of reorganisation to accommodate it all.
one of the things i`m looking forward to is combining the libraries. we have four 7` bookshelves which i think we have the ability to fill with ease. i know there is going to be some culling as there is some overlap and with our book buying moratorium in place, we can catch up on what we may have missed in our respective collections.
in other news there i`m also doing some reorganising on the site, i`ve changed some of the categories, so i`m back-tracking to update entries to their appropriate categories, not an easy task with just over 800 entries. next week will be a year since i started here, i have to say looking back over the last 51 weeks, it`s been interesting.
today has been a very relaxing and enjoyable day. finished the ‘his dark materials’ series, just started a gift from my wife – a richard brautigan trilogy, it had been languishing at the bottom of a box of books she sent me. i love discovering new book. the SK has taken a back seat for the moment.
moving on…
it’s hot as hell, it’s night and it’s still in the 30s, is it the end of the world?
i used to worry about the future of the country/planet, but of late, i’ve met quite a few people, young and not so young who have rekindled my little faith in humanity. congrats to all of my new friends. you know who you are.
on another unrelated note…
samauri jack rocks. it’s quite possibly one of the best animated series on television. yes i’m a cartoon watcher. avid too. you have a problem with that?
anyway, i have a good book calling me.