Before participating in the “Tuesday Thingers” group, I had never joined a blog ring, never even really heard of these weekly memes. I’ve never participated in any others, for one thing because I think I’m somehow out of the loop when it comes to social blogging. I seem to have missed the boat on that in some way. I just don’t really know what I’m doing. It’s much the same way I look at social networking. I can get behind the utility of the site and I can make a few friends, but when it comes to true networking, I’m a complete dunce. I’m good at reading blogs, bad at commenting on them. Good at finding blogs and websites, bad at finding a specific rota of things that I absolutely can’t live without. Maybe I’m a failure in the blogosphere, but I enjoy what I do.

That said, I might take a look around and see if I can’t find another weekly thing that interests me. Since my reading has slowed down, my posting has slowed down. I have a couple of things up my sleeves but I just haven’t gotten to writing about them yet. I feel a bit guilty knowing my blog goes largely unappreciated (by me) except for one day a week.

I’m a naughty blogger, but I promise that I’m going to try to be a less naughty blogger!

I never really paid attention to which sources I use, but LibraryThing keeps track for me! According to the statistics, 101 of my books were pulled from amazon.com, 68 of them from Amazon.com (I’m not sure how it’s different), and six from Library of Congress. I don’t remember why I chose Library of Congress – it may have been because I couldn’t find one of mine on Amazon for some reason. Other than that, no thought goes into it. I just use whatever the default selection is.

I do wonder why Amazon.com and amazon.com are listed separately, though. As far as I would understand, they’d be the same thing. Oh well. My cataloging habits aren’t terribly interesting, nor do they seem to be very calculated.

Whoops. I’m a day late with this. Somehow, the combination of things this week and a busy work day had me completely forget to do it before I toddled off to bed last night. Oopsie!

Anyhow: at the moment, I don’t use recommendations. I have a hard time with recommendations anyway, and a lot of the time, the ones from LT either seem obvious (meaning I’ve either checked out or already own the book in question), or they’re completely off-the-wall. This may not actually be the case, though, because I haven’t checked it out completely. My list of books that I need to read (aka, Mt. TBR) is still far too long for me to go acquiring new ones.

I have tried to use the recommender once or twice, but usually the books that I plug in come up with a great big nothing. Books like Sara Hylton’s aren’t the most widely owned and read, so it’s impossible to get a recommendation from them at this point. That’s okay, though, because as I mentioned: I don’t have the time for more books! I am desperately trying to shorten my list first.

The recommendations feature is an excellent function, though. It’s not because I don’t like it that I don’t use it, just out of a guilty feeling that acquiring more books at this point would impede my progress and kind of turn all my work this year at reading books that I might not otherwise pick up.

Finding out about books that I want to read is far too easy. I get recommendations from coworkers and books from the ER list. I see the trend things on Amazon when I’m browsing for something, and of course new books by authors that I already like. It’s not hard, unfortuntely, to find new books to read! One advantage that I seem to have, though, is that I don’t get the amount of ARC books that a lot of book bloggers seem to get (actually, I only get the ones that bloggers pass along or the occasional one from the ER program at LT – I don’t put myself out there much), so I’m able to try to catch up before I dive into book acquisition again.

I have to say right now that I adore this story. I love the time span, the time period, the characters, the scenery… Hylton describes a scene without over-describing it. I could see the locales clearly in my head, and I could even see the clothing the characters were wearing without being bored by all the minutae of the outfits. This puts the book ahead of the last two that I read by far.

The story is about Ellen Adair and her travel through life. She and Kitty McGuire are friends in their tiny village full of sanctimonious people who seem to have missed the boat when it comes to “Christian charity.” I don’t want to talk much about the story, because it’s so complex that trying to sum it up would be insufficient and giving full details would ruin the story. It does deal with WWII, take place in England and France and have a rich and interesting cast of main and supporting characters.

The whole time I was reading it, I kept thinking what a good movie it would make, and wishing I had the money to make that happen. More people deserve to hear about this fantastic book and aside from my shouting from the rooftops about it, I can’t think of many other ways to share it.

The downside to Sara Hylton’s books is that many of them are not readily available. Some of the older ones are out of print which means buying them from Amazon’s marketplace, half.com or Alibris. I’ve found the books for reasonable prices, but this is not always the case. Most libraries have the books, though (that’s where I first found them) so I definitely recommend checking them out next time you’re at the library.

I have at one time or another signed up for probably all of the book swapping websites, but I consistently run into one problem: I don’t really want to part with that many of my books! So far, the only books that I’ve actually passed along are… well, just the one. I gave my copy of The Moon in the Mango Tree to someone else because I didn’t enjoy it enough to keep it on hand. I’m thinking of passing along Summer Blowout as well, and maybe some of the books that are in my Good Will box (the box that’s eventually destined to go to Good Will if we ever remember to do it). It just leads to another problem, though:

I’m really, really, really bad about getting to the post office. My work schedule has me at work on Saturdays, and during my weekday off, I’m generally useless. It took me far too long to send The Moon in the Mango Tree along, and while the person was very patient with me, I don’t want to go out of my way to put people through that. After all, it isn’t fair to them. I don’t know why I’m so terrible about it. I think it’s just the way my work schedule is, with my days off split up. I never used to be this bad about remembering! Circumstances being what they are, I had to have Johnathan ship some things for me recently because even though I remembered to get them together into packaging, I never remembered to go to the post office. I’ll be honest: I don’t even know where the post office in our town actually is. That’s how often I go there! It wouldn’t be fair to other people, is really what I’m saying.

I’ve looked at the swapping feature on LT, but for the same reason that I don’t swap books on the other sites, I haven’t pursued a swap on LT. It just wouldn’t be fair.

I guess in short: I don’t swap books, but not because I don’t want to, but because ultimately it wouldn’t be fair to the people who are swapping for the books. Whoops. I probably ought to work on my habits a bit more so that I can actually acquire books for very little cost in the future.

As I’m sure you could tell, my anticipation and my enjoyment did not turn out equal in this. The book was quite disappointing. After reading a book that was overburdened with too much description, I was annoyed at how much description goes into nearly every makeup application. I felt like it was a walking advertisement with all the name brands that were being described – and not even high-end ones at that. I doubt any self-respecting makeup artist would use Mabelline mascara on a regular basis. Even if they do use it, I don’t think it’s necessary to describe the brand name every time. I just felt like I was getting smacked in the face by it. I hope she’s getting paid for the advertising.

That said, the main character didn’t seem to go more than skin deep. Her anger, her “trepidation,” her annoyance… all seemed to be on the surface. I kept waiting for things to go deeper, for her to become more real to me, more human, and it never happened. The relationship that she “didn’t want” as per the back of the book really turned out to be more like two people tiptoeing around a small circle, and most of the time it was him, not her, who put the brakes on it. The book reads not like fluffy, fizzy, fun chick lit but like a subpar romance novel. (Or maybe a good one, I don’t know. I don’t read a lot of romance novels.) There were a few enjoyable moments, and the character’s assertion of what needed to happen in the end was nice, but overall the book was lacklustre. I’m sad to say that I did not enjoy it as a book at all.

Suffice it to say that I really, really wanted to like this book. In my experience, really, really wanting to like it generally leads to a big disappointment. Unfortunately, this book was no exception.

As someone who has no idea what Rococo actually is, I started the book with no real expectations other than the description on the back of the book, which in my experience, rarely gives the actual idea and scope of the storyline. This one did, come to think of it. From the outset, I felt there was far too much description and far too little plot. I never did figure out where the plot began and it was so weak that when it ended, where one should usually feel a sense of elation at things working out just the way they should, it just felt preachy in the pretty little group ending. Honestly, it felt like the ending of a sub-par movie that never really got its plot off of the ground.

When I say too much description, please bear in mind that I love descriptive works. I love to have an appropriate amount of description of clothes, settings, scenes and decor – when it is right. I felt like the main character, who is an interior designer, was used as an excuse to describe everything. Recipes show up in the middle of scenes, descriptions down to the most minute detail are given about most of the characters at one point or another, focusing mainly on what the character is wearing rather than their own features. It was only mildly annoying at the beginning and became more and more maddening as the story progressed. I do not want to hear about how the ottoman was decorated with short, purple fringe against an avacado fabric rather than the long drippy fringe that was iconic of the 1920′s. I would rather have some plot. The recipes felt out of place in the middle of the story and I think they would have been better suited at the end of the book. For one, if people want to make them, then they won’t have to try to find the recipes somewhere in the middle of the book and for another, I won’t have to read them or at least skip over them to continue with the story. As far as I’m concerned, the recipes were speed bumps which did irreparable damage to the story.

The main character was more a source of irritation than of pleasant reading. He was petulant, selfish and constantly in denial about something. Well, when he wasn’t telling the other characters how to live their own lives. This main character was flawed, and not in the human-and-I-want-to-read-about-him kind of way. He was annoying. He was exactly the kind of person who I want to spend as little time as possible with. And yet I read nearly 400 pages of him as a vessel to the other characters.

To be frank, this book started out vaguely promising and ended up as a waste of my time. The ending was sweet but I wasn’t convinced to like the characters enough to actually care in the end. My recommendation would be not to read this one if you don’t have to.

Oh, and while I’m here, I looked up rococo because nowhere in the book can I find a reference to what the hell it actually is, and if I gain nothing else from this book, I will gain a definition:

ro·co·co

1. A style of architecture and decoration, originating in France about 1720, evolved from Baroque types and distinguished by its elegant refinement in using different materials for a delicate overall effect and by its ornament of shellwork, foliage, etc.

2. A homophonic musical style of the middle 18th century, marked by a generally superficial elegance and charm and by the use of elaborate ornamentation and stereotyped devices.

3. (initial capital letter) Fine Arts.

• Noting or pertaining to a style of painting developed simultaneously with the rococo in architecture and decoration, characterized chiefly by smallness of scale, delicacy of color, freedom of brushwork, and the selection of playful subjects as thematic material.
• Designating a corresponding style of sculpture, chiefly characterized by diminutiveness of Baroque forms and playfulness of theme.

4. Of, pertaining to, in the manner of, or suggested by rococo architecture, decoration, or music or the general atmosphere and spirit of the rococo: rococo charm.

5. Ornate or florid in speech, literary style, etc.

The Bear was especially kind. During the afternoon he found a wild bees’ nest and insted of eating it himself (which he would very much like to have done) this worthy creature brought it back to Uncle Andrew. But this was in fact the worst failure of all. The Bear lobbed the whole sticky mass over the top of the enclosure and unfortunately it hit Uncle Andrew slap in the face (not all the bees were dead).

I think I’ve read the beginning of this book about four times in the last year, with the best of intentions to keep reading. The size of the book made it kind of illogical to travel with me, and since I do the majority of my reading away from home lately (and did about a year ago as well), obviously it didn’t go so well.

Even though the religious imagery was more obvious in this one, I actually quite liked it. Digory and Polly seem like very real children who are genuinely perplexed by their situations and adventures.

I rememebered pretty well the beginning of the book through about the time that Narnia was beginning. I forgot the rest of the story, except for vague bits about The Garden of Eden and The Temptation, which I didn’t specifically remember was in this story. (It could have been in another one and I would never have thought differently.) I forgot about the Cabby and his wife and the fact that Uncle Andrew got into Narnia (actually, I forgot about him almost entirely except for his fascination with The Witch). I remembered Strawbery/Fledge and the beginning of Narnia, though, and I enjoyed it just as much this time as I did before.

It’s really interesting to take note of the difference in types of women in Lewis’s stories. Nearly all of the bad people are women (at least the ones who aren’t redeemable) but then there are also those who are good and sweet tempered with the occasional one with personality. The men seem to be generally inherently good, with the exception of Uncle Andrew who was pretty much mad with his “power.”

The reversal of roles in the garden of eden bit was interesting, but it’s not the first time that has appeared. It was in The Silver Chair, too, where the female witch was the tempter/serpent. I don’t really know what this says about C.S. Lewis and his views on women, or if it was even intentional. On the one hand, he gives almost all of the stories a female companion who is usually almost perfectly good, enough to make them pretty boring.

Aslan’s warning to Digory and Polly before he put them back into their world was really interesting. Since this book was published after World War II, but takes place long before either world war, it’s an interesting commentary. I don’t think there’s anything else to say about that, I just found it interesting to include. As a world, we’re not doing much better, really, even if we aren’t in the throes of worldwide warfare.

I found myself analyzing the religious elements in this one rather than being annoyed by them. Somehow it wasn’t very bothersome to me.

I wonder whatever happened to that toffee tree. Was I just not paying enough attention to see it in other stories, or was this a new unusual retroactive addition to Narnia?

This one really was enjoyable for the variety of its universes and the action that happened in the story. Most of the others had action in the form of battle, but the most battle in this was a carriage crash. I liked it.

Originally Published: 1955

I’ve hit 100 posts! Actually, the post about The Horse and His Boy was my 100th post, but I didn’t realize it until afterward, and then I didn’t want to post about hitting 100 yesterday, since that’s reserved for the LibraryThing blog ring post. So, here we are! 100 posts!

If I’m being honest, I thought I would have hit this mark long ago, but my own waffling behavior about this blog has put me back in posts. Bad, Laura!

Here’s to another few years and hundreds more posts, yes? Yes.

Since I started a new job in mid-March and have absolutely no seniority, little vacation time accrued and missed the vacation booking rota, my vacation will be nearly a week in September when my parents come to visit for when Johnathan and I get married and about a week in October, for which I think we’re planning to visit my friend Allison in Indiana, then drive back the other direction and go to Knoebels. The last time we went to Knoebels was on our way back from New York City in late April, when I was already feeling quite ill. The day at Knoebels was short and fairly uneventful as a result. I’d like to go and be able to spend a normal day there, and Johnathan says that it should be beautiful in mid-October. Anyway, this isn’t about my autumn vacations: this is about summertime!

Since I have no trips planned, my reading will be the same as it has been in the last few months. I’ve got a few read-togethers going on and I’ll be reading those books through the end of the summer. The books that I should finish by the end of August are: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling, The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis, Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery, Emily Climbs by L.M. Montgomery, Emily’s Quest by L.M. Montgomery, Big House in the Little Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It’s a lot of books, and it certainly won’t be the only ones I read. I’m expecting Summer Blowout by Claire Cook from the June Early Reviewers batch, and I’ve got a list of books that I have on my shelf but haven’t read to work through. I’ve been averaging about one of those per week in addition to my read-together books (which are about 1 and 1/6 of a book per week).

Generally, I don’t think deeply enough about trips to consider local literature, but I do make sure that I have a fair store (usually four or five books, at least) for the trip so that I don’t get bored on the flight or during any waiting around. I’ve never looked at a travel guide, but then I go places like Orlando, New York City and Los Angeles, where I can see big things that I won’t get at home (Broadway, Disney parks, etc) and then go back home. I’d love to go somewhere like Prince Edward Island, and if I were taking a trip like that, I might consider a travel book or two. (I think I’ve got one of the local authors fairly well covered… )

As for LT Local: there’s nothing listed in my area still! If I wanted to drive half an hour to an event, I could probably find something in the greater Cleveland area, but in my little city, there’s really nothing. The local library has a lot of programs, but none for people my age – mostly for kids, teens and retirees. I love the idea of LT Local, though. I’d probably use it if it would show me things going on in my area.

Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I’m afraid, even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used to quarreling and making up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently.

I had quite forgotten about the Prince-and-the-Pauper type storyline that happens with Shasta/Cor and Corin.

I really like the characters in this one; they’re pleasant but not perfect, and all very interesting. Even with the little bits of religious allegory (which weren’t as strong as in some of the other books – The Silver Chair in particular) weren’t marring to the overall imagery and enjoyment of the story. I guess the difference is that I just haven’t been much thinking about it in terms of “How does this fit in with the Christian story?” Whenever Aslan is mentioned, that seems to be the only time it really comes back in spades to me, and then as soon as the mention is over, even if they’re still talking about him, it’s less apparent somehow. I don’t know – maybe I just tune it out or something.

I really liked the marked difference between Calormen and Narnia/Archenland. I can see parallels in Calormen to practices and some culture that I know of India or places in the “Middle-East.” I know I wouldn’t like to live in a place like that, but it was very interesting to see it depicted, not in a very derogatory way, just one that says, “Well, this is nice, but Narnia is better.” After all, we’re supposed to want to live in Narnia most of all.

This one just seemed like the richest to me, with the way the battle was actually described, the interesting characters in both people and animals and just the overall pace of it. I found it hard-going in the middle for a bit, but I suspect that was due to a cold more than anything else. (And I imagine my snapping my glasses in half on accident during the week didn’t help, either.) I would venture to say that this one is my favorite so far, even above The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, which I have historically been able to say is easily a favorite of mine.

What I found interesting was some of the commentary regarding Queen Susan. Lucy fights in battle, but Susan does not. After seeing Prince Caspian in movie form, I have to wonder how they’re going to address this. She clearly becomes badass “later” somehow, since obviously she did some fighting in Caspian. It’s just very strange to me how Susan differs from Lucy. I also found it interesting that she was entertaining the prospect of marriage. I have always wondered how they would approach that, and if any of them ever did marry in Narnia. How would it have worked out, if they had? What if they had borne children? Those are the strange kinds of questions that I’ve found myself pondering while I read through the books. It’s like the Chronicles of Narnia potentially open themselves to even more untold stories if we wanted to make them up. I’m not thinking of writing fanfiction out, but sometimes it’s nice to make up stories in my head about what went on.

Anyway, I really liked this book. It felt like it had an even more conspiratol tone to it than any of the previous ones did, and now I find myself sad that we’re nearly finished with the read-together. Only two more books to go.

Originally Published: 1954

I bought Pretties because I hate not finishing a story and as far as I’m concerned, the first book was only part of the story. (It really ought to be published as an omnibus rather than three separate volumes because it simply doesn’t make sense to be disjointed that way). It started off without much momentum at all which I found annoying, because with such a disconnected, unresolved ending, I would expect the next book to pick up where the previous left off.

Specials, unfortunately, started off with no more momentum than Pretties did, which made the book even more difficult to begin. The characters became charicatures of themselves in this story, which frankly I didn’t think was possible after their behavior in Pretties. The idea that people can be made super-human just seemed somehow ridiculous to me, and Westerfeld’s writing style did nothing to convince me that this could be possible. It’s such a fantastical alternate future-world that has so little background to it that it just comes across as ridiculous. Were there some more background information slipped into the story in a non-vague way, it might have rated better for me.

Something that does salvage the books in my estimation is that they would make very exciting movies, particularly if they do a proper three-hour movie combining all three into the same one. I don’t think I’d be willing to wait a year between installments when they’re not likely to excite all on their own. I checked at IMDb and found that Uglies is apparently going to be made into a movie, though there’s little additional information about when it will actually be released or who will be starring in it.

So, strangely enough, I didn’t enjoy the book but I think I would see the movie if one does end up being made.

First things first, I was struck by how incredibly slowly the book seemed to start. This one has never been a favorite of mine, so I can’t say that I’m terribly surprised that I had a hard time starting it, but even so, it seemed to simply drag along for ten chapters. Given the book is only eighteen chapters long, that’s a long time for the story to move slowly.

I will say that I feel justified saying from the start that it would be Ron and Hermione together in the end. Reading it at the pace that I did this time around let me see all the little bits of (very obvious) foreshadowing. Ron’s reactions about Hermione were much more acute than Harry’s, even taking into account that Ron is much more outwardly emotional than Harry is.

It was really very interesting to pay attention more to the background of the story, too. I was able to see more than just the plot because, hey, I know how it ends. Especially reading it so slowly, I was able to “stop and smell the roses” a little bit more with it, which had all of the little details standing out more. I have never gone so far as to say that J.K. Rowling is a great author, but as I get into the little details of the plot and the description of the environs, I’m finding I have increased esteem for her.

Chamber of Secrets is not one of my favorites – I’d even go so far as to say it’s my least favorite, but I dislike it less than I did before this reread. Who knew that reading books slowly could open doors to so many small details?

So, happy independence day! May you all eat good food, have good fellowship and see really fantastic fireworks.

Be safe!

Right now, I’m using a theme by BlogohBlog (no link; I will not advertise for him) who uses his free themes to boost his Google adsense stats by including the information hidden away in the themes. His RSS links sometimes link not to the site owner’s feed but to his feed as well. I find that incredibly dishonest since it isn’t disclosed in the download information. I’ll be changing the theme soon. I did some theme “shopping” last night and hope to be able to choose a visually appealing, non-buggy theme in the next day or two to replace this theme. I won’t support that kind of behavior, even if he has said that in the future he won’t be including his adsense information in his free themes.

In other news, I’m at 96 posts now, which isn’t altogether a lot to amass in a year’s time. I’ve had a post every day for over a month now, which is nice to see, even though I know I won’t be able to keep it up, simply because I don’t read books and watch new movies that quickly. For the time being, the Road stays.

In interactive news, I joined the LibraryThing Early Reviewers book blog ring, which has added a lot of interesting blogs to my feeds and a lot of interesting-looking books to my wishlist. I’m enjoying it a lot, even if I’m rubbish at commenting. I tried to have a book give-away but my lack of interest in posting images and large, bolded, brightly colored text had that falling flat on my face. I’m thinking of passing the book along to a friend and maybe registering it on BookCrossing just to see where it goes. (Nitestar, if you want it back, let me know and we can make some arrangements.)

All in all, the Road is doing well. I’m enjoying my posting and the sporradic comments that I get. I’m enjoying the sense of community that I now have, being part of the blog ring. I’m simply enjoying myself as a blogger again and I have LibraryThing to thank for that. It’s a good feeling. Hopefully the Road will live through several more years of blogging!

The recipe I chose was an Alton Brown recipe. It doesn’t have the best reviews of the brownie recipes at the food network website. Thankfully, some reviewers gave good recommendations to make the recipe work better as well as tips to watch the episode in which Alton makes the brownies. He had some good tips as well. So, if you make these brownies, look for the episode Art of Darkness II: Cocoa from Good Eats and watch that first.

Cocoa Brownies

Soft butter, for greasing the pan
Flour, for dusting the buttered pan
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
8 ounces melted butter
11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan.
In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.
Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for done-ness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it’s done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it’s mostly cool.

We ended up lining an entire glass 10×10 pan with parchment paper which made it very easy to remove from the pan, even though that’s not the way he said to do it in the episode. (He recommends putting parchment down in it to create a “sleeve” so that you can remove the brownies to cool.) It took an hour to cook them and even then the knife (I don’t have any toothpicks) came out with some batter on it. We cut the brownies right away, which is what he did in the episode – I don’t recommend it because it’s a bit messy since they haven’t fully set yet. However, they were divine while they were still warm with a scoop of ice cream on the top.

This recipe creates the most divine, rich, chocolatey brownies. It’s a definite keeper. Thank you, Alton Brown, for enabling my craving.

Here is a list of the Top 100 Most Popular Books on LibraryThing. Bold what you own, italicize what you’ve read. Star what you liked. Star multiple times what you loved!

001. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (32,484)
002. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) by J.K. Rowling (29,939) **
003. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) by J.K. Rowling (28,728)
004. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) by J.K. Rowling (27,926)
005. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) by J.K. Rowling (27,643) **
006. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) by J.K. Rowling (27,641)
007. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (23,266)
008. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (21,325)
009. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) by J.K. Rowling (20,485) **
010. 1984 by George Orwell (19,735)
011. Pride and Prejudice (Bantam Classics) by Jane Austen (19,583) **
012. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (19,082)
013. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (17,586)
014. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (16,210)
015. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (15,483)
016. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (14,566)
017. Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics) by Charlotte Bronte (14,449)
018. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (13,946)
019. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (13,272)
020. Animal Farm by George Orwell (13,091)
021. Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (13,089)
022. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (13,005)
023. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (12,777)
024. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Oprah’s Book Club) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (12,634)
025. The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Part 1) by J.R.R. Tolkien (12,276)
026. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (12,147)
027. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (11,976)
028. The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, Part 2)by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,512)
029. The Odyssey by Homer (11,483)
030. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (11,392)
031. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (11,360)
032. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (11,257)
033. The Return of the King : Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,082)
034. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (10,979)
035. American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman (10,823)
036. The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (10,603) **
037. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (10,537)38. Lord of the Flies by William Golding (10,435)
039. The Lovely Bones : A Novel by Alice Sebold (10,125)
040. Ender’s Game (Ender, Book 1) by Orson Scott Card (10,092)
041. The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) by Philip Pullman (9,827) **
042. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman (9,745)
043. Dune by Frank Herbert (9,671)
044. Emma by Jane Austen (9,610)
045. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (9,598)
046. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bantam Classics) by Mark Twain (9,593)
047. Anna Karenina (Oprah’s Book Club) by Leo Tolstoy (9,433)
048. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (9,413)
049. Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides (9,343)
050. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (9,336) **
051. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (9,274)
052. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (9,246)
053. The Iliad by Homer (9,153)
054. The Stranger by Albert Camus (9,084)
055. Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics) by Jane Austen (9,080)
056. Great Expectations (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens (9,027)
057. The Handmaid’s Tale: A Novel by Margaret Atwood (8,960)
058. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (8,904)
059. Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt (8,813)
060. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery – (8,764)
061. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (8,421) **
062. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (8,417)
063. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (8,368)
064. The Grapes of Wrath (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck (8,255)
065. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (8,214) **
066. The Name of the Rose: including Postscript to the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (8,191)
067. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (8,169)
068. Moby Dick by Herman Melville (8,129)
069. The Complete Works by William Shakespeare (8,096)
070. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond (7,843)
071. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (7,834)
072. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel (Perennial Classics) by Barbara Kingsolver (7,829)
073. Hamlet (Folger Shakespeare Library) by William Shakespeare (7,808)
074. Of Mice and Men (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)by John Steinbeck (7,807)
075. A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens (7,793)
076. The Alchemist (Plus)by Paulo Coelho (7,710)
077. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (7,648)
078. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics) by Oscar Wilde (7,598)
079. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition by William Strunk (7,569)
080. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (7,557)
081. The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2) by Philip Pullman (7,534) **
082. Atonement: A Novel by Ian McEwan (7,530)
083. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (7,512)
084. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (7,436)
085. Dracula by Bram Stoker (7,238)
086. Heart of Darkness (Dover Thrift Editions) by Joseph Conrad (7,153)
087. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (7,055)
088. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (7,052)
089. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (7,043) **
090. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin Classics)by James Joyce (6,933)
091. The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel (Perennial Classics) by Milan Kundera (6,901)
092. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (6,899)
093. Neuromancer by William Gibson (6,890)
094. The Canterbury Tales (Penguin Classics) by Geoffrey Chaucer (6,868)
095. Persuasion (Penguin Classics) by Jane Austen (6,862) **
096. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (6,841)
097. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (6,794)
098. Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (6,715)
099. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (6,708)
100. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (6,697)

I have to say, I’m not surprised much at this list. I’ve heard of almost all of the books on it and could probably find a fairly close friend who has read at least one of the books that I haven’t, enough to cover most of the books. Otherwise, well, I’ve done something resembling this what seems like four or five times in the last few weeks so I’ve nothing really interesting to say.

Something that really gets me with this story is how difficult it is for me to read. Westerfeld’s writing style is alright, and it fits with the way the story is supposed to progress, but I find it tiresome. The sheer number of hyphenated words in this story is just stunning. It has everything to do with the way the Pretties behave, but that doesn’t make it less irritating. Were it only a few words, here and there, I don’t think it would have been so annoying, but the words, especially toward the beginning, happened in nearly every sentence. Really, really annoying.

The story progresses slowly at first, then has jumps of fast story, slows down, then speeds up toward the ending, which isn’t really an ending at all. These books are not meant to be read individually, which annoys me. They’re a trilogy which probably ought to be published as an omnibus and sold only in that omnibus for the sanity of the reader. Reaching the end of the story and having it be an absolute cliffhanger is really maddening, particularly after reading series novels which have a tangible end to themselves so that they can be read individually while being at their best when read as part of a series.

Pretties, sadly, fell short of the mark that Uglies hit for me, which wasn’t very high to begin with. I wouldn’t say Scott Westerfeld’s writing is bad, but I wouldn’t call it great, either. I just can’t seem to get into his stories to the point that I absolutely must finish the book to find out how it ends. I think I’m only continuing to read this trilogy at all so that I can know how it does end – out of sheer curiosity.

And in the inquiry all sorts of things about Experiment House came out, and about ten people got expelled. After that, the Head’s friends saw that the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her made an Inspector to interfere with other Heads. And when they found she wasn’t much good even at that, they got her into Parliament where she lived happily ever after.

I love that quote from near to the end of the book. It made me giggle out loud, which is embarrassing when you’re sitting in the lunchroom next to the warehouse and people can hear you giggling. Whoops. Even Johnathan gives me strange looks when I laugh aloud at a book so you can imagine how strangers would have felt about it.

This book must be the turning point where the religion starts to smack people over the head. I was really aware of the biblical allegory in this, especially toward the end with the recently deceased King Caspian. The thorn, the renewing from blood, the serpent who kills and deceives (though through magic and not mere cunning), etc… It was just a bit much. I knew there was allegory – I remember from when I read the books ten years ago (give or take). It just smacked me in the face as it went on. As before, though, I was able to look past it once I identified it, scoffed and kept reading.

Something I really liked about this story was how clever Jill could be at times. Seeing her dupe the giants, even though I knew it was potentially a bad situation, was really fun. I enjoyed it quite a lot. I enjoyed it more after she and Eustace stopped addressing each other by their last names. “Scrubb” and “Pole” are not exactly last names that one would be pleased to be addressed by.

Puddleglum was annoying at first, but he grew on me. I’m sure he possibly is the most positive of the Marsh-wiggles, but then listening to his struggle with being like his fellow Marsh-wiggles and being himself was kind of interesting. He really is a bit of a downer, but if you do listen closely, you can see how he’s actually positive, at least a little bit, on the inside. He’s trying, and that counts for me.

I really enjoyed the story in this one quite a lot – more than I thought I would from my vague memories of reading it so long ago. I can’t pinpoint what exactly was interesting about it, except maybe the journey part and the series of adventures that they had, but I liked it better than Voyage. Maybe I’m just not fond of sea voyages or something; I don’t know. At any rate, I did quite enjoy this one.

Originally Published: 1953

“We thought the Duke would have been pleased if the King’s Majesty would have married his daughter, but nothing came of that –”
“Squints, and has freckles,” said Caspian.
“Oh, poor girl,” said Lucy.

I couldn’t remember most of the story for this one, so it was almost like reading it for the first time. I had completely forgotten about Eustace as a character, which might have been because Eustace in the beginning is quite unpleasant. I know he’s supposed to be that way, of course, but all the same, I figure that’s why I didn’t remember him at all.

The adventures in this book seemed tame in comparison to those of other stories. The mystery of the seven lords was only a small driving factor, and it seemed to me as if it was more of a series of little adventures without much terror involved when it came to fearing for the well-being of the main characters. The only one that really had any real anticipation for me was the bit at the slave market, when they were all kidnapped and being sold to the Calormen people.

I did remember the bit at the end. For some reason, the imagery at the end of the book stuck with me, with the sweet water and lilies, the sea people, the ever-renewing table… I’d forgotten about the retired star, though, and Caspian actually marrying. For some reason, I kept expecting there to be a glimmer of it between Lucy and Caspian, though she was still a bit young for it.

What’s strange to me is to see how much less interesting Edmund became on the whole. He was more like Peter in this story, and as a result he lost some of the zest that made him interesting in the last two books. That was sad to realize. I guess maybe it’s part of growing up. Lucy was pretty much the same as before, but maybe not quite as good on the whole, though even her moments of not-as-good were tempered with realizations and lessons that made her, once again, too good to be interesting.

I don’t think this one will be one of my favorite movies. It had some funny moments, particularly when Reepicheep was involved, but then at the end, it was bittersweet, with him staying in Aslan’s land or whatever it was called. It definitely wasn’t one of my favorites of the books, at any rate.

I’d love to have one of the maps that the magician made for Caspian, though. That would be totally cool. (I guess we kind of do… it’s called Google Maps with Street View. Heh.)

Originally Published: 1952