Since today is the official, lawful beginning of the Christmas season (shame on those of you who have listened to music or [horrors!] decorated before today), we are, of course, decorating. And drinking hot chocolate. And listening to Christmas playlists from my iPod (some things change, some things stay the same).
I was commenting today that we're blessed not to be hauling in from a road trip and needing to decorate this weekend. There are little benefits to not being near to family at holiday time.
So, as part of the process, we're switching out an equal number of plates for the Christmas-themed ones (what a blessing it is to have a melamine seconds store here in-country where we can paw through and find perfectly good plates and bowls originally intended for sale in the States, and we have a whole set of miscellaneous Christmas dishes from there), storing wall and shelf decorations from the rest of the year and replacing them with Nativity sets from around the world, and packing up one of our two picture-book shelves to put out our selection of Christmas books.
The latter inspired me to do a good old-fashioned list post. Here are the books on our Christmas bookshelf (in the order I found them).
• The Tale of Three Trees
• An Amish Christmas
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
• Santa Cows
• The Saint Who Became Santa Claus
• The First Night
• The Legend of the Poinsettia
• Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
• The Christmas Star
• Jacob’s Gift
• Too Many Tamales
• The Legend of the Candy Cane
• Christmas is a Time of Giving: a Joan Walsh Anglund book from my childhood
• Who Was Born This Special Day?
• How Do You Know It’s Christmas? (I am so not a Precious Moments-type [no offense to those who are; I'm just not], and I have no idea how we ended up with this silly little book, but I laid aside my pride and included it in the list, because it's on the shelf.)
• Christmas in the Big Woods
• The Story of Christmas
• The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
• The Night Before Christmas
• One Wintry Night
• The Nutcracker Ballet
• The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet
• A Christmas Carol (just for Mary Grace)
• The Saturday Evening Post Christmas Book: a cultural treasure trove and link to a distinct time in our nation's history, specifically our parents' childhoods
• A Little House Christmas
• Messiah: Wordbook for the Oratorio
• The Family Read-Aloud Christmas Treasury
• Christmas in America (The book linked is not actually the one we have, although I wish we did. Ours is one done about 20 years previous and is rather dated but still interesting.)
• Michael Hague’s Family Christmas Treasury
Some of the books were deliberately acquired, some were gifts, some picked up at used and/or half-price bookstores (so semi-deliberately acquired, as opposed to specifically sought/ordered).
The last several were bought at a half-price store before we left the States originally. They have been great for orienting the kids to traditions that they might not get to participate in in person being halfway around the world. It is important to ML and I that they have a grid for things like that so that they are able to relate, at least in a cursory way, to conversations and experiences of their peers at whichever point they "re-enter" their passport culture. We're trying to do a good job of this raising TCK's thing, and the holidays are an important part (waking MS to watch the Cowboys' game at a friend's house from 11pm to 1am last night was another little part :-).
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Friday, November 28, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The Big Read
I discovered the list of the top 100 books printed on Melody's Vita et Vertas blog and thought it would make for a good post today. I've succumbed to a form of the Mystery Virus, and this was a relatively simple post to make. While I sip on my chicken noodle soup. At 4:00 in the afternoon. The first thing I've dared put in my system. :-l
The Big Read has determined that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books printed. How do you stack up?
The Rules:
1) Look at the list and put one * by those you have read.
2) Put a % by those you intend to read.
3) Put two ** by the books you LOVE.
4) Put # by the books you HATE.
5) Post.
I, of course, couldn't leave the rules alone, so I added one: Put a ? by the books you think you might have read. I did a *lot* of reading in Jr. High and High School (ask my teachers; I often had a book in my lap in math, science, band, even*), and I'm not positive whether I did or didn't read some of these.
And, because I wasn't familiar with all the books and really just needed something mindless to do, anyway, I decided to put Amazon links for each book (I'm choosing the cheapest, often, to link, although occasionally, I'm going with the most visually appealing cover), in case you were curious, too. I think the kids and I will watch a movie...
As I'm working through the list, I've contrived another symbol: %%. Books I learned I would like to read from researching them for this list. Some of them I'd heard of before. Others are completely new to me. But none marked %% would I have said for sure I'd want to read before looking at the plot summary today.
And then, of course, I had to know which of the 100 are included in Sonlight cores (not that I think they all should, just that I was curious). So, the bolded ones are.
*1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
%2. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
*3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
%4. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling (well, I read the first one, does that count?)
*5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
**6. The Bible
*7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
**8. 1984 - George Orwell
%9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
?10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
*11. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
%%12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
%13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
%14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
%%15. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
*16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
%%18. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
%%19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
%%20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
?21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
%%22. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
%%23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
**25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams -
%%26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh -
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
*28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
*29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
*30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
%%32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
**33. Chronicles of Narnia- C.S. Lewis
*34. Emma - Jane Austen
%%35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
**36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis -
%37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis de Bernières -
%39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
**40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
*41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
%42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
%%43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
%%44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
%%45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -
*46. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
*48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
*49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
%%50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
%%51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
%%53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
?54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
*57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
*58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
**59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
*61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (hated it...)
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
**65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
*70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
%71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
?72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
*73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
%%74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
%%76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
%%77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Émile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
%%80. Possession - A.S. Byatt
*81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
%83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
%84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
%%86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
*87. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
%%88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
**89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
%91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
%92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
%94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
**97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
*98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
**99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
%100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
ETA: So, that means I've read 33-37 of the 100 books (you'll notice that most of the ones I'm not sure about have movie versions, so I can't just check to see if I recognize the plot :-/). And now, I have a list of books to check out for myself when we hit the library in the US in the spring. This process also made me think that an electronic reader is likely in our future. Especially living overseas, the instant access to so many of the books via a Kindle or some other reader is quite tempting.
Oh, and I couldn't find a copy of this list on The Big Read's website, so I had to clean up Melody's list myself (and just to make it look "right," I had to put a "." after each number; I'm a little anal that way). If anyone wants to post the list, let me know, and I'll put up the "clean" version to save you the trouble.
* Case in point: in 8th grade, I worked very hard to get my English teacher's "Outside Reading Award" for which we catalogued all books read outside the ones she assigned to us. It was neck and neck between Katie Shelton and myself, if I remember correctly, but I won (sorry, Katie, wherever you are). Only some of my other teachers protested. They claimed that I had could not win an "Outside" reading award when in fact the reading had been done "Inside" their classes. :-P (They were kidding. Sort of. But I still got the award.)
The Big Read has determined that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books printed. How do you stack up?
The Rules:
1) Look at the list and put one * by those you have read.
2) Put a % by those you intend to read.
3) Put two ** by the books you LOVE.
4) Put # by the books you HATE.
5) Post.
I, of course, couldn't leave the rules alone, so I added one: Put a ? by the books you think you might have read. I did a *lot* of reading in Jr. High and High School (ask my teachers; I often had a book in my lap in math, science, band, even*), and I'm not positive whether I did or didn't read some of these.
And, because I wasn't familiar with all the books and really just needed something mindless to do, anyway, I decided to put Amazon links for each book (I'm choosing the cheapest, often, to link, although occasionally, I'm going with the most visually appealing cover), in case you were curious, too. I think the kids and I will watch a movie...
As I'm working through the list, I've contrived another symbol: %%. Books I learned I would like to read from researching them for this list. Some of them I'd heard of before. Others are completely new to me. But none marked %% would I have said for sure I'd want to read before looking at the plot summary today.
And then, of course, I had to know which of the 100 are included in Sonlight cores (not that I think they all should, just that I was curious). So, the bolded ones are.
*1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
%2. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
*3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
%4. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling (well, I read the first one, does that count?)
*5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
**6. The Bible
*7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
**8. 1984 - George Orwell
%9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
?10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
*11. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
%%12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
%13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
%14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
%%15. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
*16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
%%18. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
%%19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
%%20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
?21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
%%22. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
%%23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
**25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams -
%%26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh -
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
*28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
*29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
*30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
%%32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
**33. Chronicles of Narnia- C.S. Lewis
*34. Emma - Jane Austen
%%35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
**36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis -
%37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis de Bernières -
%39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
**40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
*41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
%42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
%%43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
%%44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
%%45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -
*46. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
*48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
*49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
%%50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
%%51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
%%53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
?54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
*57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
*58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
**59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
*61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (hated it...)
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
**65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
*70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
%71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
?72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
*73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
%%74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
%%76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
%%77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Émile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
%%80. Possession - A.S. Byatt
*81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
%83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
%84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
%%86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
*87. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
%%88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
**89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
%91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
%92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
%94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
**97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
*98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
**99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
%100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
ETA: So, that means I've read 33-37 of the 100 books (you'll notice that most of the ones I'm not sure about have movie versions, so I can't just check to see if I recognize the plot :-/). And now, I have a list of books to check out for myself when we hit the library in the US in the spring. This process also made me think that an electronic reader is likely in our future. Especially living overseas, the instant access to so many of the books via a Kindle or some other reader is quite tempting.
Oh, and I couldn't find a copy of this list on The Big Read's website, so I had to clean up Melody's list myself (and just to make it look "right," I had to put a "." after each number; I'm a little anal that way). If anyone wants to post the list, let me know, and I'll put up the "clean" version to save you the trouble.
* Case in point: in 8th grade, I worked very hard to get my English teacher's "Outside Reading Award" for which we catalogued all books read outside the ones she assigned to us. It was neck and neck between Katie Shelton and myself, if I remember correctly, but I won (sorry, Katie, wherever you are). Only some of my other teachers protested. They claimed that I had could not win an "Outside" reading award when in fact the reading had been done "Inside" their classes. :-P (They were kidding. Sort of. But I still got the award.)
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