Here's Livvy!

YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Gizmo Matrix


YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
O-BIL (OMG Banana...Ours are the SAME!!!)


YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Green Kitten


YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
LeAnne Fort Gordon


YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
Bi-lol (I hyphenated it. It just seemed right...)


SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Blue Water (mine's redundant...)


NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Jack Orval (oooh...Let's see what Lissa and Celeste come up with :) ).


STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)
Honey Sour Patch Kids


WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names)
Elaine Leroy


TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
I have no idea....Stupid memory!

SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)
Spring Rose

CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Olive Sweatery

HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)
Waffle Magnolia

YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)
The Hiking Lightning Tour

When It Rains It Pours....

Okay.... last one today, and then I guess I'll do something productive for work...

J R R Tolkien, Lord Of the Rings Trilogy
J R R Tolkien, The Hobbit
J K Rowling, Harry Potter Series
Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time Series
C S Lewis, The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
George R R Martin, A Song of Ice & Fire
David Eddings, The Belgariad Series
Terry Goodkind, Wizard's First Rule
Raymond E Feist, Magician
Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials Trilogy
Terry Brooks, The Sword of Shannara
Ursula K Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea
Christopher Paolini, Eragon
Robin Hobb, The Farseer Trilogy
R A Salvatore, Dark Elf Trilogy
Stephen King, The Dark Tower Series
Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle In Time
Richard Adams, Watership Down
Neil Gaiman, American Gods
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
William Goldman, The Princess Bride
Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic
George Orwell, Animal Farm
Weis & Hickman, Dragonlance Chronicles
Stephen Donaldson, Thomas Covenant - The Unbeliever
Roger Zelazny, The Chronicles of Amber
Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists Of Avalon
Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl
Anne Rice, Interview With the Vampire
Gaiman & Pratchett, Good Omens
Brian Jacques, Redwall
Roald Dahl, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
William Golding, The Lord Of the Flies
Bram Stoker, Dracula
Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
Tad Williams, Memory, Sorrow & Thorn Series
Garth Nix, Sabriel
Anne McCaffrey, Dragonflight
Piers Anthony, On a Pale Horse
T H White, The Once & Future King
Gail Carson Levine, Ella Enchanted
Stephenie Meyer, Twilight
Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Tamora Pierce, Alanna: The First Adventure
Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
Michael Ende, The Neverending Story
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Unknown Author, Beowulf
Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife
Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
Dianna Gabaldon, Outlander
C S Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Homer, The Odyssey
LaHaye & Jenkins, Left Behind
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones
Lloyd Alexander, The Chronicles of Prydain
Yann Martel, Life of Pi
David Eddings, The Malloreon
Terry Pratchett, Mort
J R R Tolkien, The Silmarillion
Laurell K Hamilton, Guilty Pleasures
Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
Steven Erikson, Gardens of the Moon
Guy Gavriel Kay, Tigana
Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian
Daniel Quinn, Ishmael
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince
Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World
Moore & Gibbons, Watchmen
Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Dart
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
China Mieville, Perdido Street Station
Frank Miller, Batman - The Dark Knight Returns
Cornelia Funke, Inkheart
Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Matheson, I Am Legend
Weis & Hickman, Death Gate Cycle
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
Patricia C Wrede, Dealing With Dragons
Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes
Mercedes Lackey, Magic's Pawn
Patrick Suskind, Perfume
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
Peter S Beagle, The Last Unicorn
Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair
Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Dante Alighieri, Inferno
Gene Wolfe, Book of the New Sun
Christopher Moore, Lamb
Jonathan Stroud, The Amulet of Samarkan
Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising
David Eddings, The Elenium
Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle
Robin McKinley, The Blue Sword
Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

Okay... now I'm going back to my Buffy marathon....

Olivia's Fantasy Meme

:)...Look what I found:

J R R Tolkien, Lord Of the Rings Trilogy
J R R Tolkien, The Hobbit
J K Rowling, Harry Potter Series
Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time Series
C S Lewis, The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
George R R Martin, A Song of Ice & Fire
David Eddings, The Belgariad Series
Terry Goodkind, Wizard's First Rule
Raymond E Feist, Magician
Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials Trilogy
Terry Brooks, The Sword of Shannara
Ursula K Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea
Christopher Paolini, Eragon
Robin Hobb, The Farseer Trilogy
R A Salvatore, Dark Elf Trilogy
Stephen King, The Dark Tower Series
Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle In Time
Richard Adams, Watership Down
Neil Gaiman, American Gods
Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
William Goldman, The Princess Bride
Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic
George Orwell, Animal Farm
Weis & Hickman, Dragonlance Chronicles
Stephen Donaldson, Thomas Covenant - The Unbeliever
Roger Zelazny, The Chronicles of Amber
Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists Of Avalon
Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl
Anne Rice, Interview With the Vampire
Gaiman & Pratchett, Good Omens
Brian Jacques, Redwall
Roald Dahl, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
William Golding, The Lord Of the Flies
Bram Stoker, Dracula
Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
Tad Williams, Memory, Sorrow & Thorn Series
Garth Nix, Sabriel
Anne McCaffrey, Dragonflight
Piers Anthony, On a Pale Horse
T H White, The Once & Future King
Gail Carson Levine, Ella Enchanted
Stephenie Meyer, Twilight
Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Tamora Pierce, Alanna: The First Adventure
Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
Michael Ende, The Neverending Story
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Unknown Author, Beowulf
Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife
Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
Dianna Gabaldon, Outlander
C S Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Homer, The Odyssey
LaHaye & Jenkins, Left Behind
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones
Lloyd Alexander, The Chronicles of Prydain
Yann Martel, Life of Pi
David Eddings, The Malloreon
Terry Pratchett, Mort
J R R Tolkien, The Silmarillion
Laurell K Hamilton, Guilty Pleasures
Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
Steven Erikson, Gardens of the Moon
Guy Gavriel Kay, Tigana
Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian
Daniel Quinn, Ishmael
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince
Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World
Moore & Gibbons, Watchmen
Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Dart
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
China Mieville, Perdido Street Station
Frank Miller, Batman - The Dark Knight Returns
Cornelia Funke, Inkheart
Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Matheson, I Am Legend
Weis & Hickman, Death Gate Cycle
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
Patricia C Wrede, Dealing With Dragons
Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes
Mercedes Lackey, Magic's Pawn
Patrick Suskind, Perfume
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
Peter S Beagle, The Last Unicorn
Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair
Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Dante Alighieri, Inferno
Gene Wolfe, Book of the New Sun
Christopher Moore, Lamb
Jonathan Stroud, The Amulet of Samarkan
Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising
David Eddings, The Elenium
Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle
Robin McKinley, The Blue Sword
Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House

Still less that the first one, but better than the sci-fi one :)!

Olivia Sci-Fi Meme

Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
Frank Herbert, Dune
Isaac Asimov, Foundation
Douglas Adams, Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
George Orwell, 1984
Robert A Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Arthur C Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey
Isaac Asimov, I, Robot
William Gibson, Neuromancer
Robert A Heinlein, Starship Troopers
Larry Niven, Ringworld
Philip K Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Arthur C Clarke, Rendezvous With Rama
H G Wells, The Time Machine
Robert A Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Arthur C Clarke, Childhood's End
Dan Simmons, Hyperion
H G Wells, The War of the Worlds
Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
Joe Haldeman, The Forever War
Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five
Niven & Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye
Ursula K Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead
Isaac Asimov, The Caves of Steel
Philip K Dick, The Man in the High Castle
Frederik Pohl, Gateway
Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park
Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle In Time
Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light
Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination
Stanislaw Lem, Solaris
Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
Robert A Heinlein, Time Enough For Love
Carl Sagan, Contact
Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves
Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids
Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
Michael Crichton, The Andromeda Strain
Philip K Dick, UBIK
Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep
Isaac Asimov, The End Of Eternity
Walter M Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars
Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age
Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan
L Ron Hubbard, Battlefield Earth
Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth
Iain M Banks, Player Of Games
Niven & Pournelle, Lucifer's Hammer
Ursula K Le Guin, The Dispossessed
Orson Scott Card, Ender's Shadow
David Brin, Startide Rising
Greg Bear, Eon
Peter F Hamilton, The Reality Dysfunction
Philip Jose Farmer, To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man
Harry Harrison, The Stainless Steel Rat
Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
Arthur C Clarke, The City and the Stars
Philip K Dick, The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch
Robert A Heinlein, The Door Into Summer
Connie Willis, Doomsday Book
Robert A Heinlein, Citizen Of the Galaxy
Philip K Dick, A Scanner Darkly
Robert A Heinlein, The Puppet Masters
Robert A Heinlein, Have Space-Suit - Will Travel
C S Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet
Clifford Simak, Way Station
John Wyndham, The Chrysalids
Ursula K Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars
H G Wells, The Invisible Man
Julian May, The Many-Colored Land
Dan Simmons, Ilium
Iain M Banks, Use of Weapons
E E 'Doc' Smith, Grey Lensman
William Gibson, Burning Chrome
Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in KA's Court
Michael Crichton, Sphere
Alastair Reynolds, Revelation Space
David Brin, The Postman
Clifford Simak, City
Arthur C Clarke, The Fountains of Paradise
John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar
Edwin A Abbott, Flatland
Philip K Dick, VALIS
Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human
Greg Bear, Blood Music
Stanislaw Lem, The Cyberiad
James Blish, Cities in Flight
David Brin, The Uplift War

Hmm...I should read more actual science fiction too! I have a ton of Philip K. Dick to read. I recommend him because, although I haven't read the books on this list (but are on my own to read list), I have read a couple of his other novels, which were really good. I also have been meaning to read more Ursula K. LeGuin, and Isaac Asimov...AND I have been wanting to read some Alistair Reynolds too :).

Top 100 SciFi: Celeste

Items I've read in bold
1. Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
2. Frank Herbert, Dune
3. Isaac Asimov, Foundation
4. Douglas Adams, Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
5. George Orwell, 1984
6. Robert A Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
7. Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
8. Arthur C Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey
9. Isaac Asimov, I, Robot
10. William Gibson, Neuromancer
11. Robert A Heinlein, Starship Troopers
12. Larry Niven, Ringworld
13. Philip K Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
14. Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
15. Arthur C Clarke, Rendezvous With Rama
16. H G Wells, The Time Machine
17. Robert A Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
18. Arthur C Clarke, Childhood's End
19. Dan Simmons, Hyperion
20. H G Wells, The War of the Worlds
21. Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
22. Joe Haldeman, The Forever War
23. Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
24. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five
25. Niven & Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye
26. Ursula K Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
27. Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead
28. Isaac Asimov, The Caves of Steel
29. Philip K Dick, The Man in the High Castle
30. Frederik Pohl, Gateway
31. Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park
32. Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle In Time
33. Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
34. Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light
35. Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination
36. Stanislaw Lem, Solaris
37. Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
38. Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
39. Robert A Heinlein, Time Enough For Love
40. Carl Sagan, Contact
41. Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves
42. Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
43. John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids
44. Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
45. Michael Crichton, The Andromeda Strain
46. Philip K Dick, UBIK
47. Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep
48. Isaac Asimov, The End Of Eternity
49. Walter M Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz
50. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
51. Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars
52. Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age
53. Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan
54. L Ron Hubbard, Battlefield Earth
55. Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth
56. Iain M Banks, Player Of Games
57. Niven & Pournelle, Lucifer's Hammer
58. Ursula K Le Guin, The Dispossessed
59. Orson Scott Card, Ender's Shadow
60. David Brin, Startide Rising
61. Greg Bear, Eon
62. Peter F Hamilton, The Reality Dysfunction
63. Philip Jose Farmer, To Your Scattered Bodies Go
64. Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man
65. Harry Harrison, The Stainless Steel Rat
66. Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer
67. Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
68. Arthur C Clarke, The City and the Stars
69. Philip K Dick, The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch
70. Robert A Heinlein, The Door Into Summer
71. Connie Willis, Doomsday Book
72. Robert A Heinlein, Citizen Of the Galaxy
73. Philip K Dick, A Scanner Darkly
74. Robert A Heinlein, The Puppet Masters
75. Robert A Heinlein, Have Space-Suit - Will Travel
76. C S Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet
77. Clifford Simak, Way Station
78. John Wyndham, The Chrysalids
79. Ursula K Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
80. Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars
81. H G Wells, The Invisible Man
82. Julian May, The Many-Colored Land
83. Dan Simmons, Ilium
84. Iain M Banks, Use of Weapons
85. E E 'Doc' Smith, Grey Lensman
86. William Gibson, Burning Chrome
87. Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in KA's Court
88. Michael Crichton, Sphere
89. Alastair Reynolds, Revelation Space
90. David Brin, The Postman
91. Clifford Simak, City
92. Arthur C Clarke, The Fountains of Paradise
93. John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar
94. Edwin A Abbott, Flatland
95. Philip K Dick, VALIS
96. Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human
97. Greg Bear, Blood Music
98. Stanislaw Lem, The Cyberiad
99. James Blish, Cities in Flight
100. David Brin, The Uplift War

Were it not for the heavy representation for Heinlein, I wouldn't have so many.... there are number of authors on the list I've read, just not that particular book, though. Like L Ron Hubbard (anyone who actually read Battlefield Earth is a glutton for punishment), Le Guin, Brin, Clarke, May, and Vonnegut (I've read a lot of his stuff.) Heh. And I went into this thinking I'd have a better score than that NEA list.

Olivia Book Meme

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE
4) Reprint this list in your blog.
The premise of this exercise is that the National Endowment for the Arts apparently believes that the average American has only read 6 books from the list below.
1 Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible -
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (book one only) --I've read all three.
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (a few only)--I've read more than a few.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD 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 -- I've read all of them.
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 - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA 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 Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables- LM 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 (Loved it when I was a teenager. Re-read it recently and found it tedious.)
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
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones
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 - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS 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 - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
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

So...I guess I've read about 30%, but I think that I should re-read some of those because some of them were read a long time ago. I actually have been wanting to read a number of these books, simply because I believe my high school education was slack in its reading requirements. So, hopefully I will get to them soon.

I agree with Celeste though...this list is not that great. Also, what's with the duplicates? They have the Chronicles of Narnia listed and then go on later to list The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. They did the same thing with Shakespeare!

Book MeMe: Celeste

The premise of this exercise is that someone has claimed that the National Endowment for the Arts apparently believes that the average American has only read 6 books from the list below.

1 Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible - (editors note: lol. What, they consider this anonymous?
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell - tried to read it, but something more compelling was sitting on my desk.
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - actually, just Romeo & Juliet, MacBeth, Hamlet, all of his histories (thanks to my drama teacher), As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Tempest... um, okay, most of them really...
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD 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
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 - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA 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 Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables- LM 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 - tried to read it, bored the shit out of me.
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
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones
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 - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS 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 - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - I've read some of them, but not the whole thing.
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
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 - why does this show up twice?
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Eh.... 40% ain't bad. Especially for what I'd call a rather arbitrary list. I mean seriously, there's like NO sci-fi. What about "War of the Worlds", "The Time Machine", "Stranger in a Strange Land", "I, Robot", "The Mote In Gods Eye"... I could go on and on, but you get what I mean. I fail to see how Adams made it to the list (much as I enjoy his work), but Niven, Heinlein and Asimov were snubbed. And not a single Mark Twain, and no Oscar Wilde?

Now I have to sit down and put together a top 100 list of books I've read and think everyone else should give a shot as well. I have a feeling it'll be substantially different....

Book MeMe

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.

2) Italicize those you intend to read.

3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE

4) Reprint this list in your blog.

The premise of this exercise is that the National Endowment for the Arts apparently believes that the average American has only read 6 books from the list below.

1 Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible -

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (book one only)

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (a few only)

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD 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

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 - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA 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 Meany - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables- LM 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 (Loved it when I was a teenager. Re-read it recently and found it tedious.)

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

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones

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 - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS 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 - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection

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

I've read considerably more than six, thanks in large part to my high school English teachers. I'm a little disappointed that I haven't read more than half of the list, boo for me.

I can say "I can't".

When I was a little girl in Louisiana, my parents had me taking all sorts of lessons...ballet lessons, jazz lessons, baton lessons, even guitar lessons (the last two were short-lived, in fact, I barely remember them). It was during my dancing days that I remember hearing, for the first time, my instructor (Keitha Donnelly...geez, how do I still know that name?) telling me never to utter the words "I can't" when facing a difficult dance step.

Thirty years later I've heard the same phrase countless times...NEVER SAY CAN'T. Hell, there are tons of motivational books out there with people touting those words as if it were some magical phrase to suddenly boost the listener's ability to do something that they couldn't previously do. It's almost as if you were admitting you were some sort of a loser if you dared to concede to your inabilities.

Well, here it is...I can't put those Google pics in my post. I've tried Celeste's way. I've tried Livvy's way. I CAN'T figure it out! (I was actually able to get one little picture in there and after that, nothing). I suppose if I weren't trying to watch my tivo'd "Days of Our Lives" then maybe I'd have better luck. But, you see, I'm addicted to that show and I CAN'T bear to turn it off.

Posting this blog was much easier anyway!

Google Images

1. Age at next birthday:



2. A place you'd like to travel:



3. Your favorite place:



4. Your favorite objects:


5. Your favorite food:



6. Your favorite animals:



7. Your favorite color:



8. Town where you were born:



9. Town where you live:



10. Name of past pet:



11. First name of a past love:

I've only ever had the one!

12. Best friend's nickname:



13. Your screenname/nickname:



14. Your first name:



15. Your middle name:



16. Your last name:



17. Bad habit of yours:



18. First job:



19. Grandmother's name:


I had two of them :)!

20. College major:

Google Images

1. Age at next birthday:


2. A place you'd like to travel:


3. Your favorite place:


4. Your favorite objects:


5. Your favorite food:


6. Your favorite animals:


7. Your favorite color:


8. Town where you were born:


9. Town where you live:


10. Name of past pet:


11. First name of a past love:

OH... wait, did you mean a person? Sorry, no such thing. :)

12. Best friend's nickname:


13. Your screenname/nickname:


14. Your first name:


15. Your middle name:


16. Your last name:


17. Bad habit of yours:


18. First job:


19. Grandmother's name:


20. College major:

Google Images

The rules:
1) Answer questions and type into google image search
2) Post pictures from first results page
The Game:
1. Age at next birthday

2. A place you'd like to travel.

3. Your favorite place

4. Your favorite objects

5. Your favorite food

6. Your favorite animals

7. Your favorite color

8. Town where you were born

9. Town where you live

10. Name of past pet

11. First name of a past love

12. Best friend's nickname

13. Your screenname/nickname

14. Your first name

15. Your middle name

16. Your last name

17. Bad habit of yours

18. First job

19. Grandmother's name

20. College major.