Tomorrow is a big day. Not only do I have Lisa Graff stopping by with an interview (and book giveaway!), but it's annoucement day at The Cybils.
There are nine of us out there who know the results. And I'm one of them. And, I'm horrible at keeping secrets or sitting on big news. Thank goodness, Michele at Scholar's Blog has come up with a World Book Day meme. The question is: What ten books can't you live without?
Here are mine, in order of importance to me:
War and Peace, Tolstoy
Behind the Scenes at the Museum, by Atkinson
Enduring Love, McEwan
His Dark Materials, Pullman (yes, this counts as one book.)
Speak, Memory, Nabokov
The Flowers of Evil, Baudelaire
Pale Fire, Nabokov
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rowling
Talking it Over, Barnes
Harriet the Spy, Fitzhugh
No tagging from me. But, please help me kill the time until 2 pm tomorrow when The Cybils are finally announced.
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By: Kelly Herold,
on 2/13/2007
Blog: Crossover (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: Kelly Herold,
on 1/11/2007
Blog: Crossover (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Scholar's Blog, Michele's meme, Add a tag
A blog I read daily is Michele's Scholar's Blog. I keep up with Fantasy titles both new and old by reading her blog, and I just really like her as a person as well. But somehow I missed a very important post. All I can say is that November and December were unexpectedly crazy.
Here's the story. Back in November there were two memes floating about--the 100 Children's Book meme and the 100 Novels meme. Michele was lamenting the fact that she hadn't read a huge number on either list and I challenged her to come up with her own list of Fantasy titles. (She's the most well-read Fantasy reader I know.) So she did, mostly. There are a few non-fantasy titles on the list, but still it's a good one and it corrects the American bias of the 100 Children's Book Meme.
So here are my answers to Michele's meme. (The rules are the same: Mark the selections you have read in bold. If you liked it, add a star [*] in front of the title, if you didn't, give it a minus [-]. Then, put the total number of books you've read in the subject line. )
The Chronicles of Prydain - Alexander, Lloyd
Carrie's War - Bawden, Nina
Death of a Ghost - Butler, Charles
* Ender's Game - Card, Orson Scott
* Summerland - Chabon, Michael
King of Shadows - Cooper, Susan
* The Dark is Rising sequence - Cooper, Susan
Stonestruck - Cresswell, Helen
* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Dahl, Roald
* Matilda - Dahl, Roald
* Ingo - Dunmore, Helen
The Sea of Trolls - Farmer, Nancy
Madame Doubtfire - Fine, Anne
Corbenic - Fisher, Catherine
Inkheart - Funke, Cornelia
* The Thief Lord - Funke, Cornelia
The Owl Service - Garner, Alan
* Happy Kid! - Gauthier, Gail
* Stormbreaker - Horowitz, Anthony
Whale Rider - Ihimaera, Witi
Finn Family Moomintroll - Jansson, Tove
* Fire and Hemlock - Jones, Diana Wynne
* The Phantom Tollbooth - Juster, Norton
The Sheep Pig - King Smith, Dick
Stig of the Dump - King, Clive
A Wizard of Earthsea - Le Guin, Ursula
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Lewis, C S
The House at Norham Gardens - Lively, Penelope
* Goodnight Mister Tom - Magorian, Michelle
The Changeover - Mahy, Margaret
The Stones are Hatching - McCaughrean, Geraldine
* The White Darkness - McCaughrean, Geraldine
Beauty - McKinley, Robin
* Sabriel - Nix, Garth
* The Borrowers - Norton, Mary
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - O'Brien, Robert
Z for Zachariah - O'Brien, Robert
A Dog So Small - Pearce, Philippa
Life As We Knew It - Pfeffer, Susan Beth
* A Hat Full of Sky - Pratchett, Terry
* His Dark Materials sequence - Pullman, Philip
* How I Live Now - Rosoff, Meg
* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Rowling, J K
* Holes - Sachar, Louis
The Foreshadowing - Sedgwick, Marcus
Marianne Dreams - Storr, Catherine
When the Siren Wailed - Streatfield, Noel
* The Bartimaeus Trilogy - Stroud, Jonathan
* The Hobbit - Tolkien, J R R
* Charlotte's Web - White, E B
23/50. Not so good. But, because Michele made the list, I like every one I've read.
You chose "Goblet of Fire" over "Prisoner of Azkaban"? Tsk... ;-D
Your list is vastly more erudite than mine - of course ! Mind you, I could have listed at least another 5 - and I didn't even get started on the "classics", Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen et al ! Hmm - perhaps I'll do a reprise at the weekend ?
I know, I really do prefer Goblet of Fire. I understand that, structurally, Azkaban is a better book. But there's something about "Goblet of Fire" I love.
This list is always subject to reprise. 10 books is hard! I was actually surprised at how quickly I came to this list, though.
I know - I raced through the ten (actually hit 11 before I went back and counted !)
I'll forgive your choice of "Goblet" - since we're friends... :wink:
Thanks a million, Michele ;)
Okay, things to do before 2 p.m.:
--call all the publishers on your list;
--read the draft of the results post to make sure you like it;
--call me when you're done and noodge me to move the posting time up;
--write a post for Thursday;
--translate the list into Russian;
--refill your coffee 47 times.
Hi Anne:
Sounds like I'll need that coffee :)
I'm so excited!!
Just saw you are listening to Outlander. I have the book. It will be a summer read.
Oooh, you included Pale Fire! I love that book, but it's one of those that people seem to either love or hate. No middle-of-the-roaders there.
I agree about Goblet of Fire. I was shocked to find out how many people liked Prizoner of Azkaban the most -- at the time I read it, I liked it the least. I've gotten more fond of it since, but there's still something about it that hangs me up.
That's intriguing Nancy, that you disliked "Prisoner" so much...
Coffee, Kelly? :grins:
Boy, I'm going to need that coffee, Michele! I'm thinking I'll start drinking it now at midnight in preparation for tomorrow.
And, I have to say, that I'm with Nancy. There's something about Azkaban that I never fully related to. It may be that father-son thing. Again, structurally, I found it her best novel. But...I found Goblet of Fire her warmest novel.
Oh, and Nancy, re: Pale Fire. My thoughts on this one is that you have to be the type of person that finds some literary criticism to be total bs.
That's the beauty and hilarity of Pale Fire. The criticism takes over and becomes something completely unrelated to the original work of art.
Well I hope you survived the coffee intake - congrats on publishing the CYBILS winners early - now I can go to bed !
Kelly, I think you've hit it dead-on with Pale Fire. I was a Lit/English major in college and grad school, surrounded by people far more intellectual than myself, and I absolutely found a lot of literary criticism to be total bs. And knowing the professor who first asked me to read Pale Fire, I'm betting he felt the same.
I think my favorite moment in Pale Fire is when the critic goes on and on for several pages of discussion on one line of the poem, and then, when you go back to the poem, there's another note on the next word (which is "and" or "then" or something equally non-noteworthy) just to allow the critic to keep going in his monologue. It probably happened more than once, but I remember that first time I saw it, and how completely I surrendered to the insanity at that moment.