Jul. 4, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Earthling

Oh, that's a good idea...do you mind if I steal it and put which ones I've read on my blog? I love looking at "top" lists of books/movies and figuring out which ones I've read/seen...

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Jul. 4, 2008 - Ha! I beat the Punmaster! :)

Posted by Miss Laura

I've read 17. I intend to read 13 or 14 more. However, not all of those books are nice. Let's see... I know for an absolute fact that 6 of those are complete garbage. For example: "The Handmaid's Tale" is a bunch of historically inaccurate drivel that is loaded with feministic and humanistic tripe. "The Da Vinci Code" is blasphemous. "The Harry Potter Series". Oh, come on people. If you think those books are worth reading, you need some serious help. Evelyn Waugh...there are not words enough to describe how OFF THE WALL she is. On a lighter note, I realized that I underlined all but three of the books I had read. I don't like Charles Dicken's style. I read poetry by Edgar Allen Poe, but I draw the line at morbid stories. I don't know why they left Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey off the list. They listed Jane Austen's other books. I LOVE Jane Austen. She had the most amazing sense of humor, and her style is so delicious. I just love those books! :)

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Jul. 4, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Lyric

Yeah, you do beat the Punmaster... Funny, I've been advised to read The Handmaid's Tale by a zillion people. Of course, your review nullifies those, because I actually know you and your reviews are always spot-on. :-D Eh, Jane Austin put me to sleep by the second chapter of P&P. I think there's still a bookmark in it... wherever it is... It didn't have a category for the "books you've read that you now hate with a passion", but if there were, these would be underlined three or four times: Jane Eyre, Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Anne of Green Gables, and The Secret Garden. And I've finally figured out why I hate Narnia so much! So now I can hate it and not feel guilty. :-D

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Jul. 4, 2008 - Ha! I beat you both!

Posted by SuzyScribbles

Here are the ones I have read, with * by the ones I like in varying amounts of "like"--5 being the best ever!: LOTR ***** To Kill a Mockingbird *** Harry Potter #1 (just to see what all the hoop-la-rah was about. Poor writing; boring) BIBLE ***** Wuthering Heights--boring (Great Expectatations) (Grapes of Wrath) (Animal Farm) all required at school. All worthy of being burned Little Women--boring The Hobbit **** Gone with the Wind ***** Alice in Wonderland * The Chronicles of Narnia ***** Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe **** Anne of Green Gables *** Lord of the Flies - "previewing" Ryan's Literature for Choice, no star given Dune **** The Secret Garden * (Little Princess is better) A Christmas Carol * Charlotte's Web ** Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ** So...there you have it. Who thinks up these lists, anyway, and who says we have to follow them or be "illiterate"? HA! How about a list of "life-changing" books? Books that make you see things from a new perspective?

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Jul. 5, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Miss Katie

I haven't read as many as you or Miss Laura, but I can proudly say I have read more than the "adult average". However I must say the Bible is the only one I would re-read. I simply don't have time for pleasure reading. I have heard many a mother say she rarely finds time to sit down with a book, and I wonder what my life as a mother will be like if I can't even find time now! As a young child I was a bookworm; I would spend hours upon hours engrossed in a book. But not anymore. I do read a lot, however not "pleasure books". I do a lot of online research which entails reading, but that hardly holds a candle to a true book. My recent book-reading list consists of "Metabolic Typing Diet", "Seven-Day Detox Miracle", "Candida", etc. I can't remember the last time I read a book purely for pleasure's sake. When I do, I prefer to choose something deep and edifying, like a theological book. A title that recently caught my eye was "Pagan Christianity". I am going to try to get ahold of that book this summer and read it. Another one I'm dying to read is about raw milk: "The Untold Story of Milk: a story of green pastures and contented cows." So as you can see, I'm not your typical reader. Nor will I ever be! :-) I'm also thoroughly enjoying the book of Nehemiah at the moment!

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Jul. 6, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by starling

I did that on my blog. (I copied/pasted it from your blog. :D Hope you don't mind.) I've read fourteen of the books on that list. In Christ, Emily

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Jul. 7, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Earthling

Okay, I'll snag it next time I blog. Thanks!

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Jul. 7, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by bethanyrae

What a list. Sadly (?) I've read about 35 of them. Not surprisingly, many I've read but they apparently made so little impression on me I can't remember what they were about. Others I remember well from many years ago. Was it Solomon who said something to the effect: Of the reading of books there is no end? Or something like that. ha. bethanyrae

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Jul. 8, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Jocelyndixon

Wow, I beat you? Ok, not beat you... read more than you. That's amazing, of course you've probably read a lot more that aren't on that list. :P

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Jul. 8, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Backyard

Hey there! We wanted to invite you to stop by the Backyard! We have a new post up and a new column we'd like to hear your opinion on! Also consider putting the HSB Backyard icon on your sidebar! Thanks! The Backyard

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Jul. 10, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by grelb32

I didn't want to read very many of the others, either. They didn't sound that good. The only one of the ones you haven't read that you should is Les Miserables. It's really really long (like, 1200 pages), but it's really good, too. It only took me a month or so to finish. ~Nick

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Jul. 11, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Backyard

Hey there! We've post a new article on the Backyard.. about the Team! Hope to see you at the Backyard again soon! Backyard Management

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Oct. 11, 2008 - Books

Posted by Anonymous

Read for fun; 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - Classic, and I personally like it. But I can see how to some fantasy fans his well... overtly descriptive writing style can be off putting. His character ideas have also been copied so often some of them feel very bland by now, even if he was the first writer to popularize such characters. Some of my friends are Tolkienian purists and consider any criticism blasphemy, but I'm a more casual reader. 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - May again be blasphemy, but in some ways its actually more charmy then LotR, if less epic. 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - Enjoyable. I wonder if they will become classics. I guess time will tell if they'll hold up. But if not I liked the phenomenon whilst it lasted. 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - Nature, trying to make up for the Vogons, brought forth beautiful antilope like creatures, but the Vogons sat on them. They where no use as mounts, for their backs would snap instantly, but the Vogons would sit on them anyway. 52 Dune - Frank Herbert - Why is this pedantic puffed up pile of crap so popular? 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl Read for school (note, I live in the Netherlands) 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell - At the time I had to read it I didn't enjoy it, but now I'm glad I read it. It really is good, but I guess you need a certain maturity/experience to really appreciate it. 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell - Like this one, I wonder what sort of mincemeat Orwell might have made out of Dumbya and his cronies had he been around to do so. Come to think of it. I bet he would have written a book on it too. 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens Intend to or at least might read; 9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - The movie was sufficiently interesting. 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller - Really should probably. 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald - Actually I think I started in it once when I was alot younger, its been recommended to me, so I should give it another read some day. 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel Read partially; 14 Works of Shakespeare 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Seen the movie; 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - I'm pretty sure they where dropping acid at Disney. 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (I seem to remember a childhood cartoon about this at least... Unless I am really seriously confused.) 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis - And I sure won't bother with the books or any further movies... And I rather like big cats, so thats an accomplishment. :/ 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - Might read it too. 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker Familiar with it; 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett ead to better combat the sick and evil forces of religious fundamentalists; 6 The Bible - I recommend the skeptics annotated one. It kind of saddens me people really believe in this stuff. I also read the Quran and other religious tests. Mostly the same thing... Mankind would probably be better of without religion entirely. Either way, painfully obvious piece of mythology, no more believable then any mythology and actually less interesting, with possibly the least likeable god of all mythology. A jealous, vengeful, bloodthirsty, tyrannical deity indeed. If I wanted to worship a god, this'd be the last one I'd pick.

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