Book Challenge

At the beginning of last year I decided to read the Top 100 books as chosen by the BBC in 2000. There are actually two versions of this list as it was updated in 2010. I am going to list the books on here, mixing the two lists together so it will be over 100. I believe this is a very proper endeavor for us all to partake in. I look forward to hearing opinions about the books.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien (3 books)
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter series, JK Rowling (7 books)
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. Chronicles of Narnia series, CS Lewis (7 books)
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
23. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
24. Middlemarch, George Eliot
25. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
26. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
27. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
28. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
29. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
30. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
31. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
32. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
33. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
34. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
35. Persuasion, Jane Austen
36. Dune, Frank Herbert
37. Emma, Jane Austen
38. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
39. Watership Down, Richard Adams
40. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
41. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
42. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
43. Animal Farm, George Orwell
44. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
45. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
46. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
47. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
48. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
49. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
50. The Stand, Stephen King
51. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
52. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
53. The BFG, Roald Dahl
54. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
55. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
56. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
57. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
58. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
59. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
60. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
61. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
62. Mort, Terry Pratchett
63. The Magic Faraway Tree Collection, Enid Blyton (4 Children's books)
64. The Magus, John Fowles
65. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
66. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
67. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
68. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
69. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
70. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
71. Matilda, Roald Dahl
72. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
73. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
74. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
75. Ulysses, James Joyce
76. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
77. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
78. The Twits, Roald Dahl
79. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
80. Holes, Louis Sachar
81. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
82. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
83. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
84. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
85. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
86. Magician, Raymond E Feist
87. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
88. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
89. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
90. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
91. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
92. Katherine, Anya Seton
93. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
94. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
95. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
96. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
97. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
98. The Bible

99. Complete Works of Shakespeare (about 38 plays)
100. The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger


101. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain

102. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

103. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown

104. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood


105. Atonement, Ian McEwan

106. Life of Pi, Yann Martel

107. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen


108. The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon


109. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon

110. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

111. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
112. Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy

113. Moby Dick, Herman Melville

114. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

115. Dracula, Bram Stoker

116. Notes From A Small Island, Bill Bryson
117. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
118. The Inferno, Dante Alighieri
119. Germinal, Emile Zola

120. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray

121. Possession, AS Byatt

122. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchel

123. The Color Purple, Alice Walker

124. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro

125. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert

126. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry

127. Charlotte’s Web, EB White

128. The Five People You Meet In Heaven, Mitch Albom

129. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
130. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

131. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery

132. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks

133. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
134. The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas


135. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo


Choose a book today and delight in literature.
Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. ~P.J. O'Rourke

Jane Austen Made Me Do It

I recently read a book that was quite delightful, Jane Austen Made Me Do It: Original Stories Inspired by Literature's Most Astute Observer of the Human Heart. As most of us know, Jane Austen's stories are beloved by many still today. Several authors have tried to capture the brilliance of her work with their own versions or additional stories that add on to the books. (In fact I recommend, Mr. Darcy's Daughters, by Elizabeth Aston as one of the best ones I have read.) However, this book puts together a collection of short stories from several different Jane Austen writers. I will say that in my opinion a couple were boring and there were a few that I really loved. I have recently returned my copy to the Phoenix public library, who currently only has one copy available with others on order.

I hope that everyone had a Happy Christmas and remember to do as a true SPEBLite would do this New Year, celebrate and enjoy life. Keep reading!

Masterpiece Contemporary

"The stories we love best do live in us forever so whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home." J.K. Rowling

Being a huge Harry Potter fan, I am ecstatic about two new movies that will be on PBS Masterpiece Contemporary. Both have several Harry Potter actors in them, which should help ease the pain of not having new movies to look forward to.
The first is...
PAGE EIGHT.
The Synopsis is as follows. What happens when spies grow older in a post-9/11 world? Sixty-something MI-5 agent Johnny Worricker has amassed an impressive art collection, an amicable collection of ex-wives, and a droll, unflappable relationship with the work he enjoys alongside his boss and best friend, MI5 chief Benedict Baron. But when Benedict brings to light damning evidence of British complicity with illegal American torture operations, it falls to Johnny to do the right thing. And the right thing, in this morally ambiguous new era, is unclear — as unclear as the motives of Johnny's neighbor, Nancy, who draws Johnny in with her sad beauty and a secret of her own.
The movie stars: Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour), Michael Gambon (Dumbledore) and Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort). If you are not a Harry Potter fan (um..you should be...no seriously you should), the movie also stars Rachel Weisz ( and Felicity Jones (Northanger Abbey). It will premiere November 6th at 9 p.m. on channel 8 (PBS) for those of you in Phoenix.

The second is...
THE SONG OF LUNCH.
The synopsis is as follows. When a middling copy editor/failed poet meets his former lover for lunch 15 years after their affair, he finds that everything — and nothing — has changed. From the tablecloths to the wine to his former lover, wealth and success now gloss the surface where kitsch and passion once held sway. He is bitter, petulant and increasingly inebriated; she is glamorous, generous, and eventually provoked. It is dramatization of Christopher Reid's acclaimed narrative poem, The Song of Lunch.
The movie stars: Emma Thompson (Professor Trelawney, aka Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility) and Alan Rickman (Snape, aka Col. Brandon in Sense and Sensibility). This will premiere November 13th at 9 p.m. on channel 8 (PBS) for those of you in Phoenix.

I have not seen either of these and cannot tell you if they are good. However with the cast for each of them it looks very promising. Also remember that these are Masterpiece Contemporary shows so do not expect men in breeches.


None of these =====>>>>

:(

Holidays are coming

Holidays (the non-vacation type) are a time for family, fun and Christmas music. Family can come for these events and some might overstay their welcome. If you find that you might need to get rid of some unwanted guests, here are some helpful hints.

"Lydia was occasionally a visitor there, when her husband was gone to enjoy himself in London or Bath; and with the Bingleys they both of them frequently staid so long, that even Bingley's good humour was overcome, and be procceeded so far as to talk of giving them a hint to be gone." Pride and Prejudice

It has been said that fish and guest stink after three days. You might be more generous than that with company that you really enjoy. However, if it is that is not the case, and you are uncomfortable with them staying longer than three days, here are some helpful tips to nudge them out the door.

*Give them a hint. Sometimes this is enough, but most of the time it will just be ignored. If so, you must be prepared to escalate hostilities.

*Stop the party. Do not provide any enjoyable activities. No balls, no shooting, no amateur theatricals. They will go elsewhere in search of a good time.

*Go away yourself. Come up with an engagement of your own that takes you away from home. They can hardly expect to stay if you are not there.

*Frighten them away. Tell them that there is a putrid fever in the house. this is especially effective if the guests have children with them.

*Use a middleman. Why should you do the dirty work? Get someone else to inform the guest that they must leave in the morning. Put their bags in the trunk and be done with it.

If you are able to rid your household of unwanted guests, you will leave your guest bedroom open for the welcome guests like...

How to Indicate Interest in a Gentleman without seeming forward

Well single ladies of SPEBL, you should have by now scouted out an appropriate gentleman to marry, using the tips from the previous post. If you have still not read that post, please proceed to that one now and give yourself a week to choose a gentleman. For those of you who have chosen a suitable gentleman, we will now proceed in how to show him you are interested.

Miss Bingley: "I am afraid you do not like your pen. Let me mend it for you. I mend pens remarkably well."
Mr. Darcy: "Thank you- but I always mend my own."
-Pride and Prejudice

Communication amongst unmarried persons of the opposite sex can be difficult to decipher in most cases. Though it might seem easy to just tell a gentleman of your feelings, i.e. you think he is attractive or charming, many believe that it is the duty of the gentleman to begin the courtship. A woman may assist the gentleman in nine out of ten cases by showing more affection than she feels, because a man might not realize she is interested in him otherwise. Beware though, a woman does not want to risk her reputation by being too forward with her affections. These are some gentle ways to help the man you are pursuing realize you are interested.

1. Flatter his vanity. A rather easy task as most men will be flattered if you just feign interest in what they are saying. In some cases though you will have to hang out his every word, and express admiration for everything he does. Ladies, you might also need to agree with what he has said, though you do not agree with him. A hard feat for some women.



2. Talk about him to his relatives and friends. Women do not always have contact with a gentleman's relatives, but if you do, take advantage of the situation and praise him. They might take the hint of your adoration for him and tell him. This is also true of friends, especially if they like to tease one another.

3. Offer to perform little services for him. Loaning a book might lead to your books being settled on his bookcase.

4. Ask him if he would like to go "stargazing". Everyone knows what this means. (If he doesn't, rethink your decision to pursue him.)



5. Keep your cool. Even if he has sat by the same girl the last three weeks during church, do not let him know that you care. Tease him about her and see if you might wish him joy in the near future.



6. Mirror his actions. If he is reading a book, pick up another volume. If he is going to play a game, see if you may be on his team. If he is hanging back from the crowd, set yourself away as well.

7. Find him irresistible. You will become so yourself and once you are, he will pursue you.

Try these out and see how the chosen gentleman will rush to your side.

How to Choose a Prospective Husband!!

Since some members of The Society for the Promotion of Elegant British Literature are still single at this time (also since no one seems interested in the previous two Jane Austen Handbook posts), I decided it might be a good time to discuss this very important decision.

"Tell Mary that I make over Mr. Heartley & all of his Estate to her for her sole use and Benefit in the future, & not only him but all my other Admirers into the bargain wherever she can find them, even the kiss which C. Powlett wanted to give me, as I mean to confine myself in future to Mr. Tom Lefroy, for whom I do not care sixpence." Jane Austen

(Now we know the real reason that Jane would want to confine herself to Mr. Tom Lefroy, he has a striking resemblance to James McAvoy, and I do not know many women who would turn him down.)



Choosing a husband should be done so with the utmost consideration because once you are married you are in fact stuck with him. (This is especially true when you marry a rich man with a fancy estate, he will of course control the fortune. And let's face it, no girl sets her sights on a poor man.) The following questions should be asked honestly in an attempt to go into the match with eyes wide open.

Does he have a good income?
A little economy is good, but not at the expense of the elegant things in life.

Does he have good principles?
Bad boys are fun for little flirtations, as a lady must keep in practice, but do not marry someone whom you will need to change. This will not happen. Find a good man and treasure him.

Is he handsome?
He should be or at least close to handsome. (Remember that the large fortune and estates of these men can in fact increase their handsomeness.)



Is he a sensible man?
Do not marry a silly or stupid man. Then your neighbors will be making sport of you not the other way around. If he turns out to be silly, hopefully he is easily controlled, so you can almost always avoid his company.

Does he have a sense of humour?
Being laughed at is part of life. You will need to help him learn. A man with no sense of humour will be complemented by a woman who is lively, this will be a point of interest to him. And hopefully she will be able to make him be less boring.

Does he love you?
Reasons for not marrying a man include, he is in want of your fortune or position, he feels an obligation toward you or because of an infatuation that will pass. If you marry for these reasons the marriage will be intolerable.

Do you love him?
The most important question of all. Things will only make you happy for a little while, you will be happiest if you love him. If he is a good man, and has made you love him then your chance for a happy marriage is very good indeed.

How to Buy Clothing

"I shall want two colored gowns for the summer, for my pink one will not do more than clear me from Steventon. I shall not trouble you, however, to get more than one of them, and that is to be a plain brown cambric muslin, for morning wear; the other, which is to be a very pretty yellow and white cloud, I mean to buy in Bath."
Jane Austen January 25, 1801

Buying new clothing is a process and can depend on one's income when it come to choosing one's clothes for each season. Fashions change constantly and one would not want to look out of fashion when out in society. When preparing there are a few things that must be considered.
First it is important to take inventory of what one already has. This will help determine what must be added to make it through the season.
Second, do research. Look at stylish publications to see what is being worn. Anyone who has recently been to London, will have a better idea of what is in fashion. Having the wrong cut of sleeve or bodice could be your downfall, as you might be considered too country. Also identify a fashionable way to trim your bonnet, as this would also be a social blunder.
Third, one can acquire patterns. If a friend of yours has a wonderful dress, you may always ask to make a patter of it. Cut out pieces of fabric and baste them together, to use in the future on your own gowns.



Fourth, purchase fabric. You should always purchase 7 to 10 yards of the fabric. The more delightful the fabric the more you will want, as it can be used to make accessories for your gown, like handkerchiefs and caps or to update other gowns. Make sure you choose a trimming that will enhance the gown. Only allow others to choose fabric for you if you trust their opinion, otherwise you might end up in something terribly out of fashion.
Fifth, consult a professional. Take all patterns or ideas to a professional along with your fabric, she will be able to create a dress just for you in no time.
Sixth, renew and recycle. When consulting your wardrobe, always identify what gowns can be worn again. They might need a new trimming or a new colour but they can be updated.


Seventh, accessorize. In some cases all that needs to be done is to reline or purchase a new pelisse. Accessories will brighten a wardrobe and may hide any wear of older gowns.