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!

SPEBL "Must Read" Listing

Dear SPEBL members,

As we are currently (or at least I am) in a "Jane Eyre" obsession, I happened upon this book: "Jane Slayre". Okay, I know what you are thinking, and I don't blame you. I also read "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Grahame-Smith . . . not impressed--at all. And, just to be sure I followed it up with "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters" by Winters . . . again disappointing and pointless.

However, "Jane Slayre" is truly quite good. I think Browning Erwin does a great job of keeping the book's integrity, which is one of the things I didn't like about the other books--they changed too much of the plot and the development of the characters was totally lost. But . . . not only does "Jane Slayre" remain true to Jane's temperament, I think this book displays Jane's moral fiber quite accurately and convincingly. It's like Erwin added this whole new level to the Jane we already know--so you get a different look at the same person! Plus I think the roles and descriptions of the supporting cast helped to flesh out their temperments, while still remaining "spot on" with their original characters.

What I'm suggesting is that this book would be a perfect segue from "Jane Eyre" last month to "Twilight" next month since, of course, it involves vampires, zombies, werewolves and the like. If you read it, let me know what you think.

This was going to be just one of the many amazing things shared at the last SPEBL. But since I didn't know when we might meet again, I thought I better share it. My copy will be back in the Phoenix library on Monday...so put it on hold and read it.