Two book memes

[calime]

Gacked from cthonus
1) Look at the list, copy and paste it into your own journal;
2) Mark those you have read however you want. - I bolded the ones I've read, and underlined the ones I liked and added * to mark those I've only read in Estonian translation, # to mark ones I've read both in original and in Estonian, unmarked - read in the original language. The ones left unbolded-and-un-underlined are obviously ones I haven't read *g*.
3) Feel free to tell your friends what you thought of them.


1 The Lord of the Rings, J R R Tolkien# -One of the books I repeatedly come back to, a comfort read, I guess- but in original. The Estonian translation is crappy, and I cannot get over the fact that they've translated the names - against the fucking explicit author wishes, btw - and. just. argh.
2 The Hobbit, J R R Tolkien# - and in this case, the translation is good - I suspect the reason being that it was a team effort and one of the translators reportedly died halfway through LOTR. I suppose the one who 'got' Tolkien's author voice.
3 The Silmarillion, J R R Tolkien - I might've liked it even more than the LOTR in some ways, that is, for the sheer richness of the tapestry and the unrealised potential there. Style-wise, it's not (naturally) as flowing as the LOTR, seeing as it's put together from unpublished materials, which is sad for me, as Tolkien is one of the authors whose work I enjoy not only for the worldbuilding and ideas and plot and characters, but for the sheer deliciousness of the writing. *shrug' It just tastes good for me *grin*.
4 Foundation series, Isaac Asimov# (first book in Estonian, another in English) - I haven't read all of these, only the first couple of books. My mother gave the first one to me to read when I was maybe 10-ish or so (in Estonian translation, of course). I've had a soft spot for Asimov ever since, and now, looking back, timeline-wise I guess he had to be one of the first sci-fi authors I read and hence responsible for my falling in love with the genre. Bradbury and Simak and others came (a little bit) later.
5 Robot series, Isaac Asimov - again, haven't read all, and did not love it as much as the Foundation ones.
6 Dune, Frank Herbert *- I loved it well enough to re-read for several times, and to think I should get the original some day. Read one of the follow-up ones by his son(?) in English, and decided those weren't worth getting, though.
7 Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
8 Earthsea series, Ursula le Guin #- enjoyed a lot, though my absolute LeGuin favourite has to be the Left Hand of Darkness (first read again back when I was 10 or so and returned to repeatedly over the years).
9 Neuromancer, William Gibson - I keep thinking I should re-read that one. I read it back when the USSR was breaking apart and the internet was slowly creeping in, from a bunch of printouts someone had obtained in illegal ways *grin* (well, a lot of books were banned and/or unobtainable back then). I remember loving it then, even if it took me some effort to read - my English wasn't really up to the effortless literature gobbling back then yet. I think I was 12?
10 Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury# - another one my mom gave to me as soon as it came out in Estonian (and iirc, it must've been at the time when the USSR had just crumbled, that first heady time when cheap, (more often than not) badly-translated paperbacks flooded in to fill the void). I probably like Bradbury's other stuff better (Martian chronicles, or Dandelion wine), but, well. Considering the subject matter, the book... resonates. Duh.
11 The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham* - Something I loved a lot when it came out here. Maybe if I'd reread it now, I might love it less, I am not sure - but the premise was fascinating to me, and the overall flavour of the blended nostalgia and dogged hope appealed to me.
12 A Book of the New Sun series, Gene Wolfe
13 Discworld series, Terry Pratchett# - I think I've read them all, most in the original language. Loved most, some better, some less (Rincewind, the Witches and Death are my beloved characters *g*. And the Luggage).
14 Sandman series, Neil Gaiman- I've only read one graphic novel, but that made me really really want more. So, they're on my wishlist.
15 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams #- Mostly, very enjoyable. Something I keep going back to now and then, when I need a distraction with a hefty helping of sarcasm. And I carry a towel with me on the Towel Day, too *g*.
16 Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McAffrey# - Read some, some in translation, some in original. On the one hand, it's the kind of fantasy I like, and it has dragons. OTOH, the older I grow the less I can ignore the fact that they're for a large part het harlequin romances, and there is a reason why het harlequin romances aren't even my guilty pleasure now. The good ... for Pern used to outweigh the bad, but I'm not sure it would any more, if I'd re-read. Should I stumble upon a copy of a Pern book I haven't read in a second-hand bookstore, yes, I'd buy, to skim, but I doubt I'd go hunting for them.
17 Interview with the Vampire series, Anne Rice The love kind of fizzled out as the series declined at the end. But I'd say I still love the Interview, the tale of the Body Thief and maybe, to a lesser degree, the Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned. I suspect part of the love is derived from the fact that those were among the first vampire books with deeply homoerotic overtones I could get my hands on, and the fact that hiding in them helped me through a totally horrible drawn-out family-related shit (and what I now, looking back, think was pretty close to a nervous breakdown), but unrelated to that, I still maintain that the Savage Garden concept deserves to be loved, too.
18 The Shining, Stephen King
19 The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula le Guin -I loved this deeply when I first read it, and I still do.
20 The Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny -simpy very enjoyable.
21 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C Clarke'
22 Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C Clarke* - read back when, did not leave much of an impression. I keep wondering if it might have been the fault of the translation (it felt like chewing cardboard, mentally), but I haven't felt motivated enough to seek out the original.
23 Ringworld, Larry Niven
24 Elric of Melnibone series, Michael Moorcock* - I read it as a serial from a local sci-fi&fantasy magazine. I'd put it together with Conan the Barbarian stories - I think I should feel guilty for liking them, but I still do. Especially when I manage to forget (it was easier to forget when I was younger) that a)women as people actually exist and b)that I'm sort of female. Guilty pleasure, I'd have to say.
25 The Dying Earth series, Jack Vance
26 Lyonesse series, Jack Vance
27 The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson
29 The Worm Ourobouros, E R Eddison.
30 Conan series, Robert E Howard# - I liked them back when, at the time when I was able to read through interminable Tarzan stories and not get an acute case of irritation and boredom. I doubt I could re-read now and still keep my faintly nostalgic fond memories, so, um, I won't. But I will return to Chtulhu stories(which I discovered from the same source). I will not be kept from that. Also, see under no. 24 - guilty pleasure. (I can admit I even, um, liked the Conan movies with Schwarzenegger. I'm not sure whether it helps my case or not, but I did not want to be ravished by Conan. I wanted to be a guy and have adventures with him. And not get killed. Well, looking back I suspect the ravishing would've been Ok as a part of the package, provided I could still be male. My slasher tendencies hark back to my early childhood, not that I'd known to define them as thus, then. )
31 Lankhmar series, Fritz Leibe.
32 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
33 The Time Machine, H G Wells# - classic. Enjoyable. I suspect I prefered the Invisible Man at the time, though.
34 The Invisible Man, H G Wells - see previous. .
35 The War of the Worlds, H G Wells #- see previous.
36 Eon, Greg Bear
37 Book of the First Law series, Joe Abercrombie.
38 Miss Marple stories, Agatha Christie# - I've loved everything Christie from since early age. I should re-read again. (And as a side note, I have my mother to thank for introducing me to Agatha Christie, though I still remember the horror on her face when I longingly said that the relationship between Jane Marple and Cherry Baker seems like a marriage I would love to have. )
39 Hercule Poirot stories, Agatha Christie#
40 Lord Peter Wimsey stories, Dorothy L Sayers#
41 The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
42 The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
43 Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -classic. Fond memories. Also, I suspect the fabulous Russian TV adaptation has something to do with the enduring love I have for Sherlock Holmes.
44 Cthulhu Mythos, HP Lovecraft * -Loved back when they came out as installments in a little crappy magazine just after the independence. For the nostalgia only I should get back to those. They were so deliciously over the top.
45 Inspector Wexford stories, Ruth Rendell
46 Adam Dalgliesh stories, P D James
47 Philip Marlowe stories, Raymond Chandler*- I've read a few, liked them Ok, but not so much as to collect.
48 The Godfather, Mario Puzo.#
49 The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth*
50 The Fourth Protocol, Frederick Forsyth
51 Smiley series, John Le Carre
52 Gentleman Bastard series, Scott Lynch.
53 The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erikson.
54 Watchmen series, Alan Moore
55 Maus, Art Spiegelman.
56 Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Alan Miller.
57 Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi - I saw the reviews, and the animated film, and I want to get the graphic novel, too. IMO, it's realy good.
58 Harry Potter series, J K Rowling - I liked the first two. Rest I just read to keep up. Still haven't finished the last one, though I skimmed it.
59 Chrestomanci series, Diana Wynne Jones.
60 Ryhope Wood series, Robert Holdstock
61 Wilt series, Tom Sharpe
62 Riftwar Cycle, Raymond E Feist.
63 Temeraire series, Naomi Novik.- I've started on the first, and so far I like, so I'm tentatively extending credit to the whole series. Yay for ebooks, btw *g*.
64 Chronicles of Narnia, C S Lewis - Only read the first - I just cannot get into it. Too heavy on the Christian allegory, and I admit I prefer Tolkien among the Inklings.
65 His Dark Materials series, Phillip Pullman
66 Dragonlance series, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
67 Twilight saga, Stephanie Meyer
68 The Night's Dawn trilogy, Peter F Hamilton
69 Artemis Fowl series, Eoin Colfer
70 Honor Harrington series, David Weber.
71 Hannibal Lecter series, Thomas Harris.* - only read the first one, liked it.
72 The Dark Tower series, Stephen King
73 It, Stephen King
74 The Rats series, James Herbert
75 Dirk Gently series, Douglas Adams - Read one of the books and liked.
76 Jeeves and Wooster stories, P G Wodehouse.
77 The da Vinci Code, Dan Brown - have it on bookshelf, not read yet.
78 The Culture Series, Iain M Banks
79 The Duncton series, William Horwood
80 The Illuminatus! trilogy, Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson.
81 The Aberystwyth series, Malcom Pryce
82 Morse stories, Colin Dexter
83 Navajo Tribal Police stories, Tony Hillerman
84 The Ipcress File, Len Deighton.
85 Enigma, Robert Harris.
86 Fatherland, Robert Harris.
87 The Constant Gardener, John Le Carre
88 The House of Cards trilogy, Michael Dobbs.
89 The Dark is Rising saga, Susan Cooper
90 Psychotechnic League and Polesotechnic League series, Poul Anderson.
91 Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton - I liked Andromeda better.
92 Star Wars: Thrawn trilogy, Timothy Zahn- I think I've read two of the hree and rather enjoyed. Thrawn was a moderately interesting villain.
93 Ender's Game series, Orson Scott Card*- I loved Ender's Game, haven't read the others. Not sure I want to buy them considering what I've heard about the author though.
94 Gormenghast series, Meryvn Peake
95 Miles Vorkosigan saga, Lois McMaster Bujold.
96 The Once and Future King, T H White
97 Fighting Fantasy books, Ian Livingston & Steve Jackson.
98 The Stainless Steel Rat series, Harry Harrison
99 The Lensman series, EE 'Doc' Smith
100 The Cadfael stories, Ellis Peters# - Deep and abiding love. I also love the Heaven Tree ones she wrote as Edith Pargeter.
Meme the 2nd, gacked from alejandradd
Apparently “The Big Read” assumes that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.(I've added * and # to mark the ones read in translation or both in translation and in original, like with the previous meme).
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people
who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

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
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 --- um, I've read a few plays.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier#
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien#
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger*
19 The Time Traveler'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 - Douglas Adams#
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh*
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice’s Adventures 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
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*
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - I think
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 - Alice Sebold
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
70Moby 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
- I've read Nana and Coal Diggers, though. Does that count? 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 - Enid Blyton
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* - and the sequels. Another book I keep coming back to.
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo*


ETA: I hereby solemnly swear I shall try to cultivate good habits of reading the draft for damn typos first. Bad Cali, no biscuit!