B is for…

Books!

(Yeah, ok, so I did D yesterday. Yes, I know that B doesn’t follow D. But since I started the ABC-Along with C, I’m playing catch-up. Onward!)

I’ve been a reader since I was 5 or 6 years old. We didn’t get to watch a lot of tv, but we were always encouraged to read. In fact, back in my days of internet dating, one of my major requirements was for being a reader over being a tv watcher. The bookshelf above is only one of several in my tiny condo. Plus all the books stored in boxes under the bed. Plus the big stack of library books…

So Amy had perfect timing with this book meme yesterday.

Meme instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won’t, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones you’ve never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby – F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story – George Orwell
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
The Hobbit – J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
1984 – George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
(The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini)
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons – Dan Brown
Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer – William Gibson
Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson
(The Secret History – Donna Tartt)
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C. S. Lewis
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
(Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell)
The Lord of the Rings – J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens – Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement – Ian McEwan
(The Shadow Of The Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
Dune – Frank Herbert


B is also for Bad Black Cat. Saturday my friend Jan drove up from St. Peter. We went out for Thai at Ruam Mit Thai in downtown St. Paul and then saw a great show by Christine Lavin and Claudia Schmidt at the Fitzgerald Theater. (We did have our knitting backstage passes, but Christine was too frazzled from bad travel experiences to knit.) Jan slept on my futon couch and headed home bright and early Sunday morning.However, I had not cleared this visit with the Cat Chaotic and he was peeved.

“I don’t know where you get off having your friends over without asking me first.”

So peeved, in fact, that he is trying to eat the couch to punish me. My couch is not usually covered in Army camo – just when it needs to be protected from sharp pointy cat teeth. Please send wine (for me, not him – he’s too young to drink).

31 thoughts on “B is for…”

  1. Ah, books. One of two things my parents brought me up to love with a slavish devotion (art is the other thing). Books vs. TV? No contest. Divorcing the television is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

  2. OMG! I had no idea about Christine Lavin and knitting. I might have to go to a show, since she is playing near me twice in March. And I think I might have to bring my folk-loving, knitting, office mate!!!
    PS — If you like folk, do you know Catie Curtis? If not, check her out. She’s gonna be in Mpls in early March — http://www.catiecurtis.com.

  3. Oooh – I highly recommend “The Secret History” and would be happy to lend it to you. Since it seems we have many other likes and dislikes in common, I think you might enjoy it.

    Chaos, honey…give your momma some peace. She loves you but you’re driving her quite knitty lately.

  4. Bookshelves! It is so nice when people actually have books on them (and I know you know what I mean ;o) I enjoyed the meme. I had to go in and take a good hard look at all of our books to figure out why there weren’t a lot of those ones in there… For one thing, not a lot of textbooks or

  5. Fun to see some of the things you’ve read! I think it would be interesting to see indications of what we thought was bad, what we thought was dull, what we thought was offensive, what we thought was fun, what we thought was wonderful, what we found inspiring and/or thought provoking.

    I can get a little of that, I think, from your ‘what I won’t read’ list, but for mine there is little to indicate such things, since I am willing to read almost anything (L. Ron Hubbard would have been crossed out, but that’s about it) if I’m bored enough, have the time, or a friend recommends it.

    Chaos looks extremely truculant… if he was a female cat I’d warn you to look for a ‘present’ on your pillow or in your shoe. As it is – well, good luck with the couch! 😀

  6. I also am picky about dating readers (even though ends up my husband isn’t a big reader) and went on ONE date with this guy (I was working at Barnes and Noble at the time) and he said “the only book I read is Muscle Mag.” I was horified, not only is it not a book but it is a magazine on lifting weights. Obviously this was it for him!!

    I love this meme!

  7. I am curious as to why you crossed out Life of Pi – it was really good! and the one you have never heard of, The Shadow of the Wind – it was the best book I read in 2004. Loved it.

  8. I started the ABC Along late too and will probably copy you on the B is for Books. I love books and book shelves although I don’t read nearly as much as I used to before I took up knitting.
    Chaos really does not look happy in that picture!

  9. I love christine lavin! Now I have to go see when she’s gonna be near me again…

    Do you like Patty Larkin? another of my faves…. 🙂

    And books….bookstores, libraries…they are where I truly relax, tho I made a rule about buying books recently…must buy used, unless of course, it’s a knitting book…then there are no rules..

  10. Did ya have to have a pic of your bookshelf??? That darned bunny Thunder is still doing his jump into the bookshelf act and sit/eat/chew up all the books……whats worse is that it has glass shelves so has no sides – so he jumps out before I can catch the devil!

    Maybe not as bad though as eating the sofa. Naughty Chaos 😉

  11. Books! A book meme! Awesome. To this day, whenever I go into someone’s house, I check out their bookshelf. I was doing that when Sue was condoshopping in Portland in Jan, even though the realtor did tell me the books wouldn’t come with the place. Too bad. She had pretty good taste. (Read:mine).

    Okay, how do you cross out and underline?

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