The Elusive Offspring put this list on his LJ, with the comment that the average person has read only 6 of the "to 100" books printed. He says to highlight the ones you've read, and italicize the ones you plan to read. I'm going to try this...
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 (some of it)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 1984 - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (Golden Compass, etc.)
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 (all 36 plays, most sonnets)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot (can't remember!)
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 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh (Guess the miniseries doesn't count)
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice 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 - CS Lewis
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 Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins (My copy is on a shelf, not read yet)
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
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
70 Moby 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
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 (I read Just One More Day)
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
98 Hamlet - Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
I'm fascinated more by what I have NOT read than what I have read...for example, Ulysses and Jude the Obscure! What the--!
Right now, I am reading all of the Alexander Kent "Bolitho" series. Why? Heaven knows. Probably because they are easier to understand than the Patrick O'Neil series, of which I have managed to get through three. After I finish with the 27 Bolitho books (all checked out from the library), I have a pile of other books to read, including The Other Boleyn Girl and Daughter of Fortune...and did I mention that I REALLY, REALLY want a Kindle for Christmas?
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
The Eagle Has Landed (in a nest)
I don't know why this gives me such an unbelievable thrill, but this morning on my drive to work, I saw a huge bald eagle soaring overhead. I'm lucky I didn't wreck the car in my excitement. I love birds of prey, but especially bald eagles. It was so big! Then it flew into the top of a tree, onto a gigantic nest. Yes, there is a giant eagle's nest right there along the Potomac. The neat thing was seeing our national bird, and then across the river, seeing the great landmarks of DC. Naw. Forget the landmarks...it's all about the eagle. A truly is a beautiful creature. Damn!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
A Great Sense of Well Being
Usually, every year when we get our cost-of-living raise, I immediately put it in Thrift Savings. That way, I never had it, and I don’t miss it. This year, with my Thrift Savings depleted more than I could have imagined, I have decided not to put my COL into TSP. Instead, I am planning to spend it on something that makes me feel REALLY good. I hired someone to clean my house. Someone I have seen around for two decades. She has worked for four neighbors who have lived in this neighborhood longer than we have. She remembers when the elusive offspring (yes, him) was a baby.
She came yesterday and brought her sister with her. Her plan is a good one: This week, focus on a deep cleaning of the first floor, which suffers from 7 years of construction dust. Next week, clean the first floor and deep clean the second and third floors. It’s a good plan, but I’m not sure how it will work out. I have a project room that I call “the explosion.” It’s where I dump stuff I don’t want anyone to see (and it’s a terrible mess). I am working on cleaning it out, organizing everything. But it is by no means ready for a maid. The master bedroom WAS ready, but I’m in the process of going through my closets and drawers trying to get rid of stuff. Also, I’ve started to gather Christmas presents in that room. I think I may have her hold off on the Explosion room and the master bedroom.
But it is amazing how good I feel about the first floor right now. It took both of them four hours to clean the living room, the dining room, the family room, the kitchen, and the bathroom. This house is a hundred years old, but not large. It’s just the right size as far as I am concerned. At least it will be when I have finished clearing out all the rooms of 24 years of accumulation. The downstairs looks fantastic. S and her sister scrubbed the kitchen, including walls and ceilings and shelves so that it literally sparkles! Wow! And all the wooden surfaces shine. After they left, I sat down in the living room and looked at the floors. Not a speck of dust, or dog fur to be found. The antique light fixture in the living room is beautiful again!
When S and her sister left yesterday, I hugged them and said they had made me feel fantastic. After the mess made by the first round of remodeling, I had given up trying to keep it under control. Then it just got away from me. And then it was just too overwhelming to contemplate. S has systems. She tackled the job with true gusto! I did a few things downstairs to help (and to make sure they understood how I would like things done), and then I got out of their hair and went upstairs to sort. I could hear them downstairs, talking (mostly in Spanish, a very little of which I understood, but didn’t care), and every once in a while I could hear S laugh. She has the most delightful laugh I have ever heard. I am serious about that! Every time she laughed, I smiled.
Kira wandered around them, even while they vacuumed, unconcerned (although some time I will tell the story about her and the stick). They absolutely loved Kira. Everyone loves Kira.
Anyway, I have two feelings. When I am downstairs in my beautiful, clean, well arranged first floor, I am unbelievably serene. When I am upstairs amidst the mess I have made in my efforts to get this house under control, I am depressed. I want to get to where I have that sense of well-being everywhere in my house. It will happen.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It is probably my favorite holiday of the year. It's all about family, friends, fun and food. My sister says she even likes it better than her birthday. I agree. I like it better than her birthday, too. (hehehe)
OK, Happy Thanksgiving!
She came yesterday and brought her sister with her. Her plan is a good one: This week, focus on a deep cleaning of the first floor, which suffers from 7 years of construction dust. Next week, clean the first floor and deep clean the second and third floors. It’s a good plan, but I’m not sure how it will work out. I have a project room that I call “the explosion.” It’s where I dump stuff I don’t want anyone to see (and it’s a terrible mess). I am working on cleaning it out, organizing everything. But it is by no means ready for a maid. The master bedroom WAS ready, but I’m in the process of going through my closets and drawers trying to get rid of stuff. Also, I’ve started to gather Christmas presents in that room. I think I may have her hold off on the Explosion room and the master bedroom.
But it is amazing how good I feel about the first floor right now. It took both of them four hours to clean the living room, the dining room, the family room, the kitchen, and the bathroom. This house is a hundred years old, but not large. It’s just the right size as far as I am concerned. At least it will be when I have finished clearing out all the rooms of 24 years of accumulation. The downstairs looks fantastic. S and her sister scrubbed the kitchen, including walls and ceilings and shelves so that it literally sparkles! Wow! And all the wooden surfaces shine. After they left, I sat down in the living room and looked at the floors. Not a speck of dust, or dog fur to be found. The antique light fixture in the living room is beautiful again!
When S and her sister left yesterday, I hugged them and said they had made me feel fantastic. After the mess made by the first round of remodeling, I had given up trying to keep it under control. Then it just got away from me. And then it was just too overwhelming to contemplate. S has systems. She tackled the job with true gusto! I did a few things downstairs to help (and to make sure they understood how I would like things done), and then I got out of their hair and went upstairs to sort. I could hear them downstairs, talking (mostly in Spanish, a very little of which I understood, but didn’t care), and every once in a while I could hear S laugh. She has the most delightful laugh I have ever heard. I am serious about that! Every time she laughed, I smiled.
Kira wandered around them, even while they vacuumed, unconcerned (although some time I will tell the story about her and the stick). They absolutely loved Kira. Everyone loves Kira.
Anyway, I have two feelings. When I am downstairs in my beautiful, clean, well arranged first floor, I am unbelievably serene. When I am upstairs amidst the mess I have made in my efforts to get this house under control, I am depressed. I want to get to where I have that sense of well-being everywhere in my house. It will happen.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It is probably my favorite holiday of the year. It's all about family, friends, fun and food. My sister says she even likes it better than her birthday. I agree. I like it better than her birthday, too. (hehehe)
OK, Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
All I Want For Christmas
There is only one thing I want for Christmas and it’s very expensive. No, not world peace…I’ve wished for that every year and never gotten it, so I have no expectations of world peace for Christmas. No, it’s not diamonds. Or a big fancy house. Or a different job. I like my life. BUT…I want one thing for Christmas. And, as I mentioned, it’s expensive.
It’s a Kindle…you know, the electronic book reader by Amazon.com. It is $350! And I want it. I love the idea of being able to carry many books at once. I will still want my classic hard books (like all my Jane Austen books, and my poetry, and all the special first editions, etc.). I will certainly still want to hold an actual book in my hands (although the Kindle FEELS like a real book). But this would be for all those paperback books I read and then have to donate to Good Will or find a friend who would like to read them or leave them in the office kitchen for anyone who wants them, all because I don’t have room on my bookshelf. I save my bookshelf space for books I love. A Kindle will hold 150 books! And as it gets full, you can put the books on a ScanDisk or on your computer and then turn around and put more books on the Kindle. I can get every Anthony Trollope book, short story, poem ever published in one download for under $5! How great is that! Same for Mark Twain. I’d still have my hard copies, but I could carry them with me on the Kindle when I travel. I already have a list of books I want to get for it. I really, really want a Kindle. I don’t want anything else. Well, I want world peace, but you know how that goes. Just a little ol’ Kindle.
I told my husband that, if I didn’t get a Kindle for Christmas, it would be the saddest, most disappointing Christmas since I didn’t get that pony.
Do you think I was a little … um … unsubtle?
It’s a Kindle…you know, the electronic book reader by Amazon.com. It is $350! And I want it. I love the idea of being able to carry many books at once. I will still want my classic hard books (like all my Jane Austen books, and my poetry, and all the special first editions, etc.). I will certainly still want to hold an actual book in my hands (although the Kindle FEELS like a real book). But this would be for all those paperback books I read and then have to donate to Good Will or find a friend who would like to read them or leave them in the office kitchen for anyone who wants them, all because I don’t have room on my bookshelf. I save my bookshelf space for books I love. A Kindle will hold 150 books! And as it gets full, you can put the books on a ScanDisk or on your computer and then turn around and put more books on the Kindle. I can get every Anthony Trollope book, short story, poem ever published in one download for under $5! How great is that! Same for Mark Twain. I’d still have my hard copies, but I could carry them with me on the Kindle when I travel. I already have a list of books I want to get for it. I really, really want a Kindle. I don’t want anything else. Well, I want world peace, but you know how that goes. Just a little ol’ Kindle.
I told my husband that, if I didn’t get a Kindle for Christmas, it would be the saddest, most disappointing Christmas since I didn’t get that pony.
Do you think I was a little … um … unsubtle?
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Justice for All
The Texas State Bar did something very clever. Last year, they sponsored a YouTube contest and invited entries with the theme of justice for all. My favorite video is called “Like Justice for Chocolate” and it is amazing. You should watch this 3-minute video.
The last sentence says it all: “It’s easy to make the wrong choice when you don’t understand what you’re giving up.” Beautifully said.
The last sentence says it all: “It’s easy to make the wrong choice when you don’t understand what you’re giving up.” Beautifully said.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
A Day of Culture
What a day I had Saturday! Leaving my favorite husband at home to do guy things (of course, he likes culture, too, but this was a "Girl's Day Out"), I got to Janet's at 9:30 a.m. and we immediately went to the Strathmore Museum for the Miniatures Collectors' opening. I am astounded by the ability of some artists to create such tiny, intricate paintings. And, of course, once again, I indulged myself by purchasing a beautiful little watercolor...by the same artist whose painting I bought last year! I now have five miniature paintings, collected over the last 18 years. One man who was there when the place opened has collected 200 (yes, 200!) of these paintings over the last 15 years. Janet bought a watercolor of two gray cats sunning themselves. It wasn't one of those "cutesy" paintings you see of cats. It was a beautiful study of light and shadow, with fantastic technique. If she hadn't bought it, I would have. I may have to try my own hand at painting my cats.
Anyway, we left Strathmore by noon and had a light lunch at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant in Rockville, and then headed to the Kennedy Center to hear a young new pianist from Russia, Daria Rabotkina, who is currently pursuing a doctorate from Eastman School of Music. She was very impressive, playing some extremely powerful pieces by Miaskovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Tchaikovsky. The theme of the performance was the Dies Irae theme that appears in so many classical pieces (including the Liszt Totentanz and Mahler Symphony No. 2, among others). We had great seats overlooking the keyboard, nice and close. I am coming dangerously close to writing a critique, which I don't want to do, but suffice to say she was extremely powerful (oh, yes, I already said that). Of course, these kinds of pieces always impress.
We left the Kennedy Center and drove to a favorite needlework store near Mount Vernon (long drive, but fun). When we left the store, there had been a storm and the sky was gorgeous. Driving up George Washington Parkway (one of my very favorite drives), we saw the most stunningly perfect rainbow over the Potomac. It was a complete arc, and you could discern all of the colors, including purple. I really should keep a camera with me at all times. I don't know what our fascination with rainbows is, but it really got to me. I felt giddy as a child over it!
The drive to Baltimore took longer than usual, but we got there in plenty of time for our 6:30 reservation at our favorite Afghan restaurant, Helmand's. I promise not to write a review, but I do have to say the pumpkin dish was positively mouthwatering.
And then it was to the Lyric Opera House to see the Baltimore Opera Company's production of Bellini's "Norma." I love going to see an opera I have not seen before. It's great to listen to opera, but so much more fun to watch it performed. It's kind of like "collecting" performances, much like Janet's bird-watching ("birding" they call it) expeditions, where they collect bird sightings. It's more cerebral than tangible.
We got out around 11:30, it took us another 20 minutes just to get out of the garage, and then about 30 minutes to get to her house. I didn't get to bed until 1:30 a.m. It was a most excellent day. I feel very cultured. For now.
Anyway, we left Strathmore by noon and had a light lunch at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant in Rockville, and then headed to the Kennedy Center to hear a young new pianist from Russia, Daria Rabotkina, who is currently pursuing a doctorate from Eastman School of Music. She was very impressive, playing some extremely powerful pieces by Miaskovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Tchaikovsky. The theme of the performance was the Dies Irae theme that appears in so many classical pieces (including the Liszt Totentanz and Mahler Symphony No. 2, among others). We had great seats overlooking the keyboard, nice and close. I am coming dangerously close to writing a critique, which I don't want to do, but suffice to say she was extremely powerful (oh, yes, I already said that). Of course, these kinds of pieces always impress.
We left the Kennedy Center and drove to a favorite needlework store near Mount Vernon (long drive, but fun). When we left the store, there had been a storm and the sky was gorgeous. Driving up George Washington Parkway (one of my very favorite drives), we saw the most stunningly perfect rainbow over the Potomac. It was a complete arc, and you could discern all of the colors, including purple. I really should keep a camera with me at all times. I don't know what our fascination with rainbows is, but it really got to me. I felt giddy as a child over it!
The drive to Baltimore took longer than usual, but we got there in plenty of time for our 6:30 reservation at our favorite Afghan restaurant, Helmand's. I promise not to write a review, but I do have to say the pumpkin dish was positively mouthwatering.
And then it was to the Lyric Opera House to see the Baltimore Opera Company's production of Bellini's "Norma." I love going to see an opera I have not seen before. It's great to listen to opera, but so much more fun to watch it performed. It's kind of like "collecting" performances, much like Janet's bird-watching ("birding" they call it) expeditions, where they collect bird sightings. It's more cerebral than tangible.
We got out around 11:30, it took us another 20 minutes just to get out of the garage, and then about 30 minutes to get to her house. I didn't get to bed until 1:30 a.m. It was a most excellent day. I feel very cultured. For now.
Friday, November 14, 2008
And So It Begins
This morning, on my drive in, there was a man standing in the drizzle very near my office, with a sign: “Hungry. Please Help.” I didn’t have much time before the light changed, but I did have time to grab a couple of dollars worth of my parking quarters to give him. As I handed him the coins, I got a good look at him. He was probably late 20s, early 30s. Clean (in other words, new to the streets). Articulate (he spoke to me in complete sentences). Polite and grateful (clearly, he hasn’t had to deal with enough rude, uncaring people to turn bitter yet). The light changed before I could talk to him, but I wondered what brought him to this corner of Mass Avenue and Second Street. I could speculate, but why? It’s enough to know that there are more people out on the corners again.
About 15 years ago, there was a guy I saw every night on my drive home. If the light stopped me, I always gave him a little money (usually quarters, sometimes a dollar). If there weren’t a lot of cars behind me, sometimes we talked while I waited for the light. I found out that he had been an anesthesiologist, and had hit hard times. He’d had an accident (he walked with an honest limp), medical bills had piled up, he lost his job because he couldn’t work for a while, then he lost his home and everything else. He was a really nice guy. Chris was his name. He never smelled of alcohol either. I remember that over the months he started standing straighter, wearing cleaner clothing, looking hopeful. He still limped, but he looked great. Then one day he came up to my window and asked me to wish him luck because he was going on an interview that afternoon. And then I never saw him again.
I have no idea whether he got the job, or moved to another corner, or another city, or what happened to him. But I like to think he got that job and got back on his feet again.
A colleague of mine said he suspected Chris “put on a limp” to take advantage of others’ kindness, asking for money he really didn’t need. My colleague thought I was being naïve to “fall for the scam.” But I don’t agree. Why would anyone want to stand on a corner, in bad weather and nice, for everyone to look at, while they ask for money, unless they really had to do it? And really, what’s a few quarters here and there? I spend FIVE quarters on a regular cup of coffee every morning (Starbuck’s coffee is even more). I can do without a cup of coffee to give quarters to someone in need. I like to think that the quarters people gave Chris allowed him to get cleaned up and back to work again. Although I know that not all people in need will get back on their feet, isn’t it worth it to try to help when we can? I choose not to second guess the motivation of a man standing on a corner in the drizzle with a sign that says “Hungry. Please Help.” I choose to forego that first cup of coffee.
About 15 years ago, there was a guy I saw every night on my drive home. If the light stopped me, I always gave him a little money (usually quarters, sometimes a dollar). If there weren’t a lot of cars behind me, sometimes we talked while I waited for the light. I found out that he had been an anesthesiologist, and had hit hard times. He’d had an accident (he walked with an honest limp), medical bills had piled up, he lost his job because he couldn’t work for a while, then he lost his home and everything else. He was a really nice guy. Chris was his name. He never smelled of alcohol either. I remember that over the months he started standing straighter, wearing cleaner clothing, looking hopeful. He still limped, but he looked great. Then one day he came up to my window and asked me to wish him luck because he was going on an interview that afternoon. And then I never saw him again.
I have no idea whether he got the job, or moved to another corner, or another city, or what happened to him. But I like to think he got that job and got back on his feet again.
A colleague of mine said he suspected Chris “put on a limp” to take advantage of others’ kindness, asking for money he really didn’t need. My colleague thought I was being naïve to “fall for the scam.” But I don’t agree. Why would anyone want to stand on a corner, in bad weather and nice, for everyone to look at, while they ask for money, unless they really had to do it? And really, what’s a few quarters here and there? I spend FIVE quarters on a regular cup of coffee every morning (Starbuck’s coffee is even more). I can do without a cup of coffee to give quarters to someone in need. I like to think that the quarters people gave Chris allowed him to get cleaned up and back to work again. Although I know that not all people in need will get back on their feet, isn’t it worth it to try to help when we can? I choose not to second guess the motivation of a man standing on a corner in the drizzle with a sign that says “Hungry. Please Help.” I choose to forego that first cup of coffee.
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