Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Books, Books, Books

There’s this pretty cool project going on called “Fill in the Gaps: 100 Project.” I discovered it here on the blog, Editorial Ass.

The basic idea is to create a list of 100 books that you have been meaning to read or that you think you should read. Then you start reading them. You have five years to finish the list.

Interested? Check out this blog dedicated to the project: “Fill in the Gaps: 100 Project.”

I want to participate, but coming up with a list of 100 books to read is not very easy. I read over a few of the other lists and here are a few books I think I’ll add to my list:

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Middlemarch by George Eliot

But there are also books I want to read again because I read them when I was younger and don’t feel like I took everything I could from them. Like these:

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Ahh, so many books. I’m currently reading The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (one of my favorite authors). So at least I don’t have to include that on my list.

Do you have suggestions for my list? What criteria should I base it on? Do you have a list? What are you reading? Let me know; I’m curious.

6 comments:

Jo said...

Good choices!

I would recommend anything by Somerset Maugham, but most particularly "The Painted Veil" or "The Razor's Edge". Also anything by John Steinbeck -- "Cannery Row" or "Tortilla Flat". They're two classic authors and you can't go wrong.

Ray Bradbury wrote wonderful science fiction, but he also wrote a short story called "The Picasso Summer" which is one of my favorites.

You will love "Anna Karenina" and you might also enjoy "Crime and Punishment". The theme running through all these stories I have mentioned is human frailty and redemption. I love writers who understand the human condition.

Liz said...

You have a great list going (you'll love the Bell Jar). I have a few books to suggest:

"The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen
"Strong Motion" by Jonathan Franzen
"The Third Brother" by Nick McDonell
"Equus" by Peter Shaffer
"Four Blondes" by Candace Bushnell
"The God of Small Things" by Arundati Roy
"Prep" by Curtis Sittenfeld
"Beloved" by Toni Morrison
"All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque (sp?)

Liz said...

ps. love your blog!

Pie said...

Oo, thanks for the suggestions, ladies! They all look like great books. I'm definitely going to seriously start putting my list together.

On a total side note, I just bought about 10 books to read. So I suppose I will be adding them to my list, too! I'm very excited.

Loopaleep said...

My list is on Amazon and I usually email it out as my birthday/xmas gift list... otherwise I would never buy them.

Pie said...

That's a good idea!