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JWG

Books

October 10th, 2007

Seen in various people's LJs.

These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users as of 9/30/07. Bold what you have read, italicize what you started but didn't finish, and underline it if you watched the movie adaptation.

I was surprised to see how many books on this list I have read. I used to be a big book reader. In fifth grade we lived in a sublet apartment for a year and I read every single book in my room that my unmet counterpart (same age) had including the 20 volume Book of Knowledge). In High School 3rd Form (9th grade) our English Teacher had a notebook with a page for each person that we were supposed to enter what we'd read with a brief comment. It sort of became a contest between me and several of my friends to see how many books we could read. In my second (and last) year of Physics grad school at Columbia while trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up (it wasn't physics) and when not becoming a computer hacker at the fledgeling computer center I read a lot.

These days between Baseball, a bit too much TV (because of Baseball and our week and a half away in Greece we have more than 20 hours awaiting us on the Tivo), and magazines (New Yorker, Wired, MacWorld, Cooks Illustrated, Business Week, and various freebies from organizations I belong to), newspapers (Boston Globe and the Gloucester Daily Times (summer/fall only)), LJ and various newsgroups, and Sudoku's I don't read many books.

In fact I have a 3 week overdue from the library and not renewable book that I haven't quite finished - Made in America, An informal history of the English Language in the United States by Bill Bryson). I guess I'll return it today and then borrow it again sometime because it is interesting.

Here's my list.

Jonathan Strange and Mr NorrellAnna KareninaCrime and PunishmentCatch-22One Hundred Years of SolitudeThe SilmarillionLife of Pi: A NovelThe Name of the Rose Don QuixoteMoby DickUlyssesMadame BovaryThe OdysseyPride and PrejudiceJane EyreA Tale of Two CitiesThe Brothers KaramazovGuns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human SocietiesWar and PeaceVanity FairThe Time Traveler's WifeThe IliadEmmaThe Blind AssassinThe Kite RunnerMrs. DallowayGreat ExpectationsAmerican GodsA Heartbreaking Work of Staggering GeniusAtlas ShruggedReading Lolita in Tehran : A Memoir in BooksMemoirs of a GeishaMiddlesexQuicksilverWicked : the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the WestThe Canterbury talesThe Historian : A NovelA Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManLove in the Time of CholeraBrave New WorldThe FountainheadFoucault's pendulum MiddlemarchFrankensteinThe Count of Monte CristoDraculaA Clockwork OrangeAnansi BoysThe Once and Future KingThe Grapes of WrathThe Poisonwood Bible : A Novel1984Angels and DemonsThe InfernoThe Satanic VersesSense and SensibilityThe Picture of Dorian GrayMansfield ParkOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestTo the LighthouseTess of the D'UrbervillesOliver TwistGulliver's travelsLes MiserablesThe CorrectionsThe Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and ClayThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-timeDuneThe PrinceThe Sound and the Fury Angela's Ashes : A MemoirThe God of Small ThingsA People's History of the United States : 1492-PresentNeverwhereA Confederacy of DuncesA Short History of Nearly EverythingDublinersThe Unbearable Lightness of BeingBelovedSlaughterhouse-FiveThe Scarlet Letter Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (peruse occasionally)The Mists of Avalon Oryx and Crake : A NovelCollapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or SucceedCloud AtlasThe ConfusionLolitaPersuasionNorthanger AbbeyThe Catcher in the RyeOn the RoadThe Hunchback of Notre DameFreakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : An Inquiry Into ValuesThe AeneidWatership DownGravity's RainbowThe Hobbit (not yet - and I didn't read LotR until after I saw the first movie)In Cold Blood : A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its ConsequencesWhite TeethTreasure IslandDavid CopperfieldThe Three Musketeers