Confessions of a bookaholic

Q&A by Vikas Swarup

2006-02-10T01:12:00.000+09:00

Q&A by Vikas Swarup

I have been arrested. For winning a quiz show.

This is a gem of a book. A big thank you to Chandran for this present. It had been my companion during those cold days when cycling back home is such a torture and I end up sitting in a coffee shop reading. I was hooked from the start.

Ram Mohammad Thomas. Three different names from three different faiths. All belonging to one individual. I wouldn't say that he led a charmed life. In fact, far from it. The story starts from the arrest of Ram, an orphan from the slums, for winning a billion rupees on a quiz show. It then takes us through the series of questions that Ram had to answer en route to the big prize and the chain of events that had helped Ram get those answers. The book does not shy away from the social inequities of life in modern India, where the rich stays rich and the poor gets poorer. Where evil comes in all shapes and sizes and kindness knocks unexpectedly. Where the harshness of life is not sugar coated to feed to masses.

Ram did the unacceptable - an uneducated orphan from the streets who won himself a heck of a lot of money by answering questions he couldn't possibly know. The police and the producers were sure he cheated. Come on, they said, he is from the slums! Although the first thought that springs to mind will be whether or not he gets to keep his money, it is Ram's journey through life and through the questions that is the center of the book. That question then, slowly begins to fade as the book starts to suck you in.

This is Vikas Swarup's first novel and it had garnered praises from all quarters. This book will made into a film and a stage musical. I have only one question : Who will play Ram?

Are you there God? It's me Margaret by Judy Blume

2006-01-20T17:12:00.000+09:00

We must, we must....we must increase our bust!

This book was hillarious! Finally, I finished reading about Margaret and her pleading talks with God about giving her ample bosoms to fill out her training bra! And of course her constant worry that her period will come only when she is 14 (she is 12 now), which by her defination, is an old maid. If that is not enough, she is in a state of quandary over religion. A fellow bookaholic gave me this book when she realised that I had not read the "pre-puberty girl's bible" as this book is affectionately known and indeed, it had been read by millions of girls around the world, making Judy Blume a household name.

I had read Adrian Mole's diary which is the pre-puberty boy's bible and now I have read this. Hoorah! I have finally completed my pre-puberty lessons in life at the grand old age of er, 27! Way, way past puberty but it does not make this book any less interesting. Brought me back to the times when I was her age......

Margaret, age 12, is in dire straits. Her period has not come, she has to fill her gro-bra with cotton balls and the boy she fancies is out of her league. Her mum is a Catholic, or rather was a Catholic and her father was Jewish, both gave up their respective religions when faced with fierce opposition from both their parents. During her first semester in a new school, a class assignment by her teacher compelled her to try to find the answers to her questions about religion. So, God, is she going to get her period anytime soon? Will her breast finally emerge? And most importantly should she be a Catholic or embrace Judaism? Or remain an aethist like her parents?

The book was sensational when it was released because Ms Blume openly laid out to the world the secret thoughts of every pre-puberty girls, all their wishes, all their prayers and hopes. Sex was not shoved into the broom closet. Instead it was discussed frankly with her millions of pre-teen readers. Religion was also another important point in the book. Does it matter if she has no religion? Does it matter if she do not want to choose to be a Christian or a Jew? That she believes there is a God and has a personal relationship with him without the trappings of religion...isn't that enough? Must she choose?

The book is thin and you can easily finish it in half a day. So go ahead..read it!

TIME's All-Time 100 Novels List

2005-10-25T22:26:00.000+09:00

My good friend sent me this link for TIME magazine's All-time 100 novels that TIME critics Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo picked starting from year 1923 to the present.

Please click on TIME for the complete list.

Can't place the whole list here....to avoid any copyright complications. As I said before, the list is there to help you formulate a reading plan but ultimately the choice is yours and yours alone. You should be happy reading the books you like and not reading them because you have something to prove to others.

Have fun!

Fancy a trashy novel?

2005-08-21T21:34:00.000+09:00

Okay, romance novels are long overdue for a review here. I had mentioned before that I read just about anything that catches my interest. Which is why you can even find romance or trashy novels on my bookshelves. Though I do tend to avoid buying or reading those books with the "windswept hero, shirtless and muscular holding the scantily dressed maiden in his arms" book cover. Aw, come on, own up. I bet that in your lifetime, you must have had read at least one of these books, even if it was to see what the fuss was all about. This book however isn’t as trashy as Harold Robbins’ books or even Sydney Sheldon’s (I had to point out that those books really did help the “sex education” part in school)

Romance is a huge business in the book world. Romance writers are best selling authors and their books are continually on the best sellers lists, selling millions of copies worldwide. But despite their staggering sales, they were never given serious consideration because they were merely “romance” novels. The formula is simple, guy, girl, wham bang = love. If you want your books to reach over 200 pages, throw in a little scandal, or a big juicy one, that is up to you. Make them separate; a misunderstanding here and there, heated fights, so on and so forth. Then of course comes the “make-up” part where everything is all peaches and roses at the end. Though, if you want your book to stand out to be more than just merely a romance novel, make sure you add in mysteries, murders, mayhem or even psychic abilities and you will end up with one hell of a heroine or hero. Which is the case among contemporary romance authors these days. Their books aren’t just merely the guy+girl=love formula but the guy+girl=murder, mystery, sex and love formula.

The ".... in Death" series by J.D.Robb who is actually Nora Roberts, (for those of you uninitiated in the romance world, she is one of the top best selling authors in the world) is based on the latter formula. It features the lead heroine, tough cop with a dark past Lt Eve Dallas, her stoic partner, Detective Peabody, Dallas’s impossibly handsome and impossibly rich Irish husband Roarke whose face is, I quote “drawn by artistic angels” and regulars who will appear on and off throughout the series. Set in a futuristic world where humans and droids work alongside each other, fancy meals are prepared by machines called Autochef (I gotta get me one of this!) and holidays are not just at the Caribbean Islands soaking up the sun but other planets as well, Dallas and her kick ass team work hard to rid the streets of New York of maniacs bent to dismember victims in ways as gruesome as possible.

What keeps me reading is that I do like Nora Roberts and have read her other books as well. And believe it or not, romance authors actually do make good use of vocabularies and imagination. I mean, how many ways can you describe sex without the readers feeling bored? I also like the fact that the romance does not overwhelm the mystery storyline. Most book plots these days have a little romance thrown in to spice things up a little, so why should this book be different? All right, you have to probably suspense your logic and reality for a while when you read this book (imagination people, imagination!) but I think it is a great way to just relax and enjoy the flow. You know those times when you just don’t feel like reading “heavy” books and need to clear you mind a little? Romance books do excellent job. They are not meant to be taken seriously and in some cases, really are just pure fluff but that is the beauty of it!

The World According to Bridget by MWY

2005-08-15T12:53:00.000+09:00

The following post was written by my friend MWY

Feeling stunted at work? Dreaming of quitting that job and getting a career? If you are down and out, rest assured that there is someone lower than you… dear Bridget Jones! Or, so that is what we are all led to think.
Don’t be deceived by BJD: The Movie. This is not a romantic comedy… you need to trawl eleven chapters of maniacal confessions before Bridgie actually has a decent conversation with Mark Darcy.
Yes, Bridgie pines- for a normal bloke sans fuckwittage- but so do the rest of us. But in the movie, the pining and the physical klutziness seem more central while the important things: her frustration with her job, her incredible relationship with her parents, her marvellous group of friends and her struggle for some semblance of inner poise… all take a backseat.
For the uninitiated, Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding is an almost 300-page (depending on which publication) ranting of a 30-something single woman who drinks like a fish, shags like a rabbit and smokes like a chimney. Self-centred, thinks she is fat all the time, has a knack for getting herself into terribly embarrassing situations… hey, I can relate to all of that!
If Lizzie Bennett were a mini-skirt-wearing Londoner, would her diary be this? It would be an absolute sin to compare Fielding to Austen (but NOT as unforgivable as putting Rowlings on the same plane of existence as Tolkien… right Ling?) but admit it, Fielding is channeling Austen like a Sunday afternoon séance.

“I suddenly realise everything has shifted and now I am looking after my parents instead of them looking after me, which seems unnatural and wrong. Surely I am not that old?”

That is a very touching observation because parents, as we all grow older, are not the superbeings they once were. With the wrinkles and spots, it is frightening that the strong arms that shield us all our lives now seem vulnerable and human.
I love Bridgie because she is loyal to her family. She can easily make some sort of stupid excuse to escape going to those embarrassing Turkey Curry Buffets, yet she turns up. In this time and age, do we really care about making our rounds at the senior citizen circuit… even though it is on the request of our parents? I get rebellious during Chinese New Year and refuse to be under the same roof as certain relatives!
A woman about town who takes care of her dad and takes all that crap from her mom. Not so self-centred after all, huh?

“Anyway, we’re not lonely. We have extended families in the form of networks of friends connected by telephone.”

If indeed that Bridgie’s life is so crappy… the 3 reasons she gets through her days at all are Jude, Shazzer and Tom. Her incredible network that feeds her obsession but gently tugs at her every time she needs to feel the earth.
Jobs come and go, men come and go but the defining constant in her life never lets her down and neither does she them. One of the important essence of this book is the tie that binds a few people into a formidable unit… no matter how bad things get, there will always be someone whom you know will, unquestionably, take you in on a rainy day or tilt your head back when you puke in a drunken stupor in the toilet.
For a person who seems so fluffy and rather dense at times, Bridgie seems to write a darn witty diary… which makes me come to the conclusion that this is after all a diary!
The very thing you write doesn’t represent you truthfully. You are probably wallowing in self-pity and every little incident blown into a preposterous proportion. If Bridgie is such a brick, how come she has all the great friends and families?
I’m probably reading too much into it but THINK! If Bridgie is such a git, how come she has a pretty eventful social life with gorgeous men falling over her? If she were such a fumbling fool, no way in hell would Mark ‘The Constipated’ Darcy- Big Shot Barrister- let her anywhere near his high profile client.
She must be doing something right, no? Will the REAL Bridget Jones please stand up?

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

2005-07-17T02:14:00.000+09:00

*Spoiler warning*

Yesterday was the release of the 6th Potter book. I pre-ordered mine through Amazon months ago and it arrived on my doorstep at around 11 am, quite surprising really since all the other books I ordered through Amazon arrived much later than that, usually in the evening. Hmm...wonder why they could not be that efficient then?

Well, my take on the book? It has certainly gotten darker and raging hormones are running loose in the book. However, after I had finished it, I felt a bit deflated. Was it from having too much expectation? Probably. Don't get me wrong. The book is an enjoyable read but compared to her previous books (by that I meant the first three, probably the 4th too) this one lacked something somewhat. Same goes for the 5th book. Still, I enjoyed them.

The predictables are there in the book: someone dies, raging hormones, more people dying.....From the last book, we all know that the Dark Lord had risen again in full form and the wizarding world is in serious trouble. Harry is becoming more of a celebrity now, like a pin-up version in the wizarding world. War has erupted.

Despite the importance of the title, the Half-blood prince turned out to be a disappointment. He is Snape, who had a muggle father and his mother's name is Prince. Hmmmm. Anyway, why was the name important to the book? Because Harry had borrowed an old copy of a Potions book which had Snape's scribbled potions concoctions and several spells which Harry found tremendously helpful during classes. But of course, there is that link between Snape being a half-blood and Voldie being a half-blood and prob Harry too. "Prince".....Snape probably fancied himself being Voldemort's (who from now on shall be called "V") successor or second in command. And that Snape was the one who overheard the prophecy (Harry vs V) and told V about it which then led to Harry's parents death. Also he was the one that killed at the end. I expected the "half blood prince" to be another prophecy or the "name" itself to be of more significance instead of the person. Get me?

To cut to the chase, Dumbledore is the one who died at the end. Not surprising there because he had to die in order to set the stage for the final fight between Harry and V. Actually I had no feeling at all when I found out it was him that died because, quite frankly, I thought that the whole scene could have been avoided. The murderer however did surprised me. I did not expect him to be Snape, who is one of my favourite characters in the book. Making him the murderer seemed a little bit lame after all the woo haa about him being a double agent working for the side of good and the whole bit about Dumbledore trusting him. So I do hope that Rowling has something else up her sleeve for writing this particularly, how should I put it, annoying bit of plot in the book. Because I refused to believe that Snape is that shallow. I am HOPING he would not turned out to be that person. It is a bit murky, the details surrounding Snape leading to the death of Dumble at his hand so that is why that little piece of hope is still shinning.

Now, you would expect that after 5 books, people would start to believe Harry when he says something. But they just never learn do they? Imagine the all the troubles and deaths that could have been avoided! This is the reason that I did not like this book as much as the rest because she cannot convince me with her storyline. After all Harry had been through and everytime he had been proven right, his suspicions should have been taken seriously. So, to make the other characters not believe him or take him seriously, I just cannot buy it. I know it was to lead the plot towards the death of Dumbledore at Snape's hand and to make the book thicker I suppose, but the way she writes it was not convincing enough.

Then, of course there were the raging hormones and who ends up with whom. They are 16 after all turning to 17. Harry realised that he has a soft spot for Ginny, Ron's sister and they do end up together though they broke up at the end of the book (Harry wanting to protect those he loves, so sacrificing his love for her......). Ron and Hermione brickered throughout the entire book and you are left with the question, are they or are they not when the book finished. Again. Though in this book, Ron, or as his gf called him "won-won", was the one in a relationship. People were doing a lot of snogging in this book.

Draco had a more important role this time and in the end, you sort of feel pity for him. However, the rest of the characters didn't have much "paper time". At the end, we find out that V had these things called the Horcruxes which contain pieces of his soul. This will set the storyline for the last book as Harry has to destroy the few that remain in order to weaken V. Also, we found out more about V's past and why he is the way he is. We were also introduced to a new character (or could probably be an old one) which we only know by his or her initials: R.A.B.

On the whole, the book didn't really have a plot, it seemed to be a mixture of things. Like Rowling said, it will provide answers but in the course of doing so, left the book without much of a plot. Everything is set for the 7th book and we will see then if Harry will survive or not.

Btw, I disagree with New York Times' review of the book which compared it to LOTR. Come on. LOTR is in a world of its own. Harry Potter books are addictive but they are just not that great.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

2005-06-17T01:27:00.000+09:00

Meet Pi, a 16 year old boy with a hyena, zebra, a female orang utan and a Royal Bengal tiger for company, all of them sharing the same lifeboat after the cargo ship that was suppose to take him and his family to Canada sank. Needless to say, the hyena, orang utan and the zebra was no match for the Bengal tiger. So that left Pi and the tiger whose name is Richard Parker all alone on the lifeboat. Not a very comforting thought for any human being.

But Pi is no ordinary 16 year old boy. While he was growing up in Pondicherry, being the son of a zookeeper, he was exposed to the animal world, learning about the complexities of relationships among the different species. He understood what he needed to do in order to survive. He had to tame the tiger. In other words, he had to show Richard Parker who's "da man". Killing R.P or letting it die was out of the question. Loneliness is a far more deadlier partner than Richard Parker will ever be. And so they survive out in the open sea for more than 200 days.

Pi is also a boy who embraces God and spirituality wholeheartedly, so wholeheartedly that he is a Hindu, Muslim and Christian all at the same time. The part in the novel where all his religious teachers confronted him and each other was one of the funniest in the book!

The extraordinary adventure of Pi and Richard Parker comes to a close when they finally reach land...Mexico. And at the end, you are given a choice; either to choose to believe in the tale of a Bengal tiger and his mate, a 16 year old boy, or in another more plausible yet disturbing story. Which one would you choose to believe in?

I have to admit that I have my doubts about this book. Even though it had won the Man Booker Prize and was hugely popular at that time, if it were not for the Maruzen sale, I would not have bought this book.....at least not now anyway. So I was glad to have been proven wrong. Highly recommended...but then again, I have yet to come across a book that I really don't like. Hmmm...that should be my next mission.

Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less by Jeffrey Archer

2005-05-31T15:49:00.000+09:00

I have read many of Jeffrey Archer's books like Kane and Abel, As the Crow Flies and Honour Among Thieves but I seemed to prefer his short stories more like A Quiver Full of Arrows, A Twist in the Tale and Twelve Red Herrings which gives you the envitable twists at the end. This book however was the exception to the rule. When I read the first page, I was hooked and I did not put it down until I finished the whole book. If there was any Jeffrey Archer book I would recommend people to read first IS this book. It is not thick, so therefore, it is not at all a daunting task to finish reading it and the funny wit and tension filled story telling is definately worth the ride. It is not as dramatic as Kane and Abel or As the Crow Flies but it is definately a book that can stand on its own among the others.

Apparently this is his first book (I have no idea, I must confirm this somewhere...yes I have confirmed it) but for a first book, it is pretty good. You would be introduced to the character Harvey Metcalf, a rich American con-man who swindled money from 4 unlikely people through a fraudulent petroleum scam. The total lost : One million dollars. They were suppose to wake up the next morning to enjoy their new found cash but instead found themselves staring at an empty bank account. Who are the four? An Oxford professor, a doctor, a gallery owner and a Lord. And they all want their money back.

So each of them will cook up their own plans to get back their money from the man who swindled it out of them, not a penny more and not a penny less. And in order for the plans to work, everyone will have to play a part. If you liked Ocean's Eleven or Ocean's Twelve or any caper stories, then you would definately enjoy this book as you root for them to outwit and outscam the devious Harvey Metcalf. But there are twists and turns in this book that will leave you sitting at the edge of your seats and bits and pieces that will have you laughing aloud.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think it is a keeper. Er, well, I think nearly every book I have ever read is a keeper which explains the amount of books I have here, at my sister's place and at home! Ah, well, they all love books, so my books will most probably have dog ears by now.

So if you come across this book anywhere, I would suggest that you pick it up, find a place somewhere and start enjoying yourself.

Bookmark is Dead by MWY

2005-04-21T02:05:00.000+09:00

Bookmarks are for wuss-books!!!
What happens when you are in the middle of a read & the next thing you know, you have to stop & do something persumably more important? All sorts of objects masquerade as the humble bookmark… bus ticket, movie ticket, random postcard, receipt from Carrefour, flyer for the opening of the new Tower Records… things like that.
But, they gave me no pleasure!!! It’s already annoying having to STOP reading & then, there is the mammoth task of having to rummage/grope/search CIA-style for a flashy little thing that says ‘Welcome to Hadyai’.
In the end, I give up. I am so guilty of making doggie ears.
*Gasp* Such horror, I know… book-destroyer!!! Never lend this person your book, my forehead reads!!!
Utter bullshit!!! Keeping a book in pristine condition is an absolute insult to the book!!!
My copy of George Orwell’s Down & Out in Paris & London looks exactly like its namesake. Trawled through numerous abuse, it betrays the exact essence of the book:
“… And there is another feeling that is a great consolation in poverty… It is a feeling of relief, almost pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs – well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it. It takes off a lot of anxiety”
Ahhh, the debates raging in my head, all these opinions… I scribble them senseless on the sides, the top, the bottom… maybe the enigmatic writer will psychically receive it at the dear sweet thereafter.
Doggie ears, liner notes, highlights, creases & folds… they all give the book the personality it deserves. You are giving the writer the best critique… by READING... submerging & ploughing & dissecting… tearing it naked & ravaging its content.
No self-respecting book would want to remain in its virginal state… untouched, unwanted, unappreciated.
And, hell no would my American Psycho be caught dead with a Hello Kitty bookmark tuck gently between the sheets. It’s so unmacho plus Kitty would be traumatised for life!

My friend contributed this article. MWY. Contact me if you need info on this person...hehehe

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

2005-04-07T23:54:00.000+09:00

Warning: spoiler ahead. This book review reveals the main plot, so please close this page if you want to be surprised by the book. UNLESS, you are like me. I watched The Sixth Sense even though my sister had told me the ending and I thoroughly enjoyed the movie despite the fact that I knew he was dead from the start. But I digressed. Back to The Da Vinci Code.

The Da Vinci Code sparked off a heated debate about Jesus’s life: Was he celibate or did he have a child with Mary Magdalene? Hence the controversy surrounding the book, which helped propelled it to the very top of the bestseller’s list and I think it is still there. It made Dan Brown a very rich man. People love a good controversy. That is why tabloids sell. That is why the rich and the famous are and will always be hounded by paparazzies waiting for them to slip up. Jesus’s life had always been a topic of fascination and when this book ‘dared’ to put out the controversial theory that there is a direct living bloodline of Jesus Christ, the book automatically became a bestseller. Everybody is talking about the book that took the world by storm. Well, nah, it didn’t really took the world by storm, I just liked the phrase. But it did sell by the millions.

The book started off with the seemingly gruesome and baffling murder of the renowned curator of the Louvre Museum. He left behind a series of clues that could only be deciphered by his estranged granddaughter, Sophie Neveu who is a French cryptologist and Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist, the hero of the book. And so the race begins to discover the identity of the murderer while the police, headed by Bezu Fache and the unknown murderer are hot on their heels.

The quest for the murderer turned into the quest for the Holy Grail. The curator was killed because he was the head of a secret society called the Priory of Sion. This very secret society holds the clue to the Holy Grail. The question is, what is the Holy Grail? This book states that it is not a ‘what’ but rather a ‘who’. Mary Magdalene is the Holy Grail; she carried Jesus’s seed in her womb. The Church is hell bent on keeping this secret locked up forever. The fact that a ‘woman’ holds such power is a deep piercing thorn in their side for years. If revealed, it will undo the entire history of the Church and plunge christianity into chaos. A madman, so obsessed with the secret is willing to kill to get to it using a monk (gasp!) as his murderer. These are the controversies that so consumed the public and launched many other books debunking The Da Vinci Code.

I read the book and I thought that it made a nice mystery murder novel. I am a Christian, a catholic and therefore this book should have offended me but I wasn’t. It is after all fiction at the end. I have to admit that I wouldn’t mind going to the Louvre and examining Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa or The Last Supper, but that is just for the fun of it. The plot made the book interesting but don’t take it too seriously. Just have fun reading it!

And to end this review, I have to comment on the movie version of this book. I have no doubts, given the popularity of the book, that it will hit the cinemas with a big bang. Tom Hanks’ star power alone would ensure a steady flow of cash into the producers’ pockets. Somebody suggested that Harrison Ford should have played the role of Robert Langdon. He was, after all, in a similar position when he played Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade where he was in search of the Holy Grail, which was not Mary Magdalene but a cup. I think that if he were younger, he would have played the role to perfection…there is something about that smirk of his. The role of Sophie went to the French actress of the Amelie fame, Audrey Tautou. I had no clear picture of Sophie, so any actress who can speak French will do for me. So I will wait for the movie to come out and I will watch it. Just for the fun of it.

Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand

2005-03-23T02:23:00.000+09:00

I know that if you mentioned Seabiscuit to anyone, chances are that they will reply, " The movie?". I have to say that I was one of them, I saw the movie first before reading the novel, though the novel was #1 on the New York Time's bestseller's list. After reading the novel, it took me the whole day to finish it, I have to say that the novel was way better than the movie. It managed to capture the emotions; the triumphs and the losses, the laughter and the tears, with much more clarity than the film. Seabiscuit comes to life in the hands of Hillenbrand, who turned out an engaging, exciting novel.

I didn't know much about the world of thoroughbred horse racing, my knowledge was limited to fancy names for the horses ( how do they come up with all those names? ) and that jockeys are short and that the horses are worth a lot of money. The one time I had seen horse racing was when I went with my professor to see his horse race. It didn't win but it was a beautiful horse, to my untrained eye. I didn't even know what a handicap race is or which races are included in the Triple Crown. But after reading this book, I am proud to say that I can tell you what a handicap race is, though in depth details are still a mystery to me.

Seabiscuit's story, the life of an underdog who achieved the impossible through the help of three men, had entranced the American people during a time when they desperately needed a hero. The book is filled with meticulously researched details about Seabicuit's, Charles Howard's, Red Pollard's and Tom Smith's lives; how they intertwined and how each had affected the other's life. Seabicuit had in him blue blood, his grandfather being the famous Man O' War who is considered as the greatest racehorse ever, so he had speed in his genes but most importantly, Seabiscuit had the Heart ( as corny as this may sound, it proved to be a factor that made Seabiscuit a legend ). However, it took three men and a lady to bring that out in him. The most exciting part of the book and of course the movie, was the famous race between Seabicuit and War Admiral ( who incidently is his uncle, his sire being the great Man O' War ) at the Pimlico's race track on the afternoon of November 1st, 1938. Seabiscuit's and Pollard's triumphant comeback at the hundred-grander, was another emotional highlight of the book, a perfect end to a fairytale story.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

2005-03-23T00:47:00.000+09:00

The title of this novel intrigued me when I first saw it and I decided I had to buy it. I have not read any of the reviews before reading this book, only the synopsis at the back. It is written in a first person narrative, the person being Christopher, an autistic 15 year old boy who lives with his father. Christopher understands facts and details, he lives on rules and order but relationships and emotions make little sense to him. He cannot tell a lie or jokes. He hates being touched and reacts violently to it. He finds people confusing because he cannot make sense of the various facial expressions that people seem to possess.

Then, one day, when his neighbour's dog, Wellington, was killed, he decided to solve the mystery with the help of his favourite novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. When he embarked on this quest to find the murderer, he ended up finding more than just the identity of the murderer. Secrets about his family will be revealed to him that would change his well ordered life and the lives of those around him. His relationship with his father in particular was heartbreaking to read. This book is beautifully written, funny and sad at the same time with a bittersweet ending.

After reading this book, I searched the internet for the reviews and every single one had nothing but praise for this book which I heartily agree. It is written simply but that in no way undermines the strength of the emotion of this book. Apparently, they are going to make a film based on this book ( this comes as no surprise....it has *oscar* material written all over it ). I do hope however that they will make a decent job out of it. If not, stick to the book. It does not disappoint.

Pride and Prejudice

2005-03-04T16:52:00.000+09:00

This remains one of my most beloved books ever. I know that The Observer’s list picked Emma over my Pride and Prejudice and I understood why but somehow, Emma never quite warm up to me the way Pride and Prejudice did. I am a sucker for love stories, well told ones of course, though I had been known to read trashy novels from time to time! Yup, I am not ashamed to say that I read them, I would like to think that I am the type of person who would give anything a try!

This book by Jane Austen, tells the story of the quick-witted lovely Elizabeth Bennet and the haughty, handsome and of course, filthy rich Mr. Darcy. As expected, Lizzie and Darcy will end up together in holy matrimony by the end of the book, but their journey down the aisle is littered with prejudices and pride, hence the title. Their lives, which are worlds apart, one is rich in wealth and the other in wit, collides when Mr. Darcy’s friend, Mr. Bingley, decides to buy a house in the countryside. As Elizabeth’s mother would put it, "a single man of large fortune, must be in want of a wife” and sets about trying to get him married to one of her daughters. And that put into motion a string of events that would bring Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy together. Their first fateful encounter did not start in a friendly fashion, however, with Mr. Darcy uttering, “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me” when asked by Mr. Bingley why he would not ask Elizabeth to dance with him.

Mr. Darcy….man, if there ever was a man who had a stick up his arse ( to quote from Bridget Jones ) he is the one! To me, the one person who had successfully brought Mr. Darcy to life was Colin Firth in the BBC drama adaptation of the book and he reprised that role in the Bridget Jones movies. As you most probably had known, the hilarious Bridget Jones’ Diary novel was based on Pride and Prejudice. Poor Colin Firth will most probably forever be known as Mr Darcy due to his Darcy roles in BBC and Bridget and his “wet T-shirt” scene in the BBC drama will stay in his adoring fans’ mind forever!

This novel is so popular that it had spawned the successful Bridget Jones novels and movies, the BBC adaptation and most recently, Bride and Prejudice, the movie that was a joint production between Bollywood and Hollywood. I thought that the movie was hilarious not because that it was meant to be hilarious, but because I could not see Martin Henderson as the Bollywood hero. I also read that they are making a film version of Pride and Prejudice, set in England, staring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth.

The author, Jane Austen, also wrote several famous novels; Emma, Mansfield Park and Persuasion to name a few. If you are interested to read her books, then I suggest you pick up either Pride and Prejudice or Emma for starters.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged Thirteen and Three Quarters by Sue Townsend

2005-03-02T15:47:00.000+09:00

"Wednesday June 10th

Pandora and I are in love! It is official! She told Claire Nelson, who told Nigel, who told me. I told Nigel to tell Claire to tell Pandora that I return her love. I am over the moon with joy. I can overlook the fact that Pandora smokes five Benson and Hedges a day and has her own lighter. When you are in love such things cease to matter."

Even if you are edging towards the 20s, 30s, 40s or even 50s, you should pick this book up! It is a hilarious, bittersweet account of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4, going through all the trials and tribulations of a teenage life, with the added complications of his parents' marital troubles. He is in LOVE with Pandora, he is sexually frustrated, he has a high regard of his own 'intellectual' capabilities, his hillarious attempts at poetry is under appreciated and he has to battle with zits sprouting on his face. On top of that, he has to deal with his dysfunctional family. And what sets him apart from other teenage boys is that he actually keeps a diary! I couldn't stop laughing when I read this book. Of course, the story doesn't end here, you can follow Adrian's life through the years by a series of sequels starting with The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, Adrian Mole from Minor to Major, Adrian Mole - The Wilderness Years and Adrian Mole - The Cappuccino Years.

The Observer's List

2005-03-02T15:13:00.000+09:00

I found yet another list of 100 greatest books of all time, this time by The Observer, who created this list at the same time as BBC. Read the review at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1061036,00.html
If you didn't agree with the BBC's list, which reflects a more recent list of titles, you might find this more to your liking.

Taken from The Observer,
Sunday October 12, 2003

1. Don Quixote Miguel De Cervantes
The story of the gentle knight and his servant Sancho Panza has entranced readers for centuries.

2. Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan
The one with the Slough of Despond and Vanity Fair.

3. Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe
The first English novel.

4. Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
A wonderful satire that still works for all ages, despite the savagery of Swift's vision.

5. Tom Jones Henry Fielding
The adventures of a high-spirited orphan boy: an unbeatable plot and a lot of sex ending in a blissful marriage.

6. Clarissa Samuel Richardson
One of the longest novels in the English language, but unputdownable.

7. Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne
One of the first bestsellers, dismissed by Dr Johnson as too fashionable for its own good.

8. Dangerous Liaisons Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
An epistolary novel and a handbook for seducers: foppish, French, and ferocious.

9. Emma Jane Austen
Near impossible choice between this and Pride and Prejudice. But Emma never fails to fascinate and annoy.

10. Frankenstein Mary Shelley
Inspired by spending too much time with Shelley and Byron.

11. Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock
A classic miniature: a brilliant satire on the Romantic novel.

12. The Black Sheep Honore De Balzac
Two rivals fight for the love of a femme fatale. Wrongly overlooked.

13. The Charterhouse of Parma Stendhal
Penetrating and compelling chronicle of life in an Italian court in post-Napoleonic France.

14. The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
A revenge thriller also set in France after Bonaparte: a masterpiece of adventure writing.

15. Sybil Benjamin Disraeli
Apart from Churchill, no other British political figure shows literary genius.

16. David Copperfield Charles Dickens
This highly autobiographical novel is the one its author liked best.

17. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff have passed into the language. Impossible to ignore.

18. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
Obsessive emotional grip and haunting narrative.

19. Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray
The improving tale of Becky Sharp.

20. The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
A classic investigation of the American mind.

21. Moby-Dick Herman Melville
'Call me Ishmael' is one of the most famous opening sentences of any novel.

22. Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
You could summarise this as a story of adultery in provincial France, and miss the point entirely.

23. The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
Gripping mystery novel of concealed identity, abduction, fraud and mental cruelty.

24. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland Lewis Carroll
A story written for the nine-year-old daughter of an Oxford don that still baffles most kids.

25. Little Women Louisa M. Alcott
Victorian bestseller about a New England family of girls.

26. The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope
A majestic assault on the corruption of late Victorian England.

27. Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
The supreme novel of the married woman's passion for a younger man.

28. Daniel Deronda George Eliot
A passion and an exotic grandeur that is strange and unsettling.

29. The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky
Mystical tragedy by the author of Crime and Punishment.

30. The Portrait of a Lady Henry James
The story of Isabel Archer shows James at his witty and polished best.

31. Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
Twain was a humorist, but this picture of Mississippi life is profoundly moral and still incredibly influential.

32. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
A brilliantly suggestive, resonant study of human duality by a natural storyteller.

33. Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome
One of the funniest English books ever written.

34. The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
A coded and epigrammatic melodrama inspired by his own tortured homosexuality.

35. The Diary of a Nobody George Grossmith
This classic of Victorian suburbia will always be renowned for the character of Mr Pooter.

36. Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy
Its savage bleakness makes it one of the first twentieth-century novels.

37. The Riddle of the Sands Erskine Childers
A prewar invasion-scare spy thriller by a writer later shot for his part in the Irish republican rising.

38. The Call of the Wild Jack London
The story of a dog who joins a pack of wolves after his master's death.

39. Nostromo Joseph Conrad
Conrad's masterpiece: a tale of money, love and revolutionary politics.

40. The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame
This children's classic was inspired by bedtime stories for Grahame's son.

41. In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust
An unforgettable portrait of Paris in the belle epoque. Probably the longest novel on this list.

42. The Rainbow D. H. Lawrence
Novels seized by the police, like this one, have a special afterlife.

43. The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford
This account of the adulterous lives of two Edwardian couples is a classic of unreliable narration.

44. The Thirty-Nine Steps John Buchan
A classic adventure story for boys, jammed with action, violence and suspense.

45. Ulysses James Joyce
Also pursued by the British police, this is a novel more discussed than read.

46. Mrs Dalloway Virginia Woolf
Secures Woolf's position as one of the great twentieth-century English novelists.

47. A Passage to India E. M. Forster
The great novel of the British Raj, it remains a brilliant study of empire.

48. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
The quintessential Jazz Age novel.

49. The Trial Franz Kafka
The enigmatic story of Joseph K.

50. Men Without Women Ernest Hemingway
He is remembered for his novels, but it was the short stories that first attracted notice.

51. Journey to the End of the Night Louis-Ferdinand Celine
The experiences of an unattractive slum doctor during the Great War: a masterpiece of linguistic innovation.

52. As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
A strange black comedy by an American master.

53. Brave New World Aldous Huxley
Dystopian fantasy about the world of the seventh century AF (after Ford).

54. Scoop Evelyn Waugh
The supreme Fleet Street novel.

55. USA John Dos Passos
An extraordinary trilogy that uses a variety of narrative devices to express the story of America.

56. The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler
Introducing Philip Marlowe: cool, sharp, handsome - and bitterly alone.

57. The Pursuit Of Love Nancy Mitford
An exquisite comedy of manners with countless fans.

58. The Plague Albert Camus
A mysterious plague sweeps through the Algerian town of Oran.

59. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
This tale of one man's struggle against totalitarianism has been appropriated the world over.

60. Malone Dies Samuel Beckett
Part of a trilogy of astonishing monologues in the black comic voice of the author of Waiting for Godot.

61. Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
A week in the life of Holden Caulfield. A cult novel that still mesmerises.

62. Wise Blood Flannery O'Connor
A disturbing novel of religious extremism set in the Deep South.

63. Charlotte's Web E. B. White
How Wilbur the pig was saved by the literary genius of a friendly spider.

64. The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien
Enough said!

65. Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis
An astonishing debut: the painfully funny English novel of the Fifties.

66. Lord of the Flies William Golding
Schoolboys become savages: a bleak vision of human nature.

67. The Quiet American Graham Greene
Prophetic novel set in 1950s Vietnam.

68 On the Road Jack Kerouac
The Beat Generation bible.

69. Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
Humbert Humbert's obsession with Lolita is a tour de force of style and narrative.

70. The Tin Drum Gunter Grass
Hugely influential, Rabelaisian novel of Hitler's Germany.

71. Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
Nigeria at the beginning of colonialism. A classic of African literature.

72. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark
A writer who made her debut in The Observer - and her prose is like cut glass.

73. To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee
Scout, a six-year-old girl, narrates an enthralling story of racial prejudice in the Deep South.

74. Catch-22 Joseph Heller
'[He] would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.'

75. Herzog Saul Bellow
Adultery and nervous breakdown in Chicago.

76. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A postmodern masterpiece.

77. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont Elizabeth Taylor
A haunting, understated study of old age.

78. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy John Le Carre
A thrilling elegy for post-imperial Britain.

79. Song of Solomon Toni Morrison
The definitive novelist of the African-American experience.

80. The Bottle Factory Outing Beryl Bainbridge
Macabre comedy of provincial life.

81. The Executioner's Song Norman Mailer
This quasi-documentary account of the life and death of Gary Gilmore is possibly his masterpiece.

82. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino
A strange, compelling story about the pleasures of reading.

83. A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul
The finest living writer of English prose. This is his masterpiece: edgily reminiscent of Heart of Darkness.

84. Waiting for the Barbarians J.M. Coetzee
Bleak but haunting allegory of apartheid by the Nobel prizewinner.

85. Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson
Haunting, poetic story, drowned in water and light, about three generations of women.

86. Lanark Alasdair Gray
Seething vision of Glasgow. A Scottish classic.

87. The New York Trilogy Paul Auster
Dazzling metaphysical thriller set in the Manhattan of the 1970s.

88. The BFG Roald Dahl
A bestseller by the most popular postwar writer for children of all ages.

89. The Periodic Table Primo Levi
A prose poem about the delights of chemistry.

90. Money Martin Amis
The novel that bags Amis's place on any list.

91. An Artist of the Floating World Kazuo Ishiguro
A collaborator from prewar Japan reluctantly discloses his betrayal of friends and family.

92. Oscar And Lucinda Peter Carey
A great contemporary love story set in nineteenth-century Australia by double Booker prizewinner.

93. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera
Inspired by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, this is a magical fusion of history, autobiography and ideas.

94. Haroun and the Sea af Stories Salman Rushdie
In this entrancing story Rushdie plays with the idea of narrative itself.

95. La Confidential James Ellroy
Three LAPD detectives are brought face to face with the secrets of their corrupt and violent careers.

96. Wise Children Angela Carter
A theatrical extravaganza by a brilliant exponent of magic realism.

97. Atonement Ian McEwan
Acclaimed short-story writer achieves a contemporary classic of mesmerising narrative conviction.

98. Northern Lights Philip Pullman
Lyra's quest weaves fantasy, horror and the play of ideas into a truly great contemporary children's book.

99. American Pastoral Philip Roth
For years, Roth was famous for Portnoy's Complaint . Recently, he has enjoyed an extraordinary revival.

100. Austerlitz W. G. Sebald
Posthumously published volume in a sequence of dream-like fictions spun from memory, photographs and the German past.

Who did we miss?

So, are you congratulating yourself on having read everything on our list or screwing the newspaper up into a ball and aiming it at the nearest bin?

Are you wondering what happened to all those American writers from Bret Easton Ellis to Jeffrey Eugenides, from Jonathan Franzen to Cormac McCarthy?

Have women been short-changed? Should we have included Pat Barker, Elizabeth Bowen, A.S. Byatt, Penelope Fitzgerald, Doris Lessing and Iris Murdoch?

What's happened to novels in translation such as Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, Hesse's Siddhartha, Mishima's The Sea of Fertility, Süskind's Perfume and Zola's Germinal?

Writers such as J.G. Ballard, Julian Barnes, Anthony Burgess, Bruce Chatwin, Robertson Davies, John Fowles, Nick Hornby, Russell Hoban, Somerset Maugham and V.S. Pritchett narrowly missed the final hundred. Were we wrong to lose them?

Let us know what you think. Send your own suggestions for the 100 best books ever to:

observer@guardianunlimited.co.uk Or debate the choices live with Robert McCrum at 3pm on Wednesday

=END=

2005-02-28T17:30:00.000+09:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Enid Blyton and such

2005-02-27T21:24:00.000+09:00

I thought it was only proper to start this of with a trip down memory lane. I grew up reading Enid Blyton.....my dad used to bring back all her books from the library for us. I think I finished reading the entire Secret Seven series with all their secret meetings in the shed and scamper the dog. But by far, my favourite series from her was Five Find-Outers aka the Mystery series, with a very un pc name like Fatty as the head of the group and Mr Goon as the ever unfortunate policeman. I did not quite like The Famous Five however, even though that was her most popular mystery series. I remembered The Faraway Tree ( made me wish for a time there, when I was a kid, to have that kind of tree with mysterious lands behind my house ), The Wishing Chair, The Adventure series and the boarding school series such as Mallory Towers or St Clare's.

Another favourite of mine was The Three Invetigators by Robert Arthur. Who could forget Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews and their Headquarters in the Salvage Yard? Although I must admit, when they translated all those books to BM, they sort of lost their excitement. Hmmm.....I must start collecting them, it would be fun to read them again. Brings back memories.

Then there were Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys series. I have to say I was a bit disappointed and shocked when I read that Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon weren't 2 individuals but rather a slew of authors under those pseudonyms. Couldn't remember when I found that out but surfice to say that I didn't like ND and HB quite that much any more, especially since they became more of a soap opera to me in the recent series. The Three Investigators did had more than one writer at one point, but really, those plots were far more fascinating than ND. ND and HB did combine to solve mysteries in a series of books....I bought two of those I think! As expected ND was attracted to the eldest of the Hardy boys, but each had their respective partners at that time so nothing could happen....wait...I think they did share a kiss in one of the books! ahahaha

Then of course there is the ever popular Roald Dahl. I love Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches......I read his books when I was much older though, and with that comes more appreciation? But his quirky storylines really did set him apart from the others. I was introduced to Judy Blume's books when I was much older too...Are you there God? It's me, Margaret. And of course the Grimm Brother's fairytales. I heard that apparently the original versions of those fairytales weren't exactly PG 13 but of course I have no substantion for that point right now.

There are more authors with fantastic books, but I will leave that for another day....

62/200

2005-02-27T21:01:00.000+09:00

I had read the list and I counted how many books I had read....62 was the total. However, I was pretty surprise to see so many of Terry Pratchett's books on the list.....he must be seriously famous in the UK. And I was laughing when I saw Virginia Andrew's Flowers in the Attic making it to the top 200! I read the book ages ago and I really don't think it deserves to be that high up! Not surprised at all to see Harry up there, though I wouldn't put him that far up on the list......it is a good
read but come on!
I love LOTR and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but His Dark Materials making it to no 3? I have not read the book yet, heard a lot of hoo haa about this book....maruzen is having a sale right now, maybe I can find it there! Then there was Enid Blyton's book making the list and a lot of other children's book making that list. I love Catch 22...hillarious book and I am glad it made it.
Too many books on that list that I want to comment on....so I will create new posts as I go along. But in the meantime, if anyone of you have anything to say about this list, feel free to comment.

BBC's 200 greatest books

2005-02-27T20:49:00.000+09:00

Below is the list of BBC's 100 greatest books (2003). Some of the books that made it to the top 100 were pretty surprising. Check the list and see how many have you read.....I personally feel that one should read whatever he or she likes....some of the books I love are not on that list. But the list did have a nice blend of the old and new, children's books or adult.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. George's Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Grossmith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. LawrenceLife of Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews

First post of the day

2005-02-27T14:54:00.000+09:00

I must confess....the title is not very original, I wanted the simple bookaholic for my url, but somebody had taken it already...wht the hey...so I came up with this one.
Since I am just beginning, there won't be much up yet. But basically, this blogger site is for anyone who loves books and who wants to share their passion!