50 Books to Read Before You Die - Update

I love to read. Last May I started with "50 Books to Read Before You Die". Life got in the way and in the end I didn't finish the list before 2011. At all. I only read a few books. But I thought it would be fun to give you a little update. As it turned out, these classic books out of the English literature aren't even in our library. Which makes a little sense, because I live in the Netherlands. But still, I would thought that these books would be available. I think my new plan of attack is more realistic. I'm just going to read some one by one and I might tell you something about them if I really liked it. And every now and then I'll give you an update. How about that? 

The last time we spoke about this I just finished reading the Lord of the Rings Triology in 3 days. Which was so much fun. Now I've read Wuthering Heights, which was beautiful. And 1984, which was a bit creepy and didn't have a happy ending. But really gave you something to think about. I re-read Pride and Prejudice, my favourite book. Anyway, although I enjoy reading classics, I also love a good modern book every now and then. So I'm going to take it slow and see where it ends. Have you read a lot?


And here is my update: blue are the ones I've read.


1. The Lord of the Rings triology by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. 1984 by George Orwell
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
5. To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
7. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8. A Passage to India by E.M. Forsfer
9.The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
10. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
11. A Bend in the Rivers by V.S. Naipaul
12. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
15. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
16. The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
17. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
18. The Bible by Various
19. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
20. Ulysses by James Joyce
21. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
22. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
23. Money by Martin Amis
24. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
25. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

26. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
27. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
28. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
29. Alice´s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll
30. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
31. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
32. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
33. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
34. The way we live now by Antony Trollope
35. The Outsider by Albert Camus
36. The colour Purple by Alice Walker
37. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
38. Frankenstein by Mary Selley
39. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
40. Man without Woman by Ernest Hemingway
41. Gulliver´s Travels by Jonathan Swift
42. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
43. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
44. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe
45. One flew over the Cockoo´s Nest by Ken Kesey
46. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
47. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
48. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
49. The Divine Comedy by Alighieri Dante
50. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 

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1. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

As some of you already know, I decided that it was time to read all the books on the bookmark I got from my parents. 50 Books to read before you die. I think a book lover like me should definitely read those books. So I challenged myself to read the 50 books this year. To show you I mean it, I read the whole Lord of the Rings this week. Which wasn't that much of a challenge, because the books are amazing. But if I want to finish the list I should read more than one book every week. Anyway, I promised to tell you something about every book I read.

(This is the version I read, quite an old one, in Dutch.)

I love the Lord of the Rings movie ever since my mother said I should watch them when I was ill and bored to death. Eventhough everbody always told me that books were so much better, I was pretty content with the long hours sitting and watching Middle-earth on screen. But now that has changed. I discovered, not to my surprise though, that the books are wonderful. They changed a lot of things in the films. Which I think is a good thing, otherwise no one could follow it. But the books leave more to your imagination and you really find yourself in Middle-earth feeling sorry for Frodo and hoping he'll make it. Which -of course- he does. And I love the elves, the relationship between Éowyn and Faramir and how those Ents take down Isengard. But I won't give too much lovely details away, you should read the books yourself. Really, when you finally commit yourself and decide you're going to read them you'll enjoy it.

So. This is it. The beginning of the list. The next one is 1984 by George Orwell. I think everyone had heard about this book -and every other book on the list- and I hope it is as fascinating as people say it is.

Karin.

50 Books to read before you die

Quite some time ago, my parents bought me a bookmark with a list:
50 Books to read before you die.
On the list are a lot of famous must-read books. Since I'm a huge fan of reading I really hope to read the whole list. And I figured.. The next months I have some free time... So this is the challenge: I have to read those 50 Books this year. That means I've got a lot of reading to do. I'll post a little something about each book. Fortunately, I already read a few of them. Unfortunately, the list begins with The Lord of the Rings triology, which of course are three books instead of one. We have Lord of the Rings in or book collection at home and I will start tomorrow. I kind of wonder if I'm not asking too much, but wish me luck!

The List:

1. The Lord of the Rings triology by J.R.R. Tolkien

2. 1984 by George Orwell
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
5. To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
7. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8. A Passage to India by E.M. Forsfer
9.The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
10. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
11. A Bend in the Rivers by V.S. Naipaul
12. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
15. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
16. The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
17. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
18. The Bible by Various
19. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
20. Ulysses by James Joyce
21. The Quiet American by Graham Greene
22. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
23. Money by Martin Amis
24. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
25. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

26. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
27. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
28. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
29. Alice´s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll
30. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
31. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
32. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
33. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
34. The way we live now by Antony Trollope
35. The Outsider by Albert Camus
36. The colour Purple by Alice Walker
37. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
38. Frankenstein by Mary Selley
39. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
40. Man without Woman by Ernest Hemingway
41. Gulliver´s Travels by Jonathan Swift
42. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
43. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
44. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe
45. One flew over the Cockoo´s Nest by Ken Kesey
46. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
47. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
48. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
49. The Divine Comedy by Alighieri Dante
50. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 

Karin.