Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights is the only other book of the list that I already own so its up next! I'm excited about this one because I've heard good things about it from my co-workers. I've tried to read it before but had a difficult time because I had to keep flipping back to the Explanatory Notes to make sense of what I was reading. This time I'm going to use a little more patience and hopefully end up enjoying it.

'Wuthering Heights was hewn in a wild workshop, with simple tools, out of homely materials', wrote Charlotte Bronte in her preface to the second edition of her sister's book, two years after Emily's death in 1848. Unlike Charlotte's Jane Eyre, Emily's Wuthering Heights had had a discouraging start. First published in 1847, and set amongst the wild Yorkshire moors, with the vindictive, passionate character of Heathcliff dominating the story, the book must have appeared rough and strange. But the power of the communication between Heathcliff and Catherine, set alongside the weaker characters - the civilized but passionless wise, down-to-earth housekeeper who witnessed the tragic events, soon made Wuthering Heights on the the most popular of all English novels. 

So the back of the book doesn't give much away so I guess I'll just have to dive right in!

Life of Pi - Finished!

Pi has been rescued and is finally safe. I was so happy when he got rescued and felt so much relief for him that he was finally on dry, non-carnivorous land. No longer do I have to read about the  frustrating ways that he had to find 'food'and the awful things he ate that made me, a faithful vegetarian, nauseous every time.

I just can't believe the way this book ended. It confused me at first and then left me feeling sad and disgusted. My first reaction to reading Pi's second version of the story was that this poor, worn out boy had to make up a fake story just to get these goons to believe him. I was furious that the investigators wouldn't even open their minds to the possibility that the story was true. It wasn't until one of the officers commented on the similarities between the two stories that I realized that the second may actually be the true story. It breaks my heart to think that it is and that Pi was so traumatized by his ordeal that he had to escape in his mind to an alternate, and yet still tragic story. Instantly, it went from being a difficult yet whimsical adventure to a gruesome, cannibalistic tale. The fact that he would have had to see his own mother being murdered tears me apart. I still don't want to believe that there were actual people on the lifeboat, but I think that in my gut I know that its true.

It did bring me comfort that in the end that the officer, who quite clearly did not believe Pi's original story wrote in his report, 'Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger.'

More words:

JUGGERNAUT (noun) : 1. any large, overpowering, destructive force or object, as was, a giant battleship, or a powerful football team 2. anything requiring blind devotion or cruel sacrifice

CONJECTURE (noun, verb) : 1. the formation or expression of an opinion or theory without sufficient evidence or proof 2. an opinion or theory so formed or expressed; guess; speculation

I'm so happy that I've completed my first book so I can proudly display it on my bookshelf!

Life of Pi - One Third Remaining

Wow! I understand now why this book gathers such high praise. I can't put it down!

Although the beginning part left me feeling like I knew nothing of religions, I did some research and I can now say that I can tell you the differences and similarities of each one that the book refers to. I was confused about the difference between Muslim and Islam, but little did I know there are the same. A Muslim is someone who follows the Islam faith. In looking into this faith I do see that the very basis of it is devotion and brotherhood, not what is portrayed in the media. Like all religions, there seems to be a small fraction of devotees that have contorted its meaning into something more hateful and sinister than originally intended.

There are many references to Mrs. Gandhi, mainly in Pi's parents discussions. I had never heard of her so I went to straight to Wiki to find out more. Turns out she was the first and only female Prime Minister that India has ever had. There was much controversy about her politics and she was eventually assassinated in 1984 at the age of 66. I found lots of arguments for and against her but it says that she lowered poverty in India by 20% while she was in office, so in my opinion she was pretty good at her job. The mention of her in the book just sounds like a typical parents having political debates in front of their child.

Richard Parker is a Royal Bengal tiger?? Didn't see that one coming. I just thought that I had blanked out while reading and missed the part about a man by that name.

It was upon realizing that there is a tiger, a zebra, a oran-utan, and a hyena on the boat that I looked into whether or not this is actually a true story. Not only is it completely made up, but no where in the book or on the front or back cover does it claim to be a true story. I don't know how I got it in my head that this was true, but I'm sure it has something to do with the high caliber of Martel's art.

Sometimes when I'm reading I think that the words sound like a poem. Like if read out loud it would rhyme or at the very least follow a beautiful beat.

LOVE Chapter 56. Its my favorite so far in the book! I understand that Pi's fear is a more mortal fear than that which we all face on a day to day basis, but I think that the message is transferable. I think its so cool how he describes fear as the enemy taking out opponents left and right. As someone who is scared a lot of the time about bad choices, failure, other people's opinions, etc. I found it to be an interesting way to look at fear. Especially when he says, 'You dismiss your last allies: hope and trust. There, you've defeated yourself. Fear, which is but an impression, has triumphed over you'.

Here are some words I learned. I would love to know if the author just knows all these words of if he's constantly using the thesaurus.

ESPLANADE (noun) : a level open space of ground; a public walk or roadway, often along a shore

CATALEPSY (noun) : a condition characterized by lack of response to external stimuli and by muscular rigidity so that limbs remain in whatever position they are placed

FORMIDABLE (adjective) : 1. causing fear, apprehension, or dread. 2. of discouraging or awesome strength, size, difficulty; intimidating. 3. arousing feelings of awe or admiration because of strength 4. of great strength, forceful, powerful

INCONGRUOUS (adjective) : 1. out of keeping or place; inappropriate, unbecoming. 2. not harmonious in character; lacking harmony of parts. 3. inconsistent

MARAUD (verb) : to roam or go around in quest of plunder; make a raid for booty (what???)

SUPPLICATION (noun) : an act or instance of supplicating; humble prayer, entreaty, or petition

PERSNICKETY (adjective) : 1. overparticular, fussy. 2. snobbish or having the aloof attitude of a snob

Beckon is a word that I know but I'd forgotten about. I LOVE that word and will try to use it daily.

Right now Pi and Richard Parker are battling a huge storm, so I better get back to them!

Life of Pi - Quarter Way Mark

Well, I'm half way to half way through Life of Pi and I'm really enjoying it. I was happily surprised that the author is from Canada and that there are many references to this great country.

I must say that until I hit Chapter 16, I sort of felt like I was reading a Zoology textbook, not that its a bad thing, but just wasn't what I was expecting. I loved the way each of the animals was described and the facts on some of them. It made me want to head straight to the zoo, or at the very least Wikipedia each one of them. That was until I realized that I had been to the Calgary Zoo just a month ago with my mom and my god siblings and hadn't felt the way that Pi felt. The author did such a good job describing the animals the way that an eight year old would have seen them, not a 27 year old babysitter who was more interested in getting to the cafeteria.

The book made me consider my own opinion of zoos, which until this point had been fairly wishy washy. I had always felt a tinge of guilt about how much I loved going to see all of the caged animals. Little did I know, these animals feel more comfort, security, and peacefulness in their new habitats than they could ever feel out in the wild unknown.

It took a little longer than I am comfortable to admit to figure out the the italicized chapters are the authors notes on hearing Pi's story. I loved reading about the shrine that the author observed at Pi's home. I spent a month living in an Ashram in Hawaii and spent many hours praying and meditating to shrines just like the one described in the book. I don't know why it feels so good to read something that feels familiar, it gives me such a cozy feeling. I feel very lucky that because of experiences I have had, I can visualize the beauty and importance of a shrine.

I'm not a very religious person, I basically just believe in love. This book talks quite a bit about different religions and its making me realize how little I know and I want to do some research on a few of them. The book says, "I challenge anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not to love it. It is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion." I will take that challenge because lately, the news coverage of this religion has not been positive. New York is dealing with the monumental debate of whether or not to build a Muslim center 2 blocks from Ground Zero. People are protesting, people are threatening to burn Qu'arans, people are spewing hate. Everyday I hear different politicians and religious leaders argue that Islam is a religion based on hate and violence since the beginning of time. I'm curious to see what Wiki thinks of this.

I have no idea what Chapter 21 is about. Totally lost despite having reread it 20 times.

One of my favorite quotes so far is, "To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation"

I've always considered myself a great reader so I was taken a little off guard when I came across several (actually more like many) words that I had never read before. Rather than feeling like a huge dunce, I'm just going to look at it as an opportunity to expand my vocabulary. Here are some that I'm hoping will stick in my memory for a while:

1. INDOLENT (adjective) : having or showing a disposition to avoid exertion; slothful

2. HOVEL (noun) : a small, very humble dwelling house; a wretched hut, any dirty, disorganized dwelling

3. ANTHROPOMORPHIZE (verb) : to ascribe human form or attributes to and animal, plant, material object, etc. (I love this word because I do this to my dog Sophie all the time!)

4. IMPIOUS (adjective) : not pious or religious; lacking reverence for god, religious practices, etc.;ungodly; disrespectful

5. PETULANT (adjective) : moved to or showing sudden, impatient irritation, especially over some trifling annoyance (a petulant toss of the head)

I'm excited to keep reading and get to the actual meat of the story, so far it just seems to be a lot of set up. Reading about this young boy who is so enthralled by religion and wanting to know and love God is making me think a lot about my own religion, or lack thereof. If the book pulls through on its promise though, there is a good chance that I will end up believing in God by the end of it.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

I chose to read Life of Pi by Yann Martel simply because it was one of the two books from the list that I already owned, although I've never read it. Here's the story according to the back cover of the book:

"After the sinking of a cargo ship, a single solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the surface of the wild, blue Pacific. The crew of the surviving vessel consists of a hyena, an orang-utan, a zebra with a broken leg, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger and Pi Patel, a 16-year-old Indian boy. The stage is set for one of the most extraordinary pieces of literary fiction in the recent years, a novel of such rare and wondrous storytelling that it may, as one character claims, make you believe in God. Can a reader reasonably ask for anything more?"

Good question. I will answer it 354 pages from now.

The Official List!

Well apparently an ultimate list of the top 100 novels doesnt exist. I found many lists on the internet that claim to be the ultimate list however they are all made up of different books. So I've decided to combine three of the lists that looked the best to me.

The first list is the Modern Library Board's list. This list was featured in Time magazine and is one that I came across numerous times in my search. The second is the Modern Library Reader's list and this was a list that was compliled from the votes of over 400,000 avid readers. The last list is on that I found online that claimed to be a list of the top 100 classics. After a quick look through it, I realized that it named quite a few of the books that I had been disappointed not to see on the first two lists. Luckily there were some books that were on two or all of the lists.

So on the down side, my little project has just gotten a LOT bigger and more daunting, but on the up side, I have many more exciting books that I have the privilage of reading. So here is the official list!

1)      1984 – George Orwell

2)      A Bend in the River – V.S. Naipaul

3)      A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

4)      A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

5)      A Dance to the Music of Time (series) – Anthony Powell

6)      A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

7)      A Handful of Dust – Evelyn Waugh

8)      A High Wind in Jamaica – Richard Hughes

9)      A House for Mr. Biswas – V.S. Naipaul

10)  A Passage to India – E.M. Foster

11)  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce

12)  A Prayer for Owen  Meany – John Irving

13)  A Room with a View – E.M. Forster

14)  A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

15)  Absalom, Absalom! – William Faulkner

16)  All Quiet of the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque

17)  All the Kings Men – Robert Penn Warren

18)  An American Tragedy – Theodore Dreiser

19)  Angels and Demons – Dan Brown

20)  Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner

21)  Animal Farm – George Orwell

22)  Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

23)  Anne of Green Gables -L.M. Montgomery

24)  Anthem – Ayn Rand

25)  Appointment in Samarra – John O’Hara

26)  Arrowsmith – Sinclair Lewis

27)  As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner

28)  A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

29)  At Swim-Two-Birds – Flann O’Brien

30)  At the Mountains of Madness – H.P. Lovecraft

31)  Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand

32)  Atonement – Ian McEwan

33)  Battlefield Earth – L. Ron Hubbard

34)  Beloved – Toni Morrison

35)  Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy

36)  Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

37)  Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

38)  Catch-22 – Joseph Heller

39)  Citizen of the Galaxy – Robert Heinlein

40)  Crime and Punishment -Fyodor Dostoevsky

41)  Darkness at Noon – Arthur Koestler

42)  David Copperfield -Charles Dickens

43)  Death Comes For the Archbishop – Willa Cather

44)  Deliverance – James Dickey

45)  Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes

46)  Double Star – Robert Heinlein

47)  Dracula - Bram Stoker

48)  Dune – Frank Herbert

49)  East of Eden - John Steinbeck

50)  Emma - Jane Austen

51)  Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card

52)  Farenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

53)  Fear - L. Ron Hubbard

54)  Fifth Business – Robertson Davies

55)  Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk

56)  Finnegan’s Wake – James Joyce

57)  For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway

58)  Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

59)  From Here to Eternity – James Jones

60)  Go Tell It On the Mountain – James Baldwin

61)  Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell

62)  Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon

63)  Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

64)  Green Mantle – Charles de Lint

65)  Guilty Pleasures – Laurell K. Hamilton

66)  Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling

67)  Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

68)  Henderson the Rain King – Saul Bellow

69)  His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman

70)  Howards End – E. M. Forster

71)  I, Claudius – Robert Graves

72)  Illusions – Richard Bach

73)  Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison

74)  Ironweed – William Kennedy

75)  It – Stephen King

76)  Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

77)  Kim – Rudyard Kipling

78)  Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

79)  Life of Pi - Yann Martel

80)  Light In August – William Faulkner

81)  Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

82)  Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

83)  Lord Jim – Joseph Conrad

84)  Lord of the Flies – William Golding

85)  Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien

86)  Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

87)  Loving – Henry Green

88)  Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

89)  Main Street – Sinclair Lewis

90)  Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

91)  Memory and Dream – Charles de Lint

92)  Middlemarch - George Eliot

93)  Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

94)  Mission Earth – L. Ron Hubbard

95)  Moby Dick - Herman Melville

96)  Moonheart – Charles de Lint

97)  Mulengro – Charles de Lint

98)  My Antonia – Willa Cather

99)  Mythago Wood – Robert Holdstock

100)          Naked Lunch – William S. Burroughs

101)          Native Son – Richard Wright

102)          Nostromo – Joseph Conrad

103)          Of Human Bondage – W. Somerset Maugham

104)          Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

105)          On the Beach – Nevil Shute

106)          On the Road – Jack Kerouac

107)          One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey

108)          One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

109)          One Lonely Night – Mickey Spillane

110)          Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov

111)          Parade’s End – Madox Ford

112)          Persuasion - Jane Austen

113)          Point Counter Point – Aldous Huxley

114)          Portnoy’s Complaint – Philip Roth

115)          Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

116)          Ragtime – E.L. Doctorow

117)          Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

118)          Remembrance of Things Past - Marcel Proust

119)          Scoop – Evelyn Waugh

120)          Shane – Jack Schaefer

121)          Sister Carrie – Theodore Dreiser

122)          Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut

123)          Someplace to be Flying – Charles de Lint

124)          Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury

125)          Sometimes a Great Notion – Ken Kesey

126)          Sons and Lovers – D.H. Lawrence

127)          Sophie’s Choice – William Styron

128)          Starship Troopers – Robert Heinlein

129)          Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein

130)          Suttree – Cormac McCarthy

131)          Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald

132)          Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

133)          The Adventures of Augie March – Saul Bellow

134)          The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

135)          The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton

136)          The Alexandra Quartet – Lawrence Durell

137)          The Ambassadors – Henry James

138)          The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

139)          The Bridge of San Luis – Thornton Wilder

140)          The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky

141)          The Call of the Wild – Jack London

142)          The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

143)          The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis

144)          The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

145)          The Cunning Man – Robertson Davies

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

147)          The Day of the Locust – Nathanael West

148)          The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

149)          The Death of the Heart – Elizabeth Bowen

150)          The Door into Summer – Robert Heinlein

151)          The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand

152)          The French Lieutenant’s Women – John Fowles

153)          The Ginger Man – J.P. Donleavy

154)          The Golden Bowl – Henry James

155)          The Good Soldier – Madox Ford

156)          The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

157)          The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

158)          The Handmaids Tale – Margret Atwood

159)          The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson

160)          The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers

161)          The Heart of the Matter – Graham Greene

162)          The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

163)          The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

164)          The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton

165)          The Hunt for Red October – Tom Clancy

166)          The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky

167)          The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

168)          The Little Country – Charles de Lint

169)          The Magnificent Ambersons – Booth Tarkington

170)          The Magnus – John Fowles

171)          The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett

172)          The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

173)          The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Robert Heinlein

174)          The Moviegoer – Walker Percy

175)          The Naked and the Dead – Norman Mailer

176)          The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

177)          The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

178)          The Old Wives’ Tale – Arnold Bennett

179)          The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

180)          The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

181)          The Postman Always Rings Twice – James M. Cain

182)          The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark

183)          The Puppet Masters – Robert Heinlein

184)          The Rainbow – D.H. Lawrence

185)          The Recognitions – William Gaddis

186)          The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie

187)          The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

188)          The Secret Agent – Joseph Conrad

189)          The Sheltering Sky – Paul Bowles

190)          The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner

191)          The Stand – Stephen King

192)          The Stranger - Albert Camus

193)          The Studs Lonigan Trilogy – James T. Farrell

194)         The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

195)         The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

196)          The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

197)          The Trial - Franz Kafka

198)          The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera

199)          The Wapshot Chronicles – John Cheever

200)          The Way of All Flesh – Samuel Butler

201)          The Wings of the Dove – Henry James

202)          The Wood Wife – Terri Windling

203)          The World According to Garp – John Irving

204)          The Worm Ouroboros – E.R. Eddison

205)          To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

206)          To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf

207)          Tobacco Road – Erskine Caldwell

208)          Trader – Charles de Lint

209)          Tropic of Cancer – Henry Miller

210)          Trustee from the Toolroom – Nevil Shute

211)          U.S.A. (trilogy) – John Dos Passos

212)          Ulysses – James Joyce

213)          Under the Net – Iris Murdoch

214)          Under the Volcano – Malcolm Lowry

215)          V. – Thomas Pynchon

216)          War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

217)          Watership Down – Richard Adams

218)          We the Living – Ayn Rand

219)          Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys

220)          Winesburg, Ohio – Sherwood Anderson

221)          Wise Blood – Flannery O’Conner

222)          Women In Love – D.H. Lawrence

223)          Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

224)          Yarrow – Charles de Lint

225)          Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert Pirsig

226)          Zuleika Dobson – Max Beerbohm

Its HUGE! I have a lot of reading ahead of me and most of the titles are completely unfamiliar to me. Quite a few I recognize from when they were made into movies. Soon enough I will have my very own opinion on each and every one of them!

So excited to get started!

Gun shy

First post and I am completely drawing a blank. I was thinking all day of what I was going to write and now all I can think of is that I am the biggest narcissist ever. To be completely honest, I hate blogs. I think that in most cases its silly people who weave silly stories to make them believe that they have a quirky little life when in actual fact they are spending too much time typing away to actual live an authentic quirky life.

So I suppose I sound like a complete hypocrite then since I have just started my own. On the off chance that somebody read this, I must let you know that I really am just writing for myself. The reason that I started this was because I have challenged myself to read the top 100 novels of all times. Of course, one can do this without letting the world know, but those are people with half decent memories and more motivation than I have in my pinkie finger.

I am willing to bet that I have the worst memory of all the 27 year old people in the world. I have gone on amazing, once in a lifetime trips and have beautiful photos to prove it, but ask me the name of the town where I was and I won't be able to answer you. I have a wonderful family and throughout the years my dad, mom, brother and I have most likely created some beautiful memories. The problem is that I all I remember is laughter and love, anything more specific than that and I am lost. I have dated amazing men, but without a couple of good hints I wont be able to tell you when and for how long we were together. In my 27 years I have been fortunate enough to encounter many many interesting and outrageous and brilliant people who have told me stories that have left me completely and utterly spellbound to the point where I have thought to myself, "I will never be the same person again!". Ask me to retell these stories and I will just give it my best shot until the point where I am overcome with embarrassment at my lackluster memory and will end up creating some sort on tall tale to pass on as someone else's.

Its not as though I have an actual medical problem, at least not according to the doctors I've asked. Its just who I am. My best friend who grew up near me has the same problem, so maybe there was something in the water. Aside from a few concussions as a kid and a slight bought of alcoholism as a bigger kid, I have no reason to be letting go of the information that I digest. I'm not concerned though and on the scale of issues that I could waste my time stressing out about, this falls way down on the list, somewhere after paying off my credit card and redoing the carpet in my bedroom.

However, if I am going to read the top 100 novels of all time, I would like to get something out of it. I want to absorb, contemplate, and revel in the stories that these talented authors have offered the world. I would like to remember how I felt when characters fell in love, lost their love, went to battle, reached their goals, fell short of expectations, and on and on and on....

So tonight I'm going to finish up reading the latest in chick lit smut in order to make way for books that matter. Im also going to download my list of books to read which Im hoping will be more exciting than overwhelming. Tomorrow I start on the first book!