My Book List

This is my Book List. I started it about 3 years ago and it has done nothing but get longer. I sincerely cannot keep up with it.




A lot of these titles come from other books I've read, like Richard Adam's 'Watership Down', which begins each chapter with a quote from a different book. Or 20,00 Leagues where Jules Verne quotes 'The Ancient Mariner'. And a good portion comes from a book I picked up from the library on Homeschooling. The lady who wrote it lists quite a few titles that are good for teaching culture, history, and language. She writes that books, not just curriculum style books, have been her greatest asset in teaching. My kind of woman! Some others have come from friends and family.




Also I've created this list to make up for the lack in my education. I was a dumb kid and decided to bolt high school. So, in the same style I teach my kids I've decided to make up for it by exploiting what I'm good at and using it as a tool for learning. I like to read, so I make sure that what I read edifies my mind in some way. National Geographic has been one of my favorite tools in my quest for knowledge. But as always lacking in storyline and plot, I've always needed additional literature to keep the hunger alive (eating the pages, har ya har).
This list that I'm posting now is not complete, not by far. I have about 200 in my written list, I just thought I'de throw these out for now, and I'll update often. Hopefully... (stinkin at&t dsl!)




Thus The List is created. Please, anyone reading feel free to add or give your own reviews on these books. Bai, I already know how you feel about Ben Franklin's Autobiography. So here goes, they are in no particular order, #1 has been #1 since the list was created.

1. Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan


2. The Oxford Book of American Verse


3. A Tale of Two Cities, by Dickens


4. Moby Dick, by Herman Melville


5. Walden, by Thoreau


6. The Adventures of Huck Finn, by Mark Twain
7. The Everlasting Man, by G. K. Chesterton
8. City of God, by Augustine
9. The Drifting Island, by Walter Wentworth
10. The Tiger of Mysore, by G. A. Henty
11. The Speckled Hen's Story, by Amy Prentice
12. Adventures Among the Indians, by Kingston
13. Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling (super sweet movie about him on KCPT, you could probably pick it up at the library)
14. Rob Roy, by Walter Scott and Ian Duncan
15. Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson
16. Essay on Man, by Alexander Pope
17. Carlyle's Essay on Burns, by Carlyle
18. The Citizen of the World, by Oliver Goldsmith
19. The Virginian by by Owen Wister
20. Relationships Pure and Simple, by Alan Wibbels and Marti Wibbels
21. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott (she writes some pretty good poetry too.)
22. Little Men, by see above
23. The Story of Roland, by James Baldwin
24. Legends of Charlemagne, by Thomas Bulfinch
25. Birds and Bees: Essays, by John Burroughs
26. The Adventures of a Brownie
27. History of a Little Goody Two Shoes, by Oliver Goldsmith
28. Tanglewood Tales, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
29. Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
30. The Sketch-Book, by Washington Irving
31. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, above
32. Tales of a Traveller, above above
33. The Heroes, by Charles Kingsley
34. The Day's Work, by Rudyard Kipling
35. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
36. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
37. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
38. The Boyhood of a Naturalist, by John Muir
39. The Boy's Life of Ulysses S. Grant
    
40. The Oregon Trail, by Francis Parkman
41. Redgauntlet, by Sir Walter Scott
42. Lives of the Hunted, and...
43. Animal Heroes, by Ernet Thompson Seton
44. Midsummer Nights Dream, by Shakespeare
45. Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
46. The Hourglass, (now, upon looking up the author of this title I kept two things in mind: 1, it's going to be old, 2, knowing the person who recommended the book I could figure out the correct author by reading a small summary. BUT, with this one I stumbled across one probable author, and one who intrigued me. So, the probable author being Will Brennan, pub. 1916. And the one who intrigued me, Barbara Metzger, pub. 2007.)
47. The Divine Comedy, by Dante
48. Politics and Poetics, Aristotle
49. The Age of Fable, by Thomas Bulfinch
50. Ben Franlikn's Autobiography
51. The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane
52. Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
53. Essays & Lectures, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
54. The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli
55. Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regained, by Milton
56. The House of Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
57. The Illiad, and
58. The Odyssey, by Homer
59. Lives of Ten Noble Greeks and Romans, by Plutarch
60. Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott
61. Anna Karenina, by Tolstoy
62. Drums, by James Boyd
63. The Robe, and...
64. Magnificent Obsession, and...
    
65. The Big Fisherman, by Lloyd C. Douglas
66. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
67. In the Reign of Terror, by G. A. Henty
68. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo
69. The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emuska Orczy (i must admit i had a little fun writing that last author's name.:)
70. Quo Vadis, by Henryk Sienkiewicz
71. The Merchant of Venice, by Shakespeare
72. The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame, (mom read this to me when I was a babe, so now I want to read them to my babes.)
73. The Bronze Bow, and...
    
74. The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare
75. Ben Hur, by Lew Wallace
76. The Source, by James A. Michener
77. Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkein (already read the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and loved them! especially The Hobbit!)
78. Don Quixote, by Cervantes
79. Martha Stewart's Housekeeping Handbook (yes, I need it.)
80. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
    

Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility is a novel written by Jane Austen. It's about two sisters, young women finding, losing, and finding the love of their lives. Written in 1811, this novel was her first published. In those times money, especially inheritance, was at the forefront of every decision, including how you treated someone and who you married. In one instance, Mr. Dashwood doesn't know how to treat Colonel Brandon, (I call him The Colonel), until he knows just how much The Colonel is worth. With this in mind, the girls (Elinor the eldest, and Marianne) having very little money and virtually no inheritance, therefore, have little prospects for marriage. This is the theme of the book: Money, marriage, heartache, and love despite it all. Review anyone?

Review: I had the advantage (or disadvantage, whichever way you want to see it) of seeing the movie first. Don't get me wrong, the movie was excellent as well as the book. The casting was perfect, especially Kate Winslet as Marianne. I really abhor Hugh Grant as Edward, but I abhor Hugh Grant as anything so that's really neither here nor there. At any rate, the ending was thus ruined for me. The only real pleasure I got from the book was in getting the story, the dialogue, and feeling of the story from Jane Austen herself instead of the movie maker. You never really do get the full picture of a book when it's been turned into a movie, until you've read the book. And also I'de seen the movie like two years ago so I remembered how the story ended, but not the details on how it unraveled itself, so I was always anticipating that last conversation between Elinor and Edward. I'm entering into theory territory so I'll end with this: I loved this book, read it, it's a great love story. I promise though that I will not like all books I read. Bad reviews will be coming up. Janette Oke... watch your back! spoilers ahead ...

Theory: My favorite character in this book is, hands down, Marianne. She's sensitive, passionate, modest, smart, and indignant. I definitely identify with her more then Elinor, who is more of the quiet strength variety. I know that I like Marianne's character the most because of the growth in her character. When she feels something, she feels it "to the utmost", but she will move on her opinion when she's wrong. Growth. This is truly evident in the fact that she does end up marrying the Colonel. Who is less flagrant with his emotions then Marianne's first love Wiloughby. At first The Colonel's phlegmatic disposition is off putting to her, and she saw it as a lack of character.
"Long before I was enough recovered to talk, I was perfectly able to reflect. I considered the past: I saw in my own behaviour, since the beginning of our acquaintance with him last autumn, nothing but a series of imprudence towards myself, and want of kindness to others. I saw that my own feelings had prepared my sufferings, and that my want of fortitude under them had almost led me to the grave. " ...... "I did not know my danger till the danger was removed; but with such feelings as these reflections gave me, I wonder at my recovery,--wonder that the very eagerness of my desire to live, to have time for atonement to my God, and to you all, did not kill me at once. Had I died,-- in what peculiar misery should I have left you, my nurse, my friend, my sister!--You, who had seen all the fretful selfishness of my latter days; who had known all the murmurings of my heart!--" Quote from Marianne after realizing just how stupid she acted over the loss of Wiloughby. Speaking of him. I know too many just like him.
"Her thoughts were silently fixed on the irreparable injury which too early an independence and its consequent habits of idleness, dissipation, and luxury, had made in the mind, the character, the happiness, of a man who, to every advantage of person and talents, united a disposition naturally open and honest, and a feeling, affectionate temper. The world had made him extravagant and vain--Extravagance and vanity had made him cold-hearted and selfish. Vanity, while seeking its own guilty triumph at the expense of another, had involved him in a real attachment, which extravagance, or at least its offspring, necessity, had required to be sacrificed. Each faulty propensity in leading him to evil, had led him likewise to punishment." - Elinor speaking of Wiloughby. Ugh.. what a jerk! And I know so many guys who are just like him. But what really irks me is that they really start to feel sorry for the guy, as if spending beyond your means and being completely self centered were some kind of debilitating disease that can cause you to use people without fear of consequence. Like he is some kind of victim of his own stupid behavior. Do I sound bitter? I might be, I know so many men just like him, not one of whom is my husband (thank God) but having to see so many of his friends and certain people, who shall not be named, acting just like Wiloughby, it really bugs the crap out of me!
On a lighter note, I love this quote because it's true:
"--for though a very few hours spent in
the hard labor of incessant talking will despatch more
subjects than can really be in common between any two
rational creatures, yet with lovers it is different.
Between THEM no subject is finished, no communication
is even made, till it has been made at least twenty
times over." This is of Elinor speaking with Edward after their engagement. It was good to finally be able to picture them being outwardly affectionate with one another.

Maybe I have my mommy-dar on a little too much right now, but, um, I find it a little weird that Sir John was always rounding up young people to party with. a case of emotional immaturity maybe? Maybe his wife wasn't sufficient enough entertainment? Whatever it is, it's creepy.

And is it only me or doesn't it seem like the Miss Steeles did a whole lot of staying at other people's houses? Slackers.

I think maybe the moral of the story here is that most women prefer the handsome young vivacious man, instead of the steady, mature, stable man. Even though the stable would definitely love them better. So here's to all the ladies who chose the boring stable guy!!

Coming Soon....... Sense and Sensibility!

The Holidays have really put a damper on my reading schedule, so please forgive the long delay. I must confess that I have never read this many love stories in succession in all my life. I have always been rather partial to history/ action (Clive Cussler), science (Jules Verne) and classics such as Dickens, Tolkein, Richard Adams, authors like that. So this venture on love is an obvious sign of growth in the area of emotion! Yay, I was waiting for this! We'll have to wait and see if it makes me more stable....