I Think Judy Blume Got Hosed

I blatantly stole this book lover's quiz from Kristin at Camels & Chocolate. Below is a list of books printed by The Big Read, an organization that—according to their Web site—hopes to "restore reading to the center of American culture." They say, though, that the average American has only read six of the following hundred.

(I majored in English! This is going to be humiliating, I just know it!)

Key
1) Bold the books you have already read
2) Italicize the books you intend to read
3) Personally added: Notes in parentheses next to note-worthy titles.
4) THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN SHOULD NOT BE ON THIS LIST.

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1) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2) The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
3) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Also, does it count—even a little—that I have read this?)
4) Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling (I've technically only read one of seven, but I NEED ALL THE HELP I CAN GET HERE.)
5) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (This book changed my eighth-grade life.)
6) The Bible
7) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8) Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
9) His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
10) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Hated.)
11) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
12) Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
13) Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (I own it!)
14) Complete Works of Shakespeare (Not his complete works, but enough to make bolding this only a partial lie; Much Ado about Nothing is my favorite.)
15) Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
16) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
17) Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
18) Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
19) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
20) Middlemarch by George Eliot
21) Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell (I went through a phase when I was eleven or so when I couldn't go a day without thinking about this book/movie. I even read the "sequel" I was that wide-eyed and obsessed with Scarlett O'Hara.)
22) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (I read this in high school sophomore English, and it was my least favorite book we read that year.)
23) Bleak House by Charles Dickens (After Great Expectations, reading Dickens is not a priority.)
24) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
25) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (I'm guessing the movie doesn't count?)
26) Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
27) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28) Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (I've read East of Eden! Add East of Eden to the list!)
29) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
30) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
31) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Again, I already own it.)
32) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
33) Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
34) Emma by Jane Austen
35) Persuasion by Jane Austen
36) The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis
37) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
38) Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
39) Memories of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (Own.)
40) Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
41) Animal Farm by George Orwell
42) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (I read the first twenty pages or so and was so utterly bored, I couldn't believe anyone—let alone MILLIONS of people—enjoyed it.)
43) One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Beautiful. Perfect.)
44) A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving
45) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
46) Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
47) Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
48) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
49) Lord of the Flies by William Golding
50) Atonement by Ian McEwan (Funny story: I loved this book when I read it in my British Lit course in college. I lent it to Natalie, raving about it, and she returned it and said, "This sucked." And Natalie will read anything.)
51) Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Own it; I hear it's just brilliant.)
52) Dune by Frank Herbert
53) Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
54) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
55) A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
56) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57) A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
58) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
59) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
60) Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
62) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
63) The Secret History by Donna Tartt
64) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (I had the privilege of meeting Alice Sebold at a book show a year ago, and she was incredibly gracious and soft-spoken.)
65) Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
66) On The Road by Jack Kerouac
67) Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
68) Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (Does it count if you're fairly sure you read it, but you can't honestly remember?)
69) Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
70) Moby Dick by Herman Melville (I was in the English class opposite the class that was assigned this book. We read Good Earth instead. I think we were the lucky ones.)
71) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (DOES CHARLES DICKENS REALLY DESERVE LIKE HALF THIS LIST?)
72) Dracula by Bram Stoker
73) The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
74) Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson
75) Ulysses by James Joyce (And was I ever a confused teenager.)
76) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77) Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
78) Germinal by Emile Zola
79) Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
80) Possession by AS Byatt
81) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
82) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
83) The Color Purple by Alice Walker
84) The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
85) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
86) A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
87) Charlotte's Web by EB White
88) The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom
89) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90) The Faraway Tree Collection by Enid Blyton
91) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
92) The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93) The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
94) Watership Down by Richard Adams
95) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
96) A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
97) The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98) Hamlet by William Shakespeare
99) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
100) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

********************

Total: 20(ish)

Your turn.

Comments

[Meaghan]

Wow, I've read 59 - I'm pretty shocked. I think it is a weird list though and there are some inconsistencies. Like the Chronicles of Narnia isn't really separate from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, so? I didn't even count the ones that I've tried to read and abandoned... Is it sad that I have little intention to read the rest?

[Elizabeth]

Oh No! The Great Gatsby is my favorite book EVER written :)

[Erik]

36... although I might have cheated and counted some of the 'collected works' ones also.

And, not to be a book snob or anything, but everyone should take their copy of The Five People You Meet in Heaven, poop on it, and mail it to Mitch Albom. So then when he dies the sixth person he can meet in heaven is 'the person who pooped on my book and mailed it to me.' Because that's how shitty that book is.

[Loralee]

68.

There are so many on there I have been MEANING to read, though. Boo.

[Raven]

I have read 25(ish). I haven't read the complete works of Shakespeare but I have read ALMOST all of them.

I have read WAY TOO MUCH DICKENS. I blame early schooling for that.

One weekend when I was 12, I read Gone With The Wind and Thornbirds and then a book by Dean Koontz for good measure. Book nerd? Yes.

[Kitty]

2) The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
3) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4) Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
5) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6) The Bible
8) Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one.
9) His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman VERY meh.
11) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
13) Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
14) Complete Works of Shakespeare - I'll take 1/2 credit for this one, as I've read all I could bear, and most of the important ones.
16) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
18) Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
21) Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
22) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
25) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
28) Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
29) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
30) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
33) Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
36) The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis
40) Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
42) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
46) Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
49) Lord of the Flies by William Golding
52) Dune by Frank Herbert
57) A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
58) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
70) Moby Dick by Herman Melville
71) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
72) Dracula by Bram Stoker
73) The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
76) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
81) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
87) Charlotte's Web by EB White
89) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
92) The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
98) Hamlet by William Shakespeare
99) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

38. I have several issues with this list. If for no other reason than because whoever put it together seems to have forgotten that (unless I'm even more stupid than I give myself credit for) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is PART of the Chronicles of Narnia. So it's kind of on there twice. I'm really not much of a "classics" fan, so many of these books did absolutely nothing for me, and there are very few of the ones I haven't read that I actually want to. One semi-classic that I wish would make lists like this every here and there is definitely Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya. And where was Fahrenheit 451??

[Nicole]

Love these type of lists. I'm definitely using this for tomorrow's blog post. Cheers!

ps - 20ish ain't bad. :)

[Milana]

I'm pretty proud to say that I've read or attempted to read about half the list. Plus it made me happy because now I have a great reminder of lots of books I've been meaning to read but can never think of their names!

Excuse me though for a minute while I go knock myself unconscious and try to forget that I have ever read The Handmaid's Tale. WORST. BOOK. EVER. Really now.

Lovely Bones was fantastic but had me creeped out for days. I was 15ish when I read it, so maybe it was too early to do so? I read lots of books (both honor worthy and lots that weren't) before my time though, so I don't know why that one scarred me so badly...

[Mary]

I had to do it too, I got 22...I agree, they NEED to add East of Eden to the list, that book kicks the ass of so many of the listed books!

[Trysha]

I'm totally going to borrow this. There's so many books on the list that I've read but forgot about and there's a ton of books that should be on here. Now I have to update my GoodReads lists. Thanks. :)

[chirky]

Is anyone else annoyed by the fact that # 33 and # 36 are essentially the same thing, in that # 36 is one-seventh of the Chronicles?

[Raychelle]

I'm at 20 as well. I think I may have read some others as a kid and just don't remember...but for 20 I know I read.

For lots of these I've seen the movie...bummer that doesn't count. I also feel like there a good number of books that I thought were life changers that weren't included on this list. But, I guess it's just a sampling.

Interesting post :)

[Stephanie]

40

But agreed about the Hamlet and Shakespeare and Narnia and Lion, Witchm etc.

And, uh, hello? I'm with you, Jennie: Five People You Meet in Heaven?

And high fives all around to the Great Gatsby haters!!!!! Least favourite book EVERRRRRRRRR.

[Stephanie]

Oh! Missed one! :)

41

[Cherie]

Don't feel bad I have only read like two on that list; one being The Five People You Meet in Heaven!

[Janssen]

I totally read the GWTW sequel too. Glad I'm not alone in my obsession.

[Rach]

26.

And please, please go read Birdsong. It was amazing. :)

[Katie]

LOL at Erik's comment! I'll have to try this though. Thanks to required readings in high school and college, I've read a fair number of these. And I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I made it a personal mission to read all of the classics one summer...that didn't go so well.

[Sharon]

Great idea! I'll be using this tomorrow. I've read 41 of them.

[Camels & Chocolate]

I was surprised that I'd read nearly half, but I think the majority of those were ones that I was forced to read in AP English in high school! Does that even count?? But at least, now I have a solid book list to peruse when I'm in need of a new read (even though my current list is hovering somewhere around 50, ha!).

OH, and didn't you say you loved the Twilight series? Well, I haven't read them yet (also on my to-read list), but I'm reading this vampire series by Charlaine Harris about Sookie Stackhouse (first one is called Dead After Dark) that my sis, mom, Scott's sister and her hubby are all reading and LOVE. Just thought I'd pass on the vamp love =)

[Kerri Anne]

I'm totally going to steal this for my site later this week. The English Nerdery, it is SO perfectly suited for me! And speaking of books! You still need to send me one to read! : )

Moby-Dick is super fantastic, and I promise you, more than worth the wading it takes to get into it.

[Dianna]

I tried to read the DaVinci code aswell and got about as far as you did. I can't understand for the life of me what people like about it. The movie, yes I watched it, wasn't any better either. However, Angels and Deamons by Dan Brown is a completely amazing book and is apparently the prequel to the DaVinci Code. It's a great book, I'm so excited for the movie!

[Dianna]

Forgot to mention that To Kill A Mockingbird is a wonderful book. I've read it many times and love it more after each read.

[pogonip]

56, mostly because I'll read anything. And if it's good, I'll read it again. And again.

The list gave me some good ideas for more summer reading although I draw the line at War and Peace.

[Jess]

I've read 48. And I'm pissed because I was hoping to be at fifty. I have to read two more of these books, stat!

Also, NO DICKENS DOES NOT DESERVE TO OWN THIS LIST. He was paid by the WORD so he is VERBOSE and therefore TEDIOUS. I still haven't recovered from the Dickens class I took in high school.

[Rhi]

I did it!

[Kristen]

Is it sad that I've only read 22 of them and only intend to read 6 others?
And seriously? Mitch Albom?

[NGS]

I've read about a quarter of them. Because I like math better. That makes me...a liberal art student?

[Dani]

Yes, of course Dickens deserves it! :) Of course this is coming from the girl who read most of his works by the time she was outta highschool, so I might be a bit biased... :)

[Kristabella]

I like to read books that aren't super long and that aren't boring. Which is why some of these books on this list will never get read by me. I'm never going to read the Bible. I already know how it ends.

(That was a bad, horrible joke.)

[Shamelessly Sassy]

Judy Blume totally got hosed. I still read her sometimes.

[moosh in indy.]

Seriously, I scored 5.24
I know.
Piffle.
BUT! Water for Elephants? Looove.

[Heather B.]

Oh God. Atonement was awful. And I had to read One Hundred Years of Solitude in Spanish but still it was amazing.

[lynne]

I've read 78 please don't hate me.

[lynne]

Cool that the Faraway Tree books got on the list though, I didn't know they were available in the states.

[Ellen]

48. There would be about 10 more if you count the ones I started but didn't finish, or just skimmed. And there are several books on there which, to be honest, don't at all deserve it. There are also many books which aren't on there which should be. Still.I love book lists.