How many of these books have you read?

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

I found this over at Fabianspace, Karina Fabian's blog. Read her post here: http://fabianspace.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-many-of-these-classics-have-i-read.html

Instructions: Bold those books you've read in their entirety.
Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read only an excerpt.

TAG! YOU'RE IT!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 1984--George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - boring, then I found out it was written to teach kids atheism. Still boring.

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch-22 --Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - I like Titus Andronicus the best.

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - one of the first grown-up books I read as a child.

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - I read the first paragraph or so in Russian when I was learning Russian.

25 The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy--Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - I thought the ending was really, really funny....

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (All 7 of them!)

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - very dull, at least if you've already read the book Brown used as his source for the wild theories.

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood - liked it in spite of the hysterical anti-Christianism

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (and Seamonsters?)

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - is that the one about the kid with Asperger's Syndrome? if so it's on my must-read list.....

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov - I only read it for the smutty bits.

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - I keep thinking of it as the Count of Monte Crisco....

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding - my mom made me watch the movie because Colin Firth was in it and she has a crush on him.....

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville - did you know Melville is believed to have Asperger's Syndrome?

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - must have read it a hundred times in school (if I had admitted I was finished with it, I'd have had to write a book report.)

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - I like the Doctor Who version better....

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazu Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - Nearly as funny as Anna Karenina.

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom  - I'm betting one of them won't be Mitch Albom.

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - I want to have a lackey just like D'Artagnon does.

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo 


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My new writing partner....

Warning: Catholic content!
I cleared out some space on my usually cluttered writing desk and made a new home for my Infant Jesus of Prague statue. Just as a reminder of Who I am working for.

The Catholic custom is to dress the Infant of Prague in various colored vestments for the different seasons of the church year. In 1961 McCall's patterns even came out with a pattern for Infant of Prague vestments.

The white vestments in the picture I bought on eBay, which is where my statue came from. But I'm making another set following the directions here: Vestments for the Infant of Prague. This page has good instructions for making vestments,
and loads of pictures of new and vintage Infant garments. (I will be posting pics of the pattern I'm going to make for the vestments as well as pictures of the Infant in them, in case anyone else is doing Infant of Prague related crafts.)

The site also has a page full of pictures of the original Infant of Prague statue, which is housed, surprisingly, in Prague. In Sept. of '09, the Pope made a pilgrimage to Prague and gave the Infant a new crown. The Infant has loads of beautiful handmade vestments donated by people from all over the world.





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Your Online Presence: Creating A Haven for the People You Want to Know | Pocket Full of Words

Your Online Presence: Creating A Haven for the People You Want to Know | Pocket Full of Words: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Holly Lisle, the noted fantasy writer, has written a substantial and informative blog post on how to create a positive online presence. This knowledge is absolutely essential for writers these days, so if you are a writer with a blog, go thou and check out the post.

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Being Human on SyFy--- It's Not the Same

As it turns out, the Being Human show being promoed on SyFy is not the same series as the BBC Being Human. For info on the SyFy show, here are two links:
SyFy: Being Human
Wikipedia: Being Human (US TV series)

I don't know how I feel about this. Can you imagine a British version of Star Trek, or an American version of Doctor Who? It would be hard for me to adjust to either one. But I guess I can give this new show a chance. It's scheduled to begin on Jan. 17, 2011 in the US.

For those wanting to see the proper Being Human series from the BBC, it's available on DVD (Being Human: Season Two) or as 'video on demand' --- downloads of episodes (Being Human, Episode 1)

Shirt-tail relatives of this blog post:
BBC's Being Human
AA for Vampires in BBC's Being Human


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Fabianspace: Questions about Neeta Lyffe, not asked in intervie...

Fabianspace: Questions about Neeta Lyffe, not asked in intervie...: "How do you pronounce Lyffe? Is it a pun? Yes, it's pronounced Life, as in Need A Life. (Honestly, don't you know me by now?) That's an..."
Click on link above to continue reading.

Karina Fabian books I'm peddling:
Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator
Infinite Space, Infinite God IILeaps of Faith

Interview with Syzygy author Amanda Borenstadt

Don't call them werewolves. The Fir Na Gealaí in Amanda Borenstadt's urban fantasy novel Syzygy have a lot in common with werewolves, including having their 'time of the month', but you aren't supposed to call them werewolves.

Author Amanda Borenstadt shares her experiences in writing and publishing Syzygy.

Why did you choose the publisher you did and what were your experiences with the publisher?

I chose to self publish with Smashwords.com and Amazon.com. I queried agents for a while, but couldn't find anyone interested. Many are not taking new writers and I hadn't a thing to my name when I began. Now I have several short stories published, so perhaps it would be a different story. Who knows? I love Smashwords. They made it so simple. I ran into a technical glitch but Mark Coker, the Smashwords founder himself, helped me fix it. I'm very pleased. And their site is easy to use. Amazon gives a writer more exposure, but it doesn't feel as intimate. Both have their place in the world.

What are your three favorite books?

Tough to narrow down. I sometimes say my favorite book is whatever I'm reading at the time. LOL

My nine-year-old twins and I just discovered The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley. I get a kick out of fairy tale spin-offs. My all time bread and butter book is Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. I can pick it up any time and smile. And for my last one, I'll pick, C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. I was fortunate enough to see that performed live. It was the coolest!

What are your three favorite authors?

Once again, only three? Okay. Tolkien, Karina Fabian, Douglas Adams, and Neil Gaiman. Oops, that's four. ;)

In your mind, what is your book about?
Good question. I think the running theme is love- all sorts: friendship (the real and true kind), romantic love, parental love, and loving your neighbor. It's about people reaching outside of their safety zone to trust and become trustworthy. It even touches lightly on loving God. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but one character reveals they might be called to a religious vocation.


What modern fiction books have some similarities to your book?

This is the toughest question because- number one- I don't know that I'm good enough to compare myself to anybody else and -number two- I don't know of anything like Syzygy.

I asked a couple readers what they thought and they came up with books they said it wasn't like- which means they must hold some resemblance to Syzygy. Rachel Hawthorne's Dark Guardian series was mentioned. I think what people are doing is thinking "werewolf society."

I don't even have werewolves, just a race that's not entirely unlike werewolves. Also James Patterson's Maximum Ride. Loved it, but no. It's not like that.

One writer friend mentioned it weaves ethical dilemma and moral obligation with action and suspense like Animorphs by K.A. Applegate. Hmm, never would have thought of that. I'll take her word.

I searched for something else like it when I was trying to decide what genre to put it into. Romance is only a one portion of what Syzygy is about, but it is a paranormal romance.

It's a fantasy set in an urban environment, but it's not as full of fantasy as many of the other urban fantasies. The characters deal with some very human issues. It deals with serious stuff like depression and self harm and yet it has a lot of humor.


What do you think is the strong point of your book?

My characters feel genuine. People tell me they become attached to them. Each has real growth during the novel. One lady says she's simply in love with Finn. LOL


What do you think is the weak point of your book?

It's not as well polished as it could be in places. The overall plot is not air tight.

What writing project are you working on next?

Aside from the occasional short story, I'm writing a novel called "Twelve Keys" which will be heavily illustrated by my niece, Jasmine, who did the cover art for Syzygy. It's set in a sort of post apocalyptic time warped California where old time California is fused with modern California.


Why did you call it 'Syzygy'? How do you say 'Syzygy'? If you use the word 'syzygy' while playing Hangman, will you always win?

LOL Super questions. It went through several name changes. The most recent was To Be Human, but as you know, they came up with a TV show called Being Human. I didn't want to appear as a copycat, so I changed it. Some of the teenagers in my life voted for Syzygy. There's a humorous line in the book, "Hey baby, what's your syzygy?" which they liked.

Syzygy (SIZZ-uh-jee). The term as it's used in the novel refers to the new or full moon. As to the last question, well, if I were playing, no. I would lose. The other player would guess for sure because I do tend to go on and on about my book. LOL


Amanda Borenstadt's blog: A Fortnight of Mustard




Fans of urban fantasy will probably like the BBC TV series Being Human
Being Human: Season 1
Being Human: Season Two

Shirt-tail relatives of this blog post (with werewolves):
BBC's Being Human
Doctor Who: Queen Elizabeth I mystery solved!


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6 Best Times to Publish a Blog Post

Sometimes the most important thing you can do to get new readers for your blog is to pick the right time to post. Do it right, and you will be at the top of the heap when folks are searching for a fresh blog post to read.

What are the best times? A fellow named Dan Zarella over at ProBlogger has done some research. Here are the 6 best times:

• Saturday. This is the peak day for sharing on Facebook, my favorite social media and the most popular. The slowest day for Facebook sharing is Thursday.
• 9 am Eastern Standard Time, USA. This is the peak sharing time on Facebook, though it goes up and down a lot during the day. 1 am is the slowest time.
• 4 pm Eastern Standard Time, USA. This is the peak time for re-tweeting on Twitter, so if you post then and tweet your post (I do it automatically), you are most likely to be retweeted. The slowest time for re-tweets is 9 am EST.
• Friday. This is the peak day of the week for re-tweets, while Sunday is the slowest. So the peak time for posting is 4 pm on Fridays.
• Mornings. That's when the most folks reported that they read blogs, followed by afternoon, evening and night.
• Twice a day or more. The most popular blogs, judged by unique views per month and by links on Yahoo, are the ones that post twice or more a day rather than once a day or less. But I'm sure once a day is better than once a week, or once a month...

Source: When is the Best Time to Publish Blog Posts

Books I'm Peddling:
ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
Blogging For Dummies
Where the Opium Cactus Grows by Nissa Annakindt


Shirt-Tail Relatives of This Post:
Promoting a Book or Blog in the Darwinian Underworld of Reddit.com
Prolific Blogger Award goes to the Crazy Cat Lady
And the cat came Back

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Now that I've spoke my piece, what do YOU have to say about it?