Mia shared this meme on her blog earlier this week and it seemed like a perfect antidote to a rainy weekend:

Bold the ones you have read, italicize the ones you are interested in, and leave the ones you don’t care about reading alone.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner(Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91.The Skin of the Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlem)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

I can’t figure out what these books have in common to put them on a list together. Books all sitting on someone’s shelf perhaps? Weird…

Let’s finish up 2007 over the next few days, shall we?

Here are my picks for the top ten books I read last year:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling (2007)

I haven’t re-read the series finale yet, but my first reading grabbed me around the waist and dragged me through the English countryside for two non-stop days. It’s rare that you can feel like you’re part of the literary world, but that’s precisely what Rowling allowed for millions around the world.

2. The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield (2006)

I pegged this novel as being a favorite way back last January and without a kick-ass finale to the Harry Potter series, it would have rated top on the list. If you haven’t read it yet, do, but make sure you have the time to read it in one sitting because it’ll dog you until you finish.

3. Crazy ’08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History, by Cait Murphy (2007)

My favorite work of non-fiction this year. I’d still love to hang out with Cait Murphy to talk baseball.

4. The Sea of Monsters, by Rick Riordan (2006)

Although not as unbelievably amazing as the first Percy Jackson novel, this story is still a fantastic book for kids and adults alike. This series makes me want to know more about Greek mythology since the whole premise lies in that Greek gods have hooked up with modern mortals and that the offspring that came from the relationships are now troubled teens.

5. Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time, by Rob Sheffield (2007)

This memoir devastated me and I can still recall the pathos of some of the author’s writing. Heartbreaking.

6. The Fourth Bear, by Jasper Fforde (2006)

Jasper Fforde is the most creative writer of the last decade. Even the least of his works is so much better than most everything else out there. Jack Sprat, a nursery rhyme detective, is clever and hard-working and misunderstood and utterly endearing in the most recent Nursery Crimes book. I can’t wait to read his latest Thursday Next novel, which I got as a Christmas present from Rudi.

7. The Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale (2005)

This delightful award-winning novel keeps you turning the pages to find out what will become of Miri and her village. A must-read for anyone who appreciates strong girls.

8. The Camel Bookmobile, by Masha Hamilton (2007)

This book felt like nonfiction, so the author clearly did her research on Kenya. This is another book that stays with you long after you’ve finished reading it.

9. River Secrets, by Shannon Hale (2006)

Shannon Hale writes such wonderful fairy tales that she merits a second mention on the list. This tale features a young man who comes to discover that what he considers his inconsequential talents are valued highly by everyone he meets.

10. Over Sea, Under Stone, Susan Cooper (1965)

The first in the Dark Is Rising series, this novel sets up the Arthurian legend with excitement and intrigue. The characters feel like real kids, but are compelling enough to keep an adult’s interest.

What were the best things you read last year?

Total books read in 2007: 42 (Five fewer than last year!)

Total pages read during 2007: 13,535 (nearly 1,000 more than last year)

I know, I know. I have great intentions at the beginning of December to post the November reads and then I get behind. And I read so little in December that it seemed after a certain point that I might as well wait and count the two months together. And already we’re a week into January, so I’d better get last year’s books finished off so I can start the year afresh with this year’s reads. My own reviews are no great reads, but I’ve decided to ignore that and to let them free into the world anyway. (more…)

Hmmm… Travelling always means that I read a lot of mysteries, since I can pick them up at the charity shop for a buck or two, they’re compact, and generally the cozies don’t stress me out too much. Who wants to read a weepy book while you’re alone in a hotel room far from home? (more…)

I know, I know. This September reading report is long overdue. The books have been sitting on my desk for weeks waiting for me to get around to writing them up. Credit the library with getting me off my butt, as they’ve refused to let me renew some books again and would like them back yesterday, thank you very much.

So in honor of Halloween, I offer you demigods, ghosts, and a trio of witches, as well as several other casts of characters: (more…)

Jenn invites people to play along on this meme she found:

These are the top 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users (as of Oct. 1). Bold is for books you’ve read. Italics for books you’ve started but haven’t finished. Strikethrough is for books you found unreadable. Leave the ones you haven’t read as they are. Put an asterisk before each book you want or plan to read. (more…)