The Books of 2012.

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I read a shitload in 2012. 75 books to be exact. More than I've read in the last 5 years combined probably. And if you know me, you know I tracked the hell out of that noise. So, without further delay, here are all the books I read in 2012, in order of awesomeness. Books 1-5 are all-timers, heartbreakers, gut-wrenchers, tear-jerkers, soul-stiffeners and all around masterpieces. And should be read by everyone with at least one eye.

**Note, this is not a list of books released in 2012. Just books read by Addi in 2012.

1. Looking for Alaska by Green, John
2. Thirteen Reasons Why by Asher, Jay 
3. Rot & Ruin (Benny Imura, #1) by Maberry, Jonathan 
4. The Fault in Our Stars by Green, John
5. Feed (Newsflesh Trilogy #1) by Grant, Mira
6. Graceling (Graceling Realm, #1) by Cashore, Kristin
7. Deadline (Newsflesh Trilogy, #2) by Grant, Mira
8. Poison Study (Study, #1) by Snyder, Maria V. 
9. Dust and Decay (Benny Imura, #2) by Maberry, Jonathan 
10. Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro, Kazuo
11. Blackout (Newsflesh Trilogy, #3) by Grant, Mira
12. The Giver (The Giver, #1) by Lowry, Lois
13. Before I Fall by Oliver, Lauren 
14. The Book Thief by Zusak, Markus 
15. Flesh and Bone (Benny Imura, #3) by Maberry, Jonathan 
16. Fire Study (Study, #3) by Snyder, Maria V. 
17. Magic Study (Study, #2) by Snyder, Maria V. 
18. Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1) by Taylor, Laini 
19. Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna, #1) by Blake, Kendare 
20. Bitterblue (Graceling Realm, #3) by Cashore, Kristin
21. Storm Glass (Glass, #1) by Snyder, Maria V. 
22. Delirium (Delirium, #1) by Oliver, Lauren 
23. Spy Glass (Glass, #3) by Snyder, Maria V. 
24. Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #2) by Taylor, Laini 
25. Starters (Starters and Enders, #1) by Price, Lissa 
26. Girl of Nightmares (Anna, #2) by Blake, Kendare 
27. City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2) by Clare, Cassandra 
28. Messenger (The Giver, #3) by Lowry, Lois
29. Touch of Power (Healer, #1) by Snyder, Maria V. 
30. Hunger (Gone, #2) by Grant, Michael 
31. Lies (Gone, #3) by Grant, Michael 
32. Plague (Gone, #4) by Grant, Michael 
33. Fear (Gone, #5) by Grant, Michael 
34. The Dead (The Enemy #2) by Higson, Charlie
35. Gathering Blue (The Giver, #2) by Lowry, Lois
36. The Kill Order (Maze Runner, #0.5) by Dashner, James 
37. Pandemonium (Delirium, #2) by Oliver, Lauren 
38. Scent of Magic (Healer, #2) by Snyder, Maria V. 
39. In The Land Of The Dead (Benny Imura, #1.5) by Maberry, Jonathan 
40. The Fear (The Enemy #3) by Higson, Charlie
41. Son (The Giver, #4) by Lowry, Lois
42. 1.4 (Point 4, #2) by Lancaster, Mike A. 
43. The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1) by Collins, Suzanne (reread)
44. Sea Glass (Glass, #2) by Snyder, Maria V. 
45. City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4) by Clare, Cassandra 
46. City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments #5) by Clare, Cassandra 
47. City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3) by Clare, Cassandra 
48. Unwind (Unwind, #1) by Shusterman, Neal 
49. Outpost (Razorland, #2) by Aguirre, Ann 
50. City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1) by Clare, Cassandra 
51. Enclave (Razorland, #1) by Aguirre, Ann 
52. Please Ignore Vera Dietz by King, A.S. 
53. Feedback (Variant, #2) by Wells, Robison 
54. Fire (Graceling Realm, #2) by Cashore, Kristin
55. Insurgent (Divergent, #2) by Roth, Veronica 
56. Gone (Gone, #1) by Grant, Michael 
57. Eden (Eden, #1) by Taylor, Keary 
58. Hate List by Brown, Jennifer
59. Countdown (Newsflesh Trilogy #0.5) by Grant, Mira
60. Human.4 (Point 4, #1) by Lancaster, Mike A. 
61. Breathe (Breathe, #1) by Crossan, Sarah 
62. UnWholly (Unwind, #2) by Shusterman, Neal 
63. The Rise of Nine (Lorien Legacies, #3) by Lore, Pittacus
64. Variant (Variant, #1) by Wells, Robison 
65. Michael Vey: Rise of the Elgen by Evans, Richard Paul
66. The Academie (Academie, #1) by Joy, Amy 
67. Reached (Matched, #3) by Condie, Ally
68. BZRK (BZRK, #1) by Grant, Michael 
69. First Night Memories (Benny Imura, #0.5) by Maberry, Jonathan 
70. Be More Chill by Vizzini, Ned 
71. The New World (Chaos Walking, #0.5) by Ness, Patrick
72. Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury, Ray
73. Monument 14 (Monument 14 #1) by Laybourne, Emmy 
74. Hana (Delirium, #1.5) by Oliver, Lauren 
75. Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Robbins, Tom

Shit I Like vol. 2

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Here is some more shit I like right now.

1. The Native Sibling - The Tinderbox Sessions. 
The Native Sibling are my preemptive favorite band. Luckily the band has been kind enough to share some of their sounds with me, and I am in love. But, those noises are not out there for all to enjoy just yet, so I cannot declare them my favorite band. See how that works. But, luckily for all you of, they just released a two track EP called The Tinderbox Sessions that you can get at their bandcamp page for only a buck-ninety-nine.
Or, if you are lazy, you can watch the videos of the songs right here and swoon.

"Weather Veins" - The Native Sibling


"Save Home" - The Native Sibling


2. "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher
I have never loved and hated a book so much at the same time as I did while reading Jay Asher's "Thirteen Reasons Why" This book ruined my week, in the best way possible. It cuts deep, but is so beautifully written that you pride the incisions it gives you. It literally took me a week to recover and pick up a new book. It was that impactful. It is not a book for everyone, but it should be. I hate/thank Stevie for recommending it to me.

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list. Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.

3. Goodreads.com
Looking at my webtraffic, when taking into account my iPhone, it goes something like this: Gmail, Facebook, Goodreads, Youtube, Blog.
Yeah, Goodreads is right up there in the top 3. I mean I know I go there a lot, but I never realized it was that much. Goodreads is a social networking site for book lovers. Goodreads is the largest site in the world for readers, and now the 10th largest social networking site on the web. I am what some call and avid reader, and this is what I call home.

Shit I Like, Vol. 1

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This is where I am going to share my varied opinions on shit I like.

Shit I like #1: John Green
I read a lot, (54 books so far this year) and lately, one author has really stood out to me. John Green. If you have not read "Looking For Alaska" or "The Fault In Our Stars" read them now, but bring tissues. LFA moved quickly into my top 3 books of all time, and that is a hard bunch to get into, and TFIOS has cemented itself into my top 20, but is growing on me more and more as I look back on it. I don't know if you use Goodreads, you should you know, but for any author to have 1 book with a 4-star or higher rating is very rare, John Green has 4.

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, screwed-up, and dead sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A stunning debut, it marks John Green's arrival as an important new voice in contemporary fiction

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now. 
Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. 
Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

Shit I like #2: Hit and Run
Ok, from this trailer, you're probably like "what the hell Addi?!" and rightfully so. The trailer does the movie no justice. I went and saw this last night as a, lets-just-go-and-see-whats-playing kinda thing, and walked out thoroughly impressed. The car scenes, rad. The action scenes, rad. The comedy, pretty rad. And the chemistry between Dax and Kristen, super rad and believable. Also, I love her. 

Shit I like #3: The 90's
Right now, for whatever stupid reason, I am stuck on the nineties. I keep going back in my iPod and pulling out 3eb, the eels, live, the refreshments, tonic and new radicals. I know, random assortment of bands. I also keep wanting to wear my flannel shirts and listed to 107.7 the end. Something is wrong, but also so right. 

12 in 2012 Series: Books

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And now for a new series we'd like to call 12 in 2012. Our top 12 books/music/movies/[insert other awesome thing] to look forward to in 2012.

First up: Books!

12. Arcadia by Lauren Groff (March 2012) {Fiction}
Groff's second book, this one about a 1960's Utopian commune struggle to survive.

11. Fairy Tale Interrupted: A Memoir of Life, Love and Loss by RoseMarie Terenzio (Jan 2012) {Non-Fiction}
Written by John F. Kennedy Jr's personal assistant, they're publicizing this book as an unlikely friendship by a girl from the Bronx and a "vertitable prince." I'm more intrigued by what it must have been like to work for the Kennedy family and the last year in JFK Jr's life.

10. The Gaggle: How the Guys You Know Will Help You Find the Love You Want by Jessica Massa (June 2012) {Non-Fiction}
A real girls guide to the post-dating world, Massa explores your gaggle; the guys in your life you may or may not be romantically linked to and how they can lead you to love. This is not so much self-help as it is the book-form of the all the talks you and your girls have over drinks every weekend.

9. Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson (April 2012) {Non-Fiction}
Self-proclaimed Bloggess Jenny Lawson recounts revealing and sometimes embarrassing moments from her life. I'm hoping this will be equal parts Chelsea Handler and David Sedaris.

8. The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan by Michael Hastings (Jan 2012- out now) {Non-Fiction}
I'm not usually a war genre reader in fiction or in non-fiction but this novel by the same author that wrote The Runaway General (published in Rolling Stone) was generating fan fare far before its release this week.

7. The Recognitions by William Gaddis (rerelease Feb 2012) {Fiction} Technically I cheated with this one. Previously published in the 50's Gaddis prophetically writes about our current reality in a startlingly correct way.

6. The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus (Jan 2012) {Fiction}
Language as a weapon becomes both metaphoric and literal in this Twilight Zone-esque novel about a family in upstate New York.

5. The Book of Drugs: A Memoir by Mike Doughty (Jan 2012) {Non-Fiction}
As a lover of both Soul Coughing and Doughty's solo works I'm psyched he wrote a novel that will let me in to what makes this guy tick.

4. Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult (Feb 2012) {Fiction}
Those of you that keep up with me know that I've read nearly every Jodi Picoult book so it's only natural that I plod along on to the next one. Early reviews aren't stellar but I'm holding out that this will be a return to her early work.

3. No One Is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel (Feb 2012) {Fiction}
A small Romanian village attempts to imagine away the war... intriguing! Let's see how that works out for 'em.

2. Farther Away: Essays by Jonathan Franzen (April 2012) {Non-Fiction}
If you've read Franzen's "Freedom" then you'll understand why I'm anticipating his collection of essays and speeches on both personal and environmental concerns.

1. Insurgent by Veronica Roth (May 2012) {Fiction}
I never thought I'd be enraptured with dystopian YA novels and yet here I am pining after the follow up to last years Divergent. Liked Hunger Games? This is next series to read.

Banned Books: A Book Club

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I've wanted to start a banned books book club for a long time now. Maybe it's the educator in me that appreciates a persons choice to read what they want. Perhaps it's the writer in me that believes that a writer has the choice to express themselves in ways that others might not find appropriate. Or maybe it's that I've always had it in me to challenge the system (insert evil villainous laugh here). Either way I decided to do some research...

Did you know that 48% of challenges sent in to American Library Association for banning books is done by parents? Most of these are due to a sexual nature of a book followed up by offensive language. Other topics that might find a book on the chopping block are violence, being too religious OR not enough ("anti-family"), and not being appropriate for the age group of readers. Fascinating! Now I'm inspired to read them even more! Moving on...

So I looked up the top books that have been Banned or Challenged in this decade (thanks Office for Intellectual Freedom!) and here are the Top 10 contenders for 2010:

1. And Tango Makes Three by Richardson and Parnell

2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

3. Brave New World

4. Crank

5. The Hunger Games

6. Lush

7. What My Mother Doesn't Know

8. Nickel and Dimed

9. Revolutionary Voices

10. Twilight

Kind of surprising? I thought so too. Other notable banned books from this decades list: The Color Purple, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, My Sister's Keeper, Harry Potter, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

So a few of these I've already read (Twilight/Hunger Games) and a few I find less interesting so I took a few from this decades other banned books list and created my own Banned Books Book Club To-Read List or the BBBCTRL, hmmm.... maybe I'll need to give that some thought. Here goes:

Banned Books Book Club To Read List

AKA The Listologies Let's Read Banned Books List

And Tango Makes Three

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Brave New World

Crank

Nickle and Dimed

Revolutionary Voices

Olive's Ocean

Go Ask Alice

The Chocolate War

The Kite Runner

Want to join? Email me at listologies@gmail.com and I'll send you the info. Here's to a fight the man kind of 2012.

Up and Coming Book List 2012

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Can I give my first confession of 2012? As a reader I was a total fail for 2011. I committed to reading something like 30 books which at the time seemed really tame for me and it worked out to be that I read like half that. Now to be fair, as a teacher I actually read a bazillion books a year however they're mostly made up of titles such as "Knuffle Bunny" and "Messy Bessy" and not so much the latest Haruki Murakami novel. So without including the countless childrens books I read and professional texts my pleasure reading total came down to something closer to 15. With that being said I've now entered the Good Reads 2012 Reading Challenge with a more realistic goal of... 15. Yes the same number I read this year. Now I hope that when I redo this list next year I will be happy to state that I exceeded this total. Then again, I could start including the many blogs I read everyday as part of my reading time right??

Those of you that haven't read it before here is my former column on The Up and Coming Book list and here

The 2011 List included...

Buddha: A Story of Enlightment – Deepak Chopra
The Dive from Clausen’s Pier – Ann Packer
Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami
Open House – Elizabeth Berg
The Liar’s Club: A Memoir – Mary Karr *read a different Mary Karr book instead
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
The Friday Knight Knitting Club – Kate Jacobs
The Life Before Her Eyes – Laura Kasischke
The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield
Go Ask Alice – anonymous
Life is a Mixtape: Life and Loss, One song at a time – Rob Sheffield
Life is So Good – George Dawson
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
Flower Children – Maxine Swann
The Bright Forever – Lee Martin
Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life – Steve Martin
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen *read it*
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson
Autobiography of Mark Twain by Mark Twain
Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead
Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins *read it and the sequels*
One Day by David Nicholls
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Room by Emma Donoghue
What Alice Forgot by Loriane Moriarty

Hmmm... clearly I didn't get to a lot of these books but I did read the following as well: Where She Went by Gayle Forman, Flying Changes by Sara Gruen, How To Train Your Dragon (not my usual kids stuff so I'm including it as I did read it outside of my classroom), Lit by Mary Karr, Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro Kazuo, Little Bee by Chris Cleave, Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult, Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, and Vampire Academy (I know, I know, for shame) #2-4.

2012 List now includes...

Divergent by Veronica Roth *read it today- I'm off to a good start*
The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness
Add More ~ing by Gabrielle Bernstein
Spirit Junkie by Gabrielle Bernstein
This World Needs Your Kid by Craig Keilburger
Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie
Promise Not to Tell by Jennifer McMahon
Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Carrier by Bonnie Rough
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
Fraud: Essays by David Rakoff
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore
Uglies by Scott Westerfield
Loving Che: A Novel by Ana Menendez
Always Looking Up by Michael J Fox
Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robinson
Matched by Ally Condie
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult
The Gaggle by Jessica Massa

Yes I realize this list has more than 15 books but I like to give myself options. See something I really should be reading? Comment! I love a great book suggestion!

Here's to not failing your New Years Resolutions right out the gate!

Song of the Day: "Asleep" by The Smiths

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Sing me to sleep. Sing me to sleep.

Love Always,
Charlie

"Asleep" by The Smiths

Love/Like/Loathe: 9/17/11

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So, I apologize for my absence from Listologies. I tweaked my back up good and nasty and have been pretty doped up, and I figured if I tried to blog it out, it would all come out embarrassingly hilarious, so, I opted out. But I figured since I am feeling a bit more lucid, I would start my new blog series that I have been mulling over. It's called Love/Like/Loathe. Basically, its pretty simple. I am going to share, on a semi weekly basis, things I love, like and loathe. It's pretty self explanatory.

Love: I know this is going to come off predictable, but I LOVE the new Slow Club album "Paradise." It has surpassed by expectations by a mile. The band has found it maturity without losing its gleeful edge. Sadly, I do not think this record will win new fans, namely Stevie, but I think it is by far, the best record of the year.
"You, Earth or Ash" by Slow Club


Like: Susan Beth Pfeffer's The Last Survivors trilogy of novels. I have to admit, they are dark as hell and should barely be qualified as Young Adult, but the are well written portrayals of the beginning of the end of the world. From clear stand out of book one, Live As We Knew It, to the darkness and religious undertones and change in perspective of book two, The Dead and the Gone, to the rather forced follow up of book three The World We Live In, these books are not to be missed.

Loathe: The self titled album by the Bow Ribbons. It is far and away, and easily the worst album I have heard in years. It is hard for me to hate music. I love music, and can generally find something redeeming about nearly every noise that people are proud enough to put on a record, but this is horrible meandering whiny drivel. I buy a lot of records, and I never ever write a negative review, but this music is so bad, it actually makes me angry as I type about it. It is the kind of music, that if you were stuck at the bottom of a well with a crazed serial killer standing above you slowing filling it in with water and laughing a sinister laugh, you would hear.
"Let Me Down Easy" by Bow Ribbons

Revisiting: My Up and Coming Book List

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So a couple years ago I did a list called "My Up and Coming Book List" - since then, I've read alot of them, removed many and have added a bunch to the list. I revisited this list below with what I've read, what I still intend to read, what I no longer want to read and have added new books to my "To Read" list. See something glaring that I'm missing? Comment me! -S

Breaking Dawn – Stephenie Meyer *Read It
My Horizontal Life – Chelsea Handley *Read It
Keeping Faith – Jodi Picoult *Read It
What Was Lost – Catherine O’Flynn *Read It
The Pact: A Love Story – Jodi Picoult *Read It
I Love You, Beth Cooper – Larry Doyle *Read It
Marley & Me – John Grogan **Remove (saw the movie, good enough for me)
Suite Francaise – Irene Nemirovsky *Read It
Buddha: A Story of Enlightment – Deepak Chopra *Still on my List*
The Dive from Clausen’s Pier – Ann Packer *Still on my List*
Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami *Still on my List*
The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd *Read It
Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen *Read It **Top Favorite Books**
Motherless Daughters- A Legacy of Loss – Hope Edelman *cut
Open House – Elizabeth Berg *Still on my List*
Drowing Ruth – Christina Schwarz *Read It
The Liar’s Club: A Memoir – Mary Karr *Still on my List*
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver *Still on my List*
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon *Read It- half way thru
The Friday Knight Knitting Club – Kate Jacobs *Still on my List*
Then She Found Me – Elinor Lipman *Read It
The Life Before Her Eyes – Laura Kasischke *Still on my List*
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides *Read It
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Haddon *Read It
The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield *Still on my List*
Go Ask Alice – anonymous *Still on my List*
Smile While You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer – Chuck Thompson *Read It
Life is a Mixtape: Life and Loss, One song at a time – Rob Sheffield *Still on my List*
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress – Sijie Dai *cut
Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain *Cut- maybe his new one?
Life is So Good – George Dawson *Still on my List*
Forever – Pete Hamill *Read It
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy *Still on my List*
Flower Children – Maxine Swann *Still on my List*
Elsewhere – Gabrielle Zevin *Read It
Harvesting the Heart – Jodi Picoult *Read It
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell – Tucker Max *Read It
The Bright Forever – Lee Martin *Still on my List*
The Secret History – Donna Tartt *Cut
Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life – Steve Martin *Still on my List*

And thus... my new list 2011

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson
Autobiography of Mark Twain by Mark Twain
Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead
Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
One Day by David Nicholls
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Room by Emma Donoghue
What Alice Forgot by Loriane Moriarty

Ambitious? stay tuned!

Fictional Characters I (Addi) Would Date If They Were No Longer Fictional.

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This list is a little different. Hell, I don't even know how to label it. But, I was watching "Definitely, Maybe" the other night, and I couldn't help but wish I could date one of the female leads, and that got me thinking further. And as OCD minds like mine go, I had to create a list. So, below you will find some of the most interesting, beautiful, feisty, strong and funny women ever "created" from the world of Cinema, Television, and a few Books. Enjoy

Read More....

A Plea for Books

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So last January I posted a list of books that I intended to read over the next year. It was a modest collection of 40 books, 20 of which I read (and then some off of the list). I am revisiting that list again and would love to hear from you! What books should I read this year? What is worth my limited reading time? What do you love?
I'll collect a list of recommended books, mesh it with my own to-reads and post it on here next week.

Thanks for your help! -Stevie

A Comparative List

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In my last entry I posted the Time magazine 100 Best Novels of all Time. To contrast that I thought I would post the Newsweek Top 100 Books of All Time which took a different approach (i.e. not just taking the opinions of two Time magazine critics and rather selected books from the top book lists) including non-fiction and fiction as well as books published before 1932 and I found this one to be a little more, um, modern reader friendly. And yet many of my favorite books were missing and I hadn't read more than a handful (okay 26). Thoughts?
Once again, note: *I've read it, **I own it but haven't read it yet, ***I plan on reading this someday.
1.
War and Peace (F) Leo Tolstoy 1869
2.
1984 (F) George Orwell 1949 ***
3.
Ulysses (F) James Joyce 1922 *
4.
Lolita (F) Vladimir Nabokov 1955 *
5.
The Sound and the Fury (F)William Faulkner 1929 ***
6.
Invisible Man (F) Ralph Ellison 1952
7.
To the Lighthouse (F) Virginia Woolf 1927
8.
The Illiad and The Odyssey (F) Homer 8th century B.C. *
9.
Pride and Prejudice (F) Jane Austen 1813
10.
Divine Comedy (F) Dante Alighieri 1321 *
11.
Canterbury Tales (F) Geoffrey Chaucer 15th century
12.
Gulliver's Travels (F) Jonathan Swift 1726 *
13.
Middlemarch (F) 1874
14.
Things Fall Apart (F) Chinua Achebe 1958
15.
The Catcher in the Rye (F) J. D. Salinger 1951 *
16.
Gone with the Wind (F) Margaret Mitchell 1936
17.
One Hundred Years of Solitude (F) Gabriel Garcia Marquez 1967***
18.
The Great Gatsby (F) F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925*
19.
Catch-22 (F) Joseph Heller 1961**
20.
Beloved (F) Toni Morrison 1987*
21.
The Grapes of Wrath (F) John Steinbeck 1939 *
22.
Midnight's Children (F) Salman Rushdie 1981
23.
Brave New World (F) Aldous Huxley 1932
24.
Mrs. Dalloway (F) Virginia Woolf 1925
25.
Native Son (F) Richard Wright 1940
26.
Democracy in America (NF) Alexis de Tocqueville 1835
27.
On the Origin of Species (NF) Charles Darwin 1859 (bits and parts I've read)
28.
The Histories (NF) Herodotus 440 B.C.
29.
The Social Contract (NF) Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1762
30.
Das Kapital (NF) Karl Marx 1867 (bits and parts I've read)
31.
The Prince (NF) Niccolo Machiavelli 1532
32.
Confessions (NF) St. Augustine 4th century
33.
Leviathan (NF) Thomas Hobbes 1651
34.
The History of the Peloponnesian War (NF) Thucydides 431 B.C. (I'm sure I've read part of this)
35.
The Lord of the Rings (F) J. R. R. Tolkien 1954
36.
Winnie-the-Pooh (F) A. A. Milne 1926*
37.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (F) C. S. Lewis 1950*
38.
A Passage to India (F) E. M. Forster 1924
39.
On the Road (F) Jack Kerouac 1957*
40.
To Kill a Mockingbird (F) Harper Lee 1960*
41.
The Holy Bible. Revised Standard Version. NA*
42.
A Clockwork Orange (F) Anthony Burgess 1962***
43.
Light in August (F) William Faulkner 1932
44.
The Souls of Black Folk (NF) W. E. B. Du Bois 1903
45.
Wide Sargasso Sea (F) Jean Rhys 1966
46.
Madame Bovary (F) Gustave Flaubert 1857
47.
Paradise Lost (F) John Milton 1667
48.
Anna Karenina (F) Leo Tolstoy 1877
49.
Hamlet (F) William Shakespeare 1603*
50.
King Lear (F) William Shakespeare 1608 *
51.
Othello (F) William Shakespeare 1622*
52.
Sonnets (F) William Shakespeare 1609*
53.
Leaves of Grass (F)Walt Whitman 1855 (bits and parts I've read)
54.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (F) Mark Twain 1885 *
55.
Kim (F) Rudyard Kipling 1901
56.
Frankenstein (F) Mary Shelley 1818
57.
Song of Solomon (F) Toni Morrison 1977
58.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (F) Ken Kesey 1962*
59.
For Whom the Bell Tolls (F) Ernest Hemingway 1940 *
60.
Slaughterhouse-Five (F) Kurt Vonnegut 1969 ***
61.
Animal Farm (F) George Orwell 1945
62.
Lord of the Flies (F) William Golding 1954*
63.
In Cold Blood (NF) Truman Capote 1965
64.
The Golden Notebook (F) Doris Lessing 1962
65.
Remembrance of Things Past (F) Marcel Proust 1913
66.
The Big Sleep (F) Raymond Chandler 1939
67.
As I Lay Dying (F) William Faulkner 1930
68.
The Sun Also Rises (F) Ernest Hemingway 1926 *
69.
I, Claudius (F) Robert Graves 1934
70.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (F) Carson McCullers 1940
71.
Sons and Lovers (F) D. H. Lawrence 1913
72.
All the King's Men (F) Robert Penn Warren 1946
73.
Go Tell It on the Mountain (F) James Baldwin 1953
74.
Charlotte's Web (F) E. B. White 1952 *
75.
Heart of Darkness (F) Joseph Conrad 1902
76.
Night (NF) Elie Wiesel 1958
77.
Rabbit, Run (F) John Updike 1960
78.
The Age of Innocence (F) Edith Wharton 1920
79.
Portnoy's Complaint (F) Philip Roth 1969
80.
An American Tragedy (F) Theodore Dreiser 1925
81.
The Day of the Locust (F) Nathanael West 1939
82.
Tropic of Cancer (F) Henry Miller 1934 *
83.
The Maltese Falcon (F) Dashiell Hammett 1930
84.
His Dark Materials (F) Philip Pullman 1995
85.
Death Comes for the Archbishop (F) Willa Cather 1927
86.
The Interpretation of Dreams (NF) Sigmund Freud 1900 (bits and parts I've read)
87.
The Education of Henry Adams (NF) Henry Adams 1918
88.
Quotations from Chairman Mao (NF) Mao Zedong 1964
89.
The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (NF) William James 1902
90.
Brideshead Revisited (F) Evelyn Waugh 1945
91.
Silent Spring (NF) Rachel Carson 1962
92.
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (NF) John Maynard Keynes 1936
93.
Lord Jim (F) Joseph Conrad 1900
94.
Goodbye to All That (NF) Robert Graves 1929
95.
The Affluent Society (NF) John Kenneth Galbraith 1958
96.
The Wind in the Willows (F) Kenneth Grahame 1908
97.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (NF) Alex Haley and Malcolm X 1965
98.
Eminent Victorians (NF) Lytton Strachey 1918
99.
The Color Purple (F) Alice Walker 1982*
100.
The Second World War (The Gathering Storm; Their Finest Hour; The Grand Alliance; The Hinge of Fate; (NF) Winston Churchill 1948

Time Magazines Top 100 Books of All Time

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So this list is not technically my own but since I am constantly making lists of books I thought I'd see what everyone thought of this list as well. This is from the Time magazine Top 100 books of all time. I'd say my taste in literature is pretty vast although I tend to get in to little ruts (like all Jodi Picoult books, or all travel journals, or all coming-of-age stories). This list is not for those of us that enjoy brain candy but rather true literature in its finest form (at least according to Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo critics from Time magazine). I'd love to see what you think- what have you read? What do you love? What do you think is missing from this list that should be read? Keep in mind these are novels from 1923 to the present.
Note: An * means I've read it, **means I own it but have not read it yet, & *** means I intend on reading this some day.

The Adventures of Augie MarchSaul Bellow

All the King's MenRobert Penn Warren

American PastoralPhilip Roth

An American TragedyTheodore Dreiser

Animal FarmGeorge Orwell***

Appointment in SamarraJohn O'Hara

Are You There God? It's Me, MargaretJudy Blume*

The AssistantBernard Malamud

At Swim-Two-BirdsFlann O'Brien

AtonementIan McEwan*

BelovedToni Morrison*

The Berlin StoriesChristopher Isherwood

The Big SleepRaymond Chandler

The Blind AssassinMargaret Atwood

Blood MeridianCormac McCarthy

Brideshead RevisitedEvelyn Waugh

The Bridge of San Luis ReyThornton Wilder

Call It SleepHenry Roth

Catch-22Joseph Heller**

The Catcher in the RyeJ.D. Salinger*

A Clockwork OrangeAnthony Burgess***

The Confessions of Nat TurnerWilliam Styron

The CorrectionsJonathan Franzen

The Crying of Lot 49Thomas Pynchon

A Dance to the Music of TimeAnthony Powell

The Day of the LocustNathanael West

Death Comes for the ArchbishopWilla Cather

A Death in the FamilyJames Agee

The Death of the HeartElizabeth Bowen

DeliveranceJames Dickey

Dog SoldiersRobert Stone

FalconerJohn Cheever

The French Lieutenant's WomanJohn Fowles

The Golden NotebookDoris Lessing

Go Tell it on the MountainJames Baldwin

Gone With the WindMargaret Mitchell

The Grapes of WrathJohn Steinbeck*

Gravity's RainbowThomas Pynchon

The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald*

A Handful of DustEvelyn Waugh

The Heart Is A Lonely HunterCarson McCullers

The Heart of the MatterGraham Greene

HerzogSaul Bellow

HousekeepingMarilynne Robinson

A House for Mr. BiswasV.S. Naipaul

I, ClaudiusRobert Graves

Infinite JestDavid Foster Wallace

Invisible ManRalph Ellison***

Light in AugustWilliam Faulkner

The Lion, The Witch and the WardrobeC.S. Lewis*

LolitaVladimir Nabokov*

Lord of the FliesWilliam Golding*

The Lord of the RingsJ.R.R. Tolkien

LovingHenry Green

Lucky JimKingsley Amis

The Man Who Loved ChildrenChristina Stead

Midnight's ChildrenSalman Rushdie

MoneyMartin Amis

The MoviegoerWalker Percy

Mrs. DallowayVirginia Woolf

Naked LunchWilliam Burroughs**

Native SonRichard Wright

NeuromancerWilliam Gibson

Never Let Me GoKazuo Ishiguro

1984George Orwell***

On the RoadJack Kerouac*

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestKen Kesey*

The Painted BirdJerzy Kosinski

Pale FireVladimir Nabokov

A Passage to IndiaE.M. Forster

Play It As It LaysJoan Didion

Portnoy's ComplaintPhilip Roth

PossessionA.S.

The Power and the GloryGraham Greene

The Prime of Miss Jean BrodieMuriel Spark

Rabbit, RunJohn Updike

ReRagtimeE.L. Doctorow

The RecognitionsWilliam Gaddis

Red HarvestDashiell Hammett

Revolutionary RoadRichard Yates

The Sheltering SkyPaul Bowles

Slaughterhouse-FiveKurt Vonnegut***

Snow CrashNeal Stephenson

The Sot-Weed FactorJohn Barth

The Sound and the FuryWilliam Faulkner***

The SportswriterRichard Ford

The Spy Who Came in From the ColdJohn le Carre

The Sun Also RisesErnest Hemingway*

Their Eyes Were Watching GodZora Neale Hurston*

Things Fall ApartChinua Achebe

To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee*

To the LighthouseVirginia Woolf

Tropic of CancerHenry Miller*

UbikPhilip K. Dick

Under the NetIris Murdoch

Under the VolcanoMalcolm Lowry

WatchmenAlan Moore & Dave Gibbons

White NoiseDon DeLillo

White TeethZadie Smith

Wide Sargasso SeaJean Rhys