Theresa's 1001

I read a LOT, but most of that is non-fiction...so my New Year's Resolution this year is to bring my total number (from both editions) up to at least 100. Here's what I have already read:

1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
2. The Handmaid's Tale
3. Interview with the Vampire
4. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
5. Slaughterhouse Five
6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
7. To Kill a Mockingbird
8. The Once and Future King
9. Lord of the Flies
10. The Old Man and the Sea
11. The Catcher in the Rye
12. 1984
13. Animal Farm
14. Pippi Longstocking
15. The Stranger
16. Their Eyes were Watching God
17. The Hobbit
18. Lady Chatterley's Lover
19. The Great Gatsby
20. Siddhartha
21. Ethan Frome
22. The Jungle
23. Heart of Darkness
24. The Awakening
25. Dracula
26. Jude the Obscure
27. The Picture of Dorian Gray
28. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
29. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
30. Through the Looking glass
31. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
32. Fathers and Sons
33. The Scarlet Letter
34. Wuthering Heights
35. Jane Eyre
36. The Pit and the Pendulum
37. The Fall of the House of Usher
38. Emma
39. Pride and Prejudice
40. Sense and Sensibility
41. The Golden Ass
42. Aithiopika
43. A Christmas Carol
44. The Purloined Letter
45. A Tale of Two Cities
46. The Yellow Wallpaper
47. The Turn of the Screw
48. Memoirs of a Geisha

Oops...forgot a few, and I'll probably find a few more that I forgot to mention. But I'm happy; that brings me up to a nice, even 50 for my goal!

49. Great Expectations
50. The Plague

Oops...forgot another one:
51. Little Women

52. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

I'm not sure how I feel about this one yet. It went fairly quickly, and it had a pretty poignant message...but I found myself angry at the main character a little too often, and a little bored. I was also confused with the flow of events during several points in the storyline.

53. A Modest Proposal
TOTALLY forgot I had read this in high school...although I'm not sure how I could forget this one, lol. It was one of the better selections we read in 10th grade.

54. Madame Bovary

Yay! I finished it! I actually hated this book for at least 3/4 of the way through. I wanted to smack Emma across the face and tell her what an embarassment to women everywhere she was, lol...

And then I realized that I hated her so much because she represented a side of my OWN nature that I was ashamed to admit I have. I HAVE done some of the cringe-worthy things she had done, and faced with similar circumstances, would have probably acted in a similar manner. I was left feeling quite depressed at the end of this novel, and a slight perturbed at the chemist, lol.

I also had to stop myself from constantly comparing Emma to other literary women, such as Lady Chatterley and Edna from The Awakening and finally just take her for her own character.

Anyway, it feels so good to cross another one off the list. I think the next 1001 book I'll be starting will be Frankenstein.

Oh, I love Frankenstein. A very, very good book. Enjoy.

Mm, haven't read Madame Bovary yet but many people have commented on that double vision, that on the other hand the objective reader can see what a fool Emma was and on the other hand recognize those same traits in themselves, that most everyone have a bit of Emma Bovary in them...

55. Better late than never, but I finally started Frankenstein...and finished it within a day. It WAS a good book, and although I expected it to be different, I didn't know HOW different the original story was from the iconic Hollywood imagery of the mad scientist and his monster.

56. A Farewell to Arms--Did this book have a plot? lol In any event, I think I've found a more pathetic female character than Emma Bovary. I seriously wanted to smack Catherine...but I did feel sort of bad at the end. Oh, and I have a new appreciation for the fact that I had my baby in the 21st Century, where drinking beer while pregnant isn't a recommended way to keep birth weight down, lol.