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The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.
5) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)



1. Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (bits of it)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
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
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
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
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker'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
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
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
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
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
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
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
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
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - 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
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (okay, well, I started it. In French and English. That's got to count, right?)

And I've read quite a lot of the "classic" ones in children's editions...

Stupid Heathrow. Stupid BA.

Oxford to Geneva. Normally takes what, 6 hours?

Oh no.

Combined misfortunes and general bad timing meant that I was travelling for a full 12 hours before I got home at midnight last night.

AND I locked my wallet into my house.

Dear Puccini,

I love you muchly. I have just listened to 'Ch'ella mi creda' and 'Addio fiorito asil'.

*melts*

And that's before I've even watched La Boheme for, oh, I don't know; the 6th time now?

Was just on the uni website and there was an item featuring some new research facilities. At the very top of the page was a picture of the virus...




I knew what it was before even clicking on the link... It was AIDS, or rather HIV; with its little gp120 and gp41 groups, and the cone shaped nucleocapsid we keep getting told about...

I am such a twerp, honestly!

Because I am very, very busy these days.

Anyway, the other morning I was up at 6 30 to do some revision, when I look out my window to a sullen red sky and approximately 3 inches of snow in the garden. It covered everything- all our bikes, the barbeque, and the washing line. It was wonderful. I spoke to my mother, who informed me that it was raining in Geneva, and they had no snow. But we did!

I left slightly early (bike, in the snow? You must be crazy), and, as it was 8 15 in the morning, not many people were out and about, which meant that I got to crunch my way down Cowley Road, passing a little boy having a snowball fight with his father in the driveway of their house- so adorable! He was laughing and shouting, and his father was not much better, which proves once again that all men are boys, really. After the war cries had died down behind me, I put my iPod on and continued down to Magdalen Bridge; where the meadows were pristine and absolutely gorgeous. A bald tramp with a skull cap was whirling around on the other side of the bridge- you know, the way you used to as a kid to make yourself feel all dizzy- with his head lifted towards the sky and a massive smile on his face. He had a guitar around his body and a bottle in his hand, and he was just standing there, turning around and laughing. I couldn't help but smile, especially when he then proceeded to get down on one knee to serenade some people passing by. He just looked so happy.

I got to the MSTC early; and went up to the computer lab to check my email. The lab just happens to have these massive glass windows overlooking the Parks, so I checked my email next to an absolute flurry of pure white. It was gorgeous, and silent, and altogether amazing :)

In other news, I have exams in a month, my workload is... interesting; I think I may be running short on sleep, and I skipped a lecture today. Last week we had Halfway Dinner, where I wanted very much to get drunk (but didn't, as I hadn't finished my Neuro presentation); and this week we're going to be ringing with the bells untied (i.e. we get to Make Noise!). My house is trundling along nicely, the kitchen is spotless, I cooked pheasant with Liz yesterday; there is a lemon meringue pie in the fridge, and I like the Mango and Apple Juice I bought on offer from Tesco. Life is good, really. :D

WE HAVE A SYSTEMS COLLECTION ARGH.

I had the most wonderful New Year. It took place in two parts:

( Part the First: The Old Town, Geneva )

( Interlude, in which we drive around the French countryside for an hour )

( Part the Second; Party at Jon's! )

Happy New Year, everyone!

( It's been a good year! )

Hope you all had a lovely day yesterday- I cannot believe it is almost 2007 and I turn 20 in half a year, eep. Am also ill, and spent most of yesterday in bed, asleep; except for about 4 hours in the evening when I went out with my family to watch Casino Royale, which was nowhere near as bad as expected, and Daniel Craig is really quite fit; although you wouldn't think it. Nowhere near as suave as Pierce Brosnan, but maybe that's a good thing; you know, update the character a bit.

I really have to start some revision now. Why is it I always tell myself I'm starting, and yet never ever get around to it?

Yesterday, my mother says to me; "There are workmen coming to the house to paint the ceiling of the living room tomorrow morning nd you need to let them in because I'm working. They'll be here quite early." Okay.

The workmen arrive as planned, and look around the living room. They come up to me and say that they need to remove everything except the really large pieces of furniture from the living room in order to paint it. The floor space in my house is limited. We have four levels, but not a lot of surface area per level. Our living room, being where my mother teaches children, where my father does his reading, where my brothers do their homework, and where our piano and hence, all our piano music is; has books, papers, ornaments, paintings, lamps, small armchairs and carpets- all of which had to be removed. This being the festive season, there is also a mini Christmas tree with presents that my mum has set up for her students. The fireplace happens to be the ONLY place in the house with (breakable and non- breakable) ornaments on it; and all my family's assorted school bags/ tennis bags/ Chinese bags are also in the room. The room has since been stripped bare, and all of the above have been redistributed around the house.

I don't think my mother realised quite what a massive undertaking painting the ceiling of the living room actually IS. She has a student coming at 12, which is okay; because there's only one and he's little. But I think that she is also teaching later on today, and the workmen aren't planning to be out till at least 5 pm, and all our stuff is in various rooms of the house (namely the basement); and I've spent the last hour running up and down stairs in order to take everything out of the kitchen, where we first put it; because that's probably where my mum is going to have to teach her classes, and put it somewhere else. My mum, meanwhile, is serenely unaware of the chaos, and is going to return to china elephants by the door; pot plants lining the stairs like errant servants, a pile of presents on the stove, and an altar on the kitchen table. Meanwhile, half the living room looks like it's been burgled by helpful painting robbers; half the furniture is OUTSIDE, there is a plastic Christmas tree in the garden where the wind is going to blow all the ornaments away and oh my god.

You know the worst of it? I was actually working before they arrived.

At least it's sunny today.

Edit: Oh no. They emptied the other side of the room too. Now she's going to be confronted with 2 very sheepish looking lamps as well as everything else. I am so dead.

( my xmas stocking )

It's been two years since my first interview at Oxford. I am also 19 and a half today. It's amazing how far we've all come in that time- how we've grown as people, as individuals, as adults. I can't believe that many of my friends are already 20, and I will be 20 in 6 months time!

I went for a walk today, and sat on a wall overlooking the lake. In front of me, spread out in glory, was the lake, with the snow- covered Alps directly behind. Behind me, the Jura, fresh with their first snow of the season. I've missed Geneva and its beauty so much. It's so pure, and quiet, and isolated.

In more amusing news, I never did tell you what my welcome home from my brother was. Two plastic cockroaches in my bed and a plastic centipede on my mirror. I guess it never occured to him that the person who always saves him from spiders (i.e. me) wouldn't actually be scared by plastic bugs, but hey; it's the thought that counts, right? ;)

I haven't updated in AGES! This is my v quick update-

The last few weeks of term were absolutely crazy, and I went to lots of things, including the ballet, which was really good; and West Side Story.

I was in London over Sunday/ Monday setting up work experience for Easter- this is so incredibly exciting, because I'm working with The Lancet (big medical journal)!! It's going to be amazing :D

My flight back was relatively uneventful- the flight was delayed for an hour and a half, so I didn't get into Geneva till midnight, but otherwise, it went fine- what a relief!

Now, shall I take the rest of the day off; or shall I do some work?

This fact makes me so happy I don't even know what to say. From force of habit, I woke up at 7 am, then thought to myself that there was no way I was getting out of bed; so happily dozed until 9 15, at which point I awoke properly. I encountered all three of my housemates (I never see them in the mornings as I generally leave the house before anyone is up), and gave them all massive smiles. Of course, everyone thought I was crazy, but I was so happy to be in my pyjamas at 9 15 that I let it slide. I finished my essay/ presentations, cleaned my room, did lots of washing; and didn't get out of pyjamas till 13 30. Oh, delicious laziness.

This must be what it's like to be an Arts student ;)

Also, going to watch the OUPhil play Stravinsky/ Tchaikovsky/ Bernstein today; and TOMORROW I AM GOING TO THE BALLET oh yes. I also went to London over the weekend, which was FANTASTIC; for a variety of reasons, the biggest one being seeing Dani, Eva and Miranda :D Love you all!

I appear to have not updated in a while. This is not because I am sick or paralysed or anything (heh, as if anyone would worry), but I have been so incredibly busy that I just haven't got the time (or the internet) to update!

Hmm. Do I go on about work work work (or lack thereof) and how busy I have been; or do I spare you and just tell you about the fun parts? Oh well. Suffice it to say that I haven't been home in 48 hours, was out of the house for 13 and 12 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I am currently feeling quite ill. I appear to have caught someone's cold, and am coughing and sneezing. I hate admitting that I'm ill, so that was quite a big step. I had a sore throat on Monday, and I was hoping it would have gone away by now, because I have to talk to my mummy tonight; but it seems to have developed and you can now hear the cold in my voice. *sigh* She's going to ask me whether I've been taking my vitamins, and sleeping enough, and eating well; and of course, the answer to all of these is no. I was actually doing quite well with the vitamins until one of the bottles ran out, but then I lapsed again. Whoops.

Anyway. The good thing about this week is that I've been busy. I think I'm the sort of person who thrives on being constantly kept on their toes. Don't get me wrong, I can procrastinate with the best (which is why I am currently not doing my essay); but I only get really apathetic when I actually have nothing to do. 'Meh' and Oxford don't really go together, and hence, this term, I have been organised and done (decent) work, though still not as much as I'd like; seen all my friends, started Italian, and done lots of volunteering on top of working (as in job working). I mention this by way of summary of the first half (well, 5/8s) of term, which have flown by. I can't believe it's 6th week ALREADY. Since when does time have the capacity to go so quickly?

I wasn't actually going to start musing about 'time' and 'how it flies' and all kinds of murky philosophical issues, mostly because I've already done that with Fiona, sitting on the stairs of my house :) Went to the OUO concert on Friday, after which I went to St John's and my medic friends to watch Scrubs and eat pie. I was out at a training course for some volunteer work I'm doing all of Saturday, after which I ran to the OFS and Carousel. Which was so amazing I nearly cried. I managed not to by staring fixedly at the blue quilt background; and as I'm flu- ey anyway, nobody picked up on the sniffles ;). Absolutely brilliant show, though, well done Huw. (I doubt you even go on LJ anymore, but hey.)

I really should write my essay now. Really, really should. However, we are going to the Parks in half an hour to watch Robert fire for 2 minutes in a memorial ceremony. I can't think of a more suitable place than the parks, really; not least because it's sensible to put great distance between myself, and Robert with a gun. But the parks are looking so gorgeous these days- the grass is still lush with the summer, the trees are just starting to lose their leaves, some of which have turned a gorgeous dark orange- gold that glows when the sun hits them. It's so beautiful to walk, here, in the sunlight, and see how it transforms and lifts everything around it.


ETA: I can't believe I forgot to say- Polish Independence Day yesterday! We all drank lots of vodka and were very happy indeed. Tom, Kirsty and Connie put on their coats and shoes and went 'to the freezer'; then reappeared 10 minutes later by leaping into the room wearing paper hats and brandishing wooden swords, which I believe were spatulas. They abducted two bottles of wine, some cake; and promptly left again. Maja and I sat on the floor having hysterics for about five minutes after their departure. We also played Bishop's Arse, possibly the best game EVER to play when you are drunk- so good, in fact; that in 0th week my housemates and I got drunk just so we could play it while drunk. I then had a run- in with a vodka bottle cap; and Robert's friend Andrew tried to bandage it for me with loo roll. You may have noticed that when you pull loo roll, it tears. So we sat there, me with a bleeding finger, and him with about a metre of torn loo roll beside him. In the midst of that, someone turned out the lights in order to make the Paper Hat Pirates (otherwise known as The Jolly Slags) think that we were no longer in the room. It was hilarious. In fact, the whole night was hilarious. And brilliant.

I have the best gloves ever- they are stripy and pastelly and the kind which are both mittens and fingerless gloves at the same time AND they only cost 2 pounds from Primark and I am in LOVE. With the gloves, not with anyone or anything else.

That is really all that I have to say. Except that I carried a massive thing of loo roll back home from Tesco's tonight, and all I could think of was 'It's Friday night, and I could either be at a movie with Liz and people; or going on a medic pub crawl; but because I have to be awake and functioning by 9 am tomorrow I am doing neither and instead carrying loo roll home on my bike.' It amused me somewhat, because I'm so sleepy I'm much better off at home anyway; but still.

These last few days have been so ridiculously busy I don't even know quite where to start. But suffice it to say that I didn't see my housemates for 48 hours, and it would have been 72 had I not heard them come home just as I was going to bed on Thursday and gone out to say 'Hi, we live in the same house, but I don't see anyone because I leave at 8 am and come back at 10 pm when you guys were clubbing'. I have an essay due in for tomorrow (Sunday) lunchtime and it's midnight and I am so sleepy bed is really the only sensible option. This essay better be doable in 3 hours or I am so screwed.

I make it sound like being at Oxford is such hard slog, but it is mostly my fault- I took on so much stuff that I am kept out of the house the entire day, because it makes no sense to cycle back up Cowley to spend 30 minutes in the house before having to go out again. And I am having a wonderful time- went to see 'The Threepenny Opera' today, which was incredibly bizarre, but in an entertaining fashion; so all good really. Tutes are going well- by some fluke my Path tutor decided to talk about the one area of Path I actually know, so it looked like I had been working for Path; and I managed to do the reading for all my other tutes. So it looks like I'm keeping up with all the work, although Liz has already said that she is keeping an eye out for any signs of mental breakdown on my part. I reckon I can keep this pace up for 2 months, though; then crash when we have the vac.

I really didn't mean to make another 'work- moan' type post, but it looks like that's what you've been landed with. I apologise. My social life hasn't exactly been that active lately; although I did see Fay last night (after over a year!) and I've been making lots of new friends accompanying Hilda's choir and other assorted activities. :) I'm too tired to think of/ write any more, so I will leave you now and get some sleep. Mmm. Sleep.

I have just finished writing two essay plans and an essay. By hand. This has been the Week of Work Hell-

- I had an essay due on Sunday for a tute tomorrow, which I'd finished on Thursday night in preparation for the OPERA (which I shall ramble about later). Having cleared that, I thought I'd have a clear weekend. Was I wrong? Yes. I then got landed with:

- A Neuroscience essay, which is utter crap- well, the bits I've done are good, but during the tute (which I had today); I realised I'd left half the important stuff out. *sigh*

- 15 short answer questions, 2 essay plans, and an essay due in tomorrow for a Pathology tute on Friday. The short answer questions were all on things we haven't really covered, so I had to look everything up (of course); and took AGES. The essays. I don't even want to talk about them, such is their utter disimilarity to anything remotely intelligent.

- 2 chapters of reading on the regulation of the peripheral vasculature for a Systems tute on Friday.

I want to cry. Well, I did. But now I have FINISHED EVERYTHING except the reading, I mainly want to bake a cake. Or go to sleep. Possibly both. I even managed to do advance reading for my Pharm seminar yesterday, so I am happy.

In other news of Squee, I went to the opera (La Boheme) on Friday night. Miranda came up from London and stayed over. Both these events are of such incredible excitement it is almost impossible to convey. The opera was sublime- Rodolfo had the loveliest voice ever, Musetta was a complete and utter flirt, and I nearly cried at the end. I have since found 'O Soave Fanciulla' on my iTunes and have been listening to it repeatedly. I cannot believe just how amazingly gorgeous Puccini is- the music swells, throbs, vibrates, and resounds until everything is a mass of pure sound and emotion; until you find yourself holding your breath, waiting for the resolution of the phrase. Definitly one to go see.

I realise I am not exactly coherent, but my brain is so drained at the moment. I hope you understand. Hope everyone is well. Sophie- I read your blog *hugs*.

I also forgot to add. In my tearing hurry to get to Italian class yesterday, I accidentally went back to Swiss driving rules and came out of the intersection on the wrong side of the road; nearly getting over by a cyclist and a car in the process. Most frightening.

Have just finished essay, which I had to coax the printer to print about SIX TIMES, grr. But what I meant to say was that:

I had a fantastic weekend, made fantastic- er by BOATIE COCKTAILS, at which I got very happy, yay :D I think it was blood giving that made me slightly more susceptible to alcohol than I usually am; as I had 7 cocktails last time and only got tipsy. Anyway, several amusing events occured, the most amusing of which I shall transcribe here:

( Read more... )

Yesterday I baked banana bread with Liz, then went to badminton; which was good fun. Today I have been out of the house since 8 20 and still have not gotten back yet (it is now 21 10); but I have:

- been to an Italian class (Yay! Amazing amazingness!)
- Had lots of lectures
- Met my dad who is in Oxford for a lecture
- Had dinner with my friends

So really, life is good. Hope everyone else is well too!