rambling comments and meme time

[marence]

Midterms are over, and I know I'm getting an A so far in my English class and at least a B in my Art History. I have no idea where I stand in my Music Business class, but at least I'm learning some possibly useful things there. We've had a few less-than-compelling speakers in that class, my "favorite" being an intern from a local lowlife-run record label, who attempted to make the fact that interns do the owners' jobs and don't get paid a cent into "a great opportunity to get ahead in the music business." She mentioned 40-hour a week commitment is expected and "of course you have to be there on weekends and most evenings too." She was also dressed for the occasion: dirty and shredded tight hiphuggers, hair covering most of her face, and tiny tops layered to show cleavage and midriff. Yeah, the only thing I learned from that experience is a) PT Barnum was right, and b) being the girlfriend of a teacher's pet qualifies you as a speaker.
I am loving my English class, and I'm even looking forward to my final paper (on Camus' The Plague.) I am not hating my Art History class, although I am not enjoying my formal analysis & research paper. Deconstructing art is far less pleasurable than just reveling in the beauty.
I've also been learning a lot outside of school. Life has thrown a lot of object lessons at me, and I've managed to just learn from these moments, and not get caught up in them and bring myself more drama, stupidity, and hatefulness into my life. Yes, I'm much better now than I used to be.
The grandson continues to be both a joy and a frustration for any number of reasons.
My baby girl will be married in 9 days!!!!
And finally, the memes, and off to school.
, the first from anmorata:
bolded means I've read the book, underlined means it's on my bookshelf, italicized means I'll be reading it soon, and paratheses indictate I've never heard of it.
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (I have the audio book, hope to listen to it soon)
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
(His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
(Life of Pi - Yann Martel)
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
(The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold)
Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonnegut
Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
(The Secret History – Donna Tartt)
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C. S. Lewis
(Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides)
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman(OK, it's not really on the bookshelf, it's out on loan)
(Atonement - Ian McEwan)
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert
Atlas, Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles
A Wrinkle In Time - Madeline L'Engle
The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck
Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained - John Milton

The next is from zianuray:
50 greatest SF and Fantasy books
So the Science Fiction Book Club has listed what they see as the 50 most significant Scifi and Fantasy books of the last 50 years. I thought that I would list them and bold the ones that I have read.

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

Bet you can't tell I'm an SFF fan, huh?

Comments

[stormcore.livejournal.com]

Damn, that's ALOT of SFF books. I'm surprised you can still speak conversational English.

[marence.livejournal.com]

I speak many languages, including conversation English, business English, and geek.
Oh, and I've probably read a few hundred others that aren't on the list. For most of my life, I've read 3-5 novels a week, mostly SFF & mystery. Yes, I read a LOT.

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

I just hope they never come up with a 12-step program for quitting books. My co-workers would likely stage an intervention.