Books, books, books

Even though I don't read much any more, I used to read all the time. Now most of my spare time is spent knitting, and once I figure out how to knit and read, I'll be back! So, with nods to Bells, here's my version of the book list:


1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown) never even interested.
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) Both of these because I took "Literature" instead of "English" in high school
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) My first "grown-up" book! I loved it, and still do!
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) I'm almost certain I read this, but I'll be damned if I can tell you what it's about!
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
8. The Stand (Stephen King) OMG!! I can't believe this is the only Stephen King novel on the list! This is probably my favorite, but he wrote TONS more really terrific books!
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) Sneaked this book when I was about 13 - mom said it was "dirty" - guess I was too young to understand, cause it bored me to tears.
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) This book convinced me that reading was fun!
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) Probably the funniest author I've ever read. Loved all 4 books in the trilogy!
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) I wanted so badly to just smack Heathcliff!
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck) Might be the only John Steinbeck book I ever tried to read
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert) After I saw the movie, I HAD to read the book, but I only read the first one.
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) I know I've read Ayn Rand, but I'm not sure if its this one or not.
34. 1984 (Orwell) Again, HS literature, I hated this book!
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) Another one I'm nearly positive I read.
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) REALLY excellent book!
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel) I read the sequel to this, without knowing it was the sequel until I was almost through. It was good, but not good enough for me to want to read the first one.
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible - At least twice
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) Somebody please explain to me how a love story could be so freaking boring!
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) Dumas is one of my favorites!
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) "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Ah, Dickens!
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens) Loved it!
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) I cried and cried!
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough) Loved it until I saw the movie!
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) Much better that I thought it was going to be - still gives me the creeps!
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) Love Anne Rice, but her witches books were better!
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) This book was very strange!
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) Another one that made me cry!
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell) Although I couldn't tell you WHY I read it!
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) What little girl didn't read this???
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) Same for this one
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving) Made me a John Irving fan
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) I thought it was about boats, but nooooo, rabbits:!?!?!?
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) Truely changed my life, and still affects me to this day.
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding) Scariest book I ever read, until Stephen King.
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck) Force to read this in 3rd grade, and I still don't like Buck.
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford) One of her very best
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield) Completely over-hyped
100. Ulysses (James Joyce) I know I read it, but all I remember is wondering when it would end.

That's it - I've read more than I thought I had. These days, my tastes run more toward mysteries. I love Tony Hillerman, and Michael McGarrity - both write of and in New Mexico, so they're my heroes!

I'm Back!!

And I haven't killed anyone - although the urge has been mighty! I'm also knitting again, after about a week and a half off. You know life is not good when you have NO DESIRE to knit. I'd look at all the projects, and just think "UGH!" So, I'm back working on opera fichu from VLT. I'm casting off the main portion of the fichu - I need to block it, let it dry, and then do the tie-on portion. But first, a message about the bind off. That word would be YECH! This is such a pain in the arse!!! Here's what the directions said: cast on 2, bind off 5. Sounds easy, right? Oh, no! Here's the reality: Flip your knitting. Cast on 2. Flip your knitting. Move 2 cast-on stitches to left hand needle. Bind off 5. Flip your knitting, etc., etc., etc., What a pain! I'm knitting this thing on Addis (which I love!) but, if I'm not careful with the 2nd flip, all the stitches come off the right-hand needle (the cast ons and the one remaining from the last bind off), then I have to do it again. It's taking me way too long to do this! I'm going to get it done this weekend.
Here's a picture of the half-way bound off fichu:


And here's my attempt at a close-up of the lace. It's not blocked yet, and the lighting did funky stuff to my fingers, but here goes:


The colors are funky, but it's closer to the 2nd one in color, not quite as purple. I'll try to borrow the kidlet's digital camera and take a better pic.
In other news - I ended up buying a new car, with LOTS of help!!! I'm not happy that I had to go into debt again, and I'm completely freaked out about making car payments and huge insurance payments again, but my mini van was becoming a death-trap, and it was becoming a case of throwing good money after bad. The good news is that I finally have my HHR that I've been lusting after for 2 years. It's silver, and it runs so wonderfully, all the parts and pieces work, and it DOESN'T think it's a sail! It handles wonderfully in the wind, which is a HUGE deal, especially this time of year. We've had rain the last couple of days, and my new car has handled it wonderfully. I'm actually quite pleased with it. Since I bought it used, it has some minor things going on - like one of the H's fell off the back, so I'm driving an H R - I'm thinking of trying for one of those vanity plates that says "PUFNSTF" or something similar - is that called making lemonade out of lemons?

Stress

Stress does not make for good knitting. How do I know? You might ask. From first-hand experience. This has been a horrific week for me. As was last week. I haven't knitted since last weekend, because frankly, I'm too tired and upset to knit. Since I started this as a knitting blog, and not a bitching-post (get it? bitching, not hitching? hahahahahaha!) I have nothing to blog. I did start binding off the opera fichu, a very fussy picot bind-off, so that's going to go very slowly. However, I do like what I've bound off so far, its really pretty, for all its fussy-ness.
Life happens. Stuff happens. Life and stuff will both straighten themselves out, I'll be knitting again soon, and I'll something to post about that doesn't sound like a freaking Greek tragedy.