BBC Top 100 Books

The last two days’ NaBloPoMo blog prompts haven’t sparked any interesting thoughts in my tired brain, so I wasn’t going to post until sometime this weekend or early on Monday. But as I was perusing through my reader, I came across my girl Amy aka The Bookworm Wife’s entry about the BBC’s top 100 Books list. To my surprise, I’ve read more than a few books on the list, most of which I loved with a few that were really hard to get through, but manadatory through required reading in my high school/college days. On another note, checking this list made me want to read some of my childhood favorites. It’s so easy for great books to fade in our memories when it’s been years without re-reading it as a refresher. Enough blabbing, the books I’ve read (46) are bolded:

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
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 Traveler’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 Mitchel
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

Which books have you read??

My Last Meal

NaBloPoMo’s prompt for today is: if you knew whatever you ate next was your last meal, what would you want it to be?

I think that I love food too much to narrow down one meal. So I’d request a five course meal. :) First, would be a caprese salad with the freshest buffalo mozzarella and balsamic vinegar, second course would be a lobster bisque, the third course would be mac and cheese with hot dog and kim bap (Korean Sushi), the main entree would grilled halibut and bulgogi (Korean BBQ), and the dessert would definitely be a pairing of the finest cheeses/grapes and creme brulee with a glass of the most decadent port wine.

:) NOMNOMNOM I’M SO HUNGRY.

Happy Halloween & End of OctPhotoChallenge! :)

 

Happy Halloween my lovahhhhsss and hoaaaaasss!

It’s been an action packed few weeks in the Dubs’ household. We’ve had a lot of fun between costume parties, haunted houses, random family/friends gatherings, Mr.DJW’s 30th bday extravaganza, etc.

I can’t believe that October is almost over! Seriously, where the hell did 2011 GO?! FLEW RIGHT BY ME, that’s for sure.

Without further ado, here are my photos to finish out the October Photo Challenge!

Day 25: Something Pink

I cheated on this one and used an old mobile phone photo. But when I read the prompt for this day – I immediately thought of my Asian Barbie Pink nails. I love shellac manicures, but they do require some off time in between for your nails to stay hydrated and breathable; so for the last couple of weeks I’ve been manicure-less and my cuticles have become an eyesore. I am broke for the month (after Mr.DJW’s bday celebrations), so I will be saving up to pamper myself next month. Oh wait, then there’s Christmas shopping. (DAMMIT! LOL)

Day 26 & Day 27: Close up & From A Distance

These pictures are related to each other. Last week, we had our pre-work Halloween goodies and festivities. The above is my personal stash of sugary treats to rot my teeth. LOL. And in the picture below, are some chocolate covered peanuts, and peanut M&M’s… can you see them?

Day 28: Flowers

I took a different approach and took a shot of my current favorite lotion from Bath & Body. “Butterfly Flower.” It’s actually my favorite Spring/Summer scent for my dry hands, but I’m still working through the last bit of the bottle. I need to switch to a Fall scent ASAP! :P

Day 29: Black & White

Not a B/W photo, but a photo of my B/W lunch bad that I earned for free from my kick of Lean Cuisine frozen lunches earlier this year. I’m not a huge fan of them any more, but they do make an easy, convenient lunch for the days I’m short on cash or too lazy to pack a lunch! :)

Day 30: Self-Portrait

Since I took the traditional UPCLOSE&PERSONAL photo on Day 1 of this challenge. I decided to take a more artistic, Warhol-esque shot of myself today.

image

Yup, I wore glasses today. I actually really like wearing glasses, although it makes it difficult to put eye make-up on. But, I’m down to my last pair of contacts and I needed to rest my eyes today. Do you see those chinky eyes? Yea – I’m uber tired today!

Photo Challenge Day 15 – 24

Last week was Mr.DJW’s 30th birthday week extravaganza! It was a week full of fun activities, especially since my lil brudder was home for a long weekend from NYC, as well! :)

Happy Monday to you all! Here are a few of my photos for the last 1.5 week!

Day 15: Silhouette (my e-ring & wedding band, can ya see the shadow? I know, not quite a silhouette, but it’s my weak attempt!)

Day 16: SKIPPED!

Day 17: Technology (I live for leisure reading. I’m kind of annoyed that Amazon came out with their new line of fancy, schmancy kindles; but I love mine regardless!)

Day 18: Your Shoes (My big splurge last week at DSW: tan riding boots, Nine West, $119)

Day 19: Something Orange (My favorite chapstick, EOS.)

Day 20: Bokeh (My weak attempt at it.)

Day 21: Faceless self-portrait (I heart sweaters. I heart cable-knit sweaters.)

Day 22: Hands (Power of prayer.)

Day 23: SKIPPED!

Day 24: Animal (My Bailey princess. She sleeps in the weirdest positions.)

Have a great week y’all! I will be back to wind up the last week of October Photo Challenge. Then begins blogging about MI life and our plans for TTC! :)

October Photo Challenge Days 10-14

Mr.DJW & I had a short 3 day work week, hence my catch up on the photo blog challenge this week. Thankfully, I remembered to take a snapshot of everything so here’s a look at this Days 10-14 of October Photo Challenge!

Day 10: A childhood memory

I was obsessed with paper dolls. I think I played with paper dolls more than I played with Barbie dolls. I was mostly a tomboy growing up with a younger brother and a male best friend. However, when it came to paper dolls, I was all about playing house and making the boys stop their wrestling match to play with me and my dolls. Oh the simplicity of childhood.

Day 11: Something blue

This past Monday, Mr.DJW and I went to the Monday Night Football game downtown. Needless to say, it was a CRAZY event and we’re both glad to have been able to be there for it all! 5-0! GO LIONS!

Day 12: Sunset

Indian summer?! OMG the weather has been beautiful. Mr.DJW and I were blessed with beautiful sunny, 70s weather all long-wknd long! Now it’s back to 50s/60s clouds and rain, but hey, I’ll take any bit of sunshine and warmth to prepare for our long winter ahead.

Day 13: 13 things & me

When I first read this title, I was thinking of being surrounded by huge stuffed animals. LOL. Then I got smart and took the easy way out. I LIVE and BREATHE for organization and to-do lists. My 12 rainbow colored sharpie ultra-fine pens and my sticky post-it notepad are my sanity both at work and at home.

Day 14: Eyes

I just wanted to test out the fish camera app for FxCamera on my Droid2. Oh the things that we can do to morph ourselves in pictures; gotta love technology!