See No Evil

In Canada they're coming to the end of Freedom to Read Week and so I spend some time at work doing a count of all the banned books I've read. I'm happy to say the total was just over 70 (counting series as one) and as I'm beginning to get addicted to making lists, here they are;

• Flowers in the Attic - V.C. Andrews
• The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
• Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio
• Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
• The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants - Anne Brashares
• A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
• In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
• Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
• Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
• The Book of One Thousand and One Nights - Collection
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
• James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl
• Revolting Rhymes - Roald Dahl
• The Witches - Roald Dahl
• Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
• American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
• The Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
• The Graphic Work of M.C. Escher - M.C. Escher
• The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Lord of the Flies - William Golding
• The Complete Grimm's Fairytales - Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
• A Time to Kill - John Grishman
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
• Where's Waldo - Martin Handford
• Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
• Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
• A Doll's House - Henrik Ibsen
• Carrie - Stephen King
• It - Stephen King
• The Shining - Stephen King
• The Stand - Stephen King
• The Tommyknockers - Stephen King
• Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
• To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
• The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
• A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
• Narnia (series) - C.S. Lewis
• The Call of the Wild - Jack London
• The Giver - Lois Lowry
• Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller
• Watchmen - Alan Moore
• My Friend Flicka - Mary O'Hara
• 1984 - George Orwell
• Animal Farm - George Orwell
• The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
• All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
• Harry Potter (series) - J.K. Rowling
• Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
• The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
• Black Beauty - Anna Sewell
• Hamlet - William Shakespeare
• King Lear - William Shakespeare
• Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
• Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare
• Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
• Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
• Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
• Goosebumps (series) - R.L. Stine
• Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
• Bible - Various
• Qu'ran - Various
• Candida - Voltaire
• Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
• Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
• The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
• The Happy Prince and other stories - Oscar Wilde
• Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder

Most shocking of all I've never read anything by that oft-banned, much maligned, and subversive author, Judy Blume. I feel like I've missed out on something great.

Once again thanks to Doppelganger for the inspiration.

An Honest Admission

For the purposes of full disclosure I am adding all the books I read to the 2007 list. Last year’s one lacks the 25 or so books of utter crap I was too embarrassed to actually put on the list.

Apparently I have no shame on the internet. Case in point: diabetic jam will give you the shits.

Navel Gazing Alert

I’ve been reading through the archives of Miss Snark and now I really want to start writing. The problem of course is that I have no idea how to write a novel. I have a bunch of ideas and random bits of dialogue running around my head all the time (I think this is perfectly normal but if it’s not I really don’t want to know) but how that translates to a plot and characterisation is beyond me. A writing course is the obvious answer but what if I truly suck at it?

Supposedly, writing begets more writing and must be honed like any other craft. This means I will have to set myself some assignments and use this here handy blog to find my way.

You have been warned.

And So It Begins

I thought I’d jump on the back of Doppelganger’s Book list idea from 50 Books.

So without further ado my list of Books a Man Has Given Me That Made Me Swear NEVER to Go on Another Date with Him EVER Again.

• Any of the Da Vinci Code type best sellers – This is not literature, I’m glad that you’re reading but don’t tell me this is the best book evah.
• Catcher in the Rye – If you are anything like Holden Caulfield I will kick your whiny, entitled arse.
• On the Road – If Kerouac is your hero I’m worried about your ability to pay for dinner.
• Any religious propaganda – I enjoy a well written discourse on any subject but don’t try and convince me the fossil record is made up. Just don’t.
• Chicken Soup books – You obviously know nothing about me. Please leave.

Wow, apparently my snobbery isn’t as wide spread as I thought. Or maybe it’s just been so long since I’ve been on a date.