Scorpion Stalking Duck: 2B2B: 2 BUSY 2 BLOG

Kind of. Summer is here, and with it come children by droves: those for
elective surgery, those who fall from monkey bars, and those who get too
close to lawnmowers.

When the choice is 'sleep' or 'blog,' sleep usually wins.

UPDATE!

ENJOY THE VIDEO of the man Rush Limbaugh refers to as the 'Breck Girl:'

But here is something that has been sitting on the hard drive long enough.
I have to polish it later today, but here goes:

A Modified Book Meme

A List of Books:

Look at the list of books below.

Look at the mess I have made of it.

I wrote comments for most of the books. A lot of the books are ones I have
never heard of.

It is hard to consider this a list of 'great books' when it includes TWO
from Mitch Albom.

When I get home, I shall:

1. Bold the ones I've read,
2. Italicize the ones I want to read,
3. Cross out the ones I won't touch with a 10 foot pole or would never
recommend,
4. turn blue the ones on my book shelf,
5. and asterisk* the ones I've never heard of,

AND

look for a youtube video we talked about at dinner last night....

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) NO
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) TO READ SOMEDAY
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) TO READ SOMEDAY
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) NOT SURE
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) 2002

6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien) 2002
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien) 2002
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) TO READ SOMEDAY
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) NOT SURE
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry) NOT SURE

11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling) NO
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) Actually read through this during a slow
day at work. Unbelievable garbage – I threw the book out.
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling) NO
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) NO WHAT I HAVE READ OF JOHN
IRVING MADE ME SICK
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) NOT SURE

16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Rowling) NO
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald) NOT SURE
18. The Stand (Stephen King) 1982 – another example of wasted time
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling) NO
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) SOMEDAY

21. The Hobbit (Tolkien) 2002
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) NOT SURE
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) SOME DAY
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) NOT SURE
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel) NOT SURE Pie should be eaten.

26. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) NOT SURE
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) SOMEDAY
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) 1977
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck) SOMEDAY
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom) Good grief! I remember him as a
so-so reporter for some Detroit newspaper NO

31. Dune (Frank Herbert) 1979? I think. Favorite quote: "If wishes were
fishes, we'd all cast nets." Proof that the subjunctive clause will be in
use even after we master space travel.
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks) NOT SURE
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) NOT SURE
34. 1984 (Orwell) 1981 just under the wire….
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) NOT SURE

36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett) NOT SURE
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay) NOT SURE
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb) NOT SURE
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant) NOT SURE
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) NOT SURE

41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel) Saw the movie. Darryl Hannah
as the only acne-free blond cave woman. This must count for something….
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) NOT SURE
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella) NOT SURE
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom) Him again!?!
45. Bible (Over 15 different Translations both on shelf and read) NOT
ENOUGH OF IT

46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) SOME DAY
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) I read the Classics
Illustrated comic book version of it, and have the book on the shelf TO READ
SOME DAY
48. Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt) NOT SURE
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) SOME DAY
50. She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb) I have heard the song by the same name
by the 'Guess Who'

51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) NOT SURE
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) SOME DAY
53. Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card) NOT SURE
54. Great Expectations (Dickens) 1983
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) 1979

56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence) NOT SURE
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling) NO
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough) NO – I CAN READ ENOUGH SCANDALOUS
STUFF ABOUT PRIESTS IN THE NEWSPAPER.
59. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood) NOT SURE
60. The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrew Niffenegger) NOT SURE

61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) SOME DAY
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) NOT SURE
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy) SOME DAY
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) She recently converted and wrote
a fictional book about Jesus' life: Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt. Somebody
in First Things reviewed it; I shall try to find it.
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis) NOT SURE

66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) NOT SURE
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares) ISN'T THIS A STORY
ABOUT TEENAGER GIRLS WITH BODY IMAGE ISSUES AND A PAIR OF PANTS THAT FIT ALL
OF THEM?
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)1978 – I still recall the strangest beginning to
any book I ever read: "It was love at first sight…."
69. Les Miserables (Hugo) (Both French and English) SOME DAY
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) 1979 Weird, but I have my
own litmus test for
friends similar to the snake that swallowed the elephant.

71. Bridget Jones' Diary (Fielding) NO
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez) SOUNDS ROMANTIC, BUT MUST PASS
73. Shogun (James Clavell) ANYONE WHO CAN'T SPELL 'SHOTGUN' SHOULDN'T BE
WRITING BOOKS
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje) MAYBE?
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) SOME DAY

76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay) NOT SURE
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) SOME DAY
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving) NO! NO IRVING FOR ME!
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence) NOT SURE
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White) I even discovered the 'lost ending' to the
book: "Yes, Mr. Zuckerman," Lurvy said as he leaned back from the table,
"That really was some pig!"

81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley) CODE WORD FOR 'UNDERWEAR'
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck) 1980 "GEE, GEORGE, ARE YOU GOING TO CATCH ME
A MOUSE?"
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier) NOT SURE
84. Wizard's First Rule (Terry Goodkind) PROBABLY NOT
85. Emma (Jane Austen) SOME DAY

86. Watership Down (Richard Adams) 1980 "You will have a thousand enemies,
and when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch
you…."
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) 1979
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields) NOT SURE
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago) CAN'T READ A BOOK IF I CAN'T SEE IT
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer) NOT SURE

91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje) NOT SURE – DIDN'T THIS GUY WRITE ABOUT
AN ENGLISH PATIENT?
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding) 1983 GREAT METAPHOR FOR CIVILIZATION
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck) NOT SURE
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd) SURE. SIGN ME UP.
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) I HAVE PROBLEMS WITH PEOPLE WITH
'IDENTITY' ISSUES.

96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) NOT SURE
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch) NOT SURE
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford) COULD SHE MAKE ME A LOAN?
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield) NOT SURE
100. Ulysses (James Joyce) SOME DAY

I had to put 'NOT SURE' for many because I had never heard of them. I don't
get out much….

Here are some other books I like:

Space Trilogy (C.S. Lewis) 1995
Screwtape Letters (C.S. Lewis) 1987
Wind, Sand & Stars (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) 1995
A Man for All Seasons (Robert Bolt) 2006
Lord of the World (Robert Hugh Benson) 2000?
Cry, The Beloved Country (Alan Paton) 1983
Kim (Rudyard Kipling) 1980?
The Foundation Trilogy (Isaac Asimov) 2006
Nostromo (Joseph Conrad) 2005-2006
Til We Have Faces (C.S. Lewis) 2001?
The Gods Themselves (Isaac Asimov) 2002
The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane) 1983
Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) 1983
The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis) 1977
Animal Farm (George Orwell)1972 I discovered the hard way that this was not
a children's story
The Bridge Over the River Kwai (Pierre Boule) 1980
The Jungle Books (or any thing else by Rudyard Kipling) 1972 - present
Father Elijah (Michael D. O'Brien) 1998
Eclipse of the Sun (Michael D. O'Brien) 1998
The Diary of a Country Priest (Georges Bernanos) 1986
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (John Le Carre) 1979
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne) 1976
Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) 1983
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson) 1986
Beau Geste (P.C. Wren) 1972
The Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham) 2005
Young Men and Fire (Norman Maclean) 2005
The Path to Rome (Hillaire Belloc) 1987
The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster) 1972
The Epic of Gilgamesh (Bob Gilgamesh) 1983