Imagine's Journal

well Ive been thinking. about a lot of things.

I quit smoking.

I kicked the amphetamines to the curb.

I got a photo ID.

I gave up on ever proving my love to my father, and let go of college in general for the time being. Im working on learning to let go. That letter he wrote me almost destroyed me. I wanted to tell him right then and there everything that would earn me some much deserved forgiveness and love... but I was strong, for him. I was proud of myself. Part of me really wants to talk to paul about it. He really brutally ostracized his family when he got diagnosed with emphysema "for their own good" and well... I disagreed with that. But that was a very different situation. Still a person worth talking to. Perhaps he could even help me let go.

My brother is so amazing with that. I wish all the time i could be more like him... and just let things go. I wonder where he learned to be so happy, so balanced. I looked back on my life and realized that my mom did a pretty good job of teaching me how to hold on tightly and exclusively to the things in life that hurt you, or made you mad, or sad, or disappointed... but i cant really blame her for how i turned out because just look at my brother; warm, gentle, lazy and reckless... but genuinely bored with and opposed to misery in general. Besides, holding a grudge against her is a step in the wrong direction anyway, so i dont. Ive just been wondering... like... how to be happy in a pile of shit. like, i dont even know, no one but my brother ever showed me that.

And I think its possible, but i think even sans the bad habits, i still need help. In a lot of ways. Homelessness sucks, and I'm hungry and more often than not filthy, but I showered down good for a couple job interviews, we shall see. I think i need to get on the antidepressant bandwagon again. I think about suicide about as often as a teenage boy thinks about sex. every ten seconds or so, if that. I dont want to make myself sad... its just so hard to get out of thinking like that... doing like that... when things really are that shitty.

But on the plus side, I got a spiffy tattoo, the best swimsuit in the world, Barnacle, I got to see a river ablaze, be in a shark tank, ride an escalator over a sea turtle, go to a Warhammer convention, order room service lobster sammiches, and wander all over new york on foot. Also Automat. God Bless Automats.

I got to see rei flip off a rentacop.

I got to see two new states. (i slept through delaware, or it'd be 3)

i think im getting better at taking a hard life easy. I hope i am.

Like clockwork, just before each summer comes, the media lays into the travel industry. You get these doom and gloom forecasts, on the dot every May/June about how it's going to be the worst summer for travel ever. I've started to watch this trend and now I am wondering what the deal is.

Sure, fuel costs are rising, companies merge, go under, whatever. This is business! But every year, magazines and newspapers carp on about how unaffordable and awful travel is going to be..especially air travel. The media seems to have a personal gripe against the airlines.

Air travel can be miserable, sure. But let's put this into perspective. You are paying for a service that can pick you up in California in the morning and drop you in Paris by evening. You take a chance with something this complex. Flights might be delayed, you might get stuck next to some freak for 8 hours or so. But most of the time..*most of the time*..it IS bearable. And for what you are doing..flying halfway around the world in less than a day..it's truly a luxury.

But on they go, filling you with dread and fear and terror about that next trip to the airport to the point that it's like they WANT you to cancel your plans, and go home and hide. I mean I don't understand what is behind this regular beating of "travel costs." Travel IS an expense..should it not be? And plus..let's say you are used to paying $700 for a flight, now it's $825. Is that really going to kill you..make you cancel that exciting trip to Italy or the Bahamas? Are you supposed to give up that quickly?

There of course are nightmare stories about traveling..traffic, the struggle of getting thru security, cancelled flights..these are the risks and trials of life. In a perfect world we could all just step on a private jet with a reclining seat and big screen TV all to ourselves..but this isn't a perfect world. The rest of us use commercial airliners..coach, specifically. Which brings me to one of my more pressing questions..one of the threats I've heard two years in a row is "more crowded planes." Think about that statement for a moment.


A crowded plane. So...this must mean that all the seats will be filled...as opposed to there being any empty seats here and there. So what's the big deal. All the seats are filled. The plane is built to handle having every passenger in every seat. So why is this alarming..the "more crowded planes" concept, In an airplane, you cannot seat anymore in than there are already seats for, so the buck stops there. A full plane of people should not affect you, as you have paid for your little area of space, you're being fed and given drinks and have a TV in front of you. So what's this "crowding" thing.

Airplanes don't let an endless stream of uncounted numbers of passengers just kinda hang onto an overhead rail like a subway car or bus, standing in the aisles, getting in your way, stealing your seat when you get up.

So what exactly is a "crowded" plane. Or, let's say..what does it mean that planes will be MORE crowded than ever. Meaning, they finally have ALL the seats filled up? Why should I care? How does that affect the seat I paid for? My personal, bought for space?

Anyway, I just thought about this because I saw yet ANOTHER "destroy your summer vacation hopes and just stay home" articles. Everyone wants to convince you to stay home, because uh...what. Airlines are going to start charging $25 for a checked bag. MY GOD!!!!!!!!! You probably spent that just at StarBucks this week.

And yes, in a time when we are scaling back and rethinking things, I can understand some sense of restrain and consideration. But fear of full planes (aka CROWDED PLANES)..that each seat just happens to have a person in it...NOPE! CANCEL MY FLIGHT! There has to be at LEAST 4-5 empty seats or I can't fly!

I just sit back and wonder from the sidelines sometimes. Yeah, exchange rates to some countries are pretty bad. Well, scale back a bit. Is it that hard, really? I find it hard to believe that people are going to dump plans because of a few hundreds bucks..ultimately. That's what it came down to. Or "more crowded planes" which I still need to get some more information on.

Why is there never an *upbeat* article on travel about how to be flexible and patient, plan ahead and save a few extra bucks. If traveling is that important and you love it that much, you go with the flow. Part of the travel routine is a certain amount of sitting and waiting. That is not likely to change.

So anyway, if anyone knows why we get this annual "Your summer plans are going to hell in a handbasket" report and especially why they love to torment you with the details of your sure-to-be-dommed miserable onboard flight please pass along the wisdom.

"Skyrocketing fuel costs"..that's another buzzword. "Skyrocketing." I look up and see this firecracker looking thing in the air above the airport, like a paper rocket that then bursts into flames like a big forth of July streamer. Because costs are skyrocketing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Pain at the pump"..another cleverly designed phrase designed to get you to crack a grimace at the idea of $5 per gallon gas.

And in related news, they tease you with this exciting story about some guy who can run his car on...uh..mouse turds. And you think wow...how I can get MY car to do that? Mouse turds are free! Turns out, as you learn at the end of the story that he spent $5,000 to convert his engine into one that can handle mouse turds. Give me a break!!! Of what practical use is that information for me? Unless you've got some snap on mouse turd converter kit I can drop in my engine and off we go...don't give me these whackjob stories about these major complicated customized mouse turd converters. If I am having trouble paying $4.50 a gallon where is the extra $5,000 going to come from?

Or the suggestions about starting your car in neutral then quickly shifting and taking your foot off the brake at a certain moment and how you can save gas...forget it!!!!!!!!!! Your car was designed to get poor/average mileage. Are these wild gyrations actually saving you that much? Gosh. If you just decided not to buy a $20 dinner once a week you could probably save yourself that much jackin' around with the brakes and gear shift.

Of course, they have another goofy coined phrase for *that* technique. "Hypermiling." Yes folks...HYPER!!!!! Because now my crappy old Ford practically runs on air!!!!!!!!!

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/07/morning-found-me-miles-away.html

Still in Brazil. Still with Miss Maddy. Still having a lovely time.

Bought lots of books in the Paraty Festival bookshop today -- and saw many beautiful Brazilian editions of my stuff I hadn't seen before.

My favourite article read on the plane, incidentally, was the wonderful The Magic Olympics -- with tricks explained! by Alex Stone, in Harpers, which you can read online at: http://harpers.org/archive/2008/07/0082095 (my second favourite was the Gopnik article on Chesterton in the New Yorker, but it's not online, and I think he missed the boat about Chesterton politically). [My mistake. The Harpers article is only readable for subscribers.]

Hi Neil,You wrote a lovely story, told by Abel (I believe) about crows sitting in judgment on their storytellers. Somewhere along the way, this story became fact in my head. I was wondering if there is any truth to the myth, or if it's just myth. Maybe you could pass the question on to the Birdchick?Thanks!MRM

The description of corvids sitting around one of their number, cawing back and forth, and then sometimes killing it and sometimes flying off is something I've run into in old bird literature (and more recently as well -- since Sandman 40 came out I've read an eyewitness account of it in the Smithsonian Magazine). As to why it happens, I don't think you'll find any bird people who claim to know.

I should mention that the collective noun for rooks is not a parliament (which is actually the collective noun for owls) or it wasn't until I wrote Sandman 40, anyway. Mostly it's a building or a clamour of rooks. Sometimes it's a storytelling of rooks, which sounds like something I might have made up anyway...

Does Neil have an official myspace page? If so what is the adress?

No, I don't. There's an unofficial one, or more than one out there. I keep meaning to set up official myspaces and facebooks, but really tend to feel that keeping this place under control is more than enough for one author, and it never happens.

Hi Neil--Not really a question for you, just comment. You mentioned Tom Stoppard in your blog today. They say you should never meet your heroes, but they never say how cool it is when some of your heroes meet each other and get along so well. You seem to get along well with just about everyone. What just makes me smile is that so many of them are heroes of mine (Dave McKean, Roger Zelazny, Tom Stoppard, Philip Pullman,... ).Good luck growing up to be Mr. Stoppard. You seem well on your way.Have fun!
Geoff

Actually, you should never meet your heroes if you want to keep them as heroes. They may wind up as friends or as disappointments or as pleasant surprises, but once you know them they immediately stop being heroes. (I've turned down several opportunities to meet Stephen Sondheim socially, because he's practically all I've got left. Even David Bowie, who I've never even met, has managed to transmute in my head most of the way from DAVID BOWIE ZOMG!!1!* to my friend Duncan's dad.)

But then, I'm not sure about heroes at the best of times. I wrote about it at http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2004/10/whatever-happened-to-sancho-panza.asp
and still feel pretty much the same way now.

The most remarkable thing about Tom Stoppard (leaving aside the whole him-being-a-genius thing) is he's twenty years older than me, and he has my hair!

This gives me hope.



.......

*correct !!1! punctuation assistance here by Maddy.

• 11:59 New songs in rehearsal followed by karaoke duet of "All night Long". Tuesday night karaoke rides again, Brooklyn style. #
• 15:50 Funny quote I stumbled upon: "Doctor Who's Russell T. Davies Is The Gay Michael Bay" #
• 16:33 Wii Guitar Hero peeps:FYI if you do the free disc replacement, Red Octane will send you a free faceplate! Mine has a sweet war eagle! #

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Happy Birthday Mumph!!!!!!!!! :)

Lisbon is very hot, but very very cool.

Having a great time in Portugal. The first event, last night, drew an overflow crowd. My apologies to all those who had to stand, but thanks for staying. The warmth and hospitality of my hosts and my Portuguese readers will be something I will long remember.

We have another Lisbon signing this evening, and have added a fourth event, for Thursday, this one in Porto.

• 10:30 Confused how Livejournal can show hundred of old entries but Twitter can only handle two pages of tiny notes? #

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http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/07/now-when-twilight-dims-sky-above.html

Maddy and I are now in Brazil. We got to the airport in Sao Paulo where the driver and Tom Stoppard were waiting, and then we drove down to Paraty. (At no point did I say to Tom Stoppard, "Funny old world innit? You wrote a film called Brazil, and now we're here." Tom Stoppard is, I discovered, who I want to be when I grow up. I did, however, tell him how much I liked his Waterstones story card.)

Anyway. All is good. We went off on a boat to an island and had a very late lunch, or a very early dinner, and after dinner I lay down on the roof of the boat as it chuntered back to Paraty and watched the sun set and slept under the stars, waking just before we docked.

I have a plan for Saturday -- I spoke to the Festival organisers and they seem happy with it. After the programme item (starts at 11:45, finishes around 1.00pm) I'll sign for whoever's there for as long as it takes. I figure this may take a while, but basically anyone there who wants a signature, whether they made it to the official event or had to content themselves with the big screen overflow or are just wandering around Paraty clutching an ancient Portuguese translation of Sandman. So if you were wondering whether or not it was worth your while making the trip to Paraty, yes, if you're here then, I'll sign your book.

Not a question, just a post on a glorious clockwork tower I thought you might enjoy.
http://cabinet-of-wonders.blogspot.com/2008/06/san-marco-clock-tower-venice.html

I was thinking the other day that it had been a while since I'd posted a link to cabinet of wonders - http://cabinet-of-wonders.blogspot.com/ - as I've been enjoying the recent grand tour, so I took this as a reminder. (My favourite recent article was http://cabinet-of-wonders.blogspot.com/2008/06/languages-of-tone-and-rhythm.html)

dear neil,
did you know that people are selling the graveyard book on abesbooks.co.uk?? is that allowed??

i've entered the epitaph competion because well i just had too what with the desperation and the sweaty paws and whatnot! Even so it feels a little like cheating, and in the unlikely event of winning a copy, i do think i might miss out on the all hallows atmosphere!

just thought i'd do a little 'grassing' seeing as i was in the neighbourhood, the stink of spoilsports to me! they wouldnt allow that with that Potter boy so why Bod?!

davey

Well, the publishers didn't send out advance reading copies with the Harry Potter books -- they were extremely strict about shops violating the on-sale date, though, which is a slightly different thing. Here you have books that people have been sent or given that they are putting up for sale on eBay or Abebooks.

The covers of the ARCs all say "Not for sale" on them, but most of the copies for sale are being sold by booksellers who got them at Book Expo America, and many of those booksellers use the sale of the various advanced copies of books they got there as a way to fund their trip to Book Expo. Which is my way of saying I can't get mad about it.

I'm most disappointed when copies proudly proclaim themselves to never have been read. The reason for the advanced reading copies is so that people can read them. So I hope the people who buy them on eBay or elsewhere read them and tell people about them, and don't just put them away in the dark as collectibles.

Is "bugger me sideways with a coracle" a real expression, or did you make it up?

You mean the two things are mutually exclusive? Everything has to be made up first... I mean, take the following as an example:

Hey Neil,

I found the most interesting thing today. I received a book order today including Creating Circles & Ceremonies by Oberon and Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart. It's a Pagan ritual book. Anyway, I was looking through the appendices and they had a section listing Pantheons of different cultures and religions. Guess what was included in the list? THE ENDLESS. I was shocked! Apparently, people have created very successful rituals using the archetypes of The Endless. I guess your characters have taken on a life of their own! Just thought you might be interested in knowing that little tidbit.

Sincerely,
Christina

This short film is pretty awesome. Totally safe for work and very cute. I want Superdog to be my best friend.

I Get Wet

I thought way back like two years ago when this bill had passed I would be so excited that finally finally...hand held cel phones are banned from use while driving in California.

Yet...the day is at long last here, and I don't feel very excited about it. I don't feel safer.


With a $20 first time offense ticket, people are still going to try to get away with using phones, second they are still going to try to text, which is probably more precarious.

Beyond phones, they still drive poorly and dangerously in other ways which aren't illegal until you cause an accident (well, in my opinion, as I sure don't see anyone getting pulled over). Speeding, tailgaiting, racing between lanes, any number of threatening, intimidating behavior because you're trying to go the speed limit. And Chrysler has decided that installing wireless internet (with a screen I assume) is a great idea for car sales. Another way to help enhance the "eyes on the road" theory.

So, in the end, on this day, which I long awaited, I just breathe a long sigh and hope I make it to my destination in one piece.

• 01:35 Wow. Looking for all ages clubs in Pittsburgh I stumbled across this: www.clubzoo.net/8101.html #
• 10:46 Not going to Vermont for the Fourth. Seeking alternatives in NYC or Boston... #
• 13:07 The Magic is Happening around the corner -- Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) filming her new movie @ our corner florist. #
• 17:07 They're treating a shopping cart with a chemical to make it look rusty for the shoot. They couldn't find a rusty shopping cart in Brooklyn? #

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http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/06/brazeeeeeel.html

Maddy and I are off to Brazil in a few minutes. Well, we're off to New York where we change planes. But basically, we're off to Brazil together. She has the disarming smile. I have the unlikely facial hair. We're like Green Arrow and Speedy, only without the boxing glove arrows, the costumes, the similarity of gender and... okay, not really a good analogy, but what the hell, we're hitting the road. Or we will if the car turns up.

...

It turned up. We're now in JFK in the airline lounge. Soon we will get on a plane that will take us to São Paulo. I have bought Maddy every possible magazine a 13 year old girl could want, not to mention a bunch of books. I will carry on writing stories in longhand on the plane. Or sleeping. I could sleep.

...

Want a badge made out of my thumbprint and signature? Or Tanith Lee's lip-print and initials? Details at http://www.freewebs.com/grikmeer-match-it/ although the eBay links don't seem to be active yet.

Also we are all very proud of the former web elf.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/30/news/economy/gas/index.htm?cnn=yes

I don't see any change at all in LA traffic. It's just as clogged as ever. Although there also are very few viable public transportation methods in this city...I can understand why there isn't any shift. There's no options. Riding a bike is a deathwish in this area, buses are slow, unreliable (I tried taking the bus 5 miles once as an experiment and was shocked at how bad the service was) and take forever and subways don't service where most of us live. You'd have to get into your car, park at a "park and ride", take the train and then take a cab to where you work which could be 10-20 miles away. Public transportation just doesn't work around here. It was made not to work. LA was a city built for the car.


There used to be trolleys here! 50 years ago, of course.

• 13:37 Just finished reading "Soon I Will Be Invincible!" Am now extra ready for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: www.drhorrible.com/ #

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I was busy toiling all afternoon on my 2009 RedTango catalog when an e-mail notification came in that someone had left a note on a journal entry. I haven't written anything in a few days, so when I looked it up I was suprised to find someone had managed to dig this old thing up!

http://community.livejournal.com/alanrickman/504728.html?thread=8812952

Holy crapola..over three years ago. Hard to believe! Yes, back in the day I was a busy beaver making lots of movie send ups of AR flicks. Eventually I decided that fandom wasn't my thang, and closed a website I had made with all the mockeries stored on it. It's still there, just password protected! And they are still all up on my journal, I guess from about the three years ago period. Hehe..they were funny too. The Barchester Chronicles was a good one, but Mesmer was the most insane. I had fun making those mockeries, but soon the whole thing became a dead weight. But at least the fun lasted long enough that alot of them were made and a few of those "in the know" know where to find 'em. It kinda also reminds me it's been quite a while since I've done anything super funny around here. Well, maybe when I feel super funny again I will. I'm just too busy right now. :/



Actually, I think I'm going to run out to the thrift store and look at the ugly crying clown paintings. What better way to spend a Sunday. Envy me not, my dear friend..for there be clowns in your future, as well.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/06/post-interrupted.html

Let's see...

A quiet sort of day. Took Maddy to get her eyebrows waxed. ("I can do that," I told her. "We have candles." She properly ignored me.)

I went down to say hullo to the bees -- the Olga hive is busily growing two new queens, and it's nice seeing the Olga bees happily bustling around the two queen cells. With luck, one of them will leave her cell, go off on a successful mating flight and return to repopulate the hive and lead it on to glory.

See the two things that look like peanuts? Queen cells. The first one to hatch will despatch the unhatched with her stinger...

Right now, as I type this, Maddy and I are rewatching the Bad Wolf and Parting of the Ways episodes of Doctor Who, because Maddy wanted to be reminded of them, due to the end of Turn Left. (And saying more would be spoilers.)

Hey Neil,

I'm not only a big fan of yours, but also Jennifer DeGuzeman's of Slave Labor Graphics fame. She posted this:

http://blog.newsarama.com/2008/06/26/heaven-knows-im-miserable-now-3/

Also, it seems you left Holly out of her birthday post. Did you forget to say something about her?

Really, the best Holly Birthday post was http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/06/hmg.html.

And it was very nice meeting Jennifer, who came across as utterly self-assured and said lots of sensible things she has undoubtedly forgotten. And besides, it did smell like onion rings.

Hi Neil,

I was reading Amanda (Palmer)'s blog, and she said you were working with her on her solo record, Who Killed Amanda Palmer. I'm a huge fan of Amanda, and your writing, and I was wondering what your involvement was in it.

Thanks,

Corey

So far I've written the words that will turn up on the back cover of the CD, Who Killed Amanda Palmer? And I'm going to write the words for a book of photographs of Amanda Palmer having been killed.

Hi, Neil!
A bunch of my geek-girl friends and I have pulled together a calendar celebrating being both female and geeky. You seem like this might be something you'd want to support--if you want to plug it on your blog, we'd be very grateful! The website is http://www.calendargeeks.com.

~Julia

Consider it posted -- mostly because I liked the outside knitting picture.

No question, Neil -- just a link that will point you to what happens when the muses take hold of an English department, and focus their will upon the lowly subject of an errant red hand truck. Enjoy!
http://flagpole.com/Arts/Features/ParkHallPoesy/2008-06-18

Fun! Reminds me of some of the classic Making Light posts.

Bil Stiteler just pointed me at http://1post1der.blogspot.com/, a blog that collects blog posts from blogs that only have one entry.

Hi Neil!

I am a long time fan of your work, and I know I'm a bit behind, but I just finished reading Anansi Boys. It is an awesome read, and I found myself in awe of the subtlety of your literary skills.

I'm curious about the writing process of the characters in Anansi Boys, you being a Caucasian man and the majority of the characters are not. I am an African American woman, and in the majority of books I've read, you naturally assume the characters are Caucasian, as whenever a non-Caucasian comes into play, it is plainly stated, i.e. "He was a black guy... She was a Japanese woman," etc. I so admire how you wrote Anansi boys, because it was the exact reverse - the reader is to assume that all the characters are black, and the non-black people are pointed out. Even the minority authors I've read make a point of focusing on race, but Anansi Boys was so smooth and subtle, I was halfway through the book before I caught it. I just wanted to say thank you for telling a wonderful story, without getting caught up in the semantics of color. It has to be the first book where the main characters are black people, of different cultures, that is not placed in the "African American
Fiction" section of Borders.

Could you tell a bit about your writing process for Anansi Boys, or if you have already done so on your journal, could you direct me to the post?

Thank you, and many Blessings!

Brandi

Honestly, I think you've pretty much summed it up as well as I ever could. You can hear me talk about it at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91303720 or read what I had to say when the book came out at http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/257/Neil-Gaiman-Anansi-Boys-page01.html#post22.


Hello! I have a question I couldn't find the answer to on your site or hardly anywhere else online. I have completed the third draft of a novel and got a lot of feedback saying it was good. However, I am in need of editing. Do you know how I can find good editors for hire? The reason why I want an editor is because I am concerned about being turned down for needing too much editing. I make some plural, punctuation, and some structural mistakes. I have no idea what the publishing world is like--Will a publisher turn down a manuscript with a good story, good writing, and solid arc if it had too many little errors per page?

I suspect that "too many little errors per page" means that the work is not going to be seen as "good writing". Amazing storytelling will triumph over a lot -- there was one bestselling author who wrote all her manuscripts with the shift key down -- but you need amazing storytelling to get to that point.

And while I don't know a lot about freelance editors, I feel confident in pointing to this Miss Snark post and its links and comments: http://misssnark.blogspot.com/2006/11/finding-editor.html

...

I was reminded at Boing Boing, there is no law against taking photos or filming in public places in the US or the UK. Something that law enforcement wannabes really need to remember: http://www.bakelblog.com/nobodys_business/2008/06/cops-bully-vide.html.

And here is Guillermo Del Toro talking about The Hobbit, Hellboy 2, and Death the High Cost of Living: http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp?aid=8348&tcid=1.

...

And that was as far as I got last night because it was then that I discovered a fully-gorged deer tick on the side of my face, and got to investigate what happens next (your doctor appears and gives you 200mg of doxycycline, which works in 87% of cases to stop Lyme Disease from happening, is what).

And I've forgotten what else was going to be in last night's post, except that I know it was going to finish with a link to this post -- http://davepresslersculpting.blogspot.com/2008/06/no-comicon-for-this-year.html
and congratulations to Dave and Lisa.

27th June, 2008. 10:05 pm. Big Read Meme

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well, let's see...

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)


001. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
002. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
003. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
004. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
005. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
006. The Bible
007. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
008. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
009. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
010. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
011. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
012. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
013. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
014. Complete Works of Shakespeare
015. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
016. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
017. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
018. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
019. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
020. Middlemarch - George Eliot
021. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
022. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
023. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
024. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
025. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
026. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
027. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
028. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
029. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
030. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
031. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
032. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
033. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
034. Emma - Jane Austen
035. Persuasion - Jane Austen
036. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
037. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
038. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
039. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
040. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
041. Animal Farm - George Orwell
042. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
043. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
044. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
045. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
046. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
047. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
048. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
049. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
050. Atonement - Ian McEwan
051. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
052. Dune - Frank Herbert
053. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
054. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
055. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
056. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
057. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
058. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
059. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
060. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
061. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
062. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
063. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
064. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
065. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
066. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
067. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
068. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
069. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
070. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
071. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
072. Dracula - Bram Stoker
073. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
074. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
075. Ulysses - James Joyce
076. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
077. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
078. Germinal - Emile Zola
079. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
080. Possession - AS Byatt
081. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
082. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
083. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
084. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
085. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
086. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
087. Charlotte's Web - EB White
088. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
089. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
090. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
091. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
092. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
093. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
094. Watership Down - Richard Adams
095. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
096. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
097. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
098. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
099. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo






There are a few books in there that I'm not sure if I read or not... and a few that I know I read but that I hardly remember. and I read the kiddie version of some of them, but that doesn't count so I didn't put it in bold. interesting! i count 36. six times the standard american? haha

• 13:47 Sunburn + Workout = hundreds of sweat beads trapped under by skin like tiny blisters. Kind of cool! #

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