Nobody ever tags me with these things, so I tag myself.
HT to JJ of Christian, Gay, and Confused (whose blog I read occassionally, but have never commented on).
The rules are as follows:
Look at the list of books and bold those we have read.
Italicize those we intend to read.
Underline the books we LOVE. (I don't know how to underline with blogger, so I'm changing the color to blue.)
Put an asterisk (*) next to those that you hated.
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 1984 - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa May 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 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (I was at Barnes and Noble and almost bought this!)
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
36 A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle (origianlly # 36 was listed as The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis, but since the whole Chronicles are listed at # 34, I took the liberty of changin this one)
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 The 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 (I have a crush on Dicken!)
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 (I plan to buy and read this around the third Sunday of Advent)
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
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 The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells (originally Hamlet - William Shakespeare was listed here, but since the Complete Works of Shakespeare are listed as # 14, I took the liberty of changing it).
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Wow! I've only read 20 out of these 100 books, although I do own 10 of the other titles on this list, as well as over 1,000 others. And since March of 2004 I've read 354 books and am in the middle of reading 12 others.
I think I might read the ones I didn't italicize, too.
(As you can see, my nap is working out very well!)
Showing posts with label Other blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Other blogs. Show all posts
Friday, November 7, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
And speaking of The Sheepcat...
Way back on Sunday, July 27th, I got to meet Alan live and in person at Lakeshore-St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church where he debated the Reverend Martha Daniels of Metropolitan Community Church Windsor on the topic of "[I]s homosexual practice 'contrary to the [G]ospel and inconsistent with a Christian lifestyle?'"
You can read about it at Alan's blog here and here.
I just want to add a few comments.
First, it was the most un-Presbyterian Presbyterian church I've ever been to, all seeker-sensitive and stuff (deplorable!), but the people, especially the pastor and his wife, were very good.
Second, it was great to meet Alan. I've enjoyed his blog ever since I first discovered it two years ago. He's as great a guy in person as you'd think from reading his blog. That was certainly the highlight of July.
Third, I also got to meet Dale and Heather Price of Dyspeptic Mutterings and Domestic Bliss Report, as well as the Price children, or, as CourageMan calls them, the Pricelets. Dale and Heather seem to be very fun people, and their children shocked me by actually eating food at the Mongolian BBQ. I cannot imagine my nieces and nephew being so not-picky! Dale also promised to remind CourageMan that I too live in the Detroit area when he (CM) visits them (Prices) this Christmas.
Fourth, the debate. Alan was stronger in the first debate than the second, but he was good in both. Here's a quote from his blog to demonstrate how good he was in the first:
"I can't resist recounting one anecdote: in the first debate Martha argued that homosexuality couldn't be against nature, as it had been documented in hundreds of animal species. Well, I responded, cannibalism is found in the animal kingdom, but we don't take that as a model of appropriate human behaviour. She didn't use that line of reasoning the second time."
I have to remember that one.
His limmerick at the end cracks me up! In both debates, he ended with it and then simply said "Martha?" as a way of handing it over to her. It's funny because this is how it went:
"Second Peter and Jude are akin
as they warn against libertine spin,
'Sodom's toast*, so beware
of the prophets who dare
to treat grace as a license to sin'...Martha?"
I'm not sure Martha liked being linked with the daring prophets.
You can get copies of both debates by contacting Lakeshore-St. Andrews. I don't know what the prices are. There's a free MP3 download of the first debate here.
*A contraction for "Sodom is".
You can read about it at Alan's blog here and here.
I just want to add a few comments.
First, it was the most un-Presbyterian Presbyterian church I've ever been to, all seeker-sensitive and stuff (deplorable!), but the people, especially the pastor and his wife, were very good.
Second, it was great to meet Alan. I've enjoyed his blog ever since I first discovered it two years ago. He's as great a guy in person as you'd think from reading his blog. That was certainly the highlight of July.
Third, I also got to meet Dale and Heather Price of Dyspeptic Mutterings and Domestic Bliss Report, as well as the Price children, or, as CourageMan calls them, the Pricelets. Dale and Heather seem to be very fun people, and their children shocked me by actually eating food at the Mongolian BBQ. I cannot imagine my nieces and nephew being so not-picky! Dale also promised to remind CourageMan that I too live in the Detroit area when he (CM) visits them (Prices) this Christmas.
Fourth, the debate. Alan was stronger in the first debate than the second, but he was good in both. Here's a quote from his blog to demonstrate how good he was in the first:
"I can't resist recounting one anecdote: in the first debate Martha argued that homosexuality couldn't be against nature, as it had been documented in hundreds of animal species. Well, I responded, cannibalism is found in the animal kingdom, but we don't take that as a model of appropriate human behaviour. She didn't use that line of reasoning the second time."
I have to remember that one.
His limmerick at the end cracks me up! In both debates, he ended with it and then simply said "Martha?" as a way of handing it over to her. It's funny because this is how it went:
"Second Peter and Jude are akin
as they warn against libertine spin,
'Sodom's toast*, so beware
of the prophets who dare
to treat grace as a license to sin'...Martha?"
I'm not sure Martha liked being linked with the daring prophets.
You can get copies of both debates by contacting Lakeshore-St. Andrews. I don't know what the prices are. There's a free MP3 download of the first debate here.
*A contraction for "Sodom is".
Election Prayers
The Sheepcat offers some prayers for the US election.
First, an "approved prayer given by Our Lord to Sister Marie de St. Pierre (in the 19th century) against 'revolutionary men.'"
"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and all the instruments of His Holy Passion that Thou mayest put division in the camp of Thine enemies, for as Thy beloved Son hath said, "a kingdom divided against itself shall fail."
Second, he reminds us of Father Corapi's call for a rosary novena (PDF warning).
Third, he slightly re-writes a prayer for those outside the US to pray.
Original version:
Almighty God, all things are in your hands: our nation, our communities, our families, our lives.
In this time of great decision, bless our country and its people. Prosper the efforts of the just and true, and thwart the purposes of the unjust and dishonest. Preserve our land from violence and turmoil, and keep our relationships decent and respectful.
Inspire voters, legislators, executives, and judges so our country may be a land where morality is furthered by law and authority; where life is protected, marriage is respected, and family is supported; where the innocent are spared, and the guilty are punished; where justice is tempered by mercy, and mercy fortified by justice.
Help us to keep the United States of America a land where the rule of law and respect for individual dignity are the legal foundation of a just order.
Amen.
Lane Core Jr. CIW P
The Sheepcat's re-write:
Almighty God, all things are in your hands: our nation, our communities, our families, our lives. So too the United States of America.
In this time of great decision, bless that country and its people. Prosper the efforts of the just and true, and thwart the purposes of the unjust and dishonest. Preserve their land from violence and turmoil, and keep their relationships decent and respectful.
Inspire voters, legislators, executives, and judges so their country may be a land where morality is furthered by law and authority; where life is protected, marriage is respected, and family is supported; where the innocent are spared, and the guilty are punished; where justice is tempered by mercy, and mercy fortified by justice.
Help them to keep the United States of America a land where the rule of law and respect for individual dignity are the legal foundation of a just order.
Amen.
First, an "approved prayer given by Our Lord to Sister Marie de St. Pierre (in the 19th century) against 'revolutionary men.'"
"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and all the instruments of His Holy Passion that Thou mayest put division in the camp of Thine enemies, for as Thy beloved Son hath said, "a kingdom divided against itself shall fail."
Second, he reminds us of Father Corapi's call for a rosary novena (PDF warning).
Third, he slightly re-writes a prayer for those outside the US to pray.
Original version:
Almighty God, all things are in your hands: our nation, our communities, our families, our lives.
In this time of great decision, bless our country and its people. Prosper the efforts of the just and true, and thwart the purposes of the unjust and dishonest. Preserve our land from violence and turmoil, and keep our relationships decent and respectful.
Inspire voters, legislators, executives, and judges so our country may be a land where morality is furthered by law and authority; where life is protected, marriage is respected, and family is supported; where the innocent are spared, and the guilty are punished; where justice is tempered by mercy, and mercy fortified by justice.
Help us to keep the United States of America a land where the rule of law and respect for individual dignity are the legal foundation of a just order.
Amen.
Lane Core Jr. CIW P
The Sheepcat's re-write:
Almighty God, all things are in your hands: our nation, our communities, our families, our lives. So too the United States of America.
In this time of great decision, bless that country and its people. Prosper the efforts of the just and true, and thwart the purposes of the unjust and dishonest. Preserve their land from violence and turmoil, and keep their relationships decent and respectful.
Inspire voters, legislators, executives, and judges so their country may be a land where morality is furthered by law and authority; where life is protected, marriage is respected, and family is supported; where the innocent are spared, and the guilty are punished; where justice is tempered by mercy, and mercy fortified by justice.
Help them to keep the United States of America a land where the rule of law and respect for individual dignity are the legal foundation of a just order.
Amen.
Friday, August 1, 2008
More on the PZ Myers Debacle.
From GodSpy webzine:
Christian Witness in the Aftermath of Hate.
Hat tip to Mark Shea (you'll get more out of reading his blog at any given moment than you will out of reading mine weeks in a row).
Christian Witness in the Aftermath of Hate.
Hat tip to Mark Shea (you'll get more out of reading his blog at any given moment than you will out of reading mine weeks in a row).
Sunday, July 27, 2008
A bit of a confession...
Not of sin, though. Recently I had a discussion with a couple of close friends, a married couple, that inspired this post. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "When I first joined the Catholic Church, I knew very little about the Orthodox Church."
Mr. H. and Mrs. H.*: "We didn't either."
Me: "I've been looking at the Orthodox Church lately, and I gotta tell you, both Churches seem to make equally good claims to being the True Church."
Mr H. immediately responded with some Catholic apologetics, which rather irritated me. They, as stated above, are converts to the Church too. (In fact, I'll tell you, not their story, but the story of how we lost contact with each other and found each other again. That'll be the next post.) As a result, all three of us are serious about the faith, which is why Mr. H. responded the way he did.
Mrs. H. was more gracious--
Mrs. H.: "Are you thinking about converting to the Orthodox?"
Me: "No. Not right now."
Mrs. H. (a little worried): "Would you convert?"
Me: "If I thought it was the True Church, absolutely!"
I'm in a very uncomfortabel position. I cannot make up my mind over which is the True Church. On the positive side of things, this has really energized my prayers for unity! Oh that the Eastern and Western Churches were in full communion with each other! At my current level of understanding, the Catholic Church (CC) has the greatest claim, but the Orthodox Church (OC) comes in at a close, a very close, second. One of the two biggest "issues" I have with the OC is its refusal to acknowledge doctrinal developement. It is very obvious from Church History that doctrine did develope (e.g. the Trinity, Christ's natures, etc.).
The biggest "issue" I have with Orthodoxy is pretty much the same issue I have with Evangelicalism: authority. While still a Protestant, the complete lack of objective authority within Protestantism and its off-shoots convinced me that Protestantism is wrong. Its logical conclusion sets me up as my own little infallible authority while only giving lip-service to the fact that I might be wrong about any given doctrine(s). Orthodoxy does not fall prey to a complete lack of authority, yet I see its authority lacking. As a Protestant looking for truth, the fact that many modern Protestant beliefs contradict matters settled by early Councils struck me as really, really wrong (I hate using that word so much, but it fits). I started learning about Church Councils and could not believe that there's still a Church in existence today that holds Councils! The most recent one ended in the '60s! I'm unsure as to the OC's reasoning as to why it no longer has Ecumenical Councils, but if someone who knows the answer to that reads this blog, I'd very much appreciate it if he or she would provide me with that answer!
As I struggle through this issue, pray with me for unity. Pray for me to know the truth!
And in the meantime, here's one of my favorite Orthodox blogs: Into the Light.
*This is not what I call them. I use the initial here to conceal their identity.
Me: "When I first joined the Catholic Church, I knew very little about the Orthodox Church."
Mr. H. and Mrs. H.*: "We didn't either."
Me: "I've been looking at the Orthodox Church lately, and I gotta tell you, both Churches seem to make equally good claims to being the True Church."
Mr H. immediately responded with some Catholic apologetics, which rather irritated me. They, as stated above, are converts to the Church too. (In fact, I'll tell you, not their story, but the story of how we lost contact with each other and found each other again. That'll be the next post.) As a result, all three of us are serious about the faith, which is why Mr. H. responded the way he did.
Mrs. H. was more gracious--
Mrs. H.: "Are you thinking about converting to the Orthodox?"
Me: "No. Not right now."
Mrs. H. (a little worried): "Would you convert?"
Me: "If I thought it was the True Church, absolutely!"
I'm in a very uncomfortabel position. I cannot make up my mind over which is the True Church. On the positive side of things, this has really energized my prayers for unity! Oh that the Eastern and Western Churches were in full communion with each other! At my current level of understanding, the Catholic Church (CC) has the greatest claim, but the Orthodox Church (OC) comes in at a close, a very close, second. One of the two biggest "issues" I have with the OC is its refusal to acknowledge doctrinal developement. It is very obvious from Church History that doctrine did develope (e.g. the Trinity, Christ's natures, etc.).
The biggest "issue" I have with Orthodoxy is pretty much the same issue I have with Evangelicalism: authority. While still a Protestant, the complete lack of objective authority within Protestantism and its off-shoots convinced me that Protestantism is wrong. Its logical conclusion sets me up as my own little infallible authority while only giving lip-service to the fact that I might be wrong about any given doctrine(s). Orthodoxy does not fall prey to a complete lack of authority, yet I see its authority lacking. As a Protestant looking for truth, the fact that many modern Protestant beliefs contradict matters settled by early Councils struck me as really, really wrong (I hate using that word so much, but it fits). I started learning about Church Councils and could not believe that there's still a Church in existence today that holds Councils! The most recent one ended in the '60s! I'm unsure as to the OC's reasoning as to why it no longer has Ecumenical Councils, but if someone who knows the answer to that reads this blog, I'd very much appreciate it if he or she would provide me with that answer!
As I struggle through this issue, pray with me for unity. Pray for me to know the truth!
And in the meantime, here's one of my favorite Orthodox blogs: Into the Light.
*This is not what I call them. I use the initial here to conceal their identity.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Professor PZ Myers
St. Peter Canisius Apostolate is calling for August to be Pray for PZ Myers Month. If you're unaware of the controversy, check it out here.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
One last post before I go...
I was listening to The Fast Food Song while looking at the links on the right side of the screen (beneath the Unreached People of the Day). Andrew Cusack is probably not aware that I've linked to him. That may be a good thing, I feel so low brow compared to him. He may not like being associated with my blog. I envy his intellect!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)