Sea foam covers Oswald, Australia

This is absolutely nuts but Australia's been having a weird couple of months. What do you think?

Pride and Prejudice is 200 Years Old!

200 hundred years ago today "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen was published. This is not her first published book but it is her best known and most popular. It's been directly adapted for film 10 times with countless pop culture references as well as several loose adaptations, theatre productions books focusing on everything from Darcy's point of view to sequels of the original.

I first read this book on a long car ride and couldn't put it down. It was my first Austen book and helped to open up this whole world of Regency England and classic literature. Instead of rambling on about how great the book is I've put together a list of Pride and Prejudice related material that you should check out. Besides, I actually like "Persuasion" better.






One half of Vlogbrothers has produced this lovely vlog version of the story called the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. They've made some minor changes and updates for this century but I've been enthralled since episode one. This is fresh and doesn't feel weighed down by the plethora of material that has come before it.


"Lost in Austen" is a slight twist on the original story where Lizzie Bennet travels to the real world, trapping an Austen fanatic in the fictional world of the book. Her presence manages to mess up the story, causing Jane to marry Mr. Collins! All must be set right before she can come home.


And if you're looking for a movie version I suggest the 1940s version. There are some detractors I admit as the costumes are the wrong period and more suited to the 1830s style than the Regency Period and our main characters are older than their counterparts are meant to be and some don't appreciate movies in black and white. But it is by far a better version in my mind than the 2005 version with Keira Knightley and Matthew McFadyen. I never warmed to that version despite the beautiful sets. The leads never seemed to fully embody the characters. The 1940 version has Laurence Olivier as Darcy and Greer Garson as Lizzie, both perfect choices in my mind. Olivier brings that snooty privileged air while Greer has this strong self-satisfied attitude.

And there's the ever-awesome Kate Beaton, a Canadian web comic artist who can be found here. She does regular comics about Canadian history, historical figures and literature with a comic twist. Here's Austen being bothered by a fan.

The Worst Writer in the World

After "The Hobbit" came out there was a plethora of JRR Tolkien articles posted all over the internet. One of the articles I happened to come across was about his literary club The Inklings. He, CS Lewis and several other writers at Oxford would meet regularly to discuss what they were working on. They also used to hold regular competitions, reading from Amanda McKittrick Ros' work and seeing who could keep a straight face the longest. I was intrigued. What kind of writing could reduce Tolkien to laughter? Soon enough I discovered Ros' work and let me just say that she is one of a kind.

Born Anna Margaret Ross in Ireland in 1860, she wasn't a prolific writer but what there is should be consumed in small doses. I can honestly say I've never read anything quite like her, perhaps because usually authors try to avoid writing the way she does. Let me give you a quick taste of what I mean and then you can decide for yourself how very unique Ros is.

"Have you ever visited that portion of Erin’s plot that offers its sympathetic soil for the minute survey and scrutinous examination of those in political power, whose decision has wisely been the means before now of converting the stern and prejudiced, and reaching the hand of slight aid to share its strength in augmenting its agricultural richness?"

What a diamond in the rough! She appears to have been oblivious to any failings in her work and even in her own lifetime she didn't go unnoticed by critics whom she called: "evil minded snapshots of spleen". An example of their opinion of her work comes from Northrop Frye. He said her novels used "rhetorical material without being able to absorb or assimilate it: the result is pathological, a kind of literary diabetes."

Now perhaps her title as the "worst writer" is harsh but she believed she was a good writer and that her work would be appreciated for years to come. She appears to have loved run-on sentences, flowery description and alliteration, all dangerous areas of writing.

"The living sometimes learn the touchy tricks of the traitor, the tardy and the tempted; the dead have evaded the flighty earthy future, and form to swell the retinue of retired rights, the righteous school of the invisible and the rebellious roar of the raging nothing."

And if that doesn't convince you, in 2006 she posthumously won an award as the worst writer in the world. One way to look at this is despite how her writing may be viewed, she's still being talked about today, more than 60 years after her death and after all, that's exactly what she wanted.

Hatchet - Gary Paulsen

“When he sat alone in the darkness and cried and was done, all done with it, nothing had changed. His leg still hurt, it was still dark, he was still alone and the self-pity had accomplished nothing.”

My first encounter with this book was in grade five when it was read to our class. At the time I found it rather long, boring and too descriptive. This summer though, I happened upon a free copy and decided to see if I still felt the same way. I loved revisiting this story, especially since I had forgotten so much that had happened.

I don’t know why I love survival stories. Perhaps it’s because it allows for man to be stripped down to his base instincts, to do without. I’m always fascinated by what people can do with less. And there’s always the ever dependable basic conflict of man versus nature and the more interesting, man versus himself. In ”Hatchet”, Brian Robeson, a thirteen year old travelling by bush plane to visit his father, survives a plane crash, leaving him alone in a forest. Faced with starvation and threats from weather and wild animals, Brian must look inward and find the strength to survive and escape the forest.

“You are your most valuable asset. Don’t forget that. You are the best thing you have.”

As a child listening to the story, I couldn’t fully comprehend what it would be like to face survival in the forest alone but as an adult Brian’s situation seems far more tenuous. He has limited supplies and more importantly, limited knowledge about wilderness survival. His most important ally though is his hatchet, a gift from his mother before his flight. The hatchet plays a key role in Brian’s survival and helps supply everything from a shelter to a fire to food prep, satisfying the most basic of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I’ve often wondered if I would be able to survive in the wilderness, alone and with no access to civilization. As a child I was enrolled in Junior Forest Wardens which is basically a Canadian version of Scouts and while we received wilderness training that was many years ago and only basic training at that. What Brian accomplishes is far more impressive. Not only does he manage to keep a level head he makes good use of his time and faces challenges with an open mind. Not only is Brian confronted with the self-doubt of rescue, he also literally faces death in the guise of the dead pilot still trapped in the plane. He is a physical obstacle in the way of precious supplies and the tracking beacon but is also a psychological a fear Brian must confront if he wishes to escape.

Approaching this as an adult of course I have a different view of the story. I appreciated how Paulsen didn’t shy away from the possibly scarier and more gruesome aspects of a plane crash. It didn’t treat its audience like a child, instead, allowing the reader to experience a full range of emotions when it came to Brian’s situation. As well, I liked that nature’s indifference is on full display here. People are used to being surrounded and comforted by fellow human beings/society/cities. In the forest there are no safety nets; if you fail you die.

“Patience, he thought. So much of this was patience - waiting, and thinking and doing things right. So much of all this, so much of all living was patience and thinking.”

If you like survival stories then this is one you might want to look at. Written for young adults, I enjoyed revisiting this book and would recommend this book as a library loan.

Winter Quotes

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.

- Edith Sitwell


I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.

- Lewis Carroll


What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it swettness.

- John Steinbeck


Melancholy were the sounds on a winter’s night.

- Virginia Woolf


Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o’clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutter closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without.

- Thomas de Quincey

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thous see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish’d by.
This thou perceives, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which though must leave ere long.

- William Shakespeare


Nothing is a tedious as the limping days,
When snowdrifts yearly cover all the ways,
And ennui, sour fruit of incurious gloom,
Assumes control of fate’s immortal loom

- Charles Baudelaire


When the cold comes to New England it arrives in sheets of sleet and ice. In December, the wind wraps itself around bare trees and twists in between husbands and wives asleep in their beds. It shakes the shingles from the roof and sifts through cracks in the plaster. The only green things left are the holly bushes and the old boxwood hedges in the village, and these are often painted white with snow. Chipmunks and weasels come to nest in basements and barns; owls find their way into attics. At nights, the dark is blue and bluer still, as sapphire of night.

- Alice Hoffman


Are ye the ghost of fallen leaves, O flakes of snow, For which, through naked trees, the wind A-mourning go?

- John Banister Tabb


In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer

- Albert Camus


In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago

- Christina Rossetti


There’s a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons,
That oppresses, like the
weight of cathedral tunes

- Emily Dickinson


One kind word can warm three winter months

- Japanese proverb


O Winter! ruler of the inverted year,…
I crown thee king of initimate delights,
Fireside enjoyments, home-born happiness,
And all the comforts that the lowly roof
Of undistrub’d
Retirement, and the hours
Of long uninterrupted evening, know

- William Cowper


Blow, blow, thou winter wind
Thou art not so unkind,
As man’s ingratitude

- William Shakespeare

The Coolest Desk You Will Never Own!

This site I occasionally frequent called Messy Nessy Chic and I found this awesome video!

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is holding an exhibit called "Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens" and it showcases a lot of pieces created by the Roentgens who were apparently geniuses who made gorgeous pieces with all sort of hidden compartments.

This is an 18th century desk with all sorts of secret compartments. If you know me you know I love these sorts of things so I thought I would share these amazing pieces! I love how intricate and delicate they are, despite being these massive, hulking pieces of furniture.

"The Wind" (1928)

“Injuns call this the ‘land o’ the winds’ – it never stops blowing here-“

Letty Mason, played by Lillian Gish, is traveling to stay on her cousin’s ranch is warned that the constant wind raging in the area will drive her to insanity. Destitute and out of options, Letty ignores this prophetic counsel, only to incur the wrath of her cousin’s wife. Driven out of the house by jealousy, Letty goes from one bad situation to another, finally settling on marriage to Lige, a man she neither knows nor loves in order to put a roof over her head. Her husband is not pleased to discover this, but has more important things to worry about, like the wind. Combine this fractious relationship with a ‘norther windstorm and an amorous stalker and you have a tension-filled ending replete with madness, death and a vast array of great visual effects.

The story was adapted from a book brought the attention of MGM by Lillian Gish herself. She was interested in adapting and got the go ahead from ‘boy wonder’ Irving Thalberg. She was also able to choose her director, Victor Sjostrom and her leading man, Lars Hanson. The film wasn’t without issues though. The wind scenes were shot in the Mojave Desert with the help of aircraft propellers. The propellers and the desert made for a somewhat miserable shoot. The propellers blew smoke, sand and hot air at the crew while they were operating, meaning everyone had to wear eye protection, bandanas, long sleeve shirts and grease paint. As for the desert, temperatures reached 120 degrees at their height, meaning the film stock had to be packed in ice to keep it from melting. And poor Gish scalded her hand when she touched a door handle it was so hot out.

Letty is a sweet if naïve girl. She’s kind but doesn’t understand how her actions affect other people. She befriends a man on her way to the ranch, unaware of his nefarious intentions, cozies up to her cousin, making his paranoid wife crazy and toys with the emotions of two men who want to marry her. Gish plays Letty as wide-eyed and vulnerable. As the wind begins to affect her psychologically, Gish shines, using her eyes, face and arms to full effect. This is especially evident in my favourite scene where Gish is staring out the window in horror, the insanity growing on her face and she realizes what she’s staring at. There were times I thought she was a little over dramatic with the arms and eyes but on the whole she did a superb job of conveying her emotions. I also wish that there had been more of a buildup to the madness caused by the wind but from the beginning Gish seemed to be afraid of it.

The wind itself is also a character, constantly harassing the characters, including Letty. It invades every space of their lives. You can see this when Old Sourdough tries to sweep up the sand tracked into Letty and Lige’s house, opening the door to throw it out, only to have the wind blow in a new mess of sand. Also, at some point Letty’s given up washing the dishes with water and switches to sand. This is a great visual and also a possible hint at her growing madness as she seems to do this rather absentmindedly. I did expect a little more in terms of transitions and the tension and conflict at the end is over rather quickly. After viewing this I wonder what a director like Hitchcock would have done with the material. As well, the ending is rather abrupt and doesn’t fit with the previous motivations and feelings Letty has when it comes to the wind. The film makes a 180 turn at the end. This was done at the insistence of the studio, essentially undercutting the buildup that had come before. I think sticking with the original ending would have had far more of a visual and emotional impact.

There are some amazing shots from this movie as well as special effects. There is a scene where Letty and Lige are pacing in separate rooms with the shot tightly focused on their feet. Their faces aren’t visible and yet we feel their emotions through their body language. I also enjoyed the scenes with Cora, the jealous wife. There’s one in particular where she’s cutting up a cow with a large knife, in contrast to Letty who’s playing with Cora’s children. You can see her anger and jealousy towards Letty build as she wipes the knife on her butcher’s apron and tries to embrace her own child. The child, repulsed by her bloody hands runs to Letty instead. Gish, who essentially carries the movie, also has a variety of good scenes in which the madness of the wind encroaches on her home, her person and then her mind. In terms of special effects, I loved the various shots of sand blowing against a window which had a very ethereal quality. There’s also a great shot of a tornado, headed straight for town as well as a ghost horse representing the spirit of the wind which haunts Gish’s character.

This is a movie I would definitely watch again and I would highly recommend it for those who love silent movies.

Frost Flowers

I thought this post was most appropriate as we've just had the first real frost of the year. Yes I know that may seem strange but it's true. Things have been unseasonably warmish so far this winter. But today there was frost everywhere and there was a thin skimming of ice on the harbour as I walked to work. It's finally starting to feel like winter out there! The weather is sublime with bright sun and a cool blue sky which is a rare sight until after the spring rains.

Several months ago I discovered that frost can do some pretty amazing things when I stumbled upon frost flowers. They are very delicate and will break when touched and are usually only visible in early morning or in shaded areas as they will melt in sunlight. Aren't they pretty?

I've never seen one in person but I'd like to.

December's wintery breath is already clouding the pond, frosting the pane, obscuring summer's memory...
-John Geddes

It is growing cold. Winter is putting footsteps in the meadow. What whiteness boasts that sun that comes into this wood! One would say milk-colored maidens are dancing on the petals of orchids. How coldly burns our sun! One would say its rays are shards of snow, one imagines the sun lives upon a snow crested peak on this day. One would say she is a woman who wears a gown of winter frost that blinds the eyes. Helplessness has weakened me. Wandering has wearied my legs.
- Roman Payne

Scrutinizing Shakespeare

One of the many things I want to work on this year is reading Shakespeare. Last year I fell in love with his work and decided I wanted to finish off my "Shakespeare a Month" challenge as well as look at some of his other work.

Below I've outlined his plays, poems, sonnets and apocrypha. I've also picked some films that have been recommended to me as well as books on Shakespeare. I don't have a timeline for this but I wanted to post it to remind me of what I want to accomplish this year.

Plays

The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1589-1591)
The Taming of the Shrew (1590-1594)
Henry VI Part 2 (1590-1594)
Henry VI Part 1 (1591)
Henry VI Part 3 (1591)
Titus Andronicus (1591-1592)
Richard III (1592-1593)
The Comedy of Errors (1594)
Love's Labour's Lost (1594-1595)
Love's Labour's Won (1595-1596)
Richard II (1595)
Romeo and Juliet (1595)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595)
The Life and Death of King John (1596)
The Merchant of Venice (1596)
Henry IV, Part 1 (1596-1597)
Henry IV, Part 2 (1596-1597)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597-1598)
Much Ado About Nothing (1598-1599)
Henry V (1598-1599)
Julius Caesar (1599)
As You Like It (1599-1600)
Hamlet (1599-1601)
Twelfth Night (1601)
Troilus and Cressida (1602)
Measure for Measure (1603-1604)

Othello (1603-1604)
King Lear (1605-1606)
Timon of Athens (1605-1606)
Macbeth (1606)
Antony and Cleopatra (1606)
All's Well That Ends Well (1606-1607)
Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1607)
Coriolanus (1608)
The Winter's Tale (1609-1610)
Cymbeline (1610-1611)
The Tempest (1610-1611)
Cardenio (1612-1613)
Henry VIII, or All is True (1613)
The Two Noble Kinsman (1613)


Apocrypha

Sir John Oldcastle (1600)
Sir Thomas More (1603-1604)
The London Prodigal (1604)
A Yorkshire Tragedy (1605)

Poems

Venus and Adonis (1592-1593)
The Rape of Lucrece (1594)
The Phoenix and the Turtle (1601)
The Lover's Complaint (1609)
The Passionate Pilgrim (1609)

Sonnets

1-154

Films

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
Henry V (1944)
Macbeth (1948)
Hamlet (1948)
Othello (1952)
Julius Caesar (1953)

King Lear (1953)
Richard III (1955)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Throne of Blood (1957)
Chimes at Midnight (1957)
West Side Story (1961)
The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Macbeth (1971)
King Lear (1971)
Strange Brew (1983)
Ran (1985)
King Lear (1987)

Henry V (1989)
Hamlet (1990)
Prospero's Books (1991)
My Own Private Idaho (1992)
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
The Lion King (1994)
Richard III (1995)
Romeo and Juliet (1996)
Hamlet (1996)
Twelfth Night (1996)
Titus (1999)
The Merchant of Venice (2004)
Hamlet (2009)

Books on Shakespeare

Shakespeare: The World as Stage - Bill Bryson
In Search of Shakespeare - Michael Wood
Contested Will: Who Wrotes Shakespeare? - James Shapiro
Tales from Shakespeare - Charles and Mary Lamb
Shakespearean Tragedy - AC Bradley
Will in the World: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare - Stephen Greenblatt
Shakespeare - Anthony Burgess
Ungentle Shakespeare - Katherine Duncan-Jones

101 Book Challenge

I've run this challenge for a number of years and I cross off books an an inexorably slow pace. The idea for this challenge is to paste the list onto your own blog or print it out and tack it to your wall. How many have you read? Leave a comment and compare your progress.

The books in bold books (the ones I've read) have been read in their entirety. I'm currently standing at 26/101, an awful score. I challenge any of you to claim you've read fewer.

Happy Reading!

1. Beowulf
2. Achebe, Chinua - Things Fall Apart
3. Agee, James - A Death in the Family
4. Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice
5. Baldwin, James - Go Tell It on the Mountain
6. Beckett, Samuel - Waiting for Godot
7. Bellow, Saul - The Adventures of Augie March
8. Bronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre
9. Bronte, Emily - Wuthering Heights
10. Camus, Albert - The Stranger
11. Cather, Willa - Death Comes for the Archbishop
12. Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales
13. Chekhov, Anton - The Cherry Orchard
14. Chopin, Kate - The Awakening
15. Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness
16. Cooper, James Fenimore - The Last of the Mohicans
17. Crane, Stephen - The Red Badge of Courage
18. Dante - Inferno
19. Cervantes, Miguel - Don Quixote
20. Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe
21. Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities
22. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - Crime and Punishment
23. Douglass, Frederick - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
24. Dreiser, Theodore - An American Tragedy
25. Dumas, Alexandre - The Three Musketeers
26. Eliot, George - The Mill on the Floss
27. Ellison, Ralph Waldo - Invisible Man
28. Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Selected Essays
29. Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying
30. Faulkner, William - The Sound and the Fury
31. Fielding, Henry - Tom Jones
32. Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Great Gatsby
33. Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary
34. Ford, Ford Madox - The Good Soldier
35. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang - Faust
36. Golding, William - Lord of the Flies
37. Hardy, Thomas - Tess of the d'Urbervilles
38. Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Scarlet Letter
39. Heller, Joseph - Catch 22
40. Hemingway, Ernest - A Farewell to Arms
41. Homer - The Iliad
42. Homer - The Odyssey
43. Hugo, Victor - The Hunchback of Notre Dame
44. Hurston, Zora Neale - Their Eyes Were Watching God
45. Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World
46. Ibsen, Henrik - A Doll's House
47. James, Henry - The Portrait of a Lady
48. James, Henry - The Turn of the Screw
49. Joyce, James - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
50. Kafka, Franz - The Metamorphosis
51. Kingston, Maxine Hong - The Woman Warrior
52. Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird
53. Lewis, Sinclair - Babbitt
54. London, Jack - The Call of the Wild
55. Mann, Thomas - The Magic Mountain
56. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia - One Hundred Years of Solitude
57. Melville, Herman - Bartleby the Scrivener
58. Melville, Herman - Moby Dick
59. Miller, Arthur - The Crucible
60. Morrison, Toni - Beloved
61. O'Connor, Flannery - A Good Man is Hard to Find
62. O'Neill, Eugene - Long Day's Journey into Night
63. Orwell, George - Animal Farm
64. Pasternak, Boris - Doctor Zhivago
65. Plath, Sylvia - The Bell Jar
66. Poe, Edgar Allan - Selected Tales
67. Proust, Marcel - Swann's Way
68. Pynchon, Thomas - The Crying of Lot 49
69. Remarque, Erich Maria - All Quiet on the Western Front
70. Rostand, Edmond - Cyrano de Bergerac
71. Roth, Henry - Call It Sleep
72. Salinger, J.D. - The Catcher in the Rye
73. Shakespeare, William - Hamlet
74. Shakespeare, William - Macbeth
75. Shakespeare, William - A Midsummer Night's Dream
76. Shakespeare, William - Romeo and Juliet
77. Shaw, George Bernard - Pygmalion
78. Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein
79. Silko, Leslie Marmon - Ceremony
80. Solzhenitsyn, Alexander - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
81. Sophocles - Antigone
82. Sophocles - Oedipus Rex
83. Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath
84. Stevenson, Robert Louis - Treasure Island
85. Stowe, Harriet Beecher - Uncle Tom's Cabin
86. Swift, Jonathan - Gulliver's Travels
87. Thackeray, William - Vanity Fair
88. Thoreau, Henry David - Walden
89. Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace
90. Turgenev, Ivan - Fathers and Sons
91. Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
92. Voltaire - Candide
93. Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. - Slaughterhouse-Five
94. Walker, Alice - The Color Purple
95. Wharton, Edith - The House of Mirth
96. Welty, Eudora - Collected Stories
97. Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass
98. Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorian Gray
99. Williams, Tennessee - The Glass Menagerie.
100. Woolf, Virginia - To the Lighthouse
101. Wright, Richard - Native Son

Poonikins the Magic Warrior Princess

And now for your daily allotted dose of derpyness!

I found this before the new year and have been busting to share. It is the weirdest and funniest thing I've come across in a while. I had a good laugh and I hope you do too. The best bit is definitely the part with the motorcycle.

My 2013 Resolutions

I solemnly swear by ink and by paper that I will fulfill this resolution to the best of my ability. I will value quality over quantity and will give my honest opinion at all times. I will read for enjoyment and education and will take my time to savour ever last word.

This list ended up being far longer that I thought it would be but the way I see it is if I lay everything on the table now, I can see everything I want to finish.





Read more Books Written by Women

There has always been an imbalance in my reading as I always seem to read more men then women. Next year I hope to somewhat remedy that.

Virginia Woolf

Charlotte Bronte

Emily Bronte

Mary Wollstonecraft

George Eliot

Heloise

Jane Austen

Margaret Atwood

Andre Norton

Elizabeth Gaskell

Doris Lessing

Dorothy Parker

Alice Munro

Toni Morrison

Ursula LeGuin

Carol Shields


Read More Canadian Authors

As a proud Canuck I want to be able to say I've read the greats from my own country. Therefore I will be doing my best to plough through the plethora of great talent as part of my own CanCon education.

Margaret Laurence

Michael Ondaatje

Pierre Berton

Robertson Davies

Carol Shields

Alice Munro

Margaret Atwood

Douglas Coupland

Mordecai Richler

Stephen Leacock

Farley Mowat

Joy Kogawa

Saul Bellow

Guy Gavriel Kay

WO Mitchell

Robert Service

Malcolm Lowry

William Gibson


Read more of the big names in Sci-fi and Fantasy

I have huge gaps when it comes to the best known and very well respected giants of the sci fi and fantasy genres. Unexcuseable I know but hopefully in the coming year I can remedy that.

Isaac Asmiov

Roger Zelazny

Andre Norton

Robert Heinlein

Ray Bradbury

Arthur C Clarke

Jules Verne

HG Wells

Douglas Adams

Larry Niven

Philip Jose Farmer

Frederick Pohl

Philip K Dick

RA Salvatore

David Eddings

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Neil Gaiman

Raymond Feist

Terry Pratchett


Read more poems, plays and short stories

This is something I've worked on a little bit this year but I'd like to expand on it in the new year.

Shakespeare

Alice Munro

Edmund Spenser

Aeschylus

Ovid

Virgil

John Milton

Arthur Miller

Sophocles

Oscar Wilde

Tennessee Williams

Ernest Hemingway

Anton Chekov

Ray Bradbury

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Raymond Carver

Jack London


Work on my "I Have Never Read" list

To save myself from future embarrassment I want to work on this list.

Anne Bronte

Anthony Trollope

Anton Chekov

Aristotle

Arthur Miller

Cicero

D.H. Lawrence

Dante Alighieri

Emily Bronte

Ernest Hemingway

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Feodor Dostoyevsky

Freidrich Nietzsche

George Eliot

H.P. Lovecraft

Henry James

Herman Melville

Jack London

James Joyce

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

John Milton

John Steinbeck

John Updike

Joseph Conrad

Kurt Vonnegut

Leo Tolstoy

Michael de Montaigne

Plutarch

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Seneca

Sir Walter Scott

Somerset Maugham

Thomas Hardy

Victor Hugo

Virginia Woolf

William Faulkner

William M Thackery


Work on my France 2017 Project

You can read all about this project here.


Post Reviews on Books I've Finished

This is a list I've slowly been whittling down. Hopefully this year I can finish off a few more to make room for all the new books I'm going to read.

Brother and Sister

Dragonflight

The Droughtlanders

Franny & Zooey

In Gallant Company

Lord Edgeware Dies

The Moonstone

A Separate Peace

The Seven Dials

Up at the Villa

A Writer's House in Wales

Blitz

Hatchet



Complete Books from Old Challenges

Les Miserables

Henry V

Much Ado About Nothing

Antony and Cleopatra

Richard III

As You Like It

King Lear

Cymbeline

Twelfth Night

Othello

Pericles

The Woman in White

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Rebecca

The Republic

Julius Caesar

Call of the Wild

The Valley of Fear

Gone with the Wind

Catch-22

The Simarillion

Love in the Time of Cholera

The Fiery Cross

Walt Disney

The Fionavar Tapestry

Emma

Jane Austen Ruined My Life

Bridget Jones' Diary


Post Reviews on Movies I've Finished

Hoo boy am I behind on this list! I like to think of it as a goal to be reached rather than one that's been left lying around for too long.

Gigi

Patton

The Hobbit

The Sting

27 Dresses

The 39 Steps (1935)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

The African Queen (1951)

All About Eve (1950)

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

American Graffiti (1973)

An American in Paris

Anastasia (1956)

Annie Hall (1977)

The Apartment (1960)

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

The Awful Truth (1937)

Back to the Future (1985)

Ball of Fire (1941)

Batman Returns (1992)

The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Big (1988)

Bikini Beach

Blade Runner (1982)

Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House

The Blind Side (2009)

The Blue Dahlia

Born Yesterday (1950)

Boys Town (1938)

Breakfast at Tiffanys (1961)

The Breakfast Club

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Broadway Melody (1929)

Bullitt (!968)

Captains Courageous (1937)

Casablanca (1943)

A Christmas Carol (1951)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Dead End

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Destry Rides Again

Double Indemnity (1944)

Duck Soup (1933)

East of Eden (1955)

Easy Living (1937)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

A Fish Called Wanda

Forbidden Planet

The French Connection (1971)

From Here to Eternity (1953)

Gaslight (1944)

Gattaca

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

The Godfather (1972)

Going My Way (1944)


Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939)

Gone With the Wind (1939)

Grand Hotel (1932)

The Hangover (2009)

A Hard Day's Night (1964)

Heaven Can Wait

The Heiress (1949)

Hellboy 2

His Girl Friday (1940)

Holiday (1938)

Hondo 91953)

Howl's Moving Castle

The Hunt for Red October

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

In the Heat of the Night

Invictus

Iron-Jawed Angels

It Happened One Night (1934)

Jamaica Inn

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1942)

Jumper

The Kid

The King and I (1956)

King's Row

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

The Lady Eve (1941)

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

The Lion in Winter (1968)

The Little Foxes (1941)

Love Laughs at Andy Hardy

Made for Each Other

Made of Honor

The Major and the Minor (1942)

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

A Man for All Seasons (1966)

The Man who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

The Miracle Woman (1931)

The Miracle Worker (1962)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974)

The Most Dangerous Game

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1935)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Mutiny on the Bounty

My Mad Godfrey (1935)

A Night at the Opera (1935)

Night of the Hunter (1955)

Never Back Down

North by Northwest (1959)

Now, Voyager

Oliver! (1968)

Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)

On the Town (1949)

On the Waterfront (1954)

The Other Boleyn Girl

The Ox-Bow Incident

Penelope

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Pinocchio (1940)

Pollyanna (1960)

Ponyo

Pretty Woman (1990)

Pride and Prejudice (1940)

Psycho (1960)

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Rear Window (1954)

Rebecca( 1940)

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Roman Holiday (1953)

Sabotage

The Scarlet Empress (1934)

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935)

The Searchers (1956)

Serenity

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Shanghai Express (1932)

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Sixteen Candles (1984)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938)

Some Lie it Hot (1959)

The Sound of Music (1965)

Soylent Green

Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators

Spiderwick Chronicles

Spirited Away

Splash (1984)

Stagecoach (1939)

Stage Door (1937)

Stalag 17 (1953)

Star Trek

Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)

Strangers on a Train (1951)

Sullivan's Travels (1942)

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Superman

Suspicion (1941)

Terminator: Salvation

The Three Faces of Eve (1957)

They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969)

This is Spinal Tap (1984)

Top Hat (1935)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Vacation from Marriage

West Side Story (1961)

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

Winchester '73 (1950)

Witness (1985)

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Women (1939)

Young Bess

Young Frankenstein (1974)

Young and Innocent

Books Read

#

1984 - George Orwell

A

The A.B.C. Murders - Agatha Christie
And Then There were None - Agatha Christie
An Infamous Army - Georgette Heyer
a mercy - Toni Morrison
The Arthurian Omen - GG Vandagriff
Atonement - Ian McEwan

B

Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
Beowulf
Beowulf on the Beach - Jack Murnaghan
Blitz! - Margaret Gaskin
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
Brother & Sister - Joanna Trollope

C

Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
The Crystal Cave - Mary Stewart

D

The Day the Falls Stood Still - Cathy Marie Buchanan
Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank
(Reread) Dragonflight - Anne McCaffrey
The Droughtlanders - Carrie Mac
Dune - Frank Herbert

E

Enemy in Sight - Alexander Kent
Essential Militaria - Nicholas Hobbes
Ex Libris - Anne Fadiman

F

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
A Feast for Crows - George R R Martin
The Film Club - David Gilmour
Franny & Zooey - JD Salinger
From Time to Time - Jack Finney
Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels

G

A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin
The Geography of Hope - Chris Turner
Girl on Top - Nicole Williams
Gods Behaving Badly - Marie Phillips
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift

H

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Hatchet - Gary Paulsen
The Herald - Michael Shaara
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
The Hunting of the Snark - Lewis Carroll

I

I, Elizabeth - Rosalind Miles
In Gallant Company - Alexander Kent
Imperfect Birds
Inside Oscar - Danny Peary

J

Jonathon Strange & Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke
The Jungle - Upton Sinclair

K

Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara
The Knife of Dreams - Robert Jordan
The Know-It-All - AJ Jacobs
Kubilai Khan's Lost Fleet - James Delgado

L

The Leading Men of MGM - Jane Wayne
Liftoff - Michael Collins
The Little Foxes - Lillian Hellman
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
Lord Edgeward Dies - Agatha Christie
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Looking for Alaska - John Green
Lost Moon - Jeffrey Kluger & Jim Lovell


M

Macbeth - William Shakespeare
Master and Commander - Patrick O'Brian
Medea - Euripides
The Metamorphoses - Franz Kafka
A Midsummer Night's Dream - William Shakespeare
The Monuments Men - Robert Edsel
The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
Mount Appetite - Bill Gaston
Murder at the Vicarage - Agatha Christie
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie

N

Nana - Emile Zola
Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
The Nun - Denis Diderot

O

The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory

P

Patty Duke & the Mystery Mansion - Doris Schroeder
Persuasion - Jane Austen
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
Powers - John Olson
Pride & Prejudice and Zombies - Seth Grahame-Smith
The Princess Bride - William Goldman

Q

R

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane
Richard Bolitho: Midshipman - Alexander Kent

S

The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Separate Peace - John Knowles
The Seven Dials - Agatha Christie
The Shipping News - Annie Proulx
The Siren Years - Charles Ritchie
Sloop of War - Alexander Kent
Spain - Jan Morris
Stand into Danger - Alexander Kent
The Star Machine - Jeanine Basinger
The Stone and the Maiden - Dennis Jones
The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields
A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher - Kate Summerscale

T

Three Bags Full - Leonie Swann
Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
Treachery at Sharpnose Point - Jeremy Seal
Treasure - Clive Cussler
The Trial and Death of Socrates

U

Up at the Villa - Somerset Maugham

V

W

The War of the Worlds - HG Wells
Watchmen - Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
We Interrupt This Broadcast - Joe Garner
Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
The Whispering Mountain - Joan Aiken
A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula k LeGuin
A Writer's House in Wales - Jan Morris

X

Y

Z

Movies Seen

#

12 Angry Men (1957)
27 Dresses
The 39 Steps (1935)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

A

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
The African Queen (1951)
All About Eve (1950)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
All the President's Men (1976)
Amadeus (1984)
American Graffiti (1973)
Anna Karenina (2012)
An American in Paris
Anastasia (1956)
Annie Hall (1977)
The Apartment (1960)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
The Awful Truth (1937)

B

Back to the Future (1985)
Ball of Fire (1941)
Batman Returns (1992)
The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Big (1988)
Bikini Beach
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Black Narcissus (1947)
Blade Runner (1982)
Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House
The Blind Side (2009)
The Blue Dahlia
Born Yesterday (1950)
Boys Town (1938)
Brave (2012)
Breakfast at Tiffanys (1961)
The Breakfast Club
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Broadway Melody (1929)
Bullitt (!968)

C

Cape Fear (1962)
Captain Blood (1935)
Captains Courageous (1937)
Casablanca (1943)
A Christmas Carol (1951)
Citizen Kane (1941)
City Lights (1931)
Clue (1985)

D

The Dark Knight (2008)
Dead End
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Defiance (2009)
Destry Rides Again
Double Indemnity (1944)
Dracula (1931)
Drive (2011)
Duck Soup (1933)

E

East of Eden (1955)
Easy Living (1937)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

F

A Fish Called Wanda
Forbidden Planet
The French Connection (1971)
From Here to Eternity (1953)

G

Gaslight (1944)
Gattaca
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
Gettysburg (1993)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
The Godfather (1972)
Going My Way (1944)
Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Grand Hotel (1932)
The Great Escape (1963)
The Great Train Robber (1903)
Gunga Din (1939)

H

The Hangover (2009)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Heaven Can Wait
The Heiress (1949)
Hellboy 2
High Noon (1952)
His Girl Friday (1940)
Holiday (1938)
Hondo 91953)
Howl's Moving Castle
The Hunt for Red October

I

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
In the Heat of the Night
Invictus
Iron-Jawed Angels
It Happened One Night (1934)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

J

Jamaica Inn
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1942)
Jumper

K

The Kid
The King and I (1956)
King's Row
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

L

The Lady Eve (1941)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Laura (1944)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Lifeboat (1944)
The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
The Lion in Winter (1968)
The Little Foxes (1941)
Love Laughs at Andy Hardy


M

M (1931)
Macbeth (1948)
Macbeth (1978)
Made for Each Other
Made of Honor
The Major and the Minor (1942)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
A Man for All Seasons (1966)
The Man who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
The Miracle Woman (1931)
The Miracle Worker (1962)
Modern Times (1936)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974)
The More the Merrier "(1943)
Morocco (1930)
The Most Dangerous Game
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1935)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Mutiny on the Bounty
My Mad Godfrey (1935)

N

The Natural (1984)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Night of the Hunter (1955)
Nixon (1995)
Never Back Down
North by Northwest (1959)
Now, Voyager

O

Oliver! (1968)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)
On the Town (1949)
On the Waterfront (1954)
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Ox-Bow Incident

P

Passchendale (2009)
Penelope
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Pinocchio (1940)
Pollyanna (1960)
Ponyo
Pretty Woman (1990)
Pride and Prejudice (1940)
Prince Caspian (2008)
Psycho (1960)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

Q


R

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Random Harvest (1942)
Rear Window (1954)
Rebecca( 1940)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Roman Holiday (1953)

S

Sabotage
The Scarlet Empress (1934)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935)
The Searchers (1956)
Serenity
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Shanghai Express (1932)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Sixteen Candles (1984)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938)
Some Lie it Hot (1959)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Soylent Green
Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators
Spiderwick Chronicles
Spirited Away
Splash (1984)
Stagecoach (1939)
Stage Door (1937)
Stalag 17 (1953)
Star Trek
Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)
The Stepford Wives (2004)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Sullivan's Travels (1942)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Super 8 (2011)
Superman
Suspicion (1941)

T

Terminator: Salvation
The Thin Man (1934)
The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969)
This is Spinal Tap (1984)
Top Hat (1935)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
Tron (2010)

U

V

Vacation from Marriage

W

WALL-E
Went
the Day Well
West Side Story (1961)
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Winchester '73 (1950)
The Wind (1928)
Witness (1985)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Women (1939)

X

Y

Young Bess
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Young and Innocent

Z