Top 100 Books Chosen by Canadians

Since I am an avid reader, I figured I'd put this list up that I had clipped from The Gazette at the end of 2005. Here are the 100 books Canadians favored (blue for those I haven't read and purple for those that I have):

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1. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

2. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

3. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (my favorite book)

4. Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien

6. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien

7. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - J.R.R Tolkien

8. Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery

9. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon

10. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling

12. Angels and Demons - Dan Brown

13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling

14. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

15. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling

17. Fall On Your Knees - Ann-Marie MacDonald

18. The Stand - Stephen King

19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling

20. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

21. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

22. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

23. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

24. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

25. Life of Pi - Yann Martel

26. The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis

29. East of Eden - John Steinbeck

30. Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom

31. Dune - Frank Herbert

32. The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks

33. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

34. 1984 - George Orwell

35. The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley

36. The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

37. The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
38. I Know This Much is True - Wally Lamb

39. The Red Tent - Anita Diamant

40. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

41. The Clan of the Bear - Jean M. Auel

42. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

43. Confessions of a Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella

44. The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom

45. The Bible

46. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

47. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

48. Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt

49. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

50. She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb

51. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

52. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

53. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

54. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

55. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

56. The Stone Angel - Margaret Laurence

57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling

58. The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough

59. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

60. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

61. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

62. The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

63. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

64. Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice

65. Fifth Business - Robertson Davies

66. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Ann Brashares

68. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

69. Les Misérables - Victor Hugo

70. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

71. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding

72. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

73. Shogun - James Clavell

74. The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje

75. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

76. Summer Tree - Guy Gavriel Kay

77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith

78. The World According to Garp - John Irving

79. The Diviners - Margarent Laurence

80. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White

81. Not Wanted on the Voyage - Timothy Findley

82. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

83. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

84. Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind

85. Emma - Jane Austen

86. Watership Down - Richard Adams

87. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

88. The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields

89. Blindness - Jose Saramago

90. Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer

91. In the Skin of the Lion - Michael Ondaatje

92. Lord of the Flies - William Golding

93. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck

94. The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd

95. The Bourne Identity - Robert Ludlum

96. The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

97. White Oleander - Janet Fitch

98. A Woman of Substance - Barbara Taylor Bradford

99. The Celestine Prophecy - James Redfield

100. Ulysses - James Joyce

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I would like to attempt to read most of what is on this list. I even have some of these books waiting on my shelves to be read. Hopefully I will continue to chip away at the list...If anyone has any suggestions for good books to read, please feel free to let me know of them :)

Boredom Has Set In...

Being stuck at home on a rainy day is not a fun thing. What is there to do? Okay, I know that there are options like reading (which I LOVE to do), listening to music, catching up on e-mails or writing blogs, but if I want a little bit of relaxation where I can shut down the thinking process, there is absolutely nothing on TV! I know I'm thinking mindless, but drivel is not what I want. Soap operas begone!!! It would be nice to actually come across something halfway intelligent (see? I am even being nice by only asking halfway intelligent). Yeesh! In a world where reality TV rules (and I admit that I am a follower of shows like "The Amazing Race" and "What Not to Wear") is there no higher cognitive thinking on TV? Do the networks even know what that is? Can they even spell it? Even most of today's sitcoms are just...not....funny. Maybe I'm just getting (*gasp*) older...Okay, stop thinking that nonsense right now...I am still waiting for something really intelligent before my entire IQ disappears from watching what is now called "quality programming"...Blech!!!
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Maybe I should just get back to that book I have been reading for the past month (usually finish books within 2-3 weeks....I am due).

Does Becoming a Driver Require a Lobotomy?

I have a question: do people check their brains at the door when they enter their cars? From what I have been witnessing lately the answer is a resounding "YES"! Between drivers who refuse to look at oncoming traffic when trying to cut across into the far lane (from a sidestreet), those who like to hog 2 lanes at the same time and those who get upset with you if you even show the slightest reaction to them cutting you off, I'm starting to lose faith in the public's ability to get behind the steering wheel and use any safety measures. And don't even get me started on parking lots. They are havens for the degenerates of the world. Am I being too harsh? I don't think so. Think about it...how hard is it to maneuver between stationary vehicles? If you can't do that, what makes you think you can handle being on the road? It's like using a bike with training wheels and not being able to stay upright. Okay, so maybe I am not the one doing the driving, but being a pedestrian I see a lot of weird stuff out there. Heck, even some pedestrians need some major help out there. You know what I'm talking about...the ones who stand in between lanes (not on the median) and wait to run across between cars. Fine, if you want to play "chicken" with oncoming vehicles, that's your prerogative, but please don't let me catch you doing it with your child as your shield (you think I make this stuff up, but I don't).

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Okay, okay, I know that not everyone is that bad. However, just to be on the safe side maybe I should stay in bed and call in sick tomorrow...

How Did I Ever End Up Here?

Okay, so who would've thought I'd end up creating a blog? Me, of all people? I have no idea what I will be writing in this space, but hopefully it won't bore the pants off the masses...I can only hope that it will be a fun tool to chronicle my thoughts (when I'm not having blonde moments) and maybe any treks out to fun and interesting places (have already been to China, Cuba, Korea, the Philippines and Thailand...what's next?). As they say: "it's not the the destination, but the trip that got you there that counts".