100 Books: How Many Have We Read?
Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.
Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES.
Bold those books you've read in their entirety.
Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read only an excerpt.
Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses! Feel free to add comments too.
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 M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Dapne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’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 Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
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 (Great story!)
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy (one of the most depressing books I've read)
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
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
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazu 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 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Total books read: 15
Books that I started to read but have yet to finish: 7
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Schoolbag
Hmmm.. Is that supposed to be one word or two?
Anyway, this is an entry that is a reflection of an idle mind. Tsk tsk.
1. I don't understand why my beloved daughter, Huda, die-die absolutely MUST get a pink bag and it die-die absolutely MUST have either Barbie/Princess/Dora on it. She needs a new schoolbag and I've been trying to get her to think outside the pink but I have not been successful at all.
The good thing is, the bag she most likely will get is gonna be cheap (read: pasar malam; copyright lawsuit waiting to happen) but I hate the boxy design and well, the pinkiness of it all.
2. Farah has a new name. She still responds to Farah but now if you ask her:
Anyone: Farah, nama sapa? Farah, what is your name? (I know that this is such a less-than-smart question.)
F: Nunumeh
Anyone: Nunumeh Binte?
F: Tan
So, now she's Nunumeh Tan. And little Miss Nunumeh Tan is awake now so that's all for today!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
iGot
No. Not a driving license. That one, I no got. Maybe I'll get it on 10 January but if I get too jittery and panicky, I may need 7 tries before getting that license. And yes, I've overcome my misery.
iPod touch is what I want to talk about. It's TheHusband's latest acquisition and with it, I have finally understood what all the fuss about the iPhone is. No wonder it's so popular. It's fast, it's sleek, it's idiot-proof. The little kids could work it out in a jiffy. Amazing. Despite all this, I still won't get an iPhone.
I've been playing Angry Birds on the iPod. It's a terribly addictive game. At first, all I wanna do is to kill all the pigs so that the next level can be unlocked. Now that everything is unlocked, I'm replaying everything to get 3 stars for each game. Apparently, Dec 11 is Angry Birds Day and flash mobs are planned all over the world. But I doubt I'll be there.
Besides the games, I like that there are lots of kids-friendly apps available. The kids have been fighting over it. H is allowed about 15 minutes of it daily. After that, it's hidden. F uses it when H is not around. But she gets stuck at the enter-passcode section and then the iPod gets disabled and she'll still be jabbing at the screen.
iPod touch is what I want to talk about. It's TheHusband's latest acquisition and with it, I have finally understood what all the fuss about the iPhone is. No wonder it's so popular. It's fast, it's sleek, it's idiot-proof. The little kids could work it out in a jiffy. Amazing. Despite all this, I still won't get an iPhone.
I've been playing Angry Birds on the iPod. It's a terribly addictive game. At first, all I wanna do is to kill all the pigs so that the next level can be unlocked. Now that everything is unlocked, I'm replaying everything to get 3 stars for each game. Apparently, Dec 11 is Angry Birds Day and flash mobs are planned all over the world. But I doubt I'll be there.
Besides the games, I like that there are lots of kids-friendly apps available. The kids have been fighting over it. H is allowed about 15 minutes of it daily. After that, it's hidden. F uses it when H is not around. But she gets stuck at the enter-passcode section and then the iPod gets disabled and she'll still be jabbing at the screen.
Forty
That's the number of points I got for my driving test. So, Yati, it is definitely very possible to fail with an auto car. Sob sob.
To get 40 points, I had to strike the kerb twice, once during parallel parking and once during vertical parking. I thought it was immediate failure so once I hit the kerb, I had somewhat given up hope. Then I hit the kerb again. Sigh sigh sigh.
I'm going to wallow in misery for half the day.
I've booked a new test date and between now til then, I must find a way to keep my nerves in check. I was shaking like a leaf from the time I entered the waiting area to the time I hit the first kerb. After that,it was a feeling of hopelessness. So very very terrible lor.
What I felt sorriest about is the time I've invested in the lessons and all the times when my father had to clear his schedule so he could babysit Farah while I go for lessons.
I think I've gotten everything off my chest. Now I will marinate in my misery for a while more.
To get 40 points, I had to strike the kerb twice, once during parallel parking and once during vertical parking. I thought it was immediate failure so once I hit the kerb, I had somewhat given up hope. Then I hit the kerb again. Sigh sigh sigh.
I'm going to wallow in misery for half the day.
I've booked a new test date and between now til then, I must find a way to keep my nerves in check. I was shaking like a leaf from the time I entered the waiting area to the time I hit the first kerb. After that,it was a feeling of hopelessness. So very very terrible lor.
What I felt sorriest about is the time I've invested in the lessons and all the times when my father had to clear his schedule so he could babysit Farah while I go for lessons.
I think I've gotten everything off my chest. Now I will marinate in my misery for a while more.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
14 November
1.
Girls having breakfast. Farah's having an issue with clothes now. She refuses to put on her t-shirt after bathtime and I am soooooo not going to fight over this. Like her sister, I'm sure that it's a phase and it'll be over soon enough.
About breakfast - what they are having in the picture is crackers with leftover spaghetti sauce spread on them, lots of mushrooms and cheese. (Thanks to H's Nursery 1 teacher for the idea.) Huda loves mushrooms and mushrooms have been making regular appearances in our meals. We even have mushroom pancakes for breakfast. I hope Farah will have a preference for something healthy too, say tomatoes or something that won't taste too strange in pancakes.
And sometimes, they make their own breakfast too.
2. 
Worms. That's how they want to be wrapped up after bathtime. It's called the worm wrap.
3.
Free Child Labour. Saturday morning, and suddenly the number of little people in my house trebled. What do you do with extra kids? You make use of them. * insert evil laugher* They seem to enjoy it tremendously, though. And the older ones even appointed themselves as Quality Control Officers.
4.
East Coast Park. I like. 
Farah was hesitant about the sand at first but she steeled herslf and overcame her hesitation. Mostly because she is at a copycat stage - she follows whatever Huda does - so if Huda can walk on the sand barefooted, so can she.
5.
Just outside our house, there is a little hill. I once aspired to walk up the hill at least once a week. That is a target but not quite realistic. In reality, we go up the hill about twice a year.
These kids wanted to go up the hill. Unfortunately, it started drizzling when we were halfway up and we had to turn back. Poor kids. Another time, perhaps. (And if the next time happens within these two months, I will hit a record - going up the hill three times this year, instead of our usual two.)
6. 
No no. These boys are not part of the Free Child Labour. Yet. They miiiiight be coming to our place early next month and then, they will be co-opted into the group. Heh heh heh.
7. 
And here's someone who seems to be enjoying hospital stays too much.
I don't understand why the English are tasked with the responsibility of caring for Farah at the hospital. How about the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh?
8. 
And finally, I managed to make kuih lopes! All thanks to Cikgu Zahra's instructions!
Saturday, November 06, 2010
6 November
1. As always, I have a lot of things to write about but I somehow avoided this multiply page. But today, after reading an article in the Life section of Straits Times, I decided that I must write now. Now. The story is the one about Nora Ephron's book. The point of the entire story is you must do what you want NOW. Because when you are old (if you don't die tomorrow, that is), you can't walk, can't see and in my case, the fingers would be too stiff to type. So, do everything now when you are young(er).
2. Part of the reason why I haven't been writing is that the laptop I'm using occasionally tries to be funny with me and will somehow deactivate the following keys: w, e, r, u & i. Today, it is much better behaved and combined with the Nora Ephron story, I'm somewhat motivated to write.
3. Now, about the kids (which this blog is primarily about). Recently, I updated my facebook status with H's nonsense:
Daughter #1, who is selectively OCD, was eating spaghetti. She often wipes her mouth on her sleeve so I have a supply of tissue paper beside her when she eats potentially-messy food.
Once, when I took her to meet a couple of friends, Murniyati noticed how she couldn't stand seeing the spaghetti sauce on the table. So, each time the sauce landed on the table, she would move her plate to cover the sauce. (Hmmm.. it seems like spaghetti is our staple diet but really, no, it's not.)
Another OCD moment of hers happened when she was about 2-ish. She just came out of the bathroom, did something wrong and was scolded. She cried. In the middle of her crying, she noticed that the corner of the mat outside the bathroom was folded. She stopped crying, straightened the bathmat and then continued crying again.
4. Asthma and Eczema - the disgusting duo that Farah has been diagnosed with: I was a bit disheartened initially but I've come to realise that it's not that bad. There are worst things out there and asthma is manageable.
I've read up a bit on it and it seems like a diet rich in fruit and vegetables is one way to keep asthma in check.
I also believe in eating the real stuff. Not fruit that has been whittled down into a capsule or a tiny little pill. I'm sure there's a very good reason why apples, oranges, pears, mangoes etc are in the shape they are in. So, I try not to be overly dependent on supplements either.
For now, what I should do is to record down diligently all episodes of her falling ill and try to look for a pattern to establish the allergen that's causing her asthma. I did this before when she was getting fever/runny nose/cough about twice a month. But, as the months went by, each of her fever/runny nose/cough episode was getting milder and with longer stretches of good health in between and I figured that she was developing better immunity. So, I stopped the recording. Then, she was hit by her most recent asthma attack. I still hate using that term. In the past, the doctors didn't want to label it as asthma because it's too alarmist an approach. So, they called it bronchialitis. But, when confronted with many wheezing episodes, it's time to call a spade a spade. So, asthma it is.
4. F is now a very feisty almost-21-month-old. She is doing well in all areas of development except in the height and weight area. But we all know that I'm resigned to fate when it comes to weight issues.
Speech: She calls her Kakak Huda, Tatak Tuta. Attempts to correct her have not been heeded. She also calls her youngest uncle Bubu although she's supposed to call him Pak Usu. When corrected, she will say Pak Usu once or twice but will still address him as Bubu. She can string together 3-word sentences and recently surprised my mother when she says ta-tih (sounds suspiciously like terima kasih - thank you) when given a biscuit.
Food: There are good days and not-so-good days. The good thing is, she is an easier person to feed. But the bad thing is, she has already started on french fries and salt.
Trans fats trans fats.. sigh.. And she likes them.. double sigh..
As long as we eat at home, she eats what I cook and that means loads of vegetables, fish and rice. On weekends when we go out, if we go somewhere that serves fries, she wants them. "Fai! Fai!" she calls out to them. Even if the fries belong to somebody two tables away. So, we get it for her but I'll wipe away as much of the salt as possible.
Play: Like most other children, she likes toys which another child is playing with. And Huda also seems to prefer whichever toy Farah is playing with. So, fights between them break out very frequently. And boy, does Farah fight; she bites and scratches. Huda has some battle scars to prove what the younger sister has done.
Despite the frequent fights, they enjoy each other's company. At bedtime (they are both sleeping on the mattress on the floor; I wish I knew their preference before we bought a bed for them), they will play and laugh together before finally falling asleep. Too much, sometimes. So, to ensure that they fall asleep quickly, I have to lie down between them to physically separate them.
5. Back to Huda: She and her cousin were talking about junk food. Being a health-conscious (well, not really) mother, I told them that they shouldn't eat too much of junk food because it is not good for them. Huda then said,
Diamond Castle is some Barbie-related rubbish. Don't ask me what it is. I'm assuming that it has something to do with Barbie being a princess and living in a castle called Diamond Castle.
6. Talking about Barbie, I will never ever buy my children Barbie dolls (both the original ones and the pirated versions). The girls once received an imitation Barbie doll and I threw it away after they've played with it for a few days (thank goodness it was of low quality so I didn't feel bad throwing it away after the arms fell off repeatedly). There are just so many things wrong with Barbie. I don't think I'm even gonna start on it now because I'll take too long and my keyboard has shown signs of retiring. (I have to press the i key a couple of times before the i appears. Most annoying.)
Okay. Gotta go now.
This entry feels somewhat constipated. I know I'm so eloquent to describe it as such :rolls eyes: but this is what I feel after reading this entry. Maybe, I'll be more coherent next entry. Here's hoping for diarrhoea in the next post!
2. Part of the reason why I haven't been writing is that the laptop I'm using occasionally tries to be funny with me and will somehow deactivate the following keys: w, e, r, u & i. Today, it is much better behaved and combined with the Nora Ephron story, I'm somewhat motivated to write.
3. Now, about the kids (which this blog is primarily about). Recently, I updated my facebook status with H's nonsense:
Daughter #1, who is selectively OCD, was eating spaghetti. She often wipes her mouth on her sleeve so I have a supply of tissue paper beside her when she eats potentially-messy food.
In between each mouthful, I saw her wiping her fork and spoon with the tissue paper. And her mouth with her sleeve.
Once, when I took her to meet a couple of friends, Murniyati noticed how she couldn't stand seeing the spaghetti sauce on the table. So, each time the sauce landed on the table, she would move her plate to cover the sauce. (Hmmm.. it seems like spaghetti is our staple diet but really, no, it's not.)
Another OCD moment of hers happened when she was about 2-ish. She just came out of the bathroom, did something wrong and was scolded. She cried. In the middle of her crying, she noticed that the corner of the mat outside the bathroom was folded. She stopped crying, straightened the bathmat and then continued crying again.
4. Asthma and Eczema - the disgusting duo that Farah has been diagnosed with: I was a bit disheartened initially but I've come to realise that it's not that bad. There are worst things out there and asthma is manageable.
I've read up a bit on it and it seems like a diet rich in fruit and vegetables is one way to keep asthma in check.
I also believe in eating the real stuff. Not fruit that has been whittled down into a capsule or a tiny little pill. I'm sure there's a very good reason why apples, oranges, pears, mangoes etc are in the shape they are in. So, I try not to be overly dependent on supplements either.
For now, what I should do is to record down diligently all episodes of her falling ill and try to look for a pattern to establish the allergen that's causing her asthma. I did this before when she was getting fever/runny nose/cough about twice a month. But, as the months went by, each of her fever/runny nose/cough episode was getting milder and with longer stretches of good health in between and I figured that she was developing better immunity. So, I stopped the recording. Then, she was hit by her most recent asthma attack. I still hate using that term. In the past, the doctors didn't want to label it as asthma because it's too alarmist an approach. So, they called it bronchialitis. But, when confronted with many wheezing episodes, it's time to call a spade a spade. So, asthma it is.
4. F is now a very feisty almost-21-month-old. She is doing well in all areas of development except in the height and weight area. But we all know that I'm resigned to fate when it comes to weight issues.
Speech: She calls her Kakak Huda, Tatak Tuta. Attempts to correct her have not been heeded. She also calls her youngest uncle Bubu although she's supposed to call him Pak Usu. When corrected, she will say Pak Usu once or twice but will still address him as Bubu. She can string together 3-word sentences and recently surprised my mother when she says ta-tih (sounds suspiciously like terima kasih - thank you) when given a biscuit.
Food: There are good days and not-so-good days. The good thing is, she is an easier person to feed. But the bad thing is, she has already started on french fries and salt.
Trans fats trans fats.. sigh.. And she likes them.. double sigh.. As long as we eat at home, she eats what I cook and that means loads of vegetables, fish and rice. On weekends when we go out, if we go somewhere that serves fries, she wants them. "Fai! Fai!" she calls out to them. Even if the fries belong to somebody two tables away. So, we get it for her but I'll wipe away as much of the salt as possible.
Play: Like most other children, she likes toys which another child is playing with. And Huda also seems to prefer whichever toy Farah is playing with. So, fights between them break out very frequently. And boy, does Farah fight; she bites and scratches. Huda has some battle scars to prove what the younger sister has done.
Despite the frequent fights, they enjoy each other's company. At bedtime (they are both sleeping on the mattress on the floor; I wish I knew their preference before we bought a bed for them), they will play and laugh together before finally falling asleep. Too much, sometimes. So, to ensure that they fall asleep quickly, I have to lie down between them to physically separate them.
5. Back to Huda: She and her cousin were talking about junk food. Being a health-conscious (well, not really) mother, I told them that they shouldn't eat too much of junk food because it is not good for them. Huda then said,
"A'ah. Tak boleh makan banyak sangat. Nanti jadi gemuk macam ayah. Ayah Huda dah tak boleh jadi princess tau."
Yes. You can't eat too much of it. Otherwise you'll be fat like my father. He can't be a princess now.
In case you are wondering, despite not being exposed to much television, this girl - thanks to all the children around her - wants to be a princess or (no! no! noooooooo!) Barbie. So, everything is about reaching that ultimate goal - to be a princess. And she thinks everyone has the same goal, regardless of gender.
This reminds me of another exchange we had:
Me: You must apply cream on your leg. You have dry skin there.
H: But I don't like cream. They make my legs oily.
Me: If you don't apply the cream, your legs will get even drier and the skin will bleed each time you scratch your legs. And then (I thought I was a genius when I said the next line) you can't be a princess if you have all these scars on your legs.
H: Never mind, I'll apply the cream when I'm living in Diamond Castle.
Yes. You can't eat too much of it. Otherwise you'll be fat like my father. He can't be a princess now.
In case you are wondering, despite not being exposed to much television, this girl - thanks to all the children around her - wants to be a princess or (no! no! noooooooo!) Barbie. So, everything is about reaching that ultimate goal - to be a princess. And she thinks everyone has the same goal, regardless of gender.
This reminds me of another exchange we had:
Me: You must apply cream on your leg. You have dry skin there.
H: But I don't like cream. They make my legs oily.
Me: If you don't apply the cream, your legs will get even drier and the skin will bleed each time you scratch your legs. And then (I thought I was a genius when I said the next line) you can't be a princess if you have all these scars on your legs.
H: Never mind, I'll apply the cream when I'm living in Diamond Castle.
Diamond Castle is some Barbie-related rubbish. Don't ask me what it is. I'm assuming that it has something to do with Barbie being a princess and living in a castle called Diamond Castle.
6. Talking about Barbie, I will never ever buy my children Barbie dolls (both the original ones and the pirated versions). The girls once received an imitation Barbie doll and I threw it away after they've played with it for a few days (thank goodness it was of low quality so I didn't feel bad throwing it away after the arms fell off repeatedly). There are just so many things wrong with Barbie. I don't think I'm even gonna start on it now because I'll take too long and my keyboard has shown signs of retiring. (I have to press the i key a couple of times before the i appears. Most annoying.)
Okay. Gotta go now.
This entry feels somewhat constipated. I know I'm so eloquent to describe it as such :rolls eyes: but this is what I feel after reading this entry. Maybe, I'll be more coherent next entry. Here's hoping for diarrhoea in the next post!
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