100 Books – Part 1

 

I’m always seeing articles about things every adult should do/eat/read/etc in their lifetime. Of course book lists always catch my eye. And I’ve seen more than one book list. Classics, Sci-fi, just about any genre you can name. I don’t remember where I saw this one, but it was titled “100 books every human being should read in their lifetime.” Since I’m old, there are a LOT of these books I can check off my list. I will comment on the ones I’ve read and maybe even some I haven’t read yet and will tell you why or why not I will not read them. And the books listed singly but were part of a series I have treated as one entry. So…..

 

The Bible. Yes, I have read the entire book. Not in one sitting, but over the 68 years I’ve been on this earth. And yes, I do believe it is the inspired Word of God. I do not argue this point or debate my faith.

 

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Both by Mark Twain. Loved them. Just about anything written by Twain is worth reading. I haven’t seen any of the movies made from these books. I don’t remember which one was assigned reading for Sarah in school, but she hated the fact that it was written in dialect in some parts. I ended up reading it to her using normal speech.  

 

Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Definitely not fun reads, but worth the reading. We had to read Animal Farm in 7^th grade and it depressed the heck out of me. I will never read it again. The other two I’ve read 2-3 times. Sarah had to read Brave New World in HS and we sometimes joke about “going on a Soma holiday.”

 

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. Good book, but it is fiction. I enjoyed it but haven’t seen the movie yet. I will add this one - Geisha: A Life by Mineko Iwasaki. This one is an autobiography and really impressed me. Their life wasn’t all cherry blossoms and making tea.

 

East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Total downer!! Well written, of course. All of his stuff is well written. But, wow…which leads us to…

Of Mice and Men, by the same author. The ending was inevitable, but still felt like a decent closure. Poor Lennie…

By the way, did you know they made an OPERA out of this book?? Here’s a clip of the “fatta the lan’” song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14m45R2ECMI

 

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Really enjoyed the book. I love books about that time period. Read it once before seeing the movie with Robert Redford and then read it again. Haven’t seen the version with Leo DiCaprio. Daisy was a jerk. So was Tom.

 

I’ll close with this one:

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Great book! I’ve read it many times. Paul had to read it in HS and truly hated it. I ended up reading it to him. That was fun. For me, anyway. I’ve seen the 1966 movie with Oskar Werner several times as well. All of Bradbury’s book are great.