100 of the best books ever

As an avid reader I go through a lot of books, I have a large personal collection and I am never not in the middle of a book. Yet it always astounds me at how much I haven't read, the countless books that I haven't even heard of and the ones that I have but just haven't managed to read yet. Due to this I enjoy looking at top 100 lists for books, the difficulty is finding a good one to follow. These lists float around all over the internet and I never seem to be able to find the same one twice. I get sent a new list every year from Dymocks and I always love going through and examining just how many on that list I have actually read. Since I was a bit disappointed with Dymocks list this year I thought I would provide you with one from BBC.

The top 100 books of all time.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie 

Out of this particular collection I have read a total of 27 books. I would have liked to find a bit more of an advanced list for this post but it proved somewhat difficult, many included such works as '50 Shades of Grey' and while I won't deny anyone wanting to read it you will have a hard time convincing me that it belongs on a list of the best books of all time. 

I do have some books on this list waiting on my shelves but I will have to expand my collection yet again. How many books on this list have you read? And can you recommend me a better list? Until next time,

Catherine

The best of Christmas stories

Since Christmas is only two weeks away (eek!) I thought I would share some of my favourite Christmas stories. Most of these will be the ones you can read with your children on Christmas Eve but some will be novels that anyone, no matter how old, can read and thoroughly enjoy.

An Aussie Night Before Christmas, Yvonne Morrison

Being Australian myself this is a really fun alternative to the original 'Night Before Christmas'. It's absolutely brimming with Australian slang and motifs. Not to mention this one is set in the right season for us. Reading this one on Christmas Eve is a must, it'll put everyone in Christmas cheer. 

The Fir-Tree, Hans Christian Andersen

This is an old one but a good one. It tells the tale of a little Fir-Tree growing up in the woods then being used as a Christmas tree. Not much explanation needed but the story does go beyond him being used as a Christmas tree. All in all it is a sad tale but quite lovely.

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens 

No Christmas list would be complete without a mention of 'A Christmas Carol', there are so many adaptations and rewrites of this novella that it's become a cliché to mention it at Christmas time. But clichés are clichés for a reason and this is a firm favourite of mine. I had to study Charles Dickens for a class last year and I fell in literary love. Dickens was quite fond of writing Christmas stories so you can often find collections of them as opposed to the individual stories.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dr. Seuss

Dr Seuss, need I say more? 

None the less it's a good read but if you're more of a movie buff you may want to check out the film adaptation staring Jim Carrey.

The Shining, Stephen King 

Ok, ok not a Christmas story but it's set around Christmas time so that counts right? Still, no list of mine would be complete without an appearance by the horror king. But this would make a good alternate read for those of you with a darker Christmas cheer.

What are your favourite Christmas stories, let me know! Until next time,

Catherine

A name in blood

So this week I have another book review for you and once again I really enjoyed this one. It's not often I find books that I dislike but when I do I'll let you know. 'A Name in Blood' is written by Matt Rees and is historical fiction based on true events. 

Michelangelo Merisi (also known as Caravaggio after his home town) was one of Italy's most renowned artists in the late 16th century, not long after the original and better known Michelangelo. He was based in Rome and was commissioned by the Pope himself. His paintings, although highly praised, were very controversial and he often painted his works without the usual grandeur of other painters. His 'Death of the Virgin' contained no images of an ascent to heaven as most would and his 'Maddonna' was often dicpicted as a simple peasant woman. For this reason many churches rejected his religious work but many private buyers would seek him out.

However Caravaggio didn't look after his personal image either, he isolated many fellow painters who then tried to sabotage his reputation, then after murdering an adversary he fled to Malta with a price on his head. After another brawl he went from Malta to Naples. However from Naples it wasn't long before he received an offer of pardon from the Pope due to his work. It was during his travels from Naples to Rome that history lost sight of him. He died during his journey and while most sources agree that he seemed to have died from a fever no one really knows. After his death he seemed to pass from Italy's memory and from the rest of the world. Even to this day most would not know his name.

Matt Rees novel attempts to fill in the gaps to Caravaggios story and provide him with a proper, chivalrous ending. Caravaggios is a sad tale but one I'm glad I found, I think that 'A Name in Blood' is well worth the read. Until next time,

Catherine.