Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Nothing Makes Me Happier then a List of Books


When I was in college the most exciting part of the year for me was the day I finally got a hold of the book lists for my English classes! I would get so excited just thinking about all the fantastic books I would be reading that semester. That is how I feel now, except better because I picked these books out myself. There is something really cool about taking control of your own education. This is just a tentative list, subject to change and DEFINITELY open to any suggestions:

Ann Veronica
and/or War of The Worlds- HG Wells
The Diary (selections) - Samuel Pepys
Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell
Mother London- Michael Moorcock
A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (The first Sherlock Holmes novel)
Vile Bodies- Evelyn Waugh
Saturday- Ian McEwan
Bleak House - Charles Dickens (does anyone know of another, maybe shorter, Dicken's novel that features London prominently? Bleak House is 1200 pages and just sounds so... bleak...)
The Wasteland (of course) and The Preludes- TS Eliot
253 - Geoff Ryman
The London Scene - Virginia Woolf
The Drowned World- JG Ballard
Hawksmoor or The Lambs of London- Peter Ackroyd
Portrait of a Lady - Henry James
Neverwhere- Neil Gaman
Robinson or The Hard Shoulder- Christopher Petit- Robinson

2 comments:

Jason said...

I think that list sounds great and all but i would recommend starting Portrait of a Lady early on in your trip because it gets boring. You should add "39 Steps" by john Buchan because it's quick and features a run through scotland. Finally, you obviously need to add John Donne to the list. I think that's all i got for now

Nerissa Rain said...

Hm, I'll have to think of things to add to your list :) And I may attempt to read some of the ones you've got. It's about time I catch up on some reading like this... plus, the pile of books I already have in my To Be Read pile seems to be lacking at the moment... I could actually get through them all in a reasonable amount of time!