The Bell Jar (FINISHED!)

So, guess what today is? It’s Monday, September 1, 2012.

And, guess what I finished two seconds ago? The Bell Jar!!

So, I guess, I can wrap this one up 5 days before my deadline. I’m awesome!

Anyway, this book was fantastic! It was a little slow in the beginning but, having finished it, I understand that Sylvia Plath needed to give somewhat of a back story. The pre-breakdown. Around Chapter 10, it started picking up speed (which is where I started this morning) and became very very good.

I don’t really want to go into detail because if someone who is reading this blog and is interested in the book, then I will not give any spoilers…

I think I had the impression that this book was going to be overwhelmingly depressing and emotional. It was emotional and morbid at times, but definitely not to the extent I had been led to believe. Or, maybe it was just because I felt so connected to Esther. I had sympathy for what she was going through because I think everyone has some hardship like hers in their lives. Mine happens to be now. But, beside the point. I could really relate to her testimony and experiences and it made me really think about my own life. I say that is a definite sign of a great book.

I won’t ruin the ending…but I will say it was the total opposite of what I expected. I think the book could have been more dramatic if it had been concluded in an alternative manner but I understand this ending. It brings the book almost full circle and doesn’t really tie everything up, but provides and outlet for something new. It’s like Sylvia Plath wrote it like this to get her audience really thinking.

I know I am…

Ok, so before I sign off, I didn’t really pay attention to quotes because I was so invested in the actual plot of the book. But I did mark one:

“At first I wondered why the room felt so safe. Then I realized it was because there were no windows.” (127)

I don’t know why, but this quote left me speech and brainless for a while. I literally put down the book to contemplate it (in the context it meant a lot more than it seems by itself). But, that’s that…

Anyway…next book: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Talk to you later!!!

The Bell Jar (Continued)

So, I haven’t really had much time to read this week which makes me quite sad. From what I have read, though, I think Esther just hit her peak and is slowly starting her downward spiral. I can not confirm that this is true; it’s more of an instinctual feeling I am having…you know what I mean?

 

Anyway, I think I am going to have to devise a schedule for reading around my current schedule for “rest of my life” so that I can actually finish these books.

 

So, for The Bell Jar, let’s make the deadline……October 6. 

That means I have a whole week and a half to find time to read this book. Hopefully I will finish before then, but if I don’t then….I’m not sure what the consequence will be. Pondering…I will get back to you on that.

Hope everyone is having, or had, a good day! I will be back for more rambling and book commentary soon!

-Emily

The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

So, I knew Sylvia Plath was known for her strange plot lines and characters but I think I underestimated that fact. This book is strange.

Here’s what the back of the book says:

“The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under–maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther’s break down with such intensity that Esther’s insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.”

Holy crap. Whoever wrote this hit the target dead on. I’m only about half of the way through this book and I am completely hooked. And, let me tell you, the first half of the book is not that exciting. It’s all about superficial women and Esther trying to figure out what she wants from men and a lot of flashbacks. A lot. But, I still find myself completely entranced by this novel. I can relate to Esther because she is going through what I’d imagine every other girl is going through their whole life.  And, it makes me connect with her, really connect with her in a way I never thought I could relate to a fictional character. Strange…

Anyway, point is: it’s a great book. (So far).

It pulls you in from the very start. My favorite quote, so far, appeared on page 3. Enough said, right? Here’s the quote:

“I guess I should have been excited the way most of the other girls were, but I couldn’t get myself to react. (I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo).”

The Bell Jar, page 3

Who pulls something like that out of thin air?! It’s like music in words. Like art in Times New Roman font. You know? Gah! I love this quote.

Anyway, I’m off to read more and hopefully finish it soon. I’ll keep you posted!!

The List

I LOVE reading. So, I had this genius idea to make a list of all the books I have ever wanted to read. There seemed to be a small problem though: the list grew at twenty times the rate that I can read (and I read relatively fast).

This is in no way a solution to my problem, but I figured that with so many great books to read, it would be smart to keep track of my reactions to them all: which ones I loved, which ones I hated, etc. That’s what this blog is for.

So, here are the facts:

1. The list is currently holding 479 books

2. I have read some of the books on the list already

3. I want to read all of these, and hopefully more, before I die

4. I want to read all of these while enrolled in college, maintaining a social life, and eating enough to survive at a rate in which I will finish before I die

Got it? Good. Here comes the list…

The books crossed out are the ones I have already read. One book will be bolded. This book is the current, in progress book.

1. 1491 by Charles C. Mann
2. 1984 by George Orwell
3. The Adventures of Augle March by Saul Bellow
4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
5. Affliction by Russell Banks
6. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
7. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
8. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
9. American Pastoral by Philip Roth
10. American Tabloid by James Ellroy
11. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
12. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
13. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
14. Animal Farm by George Orwell
15. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
16. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
17. Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins
18. Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
19. The Art of Fiction by Henry James
20. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
21. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
22. At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien
23. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
24. Atonement by Ian McEwan
25. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
26. The Autobiography of Malcom X by Alex Haley
27. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
28. Babe by Dick King-Smith
29. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
30. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
31. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
32. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
33. Beloved by Toni Morrison
34. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
35. The Bhagavad Gita
36. The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
37. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
38. Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
39. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
40. Blue Beard by Kurt Vonnegut
41. The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
42. A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
43. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
44. Books of Blood by Clive Barker
45. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
46. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
47. Brick Lane by Monica Ali
48. Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
49. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
50. The Brothers Karamzov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
51. Call of the Wild by Jack London
52. Candide by Voltaire
53. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
54. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
55. Carrie by Stephen King
56. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
57. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
58. Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
59. The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
60. Christine by Stephen King
61. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
62. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
63. Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders
64. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
65. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
66. The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
67. The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
68. The Collected Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
69. A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
70. Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
71. The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
72. Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
73. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
74. The Continental Op by Daniel Hammett
75. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
76. Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
77. The Crack-Up by F. Scott Fitzgerald
78. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
79. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
80. The Crisis by Winston Churchill
81. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
82. Cujo by Stephen King
83. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
84. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
85. Daisy Miller by Henry James
86. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
87. David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
88. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
89. The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown
90. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
91. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
92. Deliverance by James Dickey
93. Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
94. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
95. Deenie by Judy Blume
96. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
97. The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
98. The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
99. Dispatches by Michael Herr
100. Divergent by Veronica Roth
101. The Divine Comedy by Dante
102. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
103. Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
104. Don Quijote by Cervantes
105. Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
106. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
107. Dubliners by James Joyce
108. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
109. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
110. Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
111. Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
112. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
113. The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall
114. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
115. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
116. Eloise by Kay Thompson
117. Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
118. Emma by Jane Austen
119. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
120. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
121. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
122. Ethics by Spinoza
123. Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
124. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
125. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
126. Extravagance by Gary Krist
127. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
128. Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
129. The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
130. A Fan’s Notes by Frederick Exley
131. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
132. Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
133. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
134. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
135. The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
136. Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
137. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
138. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
139. Fletch by Gregory McDonald
140. Flicker by Theodore Roszak
141. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
142. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
143. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
144. Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
145. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
146. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
147. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
148. Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
149. From Here to Eternity by James Joyce
150. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
151. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
152. George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
153. Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
154. Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
155. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
156. The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
157. The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
158. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
159. Going Native by Stephen Wright
160. Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
161. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
162. A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Conner
163. The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
164. The Good War by Studs Terkel
165. The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
166. The Graduate by Charles Webb
167. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
168. The Great Bridge by David McCullough
169. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
170. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
171. The Group by Mary McCarthy
172. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
173. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
174. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
175. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
176. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
177. Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
178. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
179. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
180. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
181. Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson
182. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
183. Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
184. Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
185. Henry V by William Shakespeare
186. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
187. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
188. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
189. Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
190. The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
191. The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty by Dan Ariely
192. A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
193. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
194. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
195. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
196. How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
197. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
198. How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
199. Howl by Allen Gingsburg
200. H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction by H.P. Lovecraft
201. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
202. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
203. I Wish Someone Were Waiting For Me by Anna Gavalda
204. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
205. If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
206. The Iliad by Homer
207. I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
208. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
209. Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
210. The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
211. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
212. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
213. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
214. Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
215. It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
216. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
217. Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson
218. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
219. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
220. The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
221. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
222. Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
223. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
224. The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
225. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
226. The Known World by Edward P. Jones
227. Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
228. Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
229. The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
230. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
231. The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
232. Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison
233. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
234. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans
235. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
236. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
237. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
238. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
239. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
240. The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
241. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
242. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
243. Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
244. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
245. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty
246. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
247. The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
248. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
249. The Love Story by Erich Segal
250. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
251. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
252. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
253. The Magician’s Nephew by CS Lewis
254. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
255. The Manticore by Robertson Davies
256. Marathon Man by William Goldman
257. Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian
258. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
259. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
260. Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
261. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
262. The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
263. Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
264. The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
265. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
266. Middlemarch by George Elliot
267. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
268. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
269. The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
270. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
271. The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
272. Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
273. A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
274. Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
275. A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
276. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
277. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
278. Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
279. My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
280. My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
281. My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
282. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
283. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
284. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
285. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
286. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
287. Native Son by Richard Wright
288. Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
289. New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
290. The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
291. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
292. Night by Elie Wiesel
293. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
294. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
295. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
296. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
297. Nothing by Henry Green
298. Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
299. The Notebook by Agota Kristof
300. Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
301. Of Mice and Men by John SteinbeckOld School by Tobias Wolff
302. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
303. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
304. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
305. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
306. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
307. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
308. The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
309. Oracle Night by Paul Auster
310. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
311. Othello by Shakespeare
312. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
313. The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
314. Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
315. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
316. Paradise Lost by John Milton
317. A Passage to India by E.M. ForsterThe Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
318. The Pearl by John Steinbeck
319. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
320. Persuasion by Jane Austen
321. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
322. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
323. Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
324. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
325. Plainsong by Kent Haruf
326. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
327. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
328. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
329. The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
330. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
331. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
332. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
333. The Power and the Glory by Graham Green
334. The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
335. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
336. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
337. The Professional by W.C. Heinz
338. Property by Valerie Martin
339. Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
340. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
341. Quattrocento by James Mckean
342. A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
343. Rabbit Run by John Updike
344. Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
345. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
346. The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
347. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
348. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
349. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
350. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
351. The Republic by Plato
352. Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
353. The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien
354. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
355. Requiem by Lauren Oliver
356. R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
357. The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
358. Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
359. Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
360. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
361. Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
362. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
363. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
364. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
365. Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
366. Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
367. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
368. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
369. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
370. The Scandal Season by Sophie Gee
371. The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
372. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
373. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
374. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
375. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
376. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
377. Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
378. Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick by Philip K. Dick
379. Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
380. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
381. A Sense of Where You Are by John McPhee
382. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
383. Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
384. Sexus by Henry Miller
385. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
386. Shane by Jack Shaefer
387. The Shining by Stephen King
388. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
389. S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
390. Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
391. Small Island by Andrea Levy
392. Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
393. Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
394. So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
395. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
396. The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
397. Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
398. The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
399. Songbook by Nick Hornby
400. The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
401. Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
402. Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
403. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
404. Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
405. A Sport and a Pastime by James Saeter
406. The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
407. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John LeCarré
408. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
409. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
410. The Stories of Ray Bradbury by Ray Bradbury
411. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
412. A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
413. Stuart Little by E. B. White
414. Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
415. Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
416. Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
417. Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
418. Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
419. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
420. Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
421. Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
422. Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
423. Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
424. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
425. This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff
426. Time and Again by Jack Finney
427. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
428. Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis
429. To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
430. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
431. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
432. The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
433. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
434. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
435. The Trial by Franz Kafka
436. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
437. The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
438. Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
439. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
440. Ulysses by James Joyce
441. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
442. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
443. Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
444. Under the Volcano by Malcom Lolory
445. Underworld by Don DeLillo
446. Unless by Carol Shields
447. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
448. The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
449. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
450. Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
451. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
452. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
453. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
454. Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
455. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
456. Watchmen by Alan Moore
457. We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
458. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
459. What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
460. What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
461. What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer
462. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
463. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
464. Where She Went by Gayle Forman
465. White Noise by Don DeLillo
466. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
467. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
468. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
469. A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
470. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
471. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
472. Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell
473. Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin
474. The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
475. Women by Charles Bukowski
476. Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
477. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
478. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
479. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

I already own most of these books. The grueling task is to actually read them all. I am excited! Are you?

P.S. This list is compiled of books I want to buy from Barnes and Nobles, books I already own but have not read yet, and the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge that I found online, plus a few others. Just so ya know 😉