The Book Challenge

Have you heard of the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge? She is a character in the serie Gilmore Girls who loves to read. In the 7 seasons of the show 369 books are mentioned or maybe 339. The various lists found online do not agree on this. I choose the longest list I could find. The goal of the challenge is to read them all. If you read 1 book a month this challenge will keep you busy for 30 years 🙂

The Book Challenge can be found on swap-bot. (You need a free account) Once a month (on the first) an email swap is hosted on the public swaps where we can chat about the books we have read. You choose the book you want to read, it can be in any language you wish, the only restriction is it has to be on this list. The emails should be written in english (or you must be certain the receiver understands the other language).

Questions you could ask yourself while or after reading:

• Did the book meet your expectations? Why?
• Would you recommend this book? Why?
• Did the book make you think? About what?
• How do you feel about the characters?
• Is the story well written?
• What’s the theme of the book? How can you tell?
• What is the meaning of the title of the book?
• Did the author wrote more books? Is there a connection between those books?

I believe every person has a creative side in their personality and I encourage every person to get in touch with that side. Some people can create things, some people enjoy the creativity of others (like reading) and some do both. If you like to bring this challenge to a deeper level I say: Go for it! You could compare the books to the movies, make illustrations or create a moodboard about your feelings over the book. These are just ideas, think outside the box and do what pleases you. Feel free to share those expressions in the swaps, on your blog or flickr or whatever you use. I try to set up a mr linky, but I’m having a little trouble with that right now. Just to be very clear: if you want to participate in this challenge the only thing you must do is reading the books, every other thing is optional.

Now the most important thing for this challenge: The list of books! I use this list to track my progress. [cursife=read; bold=seen the movie; underlined=now reading] If you would like a fresh list without notes email me: hartogangenita[at]gmail[dot]com and I’ll sent you one.

1.) 1984 by George Orwell (before I started this challenge)

2.) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (have an e-copy in english)

3.) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (before I started this challenge; free ebook from gutenberg.org)

4.) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (owned by library)

5.) An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

6.) Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

7.) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (free ebook from gutenberg.org in dutch)

8.) Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (before I started this challenge)

9.) Archidamian War by Donald Kagan

10.) The Art of Fiction by Henry James

11.) The Art of War by Sun Tzu (free e-copy from kindle)

12.) As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (owned by library, terwijl ik al heen ging)

13.) Atonement by Ian McEwan

14.) Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy

15.) The Awakening by Kate Chopin (free ebook from gutenberg.org)

16.) Babe by Dick King-Smith (before I started this challenge)

17.) Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Amerian Women by Susan Faludi

18.) Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

19.) Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

20.) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

21.) Beloved by Toni Morrison

22.) Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney

23.) The Bhagava Gita

24.) 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

25.) Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel

26.) A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy

27.) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (free ebook by archive.org)

28.) Brick Lane by Monica Ali

29.) Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner

30.) Candide by Voltaire (free ebook by gunterberg.org)

31.) The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer

32.) Carrie by Stephen King (before I started this challenge)

33.) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

34.) The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

35.) Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White

36.) The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman

37.) Christine by Stephen King (before I started this challenge)

38.) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (before I started this challenge) free ebook from guntenberg.org

39.) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (before I started this challenge)

40.) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

41.) The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty

42.) The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty

43.) A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare (free ebook from guntenberg.org)

44.) Complete Novels by Dawn Powell

45.) The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton

46.) Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker

47.) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

48.) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père (free ebook from guntenberg.org)

49.) Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac

50.) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (free ebook from guntenberg.org)

51.) The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber

52.) The Crucible by Arthur Miller

53.) Cujo by Stephen King (before I started this challenge)

54.) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

55.) Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

56.) David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D

57.) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (have an e-copy)

58.) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (before I started this challenge)

59.) Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (free ebook from guntenberg.org)

60.) Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

61.) Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

62.) Deenie by Judy Blume

63.) The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed
America by Erik Larson

64.) The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee,
America by Erik Larson

65.) The Divine Comedy by Dante (free ebook from guntenberg.org)

66.) The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

67.) Don Quijote by Cervantes

68.) Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv

69.) Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (before I started this challenge)

70.) Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe

71.) Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook

72.) The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

73.) Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn

74.) Eloise by Kay Thompson

75.) Emily the Strange by Roger Reger

76.) Emma by Jane Austen (free ebook from guntenberg.org)

77.) Empire Falls by Richard Russo

78.) Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol

79.) Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

80.) Ethics by Spinoza

81.) Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves

82.) Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

83.) Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

84.) Extravagance by Gary Krist

85.) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

86.) Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore

87.) The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan

88.) Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser

89.) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

90.) The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

91.) Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein

92.) The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

93.) Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce

94.) Fletch by Gregory McDonald

95.) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

96.) The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem

97.) The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

98.) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (free ebook from gutenberg.org)

99.) Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger

100.) Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers

101.) Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

102.) Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

103.) George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our

43rd President by Jacob Weisberg

104.) Gidget by Fredrick Kohner

105.) Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

106.) The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

107.) The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo (before I started this challenge)

108.) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

109.) Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky

110.) Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

111.) The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford (free ebook from gutenberg.org)

112.) The Gospel According to Judy Bloom

113.) The Graduate by Charles Webb

114.) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

115.) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

116.) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

117.) The Group by Mary McCarthy

118.) Hamlet by William Shakespeare

119.) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

120.) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

121.) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

122.) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

123.) Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and
Curt Gentry

124.) Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare

125.) Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare

126.) Henry V by William Shakespeare

127.) High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

128.) The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

129.) Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris

130.) The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton

131.) House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III (Lpr)

132.) The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

133.) How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer

134.) How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

135.) How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland

136.) Howl by Allen Gingsburg

137.) The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (before I started this challenge)

138.) The Iliad by Homer (before I started this challenge)

139.) I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres

140.) In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

141.) Inferno by Dante (free ebook from guntenberg.org)

142.) Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

143.) Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy

144.) It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton

145.) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (before I started this challenge)

146.) The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

147.) Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

148.) The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain

149.) The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

150.) Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito

151.) The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander

152.) Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

153.) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (before I started this challenge)

154.) Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence

155.) The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal

156.) Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

157.) The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield

158.) Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

159.) Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

160.) Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken

161.) Life of Pi by Yann Martel

162.) Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

163.) The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway

164.) The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen

165.) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (before I started this challenge)

166.) Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton

167.) Lord of the Flies by William Golding (before I started this challenge)

168.) The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

169.) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

170.) The Love Story by Erich Segal

171.) Macbeth by William Shakespeare

172.) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

173.) The Manticore by Robertson Davies

174.) Marathon Man by William Goldman

175.) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

176.) Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir

177.) Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman

178.) Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

179.) The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer

180.) Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken

181.) The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare

182.) The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

183.) Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

184.) The Miracle Worker by William Gibson

185.) Moby Dick by Herman Melville (have an e-copy in english)

186.) The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin

187.) Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor

188.) A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman

189.) Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret

190.) A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars

191.) A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

192.) Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

193.) Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

194.) My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh

195.) My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken

196.) My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest

197.) Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo

198.) My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

199.) The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

200.) The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

201.) The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

202.) The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin (before I started this challenge)

203.) Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen

204.) New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson

205.) The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay

206.) Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

207.) Night by Elie Wiesel

208.) Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

209.) The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke,
Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan

210.) Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic
Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell

211.) Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski

212.) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (before I started this challenge)

213.) Old School by Tobias Wolff

214.) On the Road by Jack Kerouac

215.) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (before I started this challenge)

216.) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

217.) The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan

218.) Oracle Night by Paul Auster

219.) Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

220.) Othello by Shakespeare

221.) Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

222.) The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan

223.) Out of Africa by Isac Dineson

224.) The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

225.) A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

226.) The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan

227.) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

228.) Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

229.) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

230.) Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington

231.) Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

232.) Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian
McCain

233.) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

234.) The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker

235.) The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche

236.) The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of
Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind

237.) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen  (before I started this challenge)

238.) Property by Valerie Martin

239.) Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon

240.) Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

241.) Quattrocento by James Mckean

242.) A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall

243.) Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers

244.) The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

245.) The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

246.) Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

247.) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (before I started this challenge)

248.) Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

249.) The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

250.) Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman

251.) The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien

252.) R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton

253.) Rita Hayworth by Stephen King

254.) Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert

255.) Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton

256.) Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (before I started this challenge)

257.) A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

258.) A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

259.) Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin (owned by library)

260.) The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition

261.) Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi

262.) Sanctuary by William Faulkner

263.) Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford

264.) Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James

265.) The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum

266.) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

267.) Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand

268.) The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

269.) The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

270.) Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman

271.) Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell

272.) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (have it as audiobook in dutch)

273.) A Separate Peace by John Knowles

274.) Several Biographies of Winston Churchill

275.) Sexus by Henry Miller

276.) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

277.) Shane by Jack Shaefer

278.) The Shining by Stephen King (before I started this challenge)

279.) Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

280.) S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton

281.) Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut

282.) Small Island by Andrea Levy

283.) Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

284.) Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers

285.) Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of
the Modern World by Barrington Moore

286.) The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht

287.) Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de
Burgos

288.) The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker

289.) Songbook by Nick Hornby

290.) The Sonnets by William Shakespeare

291.) Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

292.) Sophie’s Choice by William Styron

293.) The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

294.) Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov

295.) Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

296.) The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

297.) A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams

298.) Stuart Little by E. B. White (before I started this challenge)

299.) Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

300.) Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust

301.) Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne
Collett

302.) Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber

303.) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

304.) Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

305.) Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry

306.) Time and Again by Jack Finney

307.) The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

308.) To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

399.) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

340.) The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare

341.) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

342.) The Trial by Franz Kafka

343.) The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson

344.) Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett

345.) Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

346.) Ulysses by James Joyce

347.) The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath

348.) Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (before I started this challenge)

349.) Unless by Carol Shields

350.) Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

351.) The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers

352.) Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

353.) Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third
series) by Joe Harvard

354.) The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (before I started this challenge)

355.) Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

356.) Walden by Henry David Thoreau

357.) Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten

358.) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

359.) We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel
Sinker

360.) What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles

361.) What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell

362.) When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

363.) Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson

364.) Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee

365.) Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (before I started this challenge)

366.) The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum (before I started this challenge)

367.) Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

368.) The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

369.) The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

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