The Lord of the Rings 1: The Fellowship of the Ring

The Fellowship of the Ring
J R R Tolkien
1954
5/5
BBC Top 100 Books - Number 1 (part 1)

I first read this book just after the film was released in 2001, I had waited a number of years to read it because I didn't want the film to be a disappointment like most films based on awesome books are. At the end of the first LOTR film, I couldn't wait until the next film was released to find out what happened, so I read the books. Despite loving the books, I didn't read any of them again until now. I had forgotten how much brilliant stuff the films had left out!

I love this story and I can't believe I went for so long without reading it again, this series will probably have to go onto my read every year or two list.

Birdsong

Birdsong
Sebastian Faulks
1993
5/5
BBC Top 100 Books - Number 13

 It is very rare for a book to bring me to tears or cause me emotional pain, this is one of these books. The naive optimism before the battle of the Somme made me want to scream at the characters in the book to warn them not to go over the top.

I loved how this book switched between a pre-war love affair, the horrors of World War 1, and the story of a young woman trying to understand what her grandfather had experienced during this war.

Sebastian Faulks has created characters that feel very real, he makes the read feel their joy, their sorrow, their fear and their pain. I couldn't put this book down and felt emotionally drained after reading it.

Wheel of Time 2: The Great Hunt

The Great Hunt
Robert Jordan
1990
5/5

The second book of the brilliant Wheel of Time series begins in Fal Dara where our protagonists are resting after the events in book 1. Rand, Perrin and Mat join the hunt for the Horn of Valere and are for a while on their own without (so it seems to them) Aes Sedai interferance. While Egwene and Nynaeve travel with the Aes Sedai to Tar Valon to learn to control their use of Saidar and become Aes Sedai. This book switches frequently beween the adventures that the boys from Emond's Field are having and those that the girls are having. Towards the end of the book all of these characters are drawn together again on Toman Head.

This book is as brilliant as the first book, it left me totally hooked and wanting to find out more. I have read this book several times (9 to be precise) and every time I read it (and any of the other Wheel of Time books), I find more layers to the story.           

BBC Top 100 Books

This is a list of the BBC Top 100 Books

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
     a. The Fellowship of the Ring - read in Mar 2012
     b. The Two Towers
     c. The Return of the King
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen - read in Feb 2012
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
     a. Northern Lights - read in Feb 2012
     b. The Subtle Knife
     c. The Amber Spyglass
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 - read in Apr 2012
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

Working my way throught these books will probably take 2-3 years, some I know are amazing books, some I know I dislike (but I will read them to review them) and some I have never read.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
1813
3/5
BBC Top 100 Books - Number 2

I found this book tediously long-winded and boring to start with, it was very difficult to keep reading this book. However, by half-way through the book, I was intrigued to find out what would happen between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy. At first, I was only going to give this book 1 or 2 out of 5, but as the story continued I decided it deserved a 3/5.

I disliked the way that the vast majority of this book was dialogue between characters, there were very few descriptions of locations and people; it seemed to me to be all mindless chatter until the story got going.

I am glad that I've read this book, but wont be reading it again.

Inheritance Cycle 4: Inheritance

Inheritance
Christopher Paolini
2011
5/5

This is the final book of the Inheritance Cycle, and having read the other books in this series a few years ago, I was looking forward to reading this. I was rather pleased when it appeared as one of Christmas presents.


This is the best book of the series and I can't wait to read future books by Christopher Paolini.

Inheritance Cycle 3: Brisingr

Brisingr
Christopher Paolini
2008
5/5

Yet another brilliant book from Christopher Paolini, even more enjoyable than the first two books in this series. The world and magic system created and expended in the first two books of this series have matured and have a real sense of depth.