For some strange reason I've always liked listing things.. and courtesy of NPR here are 10 possible reasons why:
1. Lists bring order to chaos. "People are attracted to lists because we live in an era of overstimulation, especially in terms of information," says David Wallechinsky, a co-author of the fabulous Book of Lists, first published in 1977 and followed by subsequent editions. "And lists help us in organizing what is otherwise overwhelming."
2. Lists help us remember things — at the hardware store, for the vacation trip, Christmas presents. The One Planet Education Network, or OPEN, is a global online education content provider that counts Harvard and Columbia universities as clients. OPEN also swears by lists. "Checklists help you remember what you have done and what you have to do," the curriculum reminds the students.
3. Most lists are finite. They don't usually go on and on. And if they do, you can skip to the bottom of the list. The Internet Movie Database, for instance, lists its "bottom 100 movies as voted by users." The winner — er, loser — is Zaat, a 1975 sci-fi fiasco.
4. Lists can be meaningful. The Steven Spielberg classic Schindler's List is based on the true story of a German businessman who used a list of names to save more than 1,000 Jews from the concentration camps. It is ranked eighth on the American Film Institute's 2007 list of 100 top American films of the past 100 years.
5. Lists can be as long or as short as necessary. Jamie Frater, a New Zealand opera singer, maintains a list-keeping site called The List Universe. Recent posts include "20 Great Quotes from Ronald Reagan" and "Top 10 Codes You Aren't Meant to Know." A list, Frater says, should be "as long as is necessary. Some lists need be only a few lines an item, others a few paragraphs. I seldom write more than one
paragraph, but occasionally the need arises to do so." Frater adds, "This question is a bit like asking an artist: 'When is the painting finished?' It is when it is."
6. Making lists can help make you famous. Notable list makers include Thomas Jefferson, Peter Mark Roget, Martha Stewart and Benjamin Franklin. "A methodical and wry man," wrote Franklin biographer Walter Isaacson in Time magazine, "Franklin loved making lists. He made lists of rules for his tradesmen's club, of synonyms for being drunk, of maxims for matrimonial happiness and of reasons to choose an older woman as a mistress. Most famously, as a young man, he made a list of
personal virtues that he determined should define his life."
7. The word "list" can be tracked back to William Shakespeare, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. In Hamlet, the Bard refers to "a list of landlesse resolutes."
8. Lists relieve stress and focus the mind. "Lists," sociologist Scott Schaffer told The Oregonian newspaper, "really get to the heart of what it is we need to do to get through another day on this planet."
9. Lists can force people to say revealing things. In his 25 Random Things roster, former California Gov. Jerry Brown reveals that his favorite cereal is ... Flax Plus Multibran.
10. Lists can keep us from procrastinating. We put this one off until the end. Making a list enables us to get our heads around really big tasks — and helps us tackle the work one aspect at a time. But a list is only useful if it reveals a truth, solves a problem or leads to action. Making a list, for instance, does not necessarily help procrastinators. As DePaul University psychologist Joseph Ferrari told Psychology Today in 2008, people don't put off work they must do because they lack list-making skills. And, in turn, making a list does not get the job done.
Some reflections on the Path to Life. "You have made known to me the path of life; you fill me with joy in your presence" (Psalm 16:11)
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
On happiness in the e-world
So evidence that perhaps blogging does make us happier..
~~~
And in other news .. apparently its now 3 days to there is a line on the Horizon, and sadly, the U2 Conference has been postponed :-(
The researchers found support for deeper self-disclosure from bloggers resulting in a range of better social connections. These included things such as a sense of greater social integration, which is how connected we feel to society and our own community of friends and others; an increase in social bonding (our tightly knit, intimate relationships); and social bridging — increasing our connectedness with people who might be from outside of our typical social network. [Read more here]But, then again points made in the comments valuable too - is there, and does there need to be, a control group of non-bloggers. The comment I made with the piece yesterday holds true here too - blogging will imapct some negatively, and some positively, why do we need to extraplolate to the whole population and think about casuality. Even though its perhaps makes the article more fun.
~~~
And in other news .. apparently its now 3 days to there is a line on the Horizon, and sadly, the U2 Conference has been postponed :-(
Oscars
So the Academy Awards are over for another year. Saw this piece 'Critics and the Crowd', which I think gets paraded out every year, that the films that win oscars are usually not the highest grossing films [US], unless its the catergories of sound editing or special effects. Looking at the winners this year, I think its held true again. (Heath Ledger may be an exception).
Monday, February 23, 2009
e-friendship..
I really enjoyed reading this article about social-networking sites and their impact on our health. I did find it hard to take the article too seriously given the tone it began with - "is an x as good as a kiss", its quite an assumption to say that trading messages doesn't equate a thriving social life". I have little doubt that there is capital in trading emails, and being a part of an online community. I do tend to agree that with the internet, we can communicate with more people, over greater distances, more often, but at the same time we get into trouble when we attribute
a universally positive or negative value to these conversations.
a universally positive or negative value to these conversations.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
[.. happy birthday ... ]
I enjoyed this article about how Facebook impacted celebration of birthdays:
The author goes on to remind us that -
Birthdays used to be a measure of intimacy. Who remembered yours? Whose did you remember? The club was small, typically limited to family members, two high school pals, four college friends, two co-workers and one person you broke up with a long time ago.
The author goes on to remind us that -
Facebook is a giant non-stop birthday party. Every day, it reminds its members which of their "friends" are about to mark another year, which means that Facebook members are now likely to get more "Happy birthdays" in a single birthday than they've gotten in all their past years combined.Facebook isn't the only prompt though ... how many people get automatic messages from mailing lists they are on, saying "Happy Birthday" or have an intranet which tells people at work. I guess there's perhaps something in this, but at the same time I do find it nice that people remember (and tell wish me a happy birthday via sms, email, card, or facebook message).
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
A book meme ...
It must have been ages ago now but Ali tagged me in a book meme. I did think about posting it, but then I thought about the books sitting on my table, I haven't really been a novel person recently, even though the last book I read was a novel. So my take on the meme, is to write about the books without including titles. The first was about a minister who perhaps fell from grace, the one before that about why many people are leaving church; but not faith..
In terms of what next, I have Boneheffer's Ethics; the former governor of HK's book about where 'we' are heading now; and memo to the new US President about the challenges the US (and perhaps us) will face. Then there's a book about refugees from an African war. I guess this is a start on my hope for 2009, to read more.
In terms of what next, I have Boneheffer's Ethics; the former governor of HK's book about where 'we' are heading now; and memo to the new US President about the challenges the US (and perhaps us) will face. Then there's a book about refugees from an African war. I guess this is a start on my hope for 2009, to read more.
about I love you ...
I read this fascinating piece about the cultural differences between Americans and Japanese (my cousin tells me that Koreans are similar).
The article begins with the surprise the author had he found out a Japanese man had never told his wife that he loved her. Apparently hallmark-sentimentality is not common in Japan.
I wondered if there's something we can learn from that - that love is more than words, its an action.
The article begins with the surprise the author had he found out a Japanese man had never told his wife that he loved her. Apparently hallmark-sentimentality is not common in Japan.
I wondered if there's something we can learn from that - that love is more than words, its an action.
Monday, February 16, 2009
25 Random things...
No, I'm not succumbing and writing my very own list of 25 Random things. Rather I'm going to post a few random articles about "25 Random things". The first, is a direct reply, to the request to list 25 things.
I enjoyed this reminder, that while there are 25 things in each list, there is not necessarily much about it which is random, the 25 things we chose to say gives us a chance to paint our online persona a little more the way we want. And for those who are trying to work out 25 things to write, this article gives a few helpful pointers - such as recount a dramatic moment, like having your heart broken or getting arrested, but withhold details, forcing readers to ask for them in your "comments'' section. In case you didn't know, comments equate to status on Facebook even more than number of friends; and make one up.
Here is another piece, reminding me that there's really nothing new about the 25 things list, as these quizzes have been doing the e-rounds for years, and this is article is another response to the 25 things I [don't] want to know about you...
I enjoyed this reminder, that while there are 25 things in each list, there is not necessarily much about it which is random, the 25 things we chose to say gives us a chance to paint our online persona a little more the way we want. And for those who are trying to work out 25 things to write, this article gives a few helpful pointers - such as recount a dramatic moment, like having your heart broken or getting arrested, but withhold details, forcing readers to ask for them in your "comments'' section. In case you didn't know, comments equate to status on Facebook even more than number of friends; and make one up.
Here is another piece, reminding me that there's really nothing new about the 25 things list, as these quizzes have been doing the e-rounds for years, and this is article is another response to the 25 things I [don't] want to know about you...
Sunday, February 15, 2009
World's top 10 scariest airports
Interesting reading this (the pictures and descriptions are also amazing). I have to admit I didn't initially think I would have landed at any of the airports on the list - but no I have flown into and out of JFK (and on reflection, perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Who'd be an Ump...
Summer = discussions about the errors of umpires. According to this piece in the Herald today, the big argument is that you can't have a fair contest with umpires who make errors. I might have said this before, but I think that errors are part of sport. Its a human pursuit, the errors balance out. Little wonder some of the players aren't so keen on technology.
And on a different note here's a article about the power of sport. (touching on the story of Jelena Dokic and the South Africa Cricket team).There's another piece taking a different spin on the Jelena Dokic story, would Australians have embrace the Jelena so much if she came back as a Serbian or American.
++
On the tennis, rarely do you get to see two class acts (on and off the court) both on top of the game - hats of to Nadal he played a five-hour semi-final, and then the four hour final against Federer. It was amazing to watch.
On the Cricket,, New Zealand are exceptionally good at turning victory to defeat, and last night was almost a perfect example.
And on a different note here's a article about the power of sport. (touching on the story of Jelena Dokic and the South Africa Cricket team).There's another piece taking a different spin on the Jelena Dokic story, would Australians have embrace the Jelena so much if she came back as a Serbian or American.
++
On the tennis, rarely do you get to see two class acts (on and off the court) both on top of the game - hats of to Nadal he played a five-hour semi-final, and then the four hour final against Federer. It was amazing to watch.
On the Cricket,, New Zealand are exceptionally good at turning victory to defeat, and last night was almost a perfect example.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
U2 Conference - The Hype and The Feedback
So, I wrote last year some time about a conference being held this year about U2, their music, and their influence. The draft schedule of papers has been published here. The accepted papers cover a range of fascinating topics from the evolving performance of Bullet the Blue Sky live, including U2 in liturgy, and Bono's social activism and finding Jesus in the music of U2. Sound like a fascinating conference and I'm looking forward to reading more about the conference - hopefully some papers, and keynote addresses will be made available online once the conference is finished.
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Swell Season - Sydney Opera House [Jan 29, 2009]
Last night, we went and saw Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (The Swell Season) perform at the Sydney Opera House. (Glen is the lead singer of the Irish band The Frames), and with Marketa released an album, and starred in the wonderful film 'Once'. I was stunned when I first heard their CD during 2006, and its lovely seeing them being recognised (playing three sell-outs shows in the Opera House). There was such a connection between Glen, Marketa and the audience, created through their personality and the honestly within their songs; songs which resonating as shared experiences. Glen was quite talkative throughout the night engaging with the crowd; he seemed generally delighted (if a touch nervous) about playing the Opera House Concert Hall (fulfilling a 'dream" he had when the Frames were last in Australia during 2007). Glen comes across as a larrikan - promoting healthy disrespect for the venue (asking us to stand, and kick the seat in front of us); and a self-deprecating sense of humour
Even though I had heard a few of their shows from last year, there was still a few surprises - the Frames "God Bless Mom", Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat", and "because they were in Australia" a classic AC/DC song 'give me a bullet to bit on'. One of my favourite songs by The Frames 'Fitzcarraldo' sounds great with the addition of Marketa's piano part. I really loved Colm Mac Con Iomaire's piece "The Court of
the New Town" off his wonderful CD - The Hare's Corner.
My best recollection of the set list is (I think I've got all the songs, if not the right order):
Say it to me now // Lies // This Low // God Bless Mom // The Moon // I Have Loved You Wrong // When Your Minds Made Up // Falling Slowly // Famous Blue Raincoat // Leave // Astral Weeks // Low Rising // Happiness // Once /// The Hill // If You Want Me // The Court of the New Town // Fitzcarraldo // Broken-hearted-hoover-fixer-sucker-guy // give me a bullet to bite on // You Ain't Going Nowhere ///
It was a really awesome show, and the crowd gave them three [well-deserved] standing ovations. There are murmurs of a new album coming out later in the year (given the few new songs they played), but I recommend a wait-and-see approach.
Even though I had heard a few of their shows from last year, there was still a few surprises - the Frames "God Bless Mom", Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat", and "because they were in Australia" a classic AC/DC song 'give me a bullet to bit on'. One of my favourite songs by The Frames 'Fitzcarraldo' sounds great with the addition of Marketa's piano part. I really loved Colm Mac Con Iomaire's piece "The Court of
the New Town" off his wonderful CD - The Hare's Corner.
My best recollection of the set list is (I think I've got all the songs, if not the right order):
Say it to me now // Lies // This Low // God Bless Mom // The Moon // I Have Loved You Wrong // When Your Minds Made Up // Falling Slowly // Famous Blue Raincoat // Leave // Astral Weeks // Low Rising // Happiness // Once /// The Hill // If You Want Me // The Court of the New Town // Fitzcarraldo // Broken-hearted-hoover-fixer-sucker-guy // give me a bullet to bite on // You Ain't Going Nowhere ///
It was a really awesome show, and the crowd gave them three [well-deserved] standing ovations. There are murmurs of a new album coming out later in the year (given the few new songs they played), but I recommend a wait-and-see approach.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Get on your boots
So, the new U2 song has arrived.
First impressions: "What?" . It remains a little bit hard to make sense of the lyrics (even for Bono).
Music: it seems a little bit edgier than U2 are normally, evolution more than revolution. The question remains, is this the typical or atypical track for the album.
Listen for yourself at U2's website.. the new album is out during March.
First impressions: "What?" . It remains a little bit hard to make sense of the lyrics (even for Bono).
Music: it seems a little bit edgier than U2 are normally, evolution more than revolution. The question remains, is this the typical or atypical track for the album.
Listen for yourself at U2's website.. the new album is out during March.
Optmism and Obama
I've been meaning to take some time to write about the inauguration last week. You didn't have to look to far for articles warning us to not get too invested in Obama, because he will dissappoint us, warning to us to let go of the idealism, and hope we have invested in him. Rather than responding to him with yes we can, we should respond with not in your life. It goes without saying that yes, Obama is not the messiah, and he will fail, but at the same time, I can't help but feel that the hope and engagement in the political debate is a good thing.
While i was thinking about this, I saw a great piece by Richard Glover in the Sydney Morning Herald over the Australia Day weekend, which made the point that emotion matters. Pessimism is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and likewise hope and optimism are important emotions too, hope plays a role in change. Its hope that drives many to make resolutions at the end of each year, in this sense hope is energising, and enables us to begin. Realism doesn't have the same motivating force (though perhaps it serves a function in tempering hope).
Obama might make a difference, perhaps, because many are inspired and will work with the administration towards change, change will be a tough road, but each journey begins with one step.
~~~
And on a slightly different tact - it was interesting to read a few comments from people (including the Australian of the Year) suggesting a debate around when Australia Day should be held. A debate that gave people opportunities to discuss the meaning and significance of the day. Even, if we keep Australia Day as the 26th, perhaps we can find ways to make the day more culturally sensitive.
While i was thinking about this, I saw a great piece by Richard Glover in the Sydney Morning Herald over the Australia Day weekend, which made the point that emotion matters. Pessimism is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and likewise hope and optimism are important emotions too, hope plays a role in change. Its hope that drives many to make resolutions at the end of each year, in this sense hope is energising, and enables us to begin. Realism doesn't have the same motivating force (though perhaps it serves a function in tempering hope).
Obama might make a difference, perhaps, because many are inspired and will work with the administration towards change, change will be a tough road, but each journey begins with one step.
~~~
And on a slightly different tact - it was interesting to read a few comments from people (including the Australian of the Year) suggesting a debate around when Australia Day should be held. A debate that gave people opportunities to discuss the meaning and significance of the day. Even, if we keep Australia Day as the 26th, perhaps we can find ways to make the day more culturally sensitive.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Inauguration Prayer (Rick Warren)
"Almighty God, our Father:
Everything we see, and everything we can't see, exists because of you alone. It all comes from you, it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory. History is your story.
The Scripture tells us, "Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one". And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
Now today we rejoice not only in America's peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African American president of the United States.
We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where a son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.
Give to our new president, Barack Obama,
the wisdom to lead us with humility,
the courage to lead us with integrity,
the compassion to lead us with generosity.
Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.
Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans--united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.
When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you--forgive us.
When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone--forgive us.
When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve--forgive us.
And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes—even when we differ. Help us to share, to serve, and to seek the common good of all.
May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.
And may we never forget that one day, all nations--and all people--will stand accountable before you.
We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life—Yeshua, 'Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus—who taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen."
[Text via: Between Two Worlds]
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 (NKJV)
Everything we see, and everything we can't see, exists because of you alone. It all comes from you, it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory. History is your story.
The Scripture tells us, "Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one". And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
Now today we rejoice not only in America's peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African American president of the United States.
We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where a son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.
Give to our new president, Barack Obama,
the wisdom to lead us with humility,
the courage to lead us with integrity,
the compassion to lead us with generosity.
Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.
Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans--united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.
When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you--forgive us.
When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone--forgive us.
When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve--forgive us.
And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes—even when we differ. Help us to share, to serve, and to seek the common good of all.
May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.
And may we never forget that one day, all nations--and all people--will stand accountable before you.
We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life—Yeshua, 'Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus—who taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen."
[Text via: Between Two Worlds]
~~~~
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 (NKJV)
Friday, January 16, 2009
[new] line on the horizon..
Perhaps old news now.. but here's part of the announcement via U2.com.
"Get On Your Boots, the first single from U2’s new album No Line On The Horizon, will be released as a digital download on February 15th with a physical format to follow on February 16 through Mercury/Universal.Produced by Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Steve Lillywhite, sessions for No Line On The Horizon began in Fez, Morocco, and continued at the band’s Dublin studio, New York’s Platinum Sound Recording Studios, and London's Olympic Studios ... the album will be released on March 2nd (March 3rd in the US)."
~~~~
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Friday, January 09, 2009
A Literary Meme.
[via - Talking to Myself]
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE
4) Reprint this list in your blog. The premise of this exercise is that the (American) National Endowment for the Arts apparently believes that the average American has only read 6 books from the list below.
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee.
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte.
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy.
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare. (I have read a few of the Sonnets, and would like to read more...)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald.
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens.
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams.
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh.
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy.
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens.
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis ( is this excluding The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe?)
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen.
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis.
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown.
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins.
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding.
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan. (Seen the movie, but haven't read the book..)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen.
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens.
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy.
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (I've read some of his books, but not this one...)
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville.
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker.
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett.
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce.
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray.
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens.
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton.
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad. (On my shelf to read..)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery.
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams. (I've seen the film, but haven't read the book...)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare. (A lesser known play, not included with the complete works..?)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo.
-- I tag ... those who notice ... and want to do this.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or mark in a different color) the books you LOVE
4) Reprint this list in your blog. The premise of this exercise is that the (American) National Endowment for the Arts apparently believes that the average American has only read 6 books from the list below.
~~~~
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee.
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte.
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy.
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare. (I have read a few of the Sonnets, and would like to read more...)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald.
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens.
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams.
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh.
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy.
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens.
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis ( is this excluding The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe?)
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen.
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis.
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown.
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins.
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding.
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan. (Seen the movie, but haven't read the book..)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen.
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens.
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy.
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (I've read some of his books, but not this one...)
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville.
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker.
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett.
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce.
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray.
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens.
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton.
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad. (On my shelf to read..)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery.
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams. (I've seen the film, but haven't read the book...)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare. (A lesser known play, not included with the complete works..?)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo.
-- I tag ... those who notice ... and want to do this.
Friday, January 02, 2009
Some Quotations..
I found a book of quotes from Winston Churchill, and there were a few which really stood out, and one I hesitate in sharing..
:: Golf is an ineffectual attempt to direct an uncontrollable sphere into an inaccessible hole with instruments ill adapted to the purpose.
:: It would be a great reform in politics if wisdom could be made to spread as easily and rapidly as folly
:: If we open a quarrel between the past and the present we shall find we have lost the present.
And the one I hesitated to share (because perhaps because it made me want to read more about Churchill, and hits too close to home ;-) )
:: It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations...the quotations engraved on the mind give you good thoughts. They make you anxious to read the authors to look for more
:: Golf is an ineffectual attempt to direct an uncontrollable sphere into an inaccessible hole with instruments ill adapted to the purpose.
:: It would be a great reform in politics if wisdom could be made to spread as easily and rapidly as folly
:: If we open a quarrel between the past and the present we shall find we have lost the present.
And the one I hesitated to share (because perhaps because it made me want to read more about Churchill, and hits too close to home ;-) )
:: It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations...the quotations engraved on the mind give you good thoughts. They make you anxious to read the authors to look for more
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Bad times Bigger Crowds..
Was reading an article in the New York Times, about how "since September, pastors [across the US] say they have seen such a burst of new interest that they find themselves contending with powerful conflicting emotions — deep empathy and quiet excitement — as they re-encounter an old piece of religious lore:Bad times are good for evangelical churches". The result of this, was that over the Christmas period the lessons from the pulpit were about the theological meaning of the financial crisis (or as I read on the sign of a local church in Sydney - God's Answer to the Financial Crisis - from 2 Cor 8-9).
And one of the more interesting points in the article was how some Church historians believe "the big Christian revivals of the 19th century were touched off by economic panics. [In] "Praying for Recession: The Business Cycle and Protestant Religiosity in the United States", David Beckworth, an assistant professor of economics at Texas State University, looked at long-established trend lines showing the growth of evangelical congregations and the decline of mainline churches and found a more telling detail: During each recession cycle between 1968 and 2004, the rate of growth in evangelical churches jumped by 50 percent. By comparison, mainline Protestant churches continued their decline during recessions, though a bit more slowly."
There's something in the fact that when times are tough people look for God; and in prosperity people perhaps turn away. Something for our churches to be mindful of I guess, thinking about how we can serve our community in the current financial crisis (and beyond).
And one of the more interesting points in the article was how some Church historians believe "the big Christian revivals of the 19th century were touched off by economic panics. [In] "Praying for Recession: The Business Cycle and Protestant Religiosity in the United States", David Beckworth, an assistant professor of economics at Texas State University, looked at long-established trend lines showing the growth of evangelical congregations and the decline of mainline churches and found a more telling detail: During each recession cycle between 1968 and 2004, the rate of growth in evangelical churches jumped by 50 percent. By comparison, mainline Protestant churches continued their decline during recessions, though a bit more slowly."
There's something in the fact that when times are tough people look for God; and in prosperity people perhaps turn away. Something for our churches to be mindful of I guess, thinking about how we can serve our community in the current financial crisis (and beyond).
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