"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you really love (and strikethrough the ones you hate!).
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
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 (Good Lord, it's boring...)
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (Several chunks, never the full works)
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 (Sigh, had to read it at school, would have loved it at my leisure)
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 (Creepy thing.)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
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 (Cliché.)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - 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 (Good heavens. The descriptions are terrible.)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel (Huh. Completely messed up.)
52 Dune - Frank Herbert (Sill have a few of the saga to read.)
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 (I prefer Neil Gaiman's dark, dark version.)
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
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville (Seriously - so boring. Forced myself to finish it.)
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker (Delightful read.)
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
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (Much happiness throughout the reading of this 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
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

To those who told me The Golden Compass was a bad movie - damn you, for making me wait until now to see the movie.

I was absolutely enthralled by it. It's not perfect, yes, but it's a beautiful adaptation of one of my favorite books. There's no denying the absolute wonder of it, and the patent love for Pullman's work.

The soundtrack is a joy. Especially the last music, Lyra. It might fit Lyra Belacqua more at the end of the trilogy than right now, but nevertheless... Gosh, that voice is haunting.

Now I can't wait for The Subtle Knife.

Bed time now.

Recovered - as in, not sick anymore, yay! Arnaldo has joined the graveyard of long-gone illnesses.

But I'm studying frantically. So, yeah, if anyone is wondering (again) where the hell have I vanished to, it probably means I'm burying my nose on study material.

Portugal is off the Euro. Onward, Germany. You might be at blame for THIS game, but I'm rooting for you, I admit ^_^


Ohhh, how I long for the 9th of July to arrive.

And how I long for August's Azores vacations. ♥


Off to watch some Battlestar Galactica and eat cherries before I crash. On the upper hand, I don't work tomorrow. Ahhh, waking up a little later than usual, joy.

Isn't my stepfather the selfish person?

The moment he came home, he turned the fan that was giving me some fresh air toward his place - without a single word to ask if it was alright. At the time, I chose not to care too much, cause I wasn't that hot anyway.

Now he's out, and left the fan on and toward his place. Where, huh, there's no one right now. And I'm still here, puffing in the heat.


I'm not even asking he thinks of me (must be some bloody effort he can't do). But hey? Fan cycling fresh air to an empty area? Hallo? Please don't waste power?



But hey. The Netherlands are winning their game with France. Hehe. *Giggle*

If any of you people are wondering where the hell have I vanished to...

Little, little time. Free time, I mean. I get plenty of time for OMGIMPORTANTSTUFF, but it's hard to wedge some of my free time into the internet.

I've been suffering from allergies. Constant coughing, but fortunately that is getting better by now.

And yet another reason - since Monday, I've been having sharp pains on my ribs, two inches below my right armpit. Today, I went to the doctor and was diagnosed an on a lymph node. It's nothing serious (hopefully!), but it seriously hinders me. Breathing hurts, coughing/sneezing/whatever inflicts major pain, overall moving can make me want to pass out till the pain ebbs. I'm on meds, now, but it'll probably get a bit worse before it gets better. Meanwhile, I'll confine myself to my bed as long as it's possible - it's the position that hurts the least.

Just went to ask mom - the node needs a name. The first pick was Arnaldinho, but that was too sweet and an invitation for it to remain around for ages. So it now responds to Arnaldo.

Nothing is bad, though - obviously. Spent a great weekend with Tiago (worked a lot as well, so it was a good work/fun ratio), and he went with me to the hospital today. Thanks, love. Your support means everything to me.

Portugal won today, against the Czech Republic. One step ahead on the Euro Football Championship, yay! (I just wish I hadn't jumped on the second Portuguese goal - Arnaldo made me cringe and whine.)

And that will be all for now. Please resume what you were doing previously, while I go ease my bruised, battered shell of a body on vodka chocolate.

Because I've been reading back on those fics, and the muses demand I write more.


Title: Beg the question
Theme: Sandstorm High
Rating: G
Credits: Cain belongs to mechaphilia. After 10 bucks says he's gay.

( Beg the question )

Yesterday, in Portugal, it was Mother's Day. So I spent the day with mine, my little pseudo-niece Margarida (who is two and a bit, and cute as a button), Margarida's mom Diana and Diana's mom Lina.

A girls-only day. We went to have lunch and then dropped at the beach for a half hour.

A few months ago, when Margarida came to our place, I gave her a bath. Yesterday, I learned that apparently I'm the one who taught her to turn her head upwards when shampooing, so that she doesn't get shampoo on her eyes. THE KID SAID SO. I'm so proud. So beaming. Ain't she bright as a lark? ^^;

She was delighted to see us, and so. Very. Cite. Two pigtails, rosy cheeks and big eyes. Now that is cute overload.

And at the beach? How much I laughed. She's adorable to see with her body, playing in the sand with Mom.

I'm not being exactly coherent about it... But you get the idea. She's an adorable little girl, and growing everyday. Photos later.

...If Tiago doesn't take care, I'll end up pairing her with his godson Pedrinho...

Last night, as stated on the previous post, I went to watch the Quidam show of Cirque du Soleil.

Dazed - I think that is the word that best described me as I left the show.

The area itself is very well kept and organized. Great merchandising (and expensive to fit), matching decoration, competent, aimable staff, good parking space, restrooms in impeccable conditions... All making worth the price of the show.

Which leads us to the show itself.

...Oh dear.

I'm still trying to sort my thoughts about it. But I'm in a daze of beautiful shining wonderfulness about it. Again, shall report later on each particular number - when I have the program with me and can list my opinions about each number.

But oh boy. The human body can do such things... It isn't cirque. It's sheer Art.

Cirque du Soleil (Quidam) tonight.

Will report on its shiningness later.

Murder Ballads - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Frankie - I suppose you read this (if only once in a while). I realized I never told you about Murder Ballads by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Nor you, neither the rest of those who read this journal - but you, of all people, should find some entertainment in those tales of bloody, crazed murder.

Take my favorite, for example: The Curse of Millhaven tells us about yellow-haired Loretta, a 14-year-old girl who thinks 'all God's children got to die', and thus proceeds to make true that sentiment. Or O'Malley's Bar: in a Tarantino-like scene, a guy kills sequentially all the customers of a bar, taking some measure of sexual satisfaction in the process. Or even Death Is Not The End, starring several guest artists, spiced with a very dark humor.

Murder Ballads is an album with 10 songs (somehow, I have the Ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltraine included in there but have yet to find it listed as part of the album...) produced in 1996, by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, in collaboration with several guest artists. The songs' protagonists are real or fictional characters of murder stories, and most of the songs' points of view are those of the murderers.

And who found it for me? Tiago. By the way, his favorite his O'Malley's Bar. We reckon that currently I'm more of a fan of Murder Ballads than he is - and boy, do we like them ^^


Bram Stoker's Dracula Original Soundtrack - Various Artists

I have these on my cellphone music folder, but since the labels aren't correct, I'm having trouble listening to the whole album in sequence. However, thanks to the marvels of music organization through Windows Media Player, soon enough I'll have it all filed under the correct names.

The soundtrack captures the film ambiance in a wonderful way, with all the heart-wrenching sorrow and longing that is felt throughout the songs. Listening to the album, you can play back the film in your head, due to the very emotionally graphic nature of the songs themselves.


Death's Design - Diabolical Masquerade

Tiago (once again, the source of this album) tells me this album is quite rare. And what a pity - for it deserves to be heard. It is composed of 61 songs, most less than a minute long. Put together, they form 20 movements comprised of several musical styles - and while they are radically different of each other, the composition is quite the beautiful, harmonious thing. The song titles are appealing and suggestive, and some reveal the wholesome nature of the album - several musics are labeled 'XYZ Theme part 123', going back to chords played in previous songs.

All in all, this album shows how to achieve good quality music with harmony through several styles. It's worth it.