Saturday, August 30, 2008

NEA's Big Read

When I first read through this list, I thought I had only read 1 or 2. After highlighting what I have read (17), I am amazed that I have read that many. "Classics" are really not my kind of reading material. Other than the Bible (my favorite book), To Kill A Mocking Bird is one of my favorite all time books. As much as I don't like the NEA, I like what they are trying to do here.

The Big Read is an NEA program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six.

*Look at the list and bold those we have read.
*Italicize those we intend to read.
*Underline the books we LOVE .

Share this list in your blog, too, if you like.

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
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’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
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 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
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
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
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
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
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

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Bow Strings Tote


This purse was a quick and easy project. This isn't a normal choice of fabric for me but when I saw these I had to have it :)


Monday, March 10, 2008

Winter Storm March 2008 or the view from our back deck



Beautiful, isn't it? I love snow and wish that cowtown would receive more snow than we get but the majority of people here would be devastated. Gary and I love cross country skiing but there isn't enough snow in central Ohio in winter.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

White Squirrel



This little guy has been hanging around the bird feeders for several weeks. If the window had been open, I could have reached out and touched him.

Monday, January 14, 2008


This is my 400 yard skein. i'm really pleased with how it turned out. I should have enough for a pair of socks. I will keep the picture to enjoy because I tried dying my skein and accidently used the wrong dye (the one for cotton instead of wool). The yellow and rose turned out beautiful but the blue was a streaky purple/black/red that was really ugly. I then tried to overdye with lapis and it didn't take. I then tried a plum and it took the dye. I'll have a picture of it after I have knitted my first sock. Hopefully, it will be pretty enough to post.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Handspun BFL

This is a 30 yard sample of the first handspun that I think will be good enough for a pair of socks. I have one full bobbin and am working on my second bobbin for a nice 2 ply sock yarn.
Then I'll dye it. I'm thinking purples and blue's but I always use the same colors so maybe I will get out of my comfort zone and go for something completely different, but what? And now I realize that I accidently deleted the picture that I had for this post :( When I get my full skein plyed, I'll add the picture.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

(Warning: Extreme political incorrectness follows.)

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

BILL O'REILLY: The folks don't want the chicken crossing the road. It's clear to any clear-thinking American who thinks clearly and doesn't obfuscate or bloviate. But the secular Left, who continue their war on Chickenmas, want to let all sorts of chickens cross the road, but the folks just won't stand for it. Now stop drinking the Kool-Aid.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die. In the rain. Alone.

JAMES JOYCE: Slush. Chicken thought "cold" as he stood on the curb, a vehicle roaring past like a lion, sweltering, savanna radiating heat, acacia trees shimmering in the distance. Picnic. Tree. Pie crumbs. Ants. She was lovely, in her own pert way, doctor's office steps yawning, maw gaping, before him, remembering the dreaded meeting. Bad news. Serious look furrows his brow, his hairy eyebrows coming together. Her hair tossed casually aside, giving him that impertinent look as she stepped off the curb. Oh, yes, Chicken remembered, I need to cross the road. But why?

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either against us or for us. There is no middle ground here. The last thing we need is a chicken with nookyular weapons crossing the road.

PAT BUCHANAN: Chickens shouldn't cross the road! Our chickens should stay on our side of the road, and their chickens should stay on their side of the road. Important American chicken jobs are being stolen by their chickens.

MIKE HUCKABEE: Chicken!? Where? Let me shoot it!

HILLARY CLINTON: At first I supported the chicken crossing the road, and would have voted for it, but then I realized that it's probably, you know, not a good idea for the chicken to cross the road. I mean, I understand why Gov. Spitzer wants to legalize having chickens cross the road, but upon further evaluation, I think, you know ... um, that chickens should be free to choose to cross the road, but that ... um, next question.

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of chicken?
AL GORE: I invented the chicken!

JOHN MCCAIN: I guess everyone had a pretty good time when the chicken crossed the road. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time.

JOHN EDWARDS: The chicken wants to cross the road, but the special interests on the other side of the road are determined not to let him. They want to rob the chicken of his dream of a simple middle-class life, but I'm going to fight the special interests. I'm going to take them on, because I identify with the common chicken. Just give me a minute.

BARAK OBAMA: I'm sure, if we all just work together, that we can, as a people, help the chicken cross the road. It's time to end the cynical politics of the past that says chickens should stay on their side of the road. It's time to take a principled stand for what we believe.

RUDY GUILIANI: On 9/11 I was well aware of a lot of chickens wanting to cross the road, and because of my steadfast leadership, those chickens were able to cross the road safely. And at Ground Zero, which I visited, you know, a bunch of times, in between attending Yankees games, I continued to provide the leadership to allow the chickens to cross the road. (I just didn't tell my then-present wife about it.)

DENNIS KUCINICH: They just want you to believe the chicken wants to cross the road. I know in fact that there is no chicken. But a UFO abducted it, if there was a chicken, that is.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2007, the idea for which I stole from Apple. It will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra... (Unknown Error 231)

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Bea Ellis Knitwear and Selbuvotter


I modified the mittens to accommodate my short hands and because I thought the palm side was just too busy, I changed it to match the fleck pattern from the top of the hat. A fun and easy knit.

CA Swap


Deb/AL was my gifter. I collect tea pots and tea cups and I was delighted the moment I saw these cups. They are gorgeous and are in a prominent place in my china cabinet. I also received a couple of boxes of fantastic tea that I forgot to put in the picture. I love jewel tones and fleece artist - guess what I am knitting next?? The roving is to die for - I'll be spinning away while I watch the BCS Championship Game. Go Bucks!! Thank you Deb :)


Finished - Central Park Hoodie











Love my hoodie! I am pleased with the fit, pattern was well written and easy for a intermediate knitter like me. When I make my second hoodie, I will add 3-4 inches in length. I was actually able to knit this sweater in 2 weeks.