Sarah's 50

This is a great idea - I have so many good intentions but work always gets in the way. This way, I'll be able to keep track and feel a sense of achievement.

1st book: Mary Renault The Persian Boy

2nd Irene Nemirovsky Suite Francaise - including some of the appendices!

Hi, I also loved Suite Francaise!

It looks like you're trying to use the touchstone feature. Use brackets ( like this: ) instead of parentheses, and you'll be in good shape!

Sometimes the touchstones don't load correctly, which unfortunately is happening to me right now :-(

Sarah, the brackets are the more square ones next to the P button. Good luck!

I just finished Renault's The Persian Boy myself. What did you think of it?

>4 sarahelliot:: sarahelliot, you wrote "I thought I was using brackets!"

I apologize for my message #3 which confused the issue more. I tried to enter the "more square ones next to the P button," as paghababian said, but LT did something else. Complicating this discussion is English language usage. In the UK "brackets" are synonymous with "parentheses," so this may have made my comment all the more mysterious!

I thought it was great. Mary Renault writes very accurate (at least according to extant historical accounts) and very compelling stories. By the end of the book, I was thoroughly fascinated by the figure of Alexander and want to find out more.

What did you think?

3rd book - Alexander McCall Smith, The Kalahari Typing School for Men.

4th book - Jerome K Jerome Three men in a boat

I found the first 2/3rds of the book compelling but it fell off for me a bit toward the end. It seemed to start dragging - I'm not sure what it was. Renault is a brilliant writer, but I think I enjoyed Fire from Heaven more.

5th book - Elizabeth von Arnim Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther

6th book - Theodore Dreiser Sister Carrie. I so desperately felt for Hurstwood.

7th book - Rick Riordan Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. One of the girls in my Yr 7 class lent this to me - it's based in 21st century America in which the Olympian gods, and monsters, exist. I may use some extracts in my teaching.

Did you read the first one The Lightning Thief? It was good two, and there's a third one now too Titan's Curse. I really enjoyed them all, I love mythology no matter what time period it's in!

Can I ask why you felt so desperately for Hurstwood in Sister Carrie? He put himself in his position. It was sad, but totally his fault. I like the book a lot, and I am always interested in other people's perspectives.

Reply to message 14: I did, yes. They're v. good - I was impressed by his 'modernisation' of the various monsters and gods.

Reply to message 15: - because Carrie just didn't care about him. Her star kept rising as his fell, and she hardly spared a thought for him. It was his fault, but it was a bad decision and I wish he'd had a second chance.

8th book: The British Museum is Falling Down, by David Lodge. Interesting insight into Catholic views on contraception.

9th book: The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis. My first Lindsey Davis book and I really liked it!

10th book: A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian, Marina Lewycka

11th book: The Titan's Curse Rick Riordan

12th book: The definitive book of body language Allan Pease

13th book: The Men Who Stare At Goats Jon Ronson. I really like Jon Ronson's writing style - very easy to read. His subject matter is rather strange though, but, through his eyes, utterly plausible.

14th book: Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks. Very, very good. But the main reviewer is correct in calling it 'harrowing'.

15th book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. Not quite as good as I was hoping.

16th book: P.G. Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit. How I love Jeeves and Wooster! This book was a delight and had me stifling my laughter while reading it on the tube.

17th book: The Kite-runner Khaled Hosseini. One of the best books I've read for a long time.

18th book: Funeral Games Mary Renault. Not quite as good as the first two in the trilogy, but that may be because the historical situation was rather complicated and messy.

19th book: Keeping the world away Margaret Forster. Lovely, as are all Margaret Forster's books, and persuaded me to buy my first piece of art.

20th book: Blink Malcolm Gladwell. Very interesting and very readable. About the value of one's gut instinct and reasons why it might go awry.

21st book: The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon

22nd book: The Timewaster Diaries Robin Cooper.

Very funny.

23rd book: Joy in the Morning P.G.Wodehouse.

24th book: Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. Hmm - the reviewers claimed this book was 'preposterously funny' but I only laughed twice during the whole book. What did I do wrong?

I liked Lucky Jim but didn't think it was laugh-out-loud funny. The Timewaster Diaries looks entertaining.

That's good to know! The Timewaster Diaries are very funny - I did laugh quite a lot while reading that one.

25th book (I think this means I'm on track for the 50, but only just): The Island Victoria Hislop. I loved this after initial doubts over the writing style. I was really drawn into the plot, setting and characters.

26th book: The House at Riverton, Kate Morton. Very good - superb plot and characterisation.

27th book: Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell. Yes, I was prompted to read this by the TV series, but enjoyed it even more. I love Miss Matty!

28th book: Mother tongue, Bill Bryson. Very interesting. If only I could remember all the things I've been learning from it. And apparently split infinitives are OK. The mistranslation and swearing chapters are v. funny.

29th book: My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier. My first Daphne Du Maurier book and it was superb. My view of cousin Rachel, and Philip Ashley, kept shifting throughout the book as more information was revealed. Beautiful writing.

30th book: The Uncommon Reader, by Alan Bennet. Excellent, and a great book for enthusiastic readers about the sheer joy of reading.

31st book: Elizabeth and her German garden by Elizabeth Von Armin. Beautiful, but seemed to end suddenly. Some lovely and spot-on observations about life.

I've just started reading Elizabeth Von Arnim books in the last year, and they're great. Haven't read Elizabeth and Her German Garden yet, though.

Have you read 'The Enchanted Summer'? I think that is my favourite so far.

32nd book: Antonia Fraser, Love and Louis XIV. Very interesting, and a very accessible read too. Will be reading her other books asap.

33rd book: Q & A, Vikas Swarup. A very compelling read. Loved the Radio 4 reading too.

I haven't read The Enchanted Summer yet; I'll have to look for that one. Antonia Fraser is great, too. One of my favorites of hers is Faith and Treason. It's pretty gory, but good.

34th book: Lark Rise by Flora Thompson. This is a trilogy but I'm going to treat it as three separate books because I'm not sure I'm going to make 50 books otherwise. A lovely, lovely book. I read it when I was 13 and have come back to it now that it has been adapted for television so I can see which bits they've used.

35th book: Over to Candleford, Flora Thompson. I'm having such a great time reading it in my lunch break!

36th book: Candleford Green, Flora Thompson. If only there was another one - I want to know more about Laura!

36-and-a-half book: James Joyce A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I didn't finish it - but I wrestled with it for over halfway so I've included it as a 'half' book. I really wanted to like it - one of my friends raves about it, but I've not been in the frame of mind to appreciate pages and pages of moral and aesthetic philosophy. Maybe I will be later in the year when my teaching load is reduced and I have more time to think. The one thing I did like about it was that there was a link to Flora Thompson in its quotation of the popular rhyme of the 1890's: 'Lottie Collins lost her drawers; Won't you kindly lend her yours?'. As well as reading 50 books, I may now try to find links between them.

You may want to try Joyce as an audiobook. I realize that is sort of cheating, but once you hear the music of the language, it's a lot easier to read. Also, an Irish author recommended to me that you just keep going, don't let yourself get stuck, and skip over bits if you need to the first time through.

That sounds like useful advice - I may well do that. Thanks!

I saw your comments on Joyce, and just had to ask, do you like Henry James? I've discovered in the last few years that nearly every English teacher or major or reader I know tends to love one, and hate the other. As for me, I can barely make it through any of Joyce's works, but I have to ration myself on James. Just curious....

I've read Daisy Miller, and liked it, but that's it. What would you recommend I read next?

37th book: Aristophanes Ecclesiazousae. I feel like I'm cheating here, because this was a play I've been teaching this year rather than one I've read simply for pleasure. But I hadn't read it before, and I have enjoyed it, so I'm going to add it.

38th book: David Bomford and Ashok Roy, Colour. A superb National Gallery pocket guide. Very interesting, particularly on Seurat's use of complementary colours in his pointillist technique.

39th book: Jon Ronson, What I Do. Hilarious, even though I read many of his anecdotes in his Guardian column.

I think his short work "Beast in the Jungle" is a great choice, but it's only about as long as "Daisy Miller". Of the long works, many of them work with the same themes, and all are beautifully written (well, based on what I've read I'm assuming). Portrait of a Lady is a long one and a time commitment, but it's a wonderful read. Plus, you feel as if you've accomplished something when you finish! You might just try his collected short stories also, which are all unique and no longer than "Daisy Miller". Let me know what you think if you venture into the longer ones especially!

40th book: Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene. The first Graham Greene book I've read, and I'm going to read many more now. I loved his descriptions, e.g. 'the waves were continually pulled up along the beach and pulled back as though someone were making a bed and couldn't get the sheet to lie properly'. And Henry Pulling is a great character, with his dahlias and unspoken, unrealised fondness for Miss Keene.

41st book: 'Dinner with Persephone, Patricia Storace. I've just been to Athens so wanted to read a book based there, and the Lonely Planet guide recommended this. It was good, with some interesting insights into Greek patriotism and religion, but was occasionally a little pretentious in its philosophical and poetic flights of fancy.

42nd book: Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer. A lovely read, with the most fantastic language:

'he would speedily have cut the fellow's comb for him; for although he was not yet in high force he had no doubt of his ability to draw the elegant Mr Stacy Calverleigh's cork, besides darkening both his daylights, before tipping him a settler.'

43rd book: Gone with the Windsors, Laurie Graham. Very witty and imaginative, and Maybell is a very endearing character in her patience and generosity towards Wally (though I was less impressed by her dismissal of a pregnant servant.

I'm not going to reach 50 by tomorrow, but 43 isn't too bad. Where I went wrong was in re-reading books I'd read before, e.g. Gwen Raverat Period Piece, rather than cracking on with my new books. My new aim is to reach 100 by May 7th 2009.

Squeezed one last one in, number 44: Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier. Great plot, wonderfully evoked 18th century London, but I'd have liked a little more on William Blake (especially since Chevalier seems to have done quite a bit of research).

45th book: Rosamond Lehmann, The Echoing Grove. I've read a few books by her - the Invitation to the Waltz - was my favourite but I just couldn't get into this one. I needed a more secure grasp on events - this book is almost entirely thoughts and conversations. I also had little patience for the infidelity of Rickie and the tolerance of it by his women. And the long, meandering sentences with erratic punctuation exhausted me! But I really wanted to like it so I did persevere all the way to the end.

46th book: Katharine McMahon The Rose of Sebastopol. This author went to the school I teach at so I was interested to see the reference to one of our two school songs 'Where ere you walk'. I really enjoyed the story and the evocation of the Crimean War, but the ending was a little abrupt for me. After over half the book being dedicated to the search, I'd have liked more on Mariella's response to the find (trying to avoid a spoiler here!).

47th book: Aristophanes Frogs. I've read this to teach to my yr 12 group and it may now be one of my favourite Aristophanes works - after Lysistrata. Excellent poetic competition between Aeschylus and Euripides and amusing characterisation of Dionysos and Xanthias.

48th book: Provincial Daughter, by R.M.Dashwood. The blurb on the backcover says 'Way before that city slicker, Bridget Jones, there was the Provincial Daughter.' This is a hundred times better and had me laughing once again on the train, causing fellow passengers to look at me strangely.

49th book: Longus, Daphnis and Chloe. A Greek novel written in the 2nd/3rd century AD and utterly charming, depicting the love between Daphnis and Chloe and all the obstacles - including sexual ignorance - that stand in their way.

50th book: How to Talk to Anyone: 92 little tricks for big success in relationships, Leil Lowndes. This looked interesting for making small talk less torturous and also helping with dealing with business contacts. However, Leil is an American writer and many of her tips just won't work for me as an English woman! A good example are tips 15 and 16 - when asked you're from, don't just give the city but give interesting details about it, e.g. 'Washing D.C. - designed, you know, by the same city planner who designed Paris' and in a similar vein, when asked what you do, don't just say 'lawyer', but 'I'm a lawyer. Our firm specialises in employment law. In fact, I'm now involved in a case where a company actually discharged a woman for taking extra maternity leave that was a medical necessity'. The English just don't do this, and if you did, they would think you were way too friendly!

So, as an antidote, I'm reading my Book 51 - Watching the English: the hidden rules of English behaviour, by Kate Fox to see which of the tips I can use without freaking people out.

It's taken me a month to get to book 52, because I have 4 books on the go at once.

Book 52: The first I've finished (because it is a children's book) is The Luck of Troy by Roger Lancelyn Green. Given to me by a colleague retiring from Classics teaching, I read this to see if it would be a good recommendation for my younger classes. It tells the story of the fall of Troy from the perspective of Nico, Helen's son (as far as I know, in mythology she only had a daughter) and is well-written with an amusing anti-Paris slant.

53rd book: The Case for Christ by Lee Stroebel. An excellent examination of biblical and non-biblical accounts of Jesus in which Strobel interviews key academics and examines alternative theories to Jesus' resurrection and identity as the Son of God, coming to the conclusion that the biblical accounts are historically accurate and can be believed completely.

54th book: Euripides' Medea. One of his best tragedies and I genuinely don't know whether I sympathise more/less with child-killing Medea or wife-abandoning Jason.

55th book (I wanted to count this as 8 books given that George Eliot divided it into 8 books, but my husband protested): Middlemarch, George Eliot. A superb book, though it took me 200 pages to get used to the pace which is rather slower than Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell. I love Dorothea and Lydgate and became very frustrated with Rosamund - why did she behave so badly! The way in which Eliot kept all the different threads spinning was remarkable. Some splendid phrases too - Lydgate's reaction to Rosmund's music being described as that of an 'emotional elephant'. I'm not sure whether to watch the film - it might spoil my imagined vision of Middlemarch, but then again, it might be like the BBC Pride and Prejudice and be utterly wonderful.

56th book: Blog on blog off, various authors. A collection of literary blogs from www.fifthestate.co.uk which I was given as a book swap at the Innocent Smoothies Village Fete. Some great stories in there: 'Having a wonderful time' by J.G.Ballard, 'Boas, Cannibalism' by R.Delson (very disturbing), 'Maynard and Jennica' by R. Delson.'

57th book: The diary of a nobody by George Grossmith. Very, very funny, anticipating Wodehouse's type of humour. I loved Pooter's discovery of enamel paint, his painting the bath red, and discovery that it came off when he was in the water, resulting in him resembling Marat in David's painting.

58th book: What you will by Katherine Bucknell. I received this in a blind book swap and it is eerily close to my tastes - about Classicists and ancient art (I am a Classics teacher and teach ancient art) as well as being a very interesting novel about marriage and relationships.

59th book: 84 Charing Cross Road Helene Hanff. A new favourite in its relish of books and of London.

60th book: I am a cat by Natsume Soseki. Many of the reviews of this book have focused on the difficulty of reading this book cover to cover (it was originally published in installments) so I'm proud that I managed it, even if it took over a month. I can see why the blurb proclaimed it 'one of the most original and unforgettable works in Japanese literature', as the writer blends learned references to Plato and various Japanese poets with amusing descriptions of the cat's attempts at exercise. I have to admit that I preferred the passages focusing on the cat's daily life to the long conversations between Sneaze and his friends (particularly at the end) and I loved the cat's attitude to humans, enjoying especially the comparison between school teachers and monkeys, featuring this statement; 'had school teachers sufficient spunk to resign, they would not originally have allowed themselves to sink into the slavery of teaching'. I wish I'd marked more pages containing such equally amusing witticisms.

Now I'm going to read a significantly shorter book to make up for the month spend on one book!

61st book: Three men on the bummel, Jerome K. Jerome. Another splendidly funny book by Jerome K. Jerome about another expedition by himself, Harris and George on bike through Germany, with lots of interesting thoughts on the German people!

62nd book: Pocket Guides: Narrative, Erika Langmuir. Another excellent book in this series by the National Gallery looking at the role of story-telling in art. I'm going to move onto their guide to still-life next.

63rd book: Pocket Guides: Still-Life, E Langmuir. Maintaining the standard, and some very welcome discussion of ancient art still-life prototypes, the xenia paintings, too...

64th book: ) Ten Steps to Positive Living, by Windy Dryden. A really accessible self-help book with simple steps to foster a more positive approach to life. The section on low-frustration tolerance, the idea that things must be 100% great/you shouldn't feel any negative emotions, was particularly good.

(I don't think I'm going to make 100 by May 7th but will still continue to review my reading using this list)

65th book: Gifted by Nikita Lalwani. A really interesting read about Rumika Vasi, a gifted Maths prodigy, who is continually pushed to achieve by her father, and her increasing attempts at rebellion. This book was short-listed for the Costa First Novel Award 2007 and rightly so.

66th book: The Mitford: Letters Between Six Sisters by Charlotte Mosley. It took a while to read but was well worth it. This was a fantastic collection of their letters, illuminating their characters, beliefs and interests.

Nancy was a famous novelist and I read her books a few years ago and loved them. Unity and Diana were fascists, the former fascinated by Hitler, the latter married to Sir Oswald Mosley. Jessica, on the other hand, was a Communist and even campaign for Mosley to stay in prison, which caused an unreconcilable breach between her and Diana. Pamela's interests were firmly on the farm and in the home and she didn't write as much as the others. Deborah married Andrew, Duke of Devonshire and became responsible for the Chatsworth estate.

I loved their accounts of life with their parents; their father resembled Uncle Matthew of Nancy's books. Their lives spanned the 2nd world war, many generations of children and, for Diana and Deborah, Blair's election. I found the deaths of Unity and Nancy heart-breaking and other moments very amusing, e.g. Nancy's wondering if 'xerox' was some sort of anti-senility drug and their incredulity at being seventy. Their nicknames, e.g. Diana was Honks, Jessica 'Henderson' were endearing and their feelings about each other fascinating. It made me analyse my own relationship with my sister again, which I decided was probably most akin to that between Jessica and Deborah. It also made me want to write letters again, and attempt to make them as interesting as theirs. Perhaps a vain hope, but I'll try.

I loved The Mitfords too, for the same reason that I like reading Evelyn Waugh and other British writers from the early twentieth century - it's just a different world, and one that has pretty much vanished. Sure, the aristocracy is still around, but the air of glamour and sophistication has faded. Good luck with your letter writing, maybe it will make a comeback!

67th book: Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. An interesting need and it's certainly opened my eyes to media misrepresentations of medical findings.

68th book: Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. I loved this book, which I have in a beautiful hardback edition designed by Orla Kiely for Virago Modern Classics. What I also loved was that Mildred's story was briefly referenced in Jane and Prudence (my 69th book) and I found out that she got married to Everard Bone! What a lovely way to reveal this, rather than neatly but more conventionally tie up the ends at the end of excellent women.

70th book: Good Evening, Mrs Craven, by Mollie Panter-Downes). A lovely collection of stories about women in the war. It's really made me want to read more short stories so I've just ordered a pile of them. I love Persephone books - who print 'forgotten twentieth century novels' mostly by women. My first one was 'Miss Pettigrew lives for a day' and I'll continue until I've read them all!

71st book: In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Alexander McCall Smith. I love these books - they make perfect lunchtime reading when the sky outside is grey and I'm sneaking a minute or two to relax from my teaching load. I love the descriptions of Botswana and the complexities of the cases.

72nd book: Blue Shoes and Happiness Alexander McCall Smith so I've quickly moved onto the next in the series. I really wolf these stories down and should really alternate with something that requires more cerebal power.

I am going to have to try one of those books out. Everyone loves them! :) Have a great day!
--BJ

73rd book: The Bolter by Frances Osborne. A really interesting read about a really fascinating woman - though not one to emulate!

74th book: The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory. I'm quite a fan on Philipa Gregory - I loved The Constant Princess and The Queen's Fool but this one left me quite frustrated. I liked the format - diary entrys/letters from each of three characters, Mary, George Talbot and Bess, his wife. However, I found it a little repetitive - Mary was ruining the Talbots through staying with them, which was dwelt upon at length. I also found the French phrases in Mary's entries a little gratutious. And why weren't the exciting last months of Mary's life focused upon at all?

75th book: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. I loved this book so much. It reminded me a little of 84 Charing Cross Road in the relationships created through a love of reading. It tells the story of Juliet Ashton, a writer, who is contacted by Dawsey Adams living on Guernsey because he's found her name and address in a book by Charles Lamb and wonders if she knows any more about the author. She obligingly helps him and a correspondance develops between her and the members of the Literary and Potato Peel Society through which she learns about life on Guernsey during the German Occupation. A beguiling tale given an edge through the anecdotes about life in the concentration camps and for the Todt workers. The denouement, revealed by Isola in her 'noticings', is utterly satisfying.

76th book: A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark. I bought a lovely edition of this book and was utterly delighted by it. The protagonist is a very likeable creature, called 'Mrs Hawkins' by everyone who see her as a very maternal woman, thanks to her large bulk. Some good dieting tips here - 'just eat half' and the leitmotif of the 'pisseur de copie' who turns up throughout the book linking many of the characters together with disastrous results works very well.

77th book: 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith. We're having an ongoing book sale at school and I picked this up for £2. A little way in it felt familiar and I'm pretty sure I've read it before but I kept going because I liked the different threads and characters. I'll get the second in this series now. I prefer the dialogue to that of the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency series.

Reread Nancy Mitford The pursuit of love and The Blessing. Just brilliant - I will read these again and again. I particularly like the accounts of childhood at Alconleigh. Do these count as books 78 and 79?

Yes they do - so this is 80th book: The Thrift Book by India Knight. I absolutely loved this book because it is just so useful (as well as being superbly and endearingly written). It gave me useful tips on food, make-up, clothes, craft (my favourite), gifts, holidays and money. Her book The Shops is one of my top useful books; this is going right beside it.

81st book: a really memorable one, which I have recommended to at least five people in the last week - Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz. A superb read, though admittedly it took me a few chapters to be hooked. Combines two subjects that interest me greatly - Rome and Christianity with a compelling plot, outstanding description (I'm going to read out a couple of passages describing a Roman house and the amphitheatre to my classes) and some really fascinating character portrayals. A book I will come back to again and again, I think.

82nd-84th books: Lucia Rising by E.F.Benson. Riseholme and Lucia came up as a question on University Challenge just after I finished this book which made me very happy. Now, on the front cover there is a quotation from Noel Coward and Nancy Mitford amongst others which states 'we will pay anything for Lucia books'. I did like these books - especially the scene where Miss Mapp ends up wearing the same dress as Diva Plaistow three times in succession - but I didn't find them quite as hilarious or enchanting as Nancy Mitford's 'Don't Tell Alfred' or 'Love In A Cold Climate'. I will continue to read more of them though and discover more of Lucia's affectations, George's hair-arrangements and Miss Mapp's eccentricities.

Now I need to go read another Lucia book! I agree that, while funny, Benson is not as good as Nancy Mitford at this sort of thing, but who is? I wish she had been more prolific.

85th book: E. M. Forster, A Passage to India. I didn't like this one as much as A Room With A View, perhaps because I have more of a relationship with Italy than I do India. I did feel the writing was very different - it seemed less plot-driven (despite my reading of lots of learned literature, I do feel drawn to good plots), and without the humour that seasons Room With A View.

86th book: Mary Renault, The Praise-Singer - I read this while on a school trip to Greece to help immerse myself in its history and culture. I knew the background to the Tyrannicides, so when Harmodios made his first appearance I was extremely excited. Another Mary Renault classic which I thoroughly enjoyed.

87th book: Dodie Smith 101 Dalmations. This was my favourite book when I was around ten, and following a school production involving several of my pupils, I decided to read it again. I used to go to sleep when younger listening to a cassette of the book, and I can still hear the accents and intonations when re-reading the book (this also happens with The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe. Utterly charming while also a gripping story, I am looking forward to introducing this book to my own children.

88th book: Muriel Spark, The Complete Short Stories. Excellent, though I preferred the characters in A far cry from Kensington.

89th book: The Great Lover Jill Dawson. Recommended by a book seller from whom I bought Mariana. A little disappointed - more emphasis on the sex rather than the poetry. But maybe I'm just a bit prudish!

90th book: (which I seem to have left out) Mariana by Monica Dickens.

91st book: An Introduction to Virgil's Aeneid by W.A.Camps. Read for work (am teaching Virgil Book 6) - it was really useful.

92nd book: Euripides' Hippolytus by Sophie Mills. An excellent fourth chapter, but I found the fifth heavy going.

93rd book: Lustrum Robert Harris. Amazing. I loved Imperium and this, with the threat of Catiline and then the emerging triumvirate, was completely gripping.

94th book: Can't seem to stay away from the ancient world at the moment: The King Must Die by Mary Renault. A brilliant novel based on Theseus, his discovery of his father and adventures in Crete. Renault takes out the supernatural and implausible from the myth and retells the fight with the minotaur as Theseus becoming a bull leaper and toppling the Cretan aristocracy. His abandonment of Ariadne is explained by his horror when she participates in a Maenadic orgy and slaughter. An excellent read.

95th book: Read in February but just got round to putting this up. The Bull from the Sea by Mary Renault. The sequel to The King Must Die, including the story of Hippolytus which particularly interested me as I'm teaching Euripides' Hippolytus this year.

96th book: The Mating Season by P.G.Wodehouse. Classic. I particularly liked this zeugma: 'you can't press your suit and another fellow's trousers simultaneously' which I shared with my Latin literature class.

97th book: 101 things to do before you diet by Mimi Spencer. Not sure about the carbs curfew of 5pm but some good tips.

98th book: The heart of Christianity Marcus Borg. Jury's out on this one.

You've been added to me list of starred talks, to help me out the next time I'm looking for something good to read. I liked The Heart of Christianity because I thought it made sense. However, I did read it in a church book group, so that may have made me less critical.

Dear Lamplight - I'm glad to be of help! One of my favourite things about this website is the ability to find people with similar taste and follow their recommendations!

99th book: Love All by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Not much time to post a proper review, but I really loved this. The plot, characterization and writing were all beautiful.

100th book: Oriel's Diary by Robert Harrison. One of the best Christian books that I have read in a long time. My church study group have been studying angels in the Bible and we've all confessed difficulties in incorporating them into our understanding of our faith. This book presents the life of Jesus through the eyes of an archangel, Oriel (the life of Jesus is soundly based on the gospels, but the archangel element is more fictional) and gave me insight into aspects of Jesus' human experience that I had not considered before, as well as opening my mind to the possible roles of angels. I'm going to read some of Robert Harrison's other books now.

101st book: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I know this is a very popular book at the moment and the ownership of a half-read copy was supposed to indicate Cleggeron affiliations, but at least I've read the whole book with great pleasure which hopefully elevates me out of that particular camp! My father-in-law didn't take to it because it is written in the present tense and the character is sometimes simply referred to as 'he' in conversations which can make them difficult to follow, but I liked the wealth of detail, huge cast of characters and a different viewpoint onto Henry VIII's court. I've read lots of Philippa Gregory's books and decided to take a little break from them as I felt they were becoming a little formulaic, and this was a breath of fresh air. I even did a little research after I finished reading it to find out what happened to Thomas Cromwell. I'm sure there's going to be a sequel as he only gets to Wolf Hall at the end of the book and there's a lot of his history still be told...

102nd book: Deaf Sentence David Lodge. My second David Lodge book, after The British Museum is Falling Down (my 8th book). The story of a retired professor of linguistics whose deafness causes both amusing and sad incidents. Found it interesting though I skimmed the in-depth explanation of linguistics that appeared a couple of times.

103rd book: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. A good read and it seems useful. I'm going to re-read it over the summer and take notes, and then really try to implement some of the suggestions. Will report back. I won't, however, be complimenting Post Office workers on their fine heads of hair, as Mr Carnegie did. That may have been appropriate in 1930's America but it isn't in England today!

104th book: Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Just superb. Brilliantly imaginative and subtle writing.

105th book: Homer The Odyssey. I'm teaching this next year - the longest work I've ever taught and I'm slightly worried about how I will fit it in to two doubles a week. There's just so much to say - a fantastic yarn, complex characters and intricate thematic and plot development. And it was written almost 3000 years ago.

106th book: Leopold and Charlotte by James Chambers. Read in the duration of my flight home from Milan. A sad story that was told with an alternatively heavy and trite touch but I enjoyed the chance to find out about one of Kensington Palace's princesses, after visiting 'The Enchanted Palace' exhibition last month.

107th book: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark. I've joined my local library and this book was one of the staff's special picks for the week and, coincidentally, on my Amazon wishlist too. I relished this book, as both as a teacher and lover of Muriel Spark's short stories (88th book) and 'A Far Cry from Kensington' (76th book). I now wonder if I shouldn't feel so guilty about the random tangents I go on in some of my lessons, but put it down to 'general knowledge' (though I don't know how much general knowledge is contained in discussions of Glee, my brother's involvement in 'Tough Guy' and my extensive knowledge of stationery!) What I also loved about this book was the very accurate depiction of teenage school-girls, culminating in this extract of a letter written by Sandy and Jenny imagining a love-affair between Jean Brodie and the Music teacher: Parental Advisory warning though!

'My Own Delightful Gordon,

...But I was proud of giving myself to you when you came and took me in the bracken on Arthur's Seat while the storm raged about us. If I am in a certain condition I shall place the infant in the care of a worthy shepherd and his wife, and we can discuss it calmly as platonic acquaintances. I may permit misconduct to occur again from time to time as an outlet because I am in my Prime. We can also have many a breezy day in the fishing boat at sea.... Allow me, in conclusion, to congratulate you warmly upon your sexual intercourse, as well as your singing.'

108th book: The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I love Persephone books - there's something about the beautiful print of the pages, the patterned inside cover and the little Athenian woman on the spine that is simply beautiful. In my dream home, which would have a library with floor-ceiling, wall-wall book shelves, I will have a whole section dedicated to Persephone Classics.

The story itself was a fascinating combination of the delightful and slightly sinister. I was very worried for Emily Fox-Seton at several points. She was maybe a little one-dimensional as a character - she was guileless to the extent of being simple and I wasn't convinced by her gratitude to everyone and everything. Perhaps that's more a reflection upon me, than upon her however!

109th book: The Art of the Odyssey Clarke
110th book: The Odyssey Griffin
11th book: The Odyssey Peter Jones

These three books formed my secondary reading to prepare to teach the Odyssey this year. The Peter Jones' commentary was excellent, presenting the key issues of each book at the beginning before presenting a line by line commentary, which I used in annotating my copy of the text. The Griffin book was very useful in getting an overview of the book in thematic terms, and the Clarke book presented an overview of the plot and character development. I can highly recommend all three.

So now I have a Kindle and it is Amazing. It makes reading in bed really easy, means I have a choice of books to read on the tube and was absolutely brilliant when sightseeing in Rome on the recent school trip. My students kept asking me 'what's that?' and were immensely impressed when I explained.

Books that I have read are:

112th book: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Kindle by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Brilliant and free on the Kindle. I'd never read any Sherlock Holmes despite travelling through Baker Street every week and being intrigued by the posters giving outlines of the stories.

113th book: Right Ho, Jeeves. Another classic P.G.Wodehouse.

114th book: The White Queen. I'm going off Philippa Gregory a little I'm afraid. The books seem less tightly written now but perhaps that's the nature of some of the characters and periods she's choosing. Not sure about the 'Melusina' conceit either.

115th book: Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. Really enjoyed this.

But the downside is that I left my 116th book Graham Greene Our Man in Havana unfinished, with only a few pages left to go.

Ah, forgot about 117th book Margaret Atwood Oryx and Crake. Absolutely amazing - like Kazuo Ishiguro, Atwood's imagination is extremely impressive. Thoroughly intrigued and gripped the whole way through. 10/10

118th book: George Elliot The Mill On The Floss.

119th book: Adrian Plass When You Walk.

120th book: Nancy Mitford Wigs on the green.

121st book: A week in December Sebastian Faulks

122nd book: The Walled Orchard by Tom Holt

123rd book: Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchell

124th book: The Long Song by Andrea Levy

125th book: One Day by David Nicholls

126th book: Jesus - Safe, Tender, Extreme by Adrian Plass

127th book: South Riding Winifred Holtby

128th book: The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna

129th book: How to be a woman by Caitlin Moran

130th book: At Home by Bill Bryson. Loved, loved this book. Took me back to my History GCSE and A-Level through its exploration of life in 18th and 19th Britain (and even referred to Jethro Tull's seed-drill, which all members of my familiar are familiar with thanks to testing me on the agricultural revolution multiple times through the relevant four years. Bill Bryson writes in such a clear and engaging fashion. If ever I take to writing non-fiction of this genre, I will take him as my model. I'm afraid I sent a rather gushing text to Simon Mayo when he had Bill as his guest on Radio 2 one morning.

131st book: Notes from a small island by Bill Bryson

132nd book: I, Claudius by Robert Graves

133rd book: Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Wow, you've been reading some great books. I've put several on my wishlist, including one of the Mary Renault books. I haven't heard of those before, and they look interesting.

Which Mary Renault? My favourite is The Praise Singer but I love what she does with the myth of the minotaur in The King Must Die.

133rd book: The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I've never bookmarked and highlighted a book so much, which says a great deal about how useful and inspiring I found it. I came across it via the blog (www.happiness-project.com), which had been recommended by another blog. I began to follow Gretchen on Twitter (@gretchenrubin), and then decided to read the book. Her aims very much resemble the aims I have for my daily life, with the exception of the spiritual element (she doesn't belong to a particular faith while I am a committed Christian). The methodical, target-based way in which she approached her project chimes with the way in which I tackle things and I'm going to use the Happiness Project Toolbox to construct my own project.

Here are a few resolutions that particularly resonated with me:

1. No (emotional) dumping.
2. Show up (to social events)
3. Don't gossip.
4. Spend out (use your money wisely on things that really will improve your well-being e.g. classes in a new skill, not just the quick rush of a new dress)
5. Forget about results

134th book: Bossypants by Tiny Fey. Brilliant.

135th book: The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Living Guide by Francine Jay. Really useful when I was moving house - I got rid of 27 bags of stuff following her advice and have absolutely no regrets about it!

136th book: Consequences by Penelope Lively. Not sure about this one - too bleak for me.

137th book: A Rose for Winter by Laurie Lee. Engaging account of his travels in Andalusia.

138th book: The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. Read for my book club and was absolutely gripped and beguiled by it. Have sought out Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera in art galleries since. Some great descriptions e.g. 'three long-legged girls in dresses straddling one gray mare, their legs hanging down like a giant insect' and 'it was such a monument of accusation, even Mother had to bow her head a little as crept past it, sins dripping from her shoes as we walked around the nave, leaving invisible puddles on the clean tiles'.

139th book: Girl Reading by Katie Ward. Enjoyed it but I don't think any of the characters will stay with me.

140th book: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. Another brilliant book club choice which was a little bit like a prezi presentation in its focusing in one character, zooming out and alighting on a related one. Loved the chapter that was done as a powerpoint presentation and the boy's obsession with songs with pauses in them.

141st book: The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe - much more nuanced and sensitive than the Hollywood blockbuster (no surprise there...). Although it's a kids' book, the sophistication of the characterisation, plot and language made it eminently enjoyable for an adult audience.

142nd book: The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller. My book of the year - faithful to the classical tradition of Achilles and Patroclus and so enthralling. After recommending it to many of my sixth form students, they loved it too.

143rd book: HELP! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done by Oliver Burkeman. A great book that exposes many of the shaky foundations of many self-help books and sieves through the better ones to offer nuggets of wisdom.