Staying Away from the Keyboard

Tomorrow is a big day. Not only do I have Lisa Graff stopping by with an interview (and book giveaway!), but it's annoucement day at The Cybils.

There are nine of us out there who know the results. And I'm one of them. And, I'm horrible at keeping secrets or sitting on big news. Thank goodness, Michele at Scholar's Blog has come up with a World Book Day meme. The question is: What ten books can't you live without?

Here are mine, in order of importance to me:

War and Peace, Tolstoy
Behind the Scenes at the Museum, by Atkinson
Enduring Love, McEwan
His Dark Materials, Pullman (yes, this counts as one book.)
Speak, Memory, Nabokov
The Flowers of Evil, Baudelaire
Pale Fire, Nabokov
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rowling
Talking it Over, Barnes
Harriet the Spy, Fitzhugh

No tagging from me. But, please help me kill the time until 2 pm tomorrow when The Cybils are finally announced.

23: Somehow I missed this...

A blog I read daily is Michele's Scholar's Blog. I keep up with Fantasy titles both new and old by reading her blog, and I just really like her as a person as well. But somehow I missed a very important post. All I can say is that November and December were unexpectedly crazy.

Here's the story. Back in November there were two memes floating about--the 100 Children's Book meme and the 100 Novels meme. Michele was lamenting the fact that she hadn't read a huge number on either list and I challenged her to come up with her own list of Fantasy titles. (She's the most well-read Fantasy reader I know.) So she did, mostly. There are a few non-fantasy titles on the list, but still it's a good one and it corrects the American bias of the 100 Children's Book Meme.

So here are my answers to Michele's meme. (The rules are the same: Mark the selections you have read in bold. If you liked it, add a star [*] in front of the title, if you didn't, give it a minus [-]. Then, put the total number of books you've read in the subject line. )

The Chronicles of Prydain - Alexander, Lloyd
Carrie's War - Bawden, Nina
Death of a Ghost - Butler, Charles
* Ender's Game - Card, Orson Scott
* Summerland - Chabon, Michael
King of Shadows - Cooper, Susan
* The Dark is Rising sequence - Cooper, Susan
Stonestruck - Cresswell, Helen
* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Dahl, Roald
* Matilda - Dahl, Roald
* Ingo - Dunmore, Helen
The Sea of Trolls - Farmer, Nancy
Madame Doubtfire - Fine, Anne
Corbenic - Fisher, Catherine
Inkheart - Funke, Cornelia
* The Thief Lord - Funke, Cornelia
The Owl Service - Garner, Alan
* Happy Kid! - Gauthier, Gail
* Stormbreaker - Horowitz, Anthony
Whale Rider - Ihimaera, Witi
Finn Family Moomintroll - Jansson, Tove
* Fire and Hemlock - Jones, Diana Wynne
* The Phantom Tollbooth - Juster, Norton
The Sheep Pig - King Smith, Dick
Stig of the Dump - King, Clive
A Wizard of Earthsea - Le Guin, Ursula
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Lewis, C S
The House at Norham Gardens - Lively, Penelope
* Goodnight Mister Tom - Magorian, Michelle
The Changeover - Mahy, Margaret
The Stones are Hatching - McCaughrean, Geraldine
* The White Darkness - McCaughrean, Geraldine
Beauty - McKinley, Robin
* Sabriel - Nix, Garth
* The Borrowers - Norton, Mary
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - O'Brien, Robert
Z for Zachariah - O'Brien, Robert
A Dog So Small - Pearce, Philippa
Life As We Knew It - Pfeffer, Susan Beth
* A Hat Full of Sky - Pratchett, Terry
* His Dark Materials sequence - Pullman, Philip
* How I Live Now - Rosoff, Meg
* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Rowling, J K
* Holes - Sachar, Louis
The Foreshadowing - Sedgwick, Marcus
Marianne Dreams - Storr, Catherine
When the Siren Wailed - Streatfield, Noel
* The Bartimaeus Trilogy - Stroud, Jonathan
* The Hobbit - Tolkien, J R R
* Charlotte's Web - White, E B

23/50. Not so good. But, because Michele made the list, I like every one I've read.

Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines

It's your last chance to register your entry in the 8th Carnival of Children's Literature held over at Scholar's Blog. I'm heading over there myself.

I can't wait to read it on Halloween, the best holiday of the year.