Book Meme!

BBC Book Meme
As seen everywhere.
BBC Book List
Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.


Instructions:

1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read. I'll bold those I've read.

2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.

3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen+
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams*
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë+
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell+
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving+
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery+
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens+
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl+
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie*

I think that's 27 total for me.

Limits

I’ve been super busy the last few weeks working on some things that I think are super exciting.* This new work is only tangentially related to my “real” work, but the same protein is involved and I think there’s some totally awesome things to come. I also managed to give my yearly program seminar, have a committee meeting and go on vacation! Life has been good.

Back to the super busy thing…I breed a lot of mice. By a lot I mean that I have 12 different strains that I breed and genotype. Needless to say, that translates to roughly a shitton of time and energy spent on non-data producing nonsense. I also do most of the ordering for the lab, which has been unusually, erm, difficult lately (lots of backorders, the purchasing department generally sucking, among other craziness).

For the two weeks or so before I gave my seminar I was being incredibly productive. I had lots of different experiments going on and I was getting a lot of really good data. I’ve learned this week that I thrive on that kind of productivity. Apparently data sustains me in some way. It seems to keep me interested and excited and not depressed, even if things aren’t going 100% great.

So this week I’ve been trying to get back on top of my mouse screening and checking on backordered things and whatnot. I thought I could do this simultaneously with some simple experiments that don’t require a lot of hands on time. Apparently that is not the case.

I told Crazy Man (who has been unusually pleasant and quite agreeable lately) last week that I had been really busy, but I was still managing to stay on top of things. I told him that I hadn’t yet reached the point where I couldn’t handle everything I was trying to do. I told him that I hadn’t found my limit yet. However, I now think I’m teetering on the edge. The very edge.

I’ve been very frustrated this week because I haven’t been able to make the time to do the experiments that I want to do. I’ve been doing crappy genotyping (that isn’t working) and other crappity crap that doesn’t produce data. I have one first author manuscript that just needs to be rearranged (dramatically) before it can be submitted. I have an internal author manuscript that needs to be edited (dramatically, I’m sure). I want to work on those. I want to do real experiments, even if it’s just troubleshooting! I want to work on grants for upcoming deadlines.

I realized yesterday that I’m getting depressed because I don’t have new data. And although presently depressed isn’t a good place to be, wanting data is, I suppose.

Now if only the Golden Child’s wedding was over (seriously, don’t want to hear your 30 minute conversation with your crazy fiancée about a venue. Seriously.). And if only Crazy Man wasn’t so excited about GC’s project (which I think is booooring and mostly useless). If only I didn’t look at GC and feel jealous of the fact that all he does is experiments for his own project and none of the time consuming other crap (i.e. he breeds few and screens NO mice). If only I didn’t look at other FGS and feel jealous of the fact that she’s going to have a baby (despite the fact that I’m super super excited for her, and about the blanket I’m knitting her!). If only (many many others)… Perhaps I should find a little time to be happy with where I am and what I am doing, rather than comparing myself to those around me. I just can’t help feeling impatient though.

Hopefully, I’ll get things under control again soon. At the very least, right now I feel hopeful, and I figure that’s as good a place as any to start.

*When I was in high school, the cheerleaders did this super cheer: S-U-P-E-R super super is what we are! Super SUPER! It made me laugh then, and it makes me laugh now, almost every time I use or hear the word super. *snicker*

Happy update

I smoothed things over with my mom shortly after my last post. She said she was just kidding, and in retrospect (read: when I calmed down), I'm sure that was the case. She has been paid back mightily by a plague of toddlers too. My cousin and his wife (eyeroll) are having her babysit again this weekend. We're not talking "watch the boys so we can go out to dinner" babysitting, either. We're talking full-fledged we're-going-to-dump-the-boys-at-your-house-and-run-away-for-the-whole-weekend babysitting. They suck. She might as well have partial custody of those boys. Hmph! Seriously, I would take them if they'd let me. Double HMPH!

In other news, science rocks my socks! Things have been going super duper fabulous, and I'm motivated and excited, and voluntarily working all weekend, and excited about giving seminar and having a committee meeting and and and... Sheesh! Like I said...excited! :D I was kind of beginning to think I was never going to feel this way again. And now, here I am. I'm excited about my project. I'm excited about doing experiments. I'm excited about finishing up in the not too distant future. I finally feel like I'm actually good at this and that I'm certain I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.

I also found single serving containers of Ben and Jerry's last night. Giggle!!! What can be better than that???

'Scuse me while I go run half a dozen westerns. Before Monday. Seriously. :)

Biting my tongue

I generally have a very good relationship with my mom. We went through a lot of crap when I was much younger, and so we've always been pretty close. But I swear to God if a screaming baby doesn't burst forth from me in the immediate future, I may be forced to kill her!

I went to the doctor today for my yearly checkup. My mom knew I had an appointment, so I emailed her to let her know that everything was fine. What response do I get? "You're not preggo are you?" Of course meant in a please-God-let-her-be-I-need-grandchildren-now-now-NOW way.

Of course, now she says that she was just joking. After I told her that I was biting my tongue and trying not to flip out on her.

What I really wanted to say was some combination of the following:

-How many times do I have to tell you that we're waiting until I finish grad school?
-How many times do I have to ask you not to go there?
-What part of we aren't ready to have a baby yet is unclear?
-What part of daycare costs more than our mortgage and we're not exactly rolling in dough is unclear?
-How many times do I have to explain that it's hard enough being a female and a scientist and I'm just not ready to make that more complicated yet?

I know she doesn't mean to be shoving a knife through my heart on a regular basis, but dammit this isn't easy! I have enough frustration and guilt without her continually heaping more on. I can't tell her how when my dad was dying all I could think about was how much he loved my cousin's little boy and how he would never meet my kids. And how much that still tears me to shreds.

Why do I feel bad for being different than my cousin who
-is 20 and on her second baby, with two different fathers?
-doesn't work and lives with his in laws, but has two adorable boys that he and his wife dump with a different relative every weekend because "they need a break"?

Why is it that I, the responsible one, the one with a husband and an education and a steady income and a car and house I can afford, who chooses to make responsible reproductive decisions, am the one crying over things?

A Brighter Monday

I would like to take this moment to thank Katie for Dishy Guy Monday. DGM never fails to perk me up just a bit. And somehow always leads to browsing of the DGM archives...

Speaking of Katies that I love, welcome back Katie! I missed you, and I'm super glad you're blogging again!

RBOC: Not a 3 day weekend edition

• I’m all for encouraging kids to read! Even if it is fluff (or trash). God knows I read a lot (and I mean a LOT) of fluff and trash when I was younger. For that matter I still do. I just think when books become as popular as, say, Twilight, that perhaps we should be thinking and talking about them a little more.

• I had an incredibly hot dream this morning about an incredibly hot guy, and although it was totally (and almost disturbingly) G-rated, I’m still distracted about it. Still.

• Despite the fact that it is a university holiday, we’re all here in lab. Apparently the Crazy One only believes university holidays apply to us when it suits him. He got seriously ticked last year when most of us were only here a half day or so on MLK day. But of course, it’s fine for him to take off to Disneyworld for the better part of a week and not even mention that he may not be in.

• On the other hand, Crazy Man and I have been on pretty good terms lately. Maybe it’s because one of the private society grants I wrote got funded!!! Of course, he also doesn’t realize that I really don’t have any new data since before Christmas, despite all my best efforts.

• Hopefully, the data will start flowing again. If not, I’m going to lose it. It’s starting to get frustrating.

• Crazy Man looked like I had kicked a puppy when I told him that I had found a meeting to go to. By myself, since he won’t commit to going anywhere with me. I assume he looked so sad because it’s a more signaling/cell biology oriented meeting and not really focused on our sub-field. I figure it’s a good idea to leave the nest a little, since hopefully I will be leaving the nest for good in the not too distant future.

• Speaking of which, things seem to be happening so quickly! It’s really starting to get a little scary. More on this later.

• Three of my cousins are pregnant. THREE! All younger than me, of course. Wait, of course they’re all younger than me…I’m the oldest girl. I don't knit that fast people! I'm not sure I'm going to be able to keep up. Of course, I do have one blanket almost done. More to come...

• My brain is definitely functioning like it’s Monday. Guess I better get to work.

Twilight, or how to warp young girls...

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! It was 80 degrees when I left my mom’s house on Saturday. If that’s not Christmas weather, then I don’t know what is! There are so many things skittering around in my brain that I don’t even know what to write about. But since I’ve been reading so much lately, and I’ve seen several recent blog posts about books…well, here we go!

My most recent reading binge started with The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I was enjoying it, and we had a Books a Million gift card that was about to start being charged due to lack of use, so TM went out and bought me Twilight.

At this point, I had no idea what Twilight was all about (except something vaguely about vampires), or any of the hoopla surrounding it, or even that they were making a movie! (The rock I live under, it is nice and big and shelters me from lots of pop culture crap!) So I read Twilight. I have to admit, it sucked me in a bit at first. Though the plot was thin (among other issues), I liked some of the characters and I thought some of the premises were interesting (i.e. what could be bad about sparkliness??). Lots of things, especially about Edward and Bella’s relationship, bothered me, but I read the book so fast that I didn’t really get bogged down thinking too much about all the things that disturbed me about it.

And then I read the second book. Seriously? SERIOUSLY??? The whole book was just a disgusting whine-fest. Boys and girls, this is what happens when you have seriously unhealthy relationships.

Honestly, I’m still just kind of dumbfounded by the whole series. And deeply disturbed. I freely admit that I am obsessive. But I am so completely disturbed by the obsession that young girls and even adults have with this series. It makes me sick, and I don’t know what I can do about it.

Come on girls! Go find a heroine that’s not seriously nuts! Ugh!

On the flip side, this whole thing has made for some absolutely hysterical snark. Check out this…I especially enjoy the summaries of the books. I thought I was going to die laughing. Fursplode is now officially a part of my lexicon. And yes, I do giggle every time I say it.

(As an aside, I totally agree with what Abbie has said about the Sookie Stackhouse series. It was nice after coming off Twilight to see a chick stand up for herself. Sheesh!)