At a Family Reunion with Non-Readers....

Everyone's mostly fishin' today. What would YOU be doing?

This is totally what I look like while I'm reading

Anticlimax (or why dodge ball is more fun when you get HIT)

So I've finally started pulling out of my romance reading binge. (Thank you, thank you, hold your applause.) One thing that helped? At the bottom of the stack were two books that, well, just didn't measure up. One was by an author I'd never read. One was by an author I've loved in the past (not Robyn Carr or Susan Elizabeth Phillips or Jennifer Crusie--those ladies would never do this). The woman can write... but this one fell flat for me.

No, I'm not telling you the names of the books or of the authors. I'm not writing a book blog--and even if I were, it's my blog, so I get to censor myself as much as I like. :)

The new author's book isn't really worth critiquing. It was full of so many newbie mistakes it can stand as a primer on what not to do. Yes, I took notes. No, I didn't finish it. Let's move on.

The more mystifying mistake was from the experienced author. I read one of her books once, loved it, forgot I'd read it, picked it up again, and, even after I recognized it, could not put it down. It was amazingly good. I recommend it to any romance lover. (Or, I would, if I was going to tell you who the author is. Which I'm not.) I've read a lot of her books, in fact, and loved them, too. This one, not so much. The beginning and middle were fine, but the ending.... Oh, the ending.

The problem was a series of anticlimaxes. None of the set-up conflicts ever actually exploded. Every one of them fizzled upon detonation:

1. The heroine of the story had a doozy of a secret. The kind of secret that would make any normal prospective husband turn tail and run. When she told the hero about the secret, I braced myself for... something. Maybe he would take some time to think about it, while she felt horrible and wondered if she'd lost him forever. Maybe he would renounce her, expose her secret and then have to make it up to her later (of course there'd be a later: this is romance). Maybe he'd just quietly turn away, apologize, and wish her a happy life before realizing later that he couldn't live without her. What happened was, well, none of the above. He immediately embraced her, asked a few clarifying questions, then promptly declared his undying devotion. Whew. Dodged that one. That's a... relief.
2. The hero had a rival who, through a bit of detective work, discovered the heroine's secret. When he proposed and she turned him down (already in love with the hero), I braced myself for his revenge, which would, of course, be terrible. He'd been set up as a bit of a controlling boor, who dreamed of possessing her (secret and all) and restricting her freedom. He took her rejection philosophically, then calmly told her that he knew her secret and detailed the steps he'd be willing to take to protect his wife from such a horrible past. Again, I braced myself for the heroine to make a horrible mistake. Will she accept his proposal to keep him quiet? Turns out, no, she turned him down again and went directly to the hero to enlist his help. Smart girl. Good dodge.
3. Hero and Heroine then promptly went to confess her secret to her father. Heroine is worried that he'll be angry with her for keeping it from him for so long or that he'll be angry with her stepmother for helping her conceal such a thing from him. He's upset. He's sad that she didn't trust him. He takes some time to himself to go throw things around, just to vent his frustration. Then he forgives her without reservation. Yay. Happy, happy day. So glad everything is turning out so well.
4. Of course, I'm still worried about the rival, who knows her secret and can ruin her with it. In the next scene with him, we find him on the road, traveling away from her house, contemplating the perplexing result of his proposal. Upon reflection, he decides that he was awfully rude, and turns around to return... and apologize. Yanno, just in case she took offense. Her stepmother stops him on the road, asks him his intentions, and he's shocked that she'd ever suspect that he'd even think of taking revenge. He reveals that some of his plans to protect the heroine are already, disastrously, in motion, and that, even if she doesn't marry him, he'd never violate her trust. Sigh.
5. Worried about his plans? Don't be. Turn the page, and you find Heroine's father discovering that the plans actually weren't accomplished. All is well. Yippee.
6. Then, of course, Hero must tell his family--including his overbearing, demanding father--that he's marrying such a tainted woman. That goes surprisingly well. Hero is actually a bit shocked. Personally, I'm beyond surprise.
7. Hero must then ascend to his grandmother, whose approval is essential to preserving Heroine's popularity. He's nervous. (He obviously hasn't been paying attention.) Grandma already knows the secret (of course) and, after about 30 seconds, gives her wholehearted blessing. Aren't we happy? Why aren't we happy?

If you stopped reading halfway through the list, you're wiser than I am. I kept waiting for some conflict to mess things up for them, just as everything was going so well. It never happened.

Ever watch a game of dodge ball? Can you imagine a game of dodge ball where every ball that is thrown is dodged? Both teams throw and throw and throw, then skillfully jump, duck, and dodge every last ball. Nothing is caught, no one gets "out," and the score is deadlocked at zero.

Can you imagine anything more boring? How much of that do you think you'd sit through? Five minutes? For five minutes, you'd probably just be impressed, right? What skill! Ten minutes? Might start getting a bit boring. You'd start looking for the magnets and wondering if it was actually a holograph. After fifteen minutes, you'd be wanting to tie every last player to a pole so you could pelt them yourself, right?

In dodge ball, as in fiction, the entertainment value is found in the balls that hit home. The more painful it is, the more we like watching it. Player takes one in the face? We groan... smiling. Player's feet are knocked out from under him, causing a spectacular mid-air cartwheel before he goes crashing to the floor? We grimace as we cheer. Tension isn't found in a full set of invincible teams, but in the winnowing of them, as one team dwindles, its players nursing bruises on the sidelines.

Fiction is no different. No one wants to read a book where everything goes right. We want the conflict to be so strong, we wonder how the characters will ever get out of the mess they're in. We want the hits coming so hard and fast we wince while we frantically turn the pages, ignoring children, husbands, and burning dinners on the stove as we wait to see how it all turns out. Until the very, very end, we want to be kept on our toes, heart pounding, sure that, this time, good won't win. The underdog won't triumph. The couple won't get their happily ever after.

Until, miraculously, it does. They do. The team with one person left standing manages to beat the score of uber-athletes on the other team. The hero launches a Herculean, adrenaline-fueled effort, just as all is lost, and triumphs. Just as her love is about to marry someone else, the heroine bursts into the chapel. Evil is slain, just as it seemed at its strongest.

Victory must be snatched from the jaws of defeat. (Some cliches are true--just don't use them in your novel.) If it is handed over on a silver platter, we won't value it: we care very little for easy victories. We want easy in real life--fiction is for hard fantasies.

Sadly, even though I know this, it's hard to actually do it. If the awesome author mentioned above can slip up like that, I think I need to go over my ending a few more times, just to make sure my MC actually has to fight for her victories.

What do you do to make sure your climax isn't anti-?

Embracing My Obsession

I do not write romances. I write urban fantasy with a romantic subplot. A small sub-plot. Life is about more than love, folks, and I want to write about things that are more important than two teenagers finding their soul-mates in high school, dang it. Like, um, teenagers solving crime. That's more important than love, right? And discovering themselves. I'm sure THAT's more important than love. Self-identity is very important. How can you be true to yourself if you don't know who you are? Right?

Right?

So here's the thing. During my recent reading famine, while I worked very hard on my editing, I finally learned to read books in snippets. No more did I need to devour the whole book--no matter the genre--with single-minded obsession, turning pages as if the turning itself was the accomplishment of an important life goal. Instead, I was living my own life. Writing my own book. I learned to be more selective--if a book hadn't gut-hooked me by page 50, and I found myself able to put it down for days at a time, I no longer force myself to finish it. I simply stop reading.

And then, as inevitably happens after any period of self-deprivation, came the binge. I simply cannot get by without books. It's time I accept that. So, for the last week, while I try to get over my lingering cold, I've been reading like a starving woman in a grocery store. I went to the library, got the books that sounded the absolute best, took them home, and have been reading, reading, reading. It has been very nice. Very cathartic.

Only, I have not been reading urban fantasy. I have not been reading stories of people finding themselves or of solving crime, though those have often been subplots.

I have been reading (don't judge) ROMANCES.

I can't get enough. I am obsessed. I can't put them down long enough to even think of editing my own little urban fantasy. I eat less at dinner (which is good for my weight) so I can leave the table and get back to reading. I stay up late (which is NOT good for my health) trying to get to the next chapter before my husband flips the breaker on my light. (And when he does, I'll just read by the light of my cell phone.) I surf the net less and Twitter less because, let's face it, the books I'm reading are not streaming on Twitter.

Here's the thing about romances: there are no surprises. Not really. By the end of the second chapter, you know how the book will end. Which guy will fall in love with which girl. The genre demands the HEA (Happily Ever After) and the authors (wonderful, wonderful authors) deliver. Over and over again. Browse your library's romance section, pick up a book at random, read the first paragraph of the first chapter, then the first paragraph of the second chapter, and most often, you'll know who is going to marry whom.

And. I. Love it.

I love the feeling of happy inevitability. The joy of being right (even on such a simple question).  The sweet pain of watching a couple who absolutely have to get together suffer as they deny their feelings, or wonder about the other one's feelings, or miscommunicate and make wrong assumptions that drive them apart even as they both pine away for each other. *Swoon*

And here I am, NOT writing romances. Relegating my romantic subplot to the smallest portion of the text I can shoe-horn it into. I'm so dumb.

I'm not saying that I'm going to start writing romances. Not ROMANCE romances. I'm not sure I'd be able to focus a whole plot on boy-meets-girl right now. I need more plot elements to play with, and I really do enjoy the other aspects of the urban fantasy genre. But I'm going try to honor my obsession. I'm going to edit my WIP to insert more romantic pain. I want my readers to know that my MC should be with that boy and be waiting with baited breath for his next scene. To swoon when they kiss. To feel strangely complete when she is with him and discontented when she is not. To feel personally betrayed during that scene where everything she thinks she knows about him turns out to be wrong. (Duh.)

Maybe, if I have more romance in my WIP, I'll finally be able to wrench my attention away from other people's romances and focus on my own. #headdesk #headdesk #headdesk

What about you? Are you writing the books you most like to read? Do you have a secret reading habit you try to deny? Which elements should you be using more in your own WIP?

Reading Woes

Back in April 2008, at the encouragement of Robyn Carr (oh, yeah, lookit me: she's my mentor) I started keeping track of the books I read . Between April 1 and December 28, I read 125 books.

The next year, my spreadsheet got a bit more elaborate (as do all my spreadsheets). In 2009, while working sporadically on my WIP, I read 173 books, 15,632 pages, and averaged 157.9 pages a day.

In 2010, I wrote most of my first draft--and finished it--but still read 138 books, 47,515 pages, and averaged 130.54 pages a day.

Now I'm editing my WIP and this year, so far, I've read 22 books. 7,179 pages. Averaging 85.46 pages a day. My spreadsheet now keeps track of book genres (most books are more than one genre): 12 YA, 13 Fantasy, 10 Urban, 14 Romance, 1 Dystopian (MATCHED), 1 Horror (THE MERIDIANS), 0 Non-Fiction.

Pathetic, yes?

I'm happy with all the other things I'm doing. I am. I'm managing a full-time career (the day-job), trying to start up another full-time career (writing), social networking, blogging, running my online crit group for David Farland's Writer's Groups, critiquing for my group (Meredith, I swear, I'll get your novel crit to you by the end of the month!), holding down two church jobs (teaching Gospel Doctrine and Cub Committee Chair) and being a wife and a mother to three young boys. I sleep 7-8 hours per night (or I get sick). It's a full, busy, and happy life.

But I sure did enjoy this week, when I got too sick to sit at the computer for long periods, and all I could do was lie in bed and read. (Sleep? Who needs sleep?) I MISS reading. I look at Jessica Day George and all she's reading (seriously, that girl is a reading fiend--check her out on Goodreads) and I'm so jealous. I mean, there are hundreds of reasons to be jealous of JDG, but mostly I want to be able to read as much as she does. I'm also jealous of my friend Susan Jensen, who has already read 39 books this year (including mine :))--and that while still writing HER WHOLE FIRST DRAFT.

So, I'm still trying to find balance. Work, writing, family, service, networking, reading, sleep. I watch almost no TV. I hardly ever go anywhere.

Everyday, excellent books are released, and I just DON'T HAVE TIME to read them all. It's tragic.

So how do you do it? How do you decide which books to read? Do you carve out specific time each day for reading, or just grab time as you can find it? How many books have YOU read this year? (Go ahead--rub it it.)

(Also, if anyone wants a great spreadsheet to keep track of their books--with genre--let me know....)

Writer Scouts: Be Prepared

I've recently become the Cub Committee Chair for my local Cub Scout Pack. I get to help the den leaders the pack master, and the assistant pack master (aka My Husband) with... whatever they need help with. (Sill trying to figure out what my job is, frankly, but I know it involves designing spreadsheets, so I'm happy.) I also have to design  a pinewood derby car. Ideas, anyone?

As everyone knows, the Boy Scout motto is "Be Prepared." (Turns out the Cub Scout motto is "Do Your Best." Who knew that?)

So I'm making a list of things a writer needs to have nearby all the time to be prepared. And to do their best.

• Something to write on / with. For tech-lovers like me, that means a laptop, though a regular peice of paper and a pen should work fine. I just can't compose on paper: I need the clickity click of the keyboard to inspire me. Thursday night, when my nine-year-old son, BoyD, tried a highly scientific experiment to find out what would happen when a foot wearing a sock collided at high speeds with a foot wearing a shoe, necessitating a trip to the ER for stitches, I took the time to grab my laptop on the way out the door. Just in case we were there forever and I was going to have time to write. It stayed in the car, since we were only there a few hours... but my husband still mocked me. What? Just because he has two fractured toes doesn't mean he needs undivided attention.
• A book. Sadly, this works a bit counter to the purpose of bringing along your writing materials, but what writer can survive without a book? If you only have five minutes of "down-time" you can read a page or two. It would take that long just to turn on the laptop. Thursday night, my husband and son ganged up on me and actually made me keep my book in my purse. Even during the long and boring period while we were waiting for the doctor to come and do the stitching. Even despite my repeated assurances that, as soon as I pulled the book out, the doctor would appear. (Books are magic like that.) It was torture, but I survived it. Harder to survive was that night when my husband forced me to bed at 11 pm by hiding said book before he went to the store. When BoyD woke up hurting at midnight and needed some mommy attention, I had no book to keep me occupied while I held his hand. Instead, BoyD helped me play a computer game. (Yes, the computer was already on--you try writing at midnight!) (No, I'm not addicted to reading. I can stop anytime. I just choose not to.)
• Imagination. This is for those times when neither of the above are available. You can't write, you can't read. You are forced to just sit there and look bored like a "normal" person. Doing nothing, for the sake of... solidarity? Good parenting? (I refuse to believe my children are benefited by mommy looking bored, but whatever.) Anyway, during these periods, you can foil them all by using your imagination. Figure out what is supposed to happen next in your WIP. Play "what if" by rearranging elements to see what would happen. Run through the plot looking for obvious holes. Or, hey, think up ideas for your next WIP. The sky isn't even a limit, here. (Now if only there were a good way to record all your great ideas as you come up with them....)

BoyD is doing okay, by the way. He has a walking boot and won't be skiing for a while, but we have some lovely gross pictures (which I won't share here--you're welcome) of his toe in various stages of lacerated disrepair. After the fractures were discovered on Friday (after we finally grew a couple spines and figured out how to insist on x-rays--by visiting our favorite medical professional), he was prescribed some lovely drugs to stop infection and pain.

And I have another going-to-the-hospital memory to add to my arsenal for when something similar happens to one of my characters.

What about you? What things do you find essential to have on hand to support your writerly instincts? Chocolate? (Chocolate makes your book jacket picture look fat. So I hear.) MP3 player with your favorite tunes? (How can you write with that noise?) A quiet room all to yourself? (What? You haven't learned to tune your kids out? Need some tips?)

Top 2010... 10

2010 was actually a bit of a banner year for me. (What does that mean, anyway? Banner year? Anyway, it was pretty cool.) It's hard to prioritize all the awesome things that have made this year one of the best ever, but here's the list anyway, in no particular order.

1. Finished writing my first full novel. Yes, I can write over 102,000 words on the same story—and most of those words were written this year. It’s still really bad and needs major surgery to make it really live, but it sure is cool to see all the bones, blood, and guts lying there, waiting to be stitched together.
2. Went to my first writer’s conference (LDS Story Makers) in April, where I met a ton of really cool authors, including Dan Wells, James Dashner, and Aprilynne Pike. Jessica Day George was also there, and, though I’d met her before, it was still awesome to see her.
3. Reunited with Susan Kennedy Jensen, my college roommate. Susan, who now runs a mean book blog, flew to Utah from Arizona to attend LDSSM with me. It was cool to hang out with her there, since every aspiring author wants to talk to the book blogger in the room!
4. Met The Six. I’d been following Brodi Ashton’s blog religiously for a while and was thrilled when Brodi and four of her writer’s group agreed to meet Susan and me for dinner the evening before the LDSSM conference started. A funnier group of girls you’ll never meet. Then, in December, I also got to interview them for the Farland Authors’ Advisory.  I’m feeling a bit like the little sister that follows her older, cooler sisters around, but none of them have told me to get lost yet….
5. Lost the LDSSM First Chapter contest—which would normally be a low point, except Brodi so completely deserved to win and I loved, loved, loved the comments from my judges. Especially the judge that scored me the lowest: he/she said that I was a “very, very, good” writer, encouraged me to keep writing, and said my story was as good as Aprilynne Pike’s Wings.  How can I feel bad about that? Wings is an NYT Bestseller! I’ll take criticism like that any day.
6. Finally got a writer’s group. When David Farland announced on the Daily Kick that he was starting an online writer’s forum, I was thrilled! I immediately asked his brother, Jim Wolverton if I could help, wrote the Critique Guide, got to be Jim’s own group leader, and have been basking in the perfection that is the Pied Pipers ever since. They actually encouraged me to write crazy elaborate rules! I promise, many of them will be bestsellers soon, and everyone will be reading their books. Meanwhile, they’re willing to help me figure out and hone all the writing skills I’ve forgotten since I left college. I have no idea how anyone writes without a group. If you are not in a group yet, do yourself a favor and check out David Farland’s Writer’s Groups.
7. Got to host Farland’s Authors’ Advisory. When Jim announced they were getting bestselling authors to give us free writing advice in conference calls, I resisted raising my hand for, oh, a week? Then I oh-so-casually mentioned that I’d be happy to help out and Jim was nice enough to let me. My co-host, Mike Shaffer, is a talented hoot and a half and our minds work just opposite enough to make sure things should never be boring. I’m still a bit starry-eyed that I get to interview such great authors, even if it’s just by phone. So much fun!
8. I’ve read 138 books. Not counting the 5 full-length novels I critiqued or the books I started and didn’t quite finish. (Like the last half of my re-read of Breaking Dawn.) I’ve revisited old favorite authors, like Stephenie Meyer, Patricia Briggs, Robyn Carr, and Brandon Sanderson, and found new favorites like Gail Carriger, Dan Wells, and Janette Rallison. (I have too many favorites to list them all, truly.) If you ever need a book recommendation, I’m your girl.
9. I started a blog. This is more of a time commitment than a cause for celebration, but it becomes more wonderful when you consider that the design comes courtesy of my friend Devoney Wolf, who sent out a very timely email asking if anyone needed a web page designed, since she had to do a school project for her web design class. Um, yeah! I love her design. Isn’t it great? Then, of course, my awesome sister-in-law, Paula Weeks, took some pictures that make me look amazing. (If I do say so myself--and you would, too, if you could compare them to my normal appearance.)
10. My family is well. My brother John got married to a wonderful girl this summer, my sister Vanessa survived the wildfires in Utah with her house intact, and all my nieces and nephews are growing up—albeit too quickly—to be wonderful young men and women. My own children are growing and are such awesome kids. My husband continues to support me despite having no idea why I like books, and loves me even though he has to regularly turn my light out at night and take my book (or computer, as the case may be) away so I can get some sleep. He’ll never read what I write, but I couldn’t write anything if he didn’t make it possible. This year was our ten year anniversary and we still behave like newlyweds. My husband is always on my top ten list.

Oh, and I also lost 20 pounds! It can be done! Now I'll look so much better on my eventual book tours.... :) (See the last blog post about delusions....)

How was 2010 for you? Think 2011 can top it?

100 Best Beloved (or not) Books

So my new friend Donna Weaver did this post on her blog last week (which was a copy from several other blogs) and it was such a good idea, I’m stealing it. This is not a chain blog post, but, well, you’re free to steal, too.

The rumor is that the average person has only read 6 of the following 100 “Most Beloved Books.” I’ve read 32, which makes me feel all sorts of cool, but there are 40 that I haven’t even heard of, so, as a writer and voracious reader, I’m feeling a bit guilty about that.

In the interests of full disclosure, I’ve color-coded the list as follows, and put the number of books that fall into each category so you can easily see what a slacker reader I am. (Have I mentioned I’ve read over 130 books already this year? What more do you want from me?)

Which of these have you read? Which of the ones I’ve never heard of would you recommend? Which ones should be a priority? Why is Terry Pratchett on the list so much?

Read it for Fun: 26

Read it for School… and liked it / loved it: 4

Read it for School… and didn’t love it: 2

Feel Guilty that I Haven’t Read it… and plan to… someday…: 8

Feel Guilty that I Haven’t Read it… but still don’t really plan to: 13

Haven’t Read it, Don’t Even Feel Guilty: 7

Never heard of it: 40

26+4+2+8+13+7+40=100 (Yes! I can count!)

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