tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89054421724270139132024-03-13T04:44:14.178-07:00A Slice of Mumbai Delivered At Your DoorstepUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-37401054216353601402014-11-24T00:10:00.001-08:002014-11-24T00:10:18.545-08:00i carry your heart with me<div class="tab-content active" id="poem-top" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">
<h1 style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 10px 0px 3px; padding: 0px;">
i carry your heart with me</h1>
</div>
<span class="author" style="background-color: white; color: #4d493f; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.05em; text-transform: uppercase;">BY <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/e-e-cummings" style="color: #043d6e; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">E. E. CUMMINGS</a></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
<div class="tab-content active" id="poem" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">
<div class="poem" style="color: #505050; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 24px; margin: 25px 0px 0px;">
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in <span style="text-indent: -1em;">my heart)</span></div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span style="text-indent: -1em;">i am never without it(anywhere </span><span style="text-indent: -1em;">i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done</span></div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
by only me is your doing, my darling)</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
i fear</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
no world(for beautiful you are my world, my true)</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
and whatever a sun will always sing is you</div>
<br /><div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
here is the deepest secret nobody knows</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart</div>
<br /><div style="padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)</div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-53484154455168564482014-11-24T00:09:00.001-08:002014-11-24T00:09:00.218-08:00<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I was never attached to India when I left. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I wanted to get out, see the world and always
felt India was nothing <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Now, I have come back to her bosom, and discovered
hidden treasures, hidden in public view for all to see but few are those who
grab.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">So much, so much she has given me, My Mother
India - untold riches and wealth in the form of wisdom and character and
courage, no earthly being or disaster can
take away from me, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">She is the mother who has had me and held me,
and carried her in her bosom and delivered me from the clutches of suffering. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">My Mother India. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-2154178729841666092014-08-28T16:10:00.000-07:002014-08-28T16:10:11.250-07:00Ganeshotsav - 2014<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
Mumbai gears up in a big way, in the biggest way possible - to celebrate their
favourite God tomorrow, the excitement has caught on and I had to write about
Mumbai and its most elaborate love affair with the Elephant God Ganesha. There
is no place you should be, but in Mumbai on the 11<sup>th</sup> day from
tomorrow as thousands of Ganeshas from every single home, every single temple,
every single street, proceed towards the ocean, to be immersed, only to be
brought back into our homes the next year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Usually
the birthday of Lord Ganesha is a one day celebration in most parts of India
(where I come from atleast). You make his favourite sweetmeats, you mould a
Ganesha out of clay( that was how he was born, his mom Lordess Parvati wanted a
baby and moulded some clay into the form of a baby boy with an elephant trunk
and lo! he was born) , do puja (worship)- (which consists of invoking the Lord
in the clay idol, bathe, dress, perfume and decorate him, sweet talk to him
(hyms), feed him his favourite dishes and then send him off when he is ready to
go which is the next day, we immerse the clay idol in a bucket of water) and he
is gone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
in Mumbai, you can keep the Lord for 11 whole days. What a treat !! And keeping
Ganesha at home is like having the most important guest in your house. You have
to take care of him hand and foot, people keep the oil lamp lighted night and
day without it ever going off for all the time he is there, so there is light
for him always, do puja daily, make his favourite dishes every day, sing his
praises (exactly what you would do with a guest) and never leave him
alone (who would leave a guest all alone in the house, to fend for himself) and
then when it is time to say adieu, send him off in a grand fashion with
promises that he come back again soon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
would seem strange to someone who is not from India. So a little religious and
spiritual background of India is due here :<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
Klaus was visiting Mumbai, I mentioned – ‘India is like an onion, the more you
peel, the more you can revel in her beauty’. <br />
<br />
Same with Hinduism, there are many layers or levels to it. At the outermost
level, you have around 33 crores of Gods in India. Of different forms and
fashions, to suit everyone’s temperament. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">People
ask for things from Gods, they go to the temple, they do good karma in fear of
repercussions from the Gods and ask for good things. Hinduism figured out long
back ‘to send your wishes to the universe and they will be fulfilled’ much
before Rhonda Byrne. And there is truth to it, when we articulate what we want,
it helps us understand what we want and go after it. The Gods are just a
sounding board but that is, at the next level you realize ‘thoughts maketh a
man, what you think - so shall you be’. So since we need to be surrounded by
good thoughts, all good things are written in scriptures and stories to convey
the victory of good over evil. The good and evil is not outside, but inside our
ownselves and all the stories and all the gods with 8 hands slaying demons
depicts we slaying our inner beasts or the seven deadly sins. But to understand
that, man needs a stronger mature intellect, so we are told the fanciest of
stories when we are kids, fancier than Harry Potter with flying chariots,
many-armed Gods, more fantastic than Greek mythology of animal heads on human
body and so on. They are just stories, fiction, but weaved with facts on what
life is all about. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Not
all Indians progress to understand the deeper meaning of their philosophy. We
are all in different stages of evolution. Some still are stuck, asking to God
for toys when they are kids, and asking for Toyotas when they are adults.
As one matures and wants to know more about Hinduism – it is for all to
discover and to seek - it is all about answering the eternal question
‘WHO AM I’, ‘WHAT IS MY PURPOSE’. It has nothing to do with the 33 crore gods
we started with. It is about transcending the body, mind and intellect and once
you transcend, you realise that we are all the same. Every single person,
thing, matter, universe are all one. Just like gold which is liquified to make
bangles, bracelets, chains and earrings is essentially but gold in different
forms. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
movie Matrix (based on this philosophy) differs slightly in the fact that it
believes there is only THE ONE. But in Hinduism, we are all THE ONE. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
is one more movie which tries to explain the advaita philosophy - ‘THE PEACEFUL
WARRIOR’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The answer to the question WHO AM I is this – I
AM HAPPINESS. (SAT CHIT ANAND). You ask how ? What is sugar ? Sugar is sweet. In
any form, crystalized, liquified, solid – it can’t taste like anything else but
sugar. – So sweetness is its natural state. Water is essentially cool. You boil
it to a 100 degrees and it finds it way back to coolness when left on its own.
Its other forms ice snow vapour are all cool to touch. Fire’s nature is heat.
It cannot be anything but heat. So what is man’s true essential nature – it is
HAPPINESS. That is why when he is disturbed or agitated, he is not happy and he
wants to get back to his natural state which is essentially HAPPINESS. Whenever
he is not happy – he is restless, like the ripples of the water settle down to
the stillness of a lake – so does man want to settle down to his natural state
of HAPPINESS all the time. All he really wants, at the end of the day is to be
happy, and the best thing is HE IS HAPPINESS. He needn’t search for happiness
anywhere. It is within himself. So that is the essential Hindu philosophy
played out in one form by celebrating Ganesha’s birthday on the Mumbai shores.
Do check out some youtube videos on Ganesh Visarjan, Lalbagcha Raja. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Andalus","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So
this was my experience on one AnantChaturdasi day, written 2 years back :<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://onlyinmumbai.blogspot.fr/2012_10_01_archive.html" target="_blank">Ganesh Visarjan 2012 </a></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-64420771520026198232013-12-16T20:39:00.002-08:002013-12-16T20:39:56.823-08:00Phata Poster Nikla HeroYes, I am a huge Shahid Kapoor fan, well only after I saw this half hour episode on how Kareena and Shahid were quite fond of each other one minute and she goes on KwKaran and states their lov etc, and the next minute, she has dumped him for someone who comes with a name and fame. As always, the heart flew to the underdog, the puppy face hero who deserved a whole lot better treatment the movies and girls have given him in real life. So after much bated breath, we went to see the PPNH. Though it was full of laughter and Shahid's energy was palpable from the screen, the movie was dragging towards the latter half and was quite sillily comical and not the best of suaveness like a Student of the Year, lets say. So my heart went out for this poor chap who grabbed upon the nearest acting chance and what happened ? it ended right there.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="400" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT4Z8KdykPvZIe2KDFCT1pnqtJtP8vmfendCuwJEQR_zDaQ6wIh" width="400" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
He was also doing R..Rajkumar at the same time. Though I badly wanted to go for this, I knew I wouldn't be able to take the sillyness the movie is. How I wish he would get some real neat glamorous roles. How I wish he could take off like he is meant to. I know he deserves it. May the Lord look upon Shahid and Lady Luck shine upon him. Wishing him the best life has to offer. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
If you can, please go see his movies at the theatres. And become his fan, just like I did, only in Mumbai</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
PS : But I definitely enjoy the songs in these two movies. </div>
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-21855115159693696552013-07-13T11:55:00.001-07:002014-08-28T16:12:11.788-07:00Bhaag Milkha Bhaag review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="A still from the film" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/images/cache/1860290.jpg" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
My nanhe munhe pyare daughters have given their review of this film on paper. The verdict was other than Ammu, they didn't like it. Ammu liked only the running parts and as for me, I cried all the way. For every bucket, Milkha filled with his sweat, I filled it with my tears of joy, tears of emotions and mostly tears of sadness. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
What a movie, a must watch for every Indian, to be proud of what we all can do for ourselves, and for our country, for our neighbours. Please go watch it, though i am not sure, if it is truly universal in rating. There is enough adult stuff, blood and gore for my kids to have nightmares and at the same time, be introduced to adult themed stuff at their tender age. They really do not have to know or worse, see french kissing, romping and such going on. That was quite distasteful, but they kept the film raw so to show the true suffering undergone by Milkha. The young Milkha, he reminded me so much of my neighbour's son, Gobind Singh, same height, weight, same smile, innocence laden, spirited and humble, shy and brave at the same time. I felt like reaching out to him and hugging him. Other tender moments depicted is the deep bond between the brother and sister, so good to know such pure affection that touches hearts. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Farhan's ready disarming smile, always humble, polite and well mannered made Milkha a pleasure to watch at all times. I loved Farhan's million watt smile which would light up miles of darkness in the sky. </div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-24677683246574758562013-07-12T02:08:00.000-07:002013-07-13T05:25:51.146-07:00Yoga - Only In Mumbai<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have this wonderful yoga instructor who comes to the building to teach us, well teach me.<br />
And after several months of yoga, I can safely say I have broken new ground and feeling ecstatic.<br />
<br />
1. I am able to touch my head on the floor, while doing downward dog pose. Even she is not touching it ;)<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="basics153story" src="http://www.yogajournal.com/media/originals/Basics153story.jpg" /><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
2. Butterfly pose.<br />
This is how i used to sit, with my knees not touching the ground.<br />
<br />
<img src="http://cdn-viper.demandvideo.com/media/5bf9b0fa-0935-4f5c-ba5e-4b82a512f5e0/jpeg/a2b4ad4f-d9bb-4821-a548-8b48d6e1761c_2.jpg" /><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
But now, I sit like below, I am able to bring my legs as close, as flat to the ground and beat my legs fast on the ground. I am also able to bring my head so low that there are only few centimeters gap between my head and floor. Once my belly disappears ? I can literally touch the floor with my head. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="http://simpleyogaposes.com/images/butterfly1.jpg" /></div>
</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-65552178191514152552013-07-11T20:33:00.000-07:002013-07-11T20:33:51.028-07:00Bollywood or Cricket or Badminton - Only In Mumbai<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Tejas is taking his sports fanaticism to new levels. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">When IPL was on, he refused to come for a movie we all wanted to go see as a family. Then it was the ICC and till yesterday it was the TriNations.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Now history is repeating again. Amrita wants to go see Bhaag Milka Bhaag. Her reasons are many, number one being she is an athlete at heart, she wants to run, all the time, really. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">And what does Master Tejas do ? He does not want to skip his 2nd badminton class for the day. No amount of coaxing would do. So he is staying back to play, while Dad visits Chennai and the girls and me go out for Bhaag Milka Bhaag. Incidentally it has rave reviews like 'declare a national holiday to watch this movie etc'. So lets see, the movie i mean.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/47288717/Bollywood+2.jpg" /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
OR</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07_02/083dhoni_468x326.jpg" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
OR</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="http://media2.intoday.in/indiatoday/images/stories/parupalli-kashyap-350_061512041203.jpg" /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-55177990822528443702013-07-11T18:20:00.002-07:002013-07-11T18:20:59.587-07:00music camp Monsoon Masti at the Powai Ashram<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Recently, we attended a music camp Monsoon Masti at the Powai Ashram conducted by the Chinmaya Naada Bindu Team. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Tejas was asked what he would be taking away from the camp other than his camp kit of course. the following are observations conducted at home regarding their 'take a ways'.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Take-a-Ways from Camp Monsoon Masti 2013</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">1. The Mararti songs continue to be chart busters and still remain </span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">the top 2 for this week.<br /><br />2. Constant improvisation to the steps of 'Junzhu Munzhu Pahat Zhali' being done by Amrita and Aishwarya, leading to 'I am mightier than thou, On the dance floor.' battles.<br /><br />3. Tejas refuses to sing the raagas that are not allocated to that specific time slot.<br /><br />4. Sargam meditation being done before vocal practise. That too, many times repetition of a swara for an extended period of time being done which was unheard of before. And then say practise is done for the day after the sargam meditation which lasts for all of 7 minutes, and girls run away to work on No.2 and Tejas to analyse which raagas cannot be sung during that time slot.<br /><br />5. Practise of 'takita takita takita' on high speed overdrive.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-7330604730894650522013-07-11T10:29:00.000-07:002013-07-11T10:30:29.294-07:00Bhaag Milka Bhaag<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img alt="Bhaag Milkha Bhaag SoHaM.jpg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0d/Bhaag_Milkha_Bhaag_SoHaM.jpg/220px-Bhaag_Milkha_Bhaag_SoHaM.jpg" /></div>
<br />
Yes, we are going to Bhaag Milka Bhaag as one of my daughters loves to run and she really wants to go running to see this movie as soon it releases.<br />
<br />
Yes, Mumbai does that to you. You slowly get into the habit of doing what Mumbai does.<br />
<br />
I am only excited about that one song<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/KRTidmLllIE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Hope it is not going to be a boring 3 hour long exercise which only comprises of not burning any calories.</div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-13506626617059607952013-07-11T09:49:00.000-07:002013-07-11T09:49:25.655-07:00Monsoon Masti 2013 - Only In Mumbai<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Monsoon Masti 2013<o:p></o:p></div>
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July 6 & 7 2013<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sandeepany Saadhanalay <o:p></o:p></div>
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Powai, Mumbai<o:p></o:p></div>
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A weekend workshop on Music and Rhythm<o:p></o:p></div>
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Enjoy the rains with music was the theme and lo, did
we enjoy the music along with the rains !!<o:p></o:p></div>
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We all, a group of 40 adults and 15 children, huddled
together on a rainy Friday evening at the cosy Gita Mandir looking to
make some music, meet some friends and relax in the divine ashram of Swami
Chinmayananda.<o:p></o:p></div>
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All the members who reached the divine foothills of the
Jagadeeshwara Zone, left all their manifold commitments, burning issues,
intricate situations <o:p></o:p></div>
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and found themselves ensconced in the comfort of the Powai
Ashram, where there would spend two blissful days sitting at the feet of their
gurus Pramodiniji and Himanshu Nandaji.<o:p></o:p></div>
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July 5<sup>th</sup> Friday Evening <o:p></o:p></div>
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We had a very creative ice breaking session this evening. We
were formed groups and asked to make a song with the members’ names. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It was just amazing to watch the creativity of the adults
and the children while participating in this session. It gave everyone a chance
to come up front, to sing and at the same time introduce themselves. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Acquaintances were made, smiles and greetings (predominantly
in the form of Hari Oms) were exchanged, and everyone went to sleep in the
knowledge that we were indeed caught among a bunch of civilized individuals and
tomorrow can only bring more good things.<o:p></o:p></div>
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July 6<sup>th</sup> Saturday<o:p></o:p></div>
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The camp was so carefully planned to give all that can be
given, within a span of two days and to even give what was available to take,
at the Ashram. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The early morning saw the vedic chanting of the brahmacharis
at the temple.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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And then came the hour long SRGM meditation with Pramodiniji
which threw much needed guidance on how to treat music.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Concepts which were entirely new (to me ofcourse) like to
respect music, every swara has a god, and to pray to Ma Saraswati for music to
sit on your tongue, were introduced in a meditative background. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We did some swara excersises and swara meditation, with
Pramodiniji keeping us on our toes, to follow her, in between racing and
slowing the notes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And this produced the much needed giggles from our young
participants whom we had feared had gone to sleep while meditating, and we all
know how it is, one can never get enough of their giggles and gurgles.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After a sumptuous breakfast of south indian sevai, we were
back to the Gita Mandir, this time to learn a bandish.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A bandish is a fixed, melodic composition in Hindustani
vocal or instrumental music. It is set in a specific raga, performed with
rhythmic accompaniment by a tabla or pakhavaj, a steady drone, and melodic
accompaniment by a sarangi, violin or harmonium. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We went on to learn a couple of more bhajans. One of the
bhajans was culled from the locals of Siddabhari and so fortunate were we to
learn that bhajan, so soulful and inspiring.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Another song we learnt was a Hori. The hori was
haunting and melodic and soul searching, all at the same time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A hori is a genre of semi-classical singing, popular in
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It comes in the series of season songs, like Chaiti,
Sawani and Kajari, and is traditionally sung in the villages and towns of Uttar
Pradesh: around Banaras, Mirzapur, Mathura, Allahabad and the Bhojpur regions
of Bihar. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Afternoon brought us a lovely lecture from Sri Himanshu
Nanda ji. The lecture was almost a conversation with us and yet, so informative
on his journey, journey of some of the great Hindustani artists and threw a lot
of light on the teaching practices of his guru and maestro Pandit Hari Prasad
Chaurasia. Several of us had questions on how Western Classical compares with
ours, when is the right age to introduce the children to music and all of them
were answered from a spiritual and philosophical standpoint that the whole
atmosphere was made divine. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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A few families had come for Garba Sanskar, to initiate the
child into music while in the womb. Some others had brought children young as
four, to skip and play and imbibe the magic of music at the same time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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This was followed by Garja Maharashtra Majha which left the
most impact on the young and old singers alike. The two songs taught ‘Junzhu
Munzhu Pahat Zhali’ and ‘Udalit Shat Kiraana’ were an instant hit and the
non-Maharastrians had a lot of work to keep up with the syllables of the
Marathi language.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Explanations were given, and the songs along with the
language was also learnt. The kids had listened to the explanations of the
verses so well, that when they presented the song, they reproduced all the said
meanings by actions. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The night brought all the instruments alive producing a lot
of delight and din among the children and elders. We had all kinds of
instruments going on. Ektara, Tabla, Violin, Flute, Manjira, Beadboxing,
Drumming and Singing. You may ask from where we got all these instruments? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Acappella is a kind of orchestra, where the singers are
accompanied by vocalists who produce the sounds of various instruments using
their vocal chords. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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After which, there was much request for the campers to sing,
and a couple of brave souls delighted us with their songs, wit and humour.<o:p></o:p></div>
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July 7<sup>th</sup> Sunday <o:p></o:p></div>
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The morning was welcomed with Pramodiniji introducing us to
Thaats – the fundamentals of Hindustani music. Through theory and melody,
Pramodiniji engaged us and we listened with rapt attention to the beauty of
Hindustani Music.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After a sumptuous breakfast of yet another south indian dish
- uttappa, we were seated to clap to the rhythmic scale of Hindustani Music.
This session was led by Himanshu Nanda ji . Charts and numbers were drawn to
entice us into keeping with the beat. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The children were so good at it, that Himanshu Nandaji had
his doubts whether the kids had already attended such sessions before. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After a break, we revised all the bhajans and songs we had
learnt the day before. Then it was time for practice. We all were divided
into three groups and our task was to present on stage, one of the songs that
had been taught.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Much discussions were held in my group as to which song to
select, much discussions on the pronunciation of the Marathi song selected,and
much discussion on introducing some trills and thrills into the song. After
which point we reached a consensus and the practice began.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We enlisted the resident tabla expert to support us and
Pratimadi was on the harmonium and thus we presented a lively version of Junzhu
Munzhu Pahat Zhali’. Much to our surprise the children had also selected that
song and the third group sung the bhajan sung by the pahadis of Siddhabari.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Thus our camp to our lovely end. Many were emotional about
the opportunity to be in the midst of magic and music for two whole days, many
were philosophical about how music can transform a person, many others
felt fortunate and the rest were just happy to have a great time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We all went home contented in the knowledge that there would
be more such camps organized by Chinmaya Naada Bindu (CNB) at regular
intervals. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Very heartfelt and special thanks to the team at
CNB comprising of Pramodiniji, Himanshu Nandaji, Vijayji, Rohitji, Shobaji,
Jaylakshmiji and many more.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=511360785602440&set=a.511298508942001.1073741832.430469900358196&type=1&theater" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=511360785602440&set=a.511298508942001.1073741832.430469900358196&type=1&theater</a></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-39833833541747405792013-06-28T08:13:00.000-07:002013-06-28T08:13:22.023-07:00Santa Cruz Shopping Market<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
is an amazing experience, just to go see what is out there.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-29580027039772997802013-06-28T08:12:00.001-07:002013-06-28T08:12:59.423-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have never ever thought a city could define me, change me and mould be and yet here I am, a true Mumbaikar.<br />
<div>
The change was gradual, but has come about.<br />
It is inevitable<br />
only because it is Mumbai<br />
<br />
I have heard so many people say , you will either hate it or love it, but this is more than love.<br />
This is passion. When i go out on the streets, I see people spilling out on the streets, going about their daily rituals and habits. I see people sleeping on the pavements between roads, amidst the going and coming of traffic. I see dirth, filth and ugly water flowing in the slums of dharavi.<br />
<br />
What i also see is the fun people have here, life that is being lived here, life taking place at all times. Well dressed people close to people wearing nothing and all of them exist in a happy medium. It has become like the USA, the land of opportunity, people come here from all over to make money, party, have fun, make films and music. The people who are already here have taught us to have fun by taking their festival on to the streets like Ganesh Puja. Like you all know, it was an eerie silent moment for me. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-50355168851266962762013-06-28T08:10:00.000-07:002013-06-28T08:10:30.321-07:00Twilighted<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IKArgoZGbcY/UTRb7CHjNzI/AAAAAAAAJ0c/0c-1gPyn_C8/s1600/Edward-376194_429619737081258_1836140990_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IKArgoZGbcY/UTRb7CHjNzI/AAAAAAAAJ0c/0c-1gPyn_C8/s320/Edward-376194_429619737081258_1836140990_n.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
<br />
Okay, I must be the oldest fan of Edward Cullen, but still am a fan</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-74919853273200230522013-06-27T21:07:00.001-07:002013-06-28T16:35:39.174-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
the mood is really sombre today. We are all cramming for Tejas's international spelling bee !!<br />
The difference is so palpable. Till yesterday we were all bindass and suddenly there is this urgency in the air, it is has become so thick that it can throttle the breath going down the airways !!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-68573003053526629432013-03-15T01:23:00.001-07:002013-03-15T01:23:10.211-07:00The Secretariat <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iGJOBAzmXyg/UULaAqk0uRI/AAAAAAAAJ00/4n44NKwXrl4/s1600/horse1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iGJOBAzmXyg/UULaAqk0uRI/AAAAAAAAJ00/4n44NKwXrl4/s1600/horse1.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
is one awesome family movie that moves you to the core. Everyone's dressed real good and for once, I did not dislike Diane Lane. She kept her acting to the limits, without spilling it over to be called overacting.<br />
A must must watch with the kids.<br />
<br />
My son, my darling son just mentioned 'Secretariat is a good movie, right mom ?'<br />
And to hear a pure heart say that made my heart sing with joy, as to when you educate your children through the medium of movies, this is one movie to pick<br />
<br />
love it Wallace, keep it up<br />
<br />
You have a new fan in me.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AqKhrOU1Cpc/UULZGVIP-tI/AAAAAAAAJ0s/_8Dsv798w_k/s1600/horse2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AqKhrOU1Cpc/UULZGVIP-tI/AAAAAAAAJ0s/_8Dsv798w_k/s1600/horse2.jpg" /></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-23624266873953296982013-03-04T01:23:00.000-08:002013-03-04T01:23:00.884-08:00best review ever ;)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4591550/1/Ten-Reasons-Why-I-Hate-Jacob-Black<br />
<br />
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4477116/1/17-Reasons-To-Hate-Jacob-Black<br />
<br />
cut pasted from<br />
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090319030131AAQtnUz<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Ok Twilight is, I can honestly say the worst book I have ever read</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Bella: I love you Edward</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Edward: I love you too you are so beautiful</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Bella: No YOU are so beautiful. I love you. You're all sparkly</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Edward: You are the most perfect creature ever</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">1000 pages and 3 books later</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Bella: I love you Edward</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Edward: I love you you are so beautiful</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Bella: No YOU are so beautiful. I love you. You're all sparkly and now we have a mutant child together HORRAY!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">OMFG it's just them proliferating their love for each other for 1000+ pages. And right at the end Smeyer is like JESUS CHRIST I NEED PLOT and throws some crap in.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Ok Edward is not hot. He is a creepy stalker. he watches her sleep. He won't let her see her friends. He follows her around. He won't let her drive. He beats her up while they're having sex. He gives her a c-section with his teeth. Come on that's gross. Bella is disgusting, falling apart as soon as Edward leaves and only getting some semblance of togetherness back when she finds another guy to take Edward's place. PATHETIC.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">It seems only tween girls with half a brain enjoy twilight. Every single one of my friends hates Twilight. Thinks it's absolutely ridiculous, the writing is terrible, the characters one dimensional and the plot cliche. We're 18. My sister, who is 13 is in love with Twilight. So are all her friends. They get together and talk about it and how 'awesome' it is and 'how much they love Edward' and how they 'just wish Jacob would die'. Basically Twilight is aimed for girls 12-16. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Smeyer writes likes she's swallowed a thesaurus and apparently doesn't know the meaning of Purple Prose. And she repeats the same phrases over and over and over again. Chagrin chagrin chagrin. STFU. Her books are riddled with plot holes and discrepancies. How can Edward, who has been dead for nearly 100 years, have sperm, which is alive, and has the capability to father a child. Yeah makes awesome sense. And how can that child even exist. It's not scientifically possible for someone to have 23 chromosomes. It results in down syndrome. Obviously the stupid mormon doesn't believe in proven scientific fact. Or just doesn't research her books</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Ok and every single character in Twilight is one dimensional. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Bella: Pathetic Mary Sue</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Edward: I love you Bella. And the oldest virgin ever</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Jacob: annoying.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">And that's it. That's all the major characters. If you include like Emmett and Jasper and Alice. They don't even have personalities. Alice is just constantly jumping around "horray i just had a vision that we'll all live happily ever after".The best one, in my opinion is Rosalie. Or Jasper. In that movie he looked constipated the entire time. Did he even say anything?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">I hate the way Bella is supposed to be an average girl, with faults. As far as I can tell her only fault is being "clumsy" which everyone seems to find endearing so isn't really a fault at all. And what's with her supposed to be average looking? yeah ok coz it's not like every guy in the school wants to be in her pants apparently. At my high school all the guys went for the average girl, definitely. She looks basically the same as Stephenie meyer would look. Except 50kg lighter. Lol at her photoshopping her fatness away. But this girl is supposed to be a role model. She completely falls apart when Edward leaves her and only pulls herself back together when she's found another man to replace him. It's pathetic. She has no independence or goals. She just wants to be with Edward forever, regardless of the consequences to herself and everyone around her. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">And EDWARD. Apparently the man of every girls dreams? Why because he's pretty. Hey maybe it's just me but I'd be a bit freaked out if my boyfriend started to sparkle. I love the fact that he hasn't got chisseled abs. I've grown up learning that you love a person for who they are, not what they look like. Yet in relation to love, the only thing that Bella ever describes is Edward's looks. Great example for all the kids out there. You look at his personality and you realise he's a stalker. He follows her around, watches her sleep, won't let her see her friends, won't let her drive. He controls her completely and people find this romantic! During sex he beats her black and blue and again, his regret is seen as romantic. He gives her a c-section with his teeth and again, oh so romantic, I would swoon if this happened to me.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">Stephen King, best selling author for decades said on Twilight and its comparison to Harry Potter: </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">"The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn," he said. "She's not very good."</span></div>
taa's momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03639383627516526950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-48433051598900756942013-03-04T01:17:00.000-08:002013-03-04T01:17:19.930-08:00This video is a must watch !!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #2c807f; font-family: Droid Serif, serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://funnyfeminist.com/2011/11/18/the-appeal-of-edward-cullen/</span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: 3rem;">The Appeal of Edward Cullen</span></h1>
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<a href="http://funnyfeminist.com/2011/11/18/the-appeal-of-edward-cullen/" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; color: #2c807f; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="1:13 pm"><time class="entry-date" datetime="2011-11-18T13:13:35+00:00" pubdate="">November 18, 2011</time></a><span class="byline" style="border: 0px; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> by <span class="author vcard" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="url fn n" href="http://funnyfeminist.com/author/funnyfemynyst/" rel="author" style="border: 0px; color: #2c807f; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="View all posts by Lady T">Lady T</a></span></span></div>
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So. I hear there’s a new <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Twilight</em> movie coming out today. It’s called <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Breaking Dawn, Part 1</em>, because it doesn’t matter that the book barely has enough plot for one movie, let alone two – the Twihards are going to buy those tickets and they probably wish there was a <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Breaking Dawn, Part 3</em> in the works.</div>
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I find the <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Twilight</em> phenomenon fascinating. More than <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Harry Potter,</em> it causes polarizing reactions in its readers/viewers, from the people who will camp out for tickets to the ones who will mock it so scathingly that I cringe.</div>
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The <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Twilight</em> backlash has become so strong that hating on <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Twilight</em> is the new <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Twilight.</em> There are people who savor the negative movie reviews simply because they’re amused, but there are also the people who take hating <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Twilight</em> to a new art form, far beyond ironic detachment and into an area of boiling rage that make the biggest Twihards seem comparatively reasonable.</div>
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I think I find the phenomenon so amusing because I fall somewhere in between the “Twihard” and “anti-Twihard” category. I read all four books and groaned through every one, telling myself, “This stuff is SO BAD. Just one more chapter before I go to bed.” I didn’t like the writing and I hated all of the characters (save Bella’s dad, and Jacob in the first two books), but there was something extremely compelling and irresistible about them. The characters are unsympathetic, the prose amateurish, and yet, something about the series manages to capture the essence of an intoxicating first love.</div>
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Anyway, a feminist blog that talks about <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Twilight</em> is eventually going to turn to the subject of Edward Cullen, the teenage girl’s latest favorite stalker vampire. (I prefer Stefan Salvatore and Spike as my favorite stalker vampires, but I digress.)</div>
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A lot of feminists, with good reasons, have a problem with Edward Cullen. Why?</div>
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1) Edward can read everyone’s mind except Bella’s, and this is one thing that makes him attracted to her. So he climbs into her bedroom in the middle of the night and listens to her talk in her sleep. THIS IS STALKER BEHAVIOR.</div>
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2) Edward doesn’t trust Bella around Jacob, so he dismantles her car and has his sister Alice hold her hostage so she can’t go see him. THIS IS OVERPROTECTIVE BEHAVIOR.</div>
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3) In several of the books, Edward speaks incredibly condescendingly to Bella and doubts everything she says or does. Edward shows a consistent lack of faith in Bella to make decisions for herself about her body, her friendships, her relationship, and her future.</div>
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In short: Edward’s the worst.</div>
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Someone on YouTube even spliced together a few scenes of Edward Cullen talking to Buffy Summers as part of an effort to expose Edward’s creepiness:</div>
<span class="embed-youtube" style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(228, 223, 232); box-shadow: rgba(228, 223, 232, 0.498039) 1px 1px 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5714285714em; max-width: 98%; outline: 0px; padding: 6px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe class="youtube-player" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="http://network.coull.com/activatevideo?video_provider_id=2&pid=8165&website_id=8015&width=560&height=315&video_provider_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/embed/RZwM3GvaTRM%3Fversion%3D3%26rel%3D1%26fs%3D1%26showsearch%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26wmode%3Dtransparent" style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" type="text/html" width="560"></iframe></span><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5714285714em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
It’s really good…if you ignore the context.</div>
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While Buffy Summers is a much better character than Bella Swan, and <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em> is so much better than <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Twilight,</em> this video would have you believe that Buffy would see right through Edward Cullen’s crap and both rebuff his advances and kill him. That’s very nice in theory, but I’ve watched all seven seasons of the show, and most of the lines Buffy directs to Edward are lines that she directs to people she either has slept with, or will be sleeping with very soon. No, Buffy (at least in high school) would have completely fallen for Edward.</div>
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The question is – <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">why?</em> Why do teenage girls and even adult women fall for this overprotective, creepy, condescending stalker douche?</div>
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I could talk about Edward in the context of the creepy cultural narratives about romance and love, but I’d rather look at him from a different angle, because despite his overprotective, creepy, condescending, stalkery, douchey behavior, he has one quality that I find very appealing.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Edward never pressures Bella for sex.</strong></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></strong>Sure, he does it in the most condescending way possible. Sure, he doesn’t trust Bella to be in control of her own emotions, and he’s an extreme puritan about sexual encounters. But Bella’s never going to have to worry that Edward will try to pressure her into sex, or <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">take</em> sex when she says no, or ever put her into a sexual situation that will make her uncomfortable.</div>
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We live in a country where 1 out of 6 women are sexually assaulted (and that’s only counting the rapes that are reported), where men and women alike are socialized to think that men do or should want sex all the time (leading to countless misunderstandings), where men are socialized to ignore women’s “nos.”</div>
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Edward is never going to ignore Bella’s “no.” Bella doesn’t say “no,” but if she did, he wouldn’t push the issue.</div>
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For all of Edward Cullen’s negative qualities – and boy, does he have them – he has a very appealing, irresistible quality to teenage girls who are just discovering their sexual desires and feeling a strange mix of intense curiosity and intense fear about sex. He desires Bella and wants her more than he’s wanted anything, but he’s never, ever going to push a physical connection that she’s not ready to experience.</div>
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I can easily imagine why that one quality would go a <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">long</em> way in making Edward Cullen irresistible to a young female gaze.</div>
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taa's momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03639383627516526950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-27711237606723461002013-03-04T01:06:00.002-08:002013-07-11T10:00:42.586-07:00Edward Cullen Haters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white;">can read this article.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">This is what is called 'twisting the words from one's mouth' ;)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">FROM</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/books-to-read/articles/13699/title/why-edward-cullen-spouse-abuser-why-should-care</span><br />
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Why Edward Cullen Is A Spouse Abuser (And Why You Should Care!)</span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><a href="http://www.fanpop.com/fans/Cinders/content/articles" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(57, 127, 206); -webkit-transition: color 0.1s linear; background-color: #dfdfdf; color: #214b7a; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"><img class="soapboxauthor" height="50" src="http://images4.fanpop.com/image/user_images/1490000/Cinders-1490640_50_50.jpg" style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 2px 5px 2px 0px; padding: 1px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="50" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"></span><b style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Statement of Intent</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">: If you read to the end, you'll notice that I do not advocate against reading Twilight, just putting it into context for young readers. This was originally written for a Facebook audience of friends until I decided to post it here as well. It was </span><i style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">not</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"> intended to offend Twilight fans or readers, but to simply give a little perspective on why I believe Edward Cullen is a poor character to respect/admire. Should there be enough popular demand, I'm willing to write a similar article about Bella Swan.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><u style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">Personality Traits in Abusive Relationships</u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"> [</span><a href="http://www.fanpop.com/site/go?url=http://www.recovery-man.com/abusive/abuse_rel_types.htm" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(57, 127, 206); -webkit-transition: color 0.1s linear; background-color: #dfdfdf; color: #214b7a; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">Source</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">, </span><a href="http://www.fanpop.com/site/go?url=http://www.thereislifeafterabuse.com/Page8.html#Abusers%20Cha" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(57, 127, 206); -webkit-transition: color 0.1s linear; background-color: #dfdfdf; color: #214b7a; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">Secondary Source</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">]</span></span><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Note: The ones in bold are ones that are displayed by Edward Cullen in the book or film. Thanks to Jody for the research.</i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">1) </span><b style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Uncontrolled temper</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">. "Sometimes I Have a problem with my temper, Bella." (Twilight, Edward, page 164).</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">2)</span><b style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Extreme Jealousy</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">"I mean, you know better than to be jealous, right?"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">He raised one eyebrow. "Do I?"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">"Be serious."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">"Easily - there's nothing remotely humorous about this."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">I frowned suspiciously. "Or... is this something else altogether? Some vampires-and-werewolves-are-always-enemies nonsense? Is this just a testosterone-fueled --"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">His eyes blazed. "This is </span><i style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">only</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"> about you. All I care is that you're safe." (Eclipse, page 143, after Bella spent the day with Jacob.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">3) Intense fear of abandonment. (</span><i style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Note that though this is not one of Edward's character traits, it is a telling trait of Bella, who one could argue in a seprate note is emotionally manipulative, but we're not focusing on Bella here.</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">4) A background involving physical, emotional or sexual abuse, abandonment, ACOA issues.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">5) </span><b style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Unrealistic expectations of a relationship. (To "fix" them or solve their problems.)</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">6) </span><b style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Low Self-Esteem.</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">"I infuriate myself," he said gently. "The way I can't seem to keep from putting you in danger. My very existence puts you at risk. Sometimes I truly hate myself. I should be stronger, I should be able to --" </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">I put my hand over his mouth. "Don't." (Twilight, page 336)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">7) </span><b style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rush in to relationships.</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"> "About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was part of him — and I didn't know how potent that part might be — that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him." (Twilight, page 195. The next day, they become a couple. If teenage Bella is confessing "unconditional and irrevocable love" for a vampire she's known three months, who she KNOWS wants to eat her, she's definitely enabling.)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">9) </span><b style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Exhibit controlling behavior.</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">We were near the parking lot now. I veered left, toward my truck. Something caught my jacket, yanking me back.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, outraged. He was gripping a fistful of my jacket in one hand.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">I was confused. "I'm going home."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">"Didn't you hear me promise to take you safely home? Do you think I'm going to let you drive in your condition? His voice was still indignant.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">"What condition? And what about my truck?" I complained.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">"I'll have Alice drop it off after school." He was towing me toward his car now, pulling me by my jacket. It was all I could do to keep from falling backward. He'd probably just drag me along anyway if I did.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">"Let go!" I insisted. He ignored me. I staggered along sideways across the wet sidewalk until we reached the Volvo. Then he finally freed me - I stumbled against the passenger door.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">"You are so </span><i style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">pushy</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">!" I grumbled. (Twilight, pages 103-4).</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">10) Have unrealistic expectations or demands.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">11) Use isolation to keep you centered on them.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">12) </span><b style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Believe in male supremacy and the stereotyped masculine role in the family.</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"> (</span><i style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It should be noted here that this is clearly where Stephanie Meyer's Mormon background permeates best. She reinforces stereotypical gender roles in which the stronger man must protect and support the dependant woman. Edward practically oozes this stereotype.</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">13) </span><b style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Use of force during sex.</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">His eyes tightened. "How badly are you hurt, Bella? The truth - don't try to downplay it."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">"Look at yourself, Bella. Then tell me I'm not a monster."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">Wounded, shocked, I followed his instruction unthinkingly and then gasped.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">What had happened to me? I couldn't make sense of the fluffy white snow that clung to my skin. I shook my head, and a cascade of white drifted out of my hair.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">I pinched one soft white bit between my fingers. It was a piece of down.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">"Why am I covered in feathers?" I asked, confused.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">He exhaled impatiently. "I bit a pillow. Or two. That's not what I'm talking about."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">Under the dusting of feathers, large purple bruises were beginning to blossom across the pale skin of my arm. My eyes followed the trail they made up to my shoulder and then down across my ribs. I uplled my hand free to poke at the discoloration of my left forearm, watching it fade where I touched it and then reappear. It throbbed a little. (Breaking Dawn, 87-89.)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">14) </span><b style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Threats of Violence</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">He lowered the automatic window and leaned toward me across the seat. "Get in, Bella."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">I didn't answer. I was mentally calculating my chances of reaching the truck before he could catch me. I had to admit, they weren't good.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">"I'll just drag you back," he threatened, guessing my plan. (Twilight, page 104).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">15) </span><b style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Have poor communication skills.</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"> (At least, this was the impression I got from the movie.)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">16) Exhibit cruelty to animals or children. (</span><i style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Note: I was tempted to bold this, due to the fact that Edward is a "vegetarian"-- someone needs to tell that boy that real vegetarians don't eat meat or blood of any kind, hence the "vege" root of the word. But since he has no qualms about draining animals of their blood, I want to say it counts as animal cruelty. But I feel it would take away from the seriousness of all my other arguments</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">).</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">If you have never read Twilight, and/or have listened to me rant about why Edward and Bella's relationship is a very bad example of "true love" for young girls, I hope this sheds a little light onto the situation, or at least on why I hold that opinion. The funny thing is, a character like this in teen literature wouldn't bother me so much, if the teen literature wasn't so popular. The fact that so many girls are idolizing Edward Cullen, and wishing that they were the simpering Bella Swan, disturbs me enough to compile this list.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">I am against book banning of any kind. Indeed, I'll go so far as to say that I'm glad that kids are reading, even if they are reading Twilight. But I urge parents, teachers, and anyone with common sense, to explain to their kids that Edward is </span><i style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">not</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"> the type of man you want to get involved with, and why.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;" /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">Following this conversation, and when the kids are finished reading Twilight, show your young girls some good ol' Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or encourage them to read books like Levine's "Ella Enchanted," Burnett's "The Secret Garden" or "A Little Princess," or even Fitzhugh's "Harriet the Spy," to show them real role models. - See more at: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/books-to-read/articles/13699/title/why-edward-cullen-spouse-abuser-why-should-care#sthash.2KWBiyj4.dpuf</span></div>
taa's momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03639383627516526950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-20302261643640208502013-03-04T01:03:00.002-08:002013-03-04T01:03:45.593-08:00101 reasons to fall in love with Edward Cullen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<u>FROM</u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Lucida Grande, Lucida Sans Unicode, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"><u>http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1700002/Can-t-Live-Without-Twilight</u></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Lucida Grande, Lucida Sans Unicode, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"><u><br /></u></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Lucida Grande, Lucida Sans Unicode, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"><u><br /></u></span></span></div>
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<u>A Bit About Myself!</u></div>
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Hi my name is Lucinda but I like to be called Edward's Girl, Bella, LuLu or Lucy</div>
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and I LOVE <i><b>Twilight</b></i> that's because <i>where-the-the-wolf-runs</i> got me into it</div>
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I Like Music Like : My Chemical Romance, Green Day, 30 Seconds to Mars, Good Charlotte, Paramore, Linkin Park, Hellogoodbye, Nickleback, Avril Lavigne, Muse, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, Bullet For My Valentine, Foo Fighters, Cascada, Blink 182, Evanescance, P!NK and SO many others!</div>
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I Don't Just Like Reading, I LOVE Reading</div>
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I Don't Just Want EDWARD, I NEED EDWARD</div>
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I been TWILIGHTED</div>
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My fave colour is forever changeing, it's blue at the moment</div>
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"When life hands you lemons, throw them back and demand Edward Cullen."<br />"An apple a day keeps the doctor away but since Carlisle is cute, screw the fruit."<br />"I'm not easily distracted I-Hey, is that guy sparkling!"<br />"Psh, screw the Dark Side. So what if they have cookies? Come to the Light Side, we have Edward Cullen!"</div>
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<u>OMG</u></div>
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i don't know if you know this but there is a teacher called Mr Mason in twilight dose that name ring any bells?</div>
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if you don't believe me then check the book</div>
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<u>My Storys</u></div>
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<b><u>YAY I NOW HAVE STORYS ON MY PAGE SO CHACK THEM OUT OR ELSE...</u></b></div>
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<b>right I'm going to do this thing where I'm going to give people<u> SMILEYS</u></b></div>
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<b><u>what i want you to do is when you get them put them on your profile SO EVERYONE CAN SEE</u></b></div>
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<b><u>oh and you can give SMILEYS to ohter people as long you say you got the idea from me</u></b></div>
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<b><u>oh and give ME SMIILEYS TOO</u></b></div>
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<u>Hear are my Quotes</u> (I copyed some of these)</div>
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<i>Hi I'm ISABELLA MARIE SWAN (I wish)</i></div>
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<b><u>EDWARD CULLEN IS MINE and MINE ONLY</u></b></div>
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FUCK YEAH!!</div>
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FEAKING AEWSOME!!</div>
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oooooooo Chocolate!</div>
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We All Want Something Or Someone We Can't Have, Ya I Want Someone I Can't Have,Yep You Gussed Right, I Want Edward Cullen!</div>
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All the good ones are either gay, married, or fictional characters in books or movies.</div>
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I can only please on person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow's not looking good, either.</div>
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My imaginary friend thinks that you have serious problems.</div>
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If two wrongs don't make a right, try three.(I have it works(I kill your friend, you kill my friend and then I kill you)see.)</div>
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If you know someone who should get run over by a bus, copy this into your profile. (I do)</div>
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A girl asked a guy if she was pretty; he said no. She asked him if he wanted her; he said no. She asked him if she left would he cry; he said no. She turned to leave; he grabbed her arm and said, 'You're not pretty, you're beautiful. And I don't want you, I need you. And I wouldn't cry if you left; I would die'</div>
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They say "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." Well I think the guns help. If you stood there and yelled BANG, I don't think you'd kill to many people.</div>
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Don't call me emo or I'll cry big juicy tears of blood and pain and then I'll die and it will be ALL YOUR FAULT.</div>
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AWESOMENESS</div>
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VAMPIRES RULE THE WORLD! or at least in my mind.</div>
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<i>Oh My EDWARD</i></div>
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I got<i> bit</i> by a<i> Vampire and I liked it!</i></div>
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Edward Come, Dazzle Me</div>
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Only a vampire can love you forever!</div>
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Edward Owns my Heart and a nice volo</div>
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Reading is for Awesome people</div>
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You can cover me in feathers anyday, if your Edward</div>
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Dear Edward, Bite Me?</div>
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Team Edward... because he can break my headbods, bite my pillows, and bruise my body anyday</div>
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Lost in Twilight</div>
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You Twierd! aka Twilight Nerd p.s That's a Compliment</div>
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ANY time is EDWARD time</div>
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<i>I kissed a vampire and I liked it</i></div>
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All I want is a gorgeous, inmortal, cold, silver volo owner that sparkles in the sunlight and bites me ... is that really so much to ask for?</div>
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<b><u>You have to read this</u></b></div>
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<b>this is what i would like my boyfriend to do, if i had one that is</b></div>
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<b>When i walk away from him mad, he follow me</b></div>
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<b>When i stare's at his mouth, he'll Kiss me</b></div>
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<b>When i push him or hit's him, he'll grab me and doesn't let go</b></div>
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<b>When i start's cussing at him, he'll kiss me and tell me he loves me</b></div>
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<b>When i'm quiet, h</b><b>e'll ask me whats wrong</b></div>
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<b>When i ignore him, he'll give me his attention</b></div>
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<b>When i pull away, he'll pull me back</b></div>
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<b>When he see me at my worst, he'll tell me i'm beautiful</b></div>
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<b>When he see me start crying, he'll just hold my hand and dont say a word</b></div>
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<b>When he see me walking, he'll sneak up and hug my waist from behind</b></div>
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<b>When i'm scared, he'll protect me</b></div>
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<b>When i lay my head on he's shoulder, he'll tilt my head up and kiss me</b></div>
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<b>When i steal's he's favorite hat, he'll let me keep it and sleep with it that night</b></div>
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<b>When i tease him, he'll tease me back and make me </b><b>laugh</b></div>
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<b>When i don't anwer for a long time he'll ressure </b><b>me that everything is okay</b></div>
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<b>When i look at him with doubt he'll back himself up</b></div>
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<b>When i say that i like him i really do more than he could </b><b>understand</b></div>
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<b>When i grab's at his hands he'll hold mine and play with my fingers</b></div>
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<b>When i bump into him he'll bump into me back and make me laugh</b></div>
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<b>When i tell him a secret he'll keep it safe and untold</b></div>
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<b>When i look at him in he's eyes he'll dosn't look away until i do</b></div>
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<b>When i miss him i'm hurting inside</b></div>
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<b>When he breaks my heart the never really goes away</b></div>
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<b>When i say it's over i still want him to be mine</b></div>
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<b>Stay on the phone with her even if shes not saying anything.-</b></div>
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<b>When she's mad hug her tight and don't let go-</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">
<b>When she says she's ok dont believe it, talk with her- because 10 yrs later she'll remember you-</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">
<b>Call her at 12:00am on her birthday to tell her you love her-</b></div>
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<b>Call her before you sleep and after you wake up-</b></div>
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<b>Treat her like she's all that matters to you.-</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">
<b>Tease her and let her tease you back.-</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">
<b>Stay up all night with her when she's sick.-</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">
<b>Watch her favorite movie with her or her favorite show even if you think its stupid.-</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">
<b>Give her the world.-</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">
<b>Let her wear your clothes.-</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">
<b>When she's bored and sad, hang out with her.-</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">
<b>Let her know she's important.-</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">
<b>Kiss her in the pouring rain.-</b></div>
</div>
taa's momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03639383627516526950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-57398220550573623982013-03-04T01:02:00.004-08:002013-03-04T01:05:28.814-08:00This cracked me up !!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Original article, cut pasted here, FROM</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 21.125px;">http://www.cracked.com/funny-1552-edward-cullen/</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 21.125px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 21.125px;">Definitely click on Bella's link, to know more about here. It will crack you up !!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 21.125px;">----------------------------------------------------------------------</span></span></div>
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Theoretically a vampire, Edward has shown a startling ability to remain at high school for almost a century without getting laid.</div>
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Just The Facts</h2>
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<li class="item" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">It is still not understood why he is referred to as a vampire, as he lacks all of the traditional characteristics that one would be expected to have (aversion to sunlight and holy objects, need for human blood, vulnerability to wooden stakes, fangs, badassery, et cetera).</li>
<li class="item" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">He is a known attention-seeker, as he has attempted suicide by exposing himself to sunlight at noon. Given that vampires in the Twilight universe react to sunlight by sparkling, this is roughly equivalent to attempting to kill yourself via the liberal application of mascara.</li>
<li class="item" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">As anybody who has watched the film "Twilight" in a cinema will know, Edward has been noted for his ability to cause spontaneous orgasms in girls aged 12-16.</li>
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Origin</h2>
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The character of Edward Cullen was first conceived when the author of Twilight, Stephenie Meyer, had a <s>wet</s> dream about him. She saw him together with a girl, who was later named "Bella" after Meyer's imaginary daughter...</div>
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...yeah, it gets creepier. Meyer watched the two of them have an intense, emotional "conversation" for a while, then woke up and felt an urgent need to change the sheets.</div>
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<img alt="Every time you read Twilight, you're reading this woman's masturbatory aid. Just sayin'." height="400" src="http://cdn-i.dmdentertainment.com/funpages/cms_content/18287/Youarereadingaboutthiswomanssexualf.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="336" /></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Every time you read Twilight, you're reading this woman's masturbatory aid. Just sayin'.</span></div>
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Details are scarce about Edward's life before he became a vampire, mainly because it's difficult for Meyer to focus on writing anything substantial about a character or storyline for more than thirty seconds without getting distracted by something shiny - case in point, Edward's skin.</div>
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As you've already made fun of, while most vampires burst dramatically into flame when struck by sunlight, <span style="border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: inherit; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Edward <i>sparkles.</i></span></div>
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<img alt="" src="http://cdn-i.dmdentertainment.com/funpages/cms_content/18287/THISISTHESKINOFAKILLERBELLA.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">"THIS IS THE SKIN OF A KILLER, BELLA!" *sparkles*'</span></div>
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But Stephenie Meyer's definition of the word "sunlight" is a bit different to that of the rest of the English-speaking world. On overcast days - even when, presumably, some sunlight would get through to the ground (on account of all the light and such), Eddie doesn't so much as twinkle. Come a cloudless day, though, and he's lit up like a fucking disco ball.</div>
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Edward was turned into a vampire during World War One, while suffering from a strain of influenza. His doctor, Carlisle, apparently thought that the best way to cure the child would be to murder him - which, it must be said, did make the flu seem somewhat less of an issue. To be fair, canon claims that he was turned because Carlisle was lonely, and wanted a companion. Exactly why, out of the many thousands of sick and dying people he had treated over the years, he chose to vamp an attractive, underage boy is perhaps a question best left unasked.</div>
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What we do know is that Edward did, at one point in his unlife, possess balls. He used to use his super strength, super speed, heightened senses, and mind-reading ability (Oh, yeah, he can read minds, too. Did Mel Gibson need a reason? <i>He just fucking <b>can</b>, okay?</i>) to kill bad guys. And, for a brief time, he was actually badass.</div>
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But, as we all know, any interesting aspect of a character that Stephenie Meyer creates is purely accidental, and it wasn't long before Edward renounced the wicked ways of, uh, fighting evil. Instead, he decided to spend his days (and nights) playing the piano, reading literature, going to high school over and over again for decades (ostensibly to maintain their cover - which suggests that Carlisle is too much of a fucking idiot to have ever considered home-schooling), and generally being a complete embarrassment to <i>real</i> vampires.</div>
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<img alt="" height="376" src="http://cdn-i.dmdentertainment.com/funpages/cms_content/18287/Spike.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="300" /></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Not pictured: sparkles</span></div>
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He also abstains from consuming human blood, instead choosing to drink that of animals. This has led to the Cullen family joke that they are "vegetarians". A search for anyone who finds this funny is ongoing.</div>
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His Chagrined, Adonis-Like Appearance</h2>
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Edward is a tall and handsome boy, with pale, white skin and amber eyes. These eyes - which are amber - have a constant look of chagrin within them. His skin looks like chiseled marble, which contrasts quite beautifully with his amber eyes. He is shaped like Adonis, his chiseled face displaying chagrin whenever his piercing, amber eyes are staring into Bella's. Whenever Bella looks into Edward's chiseled, amber eyes, she sees that his pale, Adonis-like figure is consumed with chagrin...</div>
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...this is what reading the fucking book is like.</div>
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A full account of Edward's appearance can be found in the book, <i>Twilight.</i> For that matter, an account of Edward's appearance is pretty much the <i>only</i> thing that can be found in the book.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae189/TheBunnybeater/Apictureofhim.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="300" /></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Here's a picture of him. There, we just saved you from having to read 400 fucking pages.</span></div>
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The Boy Behind the Chagrin</h2>
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Unfortunately, information about Edward's personality is a bit thin on the ground, as Stephenie Meyer seems to have forgotten to include any direct references in the actual books. It was too minor a sundry detail to have included in the series' <i>thousands and thousands of pages.</i> So, basically, all we know about him is what can be inferred from his dealings with his true love.</div>
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This makes the section on Edward's personality the shortest in this article. As anybody who has read the books can tell you, this is depressingly fitting.</div>
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"Just Like Romeo and Juliet!" Uh, wait, what does that imply?</h2>
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Edward likes to start things off right. He begins his epic love tale seated next to Isabella Swan in a biology classroom - a prime situation for some introductions, small talk, and a series of horrifically bad sexual innuendos, right?</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">"How'd you like to put your microscope in MY onion?"</span></div>
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What follows is sixty minutes of the most awkward silence between two human beings you will ever witness. We've seen people with Asperger's Syndrome utilizing better body language than this. Not a word is exchanged between them. Edward just sits there, staring intently at her, rocking back and forth 'like' a madman. Remember that time you were sitting next to that really hot chick that you liked back in high school, and you tried to say something to her, but instead you accidentally collapsed into a violent coughing fit, sneezed blood and mucus all over her, fell off your chair and cried for half an hour? Yeah, you looked like George fucking Clooney next to this guy.</div>
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To his credit, he does make up for it by subsequently <b><i>watching her sleep</i></b>.</div>
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We'll just let you ponder why he gets called 'romantic' for this, and yet we can't go within 200meters* of our exes anymore.</div>
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*<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Stand back - we use METRIC.</span></span></div>
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Anyway, turns out Edward really does love Bella, because her blood sings to him, or something. People fortunate enough to have only watched the movie often aren't aware of this, as the film only briefly and fleetingly alludes to how she smells like his favorite heroin.</div>
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After treating her like crap for a while, he suddenly performs an impressive emotional 180 and abruptly falls in love with her. Don't bother asking why this happens - nobody knows. Just what's holding the relationship together is a complete mystery.</div>
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Honestly, don't just take our word for it*. Go ask a rabid Twilight fan what Edward and Bella have in common. Ask what it is they talk about. What hobbies do they participate in together? You'll get nothing but blank looks of incomprehension.</div>
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*<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 8pt; font-style: inherit; line-height: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Just take our word for it.</span></div>
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Feminists often attack Edward for being a condescending, misogynistic jerk towards Bella. They often cite that fact that he treats Bella like a doe-eyed dipshit that needs to be kept on a leash to stop her from trying to play with oncoming traffic. What these people fail to realize is that Edward's treatment of her stems not from the fact that she's female, but because her favorite hobby consists of trying to find new and exciting ways to get killed by household objects.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Edward before his "blood-only" diet.</span></div>
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One of Edward's earliest encounters with Bella consisted of rescuing her from becoming roadkill, and subsequent outings have consistently shown her to have the intelligence and dexterity of an apricot. Edward treats her as if she is constantly in danger, not because he's sexist, but because her own ability to detect trouble usually kicks in about half an hour after it's been and gone. He can hardly be blamed for being a bit protective at times - although it is unlikely that Darwin would approve of Edward fucking around with his gene pool so much.</div>
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For example - Bella discovers Edward is a vampire. She knows (in the film, which was shorter, and therefore better) that a number of people have been viciously mauled and slaughtered by what she suspects to be vampires. So, armed with this knowledge, she brings Edward <i>into the middle of a forest</i> to tell him that she knows his secret, telling no-one where she is going or who she is going with.</div>
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This is a girl with the survival instincts of a <i>lemming</i>.</div>
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Keep that in mind the next time you start calling him over-protective. If you want more information on Bella, click <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_retardation" style="border: 0px; color: #145e9d; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">here</a>.</div>
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Long-Time Child, First-Time Parent</h2>
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Edward is also amongst the worst fathers in existence, exhibiting the kind of responsibility one might expect from a crowd of angry English football fans armed with whiskey and crowbars. After delivering his child, Renesmee, by <b>tearing apart his wife's uterus with his teeth</b> (just don't ask, okay? This shit is fucked up enough already)<b>,</b> he soon starts leaving his dear child with his old enemy, Jacob Black.</div>
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For those of you unfamiliar with the series, this is the same Jacob Black who swore to brutally murder the baby literally moments after her birth. And who then declared his undying love for the tiny infant the second he met her. And who had previously attempted to force himself upon the baby's mother. And just so we're clear, we're not talking about the wholesome family-friend-who-the-kids-call "Uncle Jacob" kind of love. We're talking about good old werewolf/vampire-hybrid-thing child molesting.</div>
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And Edward happily leaves his tiny infant daughter with the <b>psychotic, mood-swinging, attempted-raping, pedophilic, would-be child murderer.</b></div>
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<i>And this is a kid's book.</i></div>
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And this isn't the only instance of pedophilia in the books, either, leading us to believe that the entire series relies upon the Social Services department being on some sort of epic cocaine binge. Let us not forget that Edward Cullen himself is 17-years old. You know, underage. Permanently. For no other reason than Stephenie Meyer just wanted him to be.</div>
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And it's not like Meyer's not aware of this, either. After all, at the beginning of <i>New Moon,</i> <s>she</s> Bella gets very worried when her 18<sup>th</sup> birthday is coming up, as that would mean that she'd be physiologically older than her undead, night-dwelling, blood-sucking killer boyfriend.</div>
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'Cause, y'know, that'd be <em>weird</em>.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pedophilia? Check. Necrophilia? Check. Older girlfriends? No, thanks. We have morals here.</span></div>
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Notable Quotations</h2>
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<em>"Bring on the shackles - I'm your prisoner."</em></div>
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- Edward extolling the virtues of S&M to a 17 year old virgin.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">"Stephenie, it's great, but do you reckon you could write out the bit about Bella being a dominatrix?"</span></div>
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<em>"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb..."</em></div>
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- Edward vicariously demonstrating Meyer's limited grasp of biology.</div>
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<em>"You are exactly my brand of heroin."</em></div>
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- Edward explaining the difference between good smack and bad smack.</div>
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<em>"It will be as if I'd never existed."</em></div>
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- Edward, while leaving Bella "forever", apparently forgetting about the numerous near-death experiences, twu wuv, and the utter destruction of Bella's world as she once knew it.</div>
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<em>"It's hard and cold. And it throws rainbows in the sunlight."</em></div>
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- Edward describing his penis.</div>
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WHERE IS YOUR GOD, NOW?</h2>
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Oh, almost forgot. One last thing - Edward has <i>his own religion.</i></div>
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<b><i>Cullenism</i></b><i>.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<b>This is not a joke.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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This is a real religion. They believe that the Cullens are real, and must be worshipped. They believe that Stephenie Meyer is a prophet, and that the <i>Twilight</i> series are, in fact, holy books. And that the reward for a life of devout worship and right living is eternal life with the Cullens - including Jacob, Bella, and Meyer.</div>
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That's right. You get to spend eternity with an arrogant jerk, a pedophile, a cretin, an idiot novelist, and a horde of shrieking fangirls.<i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>And that's if you're good.</i></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.cracked.com/funny-1552-edward-cullen/#ixzz2MYmrDaB3" style="border: 0px; color: #003399; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">http://www.cracked.com/funny-1552-edward-cullen/#ixzz2MYmrDaB3</a></span></div>
taa's momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03639383627516526950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-78656596216936747522013-03-04T01:01:00.000-08:002013-03-04T01:01:02.042-08:00Twilighted<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Okay , I must be the last-est fan of Twilight, as can you believe that i am reading it, 10 years after it has been published, or actually even heard of it. It can mean only one thing, that I have in my life, olden goldies like me and no more young hearts who are a breath of fresh air.<br />
But still this old heart went tap tapping as it read the twilight, especially when it laid its eyes upon Edward Cullen.<br />
What can I say, but I have become an undying romantic after Edward's own heart, if he has one that is and if he does, I will lay sole claim on it. I can truly understand why Bella turned into a vampire just to be with him, so would i, whatever made his life easier, especially if he wanted me in it.<br />
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I hate Jacob Black with a passion. The only time i liked him or even read about him was in Twilight. I skipped the whole book of New Moon as I skimmed to see if Edward came into the picture and he did at the very end. My happiness depended on it and only did I heave a breath, after knowing it was not not about Edward.<br />
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Jacob truly became an annoyance after Edward came back into Bella's life. Hated him with a passion. And that is when I started hating Bella as well. She cannot have the cake and eat it too. All girls do this, they do want someone waiting in the background for them, so when things come crashing which they surely will, as life is anything but a roller coaster, they can run back to the one stayed on the ground, who did not enjoy the ride with you. I hate girls like that, which means all girl species. The man in waiting is the one to get the girl, who's heart left with someone else, but mind and intellect and body with the other. Yes, girls are shallow like that.<br />
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But Edward, sweet Edward who so much as never looked at a single woman till Bella came along and refused to look at anyone else once she did, is the true guy to go after.<br />
Whatever people say about Edward, that one quality alone redeems him from all the other qualities that he is accused of.<br />
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Anyway I am so in love with Edward, bite me if you will, only if you are Edward ofcourse ;) !!</div>
taa's momhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03639383627516526950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-73385192254456919592013-02-28T03:28:00.001-08:002013-02-28T03:28:31.749-08:00100 Best Novels Comments<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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David Copperfield? That's cheesy Victorian soap opera stuff. Giveme Great Expectations any day.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Boz on May 11, 2005 10:53 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%205437." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Wot, no Swallows and Amazons? No Watership Down? No Comet in Moominland? Etc etc.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Rob on May 11, 2005 11:22 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%205438." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I'm actually pretty surprised by how much of it I agree with: Catch-22 should be a lot higher, there's maybe room for more Evelyn Waugh etc... but I can't really think of any serious omissions. Bleak House, of course. And wot, no Wodehouse, Mr McCrum?</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by artegall on May 11, 2005 12:32 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%205440." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I thought 'Bohemian Rhapsody' always came top of these sorts of things.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by JonnyB on May 11, 2005 01:37 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%205444." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Well Kundera is famous, but The Engineer of Human Souls (Josef Skverecky) beats the pants off The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Then there is practically anything by Hrabal: I would plump for Too Loud a Solitude as it has the most beautiful prose ever written.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by mark on May 12, 2005 06:55 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%205449." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Where's Pale Fire by Nabokov? It is perhaps the finest novel (if it can be considered a novel) of the 20th Century. You can't possibly convince me that anything Roald Dahl did was better than Pale Fire.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by James on May 12, 2005 08:51 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%205450." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Quite a good list. W. Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage" was a surprise omission though.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Adam on May 12, 2005 11:51 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%205454." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I wonder how many of these would fall into Twain's "books one would have liked to have read, without actually having had to have read them" category?</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by David on May 12, 2005 04:56 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%205469." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I think Victor Hugos novels should be included also: Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Beautifully written, these contain intricate plot lines, detailed character sketches, and amazing moral analyses.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Laura on May 12, 2005 07:33 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%205486." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Apparently, it helps to be dead. Toni Morrison? Cormac McCarthy? Chinua Achebe but no Ayi Kwei Armah or Ngugi wa Thiongo? In reality, the list should be 1000 novels long.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Steve Rothfuchs on May 12, 2005 08:03 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%205488." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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For me, David, about 99 of them I think. Except for the wishing I'd read them. Not too bothered about that.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Rob on May 13, 2005 08:55 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%205539." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I am really stumped that Watership Down didn't make this. In addition how about other notables like: Animal Farm, The Old Man And The Sea, or amazingly, the exclusion of Dracula when Frankenstein and Hyde both made the list. Also, the are sooooo many better books by Dickens that baffles me as well</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Jason on May 16, 2005 06:10 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2015504." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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For those who were concerned with position on the list, or there not being more books by Orwell etc: As I recall the books are placed in the order they were published (hence Don Quixote at the top of the list), and each author was only allowed one book on the list.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Paul on May 16, 2005 10:48 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2015509." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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No top 100 list is complete without Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by UCBerkeleyGirl on May 16, 2005 09:01 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2015564." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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No top 100 list is complete without Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by UCBerkeleyGirl on May 16, 2005 09:02 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2015565." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Ok so if the order is unimportant and there can only be one book per author that answers a lot of questions, but still men without women was the best Hemingway book you could come up with, and I think that Native Son by Richard Wright sholuld have made the list as well.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by sean on May 18, 2005 03:15 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2018799." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I'd add Howard's End by Forster; Keep The Aspidistra Flying by Orwell; A Death in the Family by James Agee; Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton; Waiting by Ha Jin;; The Wall by John Hersey; Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi; Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers. Real readers are obsessed with telling others about fine books recently read. Now I'm checking out all the blogs in case I missed a good read!</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Ruth from Long Island, New York on May 20, 2005 02:58 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2019072." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I'd add Howard's End by Forster; Keep The Aspidistra Flying by Orwell; A Death in the Family by James Agee; Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton; Waiting by Ha Jin;; The Wall by John Hersey; Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi; Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers. Real readers are obsessed with telling others about fine books recently read. Now I'm checking out all the blogs in case I missed a good read!</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Ruth from Long Island, New York on May 20, 2005 02:58 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2019073." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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please, dont tell me you could not find a place for Atlas shrugged and Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, in teh top 100 list</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Madhu Burugupalli on May 20, 2005 05:21 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2019080." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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J M Coetzee and Ian McEwan? Surely they've been muddled up with the list of top 100 worst books ever.. but why no Murakami? No James Baldwin? Molloy by Beckett should definitely be included in the list, as should Jacob's Room by Woolf and Nausea by Sartre. What about The Twits? And The End of the Story by Lydia Davis is fantastic...Kundera should be way higher up the list. And what happened to Mervyn Peake and the Gormenghast Trilogy? And The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto by Vargas LLosa?</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Rona on May 21, 2005 06:00 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2019239." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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A novel everyone must read is The Cacher in the Rye by J.D Salinger.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Robert on May 23, 2005 12:13 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2040099." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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What about Salman Rushdie? A Moor's Last Sigh was great. or Jose Saramago's Blindness.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Rachel on May 23, 2005 03:48 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2040555." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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the reason Siddarhtha is on this list is because you know he won't get mad</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by tony on May 23, 2005 11:31 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2040885." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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i meant the reason he's NOT on this list</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by on May 23, 2005 11:32 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2040886." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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"Bless Me, Ultima" is a beautiful novel that deserves to be known (although, mabey not as one of the top 100, because i haven't read them all.) Still, the book should be recommended to all!</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Willow on May 26, 2005 12:24 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2041430." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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WHERE IS 1984!!!!!!!!<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I can't take any top book list seriously if this book is not posted.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Read this book, it'll change your life!!</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Chris on May 30, 2005 06:09 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2042356." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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59 Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell</div>
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It is in there!<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Jack on June 1, 2005 12:36 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2042684." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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What about "Where the Red Fern Grows"? It may be aimed toward younger readers, but it's so filling. Loved it then, loving it now!</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Veronica on June 1, 2005 06:05 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2042812." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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No Kurt Vonnegut, what a shame. What would the literary world be without the greatest satirist of the 20th century. I don't know what book I'd choose, they're all so great, but probabley Cat's Cradle.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Christian Kenney on June 1, 2005 07:22 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2042840." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Wow. "Howard's End" was a big miss, along with "A Prayer For Owen Meany" by John Irving.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />What about "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by Joyce.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Crazy list for sure. Missed a lot of good Canadian writers. tsk tsk.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by D on June 2, 2005 12:13 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2042988." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Where is 'The Once and Future King'???</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Jon Doucet on June 2, 2005 03:51 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2043026." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I can't believe there isn't a single Stephen King book on this list. The Stand is one of the greatest and creative books I have ever read! The Stand should definately have made this list!</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Erik on June 2, 2005 07:17 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2043043." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I believe the list does not contain Wodehouse because it is dificult to choose one great book from a collection of gems. Personally I would have added a Blanding novel.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Vaibhav on June 3, 2005 06:53 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2043417." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Hold on a second, no Edgar Allen Poe, no Arthur Conen Doyle, no Stephen King and no Terry Pratchett! 100 greatest books did you say?</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Abhiram Srivastava on June 3, 2005 07:06 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2043421." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Heyy so I'm 15 and am working on the list (11 done only 89 more to go!) but i reaaally think that Dracula should be on it(actually i think Harry Potter, The Giver and the Phantom of the Opera should be on it too but they're for younger people; even though the BFG is aswell). Despite the lack of J.K. Rowling I still luurve the list!</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by kait on June 3, 2005 09:42 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2043460." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Jane Eyre was one of the worst books I'v ever attempted to read. It deserves to be thrown into a furnace so nobody ever has to endure that kind of fatal boredom agian.Sure it was a revolutionary women's rights book, but that doesn't make it any good. Replace it with a Vonnegut book, and I'll be able to sleep tonight. No doubt there are countless individual tastes, but Jane Eyre is nauseating. Even during the movie it would have been more mentally stimulating to place my head in a microwave and set it for defrost.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Sorry for ranting, thanks.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by C Kenney on June 4, 2005 12:03 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2043478." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Where's the Austen lot? I'd like to possibly see some Daphne Du Maurier in there. Then what about The Bell Jar?</div>
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Thankfully no Harry Potter. :)</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Katie on June 4, 2005 10:22 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2043508." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Esta lista debió llamarse, las cien mejores novelas segun un inglés. Yo digo: menos victorianos, mas rusos, por el amor de Dios. ¿Dónde estan Oblomov o Padres e Hijos?</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Daniel Espartaco on June 4, 2005 07:50 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2043537." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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The most enjoyable book I have ever read (I am 81) is Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Stanley Kasper on June 5, 2005 10:35 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2043616." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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As I Lay Dying instead of THE SOUND AND THE FURY or ABSOLAM,ABSOLAM!--come on. The Sound and the Fury is the greatest novel ever written. It should be TO THE LIGHTHOUSE instead of Dalloway. Yes please include Charlotte's Web and The Lord of the Rings instead of a Walker Percy or Willa Cather--good thinking. Charlotte's web is much more important than the MOVIEGOER or DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP. Put an HG Wells on instead of The Lord of the Rings. Nostromo instead of Heart of Darkness? Oh, and since Toni Morrison is the definitive novelist of the African-American experience you can exclude Wright, Baldwin, and Hurston??? McCullers, Mann, McCarthy, Gordimer, Wharton...TRY AGAIN</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Justin on June 6, 2005 06:04 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2043790." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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What about Zola, Sienkiewicz, Poe, Goethe, Hesse, Schiller, Gogolj, Hugo, Sartre, Mann, Doyle, Voltaire........???</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by on June 7, 2005 12:27 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2044015." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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The Photograph of Dorian Grey is quite possibly the worst book i have ever read. The inclusion of Los Miserables should be a must for any top 100 Novels. Also this is a Novels list i believe that The Old Man and the Sea should be the representer of Hemmingway not a short story.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Marcus George on June 8, 2005 08:45 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2044478." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I agree with the person who said that Jane Eyre is torture. I wish there was a book-toture machine, in which hateful and murderous books could be placed for consolation. Till then...<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />And how on EARTH can that horrible, horrible, pointless, boring, mindless, unbreable, but thankfully short book 'Haroun and the Sea of stories' be ONE OF THE GREATEST BOOKS OF ALL TIME? Putting that up there is like spitting in the face of a reader. Don't read that book. I'm also sick of Lord of the Rings being, somehow, a real literary classic, while books like Harry Potter and His Dark Materials are scoffed off as being stupid or whatever (I'm not defending them or anything, but I'm just sick of all the annoying fans and cultists of each). They're both similar fantasies, each involving the classic battle of good vs. evil (more or less in HDM)with the same kind of characters. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />You can't just sum up "the greatest of all novels" in a 100-list! It would have been a lot more proper if it were a 200-some list. Come on people that's common sense. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />And why is 'Little women' there? I thought this wasn't a beloved book list, as the huge disclaimer by the list-makers announced. Also, Little Women sucked. The plot was insanely sappy, the characters archetypes, and everything else annoying. Don't understand the people who like it.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Rsq on June 8, 2005 09:08 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2044508." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I demand a reform to this list!</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Bakuu on June 8, 2005 09:23 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2044517." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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There's a few I feel are missing. Watership Down comes to mind first. A Tale of Genji, Slaughterhouse Five,The Stand, Animal Farm and the beautiful simplicity of Tuesdays with Morrie, an extremely moving book. I also feel that 1984 should be much higher. It's my personal favorite.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Zeb Shaffer on June 8, 2005 10:44 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2044586." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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What about James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Thurston, Toni Morrison?</div>
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<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Sally on June 9, 2005 09:54 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2045119." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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What about James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Thurston, Toni Morrison?</div>
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<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Sally on June 9, 2005 09:54 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2045121." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Frank Herbert - DUNE (6 volumes)</div>
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Brian Herbert - Dune: House Atreides, Dune: House Harkonnen, Dune: House Corrino</div>
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Clifford Simak - the Thing in the Stone</div>
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---<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />These books are the greatest! no doubts</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Dmitriy on June 13, 2005 12:52 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2045609." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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well, as I see, we should have had here at least TOP 1000... We have as many opinions as people in this world))). I would personally add Doyle, Chekhov, Gi de Mopassan, o Henry...<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I wonder what are the principles of singling out the authors for the TOP 100?</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Anna on June 13, 2005 12:55 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2045610." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I agree! David Copperfield? Good grief! I will take Oliver or A Tale Between Two Cities. No Jane Austin--No Harriet Beecher Stowe...Uncle Tom's Cabin. The novel that pissed off more Americans then any novel in history! What about Brave New World by Huxley. Mr.Behr, tisk tisk tisk. You should know better! P.S. I didn't notice Hemingway. You nailed it right with that drunken cad.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by monalisa on June 13, 2005 11:09 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2045754." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Several people have commented on some books being higher or lower than other books...from what I see the list is not in order of best to worst, but from oldest to newest. (At first I thought- What!? Don Quixote is most certainly not the greatest novel of all time! Then I checked someone's post and yes, they are indeed listed chronologically)</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Sarcof on June 15, 2005 07:41 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2051236." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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The list that was composed was very good, but there were some greats that could have made it. "The Last Unicorn" by Peter S. Beagle most definately should have been there. Perhaps someone should review the book and it's meaning and decide to add it to the list.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Rachel on June 16, 2005 09:16 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2051371." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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The Catcher in th Rye and Catch-22 have to be in the top 50.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by on June 18, 2005 03:58 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2052277." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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The Catcher in th Rye and Catch-22 have to be in the top 50.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by on June 18, 2005 03:58 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2052278." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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i think crime and punishment is FAR, FAR better than the brother's Karamazov.... (p.s. good job on choosing Lolita to be on here for Nabakov...that is possibly one of the most poetic books of all time about a forbidden and tortured passion)</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Pam on June 18, 2005 04:12 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2052282." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I'd definately have to go with Crime and Punishment over The Brothers Karamazov. I think Ayn Rand should be represented with at least one novel. No Tolstoy? No Vonnegut? Tough choices to narrow down to 100...but SO glad to see Tolkien on there.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Jason on June 20, 2005 03:01 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2052685." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Wow, so women make what about 15 of the 100 greatest list? No Ayn Rand..No Jane Austin, no Toni Morrison...guess it's a guy thing.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Sally on June 20, 2005 08:06 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2052698." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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The Confederacy of Dunces is a trillion times funnier than anything else that's ever been produced in any format. Best fiction ever, if you have not read it enlighten yourself to the tragic comedy that is Toole's and Ignatius J. Rieley's world.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by K-Funk on June 21, 2005 06:12 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2053051." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Steinbeck?????</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Aleks on June 22, 2005 06:02 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2053317." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Hmm...Steinbeck really isn't there....Wow.</div>
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And to Jason: Of course Tolstoy is there. How can you possibly expect a book list to not have Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Asq on June 23, 2005 03:55 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2053556." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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The makers of this list must not have read John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces," because it is one of the finest satires of all time and a wonderful example of the novel as a literary form. I am also surprised that "The Grapes of Wrath" did not make the list, and there should definitely be an entry from Herman Hesse, probably "Siddhartha" or "Demian."</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Matt on June 24, 2005 07:15 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2053846." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Where is the list of the best written and most enteraining books? Many noted titles are here, but which are the books that are fun to read and will change your outlook or appreciation for life? Which ones are the must reads? That's what should make the list.</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Bobby on June 24, 2005 11:36 PM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2053866." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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I think maybe it should be the 'Top 500' books instead of 100. There are a whole swathe of amazing books by Hesse, Steinbeck, Balzac, Dickens as well as many American and Russian writers. I heard Somerset Maugham referred to as 'the best of the second rate novelists', but i dont think so. I agree with Adam previously - Of Human Bondage, amongst others.</div>
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'The Life of Pi' by Yann Martel from India killed me.</div>
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There are so many writers that can write beautifully about bleakness and realism - in contrast to Thomas Hardy and Gustave Flaubert and Gunter Grass, who I find gratuously and contrivedly bleak. If you want beautifully written 'bleak' - The Grapes of Wrath, I reckon, and those who do bleak best of all - russian writers.</div>
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Also 'Perfume' by Peter Suskind.</div>
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I also didnt like 'Emma' but thought Sense and Sensibility much more complex and interesting.</div>
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I also thought Middlemarch would be a ring-in. Even though a lot of people dont seem to like it, ts description of personality types is timeless - I see modern psychology in it!</div>
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By the way, speaking of modern psychology... the three best character descriptions of the psychopathic Narcissisitic Personality Disorder that i have come across in literature have been the characters ORMOND (A Portrait of a Lady), ROSAMOND (Middlemarch) and GOLDMUND (Narzizz and Goldmund - Hesse) - does anyone know if the similarity of the names has any significance??</div>
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Also a little plug for Australian authors for the ''top 500'': 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' (1967) by Joan Lindsay is haunting and timeless; 'On the Beach' by Neville Shute; 'The Merry Go Round in the Sea' by Randolp Stow and 'The Riders' by Tim Winton.</div>
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Thanks</div>
<span class="commentlink" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Posted by Kelli on June 25, 2005 06:27 AM. <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><small style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Offensive? Unsuitable? <a href="mailto:blog@observer.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/observer/archives/2005/05/11/the_best_novels_ever_version_12.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20&body=For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%2053882." style="color: #006699; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Report this comment.</a></small></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-52516644464366962332013-02-28T03:27:00.002-08:002013-02-28T03:28:38.211-08:00100 Best Novels <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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1. Don Quixote Miguel De Cervantes<br />
The story of the gentle knight and his servant Sancho Panza has entranced readers for centuries.</div>
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2. Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan<br />
The one with the Slough of Despond and Vanity Fair.</div>
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3. Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe<br />
The first English novel.</div>
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4. Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift<br />
A wonderful satire that still works for all ages, despite the savagery of Swift's vision.</div>
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5. Tom Jones Henry Fielding<br />
The adventures of a high-spirited orphan boy: an unbeatable plot and a lot of sex ending in a blissful marriage.</div>
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6. Clarissa Samuel Richardson<br />
One of the longest novels in the English language, but unputdownable.</div>
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7. Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne<br />
One of the first bestsellers, dismissed by Dr Johnson as too fashionable for its own good.</div>
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8. Dangerous Liaisons Pierre Choderlos De Laclos<br />
An epistolary novel and a handbook for seducers: foppish, French, and ferocious.</div>
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9. Emma Jane Austen<br />
Near impossible choice between this and Pride and Prejudice. But Emma never fails to fascinate and annoy.</div>
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10. Frankenstein Mary Shelley<br />
Inspired by spending too much time with Shelley and Byron.</div>
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11. Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock<br />
A classic miniature: a brilliant satire on the Romantic novel.</div>
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12. The Black Sheep Honore De Balzac<br />
Two rivals fight for the love of a femme fatale. Wrongly overlooked.</div>
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13. The Charterhouse of Parma Stendhal<br />
Penetrating and compelling chronicle of life in an Italian court in post-Napoleonic France.</div>
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14. The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas<br />
A revenge thriller also set in France after Bonaparte: a masterpiece of adventure writing.</div>
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15. Sybil Benjamin Disraeli<br />
Apart from Churchill, no other British political figure shows literary genius.</div>
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16. David Copperfield Charles Dickens<br />
This highly autobiographical novel is the one its author liked best.</div>
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17. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte<br />
Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff have passed into the language. Impossible to ignore.</div>
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18. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte<br />
Obsessive emotional grip and haunting narrative.</div>
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19. Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray<br />
The improving tale of Becky Sharp.</div>
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20. The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne<br />
A classic investigation of the American mind.</div>
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21. Moby-Dick Herman Melville<br />
'Call me Ishmael' is one of the most famous opening sentences of any novel.</div>
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22. Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert<br />
You could summarise this as a story of adultery in provincial France, and miss the point entirely.</div>
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23. The Woman in White Wilkie Collins<br />
Gripping mystery novel of concealed identity, abduction, fraud and mental cruelty.</div>
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24. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland Lewis Carroll<br />
A story written for the nine-year-old daughter of an Oxford don that still baffles most kids.</div>
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25. Little Women Louisa M. Alcott<br />
Victorian bestseller about a New England family of girls.</div>
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26. The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope<br />
A majestic assault on the corruption of late Victorian England.</div>
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27. Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy<br />
The supreme novel of the married woman's passion for a younger man.</div>
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28. Daniel Deronda George Eliot<br />
A passion and an exotic grandeur that is strange and unsettling.</div>
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29. The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky<br />
Mystical tragedy by the author of Crime and Punishment.</div>
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30. The Portrait of a Lady Henry James<br />
The story of Isabel Archer shows James at his witty and polished best.</div>
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31. Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain<br />
Twain was a humorist, but this picture of Mississippi life is profoundly moral and still incredibly influential.</div>
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32. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson<br />
A brilliantly suggestive, resonant study of human duality by a natural storyteller.</div>
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33. Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome<br />
One of the funniest English books ever written.</div>
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34. The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde<br />
A coded and epigrammatic melodrama inspired by his own tortured homosexuality.</div>
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35. The Diary of a Nobody George Grossmith<br />
This classic of Victorian suburbia will always be renowned for the character of Mr Pooter.</div>
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36. Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy<br />
Its savage bleakness makes it one of the first twentieth-century novels.</div>
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37. The Riddle of the Sands Erskine Childers<br />
A prewar invasion-scare spy thriller by a writer later shot for his part in the Irish republican rising.</div>
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38. The Call of the Wild Jack London<br />
The story of a dog who joins a pack of wolves after his master's death.</div>
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39. Nostromo Joseph Conrad<br />
Conrad's masterpiece: a tale of money, love and revolutionary politics.</div>
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40. The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame<br />
This children's classic was inspired by bedtime stories for Grahame's son.</div>
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41. In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust<br />
An unforgettable portrait of Paris in the belle epoque. Probably the longest novel on this list.</div>
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42. The Rainbow D. H. Lawrence<br />
Novels seized by the police, like this one, have a special afterlife.</div>
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43. The Good Soldier Ford Madox Ford<br />
This account of the adulterous lives of two Edwardian couples is a classic of unreliable narration.</div>
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44. The Thirty-Nine Steps John Buchan<br />
A classic adventure story for boys, jammed with action, violence and suspense.</div>
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45. Ulysses James Joyce<br />
Also pursued by the British police, this is a novel more discussed than read.</div>
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46. Mrs Dalloway Virginia Woolf<br />
Secures Woolf's position as one of the great twentieth-century English novelists.</div>
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47. A Passage to India E. M. Forster<br />
The great novel of the British Raj, it remains a brilliant study of empire.</div>
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48. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald<br />
The quintessential Jazz Age novel.</div>
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49. The Trial Franz Kafka<br />
The enigmatic story of Joseph K.</div>
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50. Men Without Women Ernest Hemingway<br />
He is remembered for his novels, but it was the short stories that first attracted notice.</div>
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51. Journey to the End of the Night Louis-Ferdinand Celine<br />
The experiences of an unattractive slum doctor during the Great War: a masterpiece of linguistic innovation.</div>
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52. As I Lay Dying William Faulkner<br />
A strange black comedy by an American master.</div>
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53. Brave New World Aldous Huxley<br />
Dystopian fantasy about the world of the seventh century AF (after Ford).</div>
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54. Scoop Evelyn Waugh<br />
The supreme Fleet Street novel.</div>
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55. USA John Dos Passos<br />
An extraordinary trilogy that uses a variety of narrative devices to express the story of America.</div>
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56. The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler<br />
Introducing Philip Marlowe: cool, sharp, handsome - and bitterly alone.</div>
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57. The Pursuit Of Love Nancy Mitford<br />
An exquisite comedy of manners with countless fans.</div>
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58. The Plague Albert Camus<br />
A mysterious plague sweeps through the Algerian town of Oran.</div>
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59. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell<br />
This tale of one man's struggle against totalitarianism has been appropriated the world over.</div>
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60. Malone Dies Samuel Beckett<br />
Part of a trilogy of astonishing monologues in the black comic voice of the author of Waiting for Godot.</div>
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61. Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger<br />
A week in the life of Holden Caulfield. A cult novel that still mesmerises.</div>
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62. Wise Blood Flannery O'Connor<br />
A disturbing novel of religious extremism set in the Deep South.</div>
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63. Charlotte's Web E. B. White<br />
How Wilbur the pig was saved by the literary genius of a friendly spider.</div>
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64. The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien<br />
Enough said!</div>
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65. Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis<br />
An astonishing debut: the painfully funny English novel of the Fifties.</div>
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66. Lord of the Flies William Golding<br />
Schoolboys become savages: a bleak vision of human nature.</div>
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67. The Quiet American Graham Greene<br />
Prophetic novel set in 1950s Vietnam.</div>
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68 On the Road Jack Kerouac<br />
The Beat Generation bible.</div>
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69. Lolita Vladimir Nabokov<br />
Humbert Humbert's obsession with Lolita is a tour de force of style and narrative.</div>
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70. The Tin Drum Gunter Grass<br />
Hugely influential, Rabelaisian novel of Hitler's Germany.</div>
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71. Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe<br />
Nigeria at the beginning of colonialism. A classic of African literature.</div>
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72. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark<br />
A writer who made her debut in The Observer - and her prose is like cut glass.</div>
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73. To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee<br />
Scout, a six-year-old girl, narrates an enthralling story of racial prejudice in the Deep South.</div>
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74. Catch-22 Joseph Heller<br />
'[He] would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.'</div>
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75. Herzog Saul Bellow<br />
Adultery and nervous breakdown in Chicago.</div>
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76. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez<br />
A postmodern masterpiece.</div>
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77. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont Elizabeth Taylor<br />
A haunting, understated study of old age.</div>
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78. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy John Le Carre<br />
A thrilling elegy for post-imperial Britain.</div>
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79. Song of Solomon Toni Morrison<br />
The definitive novelist of the African-American experience.</div>
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80. The Bottle Factory Outing Beryl Bainbridge<br />
Macabre comedy of provincial life.</div>
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81. The Executioner's Song Norman Mailer<br />
This quasi-documentary account of the life and death of Gary Gilmore is possibly his masterpiece.</div>
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82. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino<br />
A strange, compelling story about the pleasures of reading.</div>
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83. A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul<br />
The finest living writer of English prose. This is his masterpiece: edgily reminiscent of Heart of Darkness.</div>
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84. Waiting for the Barbarians J.M. Coetzee<br />
Bleak but haunting allegory of apartheid by the Nobel prizewinner.</div>
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85. Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson<br />
Haunting, poetic story, drowned in water and light, about three generations of women.</div>
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86. Lanark Alasdair Gray<br />
Seething vision of Glasgow. A Scottish classic.</div>
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87. The New York Trilogy Paul Auster<br />
Dazzling metaphysical thriller set in the Manhattan of the 1970s.</div>
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88. The BFG Roald Dahl<br />
A bestseller by the most popular postwar writer for children of all ages.</div>
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89. The Periodic Table Primo Levi<br />
A prose poem about the delights of chemistry.</div>
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90. Money Martin Amis<br />
The novel that bags Amis's place on any list.</div>
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91. An Artist of the Floating World Kazuo Ishiguro<br />
A collaborator from prewar Japan reluctantly discloses his betrayal of friends and family.</div>
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92. Oscar And Lucinda Peter Carey<br />
A great contemporary love story set in nineteenth-century Australia by double Booker prizewinner.</div>
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93. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera<br />
Inspired by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, this is a magical fusion of history, autobiography and ideas.</div>
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94. Haroun and the Sea af Stories Salman Rushdie<br />
In this entrancing story Rushdie plays with the idea of narrative itself.</div>
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95. La Confidential James Ellroy<br />
Three LAPD detectives are brought face to face with the secrets of their corrupt and violent careers.</div>
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96. Wise Children Angela Carter<br />
A theatrical extravaganza by a brilliant exponent of magic realism.</div>
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97. Atonement Ian McEwan<br />
Acclaimed short-story writer achieves a contemporary classic of mesmerising narrative conviction.</div>
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98. Northern Lights Philip Pullman<br />
Lyra's quest weaves fantasy, horror and the play of ideas into a truly great contemporary children's book.</div>
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99. American Pastoral Philip Roth<br />
For years, Roth was famous for Portnoy's Complaint . Recently, he has enjoyed an extraordinary revival.</div>
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100. Austerlitz W. G. Sebald<br />
Posthumously published volume in a sequence of dream-like fictions spun from memory, photographs and the German past.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-13123412781071205012013-02-27T20:08:00.001-08:002014-08-28T16:17:32.522-07:00Indusladies 4th Annual International Women’s Day Blog Contest 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.indusladies.com/forums/blogs/induslady/8412-indusladies-4th-annual-international-women-page21.html#comments" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Indus Ladies Contest Feb 2013</a></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Women in Media and Movies</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Are not real. They give a false image of figure eights, manicured persona and all things that go with ritz, glitz and glamour. </span>Added to that, all fashion and style magazines intend women to become a superwoman with an amazing body, persona, home, children and not to mention a career. And the biggest lie we see are that these women are everywhere - super styled, super careered and uber super at everything they do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Are they for real ? the average Indian woman asks.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How to become them ? is the next logical quest of all these normal women in the world to attain super stardom in all the roles that have been given to them whether it being mother, daughter, wife, homemaker, employee, writer or a business owner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Should we really become them ? is the real question we need to ask.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On one hand, we are all running after being happy and on the other hand we are running after being all glitzy and glamorous as portrayed in movies and magazine covers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On one hand, we do want to educate woman and help her have a career based on her passion, regarding what she is good at doing, but not necessarily what pays the most, but </span>due to how our society works, the parent’s sole concern is for their child to be a doctor, engineer or an actress even, as these are highly paid jobs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What about teaching, volunteering, doing arts and crafts, writing ?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They are not even mentioned as a career option as there is no money in them. At best, they can be hobbies of course. Hence so many artists, musicians and dancers suffer as they do not have the sufficient income to match today’s way of superficial jet setting lifestyle where you have to keep your home a certain way, you have to put your children in so many classes and you have to take so many vacations to exotic locales so many times of the year, so you are not the one standing at the water cooler nodding at someone else’s adventurous journey into the jungles of the Amazon. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Just because a few people who can really afford to do it all, the media especially the Times of India publishes a travel column on every Thursday informing regular people that they can go to the Galapagos or to the sunny beaches of Vancouver when in reality they are struggling to make ends meet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What about all the lovely nature trails close to home, do you really have to visit the African Sahara to achieve Nirvana. It can be done in your own backyard.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The corruption of the girl child starts pretty early and Disney is the number one company to doom these young girls into dreaming of being princesses in distress with a prince charming waiting in the corner, lets not forget on a horse, to save them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The pscyhe of the young girl is formed by repeatedly reading and watching Beauty and the Beast, Cinderalla, Rapunzel, Snow White and list goes on where Prince Charming comes on a horseback or a carpet to rescue the damsel in distress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why is it that the damsel is the one in distress always ? And then comes the DisneyLand itself which is truly magical but is it for real ? But our little girls take all this to heart so much that my little girl at home has this dream of becoming a princess, so she can own not one or two, but copious crowns and gowns, shoes and sandals all in glass and gold, horses and carriages on hold and balls in ballrooms to behold. On me giving her a little reality check that she is the princess at our home, but really only in London do they still have a princess, her number one goal in life today is to become the princess of London, pretty in pink, adorning a crown and wielding a wand not to mention sitting on a gilded throne in the Buckingham Palace with the guards on duty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now is this me who has wanted this kid to become like this or is she a product of the media and the movies where all the celebrities are worshipped in glory, all fancy schmanzy products adorn the papers, TV ads, movies, glossy magazines and shopping malls, and it is ok to keep shopping endless number of shoes and bags, skirts and sandals to fill up wardrobes after wardrobes and then move into a larger posher home so you can keep all the stuff you bought, even if you have to pay for all these through your nose. And ofcourse you have to turn yourself into a super career oriented woman just to keep the lifestyle you have put yourself into.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So at the end of the day, are women benefitted by the way media portrays women or are they being lured into a rat race of pure consumerism and materialism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yes, there is a definite high in being an achiever, but nowadays the achievements are not end goals in themselves, they are not achievements until it has been translated into living in a palatial home, owning a luxury car, sending your children to the highest paid schools and of course taking exotic vacations, because why, you have to keep up with the Joneses, keep up the image of being successful, as if being successful was not enough in itself.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So the day when being successful is enough in itself and does not have to translate into a show off charade, </span>the day the media acts as an inspiration to lead a life of lofty goals, the day media preaches simple living and high thinking, the day our mighty nation goes from a corrupt to a confident nation of citizens living by right conduct, living by inspiration and not by aspiration, that would be the day the media and magazines would have done their real job.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8905442172427013913.post-66323450816257553652013-02-26T01:49:00.001-08:002013-02-26T07:59:37.309-08:00Twilight Twilight Twilight<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Twilight and New Moon is all i read, i mean did, the last two days straight. I have heard the word Twilight thrown around by friends and family but never ever gave it much thought as I really am not into vampire, ghost stuff. What was that series that used to come on TV. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I used to find even the title lame and I just wasn't into supernatural stuff, ever in my life. Ok, I did find the yakshi stories my grandma spun, very interesting and if you are from Kerala, you would too.. they get very eerie and scary, but anyway, for someone who has zero interest in vampire stories, what happens, a pair of vampire books land up on her lap. And that too the first and the second books of the Twilight saga.<br />
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I casually open the first page and she had written beautifully. I cry just upon reading the two liner dedication to her father. If someone where to ask me when i decided to read the book, that is when i decided to read the book, after the two liner dedication, that is.<br />
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And to my utmost delight, it was a chick lit. And you know how girls go gaga over a well written chick lit. And so did I too.<br />
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The first half of the book where she keeps describing how handsome Edward is, is the best. Later part of the book when he takes her to house and after that, the magical lyrical writing of Edward's handsomeness is not there, which left me yearning for writing that just described the beginning of the tender love phase of Edward and Bella.<br />
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I was very confused as to what Edward wanted from her. The prose absolutely brilliant on how he is just twists her words or her normal fears. We as humans would fear for others than ourselves and when Bella does that, the prose about how Edward finds that twisted, is just so well written. Whenever she opens her mouth, for example, she says that the Cullens need to like her, instead of being afraid of going into the vampires house, the way she fears for his life, when she should be afraid of hers, the way she says Alice knows that he is taking Bella away on the Saturday, that conversation among them produces funny feelings to us and we all are so jealous of the love Edward has for Bella.<br />
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Just like Bella, even we cannot understand why he should like Bella in a hundred years, when it is so easy for anyone to just like Edward for his greek god looks.<br />
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So i hope somewhere they do write why Edward falls in love with Bella other than the lame excuse of being a singer. If she were a singer, he should have just had his fill, instead of falling in love. No one falls in love just cuz they cannot hear her thoughts alone. So if somewhere if there is a more plausible explanation of why he falls in love.<br />
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But that is the trick, isn't it. We can easily say why we don't like somebody, but it is very hard for us to pinpoint why we love somebody, why we go that extra mile for friendship with someone else<br />
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NEW MOON<br />
<br />
was a bit of a drag. Even after Edward came into the picture, Stephanie should have caught that moment in paper, in our memories forever, but instead they are just dragged into the situation right away. Yes, she does take it up later in Bella's house and that does give the reader some satisfaction to experience some lengthy conversation between them.<br />
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Jacob is a big drag, and I cannot believe that he takes up 90% of that book. I was about to give up on the Cullen family when Alice appears and then it became interesting to read if they talk about Edward at all.<br />
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So after reading all this, naturally i turn to youtube and just one look at Edward Cullen and I am in love, all over again, with my hubby ofcourse ;)</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0