I'm busy today aren't I? Honestly I started this book at it was just about the quickest read ever.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

I'm sure I'd heard the title of the book before but I've never actually read it or heard anything about it. I picked it up on a whim and I'm glad I did.

Now I'm not really into 'literary' books, and certainly not ones that deal with life after death, but the concept is so interesting that I couldn't resist. The basic idea is this - what if heaven isn't all clouds and angels, but is instead a place where five people who were involved in your life explain it to you. They may be people who you've never heard of, or only vaguely had a connection to, but your life and their life were linked in an important way somehow.

At the start of the book - which begins one hour before Eddie dies - we think we know everything we'd need to know about him. He's 87, a widower, a war veteran who walks with a cane, and he works at Ruby Pier fixing and maintaining the rides. There is an accident and he pushes a little girl out of the way... and wakes up in heaven where he learns he is to meet five people. As the peices come together we slowly learn why a blue man from a freakshow, a diner waitress, a vietnemese girl, his old army captain, and his wife have to teach him about his life to help him make peace with it.

Like I said,, on the surface this wasn't my cup of tea. But it was incredibly touching. Yes heaven isn't explained in full - there are certainly a few logical problems with this ideal - but that's not the point. The point the story makes is that lives are all interconnected and what happens to us is rarely the result of our actions alone. While that could be depressing, it's also a hopeful message.


1001 Novels You Must Read Before You Die
Starting Point: 29
Current Point: 57
Realistic Goal: 300 (I should finish, reading one a week, in about 5 years!)

Adams, Douglas: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Adams, Douglas: Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy
Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women
Atwood, Margaret: The Handmaid's Tale
Austen, Jane: Emma
Austen, Jane: Mansfield Park
Austen, Jane: Northanger Abbey
Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice
Austen, Jane: Sense and Sensibility
Bronte, Anne: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Bronte, Charlotte: Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily: Wuthering Heights
Carroll, Lewis: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Christie, Agatha: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Cunningham, Michael: The Hours
Dickens, Charles: Bleak House
Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Hound of the Baskervilles
du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca
Dumas, Alexander: The Count of Monte-Cristo
Eugenides, Jeffrey: The Virgin Suicides
Forster, E. M: A Room With a View
Forster, E. M: Howard's End
Gaskell, Elizabeth: Cranford
Gaskell, Elizabeth: North and South
Gibbons, Stella: Cold Comfort Farm
Grossmith, George: Diary of a Nobody
Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Haggard, H. Rider: King Solomon's Mines
Hugo, Victor: Les Miserables
Ishiguro, Kazuo: The Remains of the Day
Kafka, Franz: The Metamorphosis
Lawrence, D. H: Lady Chatterly's Lover
Lee, Harper: The Kill a Mocking Bird
Levy, Andrea: Small Island
Lindegren, Astrid: Pippi Longstocking
London, Jack: The Call of the Wild
Martel, Yann: Life of Pi
Nabokov, Vladimir: Lolita
Orwell, George: Animal Farm
Poe, Edgar Allen: The Fall of the House of Usher
Poe, Edgar Allen: The Pit and the Pendulum
Queneau, Raymond: Exercises in Style
Schlink, Bernhard: The Reader
Shelley, Mary Woolstonecraft: Frankenstein
Stevenson, Robert Louis: The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde
Stevenson, Robert Louis: Treasure Island
Stoker, Bram: Dracula
Verne, Jules: Around the World in 80 Days
Walker, Alice: Possessing the Secret of Joy
Walker, Alice: The Color Purple
Walpole, Horace: The Castle of Otranto
Wharton, Edith: The House of Mirth
Wilde, Oscar: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Wyndham, John: The Midwich Cuckoos
Wodehouse, P. G: Thank You Jeeves


1001 Novels You Must Read Before You Grow Up (and yes, there are crossovers between the lists.)
Starting Point: 61
Current Point: 69
(For reference I'm only going to read books from ages 8+, anything below that age range was already read before starting this)

The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher
The Story of the Root Children
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck
The Cat in the Hat
Green Eggs and Ham
Father Christmas
Burglar Bill
The Snowman
Can't you Sleep, Little Bear?
A Visit From St. Nicholas
Grimms' Fairy Tales
The Emperor's New Clothes
The Ugly Duckling
The House that Jack Built
Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories
Pippi Longstocking
The Worst Witch
Matilda
Tales from Shakespeare
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
A Christmas Carol
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
A Little Princess
The Secret Garden
Mary Poppins
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Hurrah for St. Trinian's
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
James and the Giant Peach
Stig of the Dump
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Magic Finger
The Carpet People
The Indian in the Cupboard
Goodnight Mister Tom
The BFG
The Demon Headmaster
The Sheep-Pig
The Snow Spider
Bill's New Frock
Truckers
Only You Can Save Mankind
Johnny and the Bomb
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Skellig
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Artemis Fowl
The Graveyard Book
Gulliver's Travels
Little Women
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole
Madame Doubtfire
Flour Babies
Witch Child
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Young Visiters
Around the World in 80 Days
War Horse
Peter Pan
The Call of the Wild
Tom's Midnight Garden
Ballet Shoes

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My Private To-Read List
Books Read: 15

Further Reading

Forster, E. M: Maurice
Ishiguro, Kazuo: Never Let Me Go

Classics

Irving, Washington: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
James, Henry: The Turn of the Screw

Recommended

Austen, Jane and Grahame-Smith, Seth: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. (recommendation by a friend)
Gaiman, Neil: Neverwhere (read previous books)
Jones, Lloyd: Mister Pip  (celebrity recommendation)
Larsson, Stieg: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (booksyoushouldread recommendation)
McCall Smith, Alexander: The Saturday Tent Wedding Party (read previous books)

I Liked the Look of Them

Albom, Mitch: The Five People you Meet in Heaven
Grogan, John: Marley & Me
Salamon, Julie: The Christmas Tree
Shriver, Lionel: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Trashy But Fun

Beaumont, Matt: e Squared
Orlov, Aleksandr: A Simples Life