A Critique of the BBC's Reading List

I received the below on Facebook from my daughter and I have to say it inspired me to both read some more of the books on the list and perhaps I'll review them as well. Meanwhile the list itself is a little...strange. That is of course assuming that it is the original list and has not been corrupted. I suppose...that I could look it up. But where's the fun in that?

The first characteristic of the list that jumps out at me is that Jane Austen and Charles Dickens' books count individually, JK Rowling's, Shakespeare and CS Lewis do not. The latter two do get double credit for one book, (Lion, Witch and Wardrobe is a subset of the Chronicles of Narnia, and by definition Macbeth is one of the complete works of Shakespeare). It shouldn't be snobbishness--because lumping Rowling with Shakespeare and CS Lewis hardly qualifies. It can't be about effort because then Shakespeare's works would definitely need to be separated as well!

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other
book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7. Wuthering Heights -- Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo



31 Read, 10 additional "started"--there are still others that I've read excerpts from. I'll not count those for now. Anyway--Happy turkey day --cause this blog is about Birds too.

In Memoriam -- Part 1

Darby was the runt of the litter. His two brothers, Gandalf and Rascal, were much bigger, but neither tom was particularly aggressive. We adopted the three of them at about eight weeks of age--not knowing that all three were actually tomcats. We only found that out after their first vet trip and also discovered that Darby was determined to be Alpha male. Day after day, he would launch himself at his brothers--attacking from behind boxes, from above while perched on the couch, even directly assaulting them from the front.

His brothers would slam him to the ground and he would immediately jump back up and attack again. They'd slam him back to the floor and stalk off--only to be bowled over yet again as this little ball of fire slammed into them. Alpha status was Darby's destiny.

Darby got sick while a kitten--his ear got infected, and of course he got really bad over a weekend when the high priced emergency clinics were the only vets open. They categorized him as a "white tiger." When we got home, he was almost immediately bestowed with his first nickname: "Tigey-wigey"--borrowing Sid the sloth's nickname for the sabretooth tiger in "Ice Age." Those nights when he was sick, he slept on my chest. He quickly adopted me as his person.

The antibiotics the vet put Tigey on gave him gas--which earned him next nickname--"Farty McFartfart." That little cat could clear out a room! As Darby got better, he developed an interesting trick. He would announce when he was about to do something we would not approve of--such as jumping into the big banana plant in the corner of our breakfast nook, our climbing the entertainment center or the mantle over the fireplace, (or the Christmas tree, or the curtains, or....). We would hear a "brrrrreeeeeee" followed by rapid paws pounding and skittering across the hardwood and tile floors. In human, we were certain he was shouting out "Kowabunga!"

Darby used to answer the phone when ever it would ring--especially as he slept on a basked full of bills and other mail that we kept on the table in the breakfast nook. We lost that battle with "Mr. T" early. Could you resist this face?

One day a little more then two years ago, as we had Darby and the rest of our pride out back, Darby got stung in the face by a bee--his face swelled up. Of course this happened on a Sunday--so we ran to the Hope Center again. The attending vet heard a heart murmur. A trip to the kitty cardiologist confirmed that our little guy had Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Dr. Tyrrell told us that Darby could live out his life without feeling too much in the ill-effects department.

Wildflower Blooms

Blooming Columbine at the edge of my bird garden.

Native Eastern Plants-- Black Cherry

The Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) trees that grow along my fence line have provided a wonderful food source for a number of my backyard birds. I believe that these are what has attracted my Scarlet Tanagers, Cedar Waxwings and feeds my regular Robins, Blue Jays.
Several species of butterfly and moth like the Black Cherry as well. Unfortunately, the Eastern Tent Caterpillar is one of them. When I do get infestations, I never use pesticides because both in caterpillar and in moth form, they are food for my birds.

Weed or butterfly host plant?

Many gardeners will recognize this picture of plantain, Plantago. I have allowed this weed to remain in my backyard wildlife habitat because it provides food for the caterpillars of Buckeye butterflies and some moth species. Every gardener seems to love butterflies, yet so many do their best to eradicate almost all of the food for their caterpillars.

I learned about this weed from the book Weeds: Friend or Foe?--An illustrated guide to identifying, taming, and using weeds by Sally Roth. I have the Readers Digest version, published in 2002, the version on Amazon has a second author listed--so this paragraph may not apply to the version there. As a gardener whose ambitions are larger than his time available, and of course as an avid bird watcher, I am constantly looking for shortcuts in what I can skip in my yard and can allow to grow as food sources for my backyard denizens. This book was a godsend to me! But, I do find one major flaw in Ms. Roth's book. She does not distinguish enough between common weeds and invasive species. There are many, such as multiflora rose and japanese honeysuckle that birds and pollinating/nectar drinking insects love, but these plants that crowd out our native flora need to be eradicated if we are to help our native animal species survive in our suburban "ecosystem." See Doug Talamy's book and website Bringing Nature Home for a discussion on just how important native plant species are to our local fauna. I am by no means an absolute purist in my garden when it comes to native --and local plants--but I am slowly working on ensuring that the plants in my backyard do the most to help the animal and insect species that should be here.

Backyard Denizens

More Spring Returns

CHIK-burr, CHIK-burr, CHIK-burr

Yet another bird call that I don't recognize when the songster appears in spring. This one is especially hard for me to remember because I hadn't heard nor seen him in years. As a matter of fact I didn't expect to see my Scarlet Tanager since the Town of Vienna allowed a beautiful three acre parcel of hard woods to be nearly clear cut for eight McMansions a few years ago! I learned a few years ago at the Department of Agriculture's Facility in Greenbelt, that the Scarlet Tanager is believed to need three acres of unbroken woods for each pair. I have to say I am very hopeful that these beautiful birds are adapting to their changing environment and learning to live in hedgerows in the suburbs.

I guess the little guy remembered my black cherry trees because there he was tonight on May 19 at 7:45pm , Chik-burring away. I still didn't recognize who was making the call, but as I scooped up Cardiac Cat and carried him toward the sound, the brilliant red with black wings sitting in our black cherry tree became unmistakable. He flitted off of course well before Cardiac Cat and I could get close enough to get a picture. (We'll discuss in a later post how unsuitable the iPhone is for taking bird pictures--especially of shy ones who prefer the canopy!)

Spring Returns

I'd been hearing a song--witchety witchety witchety witch--for the last several days that, for some reason, I can never remember year to year. It wasn't until this morning that I saw my songstress--a female Common Yellowthroat. This is only the second or third year that we've had these guys visiting our yard.

Rosa Rugosa

A bloom from our hedge of rosa rugosa in our backyard habitat. They didn't do so well until we fenced in the yard a few years ago. The deer were great for encouraging the roses to proliferate. Not so much for encouraging blooms.

My Backyard Habitat: Our First Frog

More Backyard Bird Firsts for the Season

Yesterday our Chimney Swifts returned. I love having these guys flying around above our house darting here and there snapping up bugs. I am constantly working on trying to attract more insect eaters to my backyard habitat. This followed the arrival of our first Cat bird on April 25. This morning we were treated to our first Cat bird serenade.

42,000 Reasons a day not to increase Offshore Drilling

The oil lobby says, oh, oil drilling has come a long way, since the bad old days of Santa Barbara. Funny thing is, it goes just fine, except when it doesn't--when birds drown in oil slicks, fish are sickened and die. God help us if this spill reaches the already-endangered wet lands along the Louisiana coast, etc.

(Via Mother Nature Network)

ALL IS NOT WELL: As response teams struggle to plug an underwater oil well that's leaking 42,000 gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico daily, the oil slick on the surface has already tripled in size since Sunday, the Houston Chronicle reports. The sheen now covers 1,800 square miles - up from 600 two days ago - and is steadily drifting toward the U.S. Gulf Coast, threatening disaster for the region's bayous and beaches. The greatest concern is focused on Louisiana's Chandeleur and Breton barrier islands, home to thousands of nesting seabirds, but oyster beds on the eastern side of the Mississippi River are also at risk, as is the commercial oyster fishery that depends on them. "It is an area of great concern, not just for the environment and the fishing but economically, with what it would do to tourism," says an emergency management director in coastal Alabama. "That tax revenue drives the whole state." As winds shift, some experts say the growing oil spill could reach land by this weekend. Meanwhile, officials are still trying to close valves on the leaking well using robot submarines, and say they could install a large dome to cover the leak in as little as two weeks. Family members of oil workers lost in last week's explosion are suing BP and Transocean Ltd., the rig's operator, accusing them of violating safety standards, and the Huffington Post reports today that an offshore-oil advocacy group has been fighting safety regulations for years. In a PowerPoint presentation to federal regulators in 2009, the Offshore Operators Committee asked, "What do HURRICANES and New Rules Have in Common?", followed by a slide answering that "Both are Disruptive to Operations And are costly to Recover From!" (Sources: Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Huffington Post)

Drill Baby Drill...Yeah, right

Via Mother Nature Network: SPILL WATERS RUN DEEP: The well of a sunken offshore oil rig is gushing 42,000 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico daily, creating an environmental disaster in the wake of an explosion that sunk the rig last week and likely killed 11 workers. The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for the missing workers Friday, following reports from surviving crew members that they were near the site of the explosion when it occurred. Meanwhile, response teams scrambled over the weekend to close the rig's leaking well using a robot submarine, necessary because the leak is under about a mile of sea water. After initial attempts failed on Sunday, officials with BP - which owns the rig - said they now plan to lower a large dome over the well, with the goal of funneling the oil up to a collection tank on the surface. High winds and waves have kept skimmer boats (pictured) from cleaning up more than about 48,000 gallons of oil from the surface, letting the oil slick grow to about 600 square miles, although the same weather conditions helped keep it safely away from the Louisiana coast. The slick is expected to remain at least 30 miles off shore for the next three days, but ecologists are worried how it could affect coastal marine life if the oil does eventually drift closer to land. The dome-lowering strategy was used to successfully close oil leaks on damaged oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but BP officials point out it has never been used in water this deep before. (Sources: Houston Chronicle, Associated Press, Reuters)

Bird-brained Means Really Intelligent [Updated]

In my last post, I mentioned that I saw a diseased House Finch while spending time out with our cardiac kitty (of that I'll return). I mentioned that I try to catch the little fellows when I see them, because a course of antiobiotics has been known to cure the eye disease.

Last summer was the first time I made the effort to catch one of these guys. A male had rested on one of my tube feeders and showed little sign of sensing my presence. I spent several days trying to sneak up and put a hat or towel over him. This appeared to cause an interesting change in behavior at my feeders--at least among the House Finches. Prior to my attempting to stalk our sick finch, the flock that fed at my feeders--all commoners in the Mid-Atlantic--was very tame. Several species seemed to differentiate between when I was adding food to the feeders and when I was bringing our cats out--and would actually flock to the feeding spots when I was doing the former. Afterward, I noticed that as soon as I opened our back door, all of the House Finches would fly away.

Not too long after, I read about a study done at the University of Washington about American Crows being able to identify the people who were capturing and banding them and other crows on the campus also identifying the threatening people.

[Updated to correct study location and link to the paper.]

Firsts for the Season

This past week I had the opportunity to spend a bit more time outside than usual. Since I was home sick on Friday and the weather was gorgeous, I spoiled cardiac cat mercilessly by sitting with him for hours in the backyard. On Friday, we saw our first American Goldfinches--both females in their drab olive colors and Saturday we saw our first Chipping Sparrow. Since my backyard bird species count is in the 60's I pay a lot more attention to when birds arrive and their behavior rather than I do for new species.

Sadly we also saw our first House Finch suffering from the finch eye disease. As a result I'll be taking down my feeders and sanitizing them. Because so many people feed birds in this area, I don't really subscribe to the school of thought that I should keep my feeders down for a few weeks to let the feeding flock disperse. I also try to catch these guys and take them to a wild bird rehabilitation specialist in the area, because the disease is treatable.

Happy Easter!

Removing Ad-sense

Ok Google you fail. Your algorithm cannot understand perspective. So, until I stop getting ads for getting rid of birds, and pro oil companies and cell phone companies--ads that are completely contrary to the messages in my postings, I'm removing you.

Backyard Birding 2010

New Years Day 10-1130am
2pm-2:45

Junco male - 12
Cardinals - 3 ( male adult 1; female/ juvenile -2)
Carolina Wren - 2 ( They were singing to each other)
Carolina Chickadee - 2
American Crow - 3
Nuthatch - 1
Titmouse -2
Blue Jay - 1
House Sparrow - 12 (4 male)
House finch - 4 (1 male)
White-throated Sparrow - 2 (1 black/white, 1 blck/brown head strip pattern)
Song Sparrow - 1
Mourning Doves -23
Downy Woodpecker -1

We're concerned we've seen far fewer Juncos this fall and winter than usual, despite the early snow.