taking a leaf out of xueling’s blog, i’m going to post bbc’s list of 100 books to read – and try to conquer those i’ve bolded before i turn 21 (i.e. 10 may 2011).

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 (work-in-progress)
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 (didn’t enjoy it much though)
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
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 (very, very good book)
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA 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 Nighttime – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (i actually have this in my book collection alr, will try to finish by dec 31 2009)
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold (very dark, but very good book too)
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 (my 15th birthday present from claire)
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 – EB 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 (year 4 language arts text, one of my favourite shakespeare works)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

i actually don’t know how i’m gonna find the money to buy all these books (because i’m so not a library person, but that has to change).

anyway, i made an interesting discovery just the other day. joseph and joanna popped by my place the other day for a break (too much studying + essaying) and he commented that my dining table became my tv rack. then i remembered that a few months ago, i shifted the furniture in my apartment around so i could create a “reading alcove” of sorts. my tv rack became a book shelf/dumping ground, and together with my (proper) bookshelf and rocking chair from ikea, it became my reading corner. my dining table, as mentioned, is now my tv rack, rendering me no place to eat.

and then it hit me: reading is a higher priority in my life, as opposed to eating! (add crazy laughter here)

it’s kind of true though; a good book can feed you better sometimes – compared to a crap meal. haha.

–

today isn’t a great day, and the 34degrees celsius weather isn’t helping. but lygon court’s aircon is quite powerful and i’m sitting here alone. gonna continue revision for my paper on wed.

no matter what, my God is bigger and stronger. His power is not dictated by the weather, or the date. &i’m going to believe in that.

in the meantime, i’m craving for some company at lygon court. but i think sigmund’s still sleeping (he has the privilege of having an aircon, lucky bugger) and noone else i know will be popping by anytime soon. but it’s okay. all’s good. (:

everyone study hard + smart! and drink more water, it’s too hot not to hydrate yourself more.

xo,
d

it’s so sad that writing letters is becoming a lost art. i’d prefer handwritten notes any day. (:

–

and on a very random note, i’m feeling quite hopeful about my essays. i just have to sit down, ignore my back pain and focus. with Jesus, i can do this!

everyone, please drink heaps of water and eat healthily. it’s a terrible time to fall ill. so, drink more water!

and last but not least…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GORGEOUS GRACE GOH!
love you heaps, and i hope you enjoyed your special day!

okay, jiayou everyone – study hard and smart :D

xo,
d

satisfy
; tenth avenue north
(cover by deborah ng)

before the sun has touched the sky
colours bursting from Your eyes
before the flood of the morning light
before the earth has felt Your heat
before i stand up to my feet
before i begin to feel this weak

satisfy me Lord of all
satisfy me Lord of all
i’m begging You, to help me see
You’re all i want, You’re all i need
oh, satisfy me Lord

when the day is closing in
like the stars in the night i am falling
into the pull of the earth and its affection
in me, oh Lord, can you create
a pure heart ‘cos i’m afraid
that i just might run back to the things i hate

satisfy me Lord of all
satisfy me Lord of all
i’m begging You, to help me see
You’re all i want, You’re all i need
oh, satisfy me Lord

You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful
You’re more than all this world can give
You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful
Your love is all i need to live

You’re beautiful, You’re beautiful
You’re more than all this world can give
You’re beautiful, more beautiful
Your love is all i need to live ♥

satisfy me Lord of all
satisfy me Lord of all
i’m begging You, to help me see
You’re all i want, You’re all i need
oh, satisfy me Lord

–

video by the very awesome debs! :D

this song (and its very heartfelt rendition) helped me get my thinking straight. it’s crunch time; our thoughts might fly everywhere, but His thoughts and His heart are always with us. and only He can satisfy. that is the truth, and the only truth.

&i’m gonna abide by it.

thank you Lord, for bringing me so far; and for bringing me further. i love You!

NEED. DIVINE. INTERVENTION.

Jesus, pretty please? (:

nowadays, whenever i see “private number” flashing across the blinking screen of my mobile phone, i start wondering if everything back home is okay. but now i realise that medical emergencies are not the only emergencies that can happen, that some things are important as well.

my mum called earlier to recount to me what her sister-in-law (my aunt) said to her earlier today. my aunt was extremely upset as my cousin got married recently, and quit her job to go to bible college. all my cousin could say about her decision is that my aunt should stop worshipping money, which made her even more upset as she is a non-believer.

to not worship money is to trust in God’s provision, and trust completely in Him. to non-believers, they think this is a flawed and empty concept where we wait on God to throw down money from the sky (or at least that’s what my dad thinks). what does it truly mean when we say we trust God to provide? and how do we explain what we believe in to non-believers?

my mum was very appalled at my cousin’s actions, and she (my mum) kept reiterating that money is important; that we can’t survive on grass, air and water (actually, we have to pay for the water anyhow). i’m slowly beginning to realise this as time goes by, that every single dollar we spend is precious. yet again, it isn’t the most important thing. how many have achieved economic success and realised that their life is empty? how do we then, strike the balance?

it all comes from God, no matter how we try to rationalise it. the ability to purchase things and fill our fridge, the strength to study and work, everything comes from Him. but now i need to find out from Him, how exactly to help others make sense of this. (:

sushi ten and coffee makes me a happy girl. praise God for creating coffee beans and salmon. :D

when non-christian guys notice christian girls, i like to think that they see beyond beauty. perhaps they see a little of Christ in the girls.

(don’t worry, nobody notices me. it’s not hard not to, since i’m in crap clothes and my hair is beyond messy every single day, and that i practically live in frank tate. hahaha)

okay, back to essays.

it’s funny, when i was sitting at home wolfing down homecooked marinara aglio olio when i was struck with inspiration to blog. so, i asked God if i should blog in the midst of dinner, and He told me to start blogging at frank tate. but now that i’m sitting here, i completely can’t remember what i wanted to blog about!

this is terrible. hahahah.

–

it’s the exam period and i really haven’t seen anyone properly in ages. for all who have been awesome study partners at frank tate – thank you for the jokes, the laughter, the drama, the food, and awesome company, and – above all – the encouragement. (:

in the long run, exams aren’t that important. seriously. when we think about it now, it seems to be the foundation of our world. some of us define ourselves by our results, others by the faculty we are in. but after we leave university, what then? the lines get blurred. you find yourself lost, in the midst of confusion.

and then we start to wonder, why did we let the exams get to us, when there were so many other things out there demanding our attention?

don’t get me wrong; exams (and final assignments) are important. but then i’ve come to realise that they shouldn’t be our number one priority. our lives shouldn’t come to a standstill just because we’ve got papers lined up and essays to finish. He has won the victory and done the miracle; we should rest in His provision and be still.

yes, it’s easier said than done, and to do that is a learning process too. but hey, learning to lean on His strength is better than struggling to do it on your own for every single semester yeah?

–

oh, i finally remembered what i wanted to blog about.

as a human being, i struggle a lot with the idea of grace. and the idea of letting go. i love the fact that God sent Jesus down to earth to die for me on the cross, just so i can have a relationship with both of them, but sometimes i feel unworthy.

sometimes, we humans struggle but choose to keep it under wraps because we think we’re the only ones. but i think that’s one of the biggest lies of the devil – that we are alone. the devil knows that we are most vulnerable when we are alone, and that’s where he gets us the most.

this morning, i came across an “interesting” blog criticising some things my home church (planetshakers city church) chooses to do. and, i’d be lying if i say that it didn’t affect me.

and then as God started to counter every argument that came into my head, i realised that nothing should ever take precedence, except our relationship with Him. we attend church, not worship the church. we worship God, not attend to God. it’s easy to criticise, but not easy to realise that we do wrong.

coming from a huge church with an international following, it’s easy to fall into the trap where we get comfortable. complacent. and we forget why we do what we do in the first place.

we longed for love, and He gave it to us. He is love.

<3

–

someday, i’m gonna be free. or rather, i’ll be free after november 24th!!! :D

before then, it’s essays and notes and readings galore. but it’ll all be worth it in the end.

all the best for exams – i’ll be praying! partner with the holy spirit, let him in, rest in His presence, and never forget how much he loves you. (:

love you guys!

xo,
d

I’m not shouting I’m clean livin’. I’m whispering I was lost, now I’m found. When I say I am a Christian, I don’t speak of this with pride. I’m confessing that I stumble & need Christ to be my guide. When I say I am a Christian, I’m not trying to be strong. I’m professing that I’m weak & need His strength to carry on. When I say I am a Christian, I’m not bragging of success. I’m admitting I have failed & need God to clean my mess. When I say I am a Christian, I’m not claiming to be perfect, my flaws are far too visible, but God believes I am worth it. When I say I am a Christian, I still feel the sting of pain. I have my share of heartaches so I call upon His name. When I say I am a Christian, I am not holier than thou, I’m just a simple sinner who received God’s good grace, somehow.

-Maya Angelou

officially missing you
; tamia
(covered by jayesslee)

all i hear is raindrops
falling on the rooftop
oh baby tell me why’d you have to go
’cause this pain i feel
it won’t go away
and today i’m officially missing you

i thought that from this heartache
i could escape
but i fronted long enough to know
there ain’t no way
and today
i’m officially missing you

ooh… can’t nobody do it like you
said every little thing you do
hey baby say it stays on my mind
and i, i’m officially…

all i do is lay around
two years full of tears
from looking at your face on the wall
just a week ago you were my baby
now i don’t even know you at all
i don’t know you at all

well i wish that you would call me right now
so that i could get through to you somehow
but i guess it’s safe to say baby safe to say
that i’m officially missing you

ooh… can’t nobody do it like you
said every little thing you do
hey baby say it stays on my mind
and i, i’m officially…

well i thought i could just get over you baby
but i see that’s something i just can’t do
from the way you would hold me
to the sweet things you told me
i just can’t find a way to let go of you

ooh… can’t nobody do it like you
said every little thing you do
hey baby say it stays on my mind
and i, i’m officially…

it’s official
you know that i’m missing you
yeah yes
all i hear is raindrops
and i’m officially missing you

–

i love these two gorgeous girls from sydney who are also mighty talented (:

sigh, really tired. i wonder how people start studying at frank tate from week 1 onwards. really admire them.

okay, swotvac here i come :D