The Soundtrack of My Life

While I was listening to Imogen Heap today I realized that for the second time in a month the song I was listening to described my life (well, actually, a line in the song did, the rest of the song is pretty generic). So, instead of try to figure out which one to declare the official theme song of my life, I decided to create a list of songs that make up the Soundtrack of my Life:

1. The line "don't get yourself in situations" from I Am In Love With You - Imogen Heap
Lolo also understands this. :)

2. Taking the Long Way Around - Dixie Chicks
This one is pretty obvious...I can't figure out what is supposed to occur in my life, so I avoid committing to a profession, or to a relationship (although I feel as though I WOULD possibly commit to a relationship if a suitable one presented itself). And the particularities of the song do not correspond to my life, but I wish I was travelling around in a pink RV with stars on the ceiling, possibly one that flew, so I could travel to more places.

3. Is it Any Wonder? - Keane
One of the best lyrics on love I've ever heard: "...love is just a lyric in a children's rhyme." Yes, I'm bitter about love. Who isn't, really? P.S. to my Smug Married friends (especially those of you who didn't date anyone but your spouses, you just won't understand, and that's ok): that was a RHETORICAL QUESTION. Please don't try to contradict me. I know you're blissful, how nice for you. Really, I do think it is nice, I love all of you. But. Don't. Contradict.

4. Easy to Ignore - Sixpence None the Richer
While we are on the cynical-about-love kick, I thought I would throw this in. I will stop whining now, I promise.*

5. Good Love is on the Way - John Mayer
See? I really am optimistic!

6. Why Georgia - John Mayer
He is so wise, especially for someone who also wrote "You're Body is a Wonderland." Which, music wise, I actually like. I really can't bring myself to like lyrics that include the line "bubble gum tongue" though. I'm sorry. I just can't

7. More Than This - Peter Gabriel
Peter (yes, we are on a first name basis. I did listen to him in the womb after all) does such a great job of both summing up life and making you go "huh"? If you think you understand what his lyrics mean, you are probably wrong. Which is similar to how I feel about my life. This song blows my mind...

8. Signal to Noise - Peter Gabriel featuring Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
...but this one does even more. Plus the vocals are insano. And what describes me more than insano vocals? I just don't know.

9. She Stumbles Through the Door - Sarah Masen
This describes perfectly how I feel about my faith right now. Some key lines: "on the pages of a memo were picturesque cliches she once called Providence" and "were the angels fighting demons in the corner of the room or was it happenstance?"

10. Take the Bench - Sloan
"Take the bench, little girl, and sing your little heart out."
Ok, I will.

11. Crystal Ball - Keane
Same ol' "I don't know what is happening" theme. This is pretty much how I feel at all times.

12. Square One - Coldplay
I DO just want somebody listening to what I say. THANK YOU Chris Martin of Coldplay.


*Except to say that I wish "Paperweight" by Josh Radin and Schuyler Fisk was on this list. But alas, it is not. I am really done now, the rest of the list is not whiny at all. Except the YBIAW part, but John can take it.

Time Wasting with Books

Via Paul

"It works like this: The bolded books are books I've read (and even enjoyed) [but not necessarily] ... italicized books I would like to read, books with crosses are on my shelf and asterisked books I've never heard of. The books that are striked out I am unlikely ever to read. The books listed here that haven't felt the touch of my cursor and remain unedited I could care less or more about on any given day.I imagine the books on this list were selected for their best-seller status or something like that."

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) -shh, I know it isn't good, but it's a page turner!
2. †Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. †To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. †The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. †The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. †The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. †Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. †Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) - *shudder*
23. †Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. †Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. †Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. †The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. *The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. †Bible
46. †Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. †Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. †Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. †The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. †The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. †Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. †War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davies)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) - Currently in progress!
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. *Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje) (see #91)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. †The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. *Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. †Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams
87. †Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. *Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje) - I wish I hadn't read this!
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. *The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. *The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. *A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. *The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)