Alive and Kicking

The ones I've read are in bold.  The ones I've started but not finished are in italics.  And I added three more titles to the end.

001.  The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien

002. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

003. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman

004. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

005. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling

006. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

007. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne

008. 1984, George Orwell

009. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis

010. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

011. Catch-22, Joseph Heller

012. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

013. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks

014. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

015. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

016. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

017. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

018. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

019. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres

020. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

021. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

022. Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, JK Rowling

023. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling

024. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling

025. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

026. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy

027. Middlemarch, George Eliot

028. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving

029. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck

030. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

031. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson

032. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

033. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett

034. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

035. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

036. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

037. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute

038. Persuasion, Jane Austen

039. Dune, Frank Herbert

040. Emma, Jane Austen

041. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery

042. Watership Down, Richard Adams

043. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald

044. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

045. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

046. Animal Farm, George Orwell

047. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

048. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

049. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian

050. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

051. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

052. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck

053. The Stand, Stephen King

054. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

055. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth

056. The BFG, Roald Dahl

057. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome

058. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

059. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer

060. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

061. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman

062. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden

063. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

064. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough

065. Mort, Terry Pratchett

066. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

067. The Magus, John Fowles

068. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

069. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

070. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding

071. Perfume, Patrick Susskind

072. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell

073. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

074. Matilda, Roald Dahl

075. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding

076. The Secret History, Donna Tartt

077. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins

078. Ulysses, James Joyce 

079. Bleak House, Charles Dickens

080. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson

081. The Twits, Roald Dahl

082. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith

083. Holes, Louis Sachar

084. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake

085. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

086. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson

087. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

088. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons

089. Magician, Raymond E Feist

090. On The Road, Jack Kerouac

091. The Godfather, Mario Puzo

092. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel

093. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett

094. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

095. Katherine, Anya Seton

096. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer

097. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

098. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson

099. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot

100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome

102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett

103. The Beach, Alex Garland

104. Dracula, Bram Stoker 

105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz

106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens

107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz

108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks

109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth

110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson

111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy

112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2, Sue Townsend

113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat

114. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy

116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson

117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson

118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

119. Shogun, James Clavell

120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham

121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson

122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray

123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy

124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski

125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver

126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett

127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison

128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle

129. Possession, A. S. Byatt

130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov

131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood

132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl

133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck

134. George's Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl

135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett

136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker

137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett

138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan

139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson

140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson

141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque

142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson

143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby

144. It, Stephen King

145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl

146. The Green Mile, Stephen King

147. Papillon, Henri Charriere

148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett

149. Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian

150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz

151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett

152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett

153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett

154. Atonement, Ian McEwan

155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson

156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier

157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey

158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling

160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon

161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville

162. River God, Wilbur Smith

163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon

164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx

165. The World According To Garp, John Irving

166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore

167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson

168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye

169. The Witches, Roald Dahl

170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White

171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams

173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway

174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco

175. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder

176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson

177. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl

178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

179. Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach

180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery

181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson

182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay

184. Silas Marner, George Eliot

185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis

186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Gross-mith

187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh

188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine

189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri

190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence

191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera

192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons

193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett

194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells

195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans

196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry

197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett

198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White

199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews

201. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien

202. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan

203. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan

204. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan

205. Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan

206. Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan

207. Winter's Heart, Robert Jordan

208. A Crown of Swords, Robert Jordan

209. Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan

210. A Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan

211. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto

212. Microserfs, Douglas Coupland

213. The Married Man, Edmund White

214. Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin

215. The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault

216. Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice

217. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, John Boswell

218. Equus, Peter Shaffer

219. The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten

220. Letters To A Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke

221. Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn

222. The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice

223. Anthem, Ayn Rand

224. The Bridge To Terabithia, Katherine Paterson

225. Tartuffe, Moliere

226. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

227. The Crucible, Arthur Miller

228. The Trial, Franz Kafka

229. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles

230. Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles

231. Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther

232. A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen

233. Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen

234. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton

235. A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry

236. ALIVE!, Piers Paul Read

237. Grapefruit, Yoko Ono

238. Trickster Makes This World, Lewis Hyde

240. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley

241. Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson

242. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny

242. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon

243. Summerland, Michael Chabon

244. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole

245. Candide, Voltaire

246. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Roald Dahl

247. Ringworld, Larry Niven

248. The King Must Die, Mary Renault

249. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein

250. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L'Engle

251. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde

252. The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne

253. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

254. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

255. The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson

256. Chocolate Fever, Robert Kimmel Smith

257. Xanth: The Quest for Magic, Piers Anthony

258. The Lost Princess of Oz, L. Frank Baum

259. Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon

260. Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde

261. Well Of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde

261. Life Of Pi, Yann Martel

263. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver

264. A Yellow Rraft In Blue Water, Michael Dorris

265. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder

267. Where The Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls

268. Griffin & Sabine, Nick Bantock

269. Witch of Black Bird Pond, Joyce Friedland

270. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH, Robert C. O'Brien

271. Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt

272. The Cay, Theodore Taylor

273. From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg

274. The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Jester

275. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin

276. The Kitchen God's Wife, Amy Tan

277. The Bone Setter's Daughter, Amy Tan

278. Relic, Duglas Preston & Lincolon Child

279. Wicked, Gregory Maguire

280. American Gods, Neil Gaiman

281. Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry

282. The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum

283. Haunted, Judith St. George

284. Singularity, William Sleator

285. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson

286. Different Seasons, Stephen King

287. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

288. About a Boy, Nick Hornby

289. The Bookman's Wake, John Dunning

290. The Church of Dead Girls, Stephen Dobyns

291. Illusions, Richard Bach

292. Magic's Pawn, Mercedes Lackey

293. Magic's Promise, Mercedes Lackey

294. Magic's Price, Mercedes Lackey

295. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary Zukav

296. Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Jack L. Chalker

297. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice 

298. The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices, Brenda Love

299. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace

300. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison

301. The Cider House Rules, John Irving

302. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card

303. Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland

304. The Lion's Game, Nelson Demille

305. The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, Stephen Brust

306. Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh

307. Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco

308. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson

309. Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk

310. Camber of Culdi, Kathryn Kurtz

311. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

312. War and Rememberance, Herman Wouk

313. The Art of War, Sun Tzu

314. The Giver, Lois Lowry

315. The Telling, Ursula Le Guin

316. Xenogenesis (or Lilith's Brood), Octavia Butler (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago)

317. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold

318. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold

319. The Aeneid, Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil)

320. Hanta Yo, Ruth Beebe Hill

321. The Princess Bride, S. Morganstern (or William Goldman)

322. Beowulf, Anonymous

323. The Sparrow, Maria Doria Russell

324. Deerskin, Robin McKinley

325. Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey

326. Passage, Connie Willis

327. Otherland, Tad Williams

328. Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay

329. Number the Stars, Lois Lowry

330. Beloved, Toni Morrison

331. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore

332. The mysterious disappearance of Leon, I mean Noel, Ellen Raskin

333. Summer Sisters, Judy Blume

334. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo

335. The Island on Bird Street, Uri Orlev

336. Midnight in the Dollhouse, Marjorie Filley Stover

337. The Miracle Worker, William Gibson

338. The Genesis Code, John Case

339. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevensen

340. Paradise Lost, John Milton

341. Phantom, Susan Kay

342. The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Anne Rice 

343. Anno Dracula, Kim Newman

344: The Dresden Files: Grave Peril, Jim Butcher

345: Tokyo Suckerpunch, Issac Adamson

346: The Winter of Magic's Return, Pamela Service

347: The Oddkins, Dean R. Koontz

348. My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok

349. The Last Goodbye, Raymond Chandler

350. At Swim, Two Boys, Jamie O'Neill

351. Othello, by William Shakespeare

352. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas

353. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats

354. Sati, Christopher Pike

355. The Divine Comedy, Dante

356. The Apology, Plato

357. The Small Rain, Madeline L'Engle

358. The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Richard E Cytowick

359. 5 Novels, Daniel Pinkwater

360. The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Juliet Marillier

361. Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier

362. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

363. Our Town, Thorton Wilder

364. Green Grass Running Water, Thomas King

335. The Interpreter, Suzanne Glass

336. The Moor's Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie

337. The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson

338. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster

339. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

340. The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux

341. Pages for You, Sylvia Brownrigg

342. The Changeover, Margaret Mahy

343. Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

344. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown

345. Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo

346. Shosha, Isaac Bashevis Singer

347. Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck

348. The Diving-bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

349. The Lunatic at Large by J. Storer Clouston

350. Time for bed by David Baddiel

351. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

352. Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre

353. The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley

354. Sewer, Gas, and Eletric by Matt Ruff

355. Jhereg by Steven Brust

356. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane

357. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville

358. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte

359. Road-side Dog, Czeslaw Milosz

360. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje

361. Neuromancer, William Gibson

362. The Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

363. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr

364. The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault

365. The Gunslinger, Stephen King

366. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

367. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke

368. A Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman

369. Ivanhoe, Walter Scott

370. The God Boy, Ian Cross

371. The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Laurie R. King

372. Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson

373. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock

374. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick

375. Assassin's Apprentice, Robin Hobb

376. number9dream, David Mitchell

377. A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin

378. Five Quarters of the Orange, Joanne Harris

379. Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler

380. Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman

381. Dance On My Grave, Aidan Chambers

382. Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Leguin

383. Hyperion, Dan Simmons

384. Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury

385. Checkmate, Dorothy Dunnett

386. To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

387. A Clash of Kings, George RR Martin

388. The Egyptian, Mika Waltari

389. Moab Is My Washpot, Stephen Fry

390. Contact, Carl Sagan

391. Mythago Wood, Robert Holdstock

392. Feersum Endjinn, Iain M. Banks

393. The Golden, Lucius Shepard

394. Decamerone, Boccaccio

395. Birdy, William Wharton

396. The Red Tent, Anita Diaman

397. The Foundation, Isaac Asimov

398. Il Principe, Machiavelli

399. Post Office, Charles Bukowski

400. Macht und Rebel, Abu Rasul

401. Grass, Sheri S. Tepper

402. The Long Walk, Richard Bachman

403. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman

404. The Joy Of Work, Scott Adams

405. Romeo, Elise Title

406. The Ninth Gate, Arturo Perez-Reverte

407. Memnoch the Devil, Anne Rice

408. Dead Famous, Ben Elton

409. Scarlett, Alexandra Ripley

410. Dead Souls, Nikolai Gogol

411. Look to Windward, Iain M. Banks

412. The Colossus of Maroussi, Henry Miller

413. Branded, Alissa Quart

414. The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

415. Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac

416. White teeth, Zadie Smith

417. Under the bell jar, Sylvia Plath (Er, THE BELL JAR, you mean?)

418. The little prince of Belleville, Calixthe Beyala

419. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert

420. A King Lear of the Steppes, Ivan Turgenev

421. The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

422. Memoirs of a Revolutionist, Peter Kropotkin

423. Hija de la Fortuna, Isabel Allende

424. Retrato en Sepia, Isabel Allende

425. Villette, Charlotte Brontë

426. Steppenwolf, Herman Hesse

427. Ubik, Philip K. Dick

428. Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler

429. Solaris, Stanislaw Lem

430. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

431. Nausea, Jean Paul Sartre

432. The Island of the Day Before, Umberto Eco

433. The Elementary Particles, Michel Houellebecq

434. The Angel Of The West Window, Gustav Meyrink

435. A Farewell To Arms, Ernest Hemingway

436. Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs

437. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut

438. In the Eyes of Mr. Fury, Philip Ridley

439. Consider Phlebas, Iain M. Banks

440. Into the Forest, Jean Hegland

441. Middlesex -Jeffrey Eugenides

442. The Giving Tree -Shel Silverstein

443. Go Ask Alice -Anonymous

444. Waiting For Godot, Samuel Becket

445. Blankets, Craig Thompson

446. The Girls' Guide To Hunting And Fishing, Melissa Banks

447. Voice of the Fire, Alan Moore

448. The Geography of Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler

449. Coraline, Neil Gaiman

450. The Circus of Dr. Lao, Charles G. Finney

451. Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins

452. John Lennon: The Lost Weekend, by May Pang and Henry Edwards

453. A Long Fatal Love Chase, Lousia May Alcott

454. Pygmalion, Bernard Shaw

455. Breakfast at Tiffany's, Trumate Capote

456. Skinny Legs And All, Tom Robbins

457. Written On The Body, Jeanette Winterson

458. An Equal Music, Vikram Seth

459. The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury

500. Taliesin, Stephen R. Lawhead

501. The Big U, Neal Stephandsom

502. Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin

503. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe

504. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire

505. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley

506. The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger

507. The Stupidest Angel, Christopher Moore

508.  Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susannah Clarke

509.  Julie of the Wolves, Jean Craighead George

510.  Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson

Currently Reading Horizon Storms (The Saga of Seven Suns, Book 3) By Kevin J. Anderson see related

So, I saw the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in person...

it was cool...

No, it was COLD!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all (belatedly)

Impossible possibilities

For those of you who don't know, I really love good science fiction novels.  Also known in some cases as speculative fiction, this genre of literature provides a wealth of opportunities to speculate about the future or alternative pasts, framing human problems in new perspectives that would be impossible in another genre of fiction.

For example, in the book I just finished, Jack the Bodiless, by Julian May, a very interesting conversation takes place.  In the book, some parts of humanity have evolved psychic powers.  Jack, a child with the most advanced mind yet, uses his tremendous psychic power to read his mothers mind and her memories to become rational and develop language (telepathically) while still in the womb.  Because of this unique (and impossible) situtation, Teresa, Jack's mother, tries to explain the concept of pain and suffering to a fetus who has never experienced any world but the womb, but is about to experience (with a rational mind) the trauma of birth. I wanted to share part of this conversation with you:

 Jack, because he was already rational, would suffer mentally as well as physically during his birth. But Teresa told him she was certain that if he prayed with complete trust, the pain would bring him strength.  If he exerted positive coercion upon both himself and God--which was what "prayer" meant--then the birth ordeal would be in the end a triumphant experience for him, just as similar ordeals had been for mature humans all throughout history.  Enduring the pain in the proper frame of mind could enhance his life in some mysterious way.
   Birth, she explained to Jack, was a great transition---the first of many he would eventually pass through.  He was about to lose forever the sheltered dimness, the suspended comfort and total security of the womb.  He would come out into a world of light where there were opportunities for great joy and satisfaction, for individual types of accomplishment impossible for fetuses dependent upon their mothers.  In this new world, suffering was commonplace--not because the Creator had malicioulsy planned it so, but because of the limitations of the physical universe and the imperfections of living things.  Teresa warned her son that he would not only suffer at birth but also know pain of many different sorts during the independent life that lay ahead of him.  It was part of being human.
     But pain, she said, was a peculiar thing.  Only higher living things had evolved the ability to suffer, and the higher the creature, the more intense its hurts might be--and so pain must have survival value.  She explained to Jack some of its more elementary useful aspects, then went on to discuss the more difficult side of it.  Intense pain could be, and perhaps most often was, degrading to the spirit of rational beings.  However it might also be transformend by directed will-power--prayer--into a thing of great value, something that might enhance a person's own self-worth if he suffered for love of himself, or something that might magnify the worth of the great Mind of the universe if the person was able to suffer for love of others.

There is another passage I like even more, but I will save it for later.  I hope you enjoy this little tidbit.  I recommend the book.

Snow and Learning

I'm flying to Denver, CO tonight for an education convention.  I will be in education-nerd heaven. Three and a half days of learning sessions, resource hoarding, and nametag reading. :)

maybe I'll take a break sometime to play in the snow.