Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read.
2) Add a ‘+’ to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total and put it in the title.
1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen (X+)
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien (X+)
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte (X)
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling (X)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee ()
6 The Bible (X+)
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte ()
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell (X)
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman (X )
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens (X )
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott (X)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy (X)
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller ( )
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (many)
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier (X)
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien (X+)
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk ( )
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger (X)
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger ( )
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot ( )
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell (X+)
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald (X)
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens ( )
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy (X++ )
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams ( X)
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh ( )
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky (X)
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck (X)
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll (X)
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame (X)
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (X)
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens ( )
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis (X+)
34 Emma – Jane Austen (X)
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen (X)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis (X+)
37. Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini ( )
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres ( )
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden ( X)
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne (X)
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell ( X)
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 – ( )
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery (X)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy ( )
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (X)
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding (X)
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan ( )
51 Life ofPi – Yann Martel ( )
52 Dune – Frank Herbert (X )
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons (x-some, favorite movie)
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen (X)
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth ( )
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon ( )
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens (X)
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley (X)
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 (skimmed-hated)
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas (X)
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 (X )
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett (X)
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson ( )
75 Ulysses – James Joyce ( )
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath ( )
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome ( )
78 Germinal – Emile Zola ( )
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray ()
80 Possession – AS Byatt (X)
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (X)
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 (X)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom ( )
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (X )
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton ( )
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad (X )
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery (X)
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks ( )
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams (X)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Toole ( )
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas ( )
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare (X+)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl (X)
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo ( )
I often find that “great classics,” especially ones originating in the 20th century, are lacking. That having been said, when my mother forced me to read To Kill A Mocking Bird, I found that I was glad I did. It’s really good. Or at least tenth grade Josh thought so.
Several of the books on this list are ones I had to read. One or two are books I’d rather not have read. Most of the books I had to read, I appreciated however. And War and Peace, which I never would have read if I had not been assigned it for school, is now my favorite book.
I notice this book had quite a few what I think of as actually good books (Lewis, Tolkien), some classics, and some of those books that I feel people wish were classics, but which aren’t very good. But I’ve learned to be slower to judge than I used to be…ever since the time I opined that I didn’t get why anyone read The Great Gatsby, and a friend responded that it was his all-time favorite novel. ;-)
I still need to read that book. LOVED the film.
It’s interesting to note that there are more than 100 books on here. All of the HP books, for example, would mean the total would be 106, plus all three of the LOTR books would bring it to 108. I just think that’s kind of a strange contraction of the list, especially since not all of Dickens is included.
oh, yeah
and “The Complete Works of Shakespeare” appears as item 14, yet Hamlet is listed separately.
Re: oh, yeah
It seems to be a rather random list. Dickens is listed in several places, and in some cases I’ve read other books by the author they chose, but not the ones on the list. Looks like someone drew it up rather quickly.
Re: oh, yeah
I think they wanted me to read Oedipus Rex at least 4 times at William and Mary.
Classical Studies (mythology)
Drama (playwriting)
English — I forget which courses, but I swan I had it twice. Perhaps for comparative literature and epic and romance. Perhaps.
Blech. I’d rather have had triple doses of King Arthur. I did get him in Victorian literature and Epic and Romance. I also used an early version for a Celtic studies paper in anthro.
Re: oh, yeah
We had that with Phaedra/Hyppolitus at SJC. We translated one in Greek class and the other in French. Some people got mightily tired of the story!
Re: oh, yeah
Likewise the whole Chronicles of Narnia (33), and LWW (36) — they’re practically right next to each other on the list.
My total is 34. I find it hard to believe that the average person has read only 6 of them, what with school requirements and the several kid’s books.
Re: oh, yeah
Is that thirty four on the list…or thirty four counting Narnia as 7? (Just wondering how to count mine.)
Re: oh, yeah
34/100 entries on the list.
I did give myself a point for the two collections I haven’t read all of, though (Shakespeare and the Bible). I may have missed a Holmes story or two, as well.
The list seems a little weirder every time I look at it. Why is Jane Austen scattered like that? Why those translations, since a list that leaves off Goethe and Dante isn’t a best-ever list? And why couldn’t they leave off Dan Brown? (Well, I suppose I know the answer to that, but it’s depressing to think that DVC is one of the 6/100 books the BBC expects you to have read.)
I took that on Facebook and got 44. I can’t say I remember the plots too well on some of them…
As an eyeball check, I come up with ~30 out of the 100 that I have read.
27 of the 100 I am pretty sure I have read, with another 11 that I’m either not sure I read, or I read part of it but never finished, or I read a kid’s version of the real novel.
I often find that “great classics,” especially ones originating in the 20th century, are lacking. That having been said, when my mother forced me to read To Kill A Mocking Bird, I found that I was glad I did. It’s really good. Or at least tenth grade Josh thought so.
Several of the books on this list are ones I had to read. One or two are books I’d rather not have read. Most of the books I had to read, I appreciated however. And War and Peace, which I never would have read if I had not been assigned it for school, is now my favorite book.
I notice this book had quite a few what I think of as actually good books (Lewis, Tolkien), some classics, and some of those books that I feel people wish were classics, but which aren’t very good. But I’ve learned to be slower to judge than I used to be…ever since the time I opined that I didn’t get why anyone read The Great Gatsby, and a friend responded that it was his all-time favorite novel. ;-)
Geek Award
Heh…do I get a geek award of some kind for having 48?
I don’t think so. I think it was luck. Some of these are classics… but some are just good books or popular books. I think I just lucked into having read some of these, because there are so many other choices they could have made where I would have read more or less.
Still, I was embarrassed that I couldn’t break 50.
Re: Geek Award
The mix of titles was wierd. If they’re going for stuff that made the zeitgeist, why not the gorram-awful Bridges of Madison County? Why Five People You Meet in Heaven instead of Tuesdays with Morrie? Or The Secret Seven for Enid Blyton? And if they’re going for “great classics” what is the Da Vinci Code doing on there?
That said I got 46 by a quick count. Sadly re-reading (LOTR 35+ times, Narnia ditto) doesn’t up your score :-)
Re: Geek Award
I think that makes us tied. Going back, I realized that the 48 included “all of Shakespeare” when I’ve only read some, and Cold Comfort Farm, which I’ve only read part of. ;-)
It’s interesting to note that there are more than 100 books on here. All of the HP books, for example, would mean the total would be 106, plus all three of the LOTR books would bring it to 108. I just think that’s kind of a strange contraction of the list, especially since not all of Dickens is included.
oh, yeah
and “The Complete Works of Shakespeare” appears as item 14, yet Hamlet is listed separately.
Re: oh, yeah
It seems to be a rather random list. Dickens is listed in several places, and in some cases I’ve read other books by the author they chose, but not the ones on the list. Looks like someone drew it up rather quickly.
I took that on Facebook and got 44. I can’t say I remember the plots too well on some of them…
Re: oh, yeah
I think they wanted me to read Oedipus Rex at least 4 times at William and Mary.
Classical Studies (mythology)
Drama (playwriting)
English — I forget which courses, but I swan I had it twice. Perhaps for comparative literature and epic and romance. Perhaps.
Blech. I’d rather have had triple doses of King Arthur. I did get him in Victorian literature and Epic and Romance. I also used an early version for a Celtic studies paper in anthro.
I’ve read 30, and partially read 5 or 6 more. Not too bad for 26 years, but I could do better. Phooey. :)
Why is Swallows and Amazons on here? I mean, I read it as a kid and remember liking it, but it seems like a random choice. But then, a lot of these seem like random choices. No Madeleine L’Engle? No Chesterton??
What I would like to read and haven’t is the Faraway Tree books. They are so popular elsewhere, yet no one in America seems to have heard of them. (At least, I think they are the books I’m thinking of.)
It’s definitely not a well drawn up list -Complete works of Shakespeare in one spot and then Hamlet?
I’ve read 31 of them, most of the children’s books, most of the ones which could be defined as science fiction, and a fair number of the more popular pre-copyright classics.
Re: oh, yeah
Likewise the whole Chronicles of Narnia (33), and LWW (36) — they’re practically right next to each other on the list.
My total is 34. I find it hard to believe that the average person has read only 6 of them, what with school requirements and the several kid’s books.
Re: oh, yeah
We had that with Phaedra/Hyppolitus at SJC. We translated one in Greek class and the other in French. Some people got mightily tired of the story!
Re: oh, yeah
Is that thirty four on the list…or thirty four counting Narnia as 7? (Just wondering how to count mine.)
As an eyeball check, I come up with ~30 out of the 100 that I have read.
Re: oh, yeah
34/100 entries on the list.
I did give myself a point for the two collections I haven’t read all of, though (Shakespeare and the Bible). I may have missed a Holmes story or two, as well.
The list seems a little weirder every time I look at it. Why is Jane Austen scattered like that? Why those translations, since a list that leaves off Goethe and Dante isn’t a best-ever list? And why couldn’t they leave off Dan Brown? (Well, I suppose I know the answer to that, but it’s depressing to think that DVC is one of the 6/100 books the BBC expects you to have read.)
27 of the 100 I am pretty sure I have read, with another 11 that I’m either not sure I read, or I read part of it but never finished, or I read a kid’s version of the real novel.
Geek Award
Heh…do I get a geek award of some kind for having 48?
I don’t think so. I think it was luck. Some of these are classics… but some are just good books or popular books. I think I just lucked into having read some of these, because there are so many other choices they could have made where I would have read more or less.
Still, I was embarrassed that I couldn’t break 50.
I’ve read 30, and partially read 5 or 6 more. Not too bad for 26 years, but I could do better. Phooey. :)
Why is Swallows and Amazons on here? I mean, I read it as a kid and remember liking it, but it seems like a random choice. But then, a lot of these seem like random choices. No Madeleine L’Engle? No Chesterton??
I still need to read that book. LOVED the film.
It’s definitely not a well drawn up list -Complete works of Shakespeare in one spot and then Hamlet?
I’ve read 31 of them, most of the children’s books, most of the ones which could be defined as science fiction, and a fair number of the more popular pre-copyright classics.
What I would like to read and haven’t is the Faraway Tree books. They are so popular elsewhere, yet no one in America seems to have heard of them. (At least, I think they are the books I’m thinking of.)
I got 62. Maybe I shouldn’t claim the complete works of Shakespeare, though–I may have skipped Titus Andronicus and Henry VI! This is a very odd list! And I ask myself: how did I not read Gone with the Wind? I know why I haven’t read some of the Thomas Hardy novels, though: I read Tess and didn’t want to read another! I love lists like this because they give me ideas of things to look for at the library.
What did you think of Possession? I thought it was a tour de force with all that fake Victorian poetry and prose, but the modern couple was irritatingly postmodern. The Victorian couple was at least understandable and even appealing, in a way.
Sorry–anonymous with 62 was me! I forgot to log in.
I love Gone With the Wind. It’s one of my five top favorite books. It’s just so very well done with so much…there’s much more to the book than is in the movie. (The movies mainly about the romance. The book is about much much more.)
As to Possession: I liked the mood, but the story did not really hold me. I agree with your take on the modern couple.
Have you read Green Darkness? So far as I know, it was the first past present couple story. I always think of it when I come upon books that span time (which are pretty common now.)
62 is pretty impressive! ;-)
Does it count if you’ve seen the movie versions? :P
I was trying to decide that myself. I could up my number if I added movies. but since their claim was people had not read the book…probably not. ;-)
I got 62. Maybe I shouldn’t claim the complete works of Shakespeare, though–I may have skipped Titus Andronicus and Henry VI! This is a very odd list! And I ask myself: how did I not read Gone with the Wind? I know why I haven’t read some of the Thomas Hardy novels, though: I read Tess and didn’t want to read another! I love lists like this because they give me ideas of things to look for at the library.
What did you think of Possession? I thought it was a tour de force with all that fake Victorian poetry and prose, but the modern couple was irritatingly postmodern. The Victorian couple was at least understandable and even appealing, in a way.
Sorry–anonymous with 62 was me! I forgot to log in.
Does it count if you’ve seen the movie versions? :P
I love Gone With the Wind. It’s one of my five top favorite books. It’s just so very well done with so much…there’s much more to the book than is in the movie. (The movies mainly about the romance. The book is about much much more.)
As to Possession: I liked the mood, but the story did not really hold me. I agree with your take on the modern couple.
Have you read Green Darkness? So far as I know, it was the first past present couple story. I always think of it when I come upon books that span time (which are pretty common now.)
62 is pretty impressive! ;-)
I was trying to decide that myself. I could up my number if I added movies. but since their claim was people had not read the book…probably not. ;-)
Hmph. What kind of list is this?
Only 37. And Les Mis was the abridged version because I couldn’t keep awake for the longer version. Mr Hugo uses a great many words to say very little of value to his story (yes, I know he was doing more social commentary, but holy cow! That’s why I never bothered with the Hunchback)
I don’t think much of this list! Its missing so many great books. No Canterbury Tales?
And some of these are merely OK books – A Brave New World is amazing for its predictions in 1934 on the attitudes about sex and human life in the future, but it really isn’t a very good story in itself.
I’d rather read A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder than some of these ‘classics’. They are well told, and quite funny!
Speaking of well told and quite funny…
One of my favorite unknown “classics” is George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London (which may be the first ‘Down and Out’ book. I’m not sure.)
Anyway, it is a hilarious book. You wouldn’t know how funny he can be from 1984 and Animal Farm. It describes his life being down and out in Paris and London, but it does it soooo well, and the exploits are so sad yet funny.
http://www.amazon.com/Down-Paris-London-George-Orwell/dp/015626224X
Hmph. What kind of list is this?
Only 37. And Les Mis was the abridged version because I couldn’t keep awake for the longer version. Mr Hugo uses a great many words to say very little of value to his story (yes, I know he was doing more social commentary, but holy cow! That’s why I never bothered with the Hunchback)
I don’t think much of this list! Its missing so many great books. No Canterbury Tales?
And some of these are merely OK books – A Brave New World is amazing for its predictions in 1934 on the attitudes about sex and human life in the future, but it really isn’t a very good story in itself.
I’d rather read A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder than some of these ‘classics’. They are well told, and quite funny!
Speaking of well told and quite funny…
One of my favorite unknown “classics” is George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London (which may be the first ‘Down and Out’ book. I’m not sure.)
Anyway, it is a hilarious book. You wouldn’t know how funny he can be from 1984 and Animal Farm. It describes his life being down and out in Paris and London, but it does it soooo well, and the exploits are so sad yet funny.
http://www.amazon.com/Down-Paris-London-George-Orwell/dp/015626224X
Re: Geek Award
The mix of titles was wierd. If they’re going for stuff that made the zeitgeist, why not the gorram-awful Bridges of Madison County? Why Five People You Meet in Heaven instead of Tuesdays with Morrie? Or The Secret Seven for Enid Blyton? And if they’re going for “great classics” what is the Da Vinci Code doing on there?
That said I got 46 by a quick count. Sadly re-reading (LOTR 35+ times, Narnia ditto) doesn’t up your score :-)
Re: Geek Award
I think that makes us tied. Going back, I realized that the 48 included “all of Shakespeare” when I’ve only read some, and Cold Comfort Farm, which I’ve only read part of. ;-)
Hah, I’ve read precisely 6 of these books, though I have about half of them on my shelves… just need the time to read some of them.
Hah, I’ve read precisely 6 of these books, though I have about half of them on my shelves… just need the time to read some of them.