Books to Read

doodles-n-divas

doodles-n-divas

Cathlete
Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.....

Count how many you have read...and how many of those you actually liked! :p I will mark mine with an X for having read it....and a O if I actually liked it too. You may be surprised with your results! :eek: And at least it will give you a list of books to read before you die! LOL! :)

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen XO
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte XO
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee XOOOOOOO
6 The Bible- X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte tried but couldn't get through it
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller - XO
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare I've read some but not all
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger XOOO
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger XOOOOOOO
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell tried again...but no
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald XO
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll XO
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-XO
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden XOOOO
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne XOOO
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown XOOOOO
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving XOOOOOO
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 XO
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel XOOO
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen XO
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 XOO
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez XO
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck XO
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt XO
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold - XO
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 XOO
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville X
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath XO
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 X
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 XOOO
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad X
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 X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl XO
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
My totals.... 35 read :eek:
25 liked :)

I guess I need to get busy with my reading list!!! :rolleyes:
 
Why these books? Are they supposed to be the best ever written, or the most culturally significant? Do we get points if we've seen the movie?:rolleyes:

I read every day, and have for most of my life. Still, I've read only about 20 of the books on the list. Probably 25 if you count those I tried to read but couldn't finish. But I am counting the ones I had to read for school but couldn't remember anything about if you put a gun to my head.

To Kill a Mockingbird - awesome
Nineteen Eighty Four - awesome
Great Expectations - had to read for school, hated
Little Women - loved it
Catcher in the Rye - loved it
Grapes of Wrath - thought it was boring
Alice in Wonderland - OK
The Kite Runner - started out good, ended up disappointing
Winnie the Pooh - awesome
Animal Farm - awesome
The Da Vinci Code - riveting plot, mediocre writing
Dune - OK
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - loved
Of Mice and Men - loved
The Lovely Bones - OK
A Christmas Carol - OK, had to read for school
Madame Bovary - OK, had to read for school
Charlotte’s Web - loved
Hamlet - OK
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - a favorite
 
Yes, some of these I also read in High School or College for class, but still enjoyed them

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen XO
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien XO
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte XO
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling XO
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee XOOO
6 The Bible-
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte X
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell XO
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott XOO
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (just bought this in a used book store!)
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller - tried but couldn't get into
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare I've read some but not all also
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier XOOOO!!
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien XO (read this with my boys when they were 10 and 7 and they also loved it!)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger XOOO
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger XOOOOOOO
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald XO
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky XO
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll XO
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy XO
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-XO
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden XO
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne XO
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell XO
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown XOOOOO
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez XOOOO
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins X- interesting
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood XO
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding XO
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan XOOOOOOO!!
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel X
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 XOOOO
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley XO
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon XOO
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (have on my bookshelf yet to read it)
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck XO
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (also on my bookshelf!)
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold - XO
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac X- one of the worst books ever!!
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding XOO
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker XOO
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett XOO
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 XO
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 XO
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (another on my bookshelf!)
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White XOOO
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn XO
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 XO (read with my older DS)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas XOO
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl XO
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Wow I have a lot of books in my bookcases on this list!! Maybe I should stop going to the library and read some books I have at home!LOL

My total was 45 books read!:)
39 that I liked!

I also read alot and was in a book club, I try to read a variety of books, chicklit, romance, mystery, classics, etc. I love a good story no matter what the genre!!:)



 
Last edited:
I have read about 25 of them. Most of them I enjoyed. I just bought Gone With the Wind. I am still on about chapter 3 or 4.

I absolutely love a good book! I get so excited when we have a new thread about books. Amazon loves me when I get new recommendations here!!!
Jenn
 
Wow!

I read many of those in school. Animal Farm was a good one.

I am going to have to put down my laptop and open a book! Perhaps I will schedule a reading hour each afternoon after the gym.

Thanks for the inspiration!
 
Read 14, liked 8 and dont see many more from that list I care to even read! I like to read, but my book list is quite different!
 
I'm just leaving the books I have read. (I'm indirectly familiar with a LOT of the ones I haven't read, though. Some, I don't remember if I've read--in high school, or just seen the movie of, like "Jayne Eyre"!) Most of what I've read since grad school is French lit. And if there were sci-fi books on the list, my 'have reads' would be much longer.


The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (the entire series)
Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (the entire series, mostly in French, one in English, another in Spanish)
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
Grapes of Wrath
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (part of it: in Spanish)
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Dune - Frank Herbert
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Dracula - Bram Stoker
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Germinal - Emile Zola (In French)
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (in French)
Charlotte’s Web - EB White
The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (in French)
Watership Down - Richard Adams
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (in French)


44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving (NO, but I've read 4-5 of his other works)

I'm familiar with a lot of the classics through movies rather than the novels themselves.

Well, at least now I have a reading list for when I retire, LOL!
 
I've read 42--and enjoyed all of them at least in part. Some I read for school, but many I've read simply because I wanted to. I have a few more on my bookshelves just waiting for me to get around to them. My favorite on the list would probably be 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' by John Irving. Here are the ones I have read:

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
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
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
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
 
I've read 17 on your list and out of the 17, didn't like one. If the book isn't interesting to me within several chapters, I put it down. I don't like to waste my time.

I try and read everyday as a rule. There's nothing like a great book to reward you of your imagination. Or is it the skill of the writer?

There are so many other books out there that are fantastic as well, or not (to each his own).

The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser
Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter
Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Straton-Porter

The list goes on and on...

I'm now reading the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon.

Loved this thread, will finish up on the present books I'm reading and look for more to read. There are some (hope to be) interesting books on your list I will search out.

Janie
4760884_bodyshot_175x233.gif
 
Last edited:
janiejoey said:
There are so many other books out there that are fantastic as well, or not (to each his own).

The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser
Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter
Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Straton-Porter
Click to expand...
Janie,
Your list looks like the kind of stuff I like to read.
I have 'The Host" on MP3 (from Audible).
Should listen to that (but I stopped part-way through a French thriller on MP3 and want to finish that first...if I can remember what was going on in the first place! It's been a while since I listened to the first part).
 
Lets see


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 XOOOOO
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee XO
6 The Bible- X because I was forced to
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X00
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman -X read the 1st one, it sucked, didnt read the rest
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 I've read some but not all
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger X - sucked big time, terrible
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X in high school, it was bad, perhaps I should try again
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky X
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll XO
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis XOOOOOOO all of them
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis XOOOOOOO
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini-
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden XOO
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell XOO
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown XO
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 X don't recall if I liked it
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel X half - couldn't get into it
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 XOOOOOOO
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 XOOOO
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 XOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett XOO
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
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens XOO
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert XOO
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White XOOO
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn
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 XOO
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare XOOO
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl XO
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


That's my list,
Nan
 
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen XO
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien X
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte XO
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee XOOOOOOO
6 The Bible- X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte XO
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott XO
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller -
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (I've read Julius Caesar, MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier XO
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger X (hated it, couldn't follow it)
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell X (I liked the movie better)
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
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky X (dear god what a long and complicated book)
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll XO
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis XO
34 Emma - Jane Austen XO
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis XO
37 The 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
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown XO
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (tried but couldn't get through)
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 X (boring and I hated it)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert X
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen XO
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
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 X
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov XOOOO (named my cat Lola after this book!)
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold - X
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas X (hated it)
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding XOO
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie X (hated it, couldn't follow the story, have the same problem with all of Rushdie's writing)
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 Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
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 XOOO
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn
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 X (hated it!)
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 XO
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo X

33 out of 100! Yikes!

How do you change the color of the font? I can't figure it out.

MC
 
Last edited:
Hi all! Glad there is so much interest in these books...I am not sure why the BBC said we should read them...but I suppose it is because they are classics and/or socially relevant. I know there are TONS of other great books out there...just thought this was an interesting list...especially when I realized how few I had read! :eek:

My favorites..in no particular order...and ones I suggest everyone read when they get a chance....

To Kill a Mockingbird
Catcher in the Rye
The Handmaid's Tale
The Great Gatsby
The Time Traveler's Wife....by far my favorite of this list!
The DaVinci Code
Life of Pi....another really great book!
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Charlotte's Web
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory


It is curious to me that there seem to be many of what I consider classics missing....:confused: The Sound and the Fury--Faulkner, The Scarlett Letter--Hawthorne, anything by Hemingway, Walden's Pond--Thoreau, The Crucible (I know it is a play, but so are Shakespeare's works!), The Jungle--Sinclair, anything by Edgar Allen Poe, Exodus--Leon Uris, anything by Tennessee Williams (again plays..but so what)....and those are just the ones that come to mind that I had to read in high school or college....but aren't on this list...just an interesting aside! ;)


Happy Valentine's Day to all....and happy reading!
 
I've read 41, but, like Kathryn and her French lit, I find myself reading Spanish language novels for my recreational reading. But there are some on that list I'll add to mine!
 
Here's the books I've read off the list:

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible- pieces of it
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller -
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
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
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
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
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold -
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
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 Alborn
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I have to say, of the ones I've read on this list, Anna Karenina and Dune are my absolute favorites. What was the basis of this list? I'm curious since it's an odd mix of classics and some contemporaries. Do you know? Because I agree with others, there are books I would expect to be on a list like this that are missing.

Janie and Kathryn: I love the The Twilight Series and The Host.

Jo
 
Wow...I read all the time but I've only read 7 of these books. I do own many of them but I haven't read them yet.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

For all you readers, there is a website called www.goodreads.com that is a bit like Myspace or Facebook. It's really fun. You can list all the books you've read and review/rate them. You can also list the books you want to read. They have book giveaways and you can have your friends join so you can share the books you are reading with them.

I'm currently reading book 1 from the Twilight Series. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but I'm enjoying it. My BIL even read them and like them!
 
lioness said:
For all you readers, there is a website called www.goodreads.com that is a bit like Myspace or Facebook. It's really fun. You can list all the books you've read and review/rate them. You can also list the books you want to read. They have book giveaways and you can have your friends join so you can share the books you are reading with them.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this link! This looks very interesting!

Jo
 
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible-
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
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 SOME NOT ALL
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
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
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
34 Emma - Jane Austen
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini-
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
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I must be a real nerd (or really old, since I read some of these years ago in school). I counted 68 that I've read plus another 2 that I've seen the movie but not read the book :). I liked almost all of them except Heart of Darkness, Middlemarch & Moby Dick. Oh, anything by Jane Austin got old quickly but the characters are well written.

Geek signing off. ;)
 
Marking those I have read with a "MS":

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien MS - love love love
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte MS - my favourite of the Brontes by far
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling MS - I have two complete sets; does that say anything?
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee MS - love this book - I still rail against the unfairness of it all
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte MS - eh -too much brooding for me
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman MS - brilliantly odd
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott MS - so creepily sentimental but when I was a teen I loved it
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 MS - love love love
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
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 MS - 42
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll MS
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame MS
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy MS - love this one
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens MS
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis MS - so lovely
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis MS
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 - AA Milne MS - fave kids book of all time
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown MS - love how this book made everyone read and debate and think
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving MS - still one of the best books I have ever read
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery MS - love love love
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding MS - had to in school
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert MS
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 MS
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 MS
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas MS
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding MS - so funny
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker MS
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett MS - beautiful book, but I preferred "A Little Princess"
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson Never read this one, but his "Our Mother Tongue" was so freakin' funny
75 Ulysses - James Joyce MS
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
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens MS
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker MS
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 MS
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn
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 MS
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams MS - still makes me cry every time I read it
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 MS
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl MS - love everything by Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

My count is 35 - guess I gotta put down the barbell and pick up the books!
 
Last edited:
I have read 46. Kind of a weird list because they do "the complete works of william shakespeare" and then "hamlet" there is also "the chronicles of narnia" then "the lion the witch and the wardrobe". Kind of weird that there were so many jane austen novels (although i love jane austen). I am currently working on reading several of these (in the middle of david copperfield).
Some I have read and would never put on a must-read type list. Ex: Loved all of the Harry Potter books, but really do not think that they qualify for an "any well educated person should have read" type category.
And I LOOOOOVE Les Mis, should be way higher than #100.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top