Read Books Meme
[Via kitsunealyc and ivan23.]
My comments on this list: No The Sound and the Fury, and it has a few books that cause me to shudder. That said, it, like any "canon," is a good talking-point.
According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on their list.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
(4. Put parentheses around the ones you started but didn't finish.)
The List
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) (...ish. I'm most of the way through it.)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
(6. The Bible) (...ish. I read the bulk of the Old Testament, the Gospels, and a smattering of newer stuff.)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
(8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell)
(9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman) (read 2/3 of it)
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) (Most of it; I think I'm missing a history or three.)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
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 - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
(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 (read it when I was young and loved it then; perhaps less now)
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (I agree with kitsunealyc that this is a subset of #33)
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
(41. Animal Farm - George Orwell)
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (Why is this here?)
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 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
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
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 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 Woot for 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 (I always loved Conrad's imagery.)
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 (again, a subset of #14)
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
I've clearly read less of this list than I would have liked, but a number of the classics aren't really my bag. Still, it's good to be at least vaguely completist about these things....
ETA: gollumgollum pointed out that this list seems to be a chimera. Check out this post that someone made exploring the topic more fully.
My comments on this list: No The Sound and the Fury, and it has a few books that cause me to shudder. That said, it, like any "canon," is a good talking-point.
According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on their list.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
(4. Put parentheses around the ones you started but didn't finish.)
The List
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) (...ish. I'm most of the way through it.)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
(6. The Bible) (...ish. I read the bulk of the Old Testament, the Gospels, and a smattering of newer stuff.)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
(8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell)
(9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman) (read 2/3 of it)
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) (Most of it; I think I'm missing a history or three.)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
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 - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
(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 (read it when I was young and loved it then; perhaps less now)
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (I agree with kitsunealyc that this is a subset of #33)
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
(41. Animal Farm - George Orwell)
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (Why is this here?)
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 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
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
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 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 Woot for 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 (I always loved Conrad's imagery.)
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 (again, a subset of #14)
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
I've clearly read less of this list than I would have liked, but a number of the classics aren't really my bag. Still, it's good to be at least vaguely completist about these things....
ETA: gollumgollum pointed out that this list seems to be a chimera. Check out this post that someone made exploring the topic more fully.