The 100 books to actually read in a lifetime

Here's the full truth: some classic books feel so familiar to me that it feels like I've read them. I haven't

Last week I admitted to forgetting the vast proportion of what I read. Now, thanks to Amazon.com, I've another confession to make: there's a surprisingly large number of books which, if you asked me, I'd say I'd read - but which I actually haven't.

I was looking through Amazon.com's selection of "100 books to read in a lifetime", seeing how many of their "bucket list of books to create a well-read life" I had already ticked off, and thinking I was doing pretty well with 60. Then I remembered that I haven't actually read Midnight's Children – I just think I have, because I was meant to for my degree, and because I've started it a number of times, and because I've got at least two copies of it. Sorry, Salman. It's the same for Great Expectations – I assumed I must have read it, because I've read lots of Dickens … but no. When I rack my brains - turns out I haven't. And damn! According to Amazon, it's Dickens's best novel.

There's an embarrassingly large number of books on Amazon.com's list which have to be filed in my newly created "haven't really read them" category. The Corrections. The Age of Innocence. Out of Africa. I know what they're about, they feel like they are part of my mental library – but have I actually made my way through their pages? Sadly no.

If I am honest, I have read exactly 50 of Amazon's "100 books to read in a lifetime". Not that it's done me all that much good. I may well have read The Great Gatsby, but I can't remember much of it at all.

FictionAmazon.comInternetSalman RushdieCharles DickensAlison Flood
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