100 Toronto Books You Should Read

As the BBC's list of the UK's best loved 100 novels makes its tedious way around the internet more than seven years after BBC listeners voted for their favourite books, readers continue to measure their own literary prowess against the list. One meme that regularly makes rounds on social networking sites is a similar list headlined by the claim that "the BBC believes the majority of people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here."

A number of commentators have pointed out (1) that the BBC appears never to have made such a claim, (2) the list varies (sometimes widely) from one incarnation to the next, (3) the list is quite Anglo-centric and (4) that (among other things) participants tend to exaggerate the works they have read (the 'works of William Shakespeare,' for example, is a far longer list than many people think, and James Joyce's Ulysses a longer and more complicated novel than many readers seem to recall).

In truth there are dozens of "100 books you must read or die a Philistine" lists out there. While some of them are fun to read (or measure your own reading against), they are typically limited by some fatal combination of patronizing elitism and cultural narrowness.

As an alternative, I present herewith a list of the top 100 Toronto books you should read. Please feel welcome to share this list around, highlighting your own reads and perhaps mentioning somewhere that the TLC (Toronto Literary Committee) believes the majority of Torontonians won't have read more than six of these books. Are you elite enough to have read more?

The Toronto Canon

1. Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman (or any of Atwood's other Toronto novels)

2. Robertson Davies, The Rebel Angels (other Davies novels set mainly in Toronto accepted)

3. Timothy Findley, Headhunter

4. Hugh Garner, Cabbagetown (1968 Ryerson Press edition as well as the 1950 White Circle abridged version)

5. Dennis Lee, Civil Elegies

6. Gwendolyn MacEwen, Noman's Land

7. Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces

8. bpNichol, The Martyrology Book V

9. Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin Of A Lion

10. Josef Skvorecky, The Engineer of Human Souls

Forgotten Classics

11. Earle Birney, Down The Long Table

12. Augustus Bridle, Hansen: A Novel Of Canadianization

13. Morley Callaghan, Strange Fugitive

14. Henry Kreisel, The Rich Man

15. Wyndham Lewis, Self-Condemned

16. Joyce Marshall, Lovers and Strangers

17. George F. Millner, The Sergeant of Fort Toronto

18. Ernest Thompson Seton, Wild Animals I Have Known (bonus point for Two Little Savages)

19. Patrick Slater, The Yellow Briar

20. Phyllis Brett Young, The Torontonians

New Classics

21. Dionne Brand, What We All Long For

22. Catherine Bush, Minus Time

23. Barbara Gowdy, Falling Angels (or Mister Sandman or The Romantic or Helpless)

24. Maggie Helwig, Girls Fall Down

25. Rabindranath Maharaj, The Amazing Absorbing Boy

26. Darren O'Donnell, Your Secrets Sleep With Me

27. Michael Redhill, Consolation

28. Emily Schultz, Heaven Is Small

29. Russell Smith, How Insensitive (or Noise or Muriella Pent)

30. Alissa York, Fauna

Poetry

[in addition to works of poetry included elsewhere in this list]

31. Margaret Avison, Momentary Dark (also Concrete and Wild Carrot)

31 1/2. Ronna Bloom, Public Works

32. Dionne Brand, Thirsty

33. Alice Burdick, Simple Master

34. Lynn Crosbie, Queen Rat: New and Selected Poems

35. Rishma Dunlop, Metropolis

36. Maggie Helwig, Talking Prophet Blues

37. Daniel Jones, the brave never write poetry

38. Gwendolyn MacEwen, Afterworld

39. Stuart Ross, Razovsky At Peace

40. Raymond Souster, Collected Poems Volumes 1-10

The City of Neighbourhoods

41. Sarah Dearing, Courage My Love

42. Claudia Dey, Stunt

43. Cory Doctorow, Someone Comes To Town, Someone Leaves Town

44. Katherine Govier, Fables of Brunswick Avenue

45. Helen Humphreys, Leaving Earth

46. Don Lyons, Yorkville Diaries

47. Katrina Onstad, How Happy To Be

48. Ted Plantos, The Universe Ends at Sherbourne and Queen

49. Ray Robertson, Moody Food

50. George F. Walker, The East End Plays (Criminals In Love, Better Living and Beautiful City)

Culture and Identity

51. Gordon Stewart Anderson, The Toronto You Are Leaving

52. Joseph Boyden, Born With a Tooth

53. David Chariandy, Soucouyant

54. Austin Clarke, More (or his 'Toronto trilogy:' The Meeting Point, Storm of Fortune and The Bigger Light)

55. Farzana Doctor, Stealing Nasreen

56. Odimumba Kwamdela, Niggers This Is Canada

57. Rabindranath Maharaj, Homer In Flight

58. Richard Scrimger, Crosstown

59. Antanas Sileika, Buying On Time

60. M.G. Vassanji, No New Land

Genre Fiction

61. Kelley Anderson, Bitten

62. Rosemary Aubert, Firebrand

63. Linwood Barclay, Bad Move

64. Pat Capponi, Last Stop Sunnyside

65. Nalo Hopkinson, Brown Girl In The Ring (eagerly awaited: her forthcoming novel, tentatively titled T'Aint)

66. Tanya Huff, Blood Price (or any other of Huff's Blood series. Bonus point for Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light)

67. Maureen Jennings, Poor Tom Is Cold (or any other of her Murdoch Mysteries)

68. John McFetridge, Dirty Sweet or Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

69. Robert Rotenberg, Old City Hall

70. Robert Charles Wilson, The Perseids and Other Stories

Children's Books

71. Ramabai Espinet (illustrated by Veronica Sullivan), The Princess of Spadina

72. Cary Fagan, The Market Wedding

73. Zelda Freedman, Rosie's Dream Cape

74. Bernice Thurman Hunter, That Scatterbrain Booky (see also With Love From Booky and As Ever Booky)

75. Teddy Jam (Matt Cohen; illustrated by Eric Beddows), Night Cars

76. Dennis Lee (illustrated by Frank Newfeld), Alligator Pie

77. Robert Munsch (illustrated by Michael Martchenko), Jonathan Cleaned Up–Then He Heard A Sound; or; Blackberry Subway Jam

78. Barbara Nichol, Dippers

79. Barbara Reid, The Subway Mouse

80. Joan Schwartz and Matt Beam, City Alphabet

Anthologies

81. Janine Armin and Nathaniel G. Moore (eds.), Toronto Noir

82. Barry Callaghan (ed.), This Ain't No Healing Town: Toronto Stories

83. Lynn Crosbie and Michael Holmes (eds.), Plush

84. Cary Fagan and Robert MacDonald (eds.), Streets of Attitude: Toronto Stories

85. William Kilbourn, The Toronto Book

86. Dennis Lee (ed.), T.O. Now: The Young Toronto Poets

87. Caroline Morgan Di Giovanni (ed.), Italian Canadian Voices: A Literary Anthology, 1946-2004

88. Karen Richardson & Steven Greed (eds.) T-Dot Griots: An Anthology of Toronto's Black Storytellers

89. Helen Walsh (ed.), TOK: Writing The New Toronto, Volumes 1-5

90. Dennis Wolfe and Douglas Daymond (eds.), Toronto Short Stories

Unforgettable but Uncategorizable

91. Ansara Ali, The Sacred Adventures of a Taxi Driver

92. Hedi Bouraoui, Thus Speaks The CN Tower

93. Juan Butler, The Garbageman

94. Daniel Jones, 1978

95. Crad Kilodney, Excrement (see also Putrid Scum)

96. Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim, Volumes I-VI.

97. Annie G. Savigny, A Romance Of Toronto

98. John Reid, The Faithless Mirror

99. Jarvis Warwick (Hugh Garner), Waste No Tears

100. Scott Symons, Civic Square

Amy Lavender Harris is the author of Imagining Toronto (Mansfield Press, fall 2010).