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Sophie's "100 Books you can't live without" Challenge
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looks very light on world (i.e. non-US/UK) literaturesurprising omissions include:
no Hemingway, Forster, Woolf, Kafka, Faulkner
and limiting myself to 10 individual books:
Eugene Onegin
All Quiet On The Western Front
Fahrenheit 451
Tom Jones
Maltese Falcon, The
Kristin Lavransdatter
Beloved
Red and the Black, The
Odyssey, The
Master And Margarita, The
oh, and of your unread ones, LOTR and Confederacy of Dunces
Hey Sophie! Good list! I've read 78 with 10 more on my TBR list.But some of them I've never heard of!!
I've read two good ones recently that aren't on this list that I think I'd add: The Jungle and Cry, the Beloved Country. To me, these both have the feeling of "everyone should read this!"
So keep reading! -- it looks like you've read a lot already. And from your picture you look pretty young -- (is that you with Charles Dickens? ;)
I'm older than you and have been working on these for a long time, so don't give up!! Enjoy! :)
Terris wrote: "Hey Sophie! Good list! I've read 78 with 10 more on my TBR list.But some of them I've never heard of!!
I've read two good ones recently that aren't on this list that I think I'd add: [book:The Ju..."
Hi Terris, yes that is me with Charles Dickens! 2 hours in Madame Tussaud’s and the only waxwork I wanted a picture with was that genius of a man! 😄
I have to say I haven’t heard of either of those books but i’ll definitely check them out! I definitely think you’re onto something when you say you get that feeling that anyone would enjoy a particular book you have just finished. I think, with the right book, you can convert a person who is staunchly against a certain genre to really open their minds to more possibilities!
Darren wrote: "looks very light on world (i.e. non-US/UK) literaturesurprising omissions include:
no Hemingway, Forster, Woolf, Kafka, Faulkner
and limiting myself to 10 individual books:
Eugene Onegin
All Quiet..."
Darren, I agree that there are a number of authors I would have expected to see on this list that aren’t featured.
Fareinheit 451 I really enjoyed and I believe many others would too, I think it would resonate with a lot of people the importance of literature in our lives, both to educate and inspire.
I’m not sure why but The Odyssey has always intimidated me before I’ve even given it a chance. One day i’ll have to be brave enough to pick it up and give it a go!
Sophie wrote: "Terris wrote: "Hey Sophie! Good list! I've read 78 with 10 more on my TBR list.But some of them I've never heard of!!
I've read two good ones recently that aren't on this list that I think I'd ad..."
Yes, I think you're right! And just as a warning, neither of these books are "happy" books, but I think you(all) should read them to learn from them.
I just saw Darren's list above, and I agree that they should be on the list, but they're pretty heavy-duty reads. So I'd personally recommend reading only a few per year and don't get bogged down with them. Add some lighter ones in between :)
I think you need to read Rebecca SOON! It's so good. And I personally want to read the His Dark Materials series and Swallows and Amazons in the near future. So if you want to "buddy read" those sometime, I'm up for it :)
Terris wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Terris wrote: "Hey Sophie! Good list! I've read 78 with 10 more on my TBR list.But some of them I've never heard of!!
I've read two good ones recently that aren't on this list that..."
Oh it doesn’t bother if they’re not happy books, I’d take realistic over some syrupy sweet rubbish any day! Also I find they are the ones that make us think. Dorian Gray wasn’t a “happy” book but I couldn’t put it down!
Yes I know what you mean about getting bogged down. That’s why sometimes I stray from the list, after reading Dickens’ Bleak House I definitely needed a break so I read a few of Shakespeare’s plays to wind down. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the book but I didn’t want to hear the word chancery one more time haha!
My mum has been getting on at me to read Rebecca, she said it’s one of her favourites and it’s been on my bookshelf for years! It must be good!
Yeah I’d definitely be up for a buddy read for either of those soon! :)
Very good list - quite fun that they have both The Narnia Chronicles AND The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - I would consider the second a part of the first.I've 89 of 100 - and I'm currently reading my 90th (Jude the Obscure)
Julie wrote: "Very good list - quite fun that they have both The Narnia Chronicles AND The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - I would consider the second a part of the first.I've 89 of 100 - and I'm currently ..."
Hi Julie! I know, they also have 14 - The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and 98 - Hamlet by William Shakespeare. A couple of wasted spaces, they could have fitted another 2 great books in there!
Wow that’s really good going, what would you say your favourite is?
Sophie wrote: "Julie wrote: "Very good list - quite fun that they have both The Narnia Chronicles AND The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - I would consider the second a part of the first.I've 89 of 100 - and ..."
Super hard question! I don't think I can actually pick a favourite - but their no. 1 is probably also among my top 5 :-)
Julie wrote: "Sophie wrote: "Julie wrote: "Very good list - quite fun that they have both The Narnia Chronicles AND The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - I would consider the second a part of the first.I've 8..."
Excellent choice :D
Hi Sophie! I just love lists. It looks like you're off to a great start on this one. Of the ones you haven't got to yet, I'd say not to miss at least trying are: Middlemarch, Anna Karenina and Crime and Punishment. Then if you like those authors, try more of their stuff (like War and Peace, which was so, so much easier to read than I thought it would be).
I'd suggest trying The Odyssey with a group on goodreads or somewhere. I first read it in a class, which really helped me because they filled in the Greek mythology I was unfamiliar with. Or, you might want to try the new translation, (first by a woman) The Odyssey. It's written in very straightforward language.
Kathleen wrote: "Hi Sophie! I just love lists. It looks like you're off to a great start on this one. Of the ones you haven't got to yet, I'd say not to miss at least trying are: Middlemarch, [book:A..."
Kathleen I couldn’t agree more, I find it organises my TBRs in my mind, otherwise I can’t remember anything! I actually have them printed so I can take them to the book shop with me :)
Well I’m reading Silas Marner by George Eliot at the minute, the first one of hers i’ve tried, and I can’t say I’m that into it. I’ll persevere but I’m wondering, is Middlemarch better? I hope so!
I quite like a bit of darkness in my novels, I really enjoyed The Woman in White and A Tale of Two Cities so Crime and Punishment appeals to me.
I’m glad to hear than War and Peace is easier to read than people think because that’s another I find intimidating. Thank you for the tips for The Odyssey, i’ll Definitely try those to make it a bit easier!
War and peace is much easier to read than expected.Even Odyssey was so when I read it qith this group.Silas Marner is good but Middlemarch is her best.
Happy Reaing,Sophy!
siriusedward wrote: "War and peace is much easier to read than expected.Even Odyssey was so when I read it qith this group.Silas Marner is good but Middlemarch is her best.
Happy Reaing,Sophy!"
That’s really reassuring, I have been putting those couple off for a while but I’m feeling a lot more confident after speaking to you guys! :)
both Crime and Punishment and The Odyssey are surprisingly easy to read I have the Fagles translation of The Odyssey and found it clear, accessible and poetic all at the same time
siriusedward wrote: "War and peace is much easier to read than expected.Even Odyssey was so when I read it qith this group.Silas Marner is good but Middlemarch is her best.
Happy Reaing,Sophy!"
Middlemarch is pretty good but it's really long.
I just finished Adam Bede and liked it quite a bit. It is a little shorter than Middlemarch, but Silas Marner is definitely the shortest (I liked it a lot!).
I'd recommend that Sylvia Plath on your list if you like dark! I love that you have made such good progress. Which ones on the list have been your favorites?I'd recommend Flannery O'Connor to you. She's scary dark. Try her short stories first to see if you like them. Darren mentioned Beloved by Toni Morrison and I'll second that one, too.
Darren wrote: "both Crime and Punishment and The Odyssey are surprisingly easy to read I have the Fagles translation of The Odyssey and found it clear, accessible and poetic all at the same time
[boo..."
Oh great I was thinking of trying a couple of versions of The Odyssey, I’ll bookmark that copy to try :)
Terris wrote: "siriusedward wrote: "War and peace is much easier to read than expected.Even Odyssey was so when I read it qith this group.Silas Marner is good but Middlemarch is her best.
Happy Reaing,Sophy!"
[..."
Terris, I don’t mind a long novel as long as it keeps my attention! To be honest, I’m around 60% through but I’m really starting to change my opinion and I’m enjoying the characterisation of the villagers and it’s actually quite humorous!
Tammy wrote: "I'd recommend that Sylvia Plath on your list if you like dark! I love that you have made such good progress. Which ones on the list have been your favorites?I'd recommend Flannery O'Connor to you..."
Hi Tammy! Would you say The Bell Jar is her best novel? Thanks for the recommendations, I don’t usually try short stories first, I just plunge into the novel. But it’s a really good idea to gauge if you’ll like the authors style so I’ll do that!
Wow that really is a hard question! The Woman in White, Gone With the Wind, Jane Eyre and A Tale of Two Cities jump out at me at this moment but ask me again in an hour and I’d pick another four haha!
I probably wouldn’t have included The Lovely Bones on the list as I can think of plenty of better novels but I suppose they wanted to showcase a broad range of novels.
I believe The Bell Jar was Plath's only novel. She primarily wrote collections of poetry. Flannery also died young and really only produced two novels and 33 short stories. I loved both her novels, The Violent Bear it Away and Wise Blood, and her short stories. Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is another book I'd recommend. Now these are all newer works dating from 1940s - 1960s and it looks like you might like some of the earlier classics. Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and Crime and Punishment are all well worth the time. Totally agree with you on The Lovely Bones and I'd probably add BJ Diary and The DaVinci Code as not really being at the same level as the other books on the lest.
Tammy wrote: "I believe The Bell Jar was Plath's only novel. She primarily wrote collections of poetry. Flannery also died young and really only produced two novels and 33 short stories. I loved both her novels,..."Ah I see, as you can tell, I’m not familiar with her works! I’m much more comfortable in the earlier classics side of things, that’s why I was looking for recommendations to expand my repertoire.
Yeah Bridget Jones’ Diary was witty and fun but I’m not sure it’s a book ‘I couldn’t live without’. I’ve also heard mixed reviews on The DaVinci Code. I really want to read more Dickens, I fall in love with his writing a little more with every novel I read. So I’m really excited about David Copperfield, I heard it’s semi autobiographical.
Sophie wrote: "I really want to read more Dickens, I fall in love with his writing a little more with every novel I read. So I’m really excited about David Copperfield, I heard it’s semi autobiographical."I read David Copperfield recently. It's very well written, although i wouldn't place it in an all time list.
Luffy wrote: "Sophie wrote: "I really want to read more Dickens, I fall in love with his writing a little more with every novel I read. So I’m really excited about David Copperfield, I heard it’s semi autobiogra..."Luffy, what Dickens novel do you prefer? I have only read 5 of his so far and A Tale of Two Cities is my favourite.
I've read just 3, and I prefer Martin Chuzzlewit. Not because I found it superior to DC, but back then, I had a broader attention span, so I had a lot of patience for classics.
Luffy wrote: "I've read just 3, and I prefer Martin Chuzzlewit. Not because I found it superior to DC, but back then, I had a broader attention span, so I had a lot of patience for classics."Ah I see haha, do you not read many classics these days?
I'm trying to read, but I've had so many umble books sitting on my figurative shelf. I need to read my 300 paged cosies before attempting the serious literature.
Luffy wrote: "I'm trying to read, but I've had so many umble books sitting on my figurative shelf. I need to read my 300 paged cosies before attempting the serious literature."Yeah I’ve got a 6 week old, so I have to fit my reading around her. Sometimes it’s good to mix them up so you don’t get bogged down in one particular area isn’t it?
Sophie wrote: "Sometimes it’s good to mix them up so you don’t get bogged down in one particular area isn’t it?"That's the idea. I also won't be undertaking any challenges this year.
I'm a Great Expectations kind of girl. And Sophie...a 6 week old? I don't think I read for the first year after my daughter was born. I walked around like a zombie. You are kicking some serious book butt.And I see that you are a Roald Dahl fan. I almost mentioned that I would place all of his books over Charlotte's Web any day! I enjoyed reading them to my daughter so much.
Tammy wrote: "IAnd I see that you are a Roald Dahl fan. I almost mentioned that I would place all of his books over Charlotte's Web any day! I enjoyed reading them to my daughter so much."I'm a big Roald Dahl fan myself. Charlotte's Web is pretty good. Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox is the best fiction book of his, IMHO.
Tammy wrote: "I'm a Great Expectations kind of girl. And Sophie...a 6 week old? I don't think I read for the first year after my daughter was born. I walked around like a zombie. You are kicking some serious boo..."Haha I manage to sneak in 15 minutes here and there throughout the day, it’s my only ‘me time’!
Great Expectations is amazing, the second Dickens I read and the first time I truly appreciated how funny he is. I’m sure a lot of non-Dickens readers would be surprised to learn how amusing his novels are.
Yes! How did I not think of that?! If you’re going to put children’s books in there, Dahl has to be in it no question. I’d even put them in instead of Narnia, is that controversial? I just enjoy them more, I think they’re more consistent in quality and there’s less subversive religious leanings and hints of sexism. Then again, I was reading The Witches to my daughter a couple of days ago and I had to laugh at the line ‘All witches are women.’ Haha but maybe he has a point!
Is Narnia less than Dahl's output? I didn't rate The Giraffe The Pelly and Me. I guess it's for really small children.
Luffy wrote: "Is Narnia less than Dahl's output? I didn't rate The Giraffe The Pelly and Me. I guess it's for really small children."I guess it depends on your perspective, I guess I just find Dahl more masterful in his language.
I’ve just picked up a copy of Midnight’s Children and A prayer for Owen Meany to continue the list. I had a free book on my points card so I also bought North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell as I’ve always quite fancied reading it. I think I’ve missed on following along with the group though as I think it was done earlier in the year?
Sophie wrote: "I guess I just find Dahl more masterful in his language."That's a seriously great compliment. I think I agree.
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
Books mentioned in this topic
The Odyssey (other topics)Adam Bede (other topics)
Middlemarch (other topics)
The Odyssey (other topics)
Middlemarch (other topics)
More...
I thought this would be the perfect place to establish my challenge, get back on track and hopefully receive some feedback on some of the books on the list!
1
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte4
Harry Potter series - JK Rowling5
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee6 The Bible
7
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte8
Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens11
Little Women - Louisa M Alcott12 Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - William Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien17
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks18
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger19
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21
Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell22
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald23
Bleak House - Charles Dickens24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams26
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck29
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll30
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33
Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis37
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernières
39
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41
Animal Farm - George Orwell42 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 Collins46
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood49
Lord of the Flies - William Golding50
Atonement - Ian McEwan51
Life of Pi - Yann Martel52
Dune - Frank Herbert53
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon57
A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens58
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley59
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66
On The Road - Jack Kerouac67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68
Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens72 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 Dickens82
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell83
The Color Purple - Alice Walker84
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87
Charlotte's Web - EB White88
The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom89 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-Exupery93
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks94 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 Shakespeare99
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl100 Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Are there any novels you would have to include in the list or any you would leave out? What are your favourites? Are there any unread novels here that you would particularly recommend? I would love to hear your thoughts!