100 best reads of all time - how many have you read?

[Mandy]

I copied this across from another group and would be interested to hear how many you all have read.

There's a list circulating the web of the top 100 reads of all time posted by the The Big Read, claiming that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on this list.

I think this list fits these times a little better than other lists I've seen. I've read 15 but have quite a few on my shelves to be read so at least with this list I feel like I've read some, unlike others I feel like I'm not a reader at all because I can count how many I've read off those lists on one hand!

So how many have you 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
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
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
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (uh-hum! Didn't exactly finish this one for SOME reason)
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 Hitchhiker'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's Adventures 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
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
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
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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's 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 - A. S. 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
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
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
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

[Melanie]

Mandy, I am at 42. I liked this list - made me remember books I had forgotten about like The Little Prince.

[Mandy]

42 - that's fantastic!

[Mandy]

You know, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't mind reading through this entire list actually - oh no, forget I said that, I DON'T NEED ANY MORE BOOKS LOL !!!

[Lori]

46!

I'm surprised The Wasp Factory is on this list. I love the author - he writes great scifi - but this book (not scifi) is supposed to be extremely scary. Definitely not for the faint of heart. Meaning me!

[Mandy]

46 - oh man, and I thought I was doing good. Normally on those huge lists I've only read 5 maybe then I looked at this one, yeah, 15, going well and probably 20 more on my shelves, that still only brings me to 35!

[Nancy]

I have read 36 in their entirety (with many of the Dickens stuff not counted as I can never remember what of his I've read!) I did add some more books to my ever growing to-read list.

[Katie]

I just got this from my best friend the other day!

[Lorena]

Another list! People you know I have a thing for lists now I will be so tempted to keep this list around as well ...he he he ... at least I see some books I have in my to-read list and many from other lists I am following.

So far I have read 22 of these titles ;o)

[Vanessa]

I've read 34. I was delighted to see The Wasp Factory on the list -and it is not so much scary as disturbing in parts, Lori. It bothered the British critics so much when it came out in the 80's that it received numerous scathing reviews - which was why I had to read it. READ IT! It is an excellent and original debut novel from an amazing writer.

[Lori]

It's not scary? What do you mean by disturbing? I get nightmares from stuff like that. But I love the author, so hmmm...

Mandy, I'm almost twice as old as you are (ouch) so you've actually read more on the list than I. Hee.

Nancy - I know what you mean about Dickens! I only included Tale of Two Cities, altho I know I've read more. There are others I may have read, or that I definitely started but never completed, that I didn't feel it was fair to include.

[Vanessa]

I didn't find it scary - more ominous...you feel something big coming most of the way through. I was imagining it was going to be something quite different than what it turned out to be. Disturbing in that there are some quite disturbed characters doing some weird stuff. It didn't give me nightmares and often I shy away from horror films and the like. I'll also add that there are some bits that - despite the disturbing weirdness going on - made me laugh out loud. Definitely worth a look, especially if you like his work.

[Lori]

Ooooh, I will then Vanessa, thanks!

[Val]

Oh my gosh, I feel like such a looser! I've only read 28 of them! I own 77 of them, however...does that count?

[Sherry]

Does it count if you've seen the movie? :)

Actually I've only read 14 with 17 more on my TBR shelf.Well,I guess I've got my work cut out for me.

Thanks for posting this list Mandy.It's a good one to work from.

[Mandy]

No problem, Sherry, I like this list better than most.

Owning 77 of them most definitely counts, Val!

Lori, that's funny :)

[Val]

Thanks, Mandy, now I feel better! I may never get to actually reading them, though, since I've found this great group. I don't have much free time and now I feel compelled to check in whenever I can. Dang, my library books are going to be waaaaay overdue!

[Mandy]

Lorena, I love lists too, unfortunately my purse doesn't so much :)

Nancy, my TBR pile also loves lists, again my purse doesn't so much :)

[Mandy]

This group is fantastic, it's so fantastic one does feel compelled to check in and hence the books on our shelves feel a little left out. It's so hard to balance the important things in life - ha ha.

[Katie]

Ok, so I've only read 18. But I own 21 of the unread ones and have borrowed a few others from friends/family. Guess I'd better get reading! At least I've heard of most of them:P

[Tim (Mole) The Gunslinger]

15 ive read but alot more in the to read list!

[Mandy]

Ah, yes, Katie, that's one way to look at it, I have heard of most of them too, see, that makes me feel better :-)

[Tim (Mole) The Gunslinger]

Id say if you even read 5 out of a hundred your doin good people dont read as much as they use to,and its sad reading is such a powerful tool and so many people dont have the opprotunity to learn,while others take it for granted!

[Hayley]

I've read 35 of these top 100, I'm quite inpressed with myself - though many of them I read while I was studying for my English Lit Degree, some I read just for pure pleasure.

Lori, I agree with Vanessa about Wasp Factory, it is quite distrubing but is classed a modern horror story. I read this at 16 and I still love the book now.

[Kirsty]

I've only read 12.... I feel so inferior, lol. Oh well, now I have another list to work on!

[The Book Whisperer (aka Boof)]

I've read 29 (30 if you include Cloud Atlas which I couldn't get past chapter 2 of), so although a long way to go I'm still feeling rather smug that the average adult has only read 6.

[The Book Whisperer (aka Boof)]

Isabella, 58, wow! That's pretty impressive. However, I insist that you read Life of Pi! It is one of my favourite books and just brilliant.

[The Book Whisperer (aka Boof)]

That's right, I insist!

In fact, I think I'm going to write to parliament and make it the law to read it. I'd get it read soon, if I were you, you or could end up in jail for "life of pi avoidance".

[Lori, Super Mod]

I have read 15 of them, with 6 more bought and sitting pretty on by bookshelf waiting to be read.

Oh no... another book to add to my to-buy list.. The Wasp Factory... Ive never heard of it before and you make it sound interesting, Im going to have to check it out!

[Charity]

Oh yes! The BBC's Big Read is just one of many lists that I'm working on. I have finished quite a few and own even more (which always seems to be the case).

Also check out:

BBC's Next 100 (books 101-200)

and

English PEN's The Bigger Read (books not originally written in English for more worldly lit)


I could go on and on with the list making all day (on of my big OCD traits), but I'll just leave you with two of my favorite lists:

Time Magazine's All-Time 100

and

Book Magazine's The Best of Bookish Characters

[Cynthia]

Don't feel bad Kirsty....My count is I think 13 a couple of the Steinbacks I think I read in High School but I can't remember for sure...it would have been 10 years ago that I read them.

In addition I have read parts of the Bible and some but not all of Shakespeare's plays and plan to read the Austen books. It's odd though that they have Shakespeare's complete plays and then list Hamlet as a separate book too. That and Bridget Jones diary is so out of keeping with the rest of the list.

[Hayley]

Lori you'll really like The Wasp Factory, its one book from school that I have read for pleasure as well. Iain Banks is a great writer and I really should read more of his stuff - oops there I go again, adding to my ever growing TBR shelf.

[Lori, Super Mod]

Charity, when i have more time, I will have to check into more of those books in detail. So many of them seem to call out to me just from the title and covers.... ahhhhh.... How I love Best Lists :)

[Charity]

Hmmm, on further inspection, it seems to be a different list than the BBC's Big Read. I wonder where it came from. The 'Big Read' was a series on the BBC where viewers cast their votes for the top reads (leading me to believe there were quite a few young viewers from the large amount of young adult lit).

[Jen]

I'll admit to being a list ho as well. I've read 22 from this list. I tend to average about 5 on these things as well so I'm pretty pleased with it.

Thanks for the additional lists Charity. I love tracking this stuff. If anything, it makes me want to move the books from my "to-read" list to the top of the stack when I see them on a list.

(sidenote: My Toddler is listening to the friggin' Elmo Song for the fiftieth time this morning. Damn you, YouTube!!!)

[Chloe]

I'm not sure that I care for this list. It seems really haphazard. For example it lists the Complete Works of William Shakespeare and then further down lists Hamlet. That just seems a bit repetitive, no? I'm also not sure about the presence of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Yes, they were good books but I don't know that I would place them on a list of this sort. I'd like to see their criteria for admittance.

That said, I've read 52 off of it.

[Bree]

I've read maybe 5 or 6 of the books listed...that's just sad. A lot of them I never intend on reading, though. I'm not into the classics, and am not interested in reading things like Harry Potter or Lord Of The Rings or His Dark Materials (and those types of books).

[Stacie]

I am at 44...45 if you count that I have read sections of the Bible, but never the entire thing.

I really like this list...it doesn't seem as duanting and more approachable than the 1001 list that I am pretty much NEVER going to complete. So, this will my my new list. I just love being able to mark things as completed!

Thanks for posting it Mandy.

[Siobian]

I have read 31. Usually I look at those type of lists and have only read a couple and the rest I've never heard of, but this one I've heard of all of them. It's a good list. Thanks Mandy!

[Tim (Mole) The Gunslinger]

I think everyone has read already read the 100 best books of all time. Opinions are limitless and if youve read 100 books or more then there your 100 best wouldnt you think? But that doesnt mean you list cant change as you continue you journey of reading!So grab a seat with good lighting get comfy and let that list grow!!lol

[Kirsty]

Oh no... more lists...Thanks Charity. lol. Now I have even more to work from. I need to start saving these in a ring binder or something lol.

[[deleted user]]

Thank you Charity for the lists. I love lists. I have issues.

[Beth]

I've read 26 of them.

[[deleted user]]

I've only read 16. Yikes!

[Nancy]

I've read 26, 7 are on my reading list.

[Kathy]

I've read 22 so far. When I got this book for myself, I completely went crazy...marking those I've read, and those I want to read. It's like a To Read list neatly in one book! I love it!

[Lorena]

Ok, I copied the Big Read (all 200), and the PEN's list, I would love to be able to sit down and cross reference these list with others that I have. Actually that is one of the biggest challenges I have with my lists now, I know there are quite a few books that you find in all the lists and I would love to have them highlighted to buy and read them first.

I need to take one of those Excel courses, maybe it is possible to have like all the lists separated but at the same time have some sort of marker for the books that repeat themselves in more than one list ...?

[Chloe]

You could do it a lot easier with a database rather than linking Excel spreadsheets together. Set all the relations to link the various books to all of their appearances on the different lists then when you make a change to one book it will mark that change on all the listings of that book. I was actually fooling around with that idea last night but persuaded myself that it was a task that I did not want to undertake (yet).

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

I've read 42.

Not sure why "the complete plays of william shakespeare" is on, and then Hamlet is separately. (I counted Hamlet, but not the complete plays. I've only read about half of them, I think.)

Several of the others are on my TBR pile.

[Tisha]

Omg...only 16. :( I am so lame! I have half of them on my TBR list...particularly on my "movies seen...books to read list."