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

[Feliks]

The problem is, which list is worth respecting? I wouldn't rank my reading habits by any nonsensical, doggerel list which contained 'Harry Potter', 'Cloud Atlas', 'Charlie & The Chocolate Factory', 'Possession', or 'The Kite Runner' on it. Seriously. Who compiled that laugher? Half of it is gibberish.

To really judge your reading chops, what you want are these:

the Modern Library List:
http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/...
(left-hand side list, not the 'trash-lit' Ayn Rand & L. Ron Hubbard right hand-side list)

The Penguin Library:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html...

the Anthony Burgess 99 List:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-n...

Larry McCaffrety's Top 100 Novels List:
http://spinelessbooks.com/mccaffery/1...

the Everyman Library List:
https://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/cla...

[Karen M]

Feliks wrote: "The problem is, which list is worth respecting? I wouldn't rank my reading habits by any nonsensical, doggerel list which contained 'Harry Potter', 'Cloud Atlas', 'Charlie & The Chocolate Factory',..."

The Modern Library List, I know, is a bit slanted toward the books they publish but it really is a good list of writers. Years ago a copy of the list was printed in the newspaper and I cut it out and started reading some of the books. I think the librarians at my library was trying to figure out where I was getting the book titles that I kept requesting since many of them were fifty to a hundred years old.

[Feliks]

Impressive girl

[Robert]

11 ... but many more are on my "Too Read" List. And why is 68. Bridget Jones's Diary on this list?!

[Feliks]

Seriously, it is to guffaw..

[Susan]

I've read 23 of them. My favorite was The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

Susan Bernhardt

[Nai]

48 on the 2007 list and 51 on the 2011 list :)

[John]

17.15 (There's only so much lifetime I can dedicate to reading the Bible. Did finish War & Peace and Anna Karenina, though.)

My favorites are probably To Kill a Mockingbird, Grapes of Wrath, and Of Mice and Men.

Does anybody have a top 1-3 of absolutely must reads from the list?

[Annie]

I'm at 8. But I have 26 if those I haven't read yet in my book shelf.

[Kristin]

So 38 I think, with 3 on my shelf waiting for me to get to.

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

7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

13. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller (started but not finished)


16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

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

33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

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

46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding

51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel

58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac (sitting on my shelf!)

70. Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (sitting on my shelf)
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare

[Laura]

Ahhh, yes, but only 16 for me! I agree with others however, should I be counting Da Vinci and Lovely Bones? Is that really a point a piece?

[Emilly R]

I don't like this list a bit,for example ,i could have included Gabriel Garcia marque ,Emile Zola [GERMINAL],GARCIA LORCA[play write]

[N]

@emilyR all of those books are on the list 43 -60 and 78

[Emilly R]

N wrote: "@emilyR all of those books are on the list 43 -60 and 78"Thanks ,i was mistaken!

[Carrie]

I've only read 17 of these, but have been looking for a list like this. A lot of titles I would love to read!

[Ron]

did anyone else notice that 36 is part of 33?

I'm only at 15 read, I'll have to try some of these

[Jackie]

I've read 58, although some I probably wouldn't have got round to reading if they hadn't been choices in my book group. Glad to see Possession by AS Byatt is on there. It's my favourite novel of all time. Anyway, thanks Mandy. I now feel less of a philistine!

[James]

I'm only at 13. Looks like I have some good reads to look forward to.

[Kimberley]

I've read 50.

[Melissa]

I have read 31 of these books guess I better get busy!

[[deleted user]]

34 is my total so far....