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

[Mel]

I've read 59 without trying but I agree with the posters who noted that there are some duplicates - Chronicles of Narnia and then Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe plus Complete Works of Shakespeare and then Hamlet. Also agree with those who remarked on the surprises..definitely didn't expect some of them and I expected to see others that weren't there, I don't remember any Hemingway? It helps that, in addition to being an avid lifelong reader I was also an English major in university.

[Lori Ann]

read a few more on the list, now at 47

[Suzanne]

I've read 23 or 24. (I kind of lost count.) But I'm finding that the modern books that I've read on the list (like Ian McEwan, for example) I really don't like. I've read Cold Mountain, Atonement, Angela's Ashes, and a few others that have made it big over the last few years and usually find them disappointing. So I still haven't read The Kite Runner.

Anybody know of funny, happy books that are considered good reading? Why do all of the "must-read" books have to be depressing?

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

Because they're more "serious."

[Ronda]

1. read
2. on my to-read
3. on my to-read
4. read
5. read
6. currently reading
7. read...actually did my senior project over this one
8. on my to-read
9. read Golden Compass but not the other ones yet
10. not yet
11. to-read
12 to-read
13. to-read...watched a senior presentation over this one
14. uh...currently reading...have read R&J, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Othello and some of his sonnets
15. nope.
16. read
17. nope.
18. to-read.
19. to-read.
20. to-read.
21. to-read.
22. to-read
23. nope
24. to-read
25. to-read
26. to-read
27. to-read
28. to-read
29. to-read
30. to-read
31. to-read
32. to-read
33. read.
34. read.
35. to-read.
36. read.
37. read.
38. to-read
39. to-read
40. to-read
41. to-read
42. read.
43. to-read.
45. nope
46. read
47. nope
48. to-read
49. to-read
50. currently reading
51. to-read
52. nope
53. nope
54. read.
55. nope
56. nope
57. nope
58. read
59. to-read
60 to-read
61. to-read
62. nope
63. nope
64. to-read
65. nope
66. nope
67. nope
68. nope
69. nope
70. N
71. N
72. N
73. read
74. N
75. N
76. to-read
77. N
78. N
79. N
80. N
81. to-read
82. N
83. to-read
84. N
85. N
86. N
87. read
88. to-read
89. to-read
90. N
91. N
92. N
93. N
94. N
95. N
96. N
97. to-read
98. to-read
99. read
100. N

so that's 15 that i've read and a two that i'm currently reading.
i'm only 18 so i'm sure i've got plenty of time to read more of them :)

[Madeline]

I have this as a note on facebook lol, I've read 35. My sister's read 60 >< lord, maybe by the time I'm 40. Some of these are hard core. I agree with what others have said about some flaws in the list though... the Shakespeare/Hamlet double is kinda annoying.

[Patricia]

Wow, I've only read 8! Several are on my TBR list.

[Sunflower]

Ivé read 70. With two on my TBR list. Ágree with others about the Complete Shakespeare and the Bible: couldn't guarantee that I've read every word, so didn't count them. Lists! Yay!

[Melissa]

I have read about 19 or 20 so far. I am currently reading Lolita(just finished part one) and have The Great Gatsby and the Jane Austen books on my to-read list.

[Tara]

I've read 31, with a whole bunch on my TBR list. Not too shabby, but I've still got a long way to go.

[Huda]

I've read 19 of those, most of them are on the to-read list of mine, and I own 4 books of those but I still haven't read yet.

[Tom]

El wrote: "Mary wrote: "I've read 52 and may be the only person who read the unabridged version of Les Miserables! Anyone else?

http://www.cynthiasattic.blogspot.com
http://www.marycunninghambooks.com"
..."

Yes. It was worth every word. Absolutely loved it.

[Tom]

I've only read 52. Who put the list together? There are duplications, as someone mentioned. Not just Narnia and Lion, Witch. How is Hamlet separate from the complete works of Shakespeare?

[Stacy]

25. Great list!

[[deleted user]]

oh man i've only read 21 of them. i own a lot more though!

[Dan]

I've read 25. Several of the remaining ones are on my to-be-read list.

[Adrienne]

Hey! I've read 62! And there were 2 more that I had started and didn't think they were worth pursuing, but I didn't count those. That's much better than my usual showing on these kinds of things.

[Bedtime Booknerd]

Oh my gosh this is pathetic...I've only read 8 from the list...better get this ball rollin...I guess I found my other goal...lol...

[Dree]

I have read 46 of these...I think. I get all the Bronte books mixed up because they all seem the same to me. I have read probably 5, but other than P&P and S&S I don't know which ones...

What I find most interesting is that this list includes some of my all-time favorites (Handmaid's Tale, Grapes of Wrath, Brave New World) and some of my all-time least favorites that I have actually finished (The Hobbitt, Dune), and the one book I have tried to read about 5 times but just can't get into (The Secret History).

I guess I either love it or hate it!!!

[Diane]

I've only read 37 of the books so far, but another 46 are on my want-to-read list.

[Jennifer]

To date, I've read 48, but I haven't added them all to my bookshelf here on goodreads. I have some others on my TBR shelf right now. I've also read most of The Dark Materials Trilogy and about half of the Chronicles of Narnia.

[Bluemoon]

I have read 29. Some are on my TBR shelf. But some of these I read in high school so don't remember too much about them. I will have to save the list and see how far I get.

[astrangerhere]

I've read 33 of the books. Additionally, i started 4 of them and dropped them. Particularly distasteful to me was The Handmaiden's Tale. I have 4 of the others on my to-read list.

[Ems Loves to Read]

I've read 63 of them, with an additional 9 on my TBR list.

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 TBR
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger TBR
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger TBR
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot TBR
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 TBR
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 TBR
40. Winnie-the-Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
70. Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - A. S. Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro TBR
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom TBR
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams TBR
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

[Claire]

I've read around 9...

[Kelly]

So far, I read 71,64,61,42,39,37,29,and 4
still have a lot more to go :D

[Timothy]

I was looking at the 100 best books list and was gobsmacked to see the da Vinci code in among 99 great books. Did anyone actually ever read it!!? The published figures for it were the orders, not sales, it was the most over hyped book of my life, and I'm getting on a bit! For every copy sold I think it was in the region of 18 were returned and pulped!
On much the same subject, I had to have a chuckle walking past the local Waterstones, one window was given over to the release of the new Steph. Meyer book tommorow, it was on offer at half price!! desperate for sales or what!! It would help if book shops sold books on merit rather than how big a discount they could wring out of equally desperate publishers.
Chuck out 'the da vinci code' and put in a John le Carrie novel may be 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.' 'Smileys people',even 'the little drummer girl'
All the best Paul Rix [oldgeezer:]

[MissJessie]

36 mostly in school by force :)

Agree about the DiVinci Code. I read it and enjoyed the story but to put it in the top 100 is ridiculous. 25 years from now no one will remember it.

I despised the Handmaid's Tale and Time Traveler's Wife and don't think they will stand the test of time either.

On the other hand, where was "Foundation Trilogy" and "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"; classics that still resonate today.

The Little Drummer Girl was wonderful.

[Someoneyouknow]

I have read :
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
29. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
Oh my god, I have read completely only 12 books from the list! *hangs her head in shame*

Currently reading :
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Unfinished books :
6. The Bible (read only the New Testament and around 100 pages of the Old)
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (I mostly skimmed through the book)
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (read 3/4 of it)
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (couldn't bring myself to read more than 100 pages)
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan (stopped reading after 20 or 30 pages)
52. Dune - Frank Herbert (dropped after 50 pages)
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (skimmed through the book)
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (read the abridged version and around 50 pages of the original novel)

[Antoine]

12. A good start.

[Chipchick]

I don't think the list should have both William Shakespeare's Complete Works and Hamlet or The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But since they are on the list that way...37, which includes both The Chronicles of Narnia and The LWW. However, I noticed as I counted that most of these were read in school. And I've read The Little Prince in both English and French. These days I read to relax, so most are mysteries/historical fiction, and mostly medieval. Sometimes the historical fiction leads to nonfiction history. :)

[M.]

WOW! I've read 50 of them! I'm actually surprised. While reading through the list, I too thought (as did Sherry above), "does it count if we've seen the movie??" lol

[Ruby]

40 - but a lot of them I hated. Do not respect this list. :(

[Percy]

41 - yay! Quite pleased with myself that I have read this many considering I used to hate reading. A couple of years ago my count would have probably been 2 or 3 at best. Have had a bit of a reading frenzy since then!

I'm part way through Grapes of Wrath but struggling to get into it. I'm trying to perservere but it may be the first book I have failed to finish since my new found love of reading began.

I've almost finished A Town Like Alice and there are plenty more on the list I want to read so hopefully my count will continue to rise...

[Gitte]

37 + one or two that I couln't finish

[Antoine]

MissJessie wrote: "36 mostly in school by force :)

Agree about the DiVinci Code. I read it and enjoyed the story but to put it in the top 100 is ridiculous. 25 years from now no one will remember it.

I despised th..."

Foundation was the first serious sci-fi I ever read. Now I have the entire series, and I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Asimov. Wow.

[Lost Planet Airman]

A mere 27...

Now, who's seen more of the movies for these classics, than have read the books, I wonder?

[Abbie K.]

I've read 82..but only because I was an English major.

[Samantha McNulty]

12. I am trying to read more classics though.

[Jessica]

Geez! I've read 11 of them! Alot of them are on my to read list or already sitting on my bookshelf. I just started reading Bridget Jones Diary, so I'm working my way up to 12!

[Ralph]

I have read 23, and feeling pretty good about it.

[Sputnik]

I've read 14/ 100, which makes me feel pretty bad because all I ever seem to do is read, however most of the top 100 books are on my to-read list!

[for-much-deliberation]

I've read the following which makes about 43 in all, some of the other titles are on my to-read list, I'm currently reading 'Catch-22' but I've added it anyway:

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
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
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
13. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
29. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
40. Winnie-the-Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
70. Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

[Casey]

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
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
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

34. Emma - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie-the-Pooh - AA Milne
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker (middle of this one)
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare

That's 31 I believe. I have a lot of work to do. I think a bunch of these are also on my to-read list.

[Ari]

I have read 22% of these. I think I might make it my own goal to read them all. Though, I may have trouble with the ones I have decided I will never get into.

[Adrienne]

70! Do I win?

[El]

Since my last count I've now read 72. (Sorry, Adrienne, lol.) Unfortunately now I'm getting closer to the ones I don't expect to like.

[Kristina]

32 and I am reading Dracula at the moment.

kristina

[Crystal]

I've read 56 of these. Plus 6 that I started, didn't like, didn't finish.

Pretty good list.

[Elizabeth]

I have read 38, but I attribute many of those to being an English major =P

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
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
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
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
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl