100 Books to Read or Not to Read
I stole this list from Leah and I was pleased how many of them I’d read. It also reminded me of how many books I’d like to still read. Bolded books are ones I’ve read and ones with an (*) are ones I’ve never heard of. Feel free to copy – I’d be very interested to see what people have read and any comments about them.
1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) –this is one of my favorite books ever
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)–wow, I just can’t make myself like these books.
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)–I sincerely think it doesn’t get much better than Anne.
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)–I’m a hard-core fan. What can I say?
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14.* A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)–this book is almost too amazing for words.
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)–I’ve read it twice and I hated it both times.
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)–I love LMA
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)–I think I was the only person in my freshman HS class who didn’t loathe this book.
28. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)–twice read and twice loved
35. *The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. *The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. *I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)–almost painful to read; crazy shopping makes me a bit ill, even when it’s fictitious.
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)–the movie butchered the plotline. Why?
48. *Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. *She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)–twice read also; better the second time.
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)–just fun!
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. *The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. *The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)–great and all, but soo long.
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. *Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)–guilty reading at its best
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)– I PLAYED the Little Prince in High School
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. *The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. *The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. *The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)–the first chapter book I read with my mom.
81. *Not Wanted On the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)–unbelievably exciting
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)–great the first time; couldn’t get through it a second time.
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)–far inferior to 1984. Sorry, Aldous.
88. *The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. *Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)–sad but fantastic
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)–unspeakably overrated. I did listen to this one on audible.com, and the narrator’s voice irritated me no end, so that may have something to do with it.
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. *The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. *A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. *The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)
I’m so excited to read Rebecca! Have you seen the movie? Also very surprisingly exciting.
I don’t know Janssen. It pains me to read that you don’t like The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. My 8th grade English teacher read us The Hobbit and I loved it. I might even have to say that Tolkein’s trilogy is my favorite set of books ever. However, until this last fall, George didn’t think he liked The Hobbit either. I had to read it to him and Andrew to make him a convert. Of course we continued on with Lord of the Rings and Andrew wishes there were more (actually there is and he has started exploring it). So I guess there is still hope for you… But even so, we love you.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. . .I’ve read nearly all the same books you have and the books you hadn’t heard of neither had I. Karen, I apologize for raising 3 daughters who find LOTR more boring than dirt. They get it from me. I somewhat enjoyed the movies. I’m going to try one more time with Crawford and see how we do. Maybe he’ll finally transform me. 🙂 BTW, who is Leah? And why isn’t My Name is Asher Lev on this list??
Oh Janssen. You MUST read The Outsiders. It’s the greatest adolescent book of all time. Also, I liked The Eyre Affair, even though it was bizarre to the extreme.
Janssen, I am just starting to read through your blogs, one a night about, it’s great fun, thanks for writing. I like that list. One of the books that I would HIGHLY recommend that you had * by is The Outsiders by Hinton, a group of teen boys that call themselves greasers, don’t have much, are somewhat rough, but very loyal, even good kids (considering their backgrounds, great kids). I read it in Middle School, I think I might get it again. It was a tear jerker.