I came upon the 100 books meme at Nature Woman’s blogsite. I rarely do memes but this one caught my eye as I am an avid reader. As explained by Nature Woman (aka Pam), here are the rules for participating (although I suspect many of her readers are also my readers and know “the drill”).
Of the books listed above, I have read 53. Had I started with my list of books I have read—I tried to recreate a list of all the books I have read—my list would have been 391 books. That is my trying to recall what I have read, and also recording as I read what I have read. But, I frequently forget to record them, so I suspect I have read more than that.
If you want to participate, this is how it works. Look at the list of books below.
- Bold the ones you’ve read.
- Italicize the ones you want to read.
- Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
The one thing I do not know is the SOURCE of the list. Perhaps it started with someone’s “these are the books I have read thus far.” It is NOT a list of recommended books. Some are good, some are just trendy, a few are vapid.
1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) – with many many apologies to my brother who has read the LOTR series through. . .several times? BUT I did see the movies!
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)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) – another author I never got into.
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) -- anything by 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) -- I read The Shining by King, and must say, while it is well-written, the horror genre is not one that appeals to me.
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) – this was my son’s favorite book for quite some time; maybe it still is.
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck) -- a marvelous reworking of the Genesis story in modern times.
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) – I never caught the Ayn Rand bug.
34. 1984 (Orwell)
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) –very trendy a while back; I had no interest in it.
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel) – in fact, her entire series.
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible (I can’t claim to have read it all, but a fair bit.)
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
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)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
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 Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy) -- I know this is considered to be Tolstoy's masterpiece, but I suspect it would take longer to read than the actual war lasted. Besides, I much prefer Anna Karenina.
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davies) -- one of my favorite authors, I have
read everything that I can by Davies.
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell) – again, the entire series.
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)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Michael Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
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) -- also trendy for awhile, and I avoided it, partly because of that.
100. Ulysses (James Joyce) -- I love Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and feel as an English major I "should" read Ulysses.
Of the books listed above, I have read 53. Had I started with my list of books I have read—I tried to recreate a list of all the books I have read—my list would have been 391 books. That is my trying to recall what I have read, and also recording as I read what I have read. But, I frequently forget to record them, so I suspect I have read more than that.
In my recent TERRIFIC READS, I have suggested books not on the list above: here, here, and here. Perhaps, I should take a list of the best 100 books of English language from 1923 to the present, and bold or italicize those. Or the BBC list of the best-loved novels. Respectively, I have 36 on the first list and 44 on the second. So I have read MORE of the 100 list of unknown original. The point is—where do you start. Whose list matters? Or really captures THE BEST?
11 comments:
I have seen 2 different book lists as blog memes in the past few weeks. I have read more from this list than from the first one I saw. I doubt I have read 53 though!
Ruth
I thought of you when I saw this meme at Nature Woman's. I've only read 17 of them and most of them I read long ago. I need to change that.
I enjoy your reflections on what you've read and keep reading. I've read only a few of the books on the list, but don't feel like I need to change so much. I enjoy going back to the books I've read and re-entering their worlds. Books like Lawrence Durrell's "Bitter Lemons" may not make the list, but they are good places for me to dream. And where does "Mukiwa" fit on such a list? The list reflects one set of perspectives in the end, which is no bad thing: just the way life is.
O my goodness! You have so many great books here! It would take me forever to read all these!
I'm surprised with the variety in what you've read - Harry Potter but not A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or War and Peace? I thought you professor types read all that stuff in kindergarten!
;-)
Give Stepehen King a try - at least The Stand. It's a good read.
The Little Prince is one of my all time favorites, though I hated it when I first read it in grammar school.
My results are similar to yours, with 54 from that list. But I don't remember the titles of most books I read either. Right now I'm reading 3 books (in different rooms of the house) and I'm not sure I could tell you the names of any of them! Books are like candy to me, and as the saying goes "so many books, so little time." In my "old age" I can now pick up a book I read 10 years ago and it's all new to me again!
I was a titch relieved that all the books in that list were not 'must reads'. Whew.
Lost roses' comment above really cracked me up. I fear with age I'll end up reading the same book in a loop and it'll be fresh and new - endlessly :0) Well. . . maybe that's not all bad.
Awesome list! I've read a bit over half of them. I've not tried Harry Potter yet, I will have to borrow from my daughter.
Note to all: I read over the list again, and noted a few spelling errors in authors' names (transported in when I copied the list), so those are corrected. And I added some more editorial comments.
Ruth--I confess I am a sucker for reading through such lists & seeing where I stand on number read.
Mary--some of us read as our past time, some of us take lovely photos. Read if you want to, but no need to feel you don't spend your time well.
Daryl--I agree the source of the list tweaks my interest. Who decided these 100 books should be read? It is not a list of the best reads, by any means, since some books here should not be on an all-time list.
Mon@rch--I think your time is better spent hiking or working to preserve nature.
Laura--I don't know why I never read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. As for War & Peace, my added editorial comment explains that. BUT, I did see the movie--the Russian version which was 7 or 8 hours long! Wonderfully done, it took two separate showings to see it all.
Lost Roses--LOL. Yes, there are some books that I start and think--hmmmmm--haven't I read this before.
Cathy--no, no--not a list of must reads. Just a list.
Pam--Harry P is great fun; I confess I tend to forget plot developments after reading one. For me, anything that excites kids about reading is positive.
Just want to push a bit on Stephen King - only because he is the author that made me a reader years ago.
I think a lot of his recent stuff is crap, but he doesn't only just write horror - The Stand isn't anyway - or try the Dark Tower series if you have plenty of time.
;-)
On you list, unbolded, is "The Time Traveler's Wife." It is by far one of the most delightful books I have ever read.
I only read 23 on the list, started and didn't make it through another 10 or so.
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