Let us just be clear by starting off with the fact that this list is pretty much crap. Any list of books that has no Hemmingway, Camus, Vonnegut (RIP), Proust (oh, come on, it wasn’t that bad) or Twain can’t really gain that much respect in my view. And, seriously, Harry Potter gets on the list five times, Dan Brown (almost implausibly) takes up 2% of the list, and Tolkien is there four times? Those that know me are well aware that I am, it could be argued, something of a snob when it comes to literature, film, food and…well…everything and I’m really not going to get started on Brown’s ridiculously bad writing…But seriously, Dan Brown? The best I’ll give him is that his books can sustain one through a long flight. You start when you take off, it’ll entertain you for a couple of hours, then you land and forget about it before your mind shuts down from the poor writing, weird stories and huge plot holes. (Though seriously, check out AO Scott’s amazing review on Dan Brown here and this gem of an article over at the Language Log.)
Directions: Place in bold type the books you've read from this list of 100. If there are other books you've read by the same author, include those under the original, without the author's name in parentheses.
(btw, got this from the always fun read, A Total Waste of Makeup)
1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) – All the other silly Dan Brown books. I gave him his chance.
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)
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)
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)
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)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) – Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey
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)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) – Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce (Amazing book), Screwtape Letters, and a couple of his weird sci-fi books
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck) – Hands down my favorite book, by the way
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) – I hate this woman
34. 1984 (Orwell) – Animal Farm
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) – Really interesting perspective. Enjoyable read.
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) – Not as good as Jorge Luis Borges but a great introductory book into his world
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
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
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) – All the Ender and Bean series…btw, who knew he was a crazy right wing extremist? He comes off so reasonable in his books.
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) – His short stories about Zelda
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 (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) – Nearly all of them. Memnoch the Devil is probably my favorite of her books
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) – Lots of them. Bloody amazing writer. One of my favorite writers
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) – I still cry when I read it
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez) – Again, an amazing writer
73. Shogun (James Clavell) – I love this book so much. Also have read Tai-Pan and Gaijin. Not nearly as impressive as this one
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 (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck) – I remember being really impressed with this book when I read it for 9th grade
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) – Read the series. Eh. Good book to read on a long flight, I guess. Same with Dan Brown stuff.
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) – Really fun book.
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)