Thursday, March 6, 2008

A List of Books

Stitch Bitch had it first, then C in DC took it. But I had planned to do it too. I just didn't get to it first. But here it is.

C in DC added the * star condition, because she thought it important to know what was required reading in school before college. I concur. Not that it helped me. I must be some sort of ijit, having read only seventeen of them. Though, in my defense there is a fair amount of what might be referred to as "chick lit" on the list.

And most of my reading these days is confined to small square books with cardboard pages . . . "one night, after thinking it over, Harold decided to take a walk in the moonlight . . . and his took his big purple crayon with him . . ."

~~~~~

Look at the list of (100) books below. Bold the ones you’ve read. Italicize the ones you want to read. * Star the ones you were forced to read in your schooling before college. Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in. (Movies don’t count.)
  1. The Da Vinci 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)
  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 Sorcerer’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) *
  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) *
  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) *
  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)
  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)
  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)
  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)
  68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) *
  69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
  70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
  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) *
  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) *
  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)
  100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I think you'll like Garp and Mockingbird, if you get around to reading them. Garp definitely has a sick sense of humor. I also think you'd enjoy the Count of Monte Cristo. I'm surprised that as a Guylander you haven't read Gatsby.

Amy said...

I guess I’ve read about half. Some are books I read for one of my book clubs, while others are ones I read so I could edit/proof a curriculum unit on the novel.

The only one I want to read is The Pillars of the Earth. I think I read Of Mice and Men in high school, but if I didn't read it then, I know I reread it for work, because we have a unit on it. I know I read Lord of the Flies senior year, and the two Dickens novels freshman year.



My "Read" list:
1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
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 Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
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)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
45. The Bible [Well, most of it, anyway]
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
60. The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
64. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
66. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
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)

Amy said...

Because I haven't hijacked your blog enough already today ....

Here's a somewhat related post from the Nerd World blog on Time.com:

What to Do at Parties
Matt Selman

Here's a fun, anti-social game to play at parties with your introverted friends instead of meeting new people. It's called, "Who's Read The Most Books On The Shelves?" This game is awesome. If you only know one person at a party, it can suck up just enough time to leave the party feeling like you at least tried to have a life.

Here's how you play "Who's Read The Most Books On The Shelves?" Locate your host's bookshelves, and count how many books you've read on a given shelf. If you've read more books on that shelf than your opponent (s?), you get one point. Then, when you and your friend (s?) have gone over all the shelves, whoever has most points wins.

This game is only fun if you are scrupulously honest. If you lie to your friends and count as read books you own-but-haven't-read or started-but-never-finished or are-super-embarrassed-that-you-haven’t-read, the game is screwed. Also, this game is only fun is you are an anti-social introvert who doesn't want to meet new people.

I've played many exciting games of "Who's Read The Most Books On The Shelves?" Picture this: I was three shelves behind -- not good, right? Suddenly, I hit a vein of Robertson Davies, a wagon load of Larry McMurtry, and a sweet chunk of Tom Clancy. (I'm not proud of the Clancy, but all's fair in "Who's Read The Most Books On The Shelves?") Suddenly, my adversary and I were tied. We each desperately scanned the last shelf. Not a lot happening for either of us. Then, out of nowhere, at the end of the pile... G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday! Thanks to ol' Gilbert Keith, Victory was mine.

Now that was a great party.

Lana Gramlich said...

The one's I've read;

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
The Hobbit (Tolkien)
The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) *
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) *
Dune (Frank Herbert)
1984 (Orwell) *
The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
The Bible
The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)*
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)*
Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
The World According To Garp (John Irving)
Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)*
Watership Down (Richard Adams)
Lord of the Flies (Golding)*
The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)*
The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)

I'm not interested in any of the rest, primarily because I seem generally disinterested in any fiction these days (except for Charles' writings.) Back in the mid-90s my brain decided that it prefers non-fiction & we've never really looked back since then. I have a hard time reading fiction now. It's not an enjoyable pastime for me.

Anonymous said...

Well, I have only read 10 of the books on this list. I've never been a big reader, to be sure. Like Lana, I don't generally read fiction, excepting mysteries (which are not represented here). I have never liked fantasy, sorcery, etc. for reading - that's something I only enjoy in movie form. And as BA mentioned, there's a bit of "chick lit". Among the classics I have read, there are few of them on this list (Frankenstein? Moby Dick? Anything by Conrad?) Oh, well. To each their own.

Special K. said...

Well, I've read 31 of them, and I think that in addition to having a chick lit bias, the list also has a fantasy bias (why so many Harry Potter books and all the Lord of the Rings?). I am not sure there are any on the list that I want to read, except maybe War and Peace.