100 Greatest Books

I got this list from Ryanne in this post and thought it would be fun to do. I am curious about who compiled the list, but it's still lots of fun to do these kinds of things. There are definitely some that I've never even heard of, and a few that are on my "To Read" list. And of course a few that I think should be included in this list that aren't. (the ones I've read are in bold)

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen (my FAVORITE book and author...you really should read this one if you haven't)

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 (well, I haven't read ALL of it, but I HAVE read quite a bit of it)

7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte (yeah, I didn't really get this one)

8. 1984 – George Orwell (I actually had to look this one up, but I did read it in high school...kind of bizarre)

9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman (great books and ideas, but I definitely see how it can be offensive to the Catholic Church...and I'm Catholic...but if you read it with the right mindset, it's a great series)

10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

12. Tess of the D’Ubervilles – Thomas Hardy (never even heard of this one...but it made me think of The Hounds of Baskerville by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...another one that I didn't really get, but I WAS pretty young when I read it...)

13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (I haven't read all of them, but I've read my fair share: Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet...I feel like I'm forgetting some. I need to read Taming of the Shrew since one of my favorite movies is based off of it)

15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier (don't remember it, but I know I read it)

16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien (started this in jr. high, but it was over my head at the time. never went back to re-read it, it's on my "To Read" list)

17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger (another high school book that I thought was kind of stupid. The only book I read in high school that was worth my time was Pride and Prejudice, and I chose that instead of the shorter Ladder 49 or whatever everyone else read because I was actually interested in it...it's now my favorite book)

19. The Time Traveller’s Wire – Audrey Niffenegger

20. Middlemarch – George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchel (on the "To Read" list)

22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald (Another H.S. read that was okay until the end. Still don't understand how this is a favorite for some...)

23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens

24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy (no, but my co-worker is starting it, it's ginormous!)

25. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (no but the movie was great :) )

26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Caroll (does the animated movie count??)

30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame (I don't think I've read this...but I've been to hell on the ride at Disneyland...it's hot in there!)

31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis (absolutely! some of the best books ever written)

34. Emma – Jane Austen (I heart Jane Austen. The movie version with Gwyneth Paltrow is actually surprisingly close to the text)

35. Persuasion – Jane Austen (as much as I love Jane Austen and I HAVE this one in a collection book, I haven't gotten to read it. I did see the movie a long time ago, but I really need to read it)

36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis (umm, my favorite of the series, but isn't this a duplicate entry? See #33)

37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres

39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden (started this one in 10th grade on a recommend from my best friend at the time, but my parents decided that I couldn't finish it, still need to go re-read it)

40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne

41. Animal Farm – George Orwell

42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown (no, but I have Angels and Demons, which I've heard is better and nearly the same story anyways...but I still have to read it)

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving (I almost finished this in 12th grade, but I went to NC for my uncle's wedding and got back and my teacher told me not to worry about taking the test so I didn't finish reading it)

45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery (Great book AND movie, my mom got me the first three in the series, much to her dismay I only read the first one. But I brought them home with me and plan to read them soon)

47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (I cannot believe this was REQUIRED reading in 11th grade, seriously. It was a fairly good book though, I'd have preferred a more concrete ending, but, ya know, of the books I was forced to read that year, this was the best)

49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding (horrid book. enough said. I was okay till they killed Simon. But wow, can we talk about the symbolism of all kinds in that book?)

50. Atonement – Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel

52. Dune – Frank Herbert (saw the movie, does this count? It was odd, but good)

53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen (another Austen great. The movie version with Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant is pretty good, but I prefer the book much better)

55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

60. Love In The Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (no, but I want to read it just because of it's appearance in the movie Serendipity)

61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt

64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas (umm, I read it in French, does that count? I think it should since that's it's original language...)

66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68. Bridget Jones’ Diary – Helen Fielding

69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens (I was in the play and I loved Oliver and Company, does that count? I took it as a personal affront when they re-released it and made such a big deal about it, when I'd loved it since the first time around and seemed to be the only one who appreciated it. Of course I was about 9 at the time...)

72. Dracula – Bram Stoker

73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett (great book and movie alike)

74. Notes From A Small Islany – Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses – James Joyce

76. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78. Germinal – Emile Zola

79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80. Possession – AS Bryatt

81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (I don't think I've read this one, but I've seen a whole variety of movie versions of it...maybe I'll put that on my list to read before Christmas)

82. Cloud Atlas – David mItchell

83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87. Charlotte’s Web – EB White (LOVED this book and the movie...the classic animated movie)

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom (no but I've heard great things about this one)

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (only read The Hounds of Baskerville, which I'm not sure I was old enough to understand completely, the ending didn't make sense)

90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad (very odd book, not sure I understood it completely, but dissecting it in English class in high school helped some)

92. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery (yes, but to me it was Le Petit Prince, the French version is SO much better, you lose a little something in translation, but still an excellent story)

93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94. Watership Down – Richard Adams

95. A Confederac y of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare (shouldn't this be part of the Complete Works of Shakespeare? I mean it's great and all, but it's still Shakespeare.)

99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory– Roald Dahl (GREAT book. My 4th grade teacher always read to us with different accents for the different characters, we read this one and James and the Giant Peach. We watched the movie for this one after and got to bring in sweets to eat while we watched it)

100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo (no, but our field show my freshman year was comprised of Les Mis music)

There are a couple Jane Austen books missing, but we know that if it was up to me all of hers would be included, even her lesser known books. I would also include Eyes of the Dragon, a little known Stephen King novel....the only one of his I'll ever read. I know I had a few more to throw in here, but wouldn't you know I've forgotten them?

Which ones have you read? Feel free to copy the list and give me a link to your post, I'd love to see what everyone has read.