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UK 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime: Readers' Picks

The Amazon UK books editors got together and chose 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime. We want to know what books you would choose. Add titles below, and vote on the titles added by fellow readers.

See the Amazon editors' list here - www.amazon.co.uk/100books
1

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4.47 avg rating — 11,140,037 ratings
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2

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4.20 avg rating — 5,281,301 ratings
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3

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4.29 avg rating — 4,673,374 ratings
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4

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4.26 avg rating — 6,731,899 ratings
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5

by
4.01 avg rating — 4,401,062 ratings
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6

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4.22 avg rating — 1,980,529 ratings
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7

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4.20 avg rating — 4,100,238 ratings
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8

by
4.58 avg rating — 4,714,022 ratings
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9

by
4.40 avg rating — 3,073,179 ratings
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10

by
4.25 avg rating — 703,910 ratings
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11

by
4.17 avg rating — 916,564 ratings
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12

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4.43 avg rating — 4,380,620 ratings
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13

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4.62 avg rating — 4,032,781 ratings
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14

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4.57 avg rating — 4,097,221 ratings
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15

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3.88 avg rating — 1,260,422 ratings
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16

by
4.17 avg rating — 2,408,070 ratings
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17

by
4.39 avg rating — 2,819,078 ratings
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18

by
4.50 avg rating — 3,715,375 ratings
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19

by
4.58 avg rating — 3,585,351 ratings
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20

by
4.16 avg rating — 2,274,379 ratings
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21

by
4.13 avg rating — 1,804,254 ratings
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22

by
4.35 avg rating — 9,666,876 ratings
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23

by
4.02 avg rating — 1,426,157 ratings
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24

by
4.54 avg rating — 719,885 ratings
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25

by
4.33 avg rating — 1,083,232 ratings
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26

by
4.30 avg rating — 4,371,214 ratings
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27

by
4.45 avg rating — 2,687,708 ratings
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28

by
4.03 avg rating — 1,599,352 ratings
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29

by
3.97 avg rating — 2,745,701 ratings
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30

by
4.35 avg rating — 3,423,468 ratings
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31

by
3.93 avg rating — 2,486,275 ratings
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32

by
4.17 avg rating — 3,394,674 ratings
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33

by
3.90 avg rating — 1,973,270 ratings
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34

by
3.89 avg rating — 1,576,018 ratings
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35

by
3.80 avg rating — 861,305 ratings
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36

by
4.03 avg rating — 396,049 ratings
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37

by
3.70 avg rating — 3,136,222 ratings
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38

by
3.89 avg rating — 2,770,099 ratings
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39

by
4.28 avg rating — 697,315 ratings
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40

by
4.15 avg rating — 2,346,873 ratings
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41

by
4.22 avg rating — 256,011 ratings
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42

by
3.80 avg rating — 3,822,486 ratings
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43

by
3.93 avg rating — 5,772,767 ratings
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44

by
4.24 avg rating — 3,080,686 ratings
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45

by
3.89 avg rating — 1,786,937 ratings
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46

by
4.12 avg rating — 5,613,282 ratings
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47

by
4.17 avg rating — 1,270,835 ratings
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48

by
4.38 avg rating — 390,742 ratings
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49

by
3.81 avg rating — 1,015,386 ratings
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50

by
3.74 avg rating — 2,780,619 ratings
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51

by
4.25 avg rating — 813,667 ratings
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52

by
4.16 avg rating — 2,089,269 ratings
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53

by
4.47 avg rating — 2,975,307 ratings
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54

by
4.31 avg rating — 1,247,703 ratings
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55

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4.09 avg rating — 1,273,581 ratings
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56

by
4.28 avg rating — 740,936 ratings
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57

by
3.88 avg rating — 51,408 ratings
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58

by
4.16 avg rating — 943,325 ratings
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59

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,846,815 ratings
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60

by
4.29 avg rating — 1,584,298 ratings
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61

by
4.10 avg rating — 912,408 ratings
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62

by
3.84 avg rating — 298,959 ratings
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63

by
4.15 avg rating — 454,686 ratings
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64

by
4.45 avg rating — 1,695,519 ratings
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65

by
4.09 avg rating — 500,755 ratings
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66

by
4.11 avg rating — 82,981 ratings
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67

by
4.28 avg rating — 1,661,084 ratings
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68

by
4.20 avg rating — 709,310 ratings
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69

by
4.21 avg rating — 2,005,765 ratings
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70

by
3.89 avg rating — 998,310 ratings
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71

by
4.20 avg rating — 770,689 ratings
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72

by
4.15 avg rating — 652,777 ratings
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73

by
4.16 avg rating — 557,038 ratings
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74

by
4.34 avg rating — 230,623 ratings
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75

by
4.30 avg rating — 121,097 ratings
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76

by
4.11 avg rating — 377,969 ratings
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77

by
4.32 avg rating — 52,466 ratings
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78

by
3.85 avg rating — 531,374 ratings
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79

by
3.88 avg rating — 421,483 ratings
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79

by
4.09 avg rating — 499,749 ratings
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81

by
3.96 avg rating — 130,102 ratings
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82

by
3.95 avg rating — 3,355,314 ratings
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83

by
4.28 avg rating — 1,037,471 ratings
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84

by
4.14 avg rating — 379,013 ratings
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85

by
4.01 avg rating — 115,704 ratings
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86

by
4.14 avg rating — 20,756 ratings
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87

by
4.10 avg rating — 508,688 ratings
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88

by
3.95 avg rating — 555,009 ratings
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89

by
4.35 avg rating — 819,033 ratings
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90

by
4.05 avg rating — 1,170,904 ratings
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91

by
4.15 avg rating — 757,748 ratings
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92

by
4.30 avg rating — 702,618 ratings
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93

by
4.28 avg rating — 5,053 ratings
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94

by
4.17 avg rating — 62,199 ratings
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95

by
3.75 avg rating — 105,646 ratings
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96

by
4.26 avg rating — 974,316 ratings
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97

by
3.94 avg rating — 1,734,189 ratings
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98

by
4.06 avg rating — 103,241 ratings
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99

by
4.02 avg rating — 637,095 ratings
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100

by
4.35 avg rating — 814,434 ratings
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1,548 books · 548 voters · list created May 1st, 2014 by Emma (votes) .
Tags: best, uk
118 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Emma 0 books
10 friends
Redfox5 2757 books
236 friends
Kevin 2752 books
2 friends
Sheila 1651 books
41 friends
Pauline 74 books
3 friends
Mariane 5 books
0 friends
Sophie 2473 books
2 friends
Lisa 117 books
1 friend

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-18 of 18 (18 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Lizzie (new)

Lizzie Is there a reason why Guards! Guards! is on there twice?


message 2: by G.R. (new)

G.R. Matthews Lizzie wrote: "Is there a reason why Guards! Guards! is on there twice?"

It is that good. :)


message 3: by Strett (new)

Strett The Picture of Dorian Gray also appears twice (9 and 52)

Good book though


message 4: by Diana (new)

Diana Hammond Cidar with Rosie


message 5: by Michele (new)

Michele There are a lot of books listed twice.


message 6: by Elizabeth (new)

Elizabeth Frustrating when the numbers are wrong because there's so many duplicates.

This list needs to be cleaned up and all duplicates removed. Maybe there ought to be a way on Goodreads that duplicates can't be added (including different editions of the same book) to Listopia in the first place?


message 7: by Hannah (last edited May 14, 2014 01:35AM) (new)

Hannah There are quite a few duplicates. Also for example His Dark Materials is listed as 3 separate books but Chronicles of Narnia is listed as 1 book even though it's 6.

Add to that "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare" okay so I think at a stretch I've read 6 but I know there are miles more than that so is that a currently reading?


message 8: by [deleted user] (new)

The Harry Potter books should perhaps be as a collection, not sure all of the deserve to be on here as individuals.


message 9: by Hannah (new)

Hannah But then again read my comment above....if you've read 2 out of the collection is that a read, unread or currently reading?

Vanessa wrote: "The Harry Potter books should perhaps be as a collection, not sure all of the deserve to be on here as individuals."


message 10: by Thomas (last edited May 15, 2014 03:44AM) (new)

Thomas One of the most messy and bizarre book lists I've seen, with duplicates and an excess of mediocre fantasy genre. And not one Iris Murdoch? Gerald Durrell but no Lawrence? A 'boxed set' of CS Lewis but seven individual Harry Potters? Yet no Shakespeare or Bible? This is '100 to read before you die?' I think I'd rather die.


message 11: by Dan (new)

Dan Mitchell I'd add "The Caine Mutiny"


message 12: by John (new)

John Ross Ever thought that life's too short to worry about constant list-compiling and that it might be better spent actually reading a book? Yup.


message 13: by Liz_ (new)

Liz_ Thomas wrote: "One of the most messy and bizarre book lists I've seen, with duplicates and an excess of mediocre fantasy genre. And not one Iris Murdoch? Gerald Durrell but no Lawrence? .... This is '100 to read before you die?' I think I'd rather die. "

No, this is 100 Books That Amazon Wants You To Buy. A cynical, money-making exercise, pure and simple.

To which I'd like to add that a fair few of these are in the public domain, so you don't need to give money-grabbing, tax-dodging, zero-hours-contracting Amazon your hard-earned cash at all.


message 14: by Eric (new)

Eric Ross This is the most uneven list imaginable; there were no obvious criteria for constructing a "must-read" list that includes Dickens and Dan Brown, Shakespeare and any Harry Potter books. Really! And what about works of pure genius such as Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children? And the works of Saul Bellow, Kurt Vonnegut, etc?


message 15: by John (last edited Jun 10, 2014 08:07AM) (new)

John Lavan Too many children's books one might read in ones youth. How many Pulitzers on the list? Page turners seem to be order of the day and too much fantasy. Maybe Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song/ Oswalds Tale (takes great time, focus and concentration but well worth it). Surprised there isn't a Philip Roth, American Pastoral or the Plot against America good places to start. Anyway just an opinion. One Paul Auster would be good, maybe Timbuktu with a dog named Mr. Bones that understands Ingloosh (thats also one for the younger generation though with sad but moving narrative).


message 16: by Amanda (new)

Amanda Lee love


message 17: by Maddy (new)

Maddy Is this list for readers from the UK or books written by UK authors?


message 18: by Grace (last edited May 21, 2020 05:29AM) (new)

Grace You are all terrible Harry Potter is brilliant and deserves to be separate books although Lord of the Rings should have been further up the list. And why isn't Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children on here?


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