100 books to read before you die discussion
Everyone's Progress
>
Lisa's progress
Books I have yet to read:13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
You're about 13 books ahead of me! :-) I've only read 32 of the books on this list so far.
1) Pride and PrejudiceAusten's wit & characterization is sublime. She always allowed her heroines a happy ending as an act of defiance against her society.
This is my second favorite of her works.
2) The Lord of the RingsI've read this four times! I love Middle Earth & could live there. My copy has fallen off a car, been driven on, had a bath, been chewed & definitely had an adventuress life. Always struck by how Frodo sacrificed all for others.
(once visited the Inklings pub!)
3) Jane EyreMy all time favorite
“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! - I have as much soul as you, - and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you!”
4) Harry PotterI read this when the fourth book came out. I was asked to read it by the school where my mom works as several churches & parents were demanding it be banned. I was hooked from the first page. Four books in four days. Then a two year wait between each subsequent book. Rowling has created this generation's battle between good and evil, enriching the fantasy genre and encouraging imagination.
I convinced the school library to buy two copies...
5) To Kill a MockingbirdDiscrimination seen through the eyes of a child.
Loved Scout, Jem, & Arthur.
Boo Radley you rock!
6) The BibleA lifetime of reading from different versions and interpretations, at different stages. Constantly encouraging and safe
7) Wuthering HeightsA tale of obsession, destruction & revenge
Not a love story!
'If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem apart of it.'
8) 1984Set in a terrifying dystopian society where even your thoughts are watched.
I'd be in room 101 before I got out of bed in the morning!
9) His Dark MaterialsAnother school library furore request, I vaguely enjoyed the first; was bored in the second, disliked the third.
Didn't recommend banning or a second set of copies.
10) Little WomenI've read this book so many times. I feel as if I grew up with the March sisters. I'm definitely like Jo; outspoken, loves books and always in some scrape or other.
15) RebeccaLove, love, love this book. The nameless protagonist marries a widower, but is plagued by her imagined inadequacies in comparison to tales of a woman that she has never met.
16) The HobbitI've gone on several adventures with Bilbo Baggins to Middle Earth. I love that he is such an inept and atypical hero.
18) Catcher in the RyeI could not help it, I kept thinking that Holden Caufield was manic; the impulsivity, loud speech, increased drive, recklessness, increased energy, lack of need for sleep.
Brilliant!
19) The Time Traveller's WifeSuch a beautiful story, told from two points of view and over multiple time- spans. The big picture is elusive until the very end.
20) MiddlemarchGeorge Elliot's commentary on small town life in the Victorian era. Her characters are well rounded and she tackles the the themes of feminism, religion, politics, social class and education with aplomb.
22) The Great GatsbyJay Gatsby has a persona that is lager than life. He did it all for Daisy. And she never deserved him.
25) The Hitchhikers Guide to the GalaxyThe answer is 42.
So then what is the question?
29) Alice in WonderlandWritten as a seduction for young Alice by Lewis Caroll, a peadophille.
And we read it to children.
30) The Wind in the WillowsMy Gran read me this. I was six. The toad had a Welsh accent. It will always remind me of her.
31) Anna KareninaHow do you critique Tolstoy. I couldn't.
This was an incredible, tragic book. I couldn't get over of the injustice shown toward Anna while the men had multiple affairs. Poor Anna.
33) Chronicles of NarniaCS Lewis has created a world that parallels theChristian journey. It's sublime.
34) EmmaI love Jane Austen, but I wanted to give spoilt Miss Woodhouse a good shake...
26) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe“If ever they remembered their life in this world it was as one remembers a dream.”
37) The Kite RunnerKhalid Hosseini showed me a world that I barely knew existed.
39) Memoirs of a GeishaSo beautiful. Loved the ending.
40) Winnie the PoohI never liked this series as a kid.
41) Animal Farm"Power corrupts. But absolute power corrupts absolutely."
42) The DaVinci CodeI am so relieved that my copy had pictures, or I would never have finished this. The characters are bland, the plot is flimsy and Brown relies far too much on the shock factor.
46) Anne of Green GablesAnother childhood favorite
48) The Handmaiden's TaleAnother dystopian society.
49 Lord of the FliesI read this in school. Civilization is a thin veneer, easily discarded.
50) AtonementOne misstep can follow you for the rest of your life...
51) Life of PiJust finished this. Such a tragedy. Such a triumph.
52) DuneI know I read this, I don't really remember it
54) Sense and SensibilityAnother marvelous Austen novel
59) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night TimeA beautiful depiction of Asperger's Syndrome.
Lisa wrote: "4) Harry PotterI read this when the fourth book came out. I was asked to read it by the school where my mom works as several churches & parents were demanding it be banned. I was hooked from the f..."
Same here! I read them when the third one came out, I think, and devoured them! I didn't expect to like them but ended up loving them! I was so sad when the final book was released!
Lisa wrote: "5) To Kill a MockingbirdDiscrimination seen through the eyes of a child.
Loved Scout, Jem, & Arthur.
Boo Radley you rock!"
One of my favorite classics!
Lisa wrote: "29) Alice in WonderlandWritten as a seduction for young Alice by Lewis Caroll, a peadophille.
And we read it to children."
I had no idea!
Lisa wrote: "40) Winnie the PoohI never liked this series as a kid."
I love, love, love Winnie the Pooh!
Lisa wrote: "29) Alice in WonderlandWritten as a seduction for young Alice by Lewis Caroll, a peadophille.
And we read it to children."
Yeah, I know! That, combined with the general weirdness of the story, has always kept me from being too interested in that one.
Lisa wrote: "The weirdness is due to LSD..."You know, that is the second time I have heard someone say that! Is it just a joke (I thought LSD wasn't created until the 1960s), or is there actually some documentation of it?
64) The lovely bonesI loved the idea of watching those you love after you are gone.
These are the listed books that I have read:
1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
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
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
14 MacBeth
Romeo & Juliet
Twelfth Night
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Hamlet
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Caroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
66 On the Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
76 The Inferno – Dante
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
87 Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl