Litwit Lounge discussion

On a thread (here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... ) in one of my other groups, my Goodreads friend Larry recently shared a list of 100 favorite books, created back in the 70s by lifelong avid reader Dick Dabney, and published in the Washingtonian (for which he was a popular columnist). It's an interesting list, and fun to read just to compare his reading experiences and opinions with your own.

His list inspired me to consider creating my own, just for the fun of it, and I thought that others might possibly feel the same way. So, if anyone wants to post his/her own list, this is the thread where you can do it! (And if you want to revisit it later and see if additional years of reading have added new favorites, you can do that too.)

Naturally, I had to give the selection process quite a bit of thought; but I'm finally ready to post my list. Since this list was inspired by Dick Dabney's, I'll keep to a format similar to his, though including Goodreads links where appropriate.

Being a product of 2018, this list will include some books published after the 70s. Mostly, the books on here are books that have earned five stars from me, or would if I'd rated them yet (there are many of my pre-Goodreads reads that I still haven't rated); but some other noteworthy books are counted if they're by authors on the list. Also, the list is weighted towards classics and other "respectable" books (rather than my infamous "genre" reads! :-) ) I've also tried to select books that I feel could be of general, rather than of purely specialized, interest.

1. Holy Bible: New International Version. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

2-6. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Hawthorne and Poe are favorite writers of mine, partly because they're both masters of the macabre; but while I admire Poe more as a stylist, Hawthorne is the more spiritually perceptive. His The House of the Seven Gables is another book I rated very highly (my review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ), and though I've never rated/reviewed it, The Marble Faun ranks high up there as well. I wouldn't rate The Blithedale Romance as highly, but it's a worthwhile read as well. Finally, Hawthorne's short prose is outstanding, and the collection Mosses from an Old Manse is an excellent introduction to it. (My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

7-8. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. (My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ). Though this is my favorite Scott novel, The Heart of Mid-Lothian got as high a rating from me and also ranks high in my estimation; my review of that one is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

9-11. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . This was the first Austen novel I read, so has pride of place; but I actually like Sense and Sensibility as well. (Here's my review of that novel: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .) While I wouldn't rate Persuasion as highly (I've never actually reviewed it) it's still a novel I'd recommend; but these two are my favorites of the Austen novels I've read so far.

12-13. The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . His SF novel A Traveller from Altruria (the science that's fictionalized there is social science) isn't in the same league as this masterpiece; but it's also noteworthy as probably the best, or at least most readable, example of the Utopian novels written in the Realist period.

14-20. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Books by Dickens have to occupy a high place on any list such as this, written by anyone who's read much 19h-century literature. His A Christmas Carol is one I rated just as highly (here's that review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ), as I would have Great Expectations if I'd reviewed it. Other Dickens novels I can personally recommend are Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Our Mutual Friend, and Dombey and Son.

21-24. The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Stevenson is another personal favorite writer from my childhood and youth, and I've read all four of his major novels. Treasure Island and Kidnapped are also great tales of adventure (my reviews of those are here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ). The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (reviewed here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ) is a very different work, but also an acknowledged masterpiece.

25. The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

26-27. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . The Hobbit functions as a prequel, and is comparable in quality.

28. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

29-30. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . If I'd rated/reviewed it, her The Master of Hestviken would have gotten as many stars from me as well.

31-35. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. Though I've never reviewed it, I consider this Hardy's best novel. I can also highly recommend Tess of the D'Urbervilles (my review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ), The Mayor of Casterbridge, and The Return of the Native. Hardy's gift for short fiction is shown to advantage in the collection Wessex Tales. (I don't much care for Jude the Obscure, and don't include it in my recommendations.)

36-38. Silas Marner by George Eliot. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Although I've never reviewed them, I would rank Adam Bede and Middlemarch just as highly. In terms of quality, her The Lifted Veil is not in the same league with these better known works.

39. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

40. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

41. My Ántonia by Willa Cather. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

42. Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories by Rebecca Harding Davis. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

43. A New England Nun and Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

44. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

45. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

46-51. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is, IMO, his best Holmes novel. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . I also recommend A Study in Scarlet (my review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ), The Sign of Four, and The Valley of Fear. The collections The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes ( my review of that one is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ) introduce his short Holmes stories, which are also essential to the canon.

52-54. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Although they aren't of the same quality as his masterwork, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Prince and the Pauper are also worthy novels.

55. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder.

56. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

57. Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Evelyn Waugh.

58. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren.

59-60. 1984 by George Orwell. His Animal Farm is also a must-read.

61. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

62-63. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn. Although it's less well-known, his The First Circle is equally worthwhile.

64. Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler.

65-66. The Warden and Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope. (These novels are closely related enough to be considered as a unity.)

67. The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy.

68. The Good Earth by Pearl Buck.

69. The Winslow Boy by Terence Rattigan. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

70. The Admirable Crichton by James M. Barrie. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

71-72. Our Town by Thornton Wilder. His The Matchmaker isn't the equal of this masterwork, but is worthwhile in its own right.

73-76. Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Many of his plays aren't of the same quality, but Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Richard III are.

77. Volpone by Ben Jonson.

78. Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot.

79. Barefoot in Athens by Maxwell Anderson.

80. The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

81. The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

82. Salomé by Oscar Wilde.

83. North of Boston by Robert Frost. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

84-85. Spoon River Anthology and The New Spoon River by Edgar Lee Masters.

86. Best of C.S. Lewis.

87. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism by R. H. Tawney. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

88. The Tree of Culture by Ralph Linton. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

89. Same Kind of Different as Me: a modern-day slave, an international art dealer, and the unlikely woman who bound them together by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

90. Heart in the Right Place by Carolyn Jourdan. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

91. Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

92-95. All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Things Wise and Wonderful, and The Lord God Made Them All, by James Herriot.

96. A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

97. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

98. The Dark Horse by Rumer Godden. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

99. Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley.

100. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

Charly wrote: "I may be able to put together a list by December. but thanks for your post. It would be interesting to see if there would be many changes in say 5 years."

I do intend to revisit it eventually, Charly!

Great list, Werner. I'm not sure if I could come up with a top 100.

Thanks for sharing the list! I will need to come back and revisit to read in its entirety. I'm feeling inspired to make my own list as well.

Thanks, Janelle and Reggia! I didn't expect that everyone in the group would feel like making a similar list, but I figured that some might. (The idea probably appeals the most to those of us who, by now, have several decades of reading under our belts. :-) )

Charly, I've forgotten titles and authors for quite a few books I read pre-Goodreads, although this group has helped me track some of them down: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... . When it comes to remembering what I read earlier this year, I'd probably forget that too; but in recent years, every time I review (or at least finish) a book, I write down the title and rating on a sheet of paper I use to keep track of the current year's reads. So, I don't have to rely on my absent-minded memory! :-)