50 books to read before you die discussion

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Everyones Progress > Buck's List of 100

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message 1: by Buck (last edited Jan 12, 2021 05:26AM) (new)

Buck (spectru) These are the books from The 100 Books They Didn't Tell Us About I haven't read yet:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...


8. The Discworld Series- Terry Pratchett
9. The Collected Works- ee cummings
23. The Shack-W. Young.
24. The Last Man- Mary Shelley
26. My First White Friend- Patricia Raybon
29. Very Bad Men- Harry Dolan
52. Descartes Bones - Russell Shorto
56. The Name of the Wind- Patrick Rothfuss
64. A Testament of Youth- Vera Britain
65. Burr- Gore Vidal
66. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down- Anne Fadiman
70. The Human Comedy- William Saroyan
73. The Discovery of Heaven- Harry Mulisch
76. Emma- Jane Austen
77. Of Human Bondage- W Somerset Maugham
79. The Forgotten Seamstress- Liz Trenow
80. Freedom from the Known- J Krishnamurti
81. Foam of the Daze- Boris Vian
82. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
83. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
93. Scaramouche- Rafael Sabatini
95. The Faiths of the Founding Fathers- David L. Holmes
99. The Marid Audran Sequence- George Alec Effinger
100. When The Sacred Gin Mill Closes- Lawrence Block


message 2: by Buck (last edited Jan 12, 2021 05:27AM) (new)

Buck (spectru) These are the ones I have read:


2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn- Betty Smith
11. The Book Thief- Markus Zusak
12. I am the Messenger- Markus Zusak
13. A Bell for Adano- John Hersey
14. East of Eden- John Steinbeck
15. Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck
16. A Farewell to Arms- Ernest Hemingway
17. The Art of Racing in the Rain- Garth Stein
20. Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
21. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
22. The Shining- Steven King
25. Foundation Trilogy- Isaac Asimov
30. Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury
32. Watership Down- Richard Adams
33. Night - Elie Wiesel
35. The Stand - Stephen King
39. The Old Man and the Sea- Ernest Hemingway
40. For Whom the Bell Tolls- Ernest Hemingway
42. Atlas Shrugged- Ayn Rand
44. The Time Traveler's Wife- Audrey Niffeneger
45. Invasion of the Body Snatchers- Jack Finney
46. The Left Hand of Darkness- Ursula K. Le Guin
47. The Hyperion Series- Dan Simmons
48. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress- Robert A. Heinlein
49. Stranger in a Strange Land- Robert A. Heinlein
50. Ender's Game- Orson Scott Card
51. The Sun Also Rises- Ernest Hemingway
53. The Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini
60. Revolutionary Road- Richard Yates
63. The Power of One- Bryce Courtney
67. Pet Sematary- Stephen King
74. The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow- Rita Leganski
84. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo- Stieg Larsson
85. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance- Robert M. Pirsig
88. Johnny Got his Gun - Dalton Trumbo
98. Dhalgren- Samuel R. Delany
38. Fight Club- Chuck Palahniuk
68. Jurassic Park- Michael Crichton
1. We Need to Talk About Kevin- Lionel Shriver
34. Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achebe
87. Middlesex- Jeffrey Eugenides
59. Dove - Robin Lee Graham
57. Looking for Alaska-John Green
71. Winesburg, Ohio- Sherwood Anderson
61. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie- Muriel Spark
96. The Communist Manifesto- Karl Marx
19. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared- Jonas Jonasson
6. Little Women- Louisa May Alcott
58. 12 Years A Slave-Solomon Northup
27. Persuasion- Jane Austen
18. Tess of the D'Urbervilles- Thomas Hardy
36. A Tale of Two Cities- Charles Dickens
69. American Psycho- Brett Easton Ellis
10. The Thirteenth Tale- Dianne Setterfield
86. The Moon and Sixpence- W Somerset Maugham
41. War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy
91. Uncle Tom's Cabin- Harriet Beecher Stowe
72. The Cellist of Sarajevo- Steven Galloway
78. Jude the Obscure- Thomas Hardy
7. Middlemarch- George Eliot
31. Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens
62. Tender is the Night- F. Scott Fitzgerald
90. How Green was My Valley- Richard Llewellyn
37. Great Expectations- Charles Dickens
75. My Sister's Keeper- Jodi Picoult
89. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer- Patrick Süskind
92. The Jungle- Upton Sinclair
3. Mossflower- Brian Jacques
4. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
5. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
54. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter- Carson McCullers
97. The Prisoner of Zenda- Anthony Hope
55. A Separate Peace- John Knowles
43. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall- Anne Bronte
94. The Age of Reason- Thomas Paine

75/99


message 3: by Buck (last edited Jan 04, 2015 06:56AM) (new)

Buck (spectru) At this point in time, I think I've read more from our list of 50 than I have from our list of 100.


message 4: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 38. Fight Club- Chuck Palahniuk

My brief review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 5: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 68. Jurassic Park- Michael Crichton

My brief review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 6: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 1. We Need to Talk About Kevin- Lionel Shriver

My Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 7: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 34. Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achebe

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 8: by Buck (last edited Feb 04, 2016 07:53PM) (new)

Buck (spectru) 87. Middlesex- Jeffrey Eugenides

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 9: by Buck (last edited Jul 27, 2015 04:33AM) (new)

Buck (spectru) 59. Dove by Robin Lee Graham

Interesting, fairly quick read, about a teen who circumnavigates the globe alone in a sailboat. Three stars, no review.


message 10: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 57. Looking for Alaska-John Green

Our monthly discussion for January 2016


message 11: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 71. Winesburg, Ohio- Sherwood Anderson

My Brief review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 12: by Gaurav (new)

Gaurav | 2 comments hi buck!
The list is just amazing.It contains several of the books in my TBR.Keep it up dude!


message 13: by Buck (last edited Feb 20, 2016 07:25AM) (new)

Buck (spectru) Gaurav wrote: "hi buck!
The list is just amazing.It contains several of the books in my TBR.Keep it up dude!"


Hi Gaurav

61. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie- Muriel Spark
Our monthly discussion for February 2016


message 14: by Buck (last edited Apr 23, 2016 08:33AM) (new)

Buck (spectru) 96. The Communist Manifesto- Karl Marx

My brief review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 15: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 19. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared- Jonas Jonasson

My brief review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 16: by DeeplyRooted (new)

DeeplyRooted | 8 comments Curious where you found this original 100 List?


message 17: by Buck (last edited Mar 12, 2017 07:45AM) (new)

Buck (spectru) DeeplyRooted wrote: "Curious where you found this original 100 List?"

The moderators of this group put it together from nominations made by members of the group. Each month we have nominations from both lists, and then vote on which ones to read and discuss. Unfortunately, our moderators have gone on sabbatical and so the group is just kind of slogging along on its own, for now at least.

The name of this list is The 100 Books They Didn't Tell Us About. There are some old topics about it and others have posted their progress as well.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...


message 18: by DeeplyRooted (new)

DeeplyRooted | 8 comments Thank you for the information!


message 19: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 6. Little Women- Louisa May Alcott

Our monthly discussion for September 2016


message 20: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 8. The Discworld series #1 - The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 21: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 58. 12 Years A Slave-Solomon Northup

Our monthly discussion for November 2016


message 22: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 27. Persuasion- Jane Austen

Our monthly discussion for December 2016.

and proof I am not a Janite.


message 23: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) Halfway


message 24: by Buck (last edited Jan 09, 2017 04:47PM) (new)

Buck (spectru) So, The 100 Books They Didn't Tell Us About is now on Listopia. I thought I had read 50 of these so far. Listopia says I have read 53.

One would be The Color of Magic, which I've read but didn't count yet because it is the first in a series. This series has 41 books. I don't expect ever to read all of them. So I kind of figured I'd mark it off the list when I've read a few of them.

I think the second one is number 28 on our list, of which there isn't one. Our list really only has 99 books. The Fault in Our Stars is the title I think fills this gap on Listopia and I've read it.

I haven't figured out the third one yet.


message 25: by [deleted user] (new)

Hi Buck

28. The Fault in Our Stars

This was added by default when it was included in and voted as one of our monthly polls a couple of years ago. So as we were short of one book it was numbered as the missing 28.

As for The Colour of Magic, I only put the first of the series in the list because there are so many of them.

The 3rd one is probably Animal Farm which has been added by someone else already, even though it's not on our list. I'm not sure if I can delete it as anyone can add to any Listopia list.


message 26: by Kayleigh (new)

Kayleigh | 97 comments I think the goodreads librarians can remove books from the list. If you just leave a comment asking for a librarian to remove the specific book they're usually pretty helpful and quick at getting round to doing it


message 27: by Buck (last edited Jan 11, 2017 06:18PM) (new)

Buck (spectru) Christine wrote: "The 3rd one is probably Animal Farm which has been added by someone else already, even though it's not on our list. I'm not sure if I can delete it as anyone can add to any Listopia list."

Kayleigh wrote: "I think the goodreads librarians can remove books from the list. If you just leave a comment asking for a librarian to remove the specific book they're usually pretty helpful and quick at getting r..."

Let's just let it ride. After a period of time maybe we can see that there are books more deserving of being on our list than some we have and we can make adjustment. If it becomes a list of any interest at all, people will add books to it. Let's just see how it goes.


message 28: by [deleted user] (new)

We could add the 'open nomination' books we have read. Although someone else will have to add them as I am at my maximum of 100 books.


message 29: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 18. Tess of the D'urbervilles- Thomas Hardy

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 30: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 36. A Tale of Two Cities- Charles Dickens

My brief review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 31: by [deleted user] (new)

I love Dickens, he's great at pointing out the hypocrisy of Victorian England - while the elites were off empire building, the natives were treated appallingly. My favourites are too numerous to mention.


message 32: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 8. The Discworld series #2 - The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

This book is the second of 41 in Pratchett's Discworld series. It's silly, but after a while a story actually does emerge from the silliness. Some folks love this series. I'm less enthusiastic. I might read a couple more of these, as time goes by, but I don't see myself reading all 41 of them.


message 33: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 69. American Psycho- Brett Easton Ellis

Our monthly read for June of 2017


message 34: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 10. The Thirteenth Tale- Dianne Setterfield

When I was about a third of the way in, I discovered I was hearing an abridged audio book. The novel is only about 400 pages. I don't know why they decided it needed to be abridged, especially since it is so good. Setterfield's prose is polished and the story is engaging. I was rapt all the way through and disappointed I didn't have the full novel.


message 35: by Buck (last edited Jul 06, 2017 05:38PM) (new)

Buck (spectru) 86. The Moon and Sixpence- W Somerset Maugham

It's supposed to be a fictional account of Paul Gauguin. It made me wonder about that enough to be curious about Gauguin. I checked into it enough to realized that the character of Charles Strickland differs much from Gauguin. Strickland was a caddish painter in Paris who moved to Tahiti and whose genius was not recognized until after his death from leprosy. There is a resemblance to the life of Gauguin, but it certainly is not biographical.

The story is engaging and the prose worthwhile. This is my first of W. Somerset Maugham. I'm encouraged to read more.


message 36: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 41. War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy

I can affirm this classic novel's best known characteristic - It's very long. It's good in some places and just long in others. A knowledge of the Napoleonic wars in Russia would have been helpful.


message 37: by Buck (last edited Aug 28, 2017 04:42PM) (new)

Buck (spectru) 91. Uncle Tom's Cabin- Harriet Beecher Stowe

Our monthly discussion for August 2017 https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...


message 38: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 72. The Cellist of Sarajevo- Steven Galloway

A grim story of the siege of Sarajevo. Grim, but with a conclusion of personal integrity and resistance to the spirit of war.


message 39: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 78. Jude the Obscure- Thomas Hardy

A complicated convoluted story of the love and marriage between Jude and Sue, both of whom are married to other people. I wonder if this was racy material when it was written, in the Victorian era. Not as good as Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles.


message 40: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 7. Middlemarch - George Eliot
Our monthly discussion for January 2018

Here is my review> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 41: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 31. Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens
Our monthly discussion for February 2018

Here is my brief review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


message 42: by Buck (last edited Nov 21, 2020 06:43PM) (new)

Buck (spectru) 62. Tender is the Night- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Our monthly read for March 2018

To have made it onto our own list of 100, somebody liked this more than I did.


message 43: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 90. How Green was My Valley- Richard Llewellyn
Our monthly read for June 2018

A book that deserves to be a classic.


message 44: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 37. Great Expectations- Charles Dickens

Dickens is definitely my favorite Victorian author.


message 45: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 75. My Sister's Keeper- Jodi Picoult
Our monthly group read for May 2018

Join the discussion here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...


message 46: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 89. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer- Patrick Süskind
This was our monthly read for August 2014. I finally read it four years later.


message 47: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 92. The Jungle- Upton Sinclair
This was our group read for December 2018

Join the discussion here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...


message 48: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 3. Mossflower- Brian Jacques
This was our group read for January 2019

Join the discussion here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...


message 49: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 4. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
This was our group read for February 2019

Join the discussion here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...


message 50: by Buck (new)

Buck (spectru) 5. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Read it in June. Forgot to post it until now.


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