Thursday, August 20, 2009

100 top books

Books in bold are ones I have already read... and, me being me, I'm giving my opinion on many of these.

1 To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee No, I haven't read this. Yes, I should be ashamed.
2 The Secret Garden (1911) by Frances Hodgson Burnett
3 Pride and Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen Regency romance...no thank you!
4 Twilight (2005) by Stephenie Meyer yeah, I read it, but seriously? This is considered one of the "best" books? Whatever. Twas Ok, but not worthy of being on a "best book list."
5 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) by Ronald Dahl
6 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) by Ken Kesey
7 1984 (1949) by George Orwell but now I think it should be retitled "2009"
8 Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë
9 The Richest Man in Babylon (1955) George S. Clason
10 The Catcher in the Rye (1945) by J.D. Salinger no, I haven't read it. Yes, I realize that I'mprobably the only person in America who hasn't read it. I don't care. It just hasn't appealed to me. And, yes, I did get through High School and college without having to read this!
11 Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (1947) by Anne Frank
12 Little Women (1868) by Louisa May Alcott
13 Gone With The Wind (1936) by Margaret Mitchell
14 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) by C.S. Lewis
15 The Giver (1993) by Lois Lowry I loved this book. But, my take on the ending was very different that that of some of my friends.
16 The Kite Runner (2003) by Khaled Hosseini Sorry, it's not my kind of book.
17 A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens
18 The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald
19 The Count of Monte Cristo (1844) by Alexandre Dumas
20 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) by Douglas Adams
21 Ender's Game (1985) by Orson Scott Card
22 Anne of Green Gables (1905) by L.M. Montgomery
23 Crime and Punishment (1866) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
24 The Time Traveler's Wife (2003) by Audrey Niffenegger I really liked this one, after all, the Time Traveler is a librarian!
25 Les Misérables (1862) by Victor Hugo
26 The Little Prince (1943) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
27 Mein Kampf (1925) Adolf Hitler Adolf, Adolf, Adolf, dude, maybe you should have learned the art of tatooing while you were in jail. Dude, you needed help.
28 One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) by Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa (Translator)
29 The Alchemist (1988) by Paulo Coelho
30 The Princess Bride (1973) by William Goldman
31 East of Eden (1952) by John Steinbeck
32 The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck Confession time: I skipped all the chapters that were social commentary, and just read the story of the family. So, I kinda read the whole thing...if you leave out 1/2!
33 Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell No, I know I'm awful. What sub-standard schools did I go to that let me get by with not reading so many great "classics?"
34 Memoirs of a Geisha (1997) by Arthur Golden
35 A Million Little Pieces (2003) James Frey
36 Lolita (1955) by Vladimir Nabokov
37 Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding stop making gasping noises, I haven't read this "classic" either! And, yes, I really DO have a college education.
38 Walden (1854) by Henry David Thoreau
39 A Wrinkle in Time (1962) by Madeleine L'Engle read it, didn't like it.
40 Anna Karenina (1873) by Leo Tolstoy It was ok, but I had trouble remembering everyone's names, Russian names all sound the same!
41 Catch-22 (1961) by Joseph Heller
42 Life of Pi (2001) by Yann Martel Well, I STARTED it, but bleh--didn't finish it.
43 Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) by Kurt Vonnegut
44 A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens
45 Watership Down (1972) by Richard Adams Read it years ago--in High School. Didn't understand it, so didn't finish it. Maybe I'd "get" it now?
46 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (1865) by Lewis Carroll well...I read the poems...
47 A Thousand Splendid Suns (2006) by Khaled Hosseini
48 The Poisonwood Bible (1998) by Barbara Kingsolver
49 Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brontë Why do people --"soul mates" have to be so stupid? COMMUNICATION people. sheesh.
50 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1997) by J.K. Rowling I happen to Love the entire series. Very inventive, very creative, very well written. You won't go to hell for reading Harry Potter.
51 Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert
52 The Odyssey (600) by Homer
53 Water for Elephants (2006) by Sara Gruen
54 Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley
55 The Road (2006) by Cormac McCarthy
56 The Fountainhead (1943) by Ayn Rand
57 The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890 by Oscar Wilde
58 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Mark Twain Yes, I know it has the "N" word. So what?
59 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) by Betty Smith I really like this one, and I've read it several times.
60 The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (1983) Shakespeare...yawn. Sorry, I don't like Bill's stuff.
61 Angela's Ashes (1996) by Frank McCourt Lord love a duck, this has got to be the most depressing book I've ever read. I forced myself to finish it just because it was so heart-wretching.
62 The Book Thief (2005) by Markus Zusak
63 The Da Vinci Code (2003) by Dan Brown I found the idea intriguing...whether you believe the premise or not, it was thought provoking.
64 The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again (1937) by J.R.R. Tolkien
65 Night (1958) by Elie Wiesel
66 The Pillars of the Earth (1989) by Ken Follett
67 The Giving Tree (1964) by Shel Silverstein
68 Outlander (1991) by Diana Gabaldon All of Diana's books are wonderful! I'm so glad that someone put her first on a list of "best books." She's one of my favorite authors.
69 The Brothers Karamazov (1880) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
70 Atlas Shrugged (1957) by Ayn Rand
71 A Prayer for Owen Meany (1988) by John Irving
72 Don Quixote (1605) by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Why do people insist that I should read books written 400 years ago?
73 Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker vampires...ick. O, wait, that's not politically correct anymore, is it? Vampires, yum.
74 The Lovely Bones (202) by Alice Sebold just not my cup of tea. Doesn't even sound interesting.
75 Sense and Sensibility (1811) by Jane Austen
76 The Iliad (600) by Homer
77 Moby Dick (1850) by Herman Melville cough cough, hack, hack, bleh. This has GOT to be the most boring and most worthless book ever printed. I absolutely hated this book. This book gives books a bad name.
78 War and Peace (1865) by Leo Tolstoy,
79 Of Mice and Men (1937) by John Steinbeck
80 The Old Man and the Sea (1952) by Ernest Hemingway
81 Middlesex (2002) by Jeffrey Eugenides
82 Lonesome Dove (1920) by Larry McMurtry Really? Lonesome Dove was written in 1920? Wow. It's on my list to read, so maybe someday, I'll read this one.
83 The Bell Jar (1963) by Sylvia Plath
84 The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1983) by Milan Kundera
85 Siddhartha (1922) by Hermann Hesse
86 The Handmaid's Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood
87 Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston
88 Emma (1815) by Jane Austen, Fiona J. Stafford (Editor)
89 On the Road (1957) by Jack Kerouac
90 The Glass Castle: A Memoir (2005) by Jeannette Walls
91 All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) by Erich Maria Remarque
92 The Master and Margarita (1966) by Mikhail Bulgakov
93 The Red Tent (1997) by Anita Diamant Hey! another one I really enjoyed! And, it's on a list!
94 Pygmalion (1914) by George Bernard Shaw
95 A Clockwork Orange (1962) by Anthony Burgess
96 The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) by Stephen Chbosky
97 Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1888) by Thomas Hardy
98 The Name of the Rose (1980) by Umberto Eco
99 Eat, Pray, Love (2006) by Elizabeth Gilbert
100 Romeo and Juliet (1595) by William Shakespeare now, why on earth does Bill get two books on the list? I mean, isn't this one included in "The complete works?" Somebody either couldn't come up with another book, or they got tired at lazy when they got to #100. Sheesh!

33 books. out of this list, I've read one third. Not bad, but I'm not sure I agree that all of these are worthy of being on a "100 top books" list.

1 comment:

agent713 said...

It was interesting to read your comments. I have a hard time with lists like this because so many of them have been turned into movies that I feel like I know the story even if I've never technically read the book.

I love that you gave up on "Life of Pi" as well. That was the most boring book I've ever even attempted to read!