Below is the list with my comments on each. It does seem that I've managed to live 31 years without most of them, and don't feel incomplete for having not read them.
A couple of things wound me up. If you include the book series there are more than 100, but that's minor, the real source of annoyance was the inclusion of No. 33 The Chronicles of Narnia and No. 36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. TLTWTW is one of the Chronicles of Narnia. It's the second in the series. Hence the name of the film "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe". And Hamlet being listed seperately to the Complete Works of Shakespeare.
As suspected the Guardian is moronic!
1 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen - never could get into it.
2 The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien - dear god, could never get into it. For Geeks and Freaks and Dungeons and Dragons players only. Though I enjoyed the films.
3 Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte - never read
4 Harry Potter series JK Rowling - love em. Can't wait for the final instalment.
5 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee - may be the best book ever written.
6 The Bible - in common with the vast majority of people I've never actually read it
7 Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte - s'ok I suppose. Read it when I liked Mills & Boon.
=8 Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell - Fabulous. Still want to slap the girl at university who said that it had nothing to say to her. This may be why the legal system is going to pot.
=8 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman - Haven't read, but will do.
10 Great Expectations Charles Dickens - Love it, must be time for a re-read.
11 Little Women Louisa M Alcott - Never read.
12 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy - read a long time ago, seem to remember enjoying it. Not enough to rush out and read again.
13 Catch-22 Joseph Heller - not read.
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare William Shakespeare - ditto The Bible, but have my favourites.
15 Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier - never read it, but enjoyed the talking book if that counts.
16 The Hobbit JRR Tolkien - Ditto 2, except I have read it.
17 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks - I enjoyed this one. Bit over-wrought though.
18 Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger - Never read
19 The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger - Never read
20 Middlemarch George Eliot - Never read
21 Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell - Really enjoyed.
22 The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald - Enjoyed
23 Bleak House Charles Dickens - Never read
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams - s'ok
26 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh - Never read
27 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Never read
28 Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck - Never read
29 Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll - Never read
30 The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame -Never read
31 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy - Never read
32 David Copperfield Charles Dickens - Never read
33 Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis - Very much enjoyed
34 Emma Jane Austen - Never read
35 Persuasion Jane Austen - Never read
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe CS Lewis - Harrumph. Best in the series without a doubt.
37 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini - on my bookshelf to be read.
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières - s'ok
39 Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden - s'ok
40 Winnie the Pooh AA Milne - Never read
41 Animal Farm George Orwell - Excellent book.
42 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown - on the bookshelf. Will get round to it sooner or later.
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Never read
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Irving - Never read
45 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins - Never read
46 Anne of Green Gables LM Montgomery - My absolute favourite childhood book. Still re-read this and love it.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy - Never read
48 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood - read a long time ago. Very serious.
49 Lord of the Flies William Golding - I studied this book in my S Grade English, I think I may appreciate it more now than I did then.
50 Atonement Ian McEwan - Never read
51 Life of Pi Yann Martel - Never read
52 Dune Frank Herbert - Never read
53 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons - Never read
54 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen - Never read
55 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth - Read a long time ago. A BIG book, couldn't read it now, would be like commuting with a brick...
56 The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon - Never read
57 A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens - The only Dickens I've never managed to get into.
58 Brave New World Aldous Huxley - Never read
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon - On the bookshelf, waiting patiently...
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Never read
61 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck - Read at school. Can't remember it.
62 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov - Never read
63 The Secret History Donna Tartt - On the bookshelf, waiting patiently...
64 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold - Never read
65 Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas - Never read
66 On The Road Jack Kerouac - Never read
67 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy - Never read
68 Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding - Was ok, the second one was really annoying though. Just wanted to slap the silly tart.
69 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie -Never read
70 Moby Dick Herman Melville - Never read
71 Oliver Twist Charles Dickens - Really liked it.
72 Dracula Bram Stoker - Dracula-a-a mwahaaaa, I enjoyed.
73 The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett - Really liked it, but prefered A Little Princess.
74 Notes From A Small Island Bill Bryson - Never read
75 Ulysses James Joyce - Dear God, I hated it, or at least I hated the few pages that I made myself read.
76 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath - Depressing poetry by a suicidal bint not my cup of tea.
77 Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome - Never read
78 Germinal Emile Zola - Never read
79 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray - Never read
80 Possession AS Byatt - Never read
81 A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens - Read it every December, it's a cliche, but I enjoy doing it.
82 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell - Never read
83 The Color Purple Alice Walker - Never read
84 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro -Never read
85 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert - Really like this one.
86 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry - Never read
87 Charlotte's Web EB White - Never read
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven Mitch Alborn - Much better than I expected. Unexpectedly moving.
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Never read
90 The Faraway Tree Collection Enid Blyton - Never read I don't think, but I loved the Famous Five and Secret Seven. Lashings and lashings of pop and scones and saving middle England from strange swarthy men (the Cornish!)
91 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad - Never read
92 The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupery - Never read
93 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks - Never read
94 Watership Down Richard Adams - Never read
95 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole - Never read
96 A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute - Never read
97 The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas - Never read
98 Hamlet William Shakespeare - Never read. This must be one of the plays that doesn't appear in the Complete works though...... Idiot Guardian
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl - Never read
100 Les Misérables Victor Hugo - loved the musical so read the book. Loved the book too.
1 comment:
List of 100 (random) books, and four of them are sitting on your shelf waiting to be read. Now there's a surprise. I would guess that 4% of all books ever published are sitting patiently on your shelf .....
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