I read on another blog that the average adult has read only 6 out of 100 of the following books! (I don't know if those stats are true, but I guess it doesn't matter). I've bolded the books I have read.
1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (awesome - one of my favorite)
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (It's on my list to read. Love the movies)
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (great book)
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (some of the best books I've ever read)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible (the majority of it)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (weird, but interesting)
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (read it in high school, can't remember it)
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (high school - BORING)
11. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott (pretty good)
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete work of Shakespere (no interest)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (great book)
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (just remember a lot of swearing, sorry Alexandra)
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (hated the movie, so no interest)
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (HATED this book; couldn't even finish)
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (boring, wouldn't recommend it)
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen (pretty good, rare occasion where the movie is better)
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen (not her best work, but still a good read)
36. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (read 1000 Splendid Suns and did not like it, so no interest)
37. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
38. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (started off good, but didn't like the ending)
39. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
40. Animal Farm - George Orwell (high school read - don't remember much)
41. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (Angels and Demons is better)
42. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
43. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
44. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
45. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
46. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
47. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
48. Lord of the Flies - William Golding (another high school read. remember the conch and "kill the pig, suck it's blood, bash it's head..." or something like that)
49. Atonement - Ian McEwan
50. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
51. Dune - Frank Herbert
52. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
53. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (on my to-read list)
54. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
55. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
56. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
57. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (high school, but I do remember liking this one)
58. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
59. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
60. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
61. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
62. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
63. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
64. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (one of my favorite; great book)
65. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
66. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
67. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fiedling
68. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdi
69. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
70. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
71. Dracula - Bram Stoker
72. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
73. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
74. Ulysses - James Joyce
75. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
76. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
77. Germinal - Emile Zola
78. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (movie sucked, so no interest)
79. Possession - AS Byatt
80. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
81. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
82. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
83. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
84. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
85. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
86. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
87. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (hated it, thought it was stupid)
88. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
89. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
90. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
91. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
92. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
93. Watership Down - Richard Adams
94. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
95. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
96. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
97. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
98. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
(The last two were missing, so I made some up)
99. Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton (Interesting read, but hated the ending)
100. Twilight series - Stephanie Myers (only read one and HATED it. I know, I know. I thought it was so shallow and silly, especially after just finishing the masterpiece of Harry Potter. No comparison.)
I got 23. How many did you get? I know a lot of people won't agree with my reviews, but if you found you had similar views, please share with me some other books that you liked. Or, post this list on your blog and do your own reviews.
10 comments:
You've never read the secret garden or anne of green gables or charlotte's web??!! Maybe you and Erica can enjoy them together! You'll love them all. I got 20 total, so you're more read on the list than I am. I guess I'm stuck in the younger books...I'll work on it.
I got 39--but most of those I read in high school and don't remember at all. :(
I love, love, LOVE Thomas Hardy. Those books were so mind-blowing to me (although on the depressing side). I also recommend (although not on the list) I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith--I rank it right up there with P&P.
I have to admit that I'm a little suspicious of the 6/100 statistic, especially since there are so many modern books on the list. But thanks for the reminder that there are so many good books that I should be reading!!
I lost count, but it was like 19-21. Most were high school requirements but not all.
My favorite books on that whole list are Crime and Punishment and David Copperfield. GREAT books! I'm surprised that you haven't read much Dickens because I thought that all high schools made you read all his works.
Question: How could you hate Grapes of Wrath but like Brave New World?
I'm not surpised at all that you didn't like Twilight. Anyone who couldn't stand Hairspray should not be reading such a book.
(Troy here) Sonja - I don't get your "Grapes of Wrath" vs. "Brave New World" comment. I also detested "Grapes of Wrath" and liked "Brave New World." Then again, you do like Hairspray...
I read 25. It would be SIGNIFICANTLY less than that if it weren't for high school english... and since I didn't like most of the books I read for high school classes, my time would have been better spent snowboarding.
how do you tie grapes of wrath with hairspray?? you need to go to comparison school or something. sheesh.
I am pretty sure I must have been in the "reading for retards" english class in high school. Maybe that had something to do with my dislike for law school... the reading!
Oh I forgot to ask my question- what is your number one all time reading recommendation? (besides Family law 101 and civil procedure)
i got 28. it seemed a bit heavy on jane austin. i've actually never read any of her books.
22. Wow, I've got some reading to do.
I got 36. At least three of them were ones I couldn't finish, including those terrible Twilight monstrosities!
(I think Sonja and I are book soul mates because I also ADORE David Copperfield (favorite book) and Crime and Punishment. And I like to make generalizations about people who liked Hairspray.)
I'd recommend "the Book Thief". It is my new favorite--the style is very different, but it will make you cry. It is absolutely beautiful!
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