100 Books

2009-01-28T00:21:41Z

This is my first livejournal post, and i suppose it's fitting that it's about books. anemone (thanks for inspiring me!) posted this list, and I was thinking my own comments as I read through them. why not write them down here? so here goes: 100 books that some random person compiled into a list, along with my comments as to whether or not i've read them. ah, the internet.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Great book. And for a fun modernization, check out Jane Austen in Boca.
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
Amazing trilogy and fantastic movies.
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Loved it.
4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
Brilliant.
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Doesn’t everyone read this in 8^th grade?.
6. The Bible - various authors
Haven’t made it all the way through.
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Didn’t speak to me.
8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
I need to reread this.
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
Liked it fine. Not sure what all the fuss was about.
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Too long, but a good book.
11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
I reread this dozens of times when I was younger because I thought I was supposed to love it. Didn’t love it.
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
I loved this book, but it may be because it was for a great class.
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
Didn’t get it.
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
Can anyone check this off?
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
Liked it even better than Lord of the Rings.
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
never heard of it
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
Not for me.
19. The Time Traveller's Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
Why is this on the list? I loved the book, but it wasn’t *good*.
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
I have 2 copies on my bookshelf, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
I loved this book as a teenager. Need to reread as an adult.
22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
Oyster Bay is different today.
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
Never read it.
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
Too long.
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Interesting choice of “classic” but I’ll go with it.
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
Never read it.
27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Never read it.
28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Liked Of Mice and Men better.
29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
I’m glad children’s books are on this list! Loved it.
30. The Wind in the Willows– Kenneth Grahame
Still glad children’s books are on this list, but didn’t care for this one.
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
Don’t jump in front of trains.
32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
Yet another book I *should* have read but haven’t.
33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
It is so different to read this as an adult.
34. Emma – Jane Austen
Better than Pride and Prejudice?
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
Never read it. Do I get points for Northanger Abbey?
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
Um, covered this already.l
37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
Loved this book.
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
Terrible.
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
Quite enjoyable.
40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
Best kids book ever.
41. Animal Farm – George Orwell
Everyone reads this in 9^th grade lit.
42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
This totally should not be on this list.
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Hated it. Everyone says that Love in the Time of Cholera is amazing, but I can’t try him again.
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
Tried to read it 3 times, just don’t like John Irving.
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
Fun to read in the same way it’s fun to watch Casablanca; it’s the source of so many cliches. Also good for the same reason: The Moonstone.
46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
Every girl should read this book. The musical was not good.
47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
Nope.
48. The Handmaid's Tale – Margaret Atwood
Loved it.
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Very disturbing.
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
Didn’t enjoy the book at all, but LOVED the ending. Is it worth slogging through a book just for the ending?
51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Very fun. Great book.
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
Classic sci-fi.
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
Never heard of it.
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
Yup.
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
never heard of it.
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
I read it and don’t remember a thing about it.
57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
No.
58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
Better than 1984?
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
Fun, but really?
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ah, here it is. Nope.
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Succinct.
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
Fantastic.
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
Should not be on this list, but a fun read.
64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
Enjoyed it.
65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
Reminded me of MacGyver
66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
Is this worth reading?
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
It’s like Waiting for Godot. The point of the book is that it’s *supposed* to be boring. Not fun, though.
68. Bridget Jones' Diary – Helen Fielding
Good chick lit.
69. Midnight's Children – Salman Rushdie
Haven’t read anything by Rushdie.
70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Too big to read.
71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
OK.
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
Fine.
73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Sweet.
74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
Not my favorite Bill Bryson, but good.
75. Ulysses – James JoyceNot interested.
76. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
Crazy.
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur RansomeNever heard of it.
78. Germinal – Emile
Is this a book? and an author?
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
Haven’t read it.
80. Possession – AS Byatt
Great book for book lovers.
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Such a classic, you have to love it.
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
Never heard of it.
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
Nope.
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
Pretty good.
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
Loved it.
86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
Great book. Didn’t enjoy his others.
87. Charlotte's Web – EB White
Even better as an adult. Amazing writing; every word counts.
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
Bleh.
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I would like to read this.
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
Never heard of it.
91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
Had to read this at least twice for classes. Meh. Never saw Apocolypse Now.
92. The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) – Antoine De Saint-Exupere
Sweet.
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
Never read it.
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
Loved it.
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
Interesting and quirky.
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
Post-nuclear strike fiction. Well done.
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
Very good.
98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
yes.
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
I hope Violet likes all the books I enjoyed as a child! (Of course she won’t)
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
Read it in French. Spent the first 100 pages wondering why he was obsessed with fishing (pecher = fish or sin, depending on the accent).

Susan Of Acadia

100 Books