There are the books you read, and then there are the books that change your life. The ones that shape your perspective on life, love, religion, politics, and much more. Some are simply a satisfying read, or even merely something to check off a list, yet some can transform into a source of inspiration for the rest of your life. Literature is such a avenue of knowledge and holds such a plethora of wisdom it is so easy to escape to another world and loose myself in the vast unknown contained within binding…
From a seemingly infinite list of both acclaimed works and anecdotal reports the following is a list narrowed down to 100 “must reads” that I recently came across. This is just one of many lists I’m sure, a little random seemingly and lacking several of my favorites & others I believe should fall into such a inventory, however fairly comprehensive nonetheless. I hope to one day read all of these (along with several others already on my own personal to do list!) with the intention of more than just turning the pages, but hopefully gathering meaningful insight. Though barely scratching the surface, I’ve highlighted the ones I’ve already tackled (some recently & many several years ago), leaving the remaining to chase after. I challenge you to join me…
1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
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
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabok
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishig
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Beloved – Toni Morrison
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
Which ones have you read? Join in and let us know! And meet our two new hosts as well!
Beth – Our Pretty Little Girls | Michelle – Grammie Time Keri – Living In This Season
Christina – Waltzing In Beauty | Tara – Mrs. Coach Sims | Lauren – Simply Free
Jess and Katie – Sweet Little Ones | Whitney – Polka Dotty Place | Becky – BYBMG
Elizabeth – All Kinds Of Things Sarah – Abiding In Grace | Amy – Go Forth and Mother | Emily – Morning Motivated Mom
Christina – Waltzing In Beauty | Tara – Mrs. Coach Sims | Lauren – Simply Free
Jess and Katie – Sweet Little Ones | Whitney – Polka Dotty Place | Becky – BYBMG
Elizabeth – All Kinds Of Things Sarah – Abiding In Grace | Amy – Go Forth and Mother | Emily – Morning Motivated Mom
I laughed when I saw Pride and Prejudice . . .have you ever heard how obsessed Grandmother is about Pride and Prejudice? When the movie first came out, she watched it so many times that she would quote from it at lunch on Sunday and then just laugh. When we had our hardwood floors put in, we stayed at her house and she said, "oh goody – you can watch Pride and Prejudice with me" . . .and I did. I had to read 1984 in a high school English class!! (in the 70's)