Amazon just released its list of “100 Books to Read in a Lifetime.” After perusing this list, I
have read 51. I’m proud of myself for
being over half way there, and I also gained a few reading
recommendations. However, like most
great lovers of books, I found that there were some novels I believed to be
blatantly missing. Therefore, I have
created my own list of “100 books to Read in a Lifetime.” There will no doubt be duplicates, but I hope
you also appreciate some of the new additions.
I am also aware that some of these selections are technically drama, short stories, or poetry collections. What books
would make your essential list? Please leave your comments!
1.
To Kill a
Mockingbird – I won’t make note of every book I mention here. However, I truly believe that this book, more
than any other (even the bible), should be read by every single global
citizen. If the reader truly follows
Atticus Finch’s advice, this book has the power to transform. An individual can truly become a better
person simply for having read this book.
It should be mandatory reading in every secondary school district.
2.
The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – How could Amazon possibly omit this
book? It is so critical to our nation’s
history and has become deeply rooted in our culture. Likewise, this novel should be mandatory
reading in every secondary school district.
3.
Of Mice
and Men – This novel has also become deeply rooted in our culture. Does no one else remember the Loony Tunes
character that asked to pet the bunnies?
This is a vital novel of friendship and Lenny and George are pivotal
characters in the realm of fiction.
4.
Pride and
Prejudice – Of course Austen tops my list.
Recall my wish to make zombie Jane Austen my BFF. However, it is quite deservedly that this
novel should rank so high in Amazon’s list, Good Reads reader polls, and my personal
opinion. Austen is an astute observer of
human nature. Further, particularly given
the time period, Elizabeth Bennett is an admirable marvel of a woman and an exemplary
role model.
5.
The Grapes
of Wrath – Steinbeck appears twice in my top five. This book is such a brilliant portrait of our
nation during a difficult time. Told
with honesty and poetic grace, the Joad family should be known kin to every
American reader.
The following novels appear without comment
and in no particular order:
6. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck
7. Night - Elie Wiesel
8. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
9. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in
Kindergarten - Robert Fulghum
10. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
11. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
12. Nickeled and Dimed - Barbara Ehreneich
13. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
14. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
15. Fear of Flying - Erica Jong
16. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
17. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
18. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
19. Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand
20. The Circle - Dave Eggers
21. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
22. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
23. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
24. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
25. Black Boy - Richard Wright
26. The Alchemist - Paulo Coehlho
27. 1984 - George Orwell
28. The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
29. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
30. Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
31. Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
32. A Passage to India - E.M. Forster
33. I am Malala - Malala Yousafzai
34. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
35. Animal Farm - George Orwell
36. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
37. A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley
38. Bastard Out of Carolina - Dorothy Allison
39. Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi
40. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
41. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
42. The Wasteland, and Other Poems - T.S. Eliot
43. A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah
44. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
45. Every Day - David Levithan
46. Sold - Patricia McCormick
47. The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
48. Peace Like a River - Leif Enger
49. The Invitation - Oriah Mountain Dreamer
50. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
51. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
52. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
53. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
54. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank
55. The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
56. The Stranger - Albert Camus
57. The Things they Carried - Tim O'Brien
58. The Round House - Louise Erdrich
59. Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
60. Room - Emma Donaghue
61. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
62. Ellen Foster - Kaye Gibbins
63. The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
64. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
65. Go Ask Alice - Anonymous
66. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chobsky
67. A Doll’s House - Henrik Ibsen
68. Beloved - Toni Morrison
69. The Awakening - Kate Chopin
70. The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
71. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
72. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
73. Same Kind of Different As Me - Ron Hall & Denver Moore
74. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
75. The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
76. Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
77. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
78. A Farewell To Arms - Ernest Hemingway
79. The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
80. The Crucible - Arthur Miller
81. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Ken Kesey
82. Walden - Henry David Thoreau
83. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson
84. The Woman Upstairs - Claire Messud
85. Looking for Alaska - John Green
86. Paradise Lost - John Milton
87. Gulliver’s Travels - Jonathan Swift
88. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
89. Silent Spring - Rachel Carson
90. There are No Children Here - Alex Kotlowitz
91. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass - Fredrick Douglass
92. A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O'Conner
93. Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Edgar Allan Poe
94. Annie on my Mind - Nancy Garden
95. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
96. Feed - M.T. Anderson
97. The Dinner - Herman Koch
98. The Reader - Bernhard Schlink
99. Little Bee - Chris Cleave
100. Naked - David Sedaris
Well, I've read about the same number on each list. I've read 27 of the Amazon's list and 26 of your list. I think you make good recommendations here. I have to admit that I keep reading and hearing about Pride and Prejudice being super great, which I only thought was ok. The majority of the rest of the highly acclaimed books l really liked. Except Lolita and Anna Karenina; I didn't enjoy those either. One book I don't see on your list is the original Winnie the Pooh. I hope you have read that. I only ever read it as an adult and felt cheated out of it as a child, it was wonderful.
ReplyDeleteSome of the books I would recommend to anyone are: 1984 by Orwell, Animal Farm by Orwell, The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver, The Pearl by Steinbeck, The Hunger Games by Collins, and The Harry Potter Series by Rowling, and yes, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
I just chose not to add any children's books, but I remember reading Pooh as a child. I never liked the cartoons, though, so I've been turned off. I also must admit I have never read the Harry Potter series, or even seen the films. I had an Austen literature course in college, so I think being able to study her work under a great professor and discuss it with other English majors surely contributed to my love for Austen.
DeleteI've read only 30 here but many are on my "to read" radar already. I'll have to think, the get back with my additions.
ReplyDelete