I saw this on The Kitchen Madonna’s blog. I’m going to be sad, because I know I haven’t read nearly the number of classics I should have… but here goes anyway. I’m supposed to bold the ones I have read, italicize the ones I am planning on reading and underline (I’ll just color them red instead) the ones I have loved.
1.Pride and Prejudice — loved the A&E version of it, but can’t get into 19th century literature (gasp!). Too wordy and over-emotional for me. Still, I just bought a copy of it, so I’ll be giving it the old “college try” soon…
2. The Lord of the Rings — liked it, but couldn’t handle all the elf songs. Terrible to say, but I got so much more out of the movie (isn’t that sad???).
3. Jane Eyre — I know, too sad. See #1.
5. To Kill a Mockingbird — high school read. I really should read it again.
6. The Bible — this one should be obvious!
7. Wuthering Heights — again, #1. Yuck.
8. Nineteen Eighty Four — Why was this not assigned in high school???
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman – Not in this lifetime, or the next. You’ve gotta be kidding me.
10. Great Expectations — Ah, freshman year in high school!
11. Little Women — again, high school.
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – (Thomas Hardy) I think this was freshman year of college. Can’t say it did all that much for me.
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller -Nope.
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare — I’ve read quite a bit, but can’t say I’ve read EVERYTHING.
15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier – Saw the movie!
16. The Hobbit – (JRR Tolkien) Picked this one up a few years ago. Glad I finally read it!
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye – (JD Salinger) High school.
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind – (Margaret Mitchell) Watched the movie several times… does that count?
22. The Great Gatsby – (F Scott Fitzgerald) Wow! I just read this for the first time a few years ago (during our “classics challenge” here at the house), and I loved it!
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens- saw the PBS series…
24. War and Peace – (Leo Tolstoy)
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – (Douglas Adams) – Of course!!
26. Brideshead Revisited – (Evelyn Waugh) Keep hearing about this one. Guess I need to add it to the list…
27. Crime and Punishment – (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) – HATED his book THE IDIOT. Oh my gosh.. bad high school memories…
28. Grapes of Wrath – (John Steinbeck). I’m pretty sure I read this one.
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) Loved it! It’s CS Lewis, c’mon!
34. Emma – Jane Austen
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Kite Runner – (Khaled Hosseini) — I know there is a disturbing scene in there, so I haven’t gotten my guts up to read it yet.
37. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
38. Memoirs of a Geisha – (Arthur Golden) Yep.
39. Winnie the Pooh – (AA Milne) Again, it’s a given.
40. Animal Farm – George Orwell
41. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown – I have better things to do with my time.
42. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
43. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – (John Irving) Loved it up until the very end, but then it fell apart.
44. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
45. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery -How have I not read this yet???
46. Far From The Madding Crowd – (Thomas Hardy) How many ways can I say “bleck”????
47. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood. Disturbing, but good!
48. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
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
54. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
55. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
56. A Tale Of Two Cities – (Charles Dickens) Again, high school.
57. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
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) Didn’t we all have to read this one in high school?
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 all-time favorite books. I was intrigued when I heard that Michael Card spoke so highly of it. I picked it up and devoured it! It is a classic for a reason!!!
65. On The Road – Jack Kerouac –
66. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
67. Bridget Jones’ Diary – Helen Fielding
68. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
69. Moby Dick – (Herman Melville) -Yes, it’s dry in places, but I had NO IDEA it was going to be so funny! My husband and I read it during our “classics challenge” here at home, and the phrase, “Alas, he was a butterless man” still makes us smile…
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). I was a French major! Of course I read this one!
78. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
79. Possession – AS Byatt
80. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens. Read it with the kids.
81. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
82. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
83. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
84. Madame Bovary – (Gustave Flaubert). I’m pretty sure I read this… but I’ve seen various adaptations of it for sure…
85. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
86. Charlotte’s Web – EB White
87. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
88. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
89. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
90. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad. The horror! The horror!
91. The Little Prince – (Antoine De Saint-Exupery) In French.
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
99. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – (Mark Twain) Can you believe I’ve NEVER read this???
100. The Outsiders by SE Hinton
Can I make a few suggestions?
Animal Farm – George Orwell
Amazing book. Had to read it in school and liked it even then. Now it’s even more poignant.
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Another one I had to read for school and ended up loving. Brisk pace keeps younger readers engaged and I learned a lot about the human capacity for barbarism when anarchy reigns.
Dune – Frank Herbert
Call me a nerd but I loved this book.
Dracula – Bram Stoker
Absolutely brilliant.
Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
American author leaving England after living there for years and decides to take one more lap around England. Very very funny.
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
Another brilliantly funny book. To tell you anything about it would spoil it.
THANK YOU so much for your suggestions!! I am hoping to restart our “classics challenge” here at the house, and you’ve given me several to choose from (sometimes, the list is soooooo overwhelming I don’t know where to begin.) Many of them we have on our bookshelves already, but I’ve just never picked them up.
I absolutely loved “The Three Musketeers.” I didn’t think I would like it but but was pleasantly surprised. I am a big Dumas fan, though.
And WHY isn’t that book on the list? You would think that one would be on there for sure…
I have to admit I’ve read and loved everything by Jane Austen – I just love the depth of her characters… 🙂 Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice are two of my favorites, but I also liked Persuasion and Mansfield Park.
~Jenny
Well, I said I would try again, but I can’t make any promises on the Jane Austen books!
If I do… and I wind up liking them… I will publish a big apology to Austen fans everywhere!
*grin*