| A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess | |
| A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES by John Kennedy Toole | |
| A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway | |
| A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce | |
| A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster | |
| A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens | |
| A WRINKLE IN TIME by Theodore Dreiser | |
| ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy | |
| ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by LM Montgomery | |
| AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner | |
| BLINDNESS by Jose Saramago | |
| BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh | |
| CATCH 22 by Joseph Heller | |
| CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchell | |
| CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Fyodor Dostoyevsky | |
| CRYPTONOMICON by Neal Stephenson | |
| DELIVERANCE by James Dickey | |
| DOCTOR ZHIVAGO by Boris Pasternak | |
| DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes | |
| DRACULA by Bram Stoker | |
| DUNE by Frank Herbert | |
| EAST OF EDEN by John Steinbeck (currently reading) | |
| EUNOIA by Christian Bok | |
| FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury | |
| FAUST by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | |
| FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelly | |
| GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens | |
| GULLIVER’S TRAVELS by Jonathan Swift | |
| HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad | |
| HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Danielewski | |
| HUNGER by Knut Hamsun | |
| I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves | |
| INDEPENDENT PEOPLE by Halldór Laxness | |
| INVISIBLE MAN by H.G Wells | |
| JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte | |
| JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN by Dalton Trumbo | |
| KILLING PABLO by Mark Bowden | |
| LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER by DH Lawrence | |
| LAMB by Christopher Moore | |
| LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa Alcott | |
| MADAME BOVARY by Gustave Flaubert | |
| MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie | |
| MOBY DICK by Herman Melville | |
| NATIVE SON by Richard Wright | |
| OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham | |
| OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck | |
| ON BEAUTY by Zadie Smith | |
| ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST by Ken Kesey | |
| ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez | |
| POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley | |
| PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen | |
| PYGMALION by George Bernard Shaw | |
| ROBINSON CRUSOE by Daniel Defoe | |
| SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury | |
| SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence | |
| SOPHIE’S CHOICE by William Styron | |
| STEPPEHWOLF by Herman Hesse | |
| TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald | |
| THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Mark Twain | |
| THE AWAKENING by Kate Chopin | |
| THE BIG SLEEP by Raymond Chandler | |
| THE BROTHERS K by David James Duncan | |
| THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London | |
| THE COLOR PURPLE by Alice Walker | |
| THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexandre Dumas | |
| THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN by John Fowles | |
| THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald | |
| THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers | |
| THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams | |
| THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME by Victor Hugo | |
| THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER by Tom Clancy | |
| THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS by James Fenimore Cooper | |
| THE LORD OF THE RINGS by JRR Tolkein | |
| THE LONESOME DOVE by Larry McMurtry | |
| THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett | |
| THE MAN WHO MISTOOK HIS WIFE FOR A HAT by Oliver Sacks | |
| THE METAMORPHOSIS by Franz Kafka | |
| THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde | |
| THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY by Henry James | |
| THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain | |
| THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE by Stephen Crane | |
| THE REMAINS OF THE DAY by Ishaguro | |
| THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodges Burnett | |
| THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner | |
| THE STAND by Stephen King | |
| THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway | |
| THE THREE MUSKETEERS by Alexandre Dumas | |
| THE TIN DRUM by Günter Grass | |
| THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James | |
| THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Grahame | |
| THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving | |
| THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD by Zora Neale Hurston | |
| TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf | |
| TREASURE ISLAND by Robert Louis Stevenson | |
| TSOTSI by Athol Fugard | |
| ULYSSES by James Joyce | |
| VANITY FAIR by William Thackeray | |
| WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams | |
| WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Emily Bronte | |
some commentary:
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
>>decent
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
>> i absolutely despised this book when i read it, but maybe i was not in the proper mindset.
CRYPTONOMICON by Neal Stephenson
>> decent, but bogs down quite a bit and there are parts you will have to gloss over (eg mathematics of cryptography)
DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes
>> i made it through Book I, will tackle Book II someday. GET THE EDITH GROSSMAN TRANSLATION – it’s surprisingly humorous in parts.
DUNE by Frank Herbert
>> i do not like Herbert’s writing style at all… it feels simple and clunky.
FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury
>> classic 50′s ‘serious’ SF, in tone and theme.
FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelly
>> i have to say i love Shelly’s writing style.
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
>>not sure that i can see what’s so supposedly great about this story. your interpretation may differ.
HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Danielewski
>> my friend calls this “House of Pretentious Bullshit Leaves”
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
>> great story.
LAMB by Christopher Moore
>> not nearly as funny as the author thinks he is. why is this on this list?
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
>> awesome story, except for the last 3 pages. don’t let the naming of successive generations confuse you.
SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
>> read this 15 years ago and i have no memory of what happened in it.
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert Heinlein
>> 1950s love commune! silly women characters, however. Heinlein is so full of himself.
THE COLOR PURPLE by Alice Walker
>> surprisingly absorbing. good movie adaptation as well.
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
>> i never got what was so great about this one when i read it in high school, so i should attempt again.
THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams
>> you may want to take on the entire five books in the ‘trilogy’, but this is far and away the best of them.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS by JRR Tolkein
>> working on this right now, after two failed attempts in the past 22 years. i’m on the final stretch now….
THE METAMORPHOSIS by Franz Kafka
>> bleak
THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodges Burnett
>> read this in sixth grade – i absolutely loved it. such vivid imagery.
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Grahame
>> my mom read this to me many years ago, but i have few recollections of it. i need to revisit this.
ULYSSES by James Joyce
>> i’ve started this one three different times and still haven’t finished. you will get much more out of this novel with the annotation companion, but it will bog your reading down to an unacceptably slow pace.
WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams
>> i like rabbits, so this was a natural for me to pick up. i recommend the animated cinema adaptation.
Wow, you are well read! Can you give me your opinion on the following books, so I know how our tastes compare? I’m just curious. .
1984
THe Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
Lolita
Animal Farm
The Grapes of Wrath
Slaughterhouse Five
The Handmaiden’s Tale
LAMB by Christopher Moore
>> not nearly as funny as the author thinks he is. why is this on this list?
This was a recommendation of a friend whose opinion I highly value, which is why it’s on here
I’ve moved onto The Great Gatsby, and so far I love the imagery. Fitzgerald’s writing style is definitely right up my alley.
Thanks for the comment!
1984
>> The only book i’ve ever thrown across the room after finishing; such was the extent it angered me. however, before the anger started, i really liked the atmosphere that was established.
THe Catcher in the Rye
>> read this in 12th grade i think? i couldn’t understand what the big deal was with this one.
On the Road
>> more of a rambling travelogue than a novel, but enjoyable enough… some good landscape imagery – i particularly liked the description of ‘The Mystical Dreamland of Mexico’.
Lolita
>> awesomely executed. Nabokov is a joy to read. i also recommend _Pale Fire_.
Animal Farm
>> haven’t read it
The Grapes of Wrath
>> haven’t read it
Slaughterhouse Five
>> haven’t read it
The Handmaiden’s Tale
>> i didn’t like the writing.
I’ve read 1984 like 4 times, I love it that much. Yes, it angered me, but in a good way.
Lolita may rank as one of my top five favorite books of all time.
I should have asked you about my favorite book, which WILL say a lot about me and my reading style. . . Atlas Shrugged.
Anyway, I suggest Slaughterhouse Five, or Breakfast of Champions, both wonderful. The other ones were so-so. I hated “On the Road.” It was very much a travelogue, which now that you mention it, seems like what The Sun Also Rises was like.
Anyway, thanks for the comments!
Ugh… Lord of the Rings. It took me four tries to make it through all three books. I think Tolkien described each leaf in Middle Earth.
I would also recommend reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It’s a fairly recent book (2001), but it’s one of my all-time favourites.
@Sherri
I would NEVER torture myself with all four
My partner reads those books, and they are just. . .so. . .boring.
I figure I better read one though, before I die.