Over the summer, Moonrat posted a list from “The Big Read,” an initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts. They estimated that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed and asked how many of them had you read? (I’d read 25 of their listed titles) You can read that list here: http://editorialass.blogspot.com/2008/06/big-read-meme-ish.html
This prompted me to come up with my own list of must read books. I'll ask you all the same question: How many of these books have you read? Maybe what I should ask is: How many of these books have you even heard of? lol (I deliberately left off the obvious must-read classics by the Russians, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Dickens, etc. on the assumption that you read them in school.)
1. Atonement - Ian McEwan
2. The Deptford Trilogy - Robertson Davies
3. The Professor's House - Willa Cather
4. Under the Net - Iris Murdoch
5. Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
6. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
7. Loitering with Intent - Murial Spark
8. Turn, Magic Wheel - Dawn Powell
9. Lying Awake - Mark Salzman
10. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
11. The Alienist - Caleb Carr
12. The Defense – Vladimir Nabokov
13. The Wings of the Wind - Ronald Hardy
14. A Prayer for the Dying - Stewart O’Nan
15. Shutter Island - Dennis Lehane
16. My Cousin Rachel - Daphne Du Maurier
17. The Information – Martin Amis
18. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
19. Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
20. The Music Lesson - Katherine Weber
21. Light of Falling Stars - J. Robert Lennon
22. Harbor - Lorraine Adams
23. The Book of Salt - Monique Truong
24. Embers - Sandor Marai
25. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - Dai Sijie
26. The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
27. Girl in Hyacinth Blue - Susan Vreeland
28. Flaubert’s Parrot - Julian Barnes
29. A Star Called Henry - Roddy Doyle
30. The Good Brother - Chris Offutt
31. Lost in Translation - Nicole Mones
32. Old School - Tobias Woolf
33. Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
34. The Good Soldier - Ford Maddox Ford
35. The Pilgrim Hawk - Glenway Wescott
36. A Widow for One Year – John Irving
37. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier - Thad Carhart
38. Headlong - Michael Frayn
39. The Club Dumas - Arturo Perez-Reverte
40. The Prestige - Christopher Priest
41. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
42. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood - Alexandra Fuller
43. The Moviegoer - Walker Percy
44. Washington Irving: An American Original - Brian Jay Jones
45. To Each His Own - Leonardo Sciascia
46. Possession – A. S. Byatt
47. Beloved – Toni Morrison
48. Sabbath’s Theatre – Philip Roth
49. Billy Bathgate – E. L. Doctorow
50. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
51. The Love Artist – Jane Alison
52. Body and Soul – Frank Conroy
53. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – John Berendt
54. Andorra – Pete Cameron
55. Norwegian Wood – Haruki Murkami
56. The Death of Vishnu – Manil Suri
57. The Lover – Margueritte Duras
58. Moon Tiger – Penelope Lively
59. Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner
60. A Venetian Affair – Andrea di Robliant
61. Under Western Eyes – Joseph Conrad
62. Blood Ties – Jennifer Lash
63. The Swimming Pool Library – Alan Hollinghurst
64. Paula – Isabel Allende
65. The Collector – John Fowles
66. Enduring Love – Ian McEwan
67. Kill Me First – Kate Morganroth
68. The Grand Complication – Allan Kurzweil
69. The Marriage of the Sea – Jane Alison
70. Foolscap; Or, the Stages of Love – Michael Malone
71. A River Runs Through It – Norman MacLean
72. Prince of Tides – Pat Conroy
73. Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Peter Hoeg
74. Ironweed – William Kennedy
75. The Bird Artist – Howard Norman
76. News of a Kidnapping – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
77. The Magic Mountain – Thomas Mann
78. The Woman Who Walked into Doors – Roddy Doyle
79. Silk – Alessandro Baricco
80. The Devil in the White City – Erik Larson
81. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
82. Jazz – Toni Morrison
83. Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier
84. Case Histories: A Novel - Kate Atkinson
85. The Color of Water – James McBride
86. Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
87. The Far Pavilions – M. M. Kaye
88. Brasil - John Updike
89. Gorky Park: A Novel -Martin Cruz Smith
90. Three Men in a Boat: (To Say Nothing of the Dog) - Jerome K. Jerome
91. Morality Play - Barry Unsworth
92. The Magician's Assistant - Ann Patchett
93. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
94. Love and War in the Apennines - Eric Newby
95-100 All the Alice McDermott books!
Anyone notice how few of these books were written in the 21rst Century? Anyone notice how few modern American books made my list?
14 comments:
Why can't new books be on the must read list, anyway? Just because a book is old doesn't make it inherently good!
Maybe this is why schools don't want me as an English teacher... I'd rather have the kids read Raymond Chandler than F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I reject must-read lists. The citeria, whether one realizes it or not, is subjective. =)
Clair: I have some new books on the list - my fave ATONEMENT was written in the 21rst century. It's not that I said new books need not apply - it's that I find most of them lacking in quality.
I also count many classics such as an Agatha Christie title, and even A ROOM WITH A VIEW among the many books that I STOPPED READING.
I've only red 2 of these. Most of them I'll never read. Such lists are interesting but I think they usually say more about the person who builds them than the readers.
For example, if I were making up this list there would be books like The Origin of the Species, the Bible, the Koran, the communist manifesto, Mein Kampf, Arctic Dreams, The Snow Leopard, Silent Spring, Brain Control, and Walden, all of which I've read.
For fiction there would be Dune, Childhood's End, various things from Hemingway and Steinbeck, some Mark Twain, a canticle for Leibowitz, Ghost Story, some Ray Bradbury, Some Hesse, Lord of the Flies, Brave New World, 1984, Walden two.
The list goes on, with relatively little overlap with yours.
Charles: I know how subjective these lists are - I also know when someone does it, I'm turned on to a book or too I've never even heard of.
If I can expose some readers to some new books, them I'm a happy camper.
As one of the few 21st century, modern Americans included on your list, I must say I'm incredibly honored, flattered and -- looking at the range of authors featured on this list -- feel sort of like the Double-A shortstop who's suddenly been sent to the big leagues!
I truly appreciate it, JD. Thank you.
36 on Moonrats list. 2 from yours. Although a lot of what you put up sound interesting.
My own list would be very different. I read to escape and be entertained. I need a happy ending most of the time. I want my imagination engaged. I'm a genre reader. Give me action and adventure, passion and excitement.
Although I can appreciate a beautifully written book, if I want to club the characters over the head and say, get over it, it's probably not the book for me.
I've read 11 of them! Sheesh! I'm going to have to go to the library to make amends! Although my favorites on this list was Silk and Remains of the Day.
I've read 9 start to finish and at least six others I've started but failed to finish.
BJJ: More kudos are in store for you during my year-end wrap up. Half the books I've read this year were non-fiction with quite a few much lauded titles in the mix, but so far, only a Nobel-prize winner has been able to beat you in the
N-F categgory.
Cat: THE FAR PAVILIONS is the one lone romance to make my list - and I read it when I was 17 (and I plan to re-read it). Of all the books on my list, that one might have the post appeal for you.
If you enjoy funny books about writers, then LOITERING WITH INTENT and UNDER THE NET are ones you should enjoy.
Ello: Good for you! Since I'm STILL reading it (it's been a crazy semester) I did not put THE GIFT OF RAIN on my list, but it's a MUST read for you since I think it might be quite similar to your own book.
TE: Nine is impressive. Since I know you enjoy humor be sure to read the titles I mentioned to Cat if you haven't already read them.
And THREE MEN IN A BOAT is side-splitter.
The only one I've read is Smilla's Sense of Snow (which was a gripping story) and there are a couple I've started but never finished. That's it. That's how little our reading tastes overlap, Josie!
1. Atonement - Ian McEwan
5. Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
18. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
32. Old School - Tobias Woolf
34. The Good Soldier - Ford Maddox Ford
36. A Widow for One Year – John Irving
41. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
53. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – John Berendt
59. Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner
73. Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Peter Hoeg
74. Ironweed – William Kennedy
81. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
89. Gorky Park: A Novel -Martin Cruz Smith
93. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
So many books, so little time! I'm surprised I've read so many of these, and I've got several more of them here. I don't think I could limit a list to just 100 because I'm constantly remembering books I'd forgotten. Like "Perfume". Wasn't it you who said you'd read it when it came out too? Good list. We must have very similar taste.
WW and Lisa: A study in contrasts! I just hope to encourage people to expand their reading horizons as I do when I read other people's lists.
I scored 38 on moonrat's list and only 3 on yours. Our tastes must differ considerably, or more likely you're an order of magnitude better read.
If I put my own list together it would be radically different.
Gary: I luvs me some historicals. We might havve more books in common than you realize. Still, lots of gender differences when it comes to reading taste - I know Charles did not have much in common with me reading-wise, either.
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