Book list

I clicked on a link to a blog that listed 100 books, with instructions to bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of. I took a preliminary stab at it but I want to come back and add some commentary. Why so many Harry Potters?

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) - quick read, I enjoyed it.

2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) + Good!

3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) + Love love love. Everything about this book is good.

4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) Love love love. Haven't read it in a loooong time

5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)

6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)

7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)

8. Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)

9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon). + Good, read three from the series before I got a little tired of it.

10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry) No likey.

11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling). + Eh. Can't remember which one this is - I read the first three before I got bored.

12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)

13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)

14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)

15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden). + Beautiful

16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)

17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald). Blech

18. The Stand (Stephen King). Read in high school. I think he's a really good writer. Don't know what that says about me.

19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)

20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte). + Just recently finished and loved it.

21. The Hobbit (Tolkien). I read it in high school and couldn't keep track of the characters or what they were doing. Obviously, I'm not cut out for fantasy/sci fi.

22. The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger). I read it a couple of times in high school.

23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott). Read to me in childhood. I should re-read it.

24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold). Blech. Totally stupid.

25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)

26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)

27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)

28. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis). + Eh.

29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck). Read in high school. Should re-read.

30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom).

31. Dune (Frank Herbert)

32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)

33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)

34. 1984 (Orwell)

35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley). Kind of Sci-Fi - but I still enjoyed it.

36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett). I read this right after I finished up a monumentally busy time at work and it was the perfect read to decompress. It was like a big drink of water when you're hiking in the desert.

37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)*

38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb). Everything was tidied up too nicely.

39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant). 'Eh. Someone well versed (no pun intended) in the Bible would enjoy this more.

40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) +

41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel). Read in high school and liked. I don't think I would like it so much now.

42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini). Excellent! One of my favorites.

43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)

44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)

45. Bible

46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) +

47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)

48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt). Good, too sad. The mother made me crazy. A character whom I absolutely loathed and hated and despised.

49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck). + One of my all time favorite novels.

50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb). Same criticism as the other book by the same author.

51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver). Blech. Don't like BK. Her characters are either all good or all bad - very little depth.

52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)

53. Ender’s Game * (Orson Scott Card)

54. Great Expectations (Dickens)

55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)

56. The Stone Angel * (Margaret Laurence)

57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)

58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough). High school. I just noticed a bunch of her books on the shelf at the library.

59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood). Read right out of college. Just thinking puts me back in the yard at 2029 Columbine St.

60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger) Loved! Yummy book love. Time travelling and all.

61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)

63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)

64. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice). I was maybe...compelled by this book. I read it a long time ago and remember feeling like she really made vampires seem real. I don't think I would have the patience for it now.

65. Fifth Business * (Robertson Davis)

66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)

68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)

69. Les Miserables (Hugo)

70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) Should re-read

71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding). Cute at the time. I have no desire to read any more of this kind of book.

72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez

73. Shogun (James Clavell)

74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)

75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett). Need to re-read.

76. The Summer Tree * (Guy Gavriel Kay)

77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith). Loved.

78. The World According To Garp (John Irving) Good. I wish the Cider House Rules was on this list - excellent book. A fave.

79. The Diviners * (Margaret Laurence)

80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)

81. Not Wanted On the Voyage *(Timothy Findley)

82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)

83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)

84. Wizard’s First Rule * (Terry Goodkind)

85. Emma (Jane Austen) +

86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)

87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)

88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields). + Was just not all that impressed

89. Blindness * (Jose Saramago)

90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer). Read in high school and it prompted a big Jeffrey Archer kick.

91. In The Skin Of A Lion * (Ondaatje) Creepy title

92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)

93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck) +

94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd) (yeesh. Hated this book.)

95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) I liked RL very much for a while.

96. The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton) (oh, yeah, baby. About a thousand times in high school)

97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch). Good.

98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford). Read in high school and enjoyed. Don't think it's my cup of tea anymore, though.

99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)

100. Ulysses (James Joyce)