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Amazon just sent me a link to 100 Books To Read In a Lifetime according to their book editors. They are not all classics and I'm going to assume they are from books still in print and the list is subjective.
How many and which ones have you read? Of the ones you have read, which did you like the most? Of the ones you haven't read, which one(s) would you like to read? I'd like to see which one the most people here have read.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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I've read 46 of them.
The ones that I've liked the best are:
- Bel Canto
- In Cold Blood
- Interpreter of Maladies
- Middlesex
- The Book Thief
- The Secret History
ETA: Sorry that I didn't list all of the ones that I've read (I'm too tired), so I only listed my favorites among them. There are none on Amazon's list that I haven't read but want to.
The ones that stand out as favorites are:
A Wrinkle in Time
The Book Thief
The Secret History
Bel Canto
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Man's Search for Meaning (wow - never thought I'd ever type that right after Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
Pride and Prejudice
Devil in the White City
The Man Who Mistook his Wife for his Hat
The ones that stand out as "I read this because someone (teacher, book club) made me read it and I didn't really enjoy it much" are:
The Stranger
1984
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Thanks for sharing this list - it brought back some great reading memories and reminded me of some books that I've had on my TBR for a long time!
1984
A Wrinkle In Time
Dune
Fahrenheit 451
Invisible Man
In Cold Blood
Portnoy's Complaint
Slaughterhouse Five
The Catcher In The Rye
The Devil In The White City
The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
The Handmaid's Tale
The Little Prince
The Shining
Things Fall Apart
To Kill a Mockingbird
Unbroken
Valley of The Dolls
Didn't finish:
Catch 22 (didn't like it or the movie)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Didn't like:
The Shining (didn't like the movie either)
Slaughterhouse-Five
From the above, I liked 1984 the best followed by Fahrenheit 451, Unbroken and The Handmaid's Tale.
For the last 20 years I've read almost nothing but nonfiction and the list is light on nonfiction. Also saw some movies based on books on the list I haven't read and didn't like the movie, so wasn't about to read the books they are based on.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 33,029,371 times
Reputation: 28903
Laura, seeing as how you mostly read non-fiction, I'm surprised that you didn't finish The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I don't read much non-fiction, I have a sensitive stomach and there was medical "stuff" in this book that had me feeling faint, but I thought that this book was terrific. Just curious...why didn't you finish it?
I've read 24 of the books on that list.
My favorites were
1984
Catch 22
Guns, Germs and Steel
The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes
The Stranger
A few on the list were children's books I read to my daughter. Haven't read Goodnight Moon in over 25 years but it's permanently burned into my brain. "Read it again, Dad"
I've read 24 of the books on that list.
My favorites were
1984
Catch 22
Guns, Germs and Steel
The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes
The Stranger
A few on the list were children's books I read to my daughter. Haven't read Goodnight Moon in over 25 years but it's permanently burned into my brain. "Read it again, Dad"
Reading to your children makes good readers.
Yes it does! I never read Phantom Tollbooth as a child, but read it more than once to my children and loved it!
I might go back and re-read 1984 seeing that several of you listed it as a favorite. It was a force-read in high school and I didn't like the class, the teacher or the book. It most likely deserves a second chance that does not involve Mrs. Fancher.
I've read 22 of them. I liked a lot of them, but the ones that stand out in my mind at the moment are:
Dune The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Guns, Germs and Steel A Brief History of Time (there are a lot of pop-sci books that I like better, but in the context of this list it stands out fairly well).
I started reading Middlesex over a year ago, and I eventually do want to finish it, but so far it has not pulled me in enough to compel me to finish it, given all of the other things on my must-read list.
I just reviewed the list to see how the books rated with Amazon's review system (1 - 5 stars). Only six books on the list have five solid stars and what a odd subset this is:
Charlotte's Web
Team of Rivals: The Political genius of Abraham Lincoln
Malcolm X
Unbroken
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Where the Wild Things Are
We must be more generous with our stars when reading children's books.
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