Last month the Sydney Morning Herald published its list of the top 100 books of all time. I’m embarassed to say that the only books I’ve read on this list I read as set readings at school, and I’ve seen a couple of others when they were produced as movies! How many on this list have you read?
1 Harry Potter series – J.K Rowling
2 Twilight – Stephenie Meyer
3 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
4 The Obernewtyn Chronicles – Isobelle Carmody
5 My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult
6 To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee
7 The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
8 Breath – Tim Winton
9 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
10 Break No Bones – Kathy Reichs
11 The Power Of One – Bryce Courtenay
12 Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk
13 Magician – Raymond E. Feist
14 The Bronze Horseman – Paullina Simons
15 Mao’s Last Dancer – Li Cunxin
16 Memoirs Of A Geisha – Arthur Golden
17 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
18 Cross – James Patterson
19 Persuasion – Jane Austen
20 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
21 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
22 The Secret – Rhonda Byrne
23 Marley and Me – John Grogan
24 Antony and Cleopatra – Colleen McCullough
25 April Fools Day – Bryce Courtney
26 North & South – Elizabeth Gaskell
27 In My Skin – Kate Holden
28 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
29 A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
30 The Other Boleyn Girl – Phillipa Gregory
31 Nineteen Minutes – Jodi Picoult
32 Atonement – Ian McEwan
33 Shantaram Gregory – David Roberts
34 Pillars Of The Earth – Ken Follett
35 The Pact – Jodi Picoult
36 Ice Station – Matthew Reilly
37 Cloudstreet – Tim Winton
38 Jessica – Bryce Courtenay
39 A New Earth – Eckhart Tolle
40 The Princess Bride – William Goldman
41 Running With Scissors – Augusten Burroughs
42 Anybody Out There? – Marian Keyes
43 Life Of Pi – Yann Martel
44 Seven Ancient Wonders – Matthew Reilly
45 People Of The Book – Geraldine Brooks
46 Six Sacred Stones – Matthew Reilly
47 Memory Keeper’s Daughter – Kim Edwards
48 Brother Odd – Dean Koontz
49 Tully – Paullina Simons
50 Tuesdays with Morrie – Mitch Albom
51 The Catcher in the Rye – J.D Salinger
52 Eragon – Christopher Paolini
53 Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
54 It’s Not About The Bike – Lance Armstrong
55 A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
56 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
57 The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
58 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
59 A Fortunate Life – A.B. Facey
60 The Mists of Avalon – Marion Zimmer Bradley
61 The Notebook -Nicholas Sparks
62 Water For Elephants – Sara Gruen
63 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
64 The Host – Stephenie Meyer
65 Dirt Music – Tim Winton
66 Eldest – Christopher Paolini
67 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
68 It – Stephen King
69 World Without End – Ken Follett
70 Emma – Jane Austen
71 Temple – Matthew Reilly
72 Little Women – Alcott Louisa May
73 Lean Mean Thirteen – Janet Evanovich
74 Scarecrow – Matthew Reilly
75 American Gods – Neil Gaiman
76 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
77 P.S, I Love You – Cecelia Ahern
78 All That Remains – Patricia Cornwell
79 The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch
80 Past Secrets – Cathy Kelly
81 The Persimmon Tree – Bryce Courtenay
82 Husband – Dean Koontz
83 Plain Truth – Jodi Picoult
84 Wicked – Gregory Maguire
85 Spot Of Bother – Mark Haddon
86 Always And Forever – Cathy Kelly
87 The Road – Cormac McCarthy
88 Cents & Sensibility – Maggie Alderson
89 Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris
90 The Shifting Fog – Kate Morton
91 We Need To Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver
92 Everyone Worth Knowing – Lauren Weisberger
93 Hour Game – David Baldacci
94 Darkly Dreaming Dexter – Jeff Lindsay
95 The Woods – Harlan Coben
96 Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
97 Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
98 Scar Tissue – Anthony Kiedis
99 Infidel – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
100 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
This post is tagged
9 Comments
I make 18 that I’ve read; but how on earth did Matthew Reilly end up on the list so many times? Was it written by a 16 year old?
You’re right – perhaps I shouldn’t be embarassed! How Harry Potter and To Kill a Mockingbird end up on the same list is anyone’s guess. Must be the most read, rather than the books with the most literary credibility.
Nice work on 18/100!
Does watching the movie based on the book count?
I hope so, otherwise I’m in a lot of trouble!
I, with my many more reading years, could tally only nine, Steven. But I read the list with interest and question its validity: who decided which books should be included and what were the criteria?
- Bill
I agree Bill – the person on work experience could have been the lucky one who decided what made the top 100 for the SMH list.
I’ve found a couple of other lists of top 100 books:
TIME – http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html
The Guardian – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/may/08/books.booksnews
Random House – http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html
The books on these lists look like they’re more on the money.
I clocked 8. Was surprised to see Scar Tissue… Not because it isnt a good book (it is in fact a great book!), but because pop culture is usually shunned in these types of surveys.
The New York Times has just released its 100 Notable Books of 2008:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/books/review/100Notable-t.html?em
i’m at 13 1/2, with another one checked out from the library …
but i do think that harry potter and to kill a mockingbird can be on the same list. i would not put harry potter on my “classic novels” (aka “books one must read to be sufficiently snobby”) list. of course it’s all subjective, but i really think they’re both excellent works of art. sure, they’re different genres of art, but i would put them both on my top 100 books list.
Incoming Links
Leave a Reply