June 29, 2008
-
The New Classic Reads
Someone put a list of the “best reads from 1983-2008.”
Here is the list:
1. The Road ,
Cormac McCarthy (2006)2. Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)3. Beloved, Toni Morrison
(1987)4. The Liars’ Club,
Mary Karr (1995)5. American Pastoral,
Philip Roth (1997)6. Mystic River,
Dennis Lehane (2001)7. Maus, Art Spiegelman
(1986/1991)8. Selected Stories,
Alice Munro (1996)9. Cold Mountain,
Charles Frazier (1997)10. The Wind-Up Bird
Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
(1997)11. Into Thin Air,
Jon Krakauer (1997)12. Blindness,
José Saramago (1998)13. Watchmen, Alan Moore
and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)14. Black Water,
Joyce Carol Oates (1992)15. A Heartbreaking
Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)16. The Handmaid’s Tale,
Margaret Atwood (1986)17. Love in the Time
of Cholera, Gabriel García
Márquez (1988)18. Rabbit at Rest,
John Updike (1990)19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones’s
Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)21. On Writing,
Stephen King (2000)22. The Brief Wondrous
Life of Oscar Wao,
Junot Díaz (2007)23. The Ghost Road,
Pat Barker (1996)24. Lonesome Dove,
Larry McMurtry (1985)25. The Joy Luck Club,
Amy Tan (1989)26. Neuromancer,
William Gibson (1984)27. Possession,
A.S. Byatt (1990)28. Naked, David Sedaris
(1997)29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett
(2001)30. Case Histories,
Kate Atkinson (2004)31. The Things They
Carried, Tim O’Brien (1990)32. Parting the Waters,
Taylor Branch (1988)33. The Year of Magical
Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)34. The Lovely Bones,
Alice Sebold (2002)35. The Line of Beauty,
Alan Hollinghurst (2004)36. Angela’s Ashes,
Frank McCourt (1996)37. Persepolis,
Marjane Satrapi (2003)38. Birds of America,
Lorrie Moore (1998)39. Interpreter of
Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
(2000)40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on
Mango Street,
Sandra Cisneros (1984)42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard
(1983)43. Borrowed Time,
Paul Monette (1988)44. Praying for
Sheetrock, Melissa Fay
Greene (1991)45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende
(1988)46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman
(1988-1996)47. World’s Fair,
E.L. Doctorow (1985)48. The Poisonwood
Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
(1998)49. Clockers, Richard Price
(1992)50. The Corrections,
Jonathan Franzen (2001)51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators’ Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)
How many of the books have you read?
Comments (210)
OMG! I’ve only read two of the books on htat list.
I only completed two. I gave up on Mystic River – too violent. I saw one or two movies based on the books. I guess I suck.
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006) [ want to read ]
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993) [ LOVE IT ]
Some of them
8
it’s all about half blood prince, not goblet of fire.
i want to read nickel and dimmed and neil gaiman’s sandman.
Some of these strikes me as too recent and too “pop” to be considered classics.
Maybe I’m a snob >.>
most of them…but then, I’m a librarian
I would say a pretty good list for the most part.
I’ve read…one. The Giver.
10
18 and counting.
Not enough – but some. And the ones I did read, I enjoyed. I own several more that are on this list that I just haven’t gotten around to yet.
Five. =
Five here too
bullshit. That can’t possibly be 1938 to present. Where’s Ray Bradbury? George Orwell? John Steinbeck? J.D. Salinger? Joseph Heller? Harper Lee?
I could go on and on. Ther isn’t a single book on that list from before 1984. I call bullshit
Not a one! Maybe some that were movies
A few. But only a few more sound interesting.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down <– This title is hilarious!
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - I agree.
2, 3, 11, 25, 31, 34, 40, 48, 65, 67, 84, and 100. I have plenty I think are more “classic” than those — and maybe that makes me snooty — but I am selective goddamnit!
@JJ_Ames - I think if they’re going to make a list of best reads from 1938 to 2008, they’d at least include books from pre-1984. They might as well call it the list of reads from 1984 to 2008, otherwise they’re snubbing some of the greatest literary works in history.
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - exactly! *hugs* we should hang out together, sometime; maybe at the library lol
someone? who? anybody could do that. I’ve read lots of books, but only counted about 9 on that list that I’ve read myself. who’s list is that?
11,16,21,31, 34(my favorite of them so far on this list..lovely bones),36, 65, 84,86, 92,96 (hated it…Davinci code).
So thats…..eleven. I’ve read eleven.
That being said, I’ve read 7. They are good books. I don’t doubt that some of the others are good books. But to call it a list spanning seventy years rather than the actual twenty four that they cover is misleading to say the least.
Zero.
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - Agreed!
i’ve read 11. and i wanna read some more on that list! haha a couple of them were assigned reading for school. like a prayer for owen meany and fast food nation.
@RaVnR - I know, huh? Dog in the Nighttime was good, but it’s not like it was Of Mice and Men, right? I feel like whoever put this list together has snubbed some of the greatest minds to ever write books.
OH! Speaking of great literary minds, what about Vonnegut? Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the best books I’ve ever read.
What gives, guy who made the list?
6…pathetic for an English minor…
I need to reserve some of those. I haven’t read a book this week! (My normal book rate is four a week if I am dedicated. :-p)
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - I completely agree. How can these be the best of our times? I protest!
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Harry Potter and Lovely Bones.
I can’t believe Mitch Albom and Nicholas Sparks’ books aren’t on there…and all the Harry Potter books were great. I’d say the Goblet of Fire wasn’t the best. Who compiled this list?
seven? i got three the first time, six the second, and seven the third. i’ll say seven.
however, i know from quiz bowl that a ton of these are pulitzer prize winners, and i kind of make a point not to read those just because because i don’t like to be a snobby reader
5, and out of all of those, my favorite one is The Giver.
Apparently I’m no connoisseur of literature, especially not fiction—so I’ve only read three of these.
13. Watchmen
, Alan Moore
and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
that’s the only one i read, and should it be on a book list? it’s a comic book/ graphic novel
@JJ_Ames -
No, you have a very valid point. These will still have to withstand the “test of time,” so to speak.
And I’ve only read three of these, despite reading a lot lately.
And Art Spiegelman’s Maus is the absolute proof that a graphic novel can be in the highest of literature circles. That is a brilliant, brilliant work.
seven, i believe. but there are many on there i have been meaning to read.
anyone else think a heartbreaking work of staggering genius wasn’t that great?
seriously, that title is so misleading.
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - 83. not 38.
that said, had it actually been 38, i would most definitely agree.
angels and demons was so much better than the da vinci code.
read 2, but i own more than that.
never had the time to read those (yeah right.)
Before I read the comments, I was kinda sad that I only read 25. But I guess that is pretty good considering I am busy raising 4 kiddos.
@louderthan__bombs - ….right then. I sometimes flip numbers when I read them. Thank you for pointing this out.
In that case, it’s a pretty good list
I’ve read eight, and bits and pieces of another. I’m not sure I like the list – maybe it’s too soon to be calling classics on some of those. There is a difference between classic and bestseller, and while I think some of those books are both, I don’t think all are.
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - excellent point. Although there are some excellent writers listed it’d be a shame not to list authors from the first half of the century – there’s some obvious literary treasure there.
@JJ_Ames - Apparently it’s from 1983 on, not 1938. Looks like everybody who’s up in arms did the same ting and accidently flipped the three and eight.
i’ve read 3. not to bad. 1 was for school. the other two for fun!
4.. Holes, The Kite Runner, Harry Potter, & Da Vinci Code. I hope this is a good list. I’m planning on reading some of these books next. =D
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - I still think it’s lacking something by being so close to the present. I have a hard time considering anything a “classic” that isn’t older than me – especially given that I’m only 24.
@KNEESOXROCK - Or Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. This is a list of good works from the past 25 years. Your mentioned works don’t make the temporal cut.
cough cough umm one of them.. looks like i have some catchin up to do
Surprisingly, me the non-reader, I own Stewart’s “America (The Book)”. I’ve never read it, but I own it!
15. I don’t really like this list though.
Two.
The Giver and Holes.
@dragonwiccagirl - that’s the only one i read, and should it be on a book list? it’s a comic book/ graphic novel
Watchmen have made various “Best novels of the 20th century” lists. A few years back, I noticed that Watchmen was actually an assigned text for an English literature class at UCLA. It was funny seeing it stocked in the bookstore alongside English classics (and engineering textbooks the isle across).
2. Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire
, J.K. Rowling (2000)
9. Cold Mountain
,
Charles Frazier (1997)
11. Into Thin Air
,
Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness
,
José Saramago (1998)
25. The Joy Luck Club
,
Amy Tan (1989)
34. The Lovely Bones
,
Alice Sebold (2002)
60. Nickel & Dimed
, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
65. The Giver
, Lois Lowry (1993)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany
, John Irving (1989)
84. Holes
, Louis Sachar (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code
, Dan Brown (2003)
So, twelve. But I only thought half of them were really good.
And, to be fair, I wasn’t of reading age through the whole time period, as I was born 6 years after the time period started… so I am at somewhat of a disadvantage. I’ve had only about 8 good reading years (with access to a library) so far.
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - Are you being sarcastic, or did you read it wrong?
@KNEESOXROCK - To Kill a Mockingbird, Farenheit 451 and Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are all pre-1983. The list is from 1983 to 2008, the past 25 years.
I’ve only read one of those – DaVinci Code. The only reason I completed it was because I told someone I would. And I was less than impressed with the whole thing. Halfway through the book I felt like I could live the rest of my life just fine without finishing it.
I’ve read 4 of them and own another 4 to read at some time in the future.
Three; Harry Potter, Joy Luck Club (ew), and Holes.
nine of those.
14. A few of the other ones one the list that I haven’t read, I have TRIED reading but couldn’t get through.. I’ll try again some day.
There are many more books and many other authors that deserve recognition there too. Remember though, “greatest” does not necessarily mean “popular”… Some of the greatest books I’ve read recently are by an author that most people I talk to have never heard of!
I’m absolutely embarassed to say that I haven’t read any of these books — but I have seen the movies!!!!!!!!!! LOL
I really must start reading again, but the time thing omg!
Karen
I count 10.
I am shamed by all listed books I’ve owned and haven’t even begun to read. Even more, the ones listed I’ve borrowed from the library and never finished.
I’ve reread Remains of the Day five or six times. Maybe that counts for some sort of extra credit. =P
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - oh hon… it’s 1983! not 1938! :p a bit of dyslexia, hm?
I have only read one of those books and that was back when I was in fourth grade.
One would think that would be an indication that I don’t read much while in actuality I do.
@KJ_Hamnik - Horay for movies! =)
The Mystic River movie was friggin’ awsome. I also loved High Fedility. Though, as good as Remains of the Day were, it was impossible for the movie to capture the tragic, errie qualities of the book.
Only 3 on that list =/
I read one, The Things They Carried. Saw the movie for a couple of them like The Kite Runner and Angela’s Ashes.
7… wow. I am lame. and I call myself a literature enthusiast.
i LOVE The House on Mango Street.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles is a million times better than Harry Potter. In fact, I don’t even know why Harry Potter is on that list, it’s not like it’s the most original or even well written book around.
Some of the books on there appear to only be there because they were best sellers.
murakami, amy tan, helen felding, khaled hosseini, malcolm gladwell, & dan brown.. unfortunately that’s it for now.
You should count and make a poll of which books people read the most of. Also, am I the only one who read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle?
Only five.
Harry Potter
Wind-Up Bird
Holes
The Giver (Yech. Anthem is so much better. I wanted to punch Jonas in the face the entire book)
The Poisonwood Bible
10
@freshbrain - Yes, another Murakami reader!
@ryoma136 - am a fan
8! that’s a weird list. can’t figure it out.
7
i’ve also heard of a lot of them, and plan on reading them, but i dont really consider a lot of those books as classic.
11
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - dyslexia rules, but that’s KO!
Who put this list together? I’ve read 3, have maybe half a dozen in my library. Seems a bit pointless stopping at 1983.
I’ve read six of those… Though decent, I wouldn’t really consider them true “classics.”
I am pretty critical when it comes to my books.
@huginn - Think Joy Luck Club was one of the better of the list up there and I do actually own that book ROTFL. Just wish I had the time to read it.
seven
@huginn - that’s pretty funny
1
Five.
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - 1983, not 1938. But I’m slightly dyslexic too, so I had to re-read it a couple times.
Four and a half. I’m in the middle of one as I type this.
zero.
4. how come they dont have most of my favourites?? like, from Neil Gaiman. he’s a better read than most of them in the list!
Four and a half. I’ll work on it though.
Sorry, five and a half.
Hmm…glad I read about 10 on that list. umm I got a long way to go…
i hate that harry potter is #2 on the list. come on, it’s for kids, not for adults. people need to be at a higher reading level and challenge themselves more. go read The Things They Carried.
9. but most of them are on my to-read list!
but i tried the da vinci code. thought it was horrible [couldn't get past the first chapter], so that’s a definite no.
Aha, on that list? One -.-
But I’ve read loads of others not on the list XD
@ryoma136 - Not only have I read the Wind Up Bird Chronicle, but also Norwegian Wood and After Dark.
But of this list, I have only read 32.
11, but I think this list is very biased towards fictions. I mainly read non-fictions. I’m surprised that really good non-fictions such as ‘Fooled by randomness’, ‘The World is Flat’, ‘Freakanomics’ and the alikes are not on there.
Ten
5 and one was a comic.
Only six of them, but there are so many classics that are not on this list!
Seven.
Where is 1984?
odd, doesn’t have my blog there.
Who the heck puts The DaVinci Code on ANY “best-of” list???
…Anyway, if we must do this, I’ve read five of those (INCLUDING The DaVinci Code, which sucked). And I’ve read parts of a couple more.
I’m glad that graphic novels are being recognized as literature, though. Chris Ware FTW.
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - If it makes you feel better, I first read it as 1883… I don’t know why…
4 and own another 2 I haven’t read yet. But really, Da Vinci Code one of the best books of the last 30 years? It was entertaining, but the only thing Dan Brown does is make popcorn thrillers- it’s the equivalent to a mindless action movie winning an oscar.
And Watchmen most definitely deserves to be on the list- Time magazine choose it as one of the top 100 novels of the 20th century.
HIS DARK MATERIALS
good read.
-_- 4. But I started reading some! But I stopped because they bored me to death.
Uh, wow.. only 3.
Eleven. While some of those were made into fairly entertaining movies, I wouldn’t say that they are all worth spending your time reading.
Only 4. And I own 2 more but I haven’t read them yet. Most of them I never heard of and doubt I really want to read. I can find much better reads in the fantasy section of my local book store!
I stopped counting once I got to thirty, ’cause I got bored, so.
@whataboutbahb -
agreed about Dan Brown.
Only 4…meh. I haven’t been reading much. I really should.
Ha, you can so tell I’m an English major who works in a bookstore, when you compare my numbers to other people’s.
I stopped reading when I joined xanga.
Sadly, only 12:(
Prayer for Owen Meany is rather overrated though.
@enjoyrainydays - Orwell finished “1984″ in 1948 and it got published in 1949.
I don’t think I’ve read any of those.
one
Nine so far
#15 is the best book ever writen.
8
and i’m going to have to disagree with strongletterl and the list,
its all about deathly hallows
8 + All of the Harry Potters. I teach The House on Mango Street, The Giver, & Holes. The Glass Castle is probably my favorite memoir ever, but I do love Frank McCourt, I own several of his books.
How many of the movies have I seen? Haha… 6 + the Harry Potters. I think I bought The Year of Magical Thinking for someone, maybe my dad. I’m surprised Tuesdays with Morrie didn’t make the list.
So I’m familiar w/ 14 of the books & the Harry Potter series. I have no desire to read The DaVinci Code, but I have been really wanting to read The Lovely Bones & A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
I’ve finished 7 of them, and have started an additional 3.
Mark Twain said, “A classic novel is a book everybody wants to have read, but nobody wants to read.”
12…Beloved is the only one I liked. The Da VinciCode was utter crap.
I’ve read eleven. Many have been on that reading queue that just seems to be getting unforgivably longer. But I read a lot, so I’m never without a book. Just not from this list apparently.
Interesting that HP and the Goblet of Fire is my least fave of the Harrys and it was on the list. I’m so glad that Holes was included, because it’s just an incredible story, no matter what age group you are in.
Eleven (which is surprising). But I wish I hadn’t read a couple. Angela’s Ashes was TERRIBLE.
i have read eight of them
I have read seven, but I am going to try and hit a few more off the list!
1
One
“Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden should be on this list. It’s the best book I’ve ever read.
I’ve read 5… wow not a lot…
I haven’t read any of them, though several are on my list of summer reading.
I tried reading “Love In the Time of Cholera” and I just couldn’t finish it..the way the author wrote was so confusing =/
“A Thousand Splendid Suns’ should be on there
OH, I didn’t see the question xD
13..unlucky!
quite a few
14. But what’s Da Vinci Code doing on there?
I’ve read five.
I LOVED Angela’s Ashes. Even went to see the movie. The book was so good, that the movie looked like EXACTLY what I saw in my mind!
3
Beloved
The Things They Carried (and I don’t believe they’ve made this into a movie)
Holes
Out of that list, I’ve only read 4 books.
Like maybe 2 or 3.. but I want to read so many more of them. I have wanted to read “The Giver” for a long time
I didn’t even read the whole list itself..
There were a few pieces of crap in there..
9. Not as good as I hoped.
That’s not the best list..
I’ve read 15.
I’m really glad A Glass Castle is on there. That’s one of the most inspiring memoirs I’ve ever picked up.
where’s a series of unfortunate events?
I’ve read three. More into books that will never make the best seller list simply on account of their titles. No one wants to be seen reading them :-p
0 but i think a few of them are movies. Does that count? lol
Just one, Angela’s Ashes, and I thought it was overrated.
I own four more books on that list and have read other books by four of the authors listed (Murakami, Garcia Marquez, Krakauer, Scott Turow).
I’m still woring on the older classics. Maybe I’ll hit the late 20th cent. authors a couple decades from now.
29–it’s nice to have so many to look forward to.
23 of them. It’s a funny list…part “Oprah’s Book Club” (The Kite Runner, for example, which definitely was a bunch of sentimental pseudo-”deep” writing, or Harry Potter), part “New Classics” (anything by Margaret Atwood and David Foster Wallace, although I wouldn’t have chosen those two as my favorites of their works).
I love that there’s five graphic novels on the list, and that I’ve read them all!
Where Tom Robbins? That’s a travesty!
And Bridget Jones’ Diary? I mean, I read that piece of crap, but I’d never admit to it, much less put it on a list of favorites.
Now I’m tempted to come up with my own list.
I have a long list of my own but they are not listed here.
@sahel578 - I am overjoyed. Not enough Murakami readers in the States.
I’ve yet to read After Dark, is it good? I’m waiting for the paperback version to appear, in the hopes that ti will be cheaper than the hardback.
I’ve read Norwegian Wood, Sputnik Sweetheart, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Dance Dance Dance, and of course, Wind-Up Bird
five
@flodge01 - no worries, i believe i had read a total of 1. i saw some of the books movies tho…sad really.
question..what makes for a “classic read” ?
2. #84 and #2
Just 3
–Harry Potter (totally awesome, don’t know if I would have chosen that above some of the others in the series)
–Poisonwood Bible (didn’t like it, it was assigned reading in high school)
–Tipping point, by Malcolm Gladwell (loved it and his other book, Blink)
14
fuck. its so good to see the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay on this list.
Four or five, but I own and just couldn’t start/finish quite a few others.
Six.
And some of them I wouldn’t have wasted my time reading them, but everyone was oooing and awwwing about them, so I read them.
sadly only 4 but some of them are on the shelf waiting to be read
I haven’t read any of these. I noticed a lot of these were made into movies (like The Kite Runner and Love in the Time of Cholera), but I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen any of the movies these books led to either. I was surprised none of the books by Frank E. Peretti or Michael Crichton (not sure if I spelled those names right) made the list. I have read a number of their books (Peretti’s This Present Darkness and Crichton’s Jurassic Park, to name a few), and I think their books are great. And what about Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury? They wrote some great books, too.
solamente uno
7. I would like to read more however.
holes, the giver, house on mango steet, joy luck club, the things they carried, and currently reading a prayer for owen meany.
ive actually enjoyed all the books i read. i recently did an end of the year project on the things they carried.
5- but I’ve heard of most of them. I just don’t read very often anymore-
20 of them.
My favorite was #46. Sandman, by Neil Gaimen. It is one of my all time favorites.
I’ve read…
The Road
,
Cormac McCarthy (2006)
and
Persepolis
,
Marjane Satrapi (2003)
I have Lovely Bones in my room but I get sad every time I read it. And I heard of a few others but I’ve become a picky reader because I hate wasting my time reading books when some people can barely write. But personally I hated “The Road”. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is 10 times better (but she’s not on the list with this book)
“It’s six AM, do you know where you are?”
Amaaaaaazing.
most but I wouldn’t agree that ALL the listed titles are the best reads.
@another_rebel_without_a_cause - I agree…Lots missing… I’ve only read about 3 of those.
40 but several of these are still on my list to read.
Twelve. And I am shocked that Life of Pi is not on the list.
Make that thirteen…I just saw Cathedral
on the list, that is. sorry this is difficult with child in hand
I’ve read 3 of them (HP GOF, The Giver, and Holes) but I’ve only heard of 19 of them (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Beloved, Cold Mountain (I’ll have to read it next year in English), The Handmaid’s Tale, Love in the Time of Cholera, Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Joy Luck Club, The Things They Carried, His Dark Materials, The Poisonwood Bible, The Giver, The Kite Runner, Friday Night Lights, Atonement, Holes, The Ruins, Fast Food Nation, The Da Vinci Code, and Practical Magic.) so that’s not too bad.
four of them
Twenty-two of them…and I thought that was a pretty low number for me. Thanks for the reading list!
Two and a half, but that’s only because I generally prefer to read the older classics before I delve into the newer “classics.” What can I say? I like to know a book has lasted the test of time before I devote my own time to it. Otherwise, I’ll read newer books based on recommendations.
One and working on one.
12. I wish I’d read more; some sounded really good… Time to go to the library.
Only 7, but I don’t usually read adult novels, which are most of what’s on that list..
24. that list is crock. if THATS the best classics of that time period, i have VERY bad taste in books, and im ashamed of our time period. gotta come up with better than that. the da vinci code? bridget jones diary? harry potter? now ive read those but not once did i think ‘true classic!!!’
It looks like just under a quarter of them…wow, I’m surprised by that. I thought it would be considerably less. However I want to read a ton more of them!
P.S. The Giver is my absolute favorite book.
7 books
16. But 18 if you consider that His Dark Materials by Pullman is actually 3 books in a series. Or at least it’s sold that way.
Depends on how you define “best” as in good reads – so many are missed off, as in “best” most enjoyable, each to his own. (None are “best” as in hot, but then there isn’t any porn up there, how could there be no porn?)
I’ve read, or at least started, loads of them, but I have a bookshop so I have all the books.
Wow, I’ve got 32 on my list! See my blog for which ones.
Exactly 1…and I read all the time…what’s up with that?
eh . . . I’ve read five of these. Some I liked a lot, some I liked less. Depends on what you value in a read, I guess.
10. more if you count the movies
I’m glad they didn’t include all of the Harry Potter’s! I think that Goblet of Fire is the best one. As for some of the other books listed, I need to step up my reading game.
only 5…..Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Atonement, The Kite Runner, and the DaVinci Code….I’ve seen the movie adaptions for some of them though….but that probably doesn’t count.
Actually, I’ve seen the movie adaptions of all the books I’ve read too….but I read the books way before I saw the movie.
Not that many… clearly I have a lot to catch up on!
Huh… so maybe I missed it, but I’m quite certain that “Phantom” by Susan Kay, and “The Vampire Chronicles” by Anne Rice, must definitely be on the list.
Because if not, then that’s just SAD.
But I do approve of a FEW of those books…. Not quite so sure about the order.
There’s a lot of books though, that are missing.
8
3
only 1..#11..
Seven, counting a few that I started to read but for various reasons could not finish.
But I must say, I loved The Giver the most out of all of the books.
Lovely Bones seemed pretty good too, until my overbearing mother found out that I was reading it and had an “intervention” with me.
She still censors me in everything she catches me doing. I can’t watch Law & Order because, (and these are her exact words), “It’s not happy.”
16
entertainment weekly…
Thank you for putting Angela’s Ashes on your list! I have read it so many times I could recite it for you.