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An interesting meme is going around which presents a list of 100 books. If you have read one then you show the title in bold, if you have started but not finished then in italics. There is also an obligation to explain the unbelievable and make the odd comment. I made a decision with these memes some time ago to ignore most, and refuse to pass them on in all cases. This one was too tempting to ignore and if anyone else wants to take up the meme you can find the html for the table here. The meme seems to have lost the origin of its list. There is some overlap with the list from Time (of which I have read less)
| Title | Author | Comments | |
| 1 | Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen | About the only Austin I enjoyed reading |
| 2 | The Lord of the Rings | JRR Tolkien | At least once a year until I left University in order to win silly competitions (can you remember the name of the first Elf Frodo met and where? |
| 3 | Jane Eyre | Charlotte Bronte | An obligation rather than a pleasure, but then I went back to it after reading Jasper Fforde with new eyes |
| 4 | Harry Potter series | JK Rowling | Of course, why would anyone who grew up on Jennings and Derbyshire ignore the sequel? |
| 5 | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | The archetypal Bildungsroman and still not beaten |
| 6 | The Bible | (disputed) | My mother was an agnostic but read us the whole of The Bible designed to be read as Literature so that we would understand European Literature. I also read the whole of the King James version cover to cover as a naive & ostentatious convert at the age of 17 and while embarrassed by that period I don’t regret it. |
| 7 | Wuthering Heights | Emily Bronte | Still the best of the Bronte girls, although all readers of Cold Comfort Farm will know that it was really written by Bramwell |
| 8 | Nineteen Eighty Four | George Orwell | Not the best of the utopian novels either. I put Darkness at Noon and Brave New World ahead of this |
| 9 | His Dark Materials | Philip Pullman | Wonderful, wonderful series that took me back to Milton (how can he not be on the list). I just hope the deadwood of American conservative evangelism does not prevent the remaining episodes of the film being produced. A contrast with the saccharine and platitudes and downright cruelty of the Narnia sequence |
| 10 | Great Expectations | Charles Dickens | I really hate Dickens (with the exception of A Tale of Two Cities and possibly Bleak House) but I did the obligation-reads when young |
| 11 | Little Women | Louisa M Alcott | Aloud in class in the fifth form against my better judgement as narrator and surprised myself by rather liking it |
| 12 | Tess of the D’Urbervilles | Thomas Hardy | That final scene as the execution takes place is incredibly moving |
| 13 | Catch 22 | Joseph Heller | How could anyone called Snowden avoid it! A classic, but a one book author, the remainder was tedious |
| 14 | Complete Works | Shakespeare | That mother again, but it was worth it, I just wish I had a better memory |
| 15 | Rebecca | Daphne Du Maurier | Tedious, oh how tedious |
| 16 | The Hobbit | JRR Tolkien | Many times and really looking forward to the film |
| 17 | Birdsong | Sebastian Faulks | I suppose I should, but it never appealed |
| 18 | Catcher in the Rye | JD Salinger | Of course, but you have to read this during the trauma of puberty to understand it |
| 19 | The Time Traveller’s Wife | Audrey Niffenegger | Never heard of it, is it worth it |
| 20 | Middlemarch | George Eliot | Realism personified, Eliot is so much better than her contemporaries |
| 21 | Gone With The Wind | Margaret Mitchell | No, despite my confederate sympathies and every attempt I have made to watch the film as resulted in sleep |
| 22 | The Great Gatsby | F Scott Fitzgerald | Never rally liked the period and the film didn’t encourage me |
| 23 | Bleak House | Charles Dickens | Dickens as Kafka but without the bite, the BBC series was good, removed the dross |
| 24 | War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy | Several times and I love Russian Novels, rather like Trollope (the only English equivalent) they unfold in multiple waves of meaning, rather like Wagner if you want an operatic equivalent |
| 25 | The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams | Best as a radio series (its original milieu) as a novel Dirk Gently is better |
| 26 | Brideshead Revisited | Evelyn Waugh | I am not sure how this novel will survive a generation removed from war time experience (mine had it through our parents). A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell is much better of its type, but without the religious theme which is understated but constantly present. From what I hear the film is not a patch on the BBC serialisation |
| 27 | Crime and Punishment | Fyodor Dostoyevsky | My first entry into Dostoyevsky and a basic teaching text on any decent ethics course. I am surprised not to see his greatest novel The Brothers Karamazov in the list |
| 28 | Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck | Should be compulsory reading for any politician and how the Steinbeck museum in Monterey can sanitise out his socialism I do not understand |
| 29 | Alice in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll | to be honest I enjoyed this much more as an adult |
| 30 | The Wind in the Willows | Kenneth Grahame | Probably one of the best books for a child ever written, and not bad for an adult. I have an early childhood memory of being hysterical with laughter as my mother read the door scraperscene from the Wild Wood. Too many adaptations miss out Pan’s Island as well which is a pity as it is central to the book |
| 31 | Anna Karenina | Leo Tolstoy | Of course, its russian and its a damn good read |
| 32 | David Copperfield | Charles Dickens | (sigh) |
| 33 | Chronicles of Narnia | CS Lewis | Yes and then kept it away from my own children, this stuff is evil Manichean rubbish |
| 34 | Emma | Jane Austen | Why so much Jane Austin in this list? |
| 35 | Persuasion | Jane Austen | The best of Austin and the only one worth of a list |
| 36 | The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe | CS Lewis | see above |
| 37 | The Kite Runner | Khaled Hosseini | Hopefully will be seen as a classic, and the film was authentic |
| 38 | Captain Corelli’s Mandolin | Louis De Bernieres | I keep meaning to, its in the pile |
| 39 | Memoirs of a Geisha | Arthur Golden | Its in the pile, awaiting time |
| 40 | Winnie the Pooh | AA Milne | Ruined by Disney, still wonderful in the original. My younger sister used to be able to recite from memory and I still remember her If this continues we will be entirely surrounded by water from her push chair when I was being picked up from primary school in a thunderstorm |
| 40 | Animal Farm | George Orwell | Bedtime reading at the age of 5 …. |
| 41 | The Da Vinci Code | Dan Brown | Whiled away a couple of hours with this, and anything that is against Opus Dei must have something going for it |
| 42 | One Hundred Years of Solitude | Gabriel Garcia Marquez | I keep picking it up, then finding something else to do … |
| 43 | A Prayer for Owen Meany | John Irving | Is it special? |
| 45 | The Woman in White | Wilkie Collins | After this all other mystery stories fade |
| 46 | Anne of Green Gables | LM Montgomery | We had to in school, dire, tedious, truly truly terrible |
| 47 | Far From The Madding Crowd | Thomas Hardy | I fell in love with Bathsheba as a teenager |
| 48 | The Handmaid’s Tale | Margaret Atwood | A classic and getting closer to reality each day that passes |
| 49 | Lord of the Flies | William Golding | My O level text book and I loved it, the 1963 film versio by Peter Brook has the most incredible opening sequence for anyone whose childhood was over shadowed by the Cuban Missile Crisis |
| 50 | Atonement | Ian McEwan | One of his best and the film (surprisingly) was authentic |
| 51 | Life of Pi | Yann Martel | Enjoyable but I was surprised at its popularity |
| 52 | Dune | Frank Herbert | One of the classics of science fiction fell off a bit on the third sequel but recovered with chapter House Dune. Film terrible, although Sting was good, Television adaption much better |
| 53 | Cold Comfort Farm | Stella Gibbons | An exemplar of English comic writing. The use of stars to alert the reader to especially well written text is a delight and then that wonderful, wonderful line and did the goat die? |
| 54 | Sense and Sensibility | Jane Austen | What is this? A Jane Austen appreciation society? |
| 55 | A Suitable Boy | Vikram Seth | Greatest of the Anglo-Indian novels and his greatest work. Up there with Trollope in my cannon or writers |
| 56 | The Shadow of the Wind | Carlos Ruiz Zafon | Never heard of it |
| 57 | A Tale Of Two Cities | Charles Dickens | and the only book by Dickens that I ever read more than once |
| 58 | Brave New World | Aldous Huxley | One of the all time classics, and one that is more apposite today than it was at the time of writing |
| 59 | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime | Mark Haddon | One of the best ever first novels, really puts you in the mind of the hero |
| 60 | Love In The Time Of Cholera | Gabriel Garcia Marquez | I keep meaning to … |
| 61 | Of Mice and Men | John Steinbeck | If you don’t cry you are not human |
| 62 | Lolita | Vladimir Nabokov | Never had the inclination |
| 63 | The Secret History | Donna Tartt | Never heard of it |
| 64 | The Lovely Bones | Alice Sebold | No, but I like the author so should look this up |
| 65 | Count of Monte Cristo | Alexandre Dumas | A classic adventure story, not sure I would want to read it again however |
| 66 | On The Road | Jack Kerouac | Not my period, culture or geography |
| 67 | Jude the Obscure | Thomas Hardy | Moving, way ahead of its time (you can see why the good Bishop burnt it) and the reception resulted in Hardy only writing poetry thereafter. But what a last novel |
| 68 | Bridget Jones’s Diary | Helen Fielding | I read it in the Independent as it came out, great newspaper column, poor book |
| 69 | Midnight’s Children | Salman Rushdie | Confession time – its the only think I had read by Rushdie and I don’t see what all the fuss is about, source of many an argument with my mother when she was alive |
| 70 | Moby Dick | Herman Melville | One of those novels that everyone should read, the language alone makes it worth while |
| 71 | Oliver Twist | Charles Dickens | The book for which the word schmaltz was invented and an apologia for capitalism |
| 72 | Dracula | Bram Stoker | I could never get into horror other than in the form of films |
| 73 | The Secret Garden | Frances Hodgson Burnett | Not until I read it my daughter and I must admit I rather fell for it |
| 74 | Notes From A Small Island | Bill Bryson | I have never understood his appeal |
| 75 | Ulysses | James Joyce | Oh yes, and done the ~Bloom’s Day walk. |
| 76 | The Bell Jar | Sylvia Plath | To my shame no, as I lover her poetry but I have just ordered it |
| 77 | Swallows and Amazons | Arthur Ransome | An essential part of my childhood and my sister and I mapped Bala Lake in our kayak Tarka in imitation. I bought a full replica of the first edition and read them again over a couple of weeks and they are still as good at 54 as they were at a much earlier age |
| 78 | Germinal | Emile Zola | I know I should |
| 79 | Vanity Fair | William Makepeace Thackeray | Becky Sharp is a delight in this wonderful antidote to A Pilgrim’s Progress |
| 80 | Possession | AS Byatt | I should have, have ordered the film from Amazon this morning |
| 81 | A Christmas Carol | Charles Dickens | Please, please take this away, burn it or at least ban all reference at Christmas. Tiny Tim should be sent to the workhouse |
| 82 | Cloud Atlas | David Mitchell | It just got to the top of the pile and it will occupy me this week. Looking forward to it |
| 83 | The Color Purple | Alice Walker | Loved the film, keep meaning to read the book |
| 85 | The Remains of the Day | Kazuo Ishiguro | This is one of the greatest novels by one of the greatest living authors. Pity about the film |
| 85 | Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert | Yes, but did not enjoy, many of the books it influence d are better it is a classic |
| 86 | A Fine Balance | Rohinton Mistry | I loved this, but there again the whole of the Anglo-Indian cannon of work is a playground of delights, but this is one of the best |
| 87 | Charlotte’s Web | EB White | No intention |
| 88 | The Five People You Meet In Heaven | Mitch Albom | Not even thought of it. Should I? |
| 89 | Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | All of them as a teenager, and they are still fun. First read Hound of the Baskerville’s in a tent on holiday when very young and did not sleep |
| 90 | The Faraway Tree Collection | Enid Blyton | The only suitable use of anything by this author is satire |
| 91 | Heart of Darkness | Joseph Conrad | One of those books, painful as it is, that any intelligent person has to read |
| 92 | The Little Prince | Antoine De Saint-Exupery | I did but I never rally saw the attraction, other than the pictures |
| 93 | The Wasp Factory | Iain Banks | Another great first novel although its not an easy read, it is a great book |
| 94 | Watership Down | Richard Adams | Fun, but the author lost it completely in the truly dire Plague Dogs |
| 95 | A Confederacy of Dunces | John Kennedy Toole | Its in the pile awaiting reading |
| 96 | A Town Like Alice | Nevil Shute | Surprising given the subject area, this is a gentle book which occupies but does not challenge the mind |
| 97 | The Three Musketeers | Alexandre Dumas | Loads of fun, but most of the film versions are better |
| 98 | Hamlet | William Shakespeare | I always wished we had done this for O Level rather than Macbeth |
| 99 | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Roald Dahl | I think he is one of the worst of children’s authors, no challenge, dumbing down |
| 100 | Les Miserables | Victor Hugo | I keep meaning to, and plan one of these days to get to the musical |
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