These are the 50 books to read:
1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien (Movies count?)
2. 1984 by George Orwell
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin (Want to read this!)
4. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (√)
5. To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (√)
6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronie
7. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
9. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
10. Hamlet by William Shakespeare (√)
11. A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
12. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (√)
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (√)
14. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
15. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
16. The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank (√) (writing inspiration!)
17. Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
18. The Bible (partial √?)
19. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
20. Ulysses by James Joyce
21. The Quiet American by Graham Green (Quiet Americans exist?)
22. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
23. Money by Martin Amis
24. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (√√√√√√√)
25. Moby Dick by Herman Melville (I know the story...)
26. The Wind in the Willow by Kenneth Grahame
27. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
28. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (mentioned in "The Last Song")
29. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carol (√)
30. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
31. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon
32. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
33. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
34. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
35. The Outside by Albert Camus (no not The OutsiderS)
36. The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
37. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
38. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Who doesn't know the story?!?)
39. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (Better then the movie?)
40. Men Without Women by Ernest Hemingway (laughable...ha!)
41. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
42. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Watched, never read)
43. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (√)
44. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
45. One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (√) (loved it!)
46. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
47. The Count of Monte Crisco by Alexandre Dumas
48. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (on to read list for years)
49. The Divine Comedy by Alighiei Dante
50. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Wow, 11 out of 50, 22 percent...that's a long ways to go. Good thing I am a 22-year-old with a long life ahead of me. My fiancé, Dan, on the other hand has read over half of these books (33!) and he's only a few years older then me! Well, I guess it's time to start giving some of these classics a try, but don't worry I'm not doing it immediately. I'll intersperse them between what I want to read, you know, books published this century.
What do you think of this list? Would you say these are THE 50 books to read before you die? How many have you read?
Posts
8 comments:
eu fiquei muito impressionado pois eu já li desses 21, um número bem interessante, mais muitos livros faltam aí oscar wilde, autores Brasileiros não são contemplados e temos livros aqui no Brasil tão magníficos como esses
My Portuguese isn't good so I'll just go with Gracias! Thanks for reading and wow... 21 is impressive!
I'm at around 20 of these (my eyes were crossing trying to count); the only ones I definitely intend to eventually read that I haven't are Catch-22 and Catcher in the Rye. Life of Pi was amazing, I think everyone should read it! Some of the others are more to taste, I think (I adored Pride and Prejudice but it IS the original romance novel, so I'm not sure I'd force it on my favorite guy... the movie and A&E series, yes, lol). I loved Memoirs of a Geisha and still can't believe a man wrote it. Happy reading! :)
(PS: Charles Dickens didn't write Robinson Crusoe, that was written by Daniel Defoe. I hope that was a little blog typo and not incorrectly stamped on that cool bookmark!)
Haha, yes that was a blog typo. At that point I think I was starting to see things! I definitely want to read Life of Pi and Memoirs of a Geisha, I've heard great things about both of them!
Catcher in the Rye was a classic, but nothing that specifically blew my mind. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog!
Hey, I've hit 5 on the list and 2 are on my nightstand right now. I'm catching up.
Nice blog by the way.
Thanks Brian! Let me know what you think of the books after your done!
I'm eighteen years old and I'm at 7 out of 20 :/. I actually have some of these (anna karenina, harry potter, lord of the rings) I'm tackling the harry potter series now. catcher in the rye was a great read. It was required for my 9th grade english class. I read pride and prejudice on my own and fell in love! If anyone feels this way I highly highly reccomend darcy's story. If you liked pride and prejudice you're going to love darcys story. It's his version of pride and prejudice. It's just amazing to see he how he felt about elizabeth bennet. Run! Buy it now! You won't regret it. I promise :)
I'll have to look into it for sure. It blows my mind that you're just "working through" the Harry Potter series. I feel like everyone my age grew up with the books and have already read them all. Sometimes I just assume everyone has. Thanks for the reality check. :-)
Post a Comment