Much love to Emily and Adrienne, from whom I stole this.
Bold the ones you’ve read, italicise the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.
1. + The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) **growl**
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) I read it when I was too young to appreciate it… assuming I would even like it now.
4. +Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) My mom adores this book.
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) You really couldn’t pay me enough.
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien) (See #5.)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien) (See #6.)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) I never read it, and now I’ve built up an aversion to it for some reason I can’t pinpoint.
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) Why have I never heard of this?
10. * A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry) This either.
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling) I want to read the Harry Potter books in Spanish. Only in Spanish… but it counts. You couldn’t pay me enough to read them in English.
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) Doesn’t mean I’m proud of it. But it did cause me to boycott The DaVinci Code, so at least there’s that.
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling) Again, in Spanish.
14. + A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) A must-read, I know, and I do get that Irving craving from time to time.
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) I’m actually pretty indifferent to it.
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling) Spanish translation.
17. * Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald) This is getting embarrassing.
18. The Stand (Stephen King) Stephen King can kiss my ass.
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling) Again…
20. + Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien) As a side note, I saw the animated movie when I was little and had recurring nightmares about Golem for some time afterward.
22. + The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) Damn right. Read it twice.
23. + Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) English and Spanish.
24. + The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) That book can kiss my ass.
25. + Life of Pi (Yann Martel) A friend gave me her copy when we moved out of the dorms at the end of freshman year. Aw.
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) Another one I’ve kind of developed an aversion to. Don’t know why.
27. + Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) I want to read it again at some point because I think the timing just wasn’t right the first time around, because I really wasn’t that big on it.
28. + The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) Read it multiple times when I was little, and was given a copy by the school library at the end of the year for being the third-grade librarian.
29. + East of Eden (John Steinbeck) Another someday book.
30. +Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom) Hey, another book that can kiss my ass.
31. Dune (Frank Herbert) I’ve heard of it but don’t really know anything about it.
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks) Oh. Screw. That.
33. +Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) I’ve been in the middle of that book for going on four years now. I began it when I began college, so I figure I’ll finish around December of this year when I graduate. It’s fantastic, just so long.
34. +1984 (Orwell) High school. I’ll read it again someday.
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett) Claudia recommended it, so I must read it.
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay) I know nothing about it.
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb) I’ve really never heard anything good about it.
39. +The Red Tent (Anita Diamant) Not exactly a priority, though.
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) Someday.
41. *The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. +The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) I hear good things.
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella) Oh, please.
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom) Oh, please again.
45. + Bible
46. +Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) Very excited for this one.
47. +The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) This one, too.
48. + Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) Read part of it for a class on Memoir writing freshman year, but I’m counting it.
49. +The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) Someday.
50. +She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb) Not a major priority.
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) High school pretty much ruined this book for me. I sold it when I was done with it, and if you know how I am about my books then you see how much I hated this one.
52. + A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) Read it when I was thirteen and it was a pivotal reading experience for me. I wouldn’t be the same without it, I swear.
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card) Meh.
54. + Great Expectations (Dickens) I [heart] this book.
55. + The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) Fantastic.
56. * The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling) Spanish again.
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough) Read it in high school. Well… most of it.
59. + The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) Not the highest priority of my must-read Atwood.
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger) Blech.
61. + Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) I need some Dostoyevsky this summer.
62. +The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) Very exciting.
63. + War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. *Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. + One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares) Maybe when I have kids?
68. +Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) I laughed so hard I thought I was going to wet myself.
69. +Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) Meh.
71. +Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding) Despite my extreme aversion to chick-lit… and it was pretty great.
72. + Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. + Shogun (James Clavell) Ex-boyfriend got me interested… someday maybe.
74. +The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje) Soon enough.
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) Meh.
76. * The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) I know, I know.
78. + The World According To Garp (John Irving) SUCH a good book. Irving’s such a badass.
79. * The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. +Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White) **laugh** I said something about WEB DuBois the other day and my brother said, “Didn’t she write Charlotte’s Web?”
81. * Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. + Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck) Sad.
83. +Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier) Excited about it.
84. * Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen) For Women in Literature.
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams) Don’t know anything about it.
87. + Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) Tenth grade.
88. * The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields) Another one whose title sounds interesting
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago) I heard good things but I don’t remember where.
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer) Huh?
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. +Lord of the Flies (Golding) Need to reread it, because I definitely didn’t get what all the fuss was about.
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd) See… the thing about this is I read The Mermaid Chair and that book bit it big time. I hear this one is great regardless, but I’m a bit put off now.
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. +The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch) Maybe.
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford) Barbara Taylor Bradford? Where’s Jackie Collins, then?
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce) Soon, I hope.
Whew.