So basically, I love stats and lists relating to books and reading, so this book was awesome for me! Also, I am a severely competitive person, which is why I've made it a new challenge for myself to read all of the books mentioned in this list of America's 100 greatest books. (Scroll down to skip my babbling about disclaimers and explanations and get to the list!). This project comes from the PBS series The Great American Read.
I must point out that calling it "America's" best loved novels does not mean that all the books were written by American authors; we'd be missing out on some very important pieces of literature. Additionally, the books mentioned herein are not the best rated books, or most well-written per se, but they are instead the most popular books (@ Twilight). Most of the books here are well-known and have a ton of ratings and reviews, but they aren't necessarily highly rated (many of the books are in the 3-4 star range on Goodreads). Also, these books are not only "classics" in terms of both genre and time period. The list includes fantasy, science fiction, contemporaries and more, and the publish dates range from 1605 to 2016. However, drama is not included as a genre because this is technically only a list of novels; sorry Shakespeare lovers - no Hamlet here!
I should also mention that one author can only be included one time, so if they have more than one book that maybe should be included on the list, only their most popular will be included. That being said, many series are included as an entirety rather than the most popular book in the series. I also don't necessarily agree with all the choices... for example, I would argue that A Tale of Two Cities is/was more popular than Great Expectations but the latter is the one that made this list. Who knows what the formula was for creating this list, but I'm still going to read it!
I myself had only read 7 of these books before deciding to do this challenge (Harry Potter, Pride and Prejudice, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Alchemist, The Book Thief, Looking for Alaska, and The Call of the Wild. Technically also The Hunger Games, but I'm not counting it because I read it so long ago and I want to reread it.), but if you've read quite a few of them this might be easier for you! Also - I'm not putting a specific time limit on this. I just want to read all the books in my lifetime, but I'm prioritizing them quite a bit so I imagine I'll finish the list within 5 years. I will probably just read 1 or 2 of the books each month along with the other books on my TBR.
The book itself includes interesting information about the books - blurbs, background, the author's inspirations for the story, as well as author biographies. It also includes fun groupings for books, like books that all have a color in the title, or start with the word "the".
Below I list all of the books in this list of 100 greatest books, and if you dare you can endeavor to take on this challenge with me! P.S. If you're like me and find classics challenging to get through, I recommend checking out audiobooks from your local library (many use the app Libby, which is extremely user-friendly and a life saver when you are not able to get to a library). Most of the very lengthy classics I read through audiobook format while driving, walking, or exercising and it keeps me focused so much easier than having a physical copy!
Now, without further ado, the list (in order of year published):
1. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605)
2. The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (1678)
3. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726)
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)
5. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
6. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844)
7. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)
8. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)
9. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
10. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (1861)
11. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)
12. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866)
13. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1867)
14. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868)
15. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (1875)
16. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1890)
17. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1899)
18. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903)
19. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (1908)
20. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (1922)
21. The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald (1925)
22. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1926)
23. Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos (1929)
24. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936)
25. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)
26. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938)
27. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)
28. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (1939)
29. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (1943)
30. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943)
31. 1984 by George Orwell (1949)
32. Foundation by Isaac Asimov (1951)
33. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951)
34. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952)
35. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (1952)
36. The Lord of the Rings Series by J.R.R. Tolkien (1955)
37. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (1956)
38. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957)
39. Things Fall Apart by Chenua Achebe (1958)
40. A Separate Peace by John Knowles (1959)
41. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (1959)
42. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)
43. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (1961)
44. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
45. Another Country by James Baldwin (1962)
46. Dune by Frank Herbert (1965)
47. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (1967)
48. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967)
49. The Godfather by Mario Puzo (1969)
50. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya (1972)
51. The Stand by Stephen King (1978)
52. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin (1978)
53. Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews (1979)
54. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979)
55. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980)
56. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Aule (1980)
57. The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1982)
58. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1985)
59. The Handmaid's Tail by Margaret Atwood (1985)
60. This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti (1986)
61. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (1986)
62. Patriot Games by Tom Clancy (1987)
63. Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon (1987)
64. Watchers by Dean Koontz (1987)
65. Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)
66. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (1988)
67. Mind Invaders by Dave Hunt (1989)
68. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (1989)
69. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (1989)
70. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (1989)
71. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (1990)
72. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (1990)
73. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (1991)
74. Along Came a Spider by James Patterson (1993)
75. The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993)
76. Left Behind by Tim LaHaye (1995)
77. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (1996)
78. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (1996)
79. Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling (1997)
80. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (1997)
81. The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead (1999)
82. The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah (1999)
83. White Teeth by Zadie Smith (2000)
84. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (2002)
85. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (2003)
86. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2003)
87. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (2004)
88. Looking For Alaska by John Green (2005)
89. The Book Thief by Markus Zusack (2005)
90. The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer (2005)
91. The Shack by William Paul Young (2007)
92. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (2007)
93. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins (2008)
94. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (2009)
95. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James (2011)
96. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (2011)
97. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012)
98. The Martian by Andy Weir (2012)
99. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013)
100. Ghost by Jason Reynolds (2016)
Happy reading!!
No comments:
Post a Comment