Books We've Read

I am responsible for making our apartment complex's monthly newsletter. I was reading through some pre-written articles that the newsletter company provides, and I found one about the top 100 most beloved books. This list was compiled from sources such as Time Magazine, Random House publishers, as well as readers' favorites as listed on the internet. I'll provide the list and mark which ones Christopher and I have read. Keep in mind these are books have read and completed; they do not include any books read to us or movies we've seen of the books.

1. “The Red Badge of Courage” by Stephen Crane. Cruelty of war tests young man.
2. “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy. How the world looks after nuclear war.
3. “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe. Lessons learned on a remote island.
4. “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Adventures of a Puritan woman. Chris/Camilla
   
5. “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles. Boys who come of age around World War II. Chris/Camilla
   
6. “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut. Aliens, World War II and time travel.
7. “The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner. Once-proud family encounters hardship.
8. “The Stand” by Stephen King. Portrays an end-of-the-world scenario.
9. “Sybil” by Benjamin Disraeli. Daughter of poor man in working-class England.
10. “The Swiss Family Robinson” by Johann David Wyss. How to survive a shipwreck.
11. “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. Civil unrest in France. Chris
    
12. “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. Lawyer fights, among other things, prejudice. Camilla
    
13. “Tropic of Cancer” by Henry Miller. A world of freedom and eroticism.
14. “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer. Love and a vampire. Camilla
    
15. “Undaunted Courage” by Stephen Ambrose. Trailblazers open the American west.
16. “Three Men in a Boat” by Jerome K. Jerome. Misadventures of young Englishmen.
17. “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells. Ponders life in the distant future.
18. “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson. Adventure features pirates and gold.
19. “Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” by Jules Verne. Vessels encounter a mystery.
20. “Ulysses” by James Joyce. An early 1900s look at working class in Dublin.
21. “Vanity Fair” by William Makepeace Thackeray. Greed and deception in 19th century.
22. “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau. The solitary life and its lessons.
23. “Watership Down” by Richard Adams. A fantasy about rabbits developing their own culture. Chris
    
24. “The World According to Garp” by John Irving. Life is not always black or white.
25. “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte. The negative aspects of love. Chris
    
26. “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte. Romance thriller includes secrets and good versus evil. Chris/Camilla
    
27. “King Solomon’s Mines” by H. Rider Haggard. Explorers seek African treasures.
28. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving. A headless horseman on the hunt.
29. “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” by C.S. Lewis. Fantasy in which animals talk. Chris
    
30. “Little Women” by Louisa M. Alcott. Sisters grow up while father is at war.
31. “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov. A tale of doomed passion.
32. “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry. Cattle drive adventure includes outlaws.
33. “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. Boys face life on a deserted island.
34. “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien. Yarn of power and adventure.
35. “Loving” by Henry Green. Life in an Irish country house during World War II.
36. “The Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammett. Detective on trail of bird figurine.
37. “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville. Adventures of a sailor and a large whale.
38. “The Naked and the Dead” by Norman Mailer. Soldiers and their superiors in World WarII.
39. “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. Migrant laborers harbor big dreams.
40. “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway. Aging fisherman battles a marlin. Chris/Camilla
    
41. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey. Life in a mental institution.
42. “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder. Daily doings in a New Hampshire town.
43. “Pale Fire” by Vladimir Nabokov. Intrigue and murder in a never-ending maze.
44. “Paradise Lost” by John Milton. Think sin, death and heaven.
45. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde. Man’s portrait ages, but he doesn’t.
46. “Pigs in Heaven” by Barbara Kingsolver. American Indian child discovers life.
47. “Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan. Dragons, dangers and spiritual lessons.
48. “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce. Man seeks answers in Ireland.
49. “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. The search for love and faithfulness. Chris
    
50. “The Princess Bride” by William Goldman. Renaissance era tale of romance, adventure. Chris/Camilla
    
51. “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes. All that glitters may not be gold. Chris
    
52. “Dracula” by Bram Stoker. Horror in Eastern Europe features a vampire.
53. “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson. Dual life of good and evil.
54. “Dune” by Frank Herbert. Empire of the future and forces who want to rule it.
55. “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck. How good can triumph over evil.
56. “Emma” by Jane Austen. English girl on self-discovery journey. Chris
    
57. “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card. Youth learns to battle potential world disaster. Chris
    
58. “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. A future in which reading is considered criminal.
59. “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway. Love and disillusionment during war.
60. “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway. The prospect of death.
61. “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand. Architect battles the pressure to conform.
62. “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley. What can happen when science goes awry. Chris/Camilla
    
63. “Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell. Love and war in the South.
64. “The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck. View of farmer’s struggles in China.
65. “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck. Family hardship in the Great Depression.
66. “Gravity’s Rainbow” by Thomas Pynchon. How technology can impact society.
67. “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Pitfalls of the American Dream. Chris/Camilla
    
68. “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift. Fantastic voyages loaded with illusions.
69. “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” by Carson McCullers. Deaf mute acts as a confidante.
70. “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien. How to handle the prospects of power.
71. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. A self-help guide.
72. “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” by Victor Hugo. A gypsy in Paris has an admirer.
73. “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison. Social issues facing a Southern-based youth.
74. “The Island of Dr. Moreau” by H.G. Wells. Half-human animals on a remote isle.
75. “James and the Giant Peach” by Roald Dahl. A boy finds new life inside a real big peach Chris/Camilla
    
76. “1984” by George Orwell. Be careful who is watching ... and listening.
77. “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain. Youths go on a raft journey. Chris/Camilla
    
78. “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho. A boy leaves his home in search of treasure.
79. “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque. War’s horrors. Chris
    
80. “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. Life under a totalitarian umbrella. Camilla
    
81. “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy. A woman married but miserable.
82. “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. Self-interest becomes the “in” thing.
83. “Battlefield Earth” by L. Ron Hubbard. Thriller set in the year 3000.
84. “The Black Sheep” by Honore de Balzac. Napoleon’s France as viewed by two boys.
85. “The Boys of Summer” by Roger Kahn. The Dodgers, before they went to L.A.
86. “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. A futuristic look at humans and technology.
87. “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London. Drastic changes for domestic dog. Chris
    
88. “Cannery Row” by John Steinbeck. Depression-era fishery laborers toil in California.
89. “Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer. Tall tales in the 14th century.
90. “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller. Airmen face tough situation in World War II.
91. “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger. Play by the rules—or not. Chris
    
92. “Cat’s Cradle” by Kurt Vonnegut. An arms race for a dangerous substance.
93. “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. Old man learns it is never too late to change. Chris/Camilla
    
94. “Clarissa” by Samuel Richardson. A girl who wants to stay true to her heart.
95. “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess. Attempt to reform a troubled teen.
96. “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas. Tale of betrayal and revenge. Chris
    
97. “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Poverty and the search for redemption. Chris/Camilla
    
98. “Cyrano de Bergerac” by Edmond Rostand. Poet-swordsman with a long nose.
99. “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens. Greed, love and a really powerful storm.
100. “Darkness at Noon” by Arthur Koestler. A Russian cannot condone the regime.
     

Chris has read 23/100, and I've read 14/100. Yikes, my score is not very good. I have started several of these books and just never finished. In my defense, my degree was basically a French Literature major, so if this had been a French list, I would have tons more marked off.

I've seen other lists floating around Facebook of a different set of 100 books you should read. According to one I saw, the BBC says that the average person has only read 6 of those books. From that list I had only read 10. I'm always so leery of staring a new book because I get sucked into them so easily, and all my other responsibilities get neglected until I have finished the book. Many of the books from the two lists we actually own and are just sitting on our bookshelves. This has strengthened my resolve to read more. Any suggestions on which one I should read first.
Chris has read 23/100, and I've read 14/100. Yikes, my score is not very good. I have started several of these books and just never finished. In my defense, my degree was basically a French Literature major, so if this had been a French list, I would have tons more marked off.

I've seen other lists floating around Facebook of a different set of 100 books you should read. According to one I saw, the BBC says that the average person has only read 6 of those books. From that list I had only read 13. I'm always so leary of staring a new book because I get sucked into them so easily, and all my other responsibilities get neglected until I have finished the book. Many of the books from the two lists we actually own and are just sitting on our bookshelves. This has strengthened my resolve to read more. Any suggestions on which one I should read first.