What I've read so far

I have read some of the books on the list already. Some of them (eg. White Noise by Don DeLillo or Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier), I have read recently and I will not re-read them. Others (eg. On the Road by Jack Kerouac or The Lord of the Rings trilogy), I might choose to revisit. I might also do some substitutions for books I've already read (eg. I have read Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey but not Jack Maggs).

Already read
1 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
2 The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
3 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
4 Beloved Toni Morrison
5 1984 George Orwell
6 Catch-22 Joseph Heller
7 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway
8 Animal Farm George Orwell
9 On the Road Jack Kerouac
10 White Noise Don DeLillo
11 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
12 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy JRR Tolkien
13 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
14 Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey
15 The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula Le Guin
16 The Magic Pudding Norman Lindsay
17 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier
18 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S.Lewis
19 Anne of Green Gables L.M.Montgomery
20 Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson
21 The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Graeme
22 The Chrysalids John Wyndham
23 Amsterdam Ian McEwan
24 The Pursuit of Love Nancy Mitford
25 In the Skin of a Lion Michael Ondaatje


Never read
1 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
2 The Color Purple Alice Walker
3 Ulysses James Joyce
4 The Lord of the Flies William Golding
5 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
6 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
7 Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man James Joyce
8 Brave New World Aldous Huxley
9 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
10 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway
11 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
12 Song of Solomon Toni Morrison
13 The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene
14 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey
15 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut
16 Ironweed William Kennedy
17 The Call of the Wild Jack London
18 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
19 A Passage to India E.M. Forster
20 The House of Mirth Edith Wharton
21 The Fountainhead Ayn Rand
22 The Jungle Upton Sinclair
23 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
24 My Antonia Willa Cather
25 Howard's End E.M. Forster
26 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie
27 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
28 Sophie's Choice William Styron
29 In Cold Blood Truman Capote
30 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs
31 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
32 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett
33 Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
34 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller
35 Kim Rudyard Kipling
36 The Remains of the Day Kazou Ishiguro
37 A House for Mr. Biswas V.S. Naipaul
38 The Ginger Man P.D. Donleavy
39 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck
40 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer
41 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon
42 I, Claudius Robert Graves
43 Voss Patrick White
44 The Outsiders S.E.Hinton
45 The Long Goodbye Raymond Chandler
46 A Town Like Alice Neville Shute
47 Couples John Updike
49 Money Martin Amis
50 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis
51 Possession A.S.Byatt
52 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth
53 Waiting for the Barbarians J.M.Coetzee
54 Schindler's Ark Thomas Keneally
55 The Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
56 Native Son Richard Wright
57 Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence
58 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
59 Ragtime E.L. Docorow
60 Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham
61 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith
62 The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
63 From Here to Eternity James Jones
64 Main Street Sinclair Lewis
65 The Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler
66 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler
67 Henderson the Rain King Saul Bellow
68 Appointment in Samarra John O'Hara
69 The Wapshot Chronicles John Cheever
70 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West
71 The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles
72 The World According to Garp John Irving
73 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles
74 Waterland Graham Swift
75 Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin

One hundred books of the century: The List

On my recent trip to the US, I made a new friend and was inspired by her project to read the top one hundred books of the twentieth century.

I have taken her original list and modified it according to my own tastes and ideas, along with some reference to other published lists and also the BookCrossing community. Some of the books I have read, some I have always intended to read and others, quite frankly, I know very little about. But for one reason or another these are the books that made the cut.

I followed a few rules in compiling this list. Firstly, one hundred books only and each author gets no more than two books each. Secondly, the books must be originally written in English - translated works belong in a different list. Thirdly, the list contains only fiction novels (no short stories, memoirs or biographies). Finally, all books must be published between 1900 and 1999.

Within those parameters, I tried to avoid it being a list solely of dead white males, as many of the published lists tend to be. I wanted to include authors from all over the English-speaking world, women and minorities, genre writers and ensure a selection from the early, middle and late decades of the century. However, the primary factor was merit, in so far as I can judge it without having read all the books in question.

So here's the list. It's a work in progress and I'd be glad to hear your feedback. It's not in any particular order.

1 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
2 The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
3 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
4 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
5 The Color Purple Alice Walker
6 Ulysses James Joyce
7 Beloved Toni Morrison
8 The Lord of the Flies William Golding
9 1984 George Orwell
10 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
11 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
12 Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man James Joyce
13 Catch-22 Joseph Heller
14 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway
15 Brave New World Aldous Huxley
16 Animal Farm George Orwell
17 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
18 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway
19 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
20 Song of Solomon Toni Morrison
21 The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene
22 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey
23 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut
24 Ironweed William Kennedy
25 On the Road Jack Kerouac
26 The Call of the Wild Jack London
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
28 A Passage to India E.M. Forster
29 The House of Mirth Edith Wharton
30 The Fountainhead Ayn Rand
31 The Jungle Upton Sinclair
32 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
33 My Antonia Willa Cather
34 Howard's End E.M. Forster
35 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie
36 The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing [added 14/3/06 to replace The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway]
37 Sophie's Choice William Styron
38 In Cold Blood Truman Capote
39 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs
40 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
41 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett
42 Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
43 White Noise Don DeLillo
44 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller
45 Kim Rudyard Kipling
46 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
47 A House for Mr. Biswas V.S. Naipaul
48 The Ginger Man P.D. Donleavy
49 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
50 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck
51 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer
52 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon
53 I, Claudius Robert Graves
54 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy JRR Tolkien
55 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
56 Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey
57 The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula Le Guin
58 The Magic Pudding Norman Lindsay
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier
60 Voss Patrick White
61 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S.Lewis
62 Anne of Green Gables L.M.Montgomery
63 Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson
64 The Outsiders S.E.Hinton
65 The Long Goodbye Raymond Chandler
66 The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Graeme
67 A Town Like Alice Neville Shute
68 The Chrysalids John Wyndham
69 Amsterdam Ian McEwan
70 The Pursuit of Love Nancy Mitford
71 Couples John Updike
72 The Bell Iris Murdoch
73 Money Martin Amis
74 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis
75 Possession A.S.Byatt
76 In the Skin of a Lion Michael Ondaatje
77 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth
78 Waiting for the Barbarians J.M.Coetzee
79 Schindler's Ark Thomas Keneally
80 The Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
81 Native Son Richard Wright
82 Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence
83 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
84 Ragtime E.L. Docorow
85 Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham
86 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith
87 The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
88 From Here to Eternity James Jones
89 Main Street Sinclair Lewis
90 The Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler
91 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler
92 Henderson the Rain King Saul Bellow
93 Appointment in Samarra John O'Hara
94 The Wapshot Chronicles John Cheever
95 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West
96 The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles
97 The World According to Garp John Irving
98 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles
99 Waterland Graham Swift
100 Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin