Best books of the 20th century - a challenge ...

[tinto]

Hi,
A couple of years ago my sister and I compiled the following list with the aim to read all the books on it by the time we dropped dead.
The list was compiled from a couple of different sources, so no - we didn't actually do the research ourselves!
So, here is the challenge - read all of these books! There are 176 of them.
In the meantime;

1. How many have you read?
2. What is missing and should be on this list?
3. What is on the list and shouldn't be? (I know, I don't get the Delia Smith cookbook either)
4. What are your favourites/what did you hate?

Disclaimer: The sources of this list are American and British, so you will find that reflected in the choices. Oh - and don't forget its only 20th century

Title
1984. George Orwell
2001 - a space odyssey. Arthur C. Clarke
A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
A brief history of time. Stephen Hawking
A clockwork orange. Anthony Burgess
A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich. Alexander Solzhenitsyn
A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
A la recherche du temps perdu. Marcel Proust
A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
A prayer for Owen Meany. John Irvine
A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
A suitable boy. Vikram Seth
All quiet on the western front. Erich Maria Remarque
ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
American psycho. Bret Easton Ellis
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
An evil cradling. Brian Keenan
ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
Beloved. Toni Morrison
Birdsong. Sebastian Faulks
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
Brighton Rock. Graham Greene
Captain Corelli´s Mandolin. Louis de Bernières
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
Charlie and the chocolate factory. Roald Dahl
Cider with Rosie. Laurie Lee
Complete cookery course. Delia Smith
Cry the beloved country. Alan Paton
DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
Doctor Zhivago. Boris Pasternak
Down and out in Paris and London. George Orwell
Dune. Frank Herbert
Earthly powers. Anthony Burgess
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas. Hunter S. Thompson
FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
Gone with the wind. Margaret Mitchell
Gormenghast. Mervyn Peake
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
High fidelity. Nick Hornby
HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
If this is a man. Primo Levi
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
IRONWEED by William Kennedy
It. Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach. Roald Dahl
Jurassic Park. Michael Crichton
KIM by Rudyard Kipling
Lady Chatterley´s Lover. D.H. Lawrence
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
Long walk to freedom. Nelson Mandela
LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
Love in a time of cholera. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
LOVING by Henry Green
Lucky Jim. Kingsley Amis
MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
Matilda. Roald Dahl
MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
Of mice and men. John Steinbeck
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
One hundred years of solitude. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Paddy Clarke ha ha ha. Roddy Doyle
PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford
Perfume. Patrick Süskind
POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
Possession. A.S. Byatt
RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
Rebecca. Daphne du Maurier
SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
Sophie´s world. Jostein Gaarder
SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron
Tales from the city. Armistead Maupin
TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Testament of youth. Vera Brittain
THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
The bell jar. Sylvia Plath
The BFG. Roald Dahl
The bonfire of the vanities. Tom Wolfe
THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
The colour purple. Alice Walker
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
The diary of Anne Frank. Anne Frank
The French Lieutenant´s woman. John Fowles
THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The handmaid´s tale. Margaret Atwood
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
The heart of darkness. Joseph Conrad
THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
The hitchhiker´s guide to the galaxy. Douglas Adams
The hobbit. J.R.R. Tolkien
The horse whisperer. Nicholas Ev
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
The lion, the witch and the wardrobe. C.S. Lewis
The lord of the rings. J.R.R. Tolkien
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington
THE MAGUS by John Fowles
THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
The master and Margarita. Mikhail Bulgakov
THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
The name of the rose. Umberto Eco
THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett
The outsider. Albert Camus
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
The power and the glory. Graham Greene
THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
The ragged-trousered philanthropists. Robert Tressell
The remains of the day. Kazuo Ishiguro
THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
The selfish gene. Richard Dawkins
THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
The stand. Stephen King
THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
The tin drum. Günter Grass
The trial. Franz Kafka
The unbearable lightness of being. Milan Kundera
The van. Roddy Doyle
THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
The wasp factory. Iain Banks
THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
The wind in the willows. Kenneth Grahame
THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
To kill a mockingbird. Harper Lee
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
Trainspotting. Irvine Welsh
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
ULYSSES by James Joyce
UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
Watership down. Richard Adams
WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
Wild swans. Jung Chang
WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
Winnie the Pooh. A.A. Milne
WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. Robert Pirsig
ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm

67 -
My favourites,
Grapes of Wrath (must read that again, was just remembering sneaking out of work at lunchtime to read it cos I was so engrossed in it)
Catch -22
Catcher in the rye

Worst: I never finished Midnights Children or Possession, just could not get into them.
Intend to try again though, suspect they should be on there and it is just my lack of culture meaning that I don't like them.
Not keen on James Joyce either.

Where's harry potter?? (should only count as one though). Or is that this century and not counted.

only 29 and I have read a lot!

btw- Heart of Darkness is on twice

yy to jamescagneys suggestions, would add

Flaubert's Parrot- Julian Barnes
Wind-up Bird Chronicle- Haruki Murakami
Empire of the Sun- JG Ballard
something by Asimov and Arthur C Clarke
something by Doris Lessing
Black Narcissus- Rumer Godden
The Good Earth- Pearl S Buck

Why so little children's literature?
Peter Pan- JM Barrie
Something by Alan Garner (Elidor or Weirdstone of Brisingamen)
Pippi Longstocking- Astrid Lindgren
Moomins- Tove Jannsen
The Dolls House- Rumer Godden
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit- Judith Kerr

Managed 43 which is better than I thought.
The Horse Whisperer?
Couldn't get Sophie's World despite several attempts at it, must just be to dim for philosopy (Did much better in the BBC list which I suspect confirms my low brow tastes!)

I loved Love in the time of Cholera

Has really made me think about what I'll read next, its ages since I read anything 'classic'

Am re-reading Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy which I still think is great, and another vote for Angela Carter.

60 (I think) though some were at school/university, so not through choice.

Hi, never posted before, can I start here? I have read 45 which I am amazed by, although some (like Of Mice and Men and 1984) were from school - a long time ago. Some I think I have read but it might just be I have seen the film (A Room with a View for example)...

55, I though it would be less but then I used to be an avid read but no longer have the time so I guess I read most of those over 10 years ago. I too couldn't read Sophie's World despite several attempts or indeed Captain Corelli´s Mandolin. I would include The Bone People and The Famished Road in the list.

39

Very subjective list I thought.

No Dickens
No Shakespeare
No Marge Piercy, Marilyn French or that ilk.
No poetry
No Blyton (not great but certainly classic)

Would have liked to see Annie Proulx, Helen Dunmore, Richmal Crompton's William books, Pat Barker, 'Little, Big' should be on there, Ayn Rand, Bronte sisters, probably more too.

I've read 64.

It's 20th c that's why there's no Dickens or Shakespeare.

I prefer Orlando to In the Lighthouse.(Virginia Woolf)

How about some Thomas Mann?

I would like to add: The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, and something by Sartre.

J K Rowling?

28 not all of which were by choice or enjoyed

have read 42 of the bbc top 100

I have read 40 of the BBC and 29 of the op.
I would have liked to see the tenant of wildfell hall and the nice and the good on either of those lists

Strange list, but 39.

Have only read 28 of the BBC list. Am amazed to see that Jeffery Archer (Kane and Abel) is on it, who would vote for that? Although I must confess to reading it as a teenager

Great List! I would add. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA- Arthur Golden. THE DIVING-BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY-Jean-Dominique Bauby and MIDDLESEX - Jeffrey Eugenides. Good luck with getting through the list.

One flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

43 - I am delighted! a lot was due to encouragement years ago from a very forward thinking ENglish teacher - Thak you Mrs Lea!

26 of that list - more of the big read one

34 of the big read one

oops sorry!

Should read the title thread properly!

Blimey...you lot are well read. I only got 10 and I thought I was doing really well cos none of them were kiddy books!

I have an ex-p to thank for the Ivan Denisovitch read and a love of fantasy for the Lord of the Rings...

Other than that, I've read other titles by authors listed like Margaret Atwood (Alias Grace rather than Handmaid); Brave New Word instead of the one listed by Huxley.

Guess I'd better get this and the top 100 list printed off and start working through them. That way I won't feel like such an ignoramus next time one of these comes through

57 - a few surprises on the list (like horse whisperer... blech!) but in general I think it's great! What a fab idea. I am going to suggest compiling a similar list with a couple of friends of mine.

Agree with Memoirs of a Geisha - great read.
Brave New World is listed, Squilly.

What about The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie?

i realised after I'd posted that i'd read 14. DOH.. That'll learn me to read things half cocked!

I didn't notice any HG Wells on the list.

43. I wouldn't have Henry James - I loathe him! But I appreciate his contribution to literary history...

Mrs Dalloway is great too - though I'd probably list most of Woolf's stuff if I were to compile my ideal list!