100 Greatest Books - 1923 to the Present

[OnMyLunchBreak]

From Time Magazine – The 100 Greatest Books from 1923 to the Present.

How many have you read/meant to read? Any notable omissions? Any that should not be on here?

_________________________________________

The Adventures of Augie March (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_adventures_of_augie_march,00.html) - Saul Bellow


All the King's Men (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,all_the_kings_men,00.html) - Robert Penn Warren


American Pastoral (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,american_pastoral,00.html) - Philip Roth


An American Tragedy (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,an_american_tragedy,00.html) - Theodore Dreiser


Animal Farm (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,animal_farm,00.html)- George Orwell


Appointment in Samarra (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,appointment_in_samara,00.html) - John O'Hara


Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,are_you_there_god_its_me_margaret,00.html) - Judy Blume


The Assistant (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_assistant,00.html) - Bernard Malamud


At Swim-Two-Birds (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,at_swim_two_birds,00.html) - Flann O'Brien


Atonement (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,atonement,00.html) - Ian McEwan


Beloved (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,beloved,00.html) - Toni Morrison


The Berlin Stories (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_berlin_stories,00.html) - Christopher Isherwood

The Big Sleep (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_big_sleep,00.html) - Raymond Chandler

The Blind Assassin (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_blind_assassin,00.html) - Margaret Atwood


Blood Meridian (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,blood_meridian,00.html) - Cormac McCarthy

Brideshead Revisited (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,brideshead_revisited,00.html) - Evelyn Waugh

The Bridge of San Luis Rey (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_bridge_of_san_luis_rey,00.html) - Thornton Wilder

Call It Sleep (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,call_it_sleep,00.html) - Henry Roth

Catch-22 (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,catch_22,00.html) - Joseph Heller

The Catcher in the Rye (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_catcher_in_the_rye,00.html) - J.D. Salinger

A Clockwork Orange (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_clockwork_orange,00.html) - Anthony Burgess

The Confessions of Nat Turner (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_confessions_of_nat_turner,00.html) - William Styron

The Corrections (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_corrections,00.html) - Jonathan Franzen

The Crying of Lot 49 (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_crying_of_lot_49,00.html) - Thomas Pynchon

A Dance to the Music of Time (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_dance_to_the_music_of_time,00.html) - Anthony Powell

The Day of the Locust (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_day_of_the_locust,00.html) - Nathanael West

Death Comes for the Archbishop (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,death_comes_for_the_archbishop,00.html) - Willa Cather

A Death in the Family (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_death_in_the_family,00.html) - James Agee

The Death of the Heart (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_death_of_the_heart,00.html) - Elizabeth Bowen

Deliverance (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,deliverance,00.html) - James Dickey

Dog Soldiers (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,dog_soldiers,00.html) - Robert Stone

Falconer (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,falconer,00.html) - John Cheever

The French Lieutenant's Woman (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_french_lieutenants_woman,00.html) - John Fowles

The Golden Notebook (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_golden_notebook,00.html) - Doris Lessing

Go Tell it on the Mountain (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,go_tell_it_on_the_mountain,00.html) - James Baldwin

Gone With the Wind (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,gone_with_the_wind,00.html) - Margaret Mitchell

The Grapes of Wrath (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_grapes_of_wrath,00.html) - John Steinbeck

Gravity's Rainbow (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,gravitys_rainbow,00.html) - Thomas Pynchon

The Great Gatsby (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_great_gatsby,00.html) - F. Scott Fitzgerald


A Handful of Dust (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_handful_of_dust,00.html) - Evelyn Waugh

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_heart_is_a_lonely_hunter,00.html) - Carson McCullers

The Heart of the Matter (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_heart_of_the_matter,00.html) - Graham Greene

Herzog (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,herzog,00.html) - Saul Bellow

Housekeeping (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,housekeeping,00.html) - Marilynne Robinson

A House for Mr. Biswas (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_house_for_mr_biswas,00.html) - V.S. Naipaul

I, Claudius (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,i_claudius,00.html) - Robert Graves

Infinite Jest (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,infinte_jest,00.html) - David Foster Wallace

Invisible Man (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,invisible_man,00.html) - Ralph Ellison


Light in August (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,light_in_august,00.html) - William Faulkner


The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_lion_the_witch_and_the_wardrobe,00.htm l) - C.S. Lewis

Lolita (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,lolita,00.html) - Vladimir Nabokov
(http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,863771,00.html?internalid=atb100)
Lord of the Flies (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,lord_of_the_flies,00.html) - William Golding

The Lord of the Rings (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_lord_of_the_rings,00.html) - J.R.R. Tolkien
(http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,836021,00.html?internalid=atb100)
Loving (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,loving_living_party_going,00.html) - Henry Green
(http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,800954,00.html?internalid=atb100)
Lucky Jim (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,lucky_jim,00.html) - Kingsley Amis
(http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,824919,00.html?internalid=atb100)
The Man Who Loved Children (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_man_who_loved_children,00.html) - Christina Stead
(http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,941052,00.html?internalid=atb100)
Midnight's Children (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,midnights_children,00.html) - Salman Rushdie

Money (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,money,00.html) - Martin Amis
(http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,962600,00.html?internalid=atb100)
The Moviegoer (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_moviegoer,00.html) - Walker Percy

Mrs. Dalloway (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,mrs_dalloway,00.html) - Virginia Woolf

Naked Lunch (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,naked_lunch,00.html) - William Burroughs

Native Son (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,native_son,00.html) - Richard Wright

Neuromancer (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,neuromancer,00.html) - William Gibson

Never Let Me Go (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,never_let_me_go,00.html) - Kazuo Ishiguro

1984 (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,1984,00.html) - George Orwell

On the Road (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,on_the_road,00.html) - Jack Kerouac

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,one_flew_over_the_cuckoos_nest,00.html) - Ken Kesey

The Painted Bird (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_painted_bird,00.html) - Jerzy Kosinski

Pale Fire (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,pale_fire,00.html) - Vladimir Nabokov

A Passage to India (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,a_passage_to_india,00.html) - E.M. Forster

Play It As It Lays (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,play_it_as_it_lays,00.html) - Joan Didion

Portnoy's Complaint (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,portnoys_complaint,00.html) - Philip Roth

Possession (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,posession,00.html) - A.S. Byatt

The Power and the Glory (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_power_and_the_glory,00.html) - Graham Greene

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_prime_of_miss_jean_brodie,00.html) - Muriel Spark

Rabbit, Run (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,rabbit_run,00.html) - John Updike

Ragtime (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,ragtime,00.html) - E.L. Doctorow

The Recognitions (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_recognitions,00.html) - William Gaddis

Red Harvest (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,red_harvest,00.html) - Dashiell Hammett

Revolutionary Road (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,revolutionary_road,00.html) - Richard Yates

The Sheltering Sky (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sheltering_sky,00.html) - Paul Bowles

Slaughterhouse-Five (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,slaughterhouse_five,00.html) - Kurt Vonnegut

Snow Crash (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,snow_crash,00.html) - Neal Stephenson

The Sot-Weed Factor (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sot_weed_factor,00.html) - John Barth

The Sound and the Fury (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sound_and_the_fury,00.html) - William Faulkner


The Sportswriter (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sportswriter,00.html) - Richard Ford

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_spy_who_came_in_from_the_cold,00.html) - John le Carre

The Sun Also Rises (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sun_also_rises,00.html) - Ernest Hemingway

Their Eyes Were Watching God (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,their_eyes_were_watching_god,00.html) - Zora Neale Hurston

Things Fall Apart (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,things_fall_apart,00.html) - Chinua Achebe

To Kill a Mockingbird (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,to_kill_a_mocking_bird,00.html) - Harper Lee

To the Lighthouse (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,to_the_lighthouse,00.html) - Virginia Woolf

Tropic of Cancer (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,tropic_of_cancer,00.html) - Henry Miller

Ubik (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,ubik,00.html) - Philip K. Dick

Under the Net (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,under_the_net,00.html) - Iris Murdoch

Under the Volcano (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,under_the_volcano,00.html) - Malcolm Lowry

Watchmen (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,watchmen,00.html) - Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

White Noise (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,white_noise,00.html) - Don DeLillo


White Teeth (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,white_teeth,00.html) - Zadie Smith

Wide Sargasso Sea (http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,wide_sargasso_sea,00.html) - Jean Rhys

[toque]

:uhh I've only read 19 of those listed here, and one of them at least, Never Let Me Go, should not be on the list. Atwood's "A Handmaid's Tale" was FAR better, and was not mentioned.

Also, please, not one Richard Adams novel??? :eek Or, John Irving?? Chaim Potok's "My Name is Asher Lev" could be on there...

I think Orwell is the only one who had more than one book on this list, which is ridiculous. Only one Steinbeck? No "Of Mice and Men"? :(

Cheers for: The Blind Assasin, To Kill a Mockingbird, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Animal Farm, The Grapes of Wrath and a few others. :woo

I'm fairly opinionated on the matter, it would seem.

[Erika]

I have read 20 and actually I read most of the 20 as requirements for some sort of English course. My AP English teacher in high school is responsible for me reading about 6 of these books - I guess she knew what she was talking about - I think Oprah is responsible for one :lol

Animal Farm
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Beloved
Catch-22
The Catcher in the Rye
A Clockwork Orange
Deliverance
The French Lieutenant's Woman
Gone With the Wind
The Grapes of Wrath
Great Gatsby
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Lord of the Flies
Native Son
1984
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
A Passage to India
Slaughterhouse-Five
Their Eyes Were Watching God (Oprah)
To Kill a Mockingbird

I am surprised that The Color Purple, In Cold Blood and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil didn't make the list.

There are several books on the list that I have wanted to read, just never got around to it. An American Tragedy tops that list. I can also think of better Virginia Woolf than the one listed...

[toque]

And, btw, I voted 50/50, mainly for the Judy Blume comment :rofl

[Jay]

Suddenly I feel terribly under-read. I only read 3 books from above (The Lord Of The Rings, 1984 and The Grapes of Wrath). :(

However, I did see many of the film adaptations. Does that count? :lol

[toque]

Jay, you get your butt to the library and take out To Kill a Mockingbird!! This is not a request.

[Jay]

Ly-brair-ree. What's that? :lol

[OnMyLunchBreak]

I keep forgetting to respond to this...

Chaim Potok's "My Name is Asher Lev" could be on there...

:woo This is one of my favorite books of all time! I never know anyone else who has read it (maybe a by-product of growing up in a very vanilla small town). Anyway...just made me happy to find another Lev Lover!

I also think that I love Chagall so much because when I think of him and his aret I see Asher Lev - or vice versa.

[toque]

Oh, yeah!
I always have that with art now, it brings you closer to the artist.
That, and I always say to my girls: "Drink your juice Asher, before the vitamins go out of it" :lol

A good friend of mine just finished writing a book in the same vein as Asher, but more related to a child of strict religious immigrants. I can't wait to read it!

[Davis]

I just bought 3 new books to read over Spring Break. Yes, over the next 2 weeks I will be reading:
~1984
~Clockwork Orange
~One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest.

Of the 100 Greatest Books, so far I have read:
~Animal Farm
~The Catcher in the Rye
~The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
~Lord of the Flies
~To Kill a Mockingbird

[imogen]

I just got done reading Animal Farm and I thought that it was a really good book.

[emmanewf]

I've read 15 of them.
And "Life of Pi" should definitely be on that list!
And "Pride and Prejudice"! My favorite book ever!

[Padilla]

I havn't read any of them except 1984.
And by the way, the "I'm gay" was my brother if you saw that. :l

[Ladytex]

I've actually read about 30 of them. A couple of them I read because I read them with my kids when they had to read them for school. And I do agree with the Judy Blume book. Selfishly, but I read that book at a time of my life where it really helped me.

[Davis]

Of the 100 Greatest Books, so far I have read:
~Animal Farm
~The Catcher in the Rye
~The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
~Lord of the Flies
~To Kill a Mockingbird
So this is kind of a neat - a sort of update of my reading from a year and a half ago...

Of the 100 Greatest Books, I have now read:
~Animal Farm
~Catch-22
~The Catcher in the Rye
~The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
~Lord of the Flies
~1984
~One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
~Things Fall Apart
~To Kill a Mockingbird

Although I bought "A Clockwork Orange" 18 months ago, and intended to read it, I never did. I couldn't make it past the second chapter. The author's attitude in the book's foreward (added to the new addition) irked me (he was insulting American literacy and appreciation for the arts), and when he began making up new words, but wasn't explaining them, I just said "To hell with it!".

This year in class we will be reading "The Great Gatsby", I believe, and I am quite excited. Even if we don't read it, it's on my list.

I intend on reading "Never Let Me Go" after my friend finishes it.

Finally, my class never read "Slaughterhouse-Five" last year, but I hear it was great from people in the classes that did. So it's also on my list.

Hopefully in one year's time, I will have read all of these books, and I can come back with an even larger list. :)

[Synnamin]

I've read 26 of the books and I agree with a lot of them but frankly I don't agree with The Corrections. I thought it was really over rated. I love Judy Blume so Yay for her!i