A few months ago, Amazon.com released a must read books list. However a few days ago Amazon.co.uk released theirs and I thought it would be interesting to see how many books I have read on the list. All titles in bold are the ones I’ve read.
1. The Tale of Peter Rabbit- Beatrix Potter
2. The Gruffalo- Julia Donaldson
3. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt- Michael Rosen
4. The Tiger Who Came to Tea- Judith Kerr
5. Winnie-the-Pooh- AA Milne
6. The Enchanted Wood- Enid Blyton
7. The Worst Witch- Jill Murphy
8. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory- Roald Dahl
9. The Story of Tracy Beaker- Jacqueline Wilson
10. Goodnight Mister Tom- Michelle Magorian
11. Watership Down- Richard Adams
12. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone- J.K. Rowling
13. Artemis Fowl- Eoin Colfer
14. Stormbreaker- Anthony Horowitz
15. Noughts & Crosses- Malorie Blackman
16. I Capture The Castle- Dodie Smith
17. Lord of the Flies- William Golding
18. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas- John Boyne
19. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Ages 13 3/4- Sue Townsend
20. The Diary of a Young Girl- Anne Frank
21. Little Women- Lousia May Alcott
22. To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
23. Catch-22- Joseph Heller
24. The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck
25. The Great Gatsby- F Scott Fitzgerald
26. The Hound of the Baskervilles- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
27. Tess of the d’Ubervilles- Thomas Hardy
28. Frankenstein- Mary Shelley
29. Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
30. The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde
31. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for His Hat- Oliver Sacks
32. The Hare with the Amber Eyes- Edmund de Waal
33. Norwegian Wood- Haruki Murakami
34. Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy- John le Carre
35. The Wasp Factory- Iain Banks
36. Midnight’s Children- Salman Rushdie
37. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit- Jeanette Winterson
38. The Commitments- Roddy Doyle
39. Schindler’s Ark- Thomas Keneally
40. Knots and Crosses- Ian Rankin
41. Gulliver’s Travels- Jonathon Swift
42. Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte
43. Great Expectations- Charlie Dickens
44. The Mill on the Floss- George Elliot
45. Crime and Punishment- Dyodor Dostoyevsky
46. The Fellowship of the Ring- J.R.R. Tolkein
47. American Gods- Neil Gaiman
48. The Handmaid’s Tale- Margaret Atwood
49. The Stand- Stephen King
50. The Time Machine- H.G. Wells
51. The Colour of Magic- Terry Pratchett
52. Watchmen- Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
53. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams
54. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?- Philip K Dick
55. A Game of Thrones- George RR Martin
56. The Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini
57. Trainspotting- Irvine Welsh
58. High Fidelity- Nick Hornby
50. Bridget Jones’s Diary- Helen Fielding
60. The Book Thief- Markus Zusak
61. White Teeth- Zadie Smith
62. The Road- Cormac McCarthy
63. American Psycho- Bret Easton Ellis
64. The English Patient- Michael Ondaatje
65. Atonement- Ian McEwan
66. A Fine Balance- Rohinton Mistry
67. The Poisonwood Bible- Barbara Kingsolver
68. The Secret History- Donna Tartt
69. Never Let Me Go- Kazuo Ishiguro
70. Birdsong- Sebastian Faulks
71. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo- Stieg Larsson
72. Last Order- Graham Swift
73. The Sense of an Ending- Julian Barnes
74. Dissolution- CJ Sandom
75. London Fields- Martin Amis
76. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas- Hunter S Thompson
77. Nineteen Eighty-Four- George Orwell
78. One Hundred Years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
79. In Cold Blood- Truman Capote
80. Cider with Rosie- Laurie Lee
81. Lolita- Vladimir Nabokov
82. Casino Royale- Ian Fleming
83. The Old Man and the Sea- Ernest Hemingway
84. Brideshead Revisited- Evelyn Waugh
85. Brighton Rock- Graham Greene
86. Rebecca- Daphne de Maurier
87. Murder on the Orient Express- Agatha Christie
88. All Quiet on the Western Front- Erich Maria Remarque
89. To the Lighthouse- Virginia Woolf
90. My Man Jeeves- P.G Wodehouse
91. Freakonomics- Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
92. A Brief History of Time- Stephen Hawkins
93. Long Walk to Freedom- Nelson Mandela
94. Wild Swans- Jung Chang
95. London: The Biography- Peter Ackroyd
96. Venice- Jan Morris
97. Notes From a Small Island- Bill Bryson
98. The Selfish Gene- Richard Dawkins
99. A History of the World in 100 Objects- Neil Macgregor
100. Bad Science- Ben Goldacre
So overall I got 26/100. Which is quite bad for me I think. There are 5 that I have started but never finished. Not because I didn’t like them, just that I got distracted by them and never got around to finishing them (To Kill a Mockingbird, I’m mainly looking at you!). Then there are others at the top, the children’s books, that I don’t know if I read or not. There’s possibility that I read them myself or to my younger siblings. But I didn’t want to add them as I wasn’t sure. If you’re wondering what’s with the order of the list, Amazon have the books listed in different groups going down the page. Starting with children, then teens, easy classics etc.
I do have a lot of these unread books on my to be read. I know it’s not a perfect list, I’ve already read one or two articles about what’s missing (Here’s The Guardian’s article). I went through the list with my boyfriend and he only got 6, so that did make me feel better for a bit! Except for the fact he’s not a big reader.
Have you read any of these? What ones did you like and enjoy? And are there any books you’d add to the list? Let me know in the comments!
I have to say I haven't read hardly any of these. A lot of them aren't my style at all and to be fair I think they are missing a tonne of amazing books.
ReplyDeleteYa, there are definite gaps. There will never be a definite list ever, it's way too hard to make one. I guess there's trying in this list to make it more UK centric than the Amazon.com one
DeleteI've read 64, but I always wonder who compiles these lists, is it best selling books, award winners, books people tend to have to study at school? Such lists have to change every few books as more 'must-read' books are published, so what happens to the previous 'must-read' books? I did love The Kite Runner though, and To Kill a Mockingbird is brilliant.
ReplyDeleteWow, 64! Well done! I know for this is was Amazon editors or something. I think with this list they were trying to pick books that have been popular or influential in the UK, which is why there are more UK authors on here than the Amazon.com But ya, these lists always need updating as more books becomes hits, so I always take them with a pinch of salt, see it as a bit of fun!
DeleteI'm so bad when it comes to To Kill a Mockinbird, I have a copy and was supposed to read it last year but never got around to it. I have it on my to read for this year and haven't even thought of touching it yet!
I got 20, but a few of them would have been years and years ago so I barely remember them at this stage. There are so many book lists! I just want to read all the books, ever. It reminds me of IMDB's top movie lists - some of my favourite films are never, ever going to make a top 100 list - same with the books I like :)
ReplyDeleteYa, there are a few I read years ago and are fuzzy on. Ya, a bookworms to be read list will NEVER be complete haha! Yes, I am trying to watch some of the IMDb Top 250, to branch out and watch things. But there are definitely films that I love that will never be on there. And that's fine. I don't think you ever need to follow any lists, as long as you're happy with what you're consuming. Though I do like lists though!!
DeleteI got 34 but I'm currently reading one of them so..kind of 35?! I love these sort of posts, as you know I LOVE book lists!!! So many of these I want to read, will have to add a few more to my goodreads list!!
ReplyDeleteWell done you! Good number there. Ya, I love a good book list, hence why I love Listopia on Goodreads!
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