Thursday, May 8, 2014

Amazon’s 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime #BEDM

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!

8 comments:

  1. 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.

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    1. Ya, 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

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  2. I'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.

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    1. Wow, 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!

      I'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!

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  3. 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 :)

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    1. Ya, 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!!

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  4. I 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!!

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    1. Well done you! Good number there. Ya, I love a good book list, hence why I love Listopia on Goodreads!

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