100 (+/-) Must-Read Books

This book-reading poll has been going around Facebook lately, and it intrigued me. Not that this particular list means anything; obviously, it was generated by someone with some bias (they evidently don't think much of cowboy books). But I thought it would be interesting to look through and find out how many of these books I'd actually read.

I threw in some extra ones that they accidentally left out, down near the bottom, so my list is a little longer than theirs.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Read this one after having married a woman with particularly good taste in literature. Didn't think I'd like it, and was surprised to find it a compelling book. Well-written, good drama, excellent characters.

2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

The ultimate fantasy epic, which everyone and their mother read back in the 70s (including, of course, yours truly). Best read while lying about in the bed with a bad cold. Which I did when I was a lad.

3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Oh, those Bronte sisters! This one took a while to get into, but then the pace increased until it all rolled up into a fiery ending.

4. Harry Potter and the {series} - JK Rowling

It's all Cheryl's fault. She got me started on this one. But JK and Stephen King have such unique writing styles that I find it difficult NOT to read anything they write. Fictionally, anyway.

5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Read this for a school assignment a long, long time ago. This book was so remarkably easy to read, somewhat like the style of Scott Turow without all the bad language.

6. The Bible - various authors, one inspiration

For many people, this is read in short spurts on Sunday morning or during daily devotions, mostly covering the same ground again and again while leaving out the 'tedious' sections; but anyone who doesn't read the book all the way through is missing out on the epic story of humanity's struggle with sin and the hopeful conclusion which can only be realized at The End.

7a. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
7b. Tenant of Wildfell Hill - Anne Bronte

Again with the Bronte sisters! Wuthering Heights was classic, albeit complex novel which would require several readings to comprehend fully. The Tenant of Wildfell Hill is not quite as complex, but very similar in some aspects. I may read that one some day.

8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

Read as a class assignment, this one was dark and dreary and did not engage my imagination as much as many other science fiction novels. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, its impact seemed to fade. Until recent political events manifested themselves into a deepening distrust of our own government.

9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

This is a trilogy comprising Northern Lights (also known as The Golden Compass, which was recently made into a movie), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. I have read none of the books; after seeing the trailer for the movie and reading reviews, I'm not likely to read them anytime soon.

10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Read as a class assignment, this is one of those books which is clearly not served well by over-analyzation. It is evident that the author was paid by the word and not by the quality. There are certain scenes which impress upon the memory, but I really don't like the way Dickens works his little coincidental contrivances into the plot to wrap everything neatly together at the end. It breaks the momentum of reality.

11a. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
11b. Little Men - Louisa May Alcott

Little Women was a college assignment, a 'quick read' for the purpose of contrasting it with another novel whose author and title escapes me. It was light-hearted, not nearly as heavy-handed as the Bronte works, so provided some relief from excessive density of thought. I particularly liked the fact that it was written about Americans in the Civil War time period.

12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

Back in High School, some of my friends had to read this novel and told me it was hopelessly depressing. Curiously piqued, I read the Cliff's notes and decided they were correct. It is not a novel that reads happily, nor ends happily.

13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

This was read for fun in High School, out of sheer curiosity after seeing a portion of the movie. I've always liked Alan Arkin; he does the sane-man-in-an-insane-world quite well. He captured the character of Yossarian perfectly.

14. Complete Works of Shakespeare - Francis Bacon

Ha! Just kidding. It was actually written by William Shakespeare. We think. I didn't read the Complete Works til I married Cheryl, but by then we'd already seen several of the plays (she's definitely been a maturing influence on me) and I found it quite enlightening to read through the words after seeing each play, because there was so much that didn't make any sense the first time. The copious editor's notes helped a great deal in understanding the idioms of the day, so I could actually understand the numerous jokes, puns and riddles.

15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

Nice twists and turns in this one. Good psychological thriller. Haven't see the 1940 movie yet, but ought to. Laurence Olivier, George Sanders, C. Aubrey Smith, Reginald Denny, Leo G. Carroll and, of course, Dame Judith Anderson.

16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

I got this one along with The Lord of the Rings series when I was a kid, so naturally read this one first. A bit more light-hearted, funny, but not one that calls out for re-reading as much.

17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

Hmmm. Never heard of it.

18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

Read this one for fun during college. Wasn't really impressed. Probably because it didn't fit my psychological profile at the time. I was just trying to survive Calculus class, not get an English degree.

19. The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Saw the movie trailer, but didn't find the plot very interesting. In fact, it sounded annoying. Might pick it up someday, but it'll probably give me a migraine.

20. Middlemarch - George Eliot

I had started reading this one during one summer between college sessions, having watched a documentary on George Eliot, but quickly lost interest. Can't remember why.

21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

As with War and Peace, this novel just had to be read. As with most tomes of this weight and length, it was in the Bathroom Collection for months before being completed sometime near the end of my New York assignment.

22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

This was assigned back in High School, I believe, but re-read it sometime in the last decade just to remind myself of the plot and characters because I had quite forgotten. That says something about the impact of the novel on my mind, which is to say, nil. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I was not a young man in the 1920's and didn't experience the life of the hoity-toity on Long Island.

24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

Golly, what a ponderous book. Started reading it years ago, then picked it up again about a year or two ago just as a stress-reliever. Also started watching the movie on YouTube. Interesting characters, but when all is said and done, it just reminds me of how war can be such a touch-and-go affair, and affairs can be a touch-and-go war. And how a sad ending can be stretched out for a thousand pages.

25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Read this one back in college when it was the 'in' thing to do (since we were also watching the television series on PBS). Hilarious. Read the other ones in the 'trilogy' when they came out, but none of them had quite the impact of the first. Actually, they became a bit wearisome. I wonder if the author started to run out of ideas. Still witty, I mean, but stale.

27a. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
27b. The Karamozov Brothers - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Started reading Crime and Punishment some twenty-odd years ago, but quickly lost interest. Same thing with Karamozov. Just didn't grip me.

28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

Had to read this one for a college assignment. Again, it's got a mindset that harks back to a kind of people with whom I'm not familiar. My generation was (mostly) too spoiled to understand the hardships these people endured, so it doesn't resonate with us as it does with previous generations. Maybe someone will write a novel about the hardships of dialup some day.

29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

Everyone read this one in Junior High or High School, I think. Didn't they? Certainly we did, in those halcyon days of our youth when the most fun thing to do on a Saturday was riding bikes to the Library to pick up a pile of books to devour.

30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graham

This was one of those "read-while-sick-in-bed" books, so it captures a kind of meloncholy that doesn't exist anymore. The kind of English countryside meloncholy that came with 101 Dalmations (another fine book, by the way), tea and toast, family crests, punting down the river, and a fascination with all things mechanical and shiny.

31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

Thought about this one, after seeing "The Shop Around the Corner", but Tolstoy's style is somewhat heavy for modern readers. It's on my bucket list.

32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

Another Junior High or High School assignment. I liked this one much better than "Great Expectations", but that's not a ringing endorsement. After all this time, I'd be hard-pressed to remember the plot without a little help from Wikipedia.

33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

Never was much of a fan of these novels, although I'd read some of them when when younger. Wasn't enamored of the whole Narnia environment, nor impressed by the sometimes heavy-handed Churcho-of-England Christian worldview presented. Probably due to my own background in the Restoration movement, which preaches a back-to-the-Bible gospel without all the liturgical traditions. Plus I never was impressed by lions in comparison with some of the other animals. I always preferred The Jungle Book over this set.

34. Emma -Jane Austen

Read this one late in life, after watching the BBC adaptations. Trouble is, the heroine is not someone I'd care to hang out with, so it was difficult to feel a great deal of sympathy for her. Plus the fact that she's in love with a guy so much older. Fine for that day and age, but rather icky now that I have daughters of my own.

35. Persuasion - Jane Austen

Loved the BBC series, loved the book. Gripping drama, and anything with sea captains and loyal blood-brother types is OK with me. Oh, yeah, and there were some women in it, too. Anne really needed to stand up for herself a bit sooner.

36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
(This is one of the seven books in the Chronicles of Narnia)

[See comments on #33]

37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

Saw this one coming out as a best-seller at the bookstores, thought I should take a look, but reading some previews, it sounded too icky (as in, really bad things happen to nice people).

38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

Had never heard of it til the movie came out. Thought about seeing it, since Nicholas Cage was in it, but never did. Read some reviews and they mostly panned it. Sounded depressing. Not on my must-read list.

39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

Sounded mildly interesting, but never bothered to read it.

40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

With four children, do you suppose I ever read this book? Actually, I'd read it long ago, before my brothers were even born. Then got a set of books for the kids, but they were (alas!) abridged. One day I'm going to re-read these classics to my grandchildren.

41. Animal Farm - George Orwell

Another Junior High or High School reading assignment, although I'd already read it back in 5th or 6th grade out of curiosity. Thought it was quite interesting at the time (this was in the 1970's) due to the background chatter of Soviet posturing and spy novels and 1984 and things like that, and it may have helped that we watched the animated version somewhere along the line, but its impact faded along with the Soviets.

42a. Angels & Demons - Dan Brown
42b. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
42c. The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown

Like most people, I didn't hear about this set of books until the 2nd one, The Da Vinci Code, came out. Had to read that one out of curiosity, too, but never bothered to read the others. Wasn't really impressed by all the ridiculously complex levels of plottery going on. Like "National Treasure" on steroids. Read through it, enjoyed the act of reading it, but can't remember any of the details now. To me, that says a lot about a book (in a negative way).

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Wowsers. That Marquez guy writes in a style that is quite different than anything else I had encountered before, and there is such a denseness that it defies my ability to comprehend everything. It can only be understood with several readings. Unfortunately, it hurts my head to read, so that won't be happening. I wonder if it was the translation that caused the problems?

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

Heard about this one, but other than "The World According to Garp", I never was much of a John Irving fan. Some of the plots get so convoluted that my feeble brain just gives up on 'em. I'd like to try "The Cider House Rules", but haven't gotten around to it yet.

45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

Never heard of the book or the author.

46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

I've seen the televised series so many times now, it has begun to overshadow the books. I read them after getting married, just to straighten out a few facts and get some extra details that had to be left out of the tv version. Sure takes you back to a different time and place.

47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

Never read the book, but browsed through the Cliff's Notes in High School. Like many, I misinterpreted the word 'madding' and thought it similar to 'maddening', which most crowds are. I've always wanted to get 'far from the maddening crowd'. But from the notes I recall, the characters in the novel were kinda maddening, and I wasn't convinced it would be a pleasant read. Then again, since Monty Python took the time in their sketches to make fun of Thomas Hardy, there's got to be something to it, eh?

48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

Saw it, thought it might be interesting, but never read it. Sounds kinda sci-fi with a bit of Mormonism thrown in.

49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding

High School assignment again. Read it. Was not really impressed, nor have I managed to remember any of the details, except that a group of boys left to themselves will find ways to kill themselves, given time and opportunity.

50. Atonement - Ian McEwan

Saw the trailer for the movie (with Keira Knightley). Interesting premise. But I usually try to avoid these confrontational films. And books.

51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel

Don't know anything about this one.

52. Dune - Frank Herbert

Everyone read "Dune" back in the 70's. Everyone who was into fantasy or sci-fi (or both). I found the book tedious and boring. Any questions?

(No, I didn't read the sequels.)

53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

Don't know anything about this one, either.

54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

Read this one after being married, and after having watched the BBC series. Really liked it. Good characters. Good villains. Happy endings for all.

55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

Nope. Haven't hard about this one.

56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Hmmm. Another one I haven't heard of.

57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

Dickens again. Everyone read this one in High School, didn't they? Actually, I've read this one three or four times over the course of Junior High and High School, during my 'Musketeer' phase (after watching "The Three Musketeers" movie with Richard Chamberlain, Racquel Welch, et al). Loved the beginning, loved the ending, and thoroughly enjoyed everything in between. Also read "The Scarlet Pimpernel" at this time. Anyone read that one?

58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

There was this weird 1970s-era TV movie of this one that I remember parts of - you can find it on YouTube now - that got me interested in the book. I had thought it was something related to race relations, but instead it turned out to be sci-fi instead. Bleak ending, though, if I recall. Kinda 1984-like.

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

Dum-de-dum. Never heard of this one, either.

60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Oh, my. Marquez again. More of the dense writing, more of the bizarre plot, lots of dreary death stuff.

61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

High School again. Short book, as I recall. Only took an afternoon or so to read. Another bleak kind of ending, with the death of big, dumb Lennie. Depressing but inevitable.

62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

Everyone says they read this one, but I wonder how many really have. It was one of those 'racy' books that all boys thought contained lurid details of what sex was all about, back when none of us knew what was going on. I started reading it but quickly lost interest. Now I can't keep straight what I read in the book, and what I read in a movie review. It probably doesn't matter.

63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt

Never heard of this one.

64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

Heard of this one, as did everyone else who was paying attention. Thought about seeing the movie, thought about picking up the book for a long coast-to-coast flight. I generally like murder mysteries, even when they're done from this ghostly angle. But haven't done anything about it yet.

65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

Read it during the Musketeers phase. Then again when my son had to do a book report on it. Still didn't find it as compelling as The Three Musketeers.

66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac

Had to read this one because anyone who even ponders the idea of becoming a writer has to read this book. I wasn't impressed by it. Just not my style. But interesting.

67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

Hardy, oh Hardy, how little we can put up with you. Started reading it, quickly lost interest. Just didn't have enough 'zing' to it. Or I was totally in the wrong mood.

68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

Absolutely could not read this one. Didn't hear about it til the movie came out, and by then my image of it was colored by movie reviews and trailers and impressions from other people. Didn't find the premise interesting at all. Not enough techno-babble.

69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

Figured this one was a religio-political bombast, so never bothered to read it. Read "The Satanic Verses" back when it came out, just to be controversial, but didn't really get into that one, either.

70a. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
70b. Billy Bud - Herman Melville

Melville. Everyone reads a lot into Melville. I read these, but the style just didn't work for me.

71a. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
71b. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
71c. The Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens

Dickens, my favorite 'paid-by-the-word' 19th-century writer. Was forced to read his works in school, then picked up some on the side hoping that my impression of the author had been discolored by the fact that they were assignments. Other than "A Christmas Carol", though, the stories got to be tedious and a tad bit too neatly tied up at the end. I don't mind happy endings, but syrupy happy endings make me ill.

72a. Dracula - Bram Stoker
72b. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

As a horror movie fan from WAY back (used to stay up and watch all the great horror movies that were on TV after midnight on Friday nights), these two classics were must-reads in Junior High. Both were quite different than the movie versions (which actually surprised me back then). Frankenstein was more memorable for some reason, perhaps because of the story-within-a-story that is told by The Creature. And the fact that one story dealt with the supernatural, and the other with the super-scientific.

73a. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
73b. The Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett

Read "The Little Princess" back in either Elementary or Junior High days - thought one of my sisters had brought it home from the Library, but I could be mistaken. I remember adoring the book, especially the part where the Indian sets up the feast in the attic for the girls. The Secret Garden wasn't nearly as memorable to me, but still quite good.

74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

I read "A Walk in the Woods" a few years back and really enjoyed it. I'll probably get this one, too, especially since it deals with England. Cheryl and I are definitely going back to see more of England.

75. Ulysses - James Joyce

This is one of those novels that takes the patience of Job to get through. I read it out of sheer stubbornness. Every writer apparently has to read this bizarre book, if only to understand what sheer torture is about. I read many reviews and articles about this book as well, and they all identified its major flaw: it's too much work to read. I don't read to work; that's what programming is for. I read to relax, to learn, to enjoy. If a book is going to make me work, I expect to get paid for it. In cash.

76. The Inferno - Dante

Read this one out of curiosity over one winter a few years back. Interesting. But, again, not memorable. Must be a brain defect on my part. Everyone else seems to think it's the best thing since sliced bread.

77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

Nope, never heard of it. Heard of Arthur Ransome, though. He was one of those English literary types who were fascinated by the early Russian Revolution. Thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

78. Germinal - Emile Zola

Haven't ever read "Germinal", but knew that Emile Zola was a key figure in the (in)famous Dreyfus affair. He was the one who publically accused the French Army leaders of complicity in the wrongful conviction of Captain Alfred Dreyfus.

79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

Never got around to "Vanity Fair", but read several of his articles, and breezed through "The Luck of Barry Lyndon" back in college. Or was it high school? Can't remember anymore. I think this was during my first Mark Twain period when I was reading a lot of satirical works.

80. Possession - A.S. Byatt

Never heard of this author, or the book.

81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

The ultimate Dickens, the only story of his that I've read and watched numerous times and parodized almost as many, so much so that my wonderful wife got me a very nice collector version of the book for Christmas!

82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

Never heard of this book, or Author.

83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker

Read this one back in Seattle while dating Cheryl. We'd seen the movie together - I think we saw it on video, not in an actual theater - and it piqued my interest enough to read the book. It was depressing.

84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

Saw the movie with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, so naturally had to read the book. It was incredibly sad, so many missed opportunities for happiness. But it also showed me that it was possible to live a happy life by being content with what you are given, and with the choices you have made, even if many of them were the wrong ones.

85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

Someone had told me in my youth that this was one of those 'banned' books that contained a lot of smutty filth, so naturally I had to get hold of it. It was not what I expected. It was another of those depressing, how-low-can-you-go kinds of books where human depravity results from people's lack of ability to be content with what they have chosen. In this case, a woman, lusting after luxury and susceptible to boredom, destroys her life and those of the people she is supposed to be loving.

86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

Never heard of this one.

87a. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
87b. The Elements of Style - E.B. White
87c. Stuart Little - E.B. White

Anything by E.B. White is guaranteed not only to be well-written, but enjoyable. I didn't get into Charlotte's Web as much as my sisters, but I thoroughly enjoyed Stuart Little ... except the fact that he never finished it. It could use ten or twenty additional chapters, making it an epic of the "Wind in the Willows" variety.

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

Haven't gotten around to reading this particular book, but did read "Tuesdays with Morrie" when the TV movie came out. I'd read articles from Mitch in Parade and other magazines, and knew that he played with the "Rock Bottom Remainders" (Dave Barry, Stephen King, Amy Tan, Scott Turow, et al).

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Every boy is required to read the Sherlock Holmes stories. We had this Reader's Digest book when I was a kid, and it featured "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", which was my first experience with Mr. Holmes and Watson. I found a few anthologies in the elementary school library, but never finished the entire collection until much later. Got it for my own boys, too, but they didn't seem as impressed. Of course, they weren't enamored of Encyclopedia Brown, either.

90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

Read some of the "Secret Seven" series from Mrs. Blyton, but don't remember this particular set. Might have to look it up.

91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

I can't remember if I read this before or after seeing "Apocalypse Now", but they're now so wound up in my memory that it probably doesn't matter. The movie was a long and arduous trip through from sanity to deranged violence; the book was a long and tedious trip from one kind of darkness to another. It isn't a book I ever plan to re-read.

92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (in French)

I struggled through this book in the original French back when I was taking French class in High School. It wasn't an assignment; it was just something I decided to do in order to improve my understanding of the French language. I'm not sure if it worked or not. I also got the English translation and put them side-by-side. There were a lot of interesting differences.

93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

I've read some articles by Iain Banks in the New Scientist, but haven't read any of his novels.

94. Watership Down - Richard Adams

Read this classic during my "Wind in the Willows" phase in Junior High or High School. Read "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" about the same time. Both were fascinating epics, but for some reason, I tired of the rabbits before the rats. Later, after reading some reviews of this book, I realized how much I'd missed of the theme and point of the novel, so re-read it -- but didn't enjoy it nearly as much the second time. Too many "messages" in this one. [Even later, reading interviews of Richard Adams, it was revealed that all those deep "meanings" were pure hogwash, written by self-promoting reviewers who didn't have the common sense to simply accept that it was a clever and well-written children's story which was written to amuse the author's children.]

95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

Heard about this book but can't remember where or when. It was published posthumously (the author committed suicide), and it's about New Orleans. That's all I remember.

96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shut

Heard about a movie of this book, before I knew it was a book. Saw some clips. It's about a woman who settles in Australia after World War 2, having undergone some hardships. Sounds interesting. Might read it.

97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

Again, read this one during my swashbuckling days of youth. Fantastic novel. Tried reading the original French, like I did with The Little Prince, but it was difficult to find in the local library. I could probably find it now.

98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare

Part of the Collected Works, right? Been there, done that. And seen at least five filmed or staged versions.

99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

Read this one in Elementary school after seeing Willy Wonka on TV. The book was similar to the movie yet very different, chiefly in the bizarre characterization of Willy Wonka. Took quite a while to get the action going, and the bedridden grandparents was annoying. Also the bit where Charlie and his grandfather don't get the ticket, and then later Charlie gets it on his own. That was just a plain tease.

100a. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
100b. The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo

These novels are just so depressing. Les Miserables is long and complex; Hunchback feels shorter but the action isn't quite as intense (at least, the action I remember). I read Les Miserables after seeing the Broadway musical. I read Hunchback in Junior High or High School after seeing the original Lon Chaney version on a Saturday afternoon cinema thing on TV, and the Charles Laughton version on a Friday night horror show.

BONUS SECTION

101. The Mouse and His Child - Russell and Lillian Hoban

This is, for me, the ultimate novel. I read and re-read and re-re-read this book as a child, and again as an adult, and never tire of reading it. For some reason, it 'clicks' in my head. Still not sure why.

102. Presumed Innocent - Scott Turow

Again, one of those books I am compelled to re-read every now and then. The style, the characters, the mystery - I'm not sure what it is that draws me, but it does.

103. The Shining - Stephen King

Jan and her friends got me started on Stephen King, and the 70s and 80s were my Addicted to King years. Read and collected everything he wrote. Then got married, and started having kids, and had to get rid of them. The pernicious use of bad language throughout was not something I wanted to explain to my children, and it was having a negative influence on my own tongue. Also, the themes were getting really weird, and that was having a negative effect on my psyche. I believe a really good writer finds ways to tell a story without degrading the reader's spirit. My spirit said, "Nevermore".

104. Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

I find it difficult to accept this list as authoritative without even one book by Twain; by far, he is one of the best writers in history. This particular book I can re-read over and over again. In fact, Twain is among the few writers I can re-read any time, any where, any work. I admire his wit, his sarcasm, his way of turning a phrase. And he has a way of putting real characters into my head that seem very real.

In Summary

I 'scored' somewhere in the 70s out of about a hundred books. That's probably not too bad, considering I dropped out of the reading scene due to overwork a few years ago, and now there are far too many projects in the house to find adequate time to read the really long novels (and keep the plots in my head). Maybe one day I'll catch up again. But I'd rather be writing than reading.

Additional Suggested Reading
Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
Bridge Over the River Kwai - Pierre Boulle (also wrote Planet of the Apes