This should be interesting. I just discovered from another Blog Random House's list of Top 100 Classic Books (fic and non-fic versions). First of all, I'm always highly dubious of these lists - they're the opinion of one person or a committee of so-called experts, who are usually out of touch with reality and what the majority of people appreciate.
I, too, am finding it irresistible to tick off the ones I've read, but not as a 'smarter-than-thou' exercise in high-cultural superiority. I want to see how few I've read! I'm not ashamed to be seen of as stupid! I read many books, just not the ones on the list. I'm too cool for that! ;)
BOOKS I'VE READ:
5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
13. 1984 by George Orwell
31. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
BOOKS I'VE ALWAYS MEANT TO READ:
1. ULYSSES by James Joyce
10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
44. POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
50. TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
BOOKS I'VE READ ABOUT:
9. SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
15. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
41. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
48. THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
49. WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
I'VE SEEN THE MOVIE/MINI-SERIES:
14. I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
41. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
BOOKS I'VE DECIDED I'D LIKE TO READ SINCE LOOKING AT THE LIST:
2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
7. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
25. A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
38. HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
BOOKS I'VE HEARD OF, BUT NOT INTERESTED:
4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
19. INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
26. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
45. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
HEARD OF THE AUTHOR, BUT NOT THE BOOK:
18. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
21. HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
27. THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
28. TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
32. THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
34. A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
35. AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
46. THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
47. NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
BOOKS I'VE NEVER HEARD OF:
The other 19 books in the Top 50.
Nos. 51-100 are more of the same.
There are plenty of other lists out there; I just chose the first one to come out. If I'd chosen one of the others I'd seen, the results would be quite different. What's wrong with the Brontes? So it's all arbitrary and stupid anyway.
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