Kailani’s Written World wants to compile a Bloggers’ Top Ten List of books we could not live without. She took her idea from the Guardian poll below, which also shows the results of 2000 respondents. I will be posting my top thirteen in my “Thursday Thirteen” post tonight or tomorrow. Consider participating by going to Kailani’s Written World.
The Guardian conducted a poll to mark World Book Day, which was on March 1 in the UK. 2,000 people took part and were asked to name the 10 titles they could not live without. The top 100 results were:
1 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen [in my top 20]
2 The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien [in my top 25]
3 Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte [in my top 20]
4 Harry Potter series JK Rowling [I haven't read ANY of the Harry Potter series yet]
5 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee [in my top 13]
6 The Bible [My #1 book--and yes, I've read all but parts of Isaiah and Jeremiah]
7 Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte [in my top 30]
8 Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell [I read this in 1984 in high school. It would probably fall in a top 30 for me]
9 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman [Have not read]
10 Great Expectations Charles Dickens [Probably in a top 30]
11 Little Women Louisa M Alcott [in my top 13]
12 Tess of the d’Urbervilles Thomas Hardy [Have not read--slated for later this year, though]
13 Catch-22 Joseph Heller [Have not read]
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare William Shakespeare [in my top 13]
15 Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier [Have not read]
16 The Hobbit JRR Tolkien [in my top 30]
17 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks [Never heard of it]
18 Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger [Yuck!]
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger [I liked this book, but nowhere near my top 100]
20 Middlemarch George Eliot [Have not read]
21 Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell [Have not read]
22 The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald [I think this is an important book, but I'm not sure where I'd place it]
23 Bleak House Charles Dickens [Have not read]
24 War and Peace Leo Tolstoy [Have not read--slated for 2008]
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams [Have not read]
26 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh [Have not read]
27 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky [in my top 13]
28 Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck [in my top 30]
29 Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll [Have not read]
30 The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame [Have not read]
31 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy [in my top 13]
32 David Copperfield Charles Dickens [Have not read]
33 Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis [in my top 13]
34 Emma Jane Austen [Have not read--loved the movies]
35 Persuasion Jane Austen [in my top 20]
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe CS Lewis [in my top 13, but it's part of #33]
37 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini [Have not read--slated for later this year]
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Louis de Bernières [Have not read]
39 Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden [Have not read]
40 Winnie the Pooh AA Milne [in my top 30]
41 Animal Farm George Orwell [in my top 20]
42 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown [Have not read]
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez [I did not like this one]
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Irving [Have not read]
45 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins [Enjoyed this one]
46 Anne of Green Gables LM Montgomery [Have not read]
47 Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy [Have not read]
48 The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood [Have not read--slated for later this year]
49 Lord of the Flies William Golding [in my top 30]
50 Atonement Ian McEwan [I didin't like this one]
51 Life of Pi Yann Martel [Have not read--slated for later this year]
52 Dune Frank Herbert [Have not read]
53 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons [Never heard of it]
54 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen [Have not read--loved the movie!]
55 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth [Never heard of it]
56 The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon [I did not like this book]
57 A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens [Have not read]
58 Brave New World Aldous Huxley [Have not read]
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon [Have not read--slated for later this year]
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez [Have not read]
61 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck [not sure where I'd place this one]
62 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov [Have not read]
63 The Secret History Donna Tartt [Have not read]
64 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold [Have not read]
65 Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas [Have not read]
66 On The Road Jack Kerouac [Have not read]
67 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy ([Have not read]
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary Helen Fielding [Have not read--liked the movie]
69 Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie [Have not read]
70 Moby Dick Herman Melville [Have not read]
71 Oliver Twist Charles Dickens [Have not read]
72 Dracula Bram Stoker [Have not read]
73 The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett [Have not read--loved the movie!]
74 Notes From A Small Island Bill Bryson [Never heard of it]
75 Ulysses James Joyce [Have not read]
76 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath [Have not read]
77 Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome [Have not read]
78 Germinal Emile Zola [Have not read--loved the movie with Gerard Depardieu]
79 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray [Have not read--liked the movie]
80 Possession AS Byatt [Have not read--slated for later this year]
81 A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens [Good book, not sure where I'd place it, though]
82 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell [Have not read]
83 The Color Purple Alice Walker [Have not read]
84 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro [Have not read--LOVED the movie!]
85 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert [in my top 20]
86 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry [Never heard of it]
87 Charlotte’s Web EB White [in my top 13]
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven Mitch Albom [Have not read]
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [Have not read]
90 The Faraway Tree Collection Enid Blyton [Never heard of it]
91 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad [Excellent writing--not sure where I'd place it on my list]
92 The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupery [Have not read]
93 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks [Never heard of it]
94 Watership Down Richard Adams [Have not read--maybe next year?]
95 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole [Have not read]
96 A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute [Never heard of it]
97 The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas [Have not read--want to someday]
98 Hamlet William Shakespeare [in my top 13 as the Complete Works]
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl [Loved this as a kid!!]
100 Les Misérables Victor Hugo [Have not read--definitely want to someday]
You can see the article by clicking here.
I can’t believe Poisonwood Bible didn’t make the list. It’s one of my all time favorites.