I think the BBC started the trend for creating a top 100 list of books. At the time I had read about 65 of them. No idea what that would be now. Anyway in 2004 I set about compiling my own top 100 books. They had to be books I really really rated. Enjoying them was not enough, they had to have something else about them. It’s now November 22 and I have to date only got to , wait for it number 68.
Richard Adams- Watership Down
Monica Ali-Brick Lane
Maya Angelou – All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes
Eleanor Atkinson-Greyfriars Bobby
Margaret Atwood-The Blind Assasin
Margaret Atwood- The Handmaid’s Tale
Jane Austin-Northanger Abbey
John Boyne- The Boy in the Striped Pjamas
John Boyne-A History of Loneliness
Ray Bradbury-Fahrenheit 451
Charlotte Bronte-Jane Eyre
Emily Bronte-Wuthering Heights
Anthony Burgess- Clockwork Orange
J L Carr- A Month n the Country
Alexander Cordell- Rape of the Fair Country
Anton Chehov-About Love
Tracy Chevalier- Remarkable Creatures
Louis de Bernieres- The Autumn of the Ace
Charles Dickens-A Christmas Carol
Gerald Durrell- The Corfu Trilogy
Timothy Egan- The Worst Hard Time
Edith Eger- The Choice
Sebastian Faulks- Birdsong
Nathan Filer- The Shock of the Fall
Alain Fournier- The Lost Estate
Josten Gaarder- Sophie’s World
Mark Haddon-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night
Joanne Harris- Blackberry Wine
Robert Harris- Pompeii
Susan Hill- In the Springtime of the Year
Eowyn Ivery- The Snow Child
Robin Jenkins- The Pearl Fishers
Min Jin Lee-Pachinko
Rachel Kadish-The Weight of Ink
Nella Last’s – war- housewife 49
Laurie Lee- Cider with Rosie
Andrea Levy-Small Island
Marina Lewycka- Two Caravans
Jack London- The Call of the Wild and White Fang
Sally Magnusson- The Sealwoman’s Gift
Margaret Mitchell- Gone with the Wind
Ian McEwan-Atonement
Sue Monk Kidd- The Secret Life of Bees
Sue Monk Kidd- The Invention of Wings
Liane Moriarty- Big Little Lies
Kate Morton- The House at Riverton
Heather Morris- The tatooist of Auschwitz
Maggie O’Farell- The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
George Orwell- Nineteen Eighty-Four
Alan Paton- Cry, The Beloved Country
Laline Paull- The Bees
Mary Prince- The History of Mary Prince
Kate Sawyer- The Stranding
Sam Selvon- The Lonely Londoners
Betty Smith- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Zadie Smith- White Teeth
John Stenbeck- East of Eden
John Steinbeck- The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck- To a God Unknown
Noel Streatfield- Saplings
Andrew Taylor- The American Boy
Josephine Tey- The Daughter of Time
Alan Titchmarsh- Nobbut a Lad
Sandi Toksvig-Whistling for Elephants
Sandi Toksvig-Flying under Bridges
Leo Tolstoy-Anna Karenina
Amor Towels- A Gentleman in Moscow
Markus Zusak- The Book Thief
Have you read any of these, which ones did you like. Do any surprise you? If you could only take one book apart from the Bible or Shakespeare what would it be?
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