How many of these books have you read?

Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by AltonReed, May 10, 2011.

  1. looneywriter

    looneywriter New Member

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    24 -- unless they are counting each book, then it's 30, since "His Dark Materials" and "The Lord of the Rings" are both trilogies.

    I own a few more on the list, but haven't had the time to read them yet.
    :)
     
  2. Luis Saunders

    Luis Saunders New Member

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    Hamlet Quotes

    Just finished Hamlet, and that makes it 32! I’m curious; do you guys understand Shakespeare without any external help? I understand most of the plot, but I’ve realized that I miss a lot of the symbolism, double meanings, and intent if I don’t use a website like Shmoop as a reference. Anyway, this play had some insane lines; one of my favorite Hamlet quotes is, “Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die/ Passing through nature to eternity.”
     
  3. mail3diplo

    mail3diplo New Member

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    Four... I really should start reading more of the classics...
     
  4. Gigi_GNR

    Gigi_GNR Guys, come on. WAFFLE-O. Contributor

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    I printed out the list so I can read the ones I haven't read yet. :)
     
  5. art

    art Contributor Contributor

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    Read them all at your peril!

    This list has a quite convoluted history (via Facebook, the BBC etc)..but what it most certainly is not is a list of books that people should have read, or a list of must-read classics. (Or a vehicle for poseurs to appear well read etc etc) Many in that list are obviously trash. Dan Brown, Rushdie etc

    Simply, a list of pretty famous books.
     
  6. Dandroid

    Dandroid New Member

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    why do you say rushdie is trash?
     
  7. art

    art Contributor Contributor

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    His prose is abominable...barely readable...though clearly my inclusion of his name had an element of mischief-making about it. Had I been entirely straight I would have have said Tolkien and Rowling and Kerouac.
     
  8. Dandroid

    Dandroid New Member

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    as in convoluted and meandering? or just structurally bad?
     
  9. art

    art Contributor Contributor

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    As in unremittingly ugly. A woeful/ spastic sense of rhythm.
     
  10. Dandroid

    Dandroid New Member

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    hmmm.... i thought midnight's children was masterful, but i can agree with what you are saying as it applies to shalimar the clown and the satanic verses...
     
  11. heyitsmary

    heyitsmary New Member

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    I've read 17 all the way through and parts of 8 or 9 others.
     
  12. darkhaloangel

    darkhaloangel Active Member

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    Originally the list was from the BBC and it was made up of votes from members of the British Public - and it was called Greatest Book or something, but it was more like Favourite Book.

    But it was before the Da Vinci Code was published I'm sure. It was also before people really started using the internet because I remember filling out a paper slip and handing it into the library. Can't remember what I voted for though? Although as I wasn't much older than 10, it wasn't anything too heafty.
     
  13. Declan

    Declan New Member

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    I heard somewhere you should read some books for their stories, some books for their prose and technical mastery, and every book that does both.

    Rowling may not be a good writer, but she certaintly knows how to tell a story to children. I read HP when I was younger and enjoyed it. I cannot say much on Tolkien, but I've read On The Road, and despite the way-faring prose, found the story fascinating- some of the scenes I pictured are still with me.

    The same could be said for James Joyce, whose writing, whilst technically excellent, is argued to beincomprehensible to a lot of people.
     
  14. elneilio10

    elneilio10 New Member

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    ^ Didn't they consider Joyce to be a spy during one of the World Wars because of the difficulty in understanding his prose?

    Of the list - and I just gave it the briefest of glances - I must say I've only read between 10 and 20 of them.

    But then I don't like such lists, particularly. Still of the ones on the list I have read, several of them really did open my eyes.
     
  15. tsubasa

    tsubasa New Member

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    Whoa. That's like a whopping 37 for me. I mean, I could only start to read English book and understand the whole thing properly when I was 10. I am not even a native English speaker. O.O The first book I read was Sherlock Holmes. XD

    Couldn't agree with that more. Though a few of the titles listed I have actually never heard of 'em before...
     
  16. PastPresentNFuture

    PastPresentNFuture New Member

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    Hmm I've read


    4 Harry Potter series – (some of them, i usually just watch the movies :p)
    5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
    6 The Bible
    8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
    33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
    36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
    42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
    49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
    59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon (halfway when i was in grade 7 :p)
     
  17. Heather

    Heather New Member

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    So that makes 18 started, although I haven't finished one or two. :)
     
  18. Britannica

    Britannica New Member

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    The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
    Harry Potter series – J.K Rowling
    To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
    Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
    Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
    The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
    The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
    The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
    Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
    Persuasion – Jane Austen
    The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
    Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
    Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
    Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
    Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
    Dracula – Bram Stoker
    The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
    Charlotte’s Web – EB White
    Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
    The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
    Hamlet – William Shakespeare

    I have read 21!
     
  19. aimeekath

    aimeekath New Member

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    These are the ones I've read:

    4 Harry Potter series – J.K Rowling
    5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
    30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
    36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
    40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
    50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
    61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
    73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
    83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
    87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
    99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

    I want to read all of them though.
     
  20. r3dfoe

    r3dfoe Member

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    5 o_O
     
  21. milagros

    milagros New Member

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    I have read 27 books from the list))
     
  22. Captain Ahab

    Captain Ahab New Member

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    I've read 45 pf them:

    1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
    2 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
    3 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
    4 The Bible (Yep, read the whole thing)
    5 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
    6 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
    7 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
    8 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
    9 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
    10 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
    11 Middlemarch – George Eliot
    12 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
    13 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
    14 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    15 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
    16 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
    17 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
    18 Emma – Jane Austen
    19 Persuasion – Jane Austen
    20 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
    21 Animal Farm – George Orwell
    22 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
    23 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
    24 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
    25 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
    26 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
    27 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
    28 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
    29 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
    30 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
    31 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
    32 Dracula – Bram Stoker
    33 Ulysses – James Joyce
    34 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
    35 Germinal – Emile Zola
    36 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
    37 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
    38 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
    39 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
    40 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
    41 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
    42 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
    43 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
    44 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
    45 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo


    Also...
    Harry Potter series – (Just read one of them)

    Complete Works of Shakespeare (another few plays and I'll be there)
     
  23. James Berkley

    James Berkley Banned

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    1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
    2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
    3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
    4 Harry Potter series –
    5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
    6 The Bible
    7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
    8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
    9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
    10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
    11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
    12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
    13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
    14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
    15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
    16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
    17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
    18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
    19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
    20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
    21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
    22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
    23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
    24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
    25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
    26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
    27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
    29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
    30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
    31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
    32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
    33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
    34 Emma – Jane Austen
    35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
    36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
    37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
    38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
    39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
    40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
    41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
    42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
    43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
    45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
    46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
    47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
    48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
    49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
    50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
    51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
    52 Dune – Frank Herbert
    53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
    54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
    55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
    56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
    57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
    58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
    59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
    60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
    62 bleep – Vladimir Nabokov
    63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
    64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
    65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas 66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
    67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
    68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
    69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
    70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
    71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
    72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
    73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
    74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
    75 Ulysses – James Joyce
    76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
    77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
    78 Germinal – Emile Zola
    79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
    80 Possession – AS Byatt
    81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
    82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchel
    83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
    84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
    85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
    86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
    87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
    88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
    89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
    90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
    91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
    92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
    93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
    94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
    95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
    96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
    97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
    98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
    99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
    100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

    seems like i have read a lot of the dystopias
     
  24. Eishona

    Eishona New Member

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    2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
    3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
    4 Harry Potter series –
    5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
    8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
    10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
    14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
    16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
    18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
    25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
    28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
    29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
    30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
    40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
    41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
    49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
    57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
    58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
    61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
    65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
    72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
    73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
    81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
    94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
    98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
    100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
     
  25. shadowwalker

    shadowwalker Contributor Contributor

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    3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
    5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
    6 The Bible
    8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
    10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
    11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
    15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
    16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
    28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
    29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
    30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
    32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
    40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
    41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
    44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
    49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
    52 Dune – Frank Herbert
    57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
    58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
    70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
    71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
    72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
    81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
    87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
    89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
    92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
    94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
    98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
     

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