To do: read

This list is compiled of several different “100 best books in the world/books you have to read before you die”-lists, and I will continue adding books to the list. Hopefully, with your help. Now, this list is not for your average “read and forget”-books, I don’t want The Pretty Little Liars, I want books that are either just great, or books that have made some impact in the world (like Austen, who is constantly being referenced to). Read / Not read.

A

The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Little Women, by Louisa M Alcott
The House of Spirits, by Isabel Allende

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Emma, by Jane Austen

Persuasion, by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen

B

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis De Bernieres
The Bible
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown
Notes From A Small Island, by Bill Bryson
Post Office, by Charles Bukowski

The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

C

The Teachings of Don Juan, by Carlos Casteneda
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie
The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad 
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
Veronica Decides to Die, by Paulo Coelho 

D

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl
The Divine Comedy, by Dante
The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
A Tale Of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens (started, but never finished)
Bleak House, by Charles Dickens
David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens (started, but never finished)
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

White Noise, by Don DeLillo
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Notes from the Underground, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas
(started, but never finished)

E

The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
Middlemarch, by George Eliot
American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis 

F

Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulk
Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert (started, but never finished)
The Great Gatsby, by F Scott Fitzgerald
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer

G

Sophie’s World, by Jostein Gaarder
The Solitaire Mystery, by Jostein Gaarder

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
Coraline, by Neil Gaiman
Neuromancer, by William Gibson
Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

H

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, by Mark Haddon
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Alex Haley
 (started, but never finished)
Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy

The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
Catch 22, by Joseph Heller
(need to reread)
Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse
Dune, by Frank Herbert
The Talented Mr Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith

The Iliad & the Odyssey, by Homer
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
A Rebours, by JK Huysmans
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

I

A Prayer for Owen Meaney, by John Irving
The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro

J

Fear of Flying, by Erica Jong
Ulysses, by James Joyce (started, but never finished)

K

The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka
On The Road, by Jack Kerouac
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera

L

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Chronicles of Narnia, by CS Lewis

M

Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Love In The Time Of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier
Atonement, by Ian McEwan 
(started, but never finished)
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

Paradise Lost, by John Milton
Gone With The Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry

Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami
Kafka On the Shore, by Haruki Murakami

N

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

O

Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) – George Orwell
Animal Farm, by George Orwell

P

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M Pirsig
The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
Mort, by Terry Pratchett

His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman (started the series, but never finished the final book. Need to reread)

R

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome
Three Comrades, by Erich Maria Remarque.
The Dice Man, by Luke Rhinehart

Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts
Harry Potter-series, by JK Rowling
Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie

S

The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
Complete Works of Shakespeare
Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger
Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
Dracula, by Bram Stoker

T

Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S Thompson
The Rum Diary, by Hunter S Thompson
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy

V

Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

W

The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Importance of Being Ernest, by Oscar Wilde
A Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

Y

Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates

Z

The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. 

21 thoughts on “To do: read

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    • L: ! Thanks :)

      Maren: American Psycho, Veronica Decides to Die & The Adventures of H. Finn har jeg lest, men White Teeth, Never Let Me Go og The Waves er notert (lest annet av V Woolf, men ikke den).

  • American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, the adventures of huckleberry Finn, Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro, White teeth by Zadie Smith, Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho and The waves by Virginia Woolf.
    Holder på med et lignende prosjekt selv, så takk for forslag :)

    • Inger: Åh, den har jeg hatt lyst til å lese lenge!

      R: Har lest alle Agatha Christie-bøkene vi har hjemme (og mener å huske at begge de to er i biblioteket?). Tre Kamerater må jeg lese til sommeren når jeg kommer hjem !

      Lucy: Paradise Lost is really a treasure. Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours as well. Didn’t realize The Neverending Story was actually a book and not just a movie franchise. Merci beacuoup !

      Ingrid: lest ;)

      Veronica: check :)

  • Tre kamerater + Triumfbuen av Erik Maria Remarque. Mord på orientekspressen, Døden på Nilen, m.m. av Agatha Christie. Samlede dikt (og historier) av Johan Herman Wessel (fordi det er helt utrolig mange sitater og ordtak som kommer herfra…). Og: The pillars of the earth + World without end av Ken Follett.

  • Céline – Voyage au bout de la nuit (“Journey to the End of the Night”), John Milton – Paradise Lost, Jules Verne – Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours” (“Around the World in Eighty Days”), Patrick Süsskind – Das Parfüm (“Perfume”) and at least one of Lovecraft’s. Oh, and Michael Ende – Die Unendliche Geschichte (“The Neverending Story”) (or “Momo” or “Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver”, they’re all great!).. that’s it, the rest of great books is already on your list :)

    • Cecilie: på listen !

      Danique: But I don’t like Steinbeck :/ Might have to give him another chance. Maybe.

      Vilde: noted, never heard of it.

      Anette: Brave New World har vært på listen lenge. Den er jo ref til over alt. Mornings in Jenin har jeg hjemme, så den skal jeg lese til sommeren. Og tusen takk !

  • Brave New World av Aldous Huxley. Dystopisk fremtidsroman fra 1938, hvor skummelt mye stemmer…

    Også må jeg si meg enig i boktyven!

    En ny bok du burde lese(som ikke er noen klassiker ennå) er Mornings in Jenin av Susan Abulhawa. Viktig bok om Palestina…

    Kos deg!

  • I love this list! I am going to start one for myself as well :) Please read Vanity Fair, I read it 10 years ago and it’s still one of my favorites; it’s insanely beautiful & complex.

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