100 Books Meme from Goodreads

I'm lifting this from Mrs. Darwin and Bearing. Mrs. Darwin says:

In the spirit of the 100 book meme, Goodreads has posted a fairly diverse group of novels for its members to rank, drawn from both the most popular and the most highly rated books from its readers' libraries. And in the true internet spirit of borrowing, I've typed up the list for the rest of us to pass around. Goodreads reports that its average user has read 27 out of the 100; I've read 58 (and Darwin has read 31), and I find that most of the ones I haven't are books I've seen around but haven't felt a great compulsion to take and read.

Here's the key:

Books I've read
Books I've re-read
Books I started but didn't finish
Could be interested in this one
I'd rather read a prescription package insert
Haven't read

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• The Catcher in the Rye
• Fellowship of the Ring
• Pride and Prejudice
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• Romeo and Juliet
• Jane Eyre
• 1984
• Hamlet
• The Hobbit
• Brave New World
• The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
• The Great Gatsby
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Fahrenheit 451
• Wuthering Heights
• Alice in Wonderland
• The Secret Garden
• Green Eggs and Ham (don't even want to THINK about how many times)
• Little Women
• Of Mice and Men
• The Handmaid's Tale
• Lord of the Flies
• The DaVinci Code
• Frankenstein
• Dune
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• Gone With The Wind
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• A Wrinkle in Time
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Slaughterhouse Five
• Anne of Green Gables
• Twilight
• Where the Sidewalk Ends
• The Little Prince
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• The Princess Bride (only book I know that's worse than the movie)
• The Picture of Dorian Grey
• The Hunger Games
• Sense and Sensibility
• The Golden Compass
• Dracula
• The Color Purple
• The Kite Runner
• The Odyssey
• Anna Karenina
• And Then There Were None
• Interview with the Vampire
• The Book Thief
• One Hundred Years of Solitude
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• The Joy Luck Club
• Little House on the Prairie
• The Giver
• Life of Pi
• Rebecca
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• Ender's Game
• A Tale of Two Cities
• The Stranger
• East of Eden
• Les Miserables
• The Bell Jar
• Lolita
• The Road
• The Time Traveler's Wife
• A Prayer for Owen Meany
• The Stand
• Catch-22
• The Sun Also Rises
• The Pillars of the Earth
• Crime and Punishment
• The Good Earth
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being
• The Help
• Watchmen
• Lonesome Dove
• Water for Elephants
• Outlander
• American Gods
• The Poisonwood Bible
• My Sister's Keeper
• The Master and Margarita
• The Notebook
• Like Water for Chocolate
• Beloved
• Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Invisible Man
• A Game of Thrones
• The Fountainhead
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
• Ulysses
• The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
• The Brothers Karamazov (I skipped 40 pages in the middle. It was finals week.)
• The House of the Spirits
• Fight Club
• Middlesex
• Interpreter of Maladies

I've been casting about for a new reading Project. I'm wondering about tackling the purple ones systematically. How about you?

Comments

[Amy F]

49 of them for me.

[Marcie]

Jamie - good luck with your project. Here are my quick impressions of the books I have read that you have in blue:

Hunger Games – I didn’t like the idea of children fighting to the death. Couldn’t finish it.

Golden Compass – interesting. Still don’t really understand what the “dust” is. And the idea of one’s soul as a physical manifestation of an animal was weird.

The Kite Runner – so sad. Father/son relationships, friendships, betrayal. Humiliation. Is the culture of that country truly represented? I don’t know.

The Time Traveler’s Wife – Sort of redeemed itself in the end by the wife's extension of love.

My Sister’s Keeper – Be ready to cry. And as a mother of a child who was often very ill, I was embarrassed by the insight provided by the two “healthy” siblings and how they felt overlooked by their parents.

[bearing]

For what it's worth, The Godfather is also worse than the movie.

[bearing]

On the (very few) you'd rather read the prescription package insert: Lolita is one of my very favorite books, but it is definitely not for everyone because it is a minefield of triggers.

[Maud]

I've read 58 too! But not the same ones.

[Nancy Piccione]

Can you connect with me on Goodreads? I'd love to compare books. I also read 58, many of the same ones but not all. I'm Nancy Piccione there.

[Jamie]

I've only read 51! I was quoting Mrs. Darwin up above.

Nancy, I'll look for you.

[Ellie]

Sixty.

Most of the ones I haven't read, are because I've sat with them (more than once) and for whatever reason, just couldn't.

[MrsDarwin]

Confession time; I've really only read 57 -- I realized that I hadn't read The Unbearable Lightness of Being, but one of Kundera's books of poetry. Mea culpa!

[Salome Ellen]

I think in honor of Green Eggs and Ham there should be a "books I have memorized" category.

[Angela]

I'm a little surprised you haven't read The Fountainhead. I've read it a few times and should probably read it again since it's been many years and I probably have a different perspective on some of the concepts.

I have trouble reading new things because I enjoy re-reading books that I love. To Kill a Mockingbird (which I think you may have introduced me to), Watership Down, Narnia books and The Hobbit et al I have read a minimum of 3 times each...some of them probably 10 times or more.

[giddy]

Unbelievably, 65. It's a great list--reminds me of some of the classics I have always said I would read but still haven't. Thanks for sharing the list, too--even though I'm active on Goodreads I hadn't seen the list.

I would also love to connect with you there--I don't comment often here so you don't really know me, but I have followed you a long time and appreciate your insights into faith, parenting, statistics, and life in the midwest...I figure I might also enjoy seeing what you are reading, and who knows, maybe vice versa! If you are interested, my name is in my email address. (I hope you will be interested!) Happy reading!!!