Lit Nets Top 100 Books Official List

[Adderhead]

I'm about 50 pages from finishing Crime and Punishment and I am in shock that it was nominated number one. It's good but I personally think it shouldn't be number one. Thanks for the great list. You should be commended for your great work.

[grace86]

I am particularly surprised to find that I have read 31 of those books. And there are 11 of them that I haven't read that are currently on my shelf in my "to read" pile. Guess I know what I'll be going for next! I am surprised that there are some of them that aren't up there.

[Barbarous]

sweet, more or less than 45 read. Surprised at the lack of Virginia Woolf and how The Fountainhead appears.

[Oread]

I've read 27. The Divine Comedy and Lolita are next on my list. Two of my favorites made it (Wuthering Heights and Madame Bovary), but my other favorites (White Oleander, Like Water For Chocolate, Gone With The Wind) didn't make it.

[Oread]

Yeah, I would have thought Mrs. Dalloway would be on there.

[islandclimber]

DM this is great... thank you so much for all your hard work

Well, I can't believe 1984 was no 2... and to kill a mockingbird no 6, and even more bizarre how did Lord of the Flies even get onto this list especially as high as 28 and that's just the beginning.. but I'll drop it, as for the most part it's quite a good list... I am disappointed to see that no Canadian writers got on this list, like maybe Mistry's A Fine Balance... and where are the south american writers? Cortazar jumps to my mind, Marquez's short stories are amazing... and Calvino? and though I don't like it all that much the Booker of all Bookers Midnight's Children is surprisingly absent as well and so many others haha... it would be interesting to see every book that got a vote.. a list of everything...

I've read 81 of the 100 and wish I hadn't spent the time on a good number of those.. as for the other 19, most I have no desire to open...

[jack_is_cool]

It's a shame that none of Easton Ellis' work made the list.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Awesome, a new list to go through,

[HipHopAvenger]

Yes. I read a few of them. But others I have been learning about at school. So I know them, even though just as a student of literature. Which gave me a lot of knowledge during the last few years.

[OzBlackman]

Nice to see Ulysses right down at number 42.

[mal4mac]

I have just re-read Crime and Punishment after a gap of several decades and it is certainly a great novel, but number 1? I also recently read or re-read Hamlet, The Tempest, A Midsummer's Night Dream, The Cossacks (Tolstoy), Don Quixote, Nicholas Nickleby, and would like anyone to tell me why C&P is better than these?! Also why only one Dickens novel, and one of his lesser ones at that? C&P might just make the top 50, but number 1?

[skaterskagg1]

I like this list for the most part. I just don't know how I feel about Crime and Punishment being the number one book. Why do I get the feeling that the people who voted C&P over The Brothers Karamazov and The Idiot, only voted that way because C&P is the only Dostoevsky book they've read? If they had read TBK then they never would have voted C&P over it.

Also, I feel that The Count of Monte Cristo is much too low. The reason is probably because not many people here have read it, maybe they think it's too long. Everyone I know who has read it will tell you that it's one of their top favorite books of all time. Don't be fooled by The Count of Monte Cristo being so low on the list and skipping over it for a book higher on the list, it's a true masterpiece.

[mal4mac]

Also, I feel that The Count of Monte Cristo is much too low. The reason is probably because not many people here have read it, maybe they think it's too long. Everyone I know who has read it will tell you that it's one of their top favorite books of all time. Don't be fooled by The Count of Monte Cristo being so low on the list and skipping over it for a book higher on the list, it's a true masterpiece.

Why then do only 1 out of 125 "leading writers" in "Top Ten" pick it? That "leading" writer is Scott Turow ("Presumed innocent"). Is he even a leading writer? I've seen the films of the books and both plots move along well, and Turow praises Dumas for that. But great literature needs more than that. (Neither Dumas or Turow are on Bloom's list). If I'm to read 1500 pages a book needs to tick more boxes.

Have you read Dickens or Tolstoy? I found reading Tolstoy's "The Cossacks" after Dostoevsky C&P to be a great relief, Dostoevsky is deep & brilliant, but Tolstoy knows how to create expansive, clear visions and great plots, while also being deep & brilliant. Maybe you are just reacting to the simple pleasure of a racy plot after Dostoevsky's rather convoluted narrow plots? So how does Dumas' long book compare to Tolstoy's long book (War & Peace)?

[MN Dave]

1. Crime and Punishment
10. The Bible
11. Lolita
13. The Stranger
19. The Grapes of Wrath
20. On the Road
24. The Catcher in the Rye
25. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
28. Lord of the Flies
29. The Lord of the Rings
30. The Odyssey
34. Frankenstein
39. The Old Man and the Sea
40. Slaughterhouse 5
41. The Sun Also Rises
43. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
45. Dracula
50. Of Mice and Men
53. The Trial
56. Cat's Cradle
74. Perfume
77. Watership Down
87. In Cold Blood
95. A Clockwork Orange

I have read these. Not too bad. I could have included a list of those I started but never finished. That might be just as long.

[rimbaud]

i also liked the gambler very very much, and for me is one of the top 10, but better not push Dostoevsky, there are already 3 book in the list. well the man is a genius