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Time's Top 100 Novels 1923-present
If this is in the wrong place, Mods, please feel free to move it.
Time Magazine has just published their Top 100 Best English Speaking Novels from 1923 to the Present. The full list, along with the "whys" is here. While I agree with many of them, there's a couple which I find profoundly disturbing. I haven't read every one of them, but I don't believe in banning books, either. Any thoughts? Oh, here's the list, for those who don't want the "whys": The Complete List In Alphabetical Order The Adventures of Augie March Saul Bellow All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren American Pastoral Philip Roth An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser Animal Farm George Orwell Appointment in Samarra John O'Hara Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume The Assistant Bernard Malamud At Swim-Two-Birds Flann O'Brien Atonement Ian McEwan Beloved Toni Morrison The Berlin Stories Christopher Isherwood The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder Call It Sleep Henry Roth Catch-22 Joseph Heller The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess The Confessions of Nat Turner William Styron The Corrections Jonathan Franzen The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell The Day of the Locust Nathanael West Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather A Death in the Family James Agee The Death of the Heart Elizabeth Bowen Deliverance James Dickey Dog Soldiers Robert Stone Falconer John Cheever The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene Herzog Saul Bellow Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson A House for Mr. Biswas V.S. Naipaul I, Claudius Robert Graves Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace Invisible Man Ralph Ellison Light in August William Faulkner The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis Lolita Vladimir Nabokov Lord of the Flies William Golding The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien Loving Henry Green Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie Money Martin Amis The Moviegoer Walker Percy Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf Naked Lunch William Burroughs Native Son Richard Wright Neuromancer William Gibson Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 1984 George Orwell On the Road Jack Kerouac One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey The Painted Bird Jerzy Kosinski Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov A Passage to India E.M. Forster Play It As It Lays Joan Didion Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth Possession A.S. Byatt The Power and the Glory Graham Greene The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark Rabbit, Run John Updike Ragtime E.L. Doctorow The Recognitions William Gaddis Red Harvest Dashiell Hammett Revolutionary Road Richard Yates The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut Snow Crash Neal Stephenson The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner The Sportswriter Richard Ford The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carre The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller Ubik Philip K. Dick Under the Net Iris Murdoch Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry Watchmen Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons White Noise Don DeLillo White Teeth Zadie Smith Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys |
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Of Mice & Men should have been on there, I would have liked to see Night on there, and A Brave New World. |
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i've read 10, and i'm very excited that my 2 favorite authors are on the list (Hurston & Baldwin).
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Read a few of those. I personally couldn't stand Catch-22 and To the Lighthouse.
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Animal Farm
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Beloved Catch-22 The Catcher in the Rye A Clockwork Orange Gone With the Wind The Grapes of Wrath The Great Gatsby The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Lord of the Flies The Lord of the Rings 1984 On the Road One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Slaughterhouse-Five The Sun Also Rises To Kill a Mockingbird i really like to read, and most of these i've read for school or in the summers i try to read a lot of classics and books i should have read :) |
I've read the following, both for class and on my own:
All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser Animal Farm George Orwell Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume Beloved Toni Morrison Catch-22 Joseph Heller The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess The Day of the Locust Nathanael West A Death in the Family James Agee Deliverance James Dickey Falconer John Cheever Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald The Heart of the Matter Graham Greene The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis Lolita Vladimir Nabokov Lord of the Flies William Golding The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien Naked Lunch William Burroughs Native Son Richard Wright 1984 George Orwell On the Road Jack Kerouac One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey The Painted Bird Jerzy Kosinski Portnoy's Complaint Philip Roth The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark Rabbit, Run John Updike Ragtime E.L. Doctorow Red Harvest Dashiell Hammett Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carre The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller I agree with Buttonz; both Night and Brave New World both deserved a mention. The Painted Bird has to be one of THE sickest books I've ever read, and I don't care if it's somewhat of a biography of Roman Polanski! I don't know if Dr. Zhivago could be included, as it was first written in Russian, but it would be a better contender than many of the above. I would've expected to see In Cold Blood, too. |
i've read 19 of them - i guess i've got some catch up to play...
totally agree with night, of mice and men, and brave new world |
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On The Road is one of my favorite books...kinda odd considering my more conservative leanings...but then I like journey-type books...Following the Equator may be my favorite book.
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Animal Farm - George Orwell
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume Catch-22 - Joseph Heller The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis Lord of the Flies - William Golding 1984 - George Orwell One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey The Painted Bird - Jerzy Kosinski The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee i guess 17 isn't too bad, but some of those I read so long in school. does make me feel not very well-read though. |
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The Stranger was originally in french so that's why it was left off the list. I am guessing Metamorphosis is also a translated work. |
good call
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I haven't read much from this list:
Animal Farm The Catcher in the Rye The Great Gatsby The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Their Eyes Were Watching God To Kill a Mockingbird Two of my favorites aren't on here: East of Eden and In Cold Blood. I wonder if In Cold Blood isn't listed because it's considered a non-fiction novel. |
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14, none of which I've read since graduating high school. If I had been required to take literature classes in college, I'd probably have more.
I'm actually a pretty voracious reader. |
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AEPHiSierra, did you like The Painted Bird? It made me physically ill - and I think you know the scene. Munchkin03, I somehow expected you to be very well read. Unfortunately, I'll read anything at hand. Well, almost anything. |
All the King's Men
Robert Penn Warren Animal Farm George Orwell Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume Beloved Toni Morrison The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood Catch-22 Joseph Heller The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess Deliverance James Dickey The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis Lord of the Flies William Golding The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien 1984 George Orwell On the Road Jack Kerouac One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee Addmittedly, the majority were for lit classes in high school and college. |
I read 13 of them, only a couple since college. I'm a big fan of Fitzgerald, and The Great Gatsby is my favorite book, so I'm glad to see it made the list.
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KLPDaisy - Metamorphosis was originally written in German and I'm pretty sure that it was also written prior to the 1923 cut off. I agree that if the language parameters were broader, it would likely have been included...I didn't particularly like the book, but I found it interesting and well written.
I was happy to see The Sun Also Rises on the list. I am a huge Hemingway fan. :) |
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[i]An American Tragedy[/i] Theodore Dreiser Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume Beloved Toni Morrison Catch-22 Joseph Heller A Death in the Family James Agee Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers Light in August William Faulkner The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis Lord of the Flies William Golding Native Son Richard Wright One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey A Passage to India E.M. Forster Rabbit, Run John Updike Ragtime E.L. Doctorow The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee These are the ones that I have read so far. I liked most of them. I hated "Beloved", forced myself through it. |
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I've read 25 of those. Margaret Atwood is my favorite author so I'm glad The Blind Assassin "made the cut", but I think some of her other books are better. Also, I love Tropic of Cancer. I was reading it once and someone asked me what class it was for - I told them I was reading it "for fun" and they laughed at me.
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do movies count?:D
seriously, I have read a few of those - others are on my list to read that I should have read when i was younger (I just finshed Go Tell it on the Mountain w/in the last week). I can't believe White Teeth was on there - I i wouldn't consider that a great novel - when clearly others were left off the list (Sula by Toni Morrison), but glad to see Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret on there - I LOVED that book! Judy Blume was just the best back then. |
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Animal Farm
George Orwell Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume Beloved Toni Morrison The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald Invisible Man Ralph Ellison The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf 1984 George Orwell The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller ------------------------- Most of these books I read before the age of 15, with very few exception, I thought I was well read, I am well read, just not these books, but some of them on the list have been on my must read list for a while, so I need to get to it. My favorite comtemporary authors today who I consider that write literature are Margaret Atwood and Tom Robbins. I need to take another trip to the bookstore :D |
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If you can handle it, My Story by Alicia Appleman-Jurman is a good Holocaust book. However, it is pretty long and graphic. My parents' friends gave that to me in fourth grade. I had nightmares for a long time after that.
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My daughter called me from her dad's house yesterday, completely outraged by this list of 100 Most Frequently challenged books between 1990 and 2000(ie. most attempts to have these books banned from school libraries, etc). It's humorous that so many of them are also on Time's list (or at least how many of the same authors make both lists).
Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling Forever by Judy Blume Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger The Giver by Lois Lowry It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck The Color Purple by Alice Walker Sex by Madonna Earth's Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle Go Ask Alice by Anonymous Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard The Witches by Roald Dahl The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry The Goats by Brock Cole Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane Blubber by Judy Blume Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier Final Exit by Derek Humphry The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Beloved by Toni Morrison The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton The Pigman by Paul Zindel Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard Deenie by Judy Blume Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice) Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole Cujo by Stephen King James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy Ordinary People by Judith Guest American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume Crazy Lady by Jane Conly Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher Fade by Robert Cormier Guess What? by Mem Fox The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Lord of the Flies by William Golding Native Son by Richard Wright Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies by Nancy Friday Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen Jack by A.M. Homes Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle Carrie by Stephen King Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge Family Secrets by Norma Klein Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole The Dead Zone by Stephen King The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison Always Running by Luis Rodriguez Private Parts by Howard Stern Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett Running Loose by Chris Crutcher Sex Education by Jenny Davis The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier |
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The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck Had to read this in high school. Not a big book, but I thought it was boring. It did come in handy when I went to college and I discovered that a ton of the books we read in high school were on the freshman read list |
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