Brigid Delaney at The Guardian Australia got herself in quite a tizz about it all. I can't imagine that anyone really does imagine that this is the new canon. And what if someone did read all of these? Well, they'd have read a 100 books that they hadn't read before. I for one think that that would be a good thing. Although I do think we could leave 50 Shades of Grey off any list whatsoever.
1. The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
2. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
3. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
4. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
5. Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
6. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
7. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
8. The Potato Factory - Bryce Courtenay
9. The Bronze Horseman - Paullina Simons
10. The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien
11. Still Alice - Lisa Genova (see my review)
12. The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan
13. Burial Rites - Hannah Kent
14. Fifty Shades of Grey - E.L. James
15. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
16. The Lavender Keeper - Fiona McIntosh
17. The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion (see my review)
18. The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough
19. The Light Between Oceans - M.L. Stedman
20. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
21. The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
22. The Secret River - Kate Grenville
23. Personal - Lee Child
24. The Winter Sea - Di Morrissey
25. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
26. Life or Death - Michael Robotham
27. The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins (see my review)
28. Shantaram - Gregory Roberts
29. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
30. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien (see my review)
31. The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
32. Hello from the Gillespies - Monica McInerney
33. Ice Station - Matthew Reilly
34. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
35. Hope to Die - James Patterson
36. Jasper Jones - Craig Silvey
37. Little Women - Louise May Alcott
38. A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
39. Breath - Tim Winton
40. The Great Zoo of China - Matthew Reilly
41. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
42. 1984 - George Orwell
43. Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
44. The Woman Who Stole My Life - Marian Keyes
45. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
46. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
47. The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks
48. Dirt Music - Tim Winton
49. Nightingale - Fiona McIntosh
50. Me Before You - Jo Jo Moyes
51. The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty
52. Only Time Will Tell - Jeffrey Archer
53. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
54. Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
55. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
56. Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty
57. Magician - Raymond E. Feist
58. It Started With Paris - Cathy Kelly
59. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
60. The Slap - Christos Tsiolkas (see my review)
61. We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
62. I Am Pilgrim - Terry Hayes
63. Inferno - Dan Brown
64. Chocolat - Joanne Harris
65. Lost & Found - Brooke Davies (see my review)
66. Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
67. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
68. The Street Sweeper - Elliot Perlman
69. The Tournament - Matthew Reilly
70. The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
71. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
72. All That I Am - Anna Funder
73. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
74. Barra Creek - Di Morrissey
75. Cleanskin Cowgirls - Rachael Treasure
76. Elianne - Judy Nunn
77. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
78. Leap of Faith - Fiona McCallum
79. The Road To Hope - Rachael Johns
80. The Burning Room - Michael Connelly
81. Enduring Love - Ian McEwan
82. Desert God - Wilbur Smith
83. The Great Plains - Nicole Alexander
84. The Forever Girl - Alexander McCall Smith
85. It - Stephen King
86. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
87. The Harp In The South - Ruth Park
88. My Brilliant Career - Miles Franklin
89. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
90. The Collector - Nora Roberts
91. One Day - David Nicholls
92. The Escape - David Baldacci
93. Before I Go To Sleep - S.J. Watson
94. The Little Coffee Shop Of Kabul - Deborah Rodriguez
95. The Daughters of Mars - Tom Keneally
96. The Shifting Fog - Kate Morton
97. Shopaholic To The Stars - Sophie Kinsella
98. Dark Heart - Tony Park
99. The Pact - Jodi Picoult
100. Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks
22/100
Many of these books are lurking in my TBR. Exactly when they'll get read who can tell? At least there's always something else to read.
Well, Life or Death is now a Gold Dagger award winning crime book for Robottom - beating JK Rowling (AKA Galbraith) and Stephen King.
ReplyDeleteI've actually read quite a few of these books & have to say that The Power of One is the only Courtenay I've ever managed to finish (& enjoy).
I'm glad Year of Wonders managed to scrape onto the list, but I could have done without the Picoult's (& like you) Fifty Shades of Puke! Both of which, I skim read - one for a book club and one for work. And don't get me started on Eat Prey Love.
Oscar and Lucinda is a surprise - not one of Carey's more accessible books. I enjoyed his Ned Kelly one more (but I know a lot of people hated it!)
And all the crime fiction simply reflects what most people read and what we sell most of (usually) each month at work.
Very interesting....