How Many Have You Read?

I was often of the impression that I was well read but I think when it comes down to it I read alot just not necessarily a wide enough spread. I read about it on David’s Blog I went down the list and deleted off the ones that I had never heard of, while seperating the others into different lists. It was a little despressing to seee that I’ve only read 6 that are listed (or sections of others – if you count those it goes up to 17 in total). There are some like The Hobbit or Gormenghast that I started reading only to give up for one or another reason – My Dad often encouraged me to read The Hobbit – long before Lord of The Rings came out as a film series.

There are now three editions of the 1001 list, with 1294 titles on all three lists. Dates in parentheses are book editions of the 1001 list. Information in brackets is author nationality, language, book award.

Having made this list it might be better just to make sure I’ve read everything on my book case first

Own But Haven’t Read
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell (2006, 2008, 2010)
White Teeth – Zadie Smith (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (2006, 2008, 2010)

Own and Read/Borrowed and Read
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Enduring Love – Ian McEwan (2006, 2008, 2010) [UK, English]
The Godfather – Mario Puzo (2006, 2008, 2010) — But never seen the film
Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote (2006, 2008, 2010)
Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell (2006, 2008, 2010)
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck (2006, 2008, 2010)

Have Started But Not Finished
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath (2006, 2008, 2010) [USA, English]
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller (2006, 2008, 2010)
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee (2006, 2008, 2010) [USA, English]
The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien (2006, 2008, 2010) [UK, English]
Gormenghast – Mervyn Peake (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien (2006, 2008, 2010)
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy (2006, 2008, 2010)
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

Have Meant to Read at Some Point
Life of Pi – Yann Martel (2006, 2008, 2010) [Booker]
Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Cider House Rules – John Irving (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Color Purple – Alice Walker (2006, 2008, 2010)
Schindler’s Ark – Thomas Keneally (2006, 2008, 2010)
Interview With the Vampire – Anne Rice (2006, 2008, 2010)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – John Le Carré (2006)
2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke (2006, 2008, 2010)
In Cold Blood – Truman Capote (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John Le Carré (2006, 2008, 2010) [UK, English]
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey (2006, 2008, 2010) [USA, English]
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess (2006, 2008, 2010) [UK, English]
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark (2006, 2008, 2010) [UK, English]
The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith (2006, 2008, 2010)
Lord of the Flies – William Golding (2006, 2008, 2010)
Casino Royale – Ian Fleming (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway (2006, 2008, 2010)
Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger (2006, 2008, 2010)
I, Robot – Isaac Asimov (2006, 2008, 2010)
Titus Groan – Mervyn Peake (2006, 2008, 2010)
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh (2006, 2008, 2010)
Animal Farm – George Orwell (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Pursuit of Love – Nancy Mitford (2006)
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren (2008, 2010)
The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (2006, 2008, 2010)
For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway (2006, 2008, 2010)
Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier (2006, 2008, 2010)
Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell (2006, 2008, 2010)
All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald (2006, 2008, 2010)
Ulysses – James Joyce (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Thirty-Nine Steps – John Buchan (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Hound of the Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2006, 2008, 2010)
The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells (2006, 2008, 2010)
Dracula – Bram Stoker (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Time Machine – H.G. Wells (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde (2006, 2008, 2010)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson (2006, 2008, 2010)
Daniel Deronda – George Eliot (2006)
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
Les Misérables – Victor Hugo
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell
Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Brontë
Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
Agnes Grey – Anne Brontë (2006)
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen (2006)
Persuasion – Jane Austen (2006)
Emma – Jane Austen
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift

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2 comments

  1. Rickie says:

    I’ve read 3 of these! (Two Capote & Steinbeck)
    However, I have read loads of the classics at school but don’t recall them. I’ve tried to read them recently but just couldnt get into them. I’d rather just read what I like and what I want to write like than read what I’m ‘meant’ to read

    • Hannie says:

      I agree I’d rather read stuff I want to read than spend that time reading something I don’t enjoy.

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