Reader’s Choice Top Book List

This is a must read list of books compiled from comments on this site, facebook, twitter, and other social networks. I have not included my own favorites although some of these would be on my favorites list. The list is in no particular order.

1. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
2. The Shack by William P. Young
3. Mark of the Lion Series by Francine Rivers
4. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
5. Sea Wolf by Jack London
6. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
7. Change & Cherish Series by Jane Kirkpatrick
8. Behold the Dawn by K.M.Weiland
9. My Name is Russell Fink by Mike Snyder
10. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
11. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
12. Me and Emma by Elizabeth Flock
13. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle
14. On the Beach by Nevil Shute
15. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
16. Davy by Edgar Pangborn
17. Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens
18. Chonicles of Narnia Series by C.S. Lewis
19. The Firebird Trilogy (Firebird, Fusion Fire, Crown of Fire) by Kathy Tyers
20. Legends of the Guardian King (The Light of Eidon, The Shadow Within, Shadow Over Kiriath, Return of the Guardian King) by Karen Hancock
21. The Seven Kingdom Chronicles (The Crown of Eden, The Devil’s Mouth, The Bride of Stone) by Thomas Williams
22. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
23. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
24. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
25. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
26. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
27. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
28. Paradise Lost by John Milton
29. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
30. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe
31. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
32. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
33. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
34. The Complete Works of Shakespeare
35. Russka by Edward Rutherford
36. Centenial by James Michener
37. Hawaii by James Michener
38. Shogun by James Clavell
39. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
40. Texas by James Michener
41. South Pacific by James Michener
42. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
43. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
44. The Outsiders by SE Hinton
45. The Husband by Dean Koontz
46. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
47. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
48. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
49. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
50. Little House on the Prarie Series by Laura Ingalls Wildler
51. Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
52. Traveller by Richard Adams
53. Little Women/Men/Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott
54. Emma by Jane Austen
55. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
56. Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
57. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
58. Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
59. Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
60. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
61. Dombey & Son by Charles Dickens
62. Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
63. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
64. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
65. The Long Roll by Mary Johnston
66. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
67. Dragon Seed by Pearl Buck
68. Empire of the Sun by J.M. Ballard
69. Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian
70. The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter
71. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
72. This Present Darkness by Frank E. Perretti
73. From Here to Eternity by James Jones
74.  The Thin Red Line by James Jones
75. Flight of the Phoenix by Trevor Elleson
76. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick
77. Until the Last Dog Dies by John Robinson
78. When Skylarks Fall by John Robinson
79. To Skin a Cat by John Robinson
80. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
81. Hinds Feet In High Places by Hannah Hunnard
82. Skin by Ted Decker
83. Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
84. Peircing the Darkness by Frank Peretti
85. A Ship Possessed by Aton Gansky
86. White Fang by Jack London
87. The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Dahn
88. 1984 by George Orwell
89. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
90. The Left Behind Series by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye
91. Riven by Jerry B. Jenkins
92. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
93. Love Comes Softly by Janette Oake
94. The Stand by Stephen King
95. The Prophet by Frank Peretti
96. In His Steps by Charles M. Sheldon
97. Christy by Catherine Marshall
98. A Man Called Outlaw by KM Weiland
99. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
100. The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas

Friday is Book Day on Word Sharpeners starting today. Each Friday, I will review a new book or have a list of some of my favorites. Instead of listing my top 100 favorites as some do, I’ll post a few lists based on genre that are well worth reading. So this is your list. Leave comments, and tell me what you think.

BBC Top 100 Book List

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. I’ve bolded the books I’ve read. I disagree with some books on this list and completely agree with others. I’ll compile my own lists of must reads soon. Here’s my question for you. What books do you think should have been on this list but weren’t, and what books shouldn’t be on the list? Please leave comments on this. It will be fun to hear your opinions. I’ve added mine.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen (deserves to be on the list)

2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien (long and wordy, but still a good read, deserves to be on the list)

3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte (deserves to be on the list)

4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

6 The Bible  (This is the book everyone should read.)

7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte (deserves to be on the list)

8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell (One of my favorite sci-fi novels)

9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens (I love Charles Dickens, but there are other novels of his that I like better.)

11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott – (love this book)

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy (deserves to be on the list)

13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare  (No list would be complete without it.)

15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien   (better than “Lord of the Rings” in my opinion)

17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk

18 18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger 

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch – George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald (the best Fitgerald novel)

23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (great read, but doesn’t belong on this list)

27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky  (one of my favorites)

28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck  (a must read)

29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame (very good book)

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens (a must read)

33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis (I love this series.)

34 Emma-Jane Austen

35 Persuasion – Jane Austen 

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis (This is the first novel of the Chronicles of Narnia series already listed.) 

37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne (I don’t think this one should be on the list although it’s good.)

41 Animal Farm – George Orwell (No list like this would be complete without this one.)

42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving

45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery (good series, not sure it’s good enough to be on the list)

47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel

52 Dune – Frank Herbert (good, but not good enough to be on the list)

53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen (The compliler of this list seems to be heavily into regency romances and British authors. Jane Austen is great and deserves to be on the list, but she shouldn’t have every book she ever wrote on here.)

55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens (oh yes, but should have been higher up)

58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley (great read)

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck  (deserves to be on list)

62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas  (one of my favorites)

66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville (boring)

71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens (deserves to be on list)

72 Dracula – Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett (good novel, but not good enought for list)

74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses – James Joyce

76 The Inferno – Dante (not sure this should be on list) 

77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal – Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession – AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (my all time favorite, should be number 1)

82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White (great children’s story)

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (of course)

90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery 

93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94 Watership Down – Richard Adams (good book)

95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas (deserves to be on list)

98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare (Isn’t his part of the Complete Works of Shakespeare listed above?)

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo (should be on list)

Where’s Hawthorne, Hemingway, and Graham Greene? Of course BBC would lean heavily toward european authors. So give me some ideas. I’ll compile a list based on your choices soon. Then I’ll post my list in a few weeks. This should be fun.