Welcome to my ultimate reading challenge! This will be an on-going project of mine and I hope to read everything on this list before departing from this world. I am always open for recommendations so if you want me to read something that is not already on this list, please let me know in the comments section below! Let's get this party started, shall we?
- The Blade Itself (The First Law #1) by Joe Abercrombie (recommended by Steven)
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (re-read)
- Watership Down by Richard Adams
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Money by Martin Amis (recommended by Matthew)
- Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
- Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Persuasion by Jane Austen
- Emma by Jane Austen
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
- Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
- Go Tell it to the Mountain by James Baldwin
- Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
- Another Country by James Baldwin
- The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
- The Science Fiction Short Stories of J.G. Ballard
- The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
- Herzog by Saul Bellow
- The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
- Seize the Day by Saul Bellow
- Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow
- Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
- Dangling Man by Saul Bellow
- Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow
- Zuleika Dobson by Sir Max Beerbohm (recommended by Ron)
- The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
- The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
- Virtual Unrealities (short stories) by Alfred Bester
- The Ninth Configuration by William Peter Blatty
- The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
- The Souls of Black Folk by Du Bois
- Dandelion Wine by Bradbury
- Farenheit 451 Bradbury
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
- The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
- Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
- Kindred by Octavia Butler
- Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell
- In Cold Bloody by Truman Capote
- Night at the Circus by Angela Carter
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver- O Pioneers! By Willa Cather
- My Antonia by Willa Cather
- If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
- The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
- The Wapshot Chronicles by John Cheever
- The Awakening and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
- White Noise by Don DeLillo
- Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
- The Kiss and other Stories by Anton Chekhov
- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
- A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
- Ubik by Philip K. Dick
- The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
- Martian Time Slip by Philip K. Dick
- Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
- Crack in Space by PKD
- Dr. Bloodmoney by PKD
- Valis by PKD
- The Idiot by Dostoeyevsky
- Notes from the Underground by Dostoeyevsky
- Crime and Punishment by Dostoeyevsky
- Brothers Karamazov by Dostoeyevsky
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
- A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
- Mill on the Floss by Eliot
- Middlemarch by Eliot
- The Merkabah Rider by Edward M. Erdelac
The Little Prince by Exupery- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
- Light in August by William Faulkner
- Go Down Moses by William Faulkner
- Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
- The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald
- Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald
- The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney
- Sentimental Education by Flaubert
- Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
- Howard’s End by E.M. Forster
- A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
- A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
- The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
- Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
- Tana French - Dublin Murder Squad
- North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
- The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
- I, Claudius by Robert Graves
- Loving by Henry Green
The Quiet American by Graham Greene- The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
- Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
- A Burnt-Out Case by Graham Greene
- End of the Affair by Graham Greene
- Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
- Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green- Replay by Ken Grimwood
- Kampus by James Gunn
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman- Cockroach by Rawi Hage
- Mortal Leap by MacDonald Harris
- The Paradox Men by Charles Harness
- Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
- Tess of the D’Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
- A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories by Hemingway
- The Liveship Traders (Trilogy) by Robin Hobb
- Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy) by Robin Hobb
- Mythago Wood (#1) by Robert Holdstock
- How to Be Good by Nick Horny
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Never Let Me go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- There Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
- Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
- Dubliners by James Joyce
- The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
- Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
- The Reefs of Earth by R.A. Lafferty
- The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen
- Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
- The Lathe of Heaven by Le Guin
- Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guin
- The Dispossessed by Le Guin
- Wizard of Earthsea by Le Guin
- The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (recommended by Natalyia)
- The Paradox Men by Charles L. Harness
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
- Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman
- Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti
- Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
- Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean (recommended by Julia)
- The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield
- Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- Embassytown by China Mieville
- Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
- The City and the City by China Mieville
- Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
- The Crucible by Arthur Miller
- A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
- Of Human Bondage by Maugham
- Razor's Edge by Maugham
- Cakes and Ale by Maugham
- So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
- The Last Dragon by McDerrmott
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
- Paradise by Toni Morrison
- Utopia by Thomas Moore
- Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
- The Bell by Iris Murdoch
- The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch
- Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
- One Day by Dave Nicholls (recommended by Becky)
- A Good Man is Hard to Find and other Stories by Flannery O’Connor
- Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
- The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
- At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien
- Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- The Portable Dorthy Parker by DorthyParker
- The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
- Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
- Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
- Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
- Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
- V by Thomas Pynchon
- The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick
- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (recommended by Satia)
- Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
- The Callahan Chronicals by Spider Robinson
- Of Love and Hunger by Julian Maclaren Ross
- American Pastoral by Philip Roth
- The Human Stain by Philip Roth
- Call it Sleep by Henry Roth
- Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
- The Sparrow by Mary Dorry Russell
- Hyperion by Dan Simmons
- Sirius by Olaf Stapledon
- Tales of a Tub by Jonathan Swift
- Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
- Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
- Light Years by James Salter
- Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
- Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
- A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter
- Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith (recommended by Stephen)
- I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
As You like It by ShakespeareMacbeth by Shakespeare- King Henry IV, Part 1 by Shakespeare
- King Henry IV, Part 2 by Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing by ShakespeareTaming of the Shrew by Shakespeare- The Way Station by Clifford D. Simak
- Pygmalian: A Romance in Five Acts by Bernard Shaw
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
- The Comforters by Muriel Spark
The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark- The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark
- Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
- Not to Disturb by Muriel Spark
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
- East of Eden by Steinbeck
- Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck
- In Dubious Battle by Steinbeck
Pastures of Heaven by Steinbeck- The Winter of Our Discontent by Steinbeck
- Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
- Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover
- To Marry Medusa by Theodore Sturgeon
- More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
- Theft of Swords by Michael Sullivan
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas/Jennifer Graham
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Rabbit, Run by John Updike
- The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
- A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
- Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
- Brideshead Revisted by Evelyn Waugh
- Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
- Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
- War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
- The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
- The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
- Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Wilde (re-read)
- The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams
- A Streetcar Named Desire by Williams
- Glass Menagerie by Williams
- To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
- Savages by Don Winslow (recommended by Stephen)
- Black Boy by Richard Wright
Native Son by Richard Wright- Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding
- Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf
- Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf
- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf - An In-depth Analysis
- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
- The Waves by Virginia Woolf
- Young Hearts Crying by Richard Yates
- Lord of Light by Robert Zelazny
- The Book Thief by Mark Zusak
- We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
- Dooryways in the Sand by Robert Zelazny
Oh no. You have so many good choices. I haven't read them all but there are enough that I am afraid if I started trying to say "read this one" and "read this one too" I might miss one I think you should read. ARGH!
ReplyDeleteBut since I'm reading Jane Austen this year I'll put in a vote for reading Jane Austen. Did you want us to add to the list or just cheer your choices?
haha, no worries Satia. I just pick from this list randomly but I'd be more than happy to make certain works a priority. To clarify, I would love recommendations that are not found on this list from people. So, if there is anything that you think I need to read and it is not listed above, just let me know the title and I shall add it. I definitely plan on reading Pride and Prejudice very soon. :)
ReplyDeleteWell, I am in the midst of reading Wharton's novellas so I'm tempted to say "Read Wharton" too but . . .
ReplyDeleteLet me ponder this. Just woke up with a bit of a headache so a bit of coffee, a bit of journaling, and I should be able to come to your list with at least one or two books that I think merit being added.
The Tale of Genji would be a good addition to your list. I don't see a lot of East Asian content. You might also want to read Tales of the Arabian Nights and I've heard wonderful things about A Suitable Boy.
ReplyDeleteI notice you have Heinlein on there but not Stranger in a Strange Land which is so classic.
Which leads me to another observation, are the books only fiction/novels? If so, does mythology count? If so, how do you define myth? Le Morte D'Arthur should surely be included but I prefer T H White's more contemporary The Once and Future King. But if you are going to read Arthurian legends at all, why not read Chretien de Troyes?
See? Leave the list to me and I'll quickly fill the remaining slots. Pick none of the above but one. Allow others to slip in a suggestion. I could fill the rest with Medieval or Asian literature alone.
Thanks for the wonderful input, Satia. Wharton has been on my short-list for a while and after reading your review of Ethan Frome, I have even more incentive to finally read some of her work.
ReplyDelete"The Tale of Genji" seems mighty intimidating! I've heard great things about "A Suitable Boy" as well, but its massive length scares me as well. I tend to prefer brevity but I wouldn't mind attempting to take on this beast.
Despite my interest in mythology, I'd prefer to keep this list restricted to fiction. However, I'm willing to include non-fiction or essays. I would be greatly honored for some more Asian literature to diversify this list! :)
I've enjoyed two of Anchee Min's books very much. I've heard good things about Hai Jin.
ReplyDeleteHaruki Marukami is on my Neverending-to-Be-Read-List. I started to read I Am the Cat by Soseki but my daughter's cat, who had been in our family for over ten years, died and it was difficult for me to read it. I want to finish it.
I loved Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things which I recently re-read. I haven't read but also have on my list And I want to read Salman Rushdie now that I've read the Quran. And I also want to read Jumpha Lahiri whose works I've also heard praised.
I'm not familiar enough with other areas of Asia to recommend many others and most of what I've mentioned above is recommended to me by people whom I trust. You might also consider The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon which is nonfiction but less daunting than The Tale of Genji.
Which two books by Anchee Min would they be? Empress Orchid and Red Azalea sound intriguing.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your cat. Losing a pet is always difficult. >.<
Marukami is one of those authors that I can't seem to get into. Maybe its the translation? Dunno, he's just not for me.
I will add The God of Small Things to the list for sure and perhaps some Jumpha Lahiri since she is often held in high esteem. Rushdie is awesome! Midnight's Children is one of the most powerful and politically charged magical realism novels that I have ever read. I plan on re-reading it for this challenge.
Thanks again for the recommendations!
Oh, how fun!! And what a great list. I'll be following eagerly. :-)
ReplyDelete(I'm currently reading Sense and Sensibility - LOVE it.) :-)
I'm slowly warming up to Austen and look forward to your thoughts on S+S. Thanks for stopping by Jillian! :D
ReplyDeleteGreat list Jason. As would be expected our lists have a lot of overlap. However, two of my favorites I don't see here are: Lord of the Flies and The Lord of the Rings. Fantasy isn't every one's cup of tea, so I'll forgive if you choose not to add LOTR, but you MUST add Lord of the Flies.
ReplyDeleteThanks for adding me to your blogroll; I've returned the favor.
Hi Joseph, thanks for stopping by! The reason those two aren't on the list is because I've read them already. Both favorites. Got any other recommendations? :)
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing you've read Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, not to be confused with The Invisible man by H.G. Wells. I'd highly recommend that if you haven't.
DeleteTo be clear, I'm recommending Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.
DeleteYes, I've read both of those actually even though its been at least 15 years since reading Invisible Man and my memory of it is rather hazy. A possible re-read perhaps.
Delete