The piggy notebook passed over this great link to a list of the greatest books published since the year of my birth as compiled by Waterstone’s employees and reported by The Telegraph. According to The Telegraph:
The company asked its 5,000 staff to name their favorite five books written since 1982, the date Waterstone’s opened its first store.
Compared to most lists of this type, I can relate to this one a lot more because it only includes books that have been published since my birth. And because I like lists, here’s a list of the exactly 50 books from The Telegraph list that I have read:
- God Delusion, Richard Dawkins
- Labyrinth, Kate Mosse
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
- Small Island, Andrea Levy
- The Time Traveller’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
- The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
- The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
- A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
- Notes on a Scandal, Zoe Heller
- The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
- Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
- Life of Pi, Yann Martel
- Atonement, Ian McEwan
- Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
- The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic, Sophie Kinsella
- White Teeth, Zadie Smith
- Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
- Chocolat, Joanne Harris
- Disgrace, JM Coetzee
- Holes, Louis Sachar
- Poisonwood Bible, Margaret Atwood
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
- Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
- The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
- Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
- Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt
- High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
- A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
- A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
- Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
- Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
- Shipping News, Annie Proulx
- English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
- Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby
- American Psycho, Bret Ellis
- LA Confidential, James Ellroy
- A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
- Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris
- The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
- A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
- Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood
- Watchmen, Alan Moore
- Perfume, Patrick Suskind
- Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
- Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
- Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
- The BFG, Roald Dahl
(There are tons of great books on that list, but if you’re looking to start somewhere, the ones in a bold font weight are the titles I most highly recommend.)
As you can tell, there’s still a whole lot of books I have left to read from the list, and I’m willing to take suggestions as to what I should start with. Once I get home from London, I’m hitting up the public library.
Hmm, of your list of fifty, I’ve read nine. Of the entire Telegraph list, I’ve read fourteen. No wonder you’re so much smarter than me, lol!
Smarter? Hardly. The fact that I’ve read most of those books just means I’m not original and I just follow the crowd. =)
You put me to shame. I’ve read a bunch of those, but not as many as you.
I used to read a whole lot. A whole whole lot.
Now, I read on the web or read magazines and periodicals. When it comes to recent books, I’m sure you’ve beaten me out.
of course, the real tragedy in not being able to meet up this week is that i can’t give you the copy of ‘White Teeth’ that I brought for you! I got it @ the Strand in NYC and figured it’d be fun to pass along, but I’m sure you’ll find it @ the library just fine. :)
Oh man! Brussels was fun, but it would have been so much more fun to hang out with you!