Merry Christmas

What a great day.  I woke up early and witnessed Manchester United crush Aston Villa 3 - 0.  I'm a happy, happy man when the Red Devils win.  My day got even better when I got to work and found a gift on my desk.  My good friend K. left me (no. 273 from my list) The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse.  I work with such thoughtful and wonderful people.

Thank you K. your kindness is very much appreciated.  As soon as I finish The world according to Garp I will read The Glass Bead Game.

Peter

Update

 

 

 

I decided to check out my reading progress this year.  This year I have read 22 books and have another 2 books on the go. I am hoping to finish the 2 books by the end of the year.  If my math is correct I will have completed all 501 books in……..16 and a half years.  Yikes!  That is a lot of years.  Thankfully I had already read War and Peace.  Ulysses frightens me.  But I always knew I read that book one day.  Maybe that is a book I’ll start reading January 1^st.   The difficulty will be sourcing some of the books.  I have the public library which has most of them, the Amazon store and kindle e-books will have most of the rest but there are just some that I am having trouble finding. 

 

For instance, number 34 on my list is Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang – by Mordecai Richler.  I am trying to find a copy of this and not buy it from Amazon.  I love Mordecai Richler (I once had the pleasure of meeting his son Daniel Richler….while my friend asked him if he had any drugs to sell) and the fact that he has written a children’s book really intrigues me.  If anyone reading this post has a copy of Jacob Two-Two and would like to give/lend me this book please leave a comment on this post.  It would really help out my quest. 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for the next 16.5 years.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

I think the next time I read a book like Norman Mailers The executioners song I will follow that up with a kids book like Heidi.  Such a light hearted bouncy book, set in the Swiss Alps.  I usually listen to music while I’m reading books.  I have a steady diet of Arcade Fire, U2 or David Bowie but all that music felt so alien while reading Heidi.  I had to switch to Mozart.  Once that happened I  was completely absorbed in the story.  I didn’t read any of these books when I was a kid.  My childhood reading was practically nothing but the 3Investigators.  I read those books any chance I could get.  Going back over these kids book now is quite a joy. 

 

Obviously this book will appeal to any younger girl that you have in the family (in fact they are being currently sent to my nieces in Canada for Christmas presents).  Christianity also plays a big part in the book but thankfully it doesn’t hit you over the head with religion.  It was written in the late 1800’s so you have to take it for granted that religion will be part of the story.  There is also a plethora of movie and animated adaptations.  The most famous was in done in 1937 starring Shirley Temple as Heidi.  As you have noticed I haven’t gone into the story at all.  I think that is something that you should discover on your own.

 

Next book on the list:

 

 

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

It has been years since I've seen a 2001: Space Odyssey.  So long ago in fact that I had forgotten most of the story.  For that reason this book was fresh and I wasn't comparing it to the movie.  As I started to do research into the book a few things surprised me.  The book was written pretty much at the same time as the movie script.  It flushed out the story and Stanley Kubrick had a lot of input on how the book was written.  It has similar qualities to I, Robot but 2001: A Space Odyssey is much creepier and menacing.  I wouldn't want to be stuck in a space ship with HAL. 

I read this book while on holiday at the beach.  I stopped reading The Executioners Song (not a good beach book) and picked up this one instead.  A beach holiday is not the same without a good piece of fiction.  That holiday will always be entwined with this novel.

If you are into science fiction you have probably read this book, if you are just getting into science fiction this is a must.  Read this and I, Robot.  It will help a lot.

Next book on my list:

The Executioners song by Norman Mailer

 

This book really got to me.  I wasn't expecting that.  Not that I'm a jaded MOFO but I've read a lot of books that deal with murder and the victims of murder.  But, maybe the fact that this book is based on real life murderer Gary Gilmore, his family, victims, trial and eventual execution by firing squad was the reason why it stuck with me.  I was so involved that I had to put the book down a few times and immerse myself in other "happier" works of fiction. 

 

I wouldn't suggest picking up this book unless you can handle heartbreak.  For this book will break your heart and will make you squirm and you will put it down in disgust.  If you can handle it.....read it.

 

My next book will be:

 



 

 

 

 

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (2nd attempt)

The Three Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

The 3 laws you see above, dominate the book.  Every chapter reinforces the importance of the 3 laws.   Each chapter is like a short story about Robots.  There are certain characters that filter through but for the most part they are stand alone stories.  The first chapter is written like a children's story or a cautionary fairytale.  As you get deeper into the book the stories become more complex and deal with some weighty subject matter.  The final 2 chapters are the most interesting with the argument is man better with or without computers its centre piece.

It is very clear the influence that Isaac Asimov had on Science Fiction.  The amount of books and short stories that Asimov has completed is astounding.  This maybe said a lot but there wouldn't be Science Fiction without Asimov.  This a great read if you have never delved into Science Fiction before and want to get at its heart and soul.


Next book is

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (first attempt)

 

I took out I, Robot from the Brisbane library today.  At least I thought it was I, Robot.  It turns I got out the MacMillan Readers version of it.  This is what is written on the back of the book:

 

This series provides a wide variety of enjoyable reading material for all learners of English.  MacMillan Readers are retold versions of popular classic and contemporary titles as well as specially written stories, published at six levels.  This book is level 4 Pre-intermediate.

 

So I guess I'll be taking this book back and I'll try to get the real version of I, Robot.

 



What we talk about when we talk about love - Raymon Carver

This book was published in 1981.  One year after the death of Raymond Carver.  This is the first Raymond Carver book that I have read.  It will likely be my last.  This collection of short stories has left me wanting.  Just when the story is going somewhere or is about to go in an interesting direction the writer ends it.  The stories themselves are  at times so mundane that I wonder what is the point?  It could also be that this is way beyond my intellectual level and that while I am just scratching the surface others will get so much more out of these stories.  I hope so.  He is a brilliant writer I just wish there was more meat on this bone.  Also, as I was reading I couldn't help but feel some of these stories felt familiar.  After a little bit of research I found out that some of these stories were used for Robert Altmans movie Short Cuts.  Which is my favorite Robert Altman movie. 

Have you read any Raymond Carver that you would recommend?  Leave a comment here for others to read.

The next book I am reading is:

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Its really amusing how life works out.  I had totally planned on reading another book but somehow I started to read A Connecticut Yankee.  Mark Twain is a genius and is funny as hell.  This is one of the first time-travel books ever published and it's great.  The story follows the adventure of a Yankee from Connecticut who mysteriously ends up in England during the middle ages.  This is not a kids book akin to Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Fin.  It's a book full of political intrigue and grown up thoughts.  Twain was a republican and very much hated the British noble by birth or fealty to a sovereign.  It was released in 1889 but the spirit of 1776 (American Revolution) bleeds through this book.  Here is a great example of his republican spirit:

The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for rags—that is a loyalty of unreason, it is pure animal; it belongs to monarchy, was invented by monarchy; let monarchy keep it....


Another thing I very much enjoyed in this book are Twain's not so veiled cracks at the Catholic church.  He did not like the Church and did not hide from that fact.  Actually the whole book is about debunking the Monarchy.  The main characters goal is to turn Camelot (this perceived moral pinnacle of English life) into America.  If you think that would be a good thing or not I'll leave up to the reader.  It's quite clear that this book has influenced so many other time-travel books.  Many of its themes have been explored by so many other books that a few times I had wondered if I had already read this. 

I really loved this work of fiction.

The next book I am going to read is:

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

This is the second book in a row that I read from Wilkie Collins.  The first being the Women in White.  I loved both these books and it really is a shame that I had never heard of Wilkie Collins before.  He is a wonderful writer.  Even though the books are set in the 1850's they do not feel dated at all.  The characters weave in and out of the story beautifully.  The Moonstone is constructed in the same way as the Women in White.  Many characters taking turn at taking over the narrative of the story.  It's a really great way for the author to tell the story in different voices.  For example part of the narrative is written by a Mr. Bruff.  A highly educated lawyer whose narrative is concise and logical and deals with truths.  Another narrative is done by Drusilla Clack.  A poor cousin of the main characters (and a pain in the ass) who believes (as a good Christian woman) that everyone should lead good Christian lives.  Thankfully, she is dismissed and ridiculed by every other character in the novel.

The Moonstone is also considered the first detective novel written in the english language. 

The next book I'm going to read is:

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

 

I had never heard of the Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.  Which is a shame.  I really loved reading this book.  Mr Collins has this very simple yet direct way to tell a story.  The story unfolds very slowly but once it gets going its hard to put it down.  The book's narrative is done in many voices.  Major and minor characters take turns to describe versions of the story and its not till about halfway through the book that the main betrayal starts to reveal itself.  The appearance of Count Fosco is a delight.  We don't find out till quite late is he is a hero or a villain. 

 

I was so delighted by this book that I'm going to read the other Wilkie Collins book in the 501 must read books.  The Moonstone.  Which apparently is a great detective story.  Review coming shortly.

 

 

 



The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin

I really tried to love this book.  Darwin is a hero of mine.  Origin of the Species is truly one of the great books of all times.  The things that make Origin so great is what (for me) made this book very slow and tedious.  It is the same problem that I had with the Jack London book (Cruise of the snark).  Too much information about very small things.  In Darwin's case he writes page after page about specific birds and how these birds are different then other birds.  For people who like and care about these things then this is the book for you.  I put the book down and picked up a work of fiction instead.

The book I've picked up instead is the Wilkie Collins book The Woman in White.  It's one of those books that after reading 2 paragraphs I knew I would love.  I've read over 100 pages and its a great book.  Review coming soon.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott



I knew nothing of this book.  I've heard of it and thought I might read it one day.  But I was quite clueless going in.  I perceived it might be a pretty book.  Full of ribbons. bows,  sugar and spice and everything nice.  This book contains all this.  But there is so much more.  There is a heartbeat that does not cease in it's (digital) pages.  The author reveals truths and lessons for young women as she writes.  There are moments which are tender and other moments that have light hearted frivolity.  The end of the book has a mixture of joy and utter sadness mingled in nicely.  Saying that I did found myself distant from this book.  It did not effect me emotionally.  Both the happy and sad passages were taken very earnestly by this reader.  This surprised me as I am usually a person that books effect quite deeply.  Maybe one day if I ever re-read this story I would get more emotionally involved.  What I hope is that I have not setup these books that I am reading as a task.  Getting through as many books as I can and checking them off my list.  I'm hoping that will never be the case as fiction and reading is a true love of mine. 

If you have a young daughter then this is a must read book for them.  It is very tender and sweet and there is a light that shines through the (digital) pages.  I just hope you are able to have an emotional response that I can't quite get.

Next book on my list is the voyage of the beagle by Charles Darwin.

The Cruise of the Snark by Jack London

The beginning of this book is amazing.  Jack London delves into the reason why he has decided to sail around the world.  He lists all his theories and all the problems in building and funding  the 45ft Snark. It is so detailed and exact that you understand the term best laid plans of mice and men.  I'm thoroughly impressed by detail oriented people.  God bless list makers and accountants.  I do not live in detail and lists (says the man who is writing a blog about 501 books!) and get turned on by people that envision a project from seed to tree.

As I go through this book it is failing to keep my interest.  Almost 40% of the book is either about building the Snark or about the first destination of the boat (Hawaii).  While there are still some lovely passages, the author starts to write about eating deep sea turtles and the joys of catching and eating Dolphin my interest wavers.  It could be my 21st century mind creeping in but I am not a fan of eating Dolphin or Turtles.  Call me old fashioned. 

As I delved deeper into the book it has continued to disappoint me.  Some of the strengths I liked in the beginning were the things that really let me down.  For starters there is a part in the book where Mr. London describes how he figured out his latitude and longitude.  He drones on for almost 20 pages.  In the end I've had to stop reading the book so I still don't know how the rest of the trip went.  Maybe I'll come back to it.....maybe not.  It has driven me crazy.

This is a book for you trainspotters out there.  I'm not one of you. 5/10

My next book is:

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I read this book when I was a kid.  Or at least I thought I had.  As I am reading/re-reading I'm not remembering much of it.  I've seen TV and movie adaptions of course but the story feels new to me which was a nice surprise.  Huck of course is resourceful and funny.  Some of the hijinks's are great and his planning and escaping near danger is what gives this book its classic nature. 

The one problem I am having with is his companion Jim.  I'm not put off by the repeated use of n-word.  As much as I hate it now I understand that when Twain was writing it was common practice to write characters in such a way.  It's his speech that is throwing me off.  Maybe it's my 21 century brain that is having trouble figuring it out.

Huck Fin really is an incredible character.  Twain really nailed it with this one.  Such a clever little chap.  Always has mischief in his mind.  Sometimes his mischief leads to bad results but most of the time he is just having some fun.  This is a book that all kids should read.  Huck keeps getting in jams with very narrow escapes.  He meets all sorts of interesting people on the river.  Give this to your child right now!

Brave new world by Aldus Huxley

 

 

I just finished this book.  I'm not sure how I feel about it.  First off, I can't believe this book was published in 1931.  It feels much more modern then that.  It has left me feeling cold to be honest.  This book depicts the future world without soul.  I am not referring to soul in a religious sense.  But soulless in the sense of feeling human.  Love, doesn't exist.  Instead people are urged to give themselves freely to each other sexually.  Babies are not born but grown in labs with futures already certain.  You are either a worker or an intellectual.  The populace is encouraged to take a drug which will always make them feel better.  Soma the drug of the masses.  But what happens when you bring in a person from the outside world?  Someone who believes in God and has read Shakespear? 

 

I'm not sure why I didn't like this book as much as I imagined I would.  Maybe I'm not intellegent enough to grasp it?  I'm not sure the reason but it took me forever to finish this book.  Its not a very long book but it took me ages....which usually means I'm not totally into it.  I rate this book 7/10.

 

If you are smart as a whip and usually get stuff then this is the book for you!

 

I am going to tackle Jack London's The Cruise of the Snark.  I hope it is interesting.

 



The Crusades through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf

 

I love history.  The Crusades has always been a topic that I was drawn to.  The world changed after the Crusades.  I've always read books from the Christian or Western point of view.  This book was fascinating because all the sources were from Muslim Chronicles.  I can now understand why and how the first crusade was so successful.  The Muslim world (like Europe) was fractured.  Egypt was not friends with the Turks.  Baghdad wasn't getting on with Damascus and so forth and so forth.  In many ways the east were far advanced in science, medicine and obviously mathematics.  Algebra was one of the things that came to Europe because of the Crusades (art, medical practices and the carrier pigeon were other things that the Europeans took back with them). 

 

Muslims saw the Christians are barbarians.  Uneducated blood thirsty warriors(there were a few stories of Christians eating Muslims that they had just killed).  It would take 200 years before Saladin was able to bring forces together to finally kick them out of the Holy Land.  The author goes on to explain while the Christians took so many things back with them the Muslims rejected everything and anything Christian.  This maybe as simple as invader/invaded.  The conquerors take and the invaded reject.  In fact many Muslims believe Crusades are still going on in the middle east and have a mistrust of the west dating back to the 1100.  This book is a must read for all the history buffs out there.  It takes a different spin on a sad and desperate time. 

 

I rate this book 10/10.

 

I am now reading Brave new world by Aldous Huxley

The Hound of Baskervilles - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 

 

I love the Sherlock Holmes series.  I love the movies, the TV adaptations, the graphic novels.  I'm a sucker for Holmes.  The adaptations have been very extreme. My favourite (recent) re-imagining of the story would have to be Sherlock.  This modern day Sherlock Holmes uses technology as one of his tools to unravel mysteries.  What I think the series does very well is Holmes interview style.  In the books Holmes always gets his clients to tell a story.  His deduction begins with hearing this story.  The movies (Robert Downey Jnr) does not do this as much.  Instead it uses action as a way to progress the story.  Another adaptation is Elementary which places Sherlock in modern day New York city.  His faithful companion Watson is played by Chinese American actress Lucy Liu.  Interesting choice and I look forward to this exploration.

 

But let's get back to the book.  The Hound of Baskervilles was originally published in 1901.  It is very different then the Sherlock Holmes case books as this book deals only with one mystery.  The casebooks deal with many different stories.  Another change in this book is that Holmes disappears from most of the book.  Watson becomes the main character and we follow his adventures.  Holmes eventually comes back into the story and the mystery is solved in the most wonderfully logical way.

 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a really amazing person.  I love how Holmes always uses logic, reason and observation as a way to solve mysteries that seem mythical or other worldly.  But Conan Doyle himself was involved in the occult and would dabble in séances.  He even believed in fairies for goodness sake. 

 

I rate this book 10/10

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

 

 

This was a pretty easy read.  While I had never read the book I knew the story pretty well.  Mostly from TV or movie adaptations.  There were no moments in the book that didn't seem familiar.  In fact it really felt like I was re-reading this book.

 

Dickens is a wonderful writer and while this is no Great Expectations (my favorite Dickens story) it was still a wonderful read.  There is not much I can say about the story.  For I am sure you know it yourself very well.  I remember in grade 3 (or was it grade 4?) being in a play version of this story.  I was the young boy who Scrooge gets to buy the big prize winning turkey near the end.  I only had 2 or 3 lines but I remember that I made a very distinct costume choice.  I needed to have a wool hat.  Don't know why this wool hat was so important.  Oh well.  Give this book to your kids to read.

 

8/10

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

 

 

I have setup an E-Book library at work.  All the books in the E-Book library are from Gutenberg website.  This offers free E-Books that are out of copyright.  I try to read some classics when I have a break.  I've been reading Peter Pan for awhile now and finally finished today. 

 

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book.  I've watched the cartoon and various movie adaptations over the years.  I didn't think any of them were any good (except this one and I guess I didn't mind this one which had the most beautiful Tinkerbell ever!) so I wasn't sure what to expect with this book.  It is very whimsical.  It made me laugh in parts.  A solid kids book.  Not very dark with enough drama and a pinch of making fun of adults that every child loves. 

 

This book is a great accompaniment to the movies and I would suggest all parents either read or give it to your kids to read. 

 

I give this book 7/10

Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell

 

 

I had a mixed reaction to this book.  The writing was superb and the story itself was entertaining and riveting.  I guess the problem I had was I wanted to know more.  What had happened to Mr. Orwell in 1928 that had him down and out?  It just starts off with him being hard up.  I wanted to know how he got there.  The book is jam packed with interesting characters and mad situations.  The black humour is plentiful, the descriptions of hunger and idleness are exact.  If anything there is too much of it.  By the end of the book you are beat over the head with tales of hunger and the scams that people on the street pull to get a cup of tea and loaf of bread.  You also get the feeling that the author is holidaying as a tramp.  That he could get out when ever it suited him.  The book was released in the early 1930's and the antisemitism is rife.  Not so much from the author but from the people in the book.  Most of the people he encounters in Paris are Russians who have fled from the revolution. That left me a little cold.

 

The weird thing about reading down and out is that the last 30 or 40 pages were read during a 2 day power outage at my house.  Brisbane Australia is currently undergoing its 2nd flood in 3 years and we have been without power.  I thought that it was right and just that this was the book I was reading.....saying that I was reading the book on my Kindle and I also had a book light.  So maybe not so primitive after all.

 

I do wonder if I would have had a better reception to this book if I had just not read a grief observed and the power and glory.  2 very sad and depressing books.  Maybe it wasn't time for me to start another book about being down and out.  Lesson learned for the next time.  Saying that the next book I am reading is - The Crusades through Arab Eyes – Amin Maalouf - I hear that's a laugh a minute.

 

I rate Down and out in Paris and London 7 out of 10.

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

 

I have not had the pleasure of reading any books by Graham Greene before I read the Power and the Glory.  What a shame.  This novel has moved me deeply.  The book is considered by many to be his masterpiece and I can see why.  I could not put it down and completed it in just over 2 days.

 

The story follows a priest in Tabasco Mexico that is being hunted down because he is a priest.  In certain states in Mexico in the 1940's the Marxists had come to power and this revolution lead to the violent suppression of the Catholic Church by the "Red Shirts".  Priests were killed and church land confiscated.  I'm an atheist and believe the church and any religion has led man down the garden path and as soon as mankind kicks religion off our pant leg and we swim for shore the world will be a better place.  But I am also a pacifist and reject violence done to anyone for their beliefs to be wrong and disgusting.

 

The most powerful scene in the book is when the priest has to steal a bone off a dog to eat because of hunger.  He is being pursued from town to town by the authorities and in many ways becomes an animal himself.  What I also loved about this book is that the priest was not represented as a perfect character or a saint.  His flaws are on the surface and very human.  There is a unique Judas character that floats through the book that was also pulls you in all sorts of directions.

 

I'm very curious to read more Graham Greene.  If Hemingway is my North Pole and Oscar Wilde is my South Poll then I think Greene can be my equator.  I rate this book 10 out of 10.

 

My next book is Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell.

 



Oscar Wilde and C.S. Lewis

 

 

De Profundis by Oscar Wilde and A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis are two of the saddest memoirs I have ever read.  2 modern day literary giants at the lowest points of their lives and its documented in these wonderful reads.

 

De Profundis finds Oscar Wilde in prison serving a 2 year sentence for gross indecency.  Meaning he was in prison for being gay.  De Profundis released in 1905 (5 years after his death) is a letter written to his former lover Lord Alfred Douglas.  Wilde is defeated in this memoir.  The world has broken him.  Gone is the witty and humorous Wilde.  He has been replaced by a sad beaten man.  Still present is his genius.  He weaves his magic and we see inside his soul.  If only Wilde lived in an age where his sexual preference mattered little.  How many more works of brilliance would we have? 

 

 

A Grief Observed has C.S. Lewis devastated after the death of his wife to bone cancer.  Lewis married later in life and the death of his wife had him question his relationship with God.  In the early chapters he wonders if God actually exists.  I found this fascinating.  C.S. Lewis one of the greatest modern Christian apologists is at the cross roads.  This made me love Lewis even more.  I like writers that have dirt under their fingernails and this sad lament was moving.  As the book draws to a close the writer renews his relationship with God and we see a hopeful Lewis look forward to his future.

 

If you want to see two masters at work pick up De Profundis and A Grief Observed.  You will not be disappointed.

 

The next book I will be reading is The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene.

 



The 501 must read books (the ones I have read are in red)

Complete List of 501 Must Read Books

Children’s Literature

1.Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
2.Fairy Tales – Hans Christian Andersen
3.Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie
4.The Wonderful World of Oz – L. Frank Baum
5.The Last Unicorn – Peter S. Beagle
6.The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
7.Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
8.Pinocchio – Carlo Collodi
9.Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
10.Sophie’s World – Jostein Gaarder
11.The Weirdstone of Brisingamen – Alan Garner
12.The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
13.Children’s and Household Tales – Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
14.The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
15.Emil and the Detectives – Erich Kästner
16.Just So Stories – Rudyard Kipling
17.The Complete Nonsense Books – Edward Lear
18.A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
19.The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
20.Pippi Longstocking – Astrid Lindgren
21.Dr Dolittle – Hugh Lofting
22.At the Back of the North Wind – George Macdonald
23.Nobody’s Boy – Hector Malot
24.Winnie-the-Pooh – A.A. Milne
25.Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
26.Five Children and It – E. Nesbit
27.Tom’s Midnight Garden – Philippa Pearce
28.The War of the Buttons – Louis Pergaud
29.Fairy Tales – Charles Perrault
30.The Tale of Peter Rabbit – Beatrix Potter
31.The Colour of Magic – Terry Pratchett
32.Northern Lights – Philip Pullman (aka. The Golden Compass)
33.Swallows and amazons – Arthur Ransome
34.Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang – Mordecai Richler
35.Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling
36.The King of the Golden River – John Ruskin
37.The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
38.The Human Comedy – William Saroyan
39.The Misfortunes of Sophie – Comtesse de Segur
40.Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak
41.And To Think That I Saw It On Mulburry Street – Dr Seuss
42.Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
43.The Golem – Isaac Bashevis Singer
44.Heidi – Johanna Spyri
45.Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
46.The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien
47.Mary Poppins – P.L. Travers
48.Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
49.The Sword in the Stone – T.H. White
50.Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm – Kate Douglas Wiggin
51.The Happy Prince and Other Tales – Oscar Wilde

Classic Fiction

52.The Epic of Gilgamesh – Anonymous
53.The Thousand and One Nights – Anonymous
54.Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55.Old Goriot – Honoré de Balzac
56.Vathek: an Arabian Tale – William Beckford
57.Lady Audley’s Secret – Mary Elisabeth Braddon
58.Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
59.Wuthering Heights – Emil Brontë
60.The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan
61.The Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chauser
62.The Collected Stories – Anton Chekhov
63.The Man Who Was Thursday – G.K. Chesterton
64.Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure – John Cleland
65.The Moonstone: a Romance – Wilkie Collins
66.The Hound of Baskerville – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
67.Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
68.Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
69.The Christmas Books – Charles Dickens
70.Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens
71.Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
72.Middlemarch: A Study in Provincial Life – George Eliot
73.Tom Jones – Henry Fielding
74.The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
75.Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
76.Howards End – E.M. Forster
77.North and South – Elisabeth Gaskell
78.The Sorrows of Young Werther – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
79.The Vicar of Wakefiled – Oliver Goldsmith
80.The Power and the Glory – Graham Greene
81.King Solomon’s Mines – H. Rider Haggard
82.Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
83.The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
84.Moby Dick – Herman Melville
85.The Portrait of a Lady – Henry James
86.The Iliad – Homer
87.Les Misérables (The Wretched) – Victor Hugo
88.Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome
89.Kim – Rudyard Kipling
90.Bliss and Other Stories – Katherine Mansfield
91.Utopia – Sir Thomas More
92.Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque – Edgar Alan Poe
93.In Search of Lost Time – Marcel Proust
94.A Silician Romance – Anne Radcliffe
95.Clarissa – Samuel Richardson
96.Waverley – Sir Walter Scott
97.Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
98.The Red and the Black – Stendhal
99.The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
100.Dracula – Bram Stoker
101.Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
102.Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thakeray
103.War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
104.Barchester Towers – Anthony Trollope
105.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
106.Candide, or Optimism – Voltaire
107.The Castle of Otranto – Horace Walpole
108.The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton
109.The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
110.To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
111.La Bête Humaine – Émile Zola

History
112.London The Biography – Peter Ackroyd
113.Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life – John Lee Anderson
114.The Hour of Our Death – Philippe Aries
115.Berlin The Downfall – Antony Beevor
116.The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II – Fernand Braudel
117.The Pleasures of Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century – John Brewer
118.Frozen Desire: An Enquiry Into the Meaning of Money – James Buchan
119.Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives – Alan Bullock
120.The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy – Jacob Burckhardt
121.Daily Life in Ancient Rome – Jerome Carcopino
122.The Accursed Kings – Maurice Druon
123.The Age of the Cathedrals – Georges Duby
124.The Stripping of the Altars – Eamon Duffy
125.Rites of Spring – Modris Eksteins
126.The Wretched of the Earth – Franz Fanon
127.Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire – Niall Ferguson
128.Millennium – Felipe Fernández-Armesto
129.Pagans and Christians – Robin Lane Fox
130.The End of History and the Last Man – Francis Fukuyama
131.The Naked Heart – Peter Gay
132.The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – Edward Gibbon
133.The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy – Martin Gilbert
134.The Cheese and the Worms – Carlo Ginzburg
135.God’s First Love – Friedrich Heer
136.Histories – Herodotus
137.Hiroshima – John Hersey
138.The Fatal Shore – Robert Hughes
139.Pandaemonium – Humphrey Jennings
140.A History of Warfare – John Keegan
141.A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies – Bartolomé de las Casas
142.Seven Pillars of Wisdom – Thomas Edwards Lawrence
143.Islam in History – Bernard Lewis
144.Chinese Shadows – Simon Leys
145.The Crusades through Arab Eyes – Amin Maalouf
146.The Defeat of the Spanish Armada – Garrett Mattingly
147.The Story of English – Robert Mccrum, William Cran, Robert Macneil
148.The Ornament of the World – Maria Rosa Menocal
149.The Women’s History of the World – Rosalind Miles
150.Pax Britannica: The Climax of an Empire – Jan Morris
151.Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade – Henri Pirenne
152.Parallel Lives – Plutarch
153.Flesh in the Age of Reason – Roy Porter
154.Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution – Simon Schama
155.Leviathan and the Air-Pump – Steven Shapin, Simon Schaffer
156.The Decline of the West – Oswald Spengler
157.The Trial of Socrates – Isador Stone
158.Annals of Imperial Rome – Tacitus
159.The Origins of the Second World War – A.J.P. Taylor
160.A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century – Barbara M. Tuchman
161.A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn

Memoirs

162.Paula – Isabel Allende
163.Journal Intime – Henri-Frédéric Amiel
164.Aubrey’s Brief Lives – John Aubrey
165.Confessions – Augustine
166.Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter – Simone de Beauvoir
167.My Left Foot – Christy Brown
168.The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini – Benvenuto Cellini
169.The Unquiet Grave: A Word Cycle by Palinurus – Cyril Connolly
170.Boy: Tales of Childhood – Roald Dahl
171.My Family and Other Animals – Gerald Durrell
172.An Angel at my Table – Janet Frame
173.The Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank
174.Journals 1889-1949 – Andre Paul Guillaume Gide
175.Poetry and Truth: From My Own Life – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
176.Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments – Edmund Gosse
177.Ways of Escape – Graham Greene
178.Black Like Me – John Howard Griffin
179.84, Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff
180.Pentimento – Lillian Hellman
181.Childhood, Youth and Exile – Alexander Herzen
182.The Diary of Alice James – Alice James
183.Memoirs, Dreams, Reflections – Carl Gustav Jung
184.Diaries 1919-23 – Franz Kafka
185.The Story of My Life – Helen Keller
186.The Book of Margery Kempe – Margery Kempe
187.I Will Bear Witness – Victor Klemperer
188.In the Castle of My Skin – George Lamming
189.A Grief Observed – C.S. Lewis
190.The Towers of Trebizond – Rose Macauley
191.Journal of Katherine Mansfield – Katherine Mansfield
192.The Seven Storey Mountain – Thomas Merton
193.The Pursuit of Love – Nancy Mitford
194.Borrowed Time – Paul Monette
195.My Place – Sally Morgan
196.Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited – Vladimir Nabokov
197.Reading Lolita in Teheran: A Memoir in Books – Azar Nafisi
198.Memoirs – Pablo Neruda
199.Portrait of a Marriage – Nigel Nicolson
200.Running in the Family – Michael Ondaatje
201.Down an Out in Paris and London – George Orwell
202.Autobiography of a Yogi – Paramahansa Yogananda
203.Diary – Samuel Pepys
204.Letters – Pliny The Younger
205.Confessions – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
206.Words – Jean-Paul Sartre
207.Journal of a Solitude – May Sarton
208.Walden – Henry David Thoreau
209.De Profundis – Oscar Wilde
210.Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson
211.Autobiographies – William Butler Yeats

Modern Fiction

212.Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
213.Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands – Jorge Amado
214.Le Grand Meaulnes – Alain-Fournier
215.Take a Girl Like You – Kingsley Amis
216.Winesburg, Ohio – Sherwood Anderson
217.Surfacing – Margaret Atwood
218.The New York Trilogy – Paul Auster
219.Tales of Odessa – Isaak Babel
220.Giovanni’s Room – James Baldwin
221.The Sweet Hereafter – Russell Banks
222.The Regeneration Trilogy – Pat Barker
223.Herzog – Saul Bellow
224.Ficciones – Jorge Luis Borges
225.Nadja – André Breton
226.The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov
227.The Naked Lunch – William Burroughs
228.Possession – A.S. Byatt
229.If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller – Italo Calvino
230.The Outsider – Albert Camus
231.Auto da Fé – Elias Canetti
232.Oscar and Lucinda – Peter Carey
233.The Kingdom of This World – Alejo Carpentier
234.The Bloody Chamber – Angela Carter
235.What We Talk about When We Talk about Love – Raymond Carver
236.The Horse’s Mouse – Joyce Carey
237.Journey to the End of Night – Louis-Ferdinand Celine
238.Soldier of Salamis – Javier Cercas
239.The Stories of John Cheever – John Cheever
240.Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee
241.Chéri – Colette
242.Victory – Joseph Conrad
243.A House and Its Head – Ivy Compton-Burnett
244.Fifth Business – William Robertson Davies
245.Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
246.Underworld – Don Delillo
247.Seven Gothic Tales – Isak Dinesen ( also known as Karen Blixen )
248.Berlin Alexanderplatz – Alfred Doblin
249.Once Were Warriors – Alan Duff
250.Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
251.The Lover – Marguerite Duras
252.The Alexandria Quartet – Lawrence George Durrell
253.The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
254.The Neverending Story – Michael Ende
255.The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
256.The Wars – Timothy Findley
257.The Good Soldier – Ford Maddox Ford
258.Wildlife – Richard Ford
259.A Passage to India – E.M. Forster
260.The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen
261.Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
262.The Blue Flower – Penelope Fitzgerald
263.From the Fifteenth District – Mavis Gallant
264.One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez
265.Our Lady of the Flowers – Jean Genet
266.Lord of the Flies – William Golding
267.July’s People – Nadine Gordimer
268.FerdyDurke – Witold Gombrowicz
269.The Tin Drum – Günter Grass
270.Hunger – Knut Hamsun
271.The Blind Owl – Sadegh Hedayat
272.The Old Man and the Sea – Earnest Hemingway
273.The Glass Bead Game – Hermann Hesse
274.Lost Horizon – James Hilton
275.A High Wind in Jamaica – Richard Hughes
276.The World According to Garp – John Irving
277.Berlin Stories – Christopher Isherwood
278.The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
279.Ulysses – James Joyce
280.The File on H – Ismail Kadare
281.The Trial – Franz Kafka
282.It – Stephen King
283.The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
284.The Leopard – Guiseppe Di Lampedusa
285.The Diviners – Margaret Laurence
286.Women in Love – D.H. Lawrence
287.The Golden Notebook – Doris Lessing
288.The Periodic Table – Primo Levi
289.Changing Places – David Lodge
290.The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas – J.M. Machado de Assis
291.The Cairo Trilogy – Naguib Mahfouz
292.The Executioner’s Song – Norman Mailer
293.God’s Grace – Bernard Malamud
294.An Imaginary Life – David Malouf
295.The Magic Mountain – Thomas Mann
296.Embers – Sándor Márai
297.Life of Pi – Yann Martel
298.Cakes and Ale – W. Somerset Maugham
299.The Group – Mary McCarthy
300.The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers
301.Enduring Love – Ian McEwan
302.The Sea of Fertility – Yukio Mishima
303.A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
304.Cold Heaven – Brian Moore
305.Beloved – Toni Morrison
306.The Progress of Love – Alice Munro
307.The Sea, the Sea – Iris Murdoch
308.Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
309.A House for Mr Biswas – V.S. Naipaul
310.The Third Policeman – Flann O’Brian
311.A Good Man is Hard to Find – Flannery O’Connor
312.The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
313.Where the Jackals Howl – Amos Oz
314.The Messiah of Stockholm – Cynthia Ozick
315.Gormenghast – Mervyn Peake
316.Mr. Weston’s Good Wine – T.F. Powys
317.The Nephew – James Purdy
318.Interview with the Vampire – Anne Rice
319.Barney’s Version – Mordecai Richler
320.Hadrian the Seventh – Frederick Rolfe
321.The Radetzky March – Joseph Roth
322.The Human Stain – Philip Roth
323.The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie
324.Pedro Páramo – Juan Rulfo
325.Bonjour Tristesse – Francoise Sagan
326.Short Stories – Saki
327.Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
328.Staying On – Paul Scott
329.Austerlitz – W.G. Sebald
330.Last Exit to Brooklyn – Hubert Selby Jr.
331.Unless – Carol Shields
332.The Magician of Lublin – Isaac Bashevis Singer
333.The Engineer of Human Souls – Josef Skvorecky
334.The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
335.The Man Who Loved Children – Christina Stead
336.The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
337.Sophie’s Choice – William Styron
338.Perfume – Patrick Süskind
339.The Confessions of Zeno – Italo Svevo
340.Declares Pereira – Antonio Tabucchi
341.The White Hotel – D.M. Thomas
342.The Master – Colm Toibin
343.Felicia’s Journey – William Trevor
344.The Palm-Wine Drinkard – Amos Tutuola
345.The Accidental Tourist – Anne Tyler
346.Couples – John Updike
347.The Time of the Hero – Mario Vargas Llosa
348.In Praise of Older Women – Stephen Vizinczey
349.Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
350.Voss – Patrick White
351.Memoirs of Hadrian – Marguerite Yourcenar

Science Fiction

352.The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Noel Adams
353.Hothouse – Brian Aldiss
354.Brain Wave – Poul Anderson
355.I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
356.The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
357.The Crystal World – J.G. Ballard
358.The Demolished Man – Alfred Bester
359.Who Goes There – John W. Campbell
360.The Invention of Moral – Adolfo Bioy Casares
361.Planet of the Apes – Pierre Boule
362.The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury
363.The Sheep Look Up – John Brunner
364.A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
365. Erewhon – Samuel Butler
366.Cosmicomics – Italo Calvino
367.2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke
368.A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder – James De Mille
369.The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch – Philip K. Dick
370.To Your Scattered Bodies Go – Philip Jose Farmer
371.Neuromancer – William Gibson
372.Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert A. Heinlein
373.Dune – Frank Herbert
374.Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
375.Two Planets – Kurd Lasswitz
376.Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
377.Solaris – Stanislaw Lem
378.Shikasta – Doris Lessing
379.Stepford Wives – Ira Levin
380.Out of the Silent Planet – C.S. Lewis
381.I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
382.Dwellers in the Mirage – Abraham Merritt
383.A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter Miller
384.Ringworld – Larry Niven
385.Time Traders – Andre Norton
386.Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
387.The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket – Edgar Allan Poe
388.The Inverted World – Christopher Priest
389.The Green Child – Herbert Read
390.The Laxian Key – Robert Sheckley
391.City – Clifford D. Simak
392.Donovan’s Brain – Curt Siodmak
393.Lest Darkness Fall – L. Sprague De Camp
394.Last and First Men – Olaf Stapledon
395.More than Human – Theodore Sturgeon
396.Slan – A.E. Van Vogt
397.A Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne
398.Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade – Kurt Vonnegut
399.The Island of Dr Moreau – H.G. Wells
400.Islandia – Aistin Tappan Wright
401.The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham

Thrillers

402.More Work for the Undertaker – Margery Allingham
403.Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly – John Franklin Bardin
404.Trent’s Last Case – E.C. Bentley
405.Trial and Error – Anthony Berkeley
406.The Poisoned Chocolates Case – Anthony Berkeley
407.The Beast Must Die – Nicholas Blake
408.Psycho – Robert Bloch
409.Double Indemnity – James Cain
410.Thus Was Adonis Murdered – Sarah Caudwell
411.Farewell, My Lovely – Raymond Chandler
412.No Orchids for Miss Blandish – James Hadley Chase
413.The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – Agatha Christie
414.The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
415.Unnatural Expousre – Patricia Cornwell
416.The Moving Toyshop – Edmund Crispin
417.In the Last Analysis – Amanda Cross
418.Rose at Ten – Marco Denevi
419.Vendetta – Michael Dibdin
420.The Glass-sided Ants’ Nest – Peter Dickinson
421.He Who Whispers – John Dickson Carr
422.The Big Clock – Kenneth Fearing
423.Blood Sport – Dick Francis
424.Quiet as a Nun – Lady Antonia Fraser
425.The Sunday Woman – Carlo Fruttero, Franco Lucentini
426.Death in the Wrong Room – Anthony Gilbert
427.Red Harvest – Dashiell Hammett
428.Suicide Excepted – Cyril Hare
429.Bones and Silence – Reginald Hill
430.A Rage in Harlem – Chester Himes
431.Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow – Peter Hoeg
432.Malice Aforethought – Francis Iles
433.Hamlet, Revenge! – Michael Innes
434.The Murder Room – P.D. James
435.The Sleeping-Car Murders – Sebastien Japrisot
436.Death of My Aunt – C.H.B. Kitchin
437.The Spy Who Came In From the Cold – John Le Carre
438.The Mystery of the Yellow Room – Caston Leroux
439.The Last Detective – Peter Lovesey
440.Final Curtain – Ngaio Marsh
441.An Oxford Tragedy – J.C. Masterman
442.The Steam Pig – James McClure
443.The Seven Per Cent Solution – Nicholas Meyer
444.How Like An Angel – Margaret Millar
445.The Red House Mystery – A.A. Milne
446.A Red Death – Walter Mosley
447.Deadlock – Sara Paretsky
448.Dover One – Joyce Porter
449.The Chinese Orange Mystery – Ellery Queen
450.The Man in the Net – Patrick Quentin
451.A Judgement in Stone – Ruth Rendell
452.Gaudy Night – Dorothy L. Sayers
453.Mr Hire’s Engagement – Georges Simeon
454.The Laughing Policeman – Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö
455.The Red Box – Rex Stout
456.the Man Who Killed Himself – Julian Symons
457.A Pin to See the Peep-Show – F. Tennyson Jesse
458.The Daughter of Time – Josephine Tey
459.Above the Dark Circus – Sir Hugh Walpole
460.Born Victim – Hillary Waugh
461.The Bride Wore Black – Cornell Woolrich

Travel Writing

462.Travels – Ibn Battuta
463.The Scorpion-Fish – Nicholas Bouvier
464.The Road to Oxiana – Robert Byron
465.In Patagonia – Bruce Charles Chatwin
466.The Voyage on HMS Beagle – Charles Darwin
467.My Journey to Lhasa – Alexandra David-Neel
468.On the Narrow Road to the Deep North – Lesley Downer
469.The Traveller’s Tree – Patrick Leigh Fermor
470.Seven Years in Tibet – Heinrich Harrer
471.Kon Tiki – Thor Heyerdahl
472.The Purple Land – W.H. Hudson
473.The Last Place on Earth – Roland Huntford
474.Video Night in Kathmandu – Pico Iyer
475.Journey to the Hebrides – Samuel Johnson, James Boswell
476.Eothen – A.W. Kinglake
477.The Seasick Whale – Emphraim Kishon
478.A Rose for Winter – Laurie Lee
479.Golden Earth: Travels in Burma – Norman Lewis
480.The Cruise of the Snark – Jack London
481.Arctic Dreams – Barry Lopez
482.The Danube – Claudio Magris
483.The Snow Leopard – Peter Matthiessen
484.Destinations: Essays from Rolling Stone – Jan Morris
485.Never Cry Wolf – Farley Mowat
486.Among the Believers: an Islamic Journey – V.S. Naipaul
487.A short Walk in the Hindu Kush – Eric Newby
488.Roads to Santiago – Cees Nooteboom
489.La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West – Francis Parkman
490.Into the Heart of Borneo – Raymond O’Hanlon
491.The Travels – Marco Polo
492.Dead Man’s Chest: Travels after Robert Louis Stevenson – Nicholas Rankin
493.Sailing Alone Around the World – Joshua Slocum
494.Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile – J.H. Speke
495.Travels with Charley: In Search of America – John Steinbeck
496.Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes – Robert Louis Stevenson
497.The Valley of the Assassins and Other Persian Travels – Freya Stark
498.The Great Railway Bazaar – Paul Theroux
499.Southern Cross to Pole Star – A.F. Tschiffely
500.A Tramp Abroad – Mark Twain
501.On Fiji Islands – Ronald Wright