Thing to Do #52: Read the Greatest Books Ever Written

So the item on my list that I worked hard on in 2008 was Thing to Do 52: Read the Greatest Books Ever Written.  The film list was over 200 movies and took me over a year to do.  The book list has 85 but will take much longer obviously (since most books take longer to read than two hours) and is more difficult because while I can force myself to sit through a painfully dull movie, it is almost impossible to read a book that you hate. 

Currently Reading: The Crow Road

So far this year: 10 books on the list

Below is the list; books that haven’t been read are in red, completed books in black.  Any books you think should be added to the list (like, HELLO-Gone With the Wind !?).  Any of these books that you have read (that I haven’t yet) that I need to be warned about ahead of time? 

1984 by George Orwell

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Asterix and the Golden Sickle by R. Goscinny and A. Uderzo

Atomised by Michel Houellebecq

The BFG by Roald Dahl

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 

The Complete Works of Shakespeare

The Complete Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm

Crash by J.G. Ballard

The Crow Road by Iain Banks

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon

Danny, Champion of the World by Roald Dahl

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

Dubliners by James Joyce

Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

Explaining Death to the Dog by Susan Perabo

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

George’s Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl

Girlfriend in a Coma by Doug Copeland

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

Holes by Louis Sachar

The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving

Kes (Kestrel for a Knave) by Barry Hines

Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Magic Porridge Pot by Anon

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Mr. Tickle by Roger Hargreaves

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster

No Logo by Naomi Klein

Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge

The Odyssey and The Iliad by Homer

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Perfume by Peter Suskind

Possession by A.S. Byatt

A Prayer by Owen Meany by John Irving

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell

Sarah by J.T. Leroy

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Stupid White Men by Michael Moore

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Ulysses by James Joyce

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

The Van by Roddy Doyle

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks

Waterland by Graham Swift

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahamme

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin

The World According to Garp by John Irving

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte