Books
These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users (as of some time ago when I first posted this). As usual, bold what you have read, italicise what you started but couldn’t finish, and strike through what you couldn’t stand. The numbers after each one are the number of LT users who used the tag of that book.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (149)
Anna Karenina (132)
Crime and Punishment (121)
Catch-22 (117)
One hundred years of solitude (115)
Wuthering Heights (110)
The Silmarillion (104)
Life of Pi : A Novel (94)
The Name of the Rose (91)
Don Quixote (91)
Moby Dick (86)
Ulysses (84) I tried. I really tried. I couldn't do it.
Madame Bovary (83)
The Odyssey (83) I highly recommend Robert Fitzgerald's translation.
Pride and Prejudice (83)
Jane Eyre (80)
A Tale of Two Cities (80)
The Brothers Karamazov (80)
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (79)
War and Peace (78)
Vanity Fair (74)
The Time Traveler’s Wife (73)
The Iliad (73)
Emma (73)
The Blind Assassin (73)
The Kite Runner (71)
Mrs. Dalloway (70)
Great Expectations (70)
American Gods (68) Awesome!
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (67)
Atlas Shrugged (67)
Reading Lolita in Tehran : A Memoir in Books (66)
Memoirs of a Geisha (66)
Middlesex (66)
Quicksilver (66)
Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (65)
The Canterbury Tales (64)
The Historian : A Novel (63)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (63)
Love in the Time of Cholera (62)
Brave New World (61)
The Fountainhead (61)
Foucault’s Pendulum (61)
Middlemarch (61)
Frankenstein (59)
The Count of Monte Cristo (59)
Dracula (59)
A Clockwork Orange (59)
Anansi Boys (58)
The Once and Future King (57)
The Grapes of Wrath (57)
The Poisonwood Bible : A Novel (57)
1984 (57) I might have to read this again outside of English class conducted by a raging sexist asshole.
Angels & Demons (56)
The Inferno (56) I've also read Purgatory and Paradise. Inferno is by far the best.
The Satanic Verses (55)
Sense and Sensibility (55)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (55) Love this book.
Mansfield Park (55)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (54)
To the Lighthouse (54)
Tess of the D’Urbervilles (54)
Oliver Twist (54)
Gulliver’s Travels (53)
Les Misérables (53)
The Corrections (53)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (52)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (52)
Dune (51)
The Prince (51)
The Sound and the Fury (51)
Angela’s Ashes : A Memoir (51)
The God of Small Things (51)
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-Present (51)
Cryptonomicon (50)
Neverwhere (50)
A Confederacy of Dunces (50)
A Short History of Nearly Everything (50)
Dubliners (50)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (49)
Beloved (49)
Slaughterhouse-Five (49)
The Scarlet Letter (48)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (48)
The Mists of Avalon (47)
Oryx and Crake : A Novel (47)
Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (47)
Cloud Atlas (47)
The Confusion (46)
Lolita (46)
Persuasion (46)
Northanger Abbey (46)
The Catcher in the Rye (46) Good god, did I hate this book.
On the Road (46)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (45)
Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (45)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (45)
The Aeneid (45)
Watership Down (44)
Gravity’s Rainbow (44) Making it through this book is one of my proudest achievements. I still have no idea what it was about, though.
The Hobbit (44)
In Cold Blood : A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences (44)
White Teeth (44)
Treasure Island (44)
David Copperfield (44)
The Three Musketeers (44)
48. 14 more than the last time I did this. Woot.
And here's the list as of today (because I'm bored). This one has 200 books on it.
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
- Anna Karenina
- Crime and Punishment
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- Wuthering Heights
- The Silmarillion
- Catch-22
- War and Peace
- Ulysses
- The Brothers Karamazov
- The Kite Runner
- The Odyssey
- Jane Eyre
- The Iliad
- Don Quixote
- Madame Bovary
- Life of Pi
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Moby-Dick
- Pride and Prejudice
- Love in the Time of Cholera
- Vanity Fair
- The Historian
- The Name of the Rose
- Emma
- The Canterbury Tales
- Dracula
- Frankenstein
- Guns, Germs and Steel
- Sense and Sensibility
- The Time Traveler’s Wife
- Foucault’s Pendulum
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- The Grapes of Wrath
- Mansfield Park
- Gulliver’s Travels
- Atlas Shrugged
- Middlesex
- Middlemarch
- Great Expectations
- Brave New World
- Mrs. Dalloway
- The Blind Assassin
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- The Poisonwood Bible
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
- Dune
- Inferno
- Memoirs of a Geisha
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
- The Scarlet Letter
- Reading Lolita in Tehran
- American Gods
- Slaughterhouse-Five
- Anansi Boys
- A Clockwork Orange
- Quicksilver
- The Three Musketeers
- Wicked
- The Sound and the Fury
- Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Les Miserables
- David Copperfield
- To the Lighthouse
- The Fountainhead
- The Satanic Verses
- Dubliners
- Atonement
- Lolita
- Oliver Twist
- The Corrections
- On the Road
- Persuasion
- The Once and Future King
- The Complete Works of Shakespeare
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
- A Short History of Nearly Everything
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- A Farewell to Arms
- Robinson Crusoe
- Cryptonomicon
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being
- In Cold Blood
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- A Confederacy of Dunces
- Lady Chatterley’s Lover
- The God of Small Things
- Angela’s Ashes
- Tess of the d’Urbervilles
- The Prince
- Treasure Island
- The Idiot
- Oryx and Crake
- The Plague
- Collapse
- Watership Down
- The Book Thief
- The Catcher in the Rye
- Sophie’s World
- The Golden Compass
- The Aeneid - I’ve read part of it; maybe even all of it. I honestly don’t remember.
- The Road - I’m reading it right now, but I’m quite confident I’ll finish, so I’m calling it read.
- Sons and Lovers
- The Mists of Avalon
- Tender is the Night
- On the Origin of Species - I don’t think I read all of it.
- Northanger Abbey
- Fahrenheit 451
- Doctor Zhivago
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- The Two Towers
- The Return of the King
- Gravity’s Rainbow
- Little Women
- The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
- Midnight’s Children - I disliked this book so much I didn’t bother to finish it, and don’t intend to try again.
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
- Possession
- Angels and Demons
- The Confusion
- Neverwhere
- The Bell Jar
- The War of the Worlds
- Beloved
- The Alchemist - One of the stupidest books I’ve ever read.
- The Handmaid’s Tale
- The Divine Comedy
- The House of the Seven Gables
- Alias Grace
- Underworld
- House of Leaves
- The Shadow of the Wind
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- The Trial
- Good Omens
- Cold Mountain
- The Fellowship of the Ring
- Portrait of a Lady
- Tom Jones
- Never Let Me Go
- Eats, Shoots & Leaves
- The Hobbit
- The Last of the Mohicans
- East of Eden
- The English Patient
- Infinite Jest
- The Great Gatsby
- Ivanhoe
- The Amber Spyglass
- White Teeth
- Jude the Obscure
- Everything is Illuminated
- Bleak House
- Freakonomics
- The Devil in the White City
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Candide
- The Lovely Bones
- The Master and Margarita
- A Brief History of Time
- Godel, Escher, Bach
- Baudolino
- The Age of Innocence
- A Prayer for Owen Meany
- The Eyre Affair
- The Republic
- Siffhartha
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
- As I Lay Dying
- The Phantom of the Opera
- A Passage to India
- The Yiddish Policeman’s Union
- The Secret Life of Bees
- The Hours
- For Whom the Bell Tolls
- The Stranger
- Cloud Atlas
- Invisible Man
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
- Silas Marner
- The World is Flat
- The Thirteenth Tale
- Eragon
- The Mill on the Floss
- Lord Jim
- The Elegant Universe
- The System of the World
- The Jungle
- The Bonesetter’s Daughter
- Naked Lunch
- The Gunslinger
- The Remains of the Day
- A Game of Thrones
- The Da Vinci Code
- Neuromancer
- The Plot Against America
- Beowulf
- Running with Scissors
- Empire Falls
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Of this list, I've read 74 of the 200.