Updated: 18 October 2021
I love a good list! There is something about seeing a list of books - 'top 100' novels, 'best books' of the year - which gives me joy. I love ticking off the books I have read, adding new titles to my 'To Be Read' list and investigating titles and authors I do not know.
I have been tracking my progress against the 1001 books you must read before you die, slowly marking off the books I have read and blogged about. But there are other great lists so thought I would add them here and do the same.
Lists explored below:
- The Guardian's 100 best books of the 21st Century
- Modern Library's 100 best novels
Note: Bold if read, linked to my blog post
The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century (The Guardian)
100. Nora Ephron - I Feel Bad About My Neck (2006)
99. Alain Mabanckou - Broken Glass (2005)
99. Alain Mabanckou - Broken Glass (2005)
97. JK Rowling - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)
96. Hanya Yanagihara - A Little Life (2015)
95. Bob Dylan - Chronicles: Volume One (2004)
94. Malcolm Gladwell - The Tipping Point (2000)
93. Nicola Barker - Darkmans (2007)
92. Helen Dunmore - The Siege (2001)
91. M John Harrison - Light (2002)
90. Jenny Erpenbeck - Visitation (2008)
89. Lorna Sage - Bad Blood (2000)
88. Malorie Blackman - Noughts and Crosses (2001)
87. Patricia Lockwood - Priestdaddy (2017)
86. Yanis Varoufakis - Adults in the Room (2017)
85. Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion (2006)
84. Deborah Levy - The Cost of Living (2018)
83. Valeria Luiselli - Tell Me How It Ends (2016)
82. Neil Gaiman - Coraline (2002)
81. Jim Crace - Harvest (2013)
80. Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Life and Others (2002)
78. NK Jemisin - The Fifth Season (2015)
77. Yuri Herrera - Signs Preceding the End of the World (2009)
76. Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011)
75. Olga Tokarczuk - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (2009)
74. Sebastian Barry - Days Without End (2016)
73. Barbara Demick - Nothing to Envy (2009)
72. Shoshana Zuboff - The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2019)
70. Zoe Heller - Notes on a Scandal (2003)
69. Javier Marias - The Infatuations (2011)
68. John Le Carre - The Constant Gardener (2001)
66. Carlo Rovelli - Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (2014)
65. Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl (2012)
64. Stephen King - On Writing (2000)
63. Rebecca Skloot - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010)
62. Edward St Aubyn - Mother's Milk (2006)
60. Alice Oswald - Dart (2002)
59. Anne Carson - The Beauty of the Husband (2002)
58. Tony Judt - Postwar (2005)
57. Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000)
56. Robert Macfarlane - Underland (2019)
54. Mary Beard - Women & Power (2017)
53. Peter Carey - True History of the Kelly Gang (2000)
48. Terry Pratchett - Night Watch (2002)
47. Marjane Satrapi - Persepolis (2000-2003)
46. Seamus Heaney - Human Chain (2010)
45. Julian Barnes - Levels of Life (2013)
44. Rebecca Solnit - Hope in the Dark (2004)
43. Claudia Rankine - Citizen: An American Lyric (2014)
42. Michael Lewis - Moneyball (2010)
39. Zadie Smith - White Teeth (2000)
38. Alan Hollinghurst - The Line of Beauty (2004)
37. Anne Enright - The Green Road (2015)
36. Martin Amis - Experience (2000)
35. Edmund de Waal - The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010)
33. Alison Bachdel - Fun Home (2006)
32. Siddhartha Mukherjee - The Emperor of All Maladies (2010)
31. Maggie Nelson - The Argonauts (2015)
30. Colson Whitehead - The Underground Railroad (2016)
29. Karl Ove Knausgaard - A Death in the Family (2009)
28. Carol Ann Duffy - Rapture (2005)
27. Alice Munro - Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (2001)
26. Thomas Piketty - Capital in the Twenty First Century (2013)
25. Sally Rooney - Normal People (2018)
23. Andrew Solomon - The Noonday Demon (2001)
22. George Saunders - Tenth of December (2013)
21. Yuval Noah Harari - Sapiens (2011)
20. Kate Atkinson - Life After Life (2013)
18. Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine (2007)
16. Jonathan Franzen - The Corrections (2001)
15. Elizabeth Kolbert - The Sixth Extinction (2014)
14. Sarah Waters - Fingersmith (2002)
13. Barbara Ehrenreich - Nickel and Dimmed (2001)
12. Philip Roth - The Plot Against America (2004)
11. Elena Ferrante - My Brilliant Friend (2011)
10. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)
09. David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas (2004)
08. Ali Smith - Autumn (2016)
06. Philip Pullman - The Amber Spyglass (2000)
05. WG Sebald - Austerlitz (2001)
04. Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go (2005)
03. Svetlana Alexievich - Secondhand Time (2013)
02. Marilynne Robinson - Gilead (2004)
01. Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall (2009)
Modern Library 100 Best Novels (Modern Library)
100. Booth Tarkington - The Magnificent Ambersons
99. JP Donleavy - The Ginger Man
98. James M Cain - The Postman Always Rings Twice
97. Paul Bowles - The Sheltering Sky
96. William Styron - Sophie's Choice
95. Iris Murdoch - Under the Net
94. Jean Rhys - Wide Sargasso Sea
93. John Fowles - The Magus
92. William Kennedy - Ironweed
91. Erskine Caldwell - Tobacco Road
90. Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children
89. Henry Green - Loving
88. Jack London - The Call of the Wild
87. Arnold Bennett - The Old Wives' Tale
86. EL Doctorow - Ragtime
85. Joseph Conrad - Lord Jim
84. Elizabeth Bowen - The Death of the Heart
83. VS Naipaul - A Bend in the River
82. Wallace Stegner - Angle of Repose
81. Saul Bellow - The Adventures of Augie March
80. Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited
79. EM Forster - A Room With a View
78. Rudyard Kipling - Kim
77. James Joyce - Finnegans Wake
75. Evelyn Waugh - Scoop
74. Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms
73. Nathanael West - The Day of the Locust
72. VS Naipaul - A House for Mr Biswas
71. Richard Hughes - A High Wind in Jamaica
70. Lawrence Durrell - The Alexandria Quartet
69. Edith Wharton - The House of Mirth
68. Sinclair Lewis - Main Street
67. Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
66. W Somerset Maugham - Of Human Bondage
65. Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange
63. John Cheever - The Wapshot Chronicles
62. James Jones - From Here to Eternity
61. Willa Cather - Death Comes for the Archbishop
60. Walker Percy - The Moviegoer
59. Max Beerbohm - Zuleika Dobson
57. Ford Madox Ford - Parade's End
56. Dashiell Hammett - The Maltese Falcon
55. Jack Kerouac - On The Road
54. William Faulkner - Light in August
53. Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire
52. Philip Roth - Portnoy's Complaint
51. Norman Mailer - The Naked and the Dead
50. Henry Miller - Tropic of Cancer
49. DH Lawrence - Women in Love
48. DH Lawrence - The Rainbow
47. Joseph Conrad - Nostromo
46. Joseph Conrad - The Secret Agent
45. Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises
44. Aldous Huxley - Point Counter Point
43. Anthony Powell - A Dance to the Music of Time (series)
42. James Dickey - Deliverance
41. William Golding - The Lord of the Flies
40. Graham Greene - The Heart of the Matter
39. James Baldwin - Go Tell it on the Mountain
38. EM Forster - Howards End
37. Thornton Wilder - The Bridget of San Luis Rey
36. Robert Penn Warren - All the King's Men
35. William Faulkner - As I Lay Dying
32. Henry James - The Golden Bowl
31. George Orwell - Animal Farm
30. Ford Madox Ford - The Good Soldier
29. James T Farrell - The Studs Lonigan Trilogy
28. F Scott Fitzgerald - Tender is the Night
27. Henry James - The Ambassadors
26. Henry James - The Wings of the Dove
25. EM Forster - A Passage to India
24. Sherwood Anderson - Winesburg, Ohio
23. John Dos Passos - USA (trilogy)
22. John O'Hara - Appointment in Samarra
21. Saul Bellow - Henderson the Rain King
20. Richard Wright - Native Son
19. Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
18. Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five
17. Carson McCullers - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
16. Theodore Dreiser - An American Tragedy
15. Virginia Woolf - To the Lighthouse
14. Robert Graves - I, Claudius
13. George Orwell - 1984
12. Samuel Butler - The Way of All Flesh
11. Malcolm Lowry - Under the Volcano
10. John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
09. DH Lawrence - Sons and Lovers
08. Arther Koestler - Darkness at Noon
07. Joesph Heller - Catch-22
06. William Faulkner - The Sound and the Fury
05. Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
04. Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
03. James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
02. F Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
01. James Joyce - Ulysses