The Student Room Group

60 Novels to read before you die

“The Catcher in the Rye” J.D.Salinger
“Pride and Prejudice” Jane Austen
“Sons and Lovers” D.H.Lawrence
“To Kill a Mockingbird” Harper Lee
“Nineteen Eighty Four” George Orwell
“A Clockwork Orange” Anthony Burgess
“The Outsider” Albert Camus
“Catch 22” Joseph Heller
“Rebecca” Daphne Du Maurier
“Anna Karenina” Leo Tolstoy
“Crime and Punishment” Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“The Woman in White” Wilkie Collins
“In Cold Blood” Truman Capote
“Alice in Wonderland” Lewis Carroll
“Dracula” Bram Stoker
“The Handmaid’s Tale” Margaret Attwood
“Brave New World” Aldous Huxley
“Midnight’s Children” Salman Rushdie
“The Color Purple” Alice Walker
“Madame Bovary” Gustave Flaubert
“Frankenstein” Mary Shelley
“A Room With a View” E.M.Forster
“Things Fall Apart” Chinua Achebe
“Brideshead Revisited” Evelyn Waugh
“The Kite Runner” Khaled Hosseini
“Birdsong” Sebastian Faulks
“Regeneration” Pat Barker
“Of Mice and Men” John Steinbeck
“The Lord of the Flies” William Golding
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” Mark Haddon
“Life of Pi” Yann Martel
“The Bell Jar” Sylvia Plath
“The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy” Laurence Sterne
“The Picture of Dorian Gray” Oscar Wilde
“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” Muriel Spark
“The Go-Between” L.P.Hartley
“Jane Eyre” Charlotte Bronte
“Moll Flanders” Daniel Defoe
“Great Expectations” Charles Dickens
“Middlemarch” George Eliot
“Brighton Rock Graham Greene
“The Great Gatsby” F.Scott Fitzgerald
“Tess of the d’Urbervilles” Thomas Hardy
“Wuthering Heights” Emily Bronte
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” Ken Kesey
“On the Road” Jack Kerouac
“A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” James Joyce
“Lolita” Vladimir Nabokov
“Rabbit at Rest” John Updike
“Bonfire of the Vanities” Tom Wolfe
“The Sea” John Banville
“Star of the Sea” Joseph O’Connor
“I Capture the Castle” Dodie Smith
“True History of the Kelly Gang” Peter Carey
“The God of Small Things” Arundhati Roy
“Waterland” Graham Swift
“Small Island” Andrea Levy
“On Chesil Beach” Ian McEwan

:eek3:

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
7 down, 53 to go....
I've only read 6 but plenty of those are sat on my bookshelf just waiting to be read...
Reply 3
Source?
Reply 4
Hate hate HATE Catcher In The Rye, biggest waste of time ever.
I also really didn't see what was so great about the Bell Jar, either.
-prepares to be attacked- (:

8/60 isn't too bad...I think there's a lot missing off that list, though.
Reply 5
read 13 of them... there are so many more that should be on there though! Time travellers wife, memoirs of a geisha... at least some Terry Pratchett! Oscar Wilde, Zadie Smith...
Reply 6
I've read 13.

But I have to say, I'm not convinced by that list.
Reply 7
tashhh
Hate hate HATE Catcher In The Rye, biggest waste of time ever.I also really didn't see what was so great about the Bell Jar, either.
-prepares to be attacked- (:

8/60 isn't too bad...I think there's a lot missing off that list, though.


:eek3: :eek3: :eek3:

How could you say that?
Reply 8
tashhh
Hate hate HATE Catcher In The Rye, biggest waste of time ever.
I also really didn't see what was so great about the Bell Jar, either.
-prepares to be attacked- (:

8/60 isn't too bad...I think there's a lot missing off that list, though.


i'm having to re-do an essay on the bell jar atm... great book- brilliantly written, but there's only so much of it I can take!
Heh. Bold = read. Italics = started and got bored.


swatjosh
“The Catcher in the Rye” J.D.Salinger
• “Pride and Prejudice” Jane Austen
• “Sons and Lovers” D.H.Lawrence
• “To Kill a Mockingbird” Harper Lee
• “Nineteen Eighty Four” George Orwell
• “A Clockwork Orange” Anthony Burgess
• “The Outsider” Albert Camus
• “Catch 22” Joseph Heller
• “Rebecca” Daphne Du Maurier
• “Anna Karenina” Leo Tolstoy
• “Crime and Punishment” Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• “The Woman in White” Wilkie Collins
• “In Cold Blood” Truman Capote
• “Alice in Wonderland” Lewis Carroll
• “Dracula” Bram Stoker
• “The Handmaid’s Tale” Margaret Attwood
• “Brave New World” Aldous Huxley
• “Midnight’s Children” Salman Rushdie
• “The Color Purple” Alice Walker
• “Madame Bovary” Gustave Flaubert
• “Frankenstein” Mary Shelley
• “A Room With a View” E.M.Forster
• “Things Fall Apart” Chinua Achebe
• “Brideshead Revisited” Evelyn Waugh
• “The Kite Runner” Khaled Hosseini
• “Birdsong” Sebastian Faulks
• “Regeneration” Pat Barker
• “Of Mice and Men” John Steinbeck
• “The Lord of the Flies” William Golding
• “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” Mark Haddon
• “Life of Pi” Yann Martel
• “The Bell Jar” Sylvia Plath
• “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy” Laurence Sterne
• “The Picture of Dorian Gray” Oscar Wilde
• “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” Muriel Spark
• “The Go-Between” L.P.Hartley
• “Jane Eyre” Charlotte Bronte
• “Moll Flanders” Daniel Defoe
• “Great Expectations” Charles Dickens
• “Middlemarch” George Eliot
• “Brighton Rock “ Graham Greene
• “The Great Gatsby” F.Scott Fitzgerald
• “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” Thomas Hardy
• “Wuthering Heights” Emily Bronte
• “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” Ken Kesey
• “On the Road” Jack Kerouac
• “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” James Joyce
• “Lolita” Vladimir Nabokov
• “Rabbit at Rest” John Updike
• “Bonfire of the Vanities” Tom Wolfe
• “The Sea” John Banville
• “Star of the Sea” Joseph O’Connor
• “I Capture the Castle” Dodie Smith
• “True History of the Kelly Gang” Peter Carey
• “The God of Small Things” Arundhati Roy
• “Waterland” Graham Swift
• “Small Island” Andrea Levy
• “On Chesil Beach” Ian McEwan

:eek3:
Reply 10
T kay
:eek3: :eek3: :eek3:

How could you say that?


Knew it :wink:

I found the whole thing boring. Offputting main character who I felt know empathy/sympathy for, dull events...it was okay, I suppose, not something I'd want to read repeatedly or would even recommend to anyone else. It didn't make me feel anything, or see anything differently.

oh wow
i'm having to re-do an essay on the bell jar atm... great book- brilliantly written, but there's only so much of it I can take!


I liked it, but didn't love it - again, it just wasn't anything too special for me.
• “The Catcher in the Rye” J.D.Salinger
• “Pride and Prejudice” Jane Austen

• “Sons and Lovers” D.H.Lawrence
• “To Kill a Mockingbird” Harper Lee
• “Nineteen Eighty Four” George Orwell
• “A Clockwork Orange” Anthony Burgess
• “The Outsider” Albert Camus
• “Catch 22” Joseph Heller
• “Rebecca” Daphne Du Maurier
• “Anna Karenina” Leo Tolstoy
• “Crime and Punishment” Fyodor Dostoyevsky

• “The Woman in White” Wilkie Collins
• “In Cold Blood” Truman Capote
• “Alice in Wonderland” Lewis Carroll
• “Dracula” Bram Stoker
• “The Handmaid’s Tale” Margaret Attwood
• “Brave New World” Aldous Huxley

• “Midnight’s Children” Salman Rushdie
• “The Color Purple” Alice Walker
• “Madame Bovary” Gustave Flaubert
• “Frankenstein” Mary Shelley
• “A Room With a View” E.M.Forster
• “Things Fall Apart” Chinua Achebe
• “Brideshead Revisited” Evelyn Waugh
• “The Kite Runner” Khaled Hosseini
• “Birdsong” Sebastian Faulks
• “Regeneration” Pat Barker
• “Of Mice and Men” John Steinbeck
• “The Lord of the Flies” William Golding
• “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” Mark Haddon
• “Life of Pi” Yann Martel
• “The Bell Jar” Sylvia Plath
• “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy” Laurence Sterne

• “The Picture of Dorian Gray” Oscar Wilde
• “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” Muriel Spark
• “The Go-Between” L.P.Hartley
• “Jane Eyre” Charlotte Bronte
• “Moll Flanders” Daniel Defoe
• “Great Expectations” Charles Dickens
• “Middlemarch” George Eliot
• “Brighton Rock “ Graham Greene
• “The Great Gatsby” F.Scott Fitzgerald
• “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” Thomas Hardy
• “Wuthering Heights” Emily Bronte
• “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” Ken Kesey

• “On the Road” Jack Kerouac
• “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” James Joyce
• “Lolita” Vladimir Nabokov
• “Rabbit at Rest” John Updike
• “Bonfire of the Vanities” Tom Wolfe
• “The Sea” John Banville
• “Star of the Sea” Joseph O’Connor
• “I Capture the Castle” Dodie Smith
• “True History of the Kelly Gang” Peter Carey
• “The God of Small Things” Arundhati Roy
• “Waterland” Graham Swift
• “Small Island” Andrea Levy
• “On Chesil Beach” Ian McEwan

27. Most of them aren't even favorites, I don't really plan on reading any of the others either.
Reply 12
I actually hate these books lists, most of those books would either bore me or depress me to tears (tess of the d'ubervilles).
Reply 13
Of mice and men is a great book.. studied bout it for english GCSE's
i've read like 4 on that list..
books i recomend reading would be-

'goodbye jimmy choos'-Annie Saunders
'forgotten dreams'- katie flynn
'my best friends girl'-Dorothy Koomson
'Moonlight and ashes'-Rosie Goodwin
and any books by author called Torey Hayden
:tongue:
tashhh
Hate hate HATE Catcher In The Rye, biggest waste of time ever.
I also really didn't see what was so great about the Bell Jar, either.
-prepares to be attacked- (:

8/60 isn't too bad...I think there's a lot missing off that list, though.


Catcher in the Rye is rubbish - I agree. It just offers bugger all insight whilst having an uninteresting plot. I'd prefer to read Dan Brown, to be honest.

And 9, for me. But yeah, such lists are a bit silly.
Reply 15
surely .. lord of the rings? (opinion NOT based on the films)
jquarrie
surely .. lord of the rings? (opinion NOT based on the films)


The Silmarillion over The Lord of the Rings any day.
IeuanF
The Silmarillion over The Lord of the Rings any day.


masochist
Reply 18
Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas <---- ~Book and a half right there!
swatjosh
The Catcher in the Rye” J.D.Salinger “Pride and Prejudice” Jane Austen
“Sons and Lovers” D.H.Lawrence
“To Kill a Mockingbird” Harper Lee
“Nineteen Eighty Four” George Orwell
“A Clockwork Orange” Anthony Burgess
“The Outsider” Albert Camus “Catch 22” Joseph Heller
“Rebecca” Daphne Du Maurier
“Anna Karenina” Leo Tolstoy
“Crime and Punishment” Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“The Woman in White” Wilkie Collins
“In Cold Blood” Truman Capote
“Alice in Wonderland” Lewis Carroll
Dracula” Bram Stoker
“The Handmaid’s Tale” Margaret Attwood
“Brave New World” Aldous Huxley “Midnight’s Children” Salman Rushdie
“The Color Purple” Alice Walker
“Madame Bovary” Gustave Flaubert
“Frankenstein” Mary Shelley “A Room With a View” E.M.Forster
“Things Fall Apart” Chinua Achebe
“Brideshead Revisited” Evelyn Waugh
“The Kite Runner” Khaled Hosseini
“Birdsong” Sebastian Faulks
“Regeneration” Pat Barker
“Of Mice and Men” John Steinbeck “The Lord of the Flies” William Golding
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” Mark Haddon
“Life of Pi” Yann Martel
“The Bell Jar” Sylvia Plath
“The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy” Laurence Sterne
“The Picture of Dorian Gray” Oscar Wilde “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” Muriel Spark
“The Go-Between” L.P.Hartley
“Jane Eyre” Charlotte Bronte
“Moll Flanders” Daniel Defoe
“Great Expectations” Charles Dickens
“Middlemarch” George Eliot
“Brighton Rock Graham Greene
“The Great Gatsby” F.Scott Fitzgerald
“Tess of the d’Urbervilles” Thomas Hardy
“Wuthering Heights” Emily Bronte
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” Ken Kesey
“On the Road” Jack Kerouac
“A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” James Joyce
“Lolita” Vladimir Nabokov
“Rabbit at Rest” John Updike
“Bonfire of the Vanities” Tom Wolfe
“The Sea” John Banville
“Star of the Sea” Joseph O’Connor
“I Capture the Castle” Dodie Smith
“True History of the Kelly Gang” Peter Carey
“The God of Small Things” Arundhati Roy
“Waterland” Graham Swift
“Small Island” Andrea Levy
“On Chesil Beach” Ian McEwan

:eek3:



doing the same as a previous post... bold i've read, underlined i started but didnt finish (got bored?!)

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