It’s been doing the rounds on the internet courtesy of the BBC. The only trouble is that I believe it misses off a lot of superb books at the expense of some dire books that everyone assumes are classics but no-one actually reads. Here is my list:
1. Dune – Frank Herbert
2. Silas Marner – George Elliott
3. Diary of a nobody – Weedon Grossmith
4. Lord of the rings – JRR Tolkien
5. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
6. The magic faraway tree – Enid Blyton
7. Rendezvous with Rama – Arthur C. Clarke
8. Mission of Gravity – Hal Clement
9. I am Legend – Richard Matheson
10. Flow my tears, the Policeman said – Philip K. Dick
11. Ringworld – Larry Niven
12. The Railway children – Edith Nesbit
13. Nostromo – Joseph Conrad
14. Jingo – Terry Pratchett
15. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
16. The stars my destination – Alfred Bester
17. Pavane – Keith Roberts
18. The city and the stars – Arthur C. Clarke
19. Missee Lee – Arthur Ransome
20. Five dialogues – Plato
21. Eagle of the Ninth – Rosemary Sutcliff
22. The fifth elephant – Terry Pratchett
23. The enchanted wood – Enid Blyton
24. Rogue Male – Geoffrey Household
25. Animal Farm – George Orwell
26. Redwall – Brian Jacques
27. Cannibal Adventure – Willard Price
28. Magic Kingdom for sale; sold! – Terry Brooks
29. Joe Millard – The good, the bad and the ugly
30. The thirty nine steps – John Buchan
31. Fanny hill – John Cleland
32. Heir to the empire – Timothy Zahn
33. Five go off to camp – Enid Blyton
34. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
35. Do androids dream of electric sheep? – Philip K. Dick
36. Mars – Ben Bova
37. Sphere – Michael Crichton
38. Christine – Stephen King
39. Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
40. Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
41. Magician – Raymond E. Feist
42. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
43. Coot Club – Arthur Ransome
44. Night watch – Terry Pratchett
45. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
46. Moll Flanders – Daniel Defoe
47. Moonfleet – J. Meade Falkner
48. It – Stephen King
49. Red storm Rising – Tom Clancy
50. The Lion the witch and the wardrobe – CS Lewis
51. War of the worlds – HG Wells
52. Blood Music – Greg Bear
53. The Space Merchants – Frederick Pohl
54. 20,000 leagues under the sea – Jules Verne
55. 2010, Odyssey two – Arthur C. Clarke
56. Red Mars – Kim Stanley Robinson
57. Hunt for red October – Tom Clancy
58. The ipcress file – Len Deighton
59. Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy – Douglas Adams
60. A tale of two cities – Charles Dickens
61. Voyage of the Dawntreader – CS Lewis
62. SS-GB – Len Deighton
63. The time machine – HG Wells
64. 1984 – George Orwell
65. Romeo & Juliet – William Shakespeare
66. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
67. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
68. And quiet flows the don – Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov
69. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
70. Wind in the willows – Kenneth Grahame
71. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
74. Green Mars – Kim Stanley Robinson
75. Merchant of Venice – William Shakespeare
76. Orlando – Virginia Woolf
77. Heidi – Johanna Spyri
78. Around the world in 80 days – Jules Verne
79. Behold the man – Michael Moorcock
80. The man in the high castle – Philip K. Dick
81. Winter Holiday – Arthur Ransome
82. Clear and present danger – Tom Clancy
83. Infinity welcomes careful drivers – Grant Naylor
84. Gulliver’s travels – Jonathan Swift
85. The adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
86. Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
87. The box of delights – John Masefield
88. The silver chair – CS Lewis
89. We can remember it for you wholesale – Philip K. Dick
90. House Atreides – Brian Herbert
91. Mossflower – Brian Jacques
92. Duncton Wood – William Horwood
93. Volcano Adventure – Willard Price
94. Fear and Trembling – Søren Kierkegaard
95. Feet of clay – Terry Pratchett
96. Last of the Mohicans – James Fenimore Cooper
97. Dialogues concerning the natural history of religion – David Hume
98. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame – Victor Hugo
99. Phantom of the opera – Gaston Leroux
100.Of mice and men – John Steinbeck