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TOP 50 BOOKS OF ALL TIME

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  • 19-08-2008 8:43pm
    #1
    rosboy
    Registered Users Posts: 990 ✭✭✭


    I came across this list of the top 50 novels of all time. It was compiled from a survey carried out by Play.com.

    Thought some people might find it interesting. There are of course some entries that people will disagree with (personnally I wouldn't put The Da Vinci Code on a list of the top 500 books of all time:p)

    TOP 50 BOOKS OF ALL TIME

    1. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
    2. Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
    3. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S Lewis
    4. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
    5. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
    6. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
    7. Animal Farm - George Orwell
    8. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
    9. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - JK Rowling
    10. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
    11. The Time Travellers Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
    12. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
    13. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kasey
    14. Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
    15. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
    16. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
    17. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
    18. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night -time - Mark Haddon
    19. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
    20. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
    21. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
    22. Sons and Lovers - DH Lawrence
    23. Anna Kareninia - Leo Tolstoy
    24. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
    25. Emma - Jane Austen
    26. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
    27. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
    28. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
    29. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
    30. A Passage to India - E.M Forster
    31. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
    32. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
    33. Atonement - Ian McEwan
    34. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
    35. In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust
    36. Middlemarch - George Eliot
    37. White Teeth - Zadie Smith
    38. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
    39. It - Stephen King
    40. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
    41. Vanity Fair - William Thackeray
    42. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
    43. The Horse Whisperer - Nicholas Evans
    44. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
    45. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
    46. Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
    47. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
    48. Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twin
    49. Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome
    50. The Island - Victoria Hislop

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2138827/To-Kill-a-Mockingbird-voted-Greatest-Novel-Of-All-Time.html


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    #2
    eVeNtInE
    Registered Users Posts: 7,020 ✭✭✭eVeNtInE


    This post has been deleted.


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    #3
    rosboy
    Registered Users Posts: 990 ✭✭✭rosboy


    Mr Crystal wrote: »
    I stopped reading after I saw the Da Vinci Code as the 5th best novel of all time.

    Ya I know. Its off putting. But it seems to be an exception though. Most of the other books on the list are respectable enough.

    If you look at most lists compiled from surveys of the public (books, films, music, etc.), you'll always find a few entries that are questionable. Its unfortunate, but a fact of life.


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    #4
    IanCurtis
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,004 ✭✭✭IanCurtis


    Harry Potter better than Lord of the Flies :pac::pac::pac:


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    #5
    eVeNtInE
    Registered Users Posts: 7,020 ✭✭✭eVeNtInE


    This post has been deleted.


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    #6
    chalad07
    Closed Accounts Posts: 260 ✭✭chalad07


    This is a very tough list to compile. For some reason it feels like a top 50 movies, or top 50 albums would be far easier to do. I've a feeling there would be a lot more consensus,

    It's a tough one, i'd disagree with a number of the entries there. Harry Potter Azkaban at 9? While i love the series i thought this was the weakest, and has no place in a top 10 of all time list,

    Agree with the Da Vinci Code, while a blockbuster of a novel, i dont know if i'd consider it 'great'!


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    #7
    Shryke
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,199 ✭✭✭Shryke


    That is one of the worst "Top whatever" lists I've seen in a while. As others have said The DaVinci Code and Harry Potter? Get away! To be honest I'd strike off half the stuff on that list immediately. Each to his own and all that crowd pleasing nonsense but that list is pance. :p


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    #8
    jackbhoy
    Registered Users Posts: 1,280 ✭✭✭jackbhoy


    I think all these top xx lists should ban anything less than 10 years old. Some flavour of the month stuff on there will never stand the test of time.
    The likes of White Teeth, The Kite Runner & The Time Travellers Wife would never make this list in 10 years time (not even gonna mention Da Vinci Code).


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    #9
    rosboy
    Registered Users Posts: 990 ✭✭✭rosboy


    jackbhoy wrote: »
    I think all these top xx lists should ban anything less than 10 years old. Some flavour of the month stuff on there will never stand the test of time.
    The likes of White Teeth, The Kite Runner & The Time Travellers Wife would never make this list in 10 years time (not even gonna mention Da Vinci Code).

    +1


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    #10
    tHE vAGGABOND
    Registered Users Posts: 6,687 ✭✭✭tHE vAGGABOND


    Google BBC's big read from a few years ago...

    It was a big deal with loads of votes from all kinds of people and its ended up to be a very good list imho..

    There is no need to be snobby about new books. I read all kinds of things, and always bought Harry Potter the weekend it came out, and finished them that same weekend. They are good books, and they got all kinds of people into reading which is a great thing. Just because you dont like them or that they are popular does not mean they are exempt from being good books. I don't like James Joyce as I consider his books [very] inaccessible and largely full of the ravings of a madman trying to make up his own language! Now thats just my own personal opinion in a free world. But can we exclude him too :P


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    #11
    rosboy
    Registered Users Posts: 990 ✭✭✭rosboy


    tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »
    Google BBC's big read from a few years ago...

    It was a big deal with loads of votes from all kinds of people and its ended up to be a very good list imho..

    1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
    2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
    3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
    4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
    5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
    6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
    7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
    8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
    9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
    10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
    11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
    12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
    13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
    14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
    15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
    16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
    17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
    18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
    19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
    20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
    21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
    22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
    23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
    24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
    25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
    26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
    27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
    28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
    29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
    30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
    31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
    32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
    33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
    34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
    35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
    36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
    37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
    38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
    39. Dune, Frank Herbert
    40. Emma, Jane Austen
    41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
    42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
    43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
    44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
    45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
    46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
    47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
    48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
    49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
    50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

    51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
    52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
    53. The Stand, Stephen King
    54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
    55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
    56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
    57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
    58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
    59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
    60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
    62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
    63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
    64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
    65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
    66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
    67. The Magus, John Fowles
    68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
    69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
    70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
    71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
    72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
    73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
    74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
    75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
    76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
    77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
    78. Ulysses, James Joyce
    79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
    80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
    81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
    82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
    83. Holes, Louis Sachar
    84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
    85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
    86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
    87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
    88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
    89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
    90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
    91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
    92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
    93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
    94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
    95. Katherine, Anya Seton
    96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
    97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
    98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
    99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
    100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

    101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
    102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
    103. The Beach, Alex Garland
    104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
    105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
    106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
    107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
    108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
    109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
    110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
    111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
    112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, Sue Townsend
    113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
    114. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
    115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
    116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
    117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
    118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
    119. Shogun, James Clavell
    120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
    121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
    122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
    123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
    124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
    125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
    126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
    127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
    128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
    129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
    130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
    131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
    132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
    133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
    134. George's Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
    135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
    136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
    137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
    138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
    139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
    140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
    141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
    142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
    143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
    144. It, Stephen King
    145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
    146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
    147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
    148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
    149. Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian
    150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz

    151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
    152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
    153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
    154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
    155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
    156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
    157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
    158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
    159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
    160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
    161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
    162. River God, Wilbur Smith
    163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
    164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
    165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
    166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
    167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
    168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
    169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
    170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
    171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
    172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
    173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
    174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
    175. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder
    176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
    177. Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl
    178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
    179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
    180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
    181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
    182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
    183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
    184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
    185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
    186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Grossmith
    187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
    188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
    189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
    190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. LawrenceLife of Lawrence
    191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
    192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
    193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
    194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
    195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
    196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
    197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
    198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
    199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
    200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055310724&referrerid=59211


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    #12
    Ho-Hum
    Closed Accounts Posts: 313 ✭✭Ho-Hum


    Is Slaughterhouse 5 nowhere in that 200? Boooooo!


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    #13
    HalloweenJack
    Registered Users Posts: 7,220 ✭✭✭HalloweenJack


    I've only read six of those. I didn't even like The Curious Incident.... I was surprised not to see Cancer Ward or The Shining up there. Or even American Psycho.


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    #14
    Shryke
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,199 ✭✭✭Shryke


    Alright I've read a lot of those. Good list, I remember this on TV. The Lord of the Rings films were very big back then and some woman on the show kept complaining about 'spotty teenage boys' or some such garbage for voting in LotR just because they liked the films.


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    #15
    Tar.Aldarion
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,096 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tar.Aldarion


    Stopped reading at number 1.


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    #16
    LolaLuv
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,496 ✭✭✭LolaLuv


    If it was put together by survey then probably most people voted for whichever book entertained them the most. There's nothing wrong with that, but the literature snob in me thinks this list blows. It is what it is, I guess.


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    #17
    Tar.Aldarion
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,096 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tar.Aldarion


    Stopped reading at number 1.


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