Australian bookstore Angus & Robertson have released their 2008 Top 100 Books of All Time list. This list was complied from votes by the public, which may explain why some authors appear more often than they really should and whilst other books don’t appear at all.
I have highlighted the books I have read in bold and those I want to read in italics.
1 Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
2 Twilight – Stephenie Meyer
3 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
4 The Obernewtyn Chronicles - Isobelle Carmody
5 My Sister’s Keeper - Jodi Picoult
6 To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
7 The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
8 Breath – Tim Winton
9 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
10 Break No Bones – Kathy Reichs
11 The Power Of One – Bryce Courtenay
12 Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk
13 Magician – Raymond E. Feist
14 The Bronze Horseman – Paullina Simons
15 Mao’s Last Dancer – Li Cunxin
16 Memoirs Of A Geisha – Arthur Golden
17 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
18 Cross – James Patterson
19 Persuasion – Jane Austen
20 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
21 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
22 The Secret – Rhonda Byrne
23 Marley and Me – John Grogan
24 Antony and Cleopatra – Colleen McCullough
25 April Fools Day – Bryce Courtney
26 North & South – Elizabeth Gaskell
27 In My Skin – Kate Holden
28 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
29 A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
30 The Other Boleyn Girl – Phillipa Gregory
31 Nineteen Minutes – Jodi Picoult
32 Atonement – Ian McEwan
33 Shantaram Gregory – David Roberts
34 Pillars Of The Earth – Ken Follett
35 The Pact – Jodi Picoult
36 Ice Station – Matthew Reilly
37 Cloudstreet – Tim Winton
38 Jessica – Bryce Courtenay
39 A New Earth – Eckhart Tolle
40 The Princess Bride – William Goldman
41 Running With Scissors – Augusten Burroughs
42 Anybody Out There? – Marian Keyes
43 Life Of Pi – Yann Martel
44 Seven Ancient Wonders – Matthew Reilly
45 People Of The Book – Geraldine Brooks
46 Six Sacred Stones – Matthew Reilly
47 Memory Keeper’s Daughter – Kim Edwards
48 Brother Odd – Dean Koontz
49 Tully – Paullina Simons
50 Tuesdays with Morrie – Mitch Albom
51 The Catcher in the Rye – J.D Salinger
52 Eragon – Christopher Paolini
53 Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
54 It’s Not About The Bike – Lance Armstrong
55 A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
56 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
57 The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
58 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
59 A Fortunate Life – A.B. Facey
60 The Mists of Avalon – Marion Zimmer Bradley
61 The Notebook -Nicholas Sparks
62 Water For Elephants – Sara Gruen
63 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
64 The Host – Stephenie Meyer
65 Dirt Music – Tim Winton
66 Eldest – Christopher Paolini
67 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
68 It – Stephen King
69 World Without End – Ken Follett
70 Emma – Jane Austen
71 Temple – Matthew Reilly
72 Little Women – Alcott Louisa May
73 Lean Mean Thirteen – Janet Evanovich
74 Scarecrow – Matthew Reilly
75 American Gods – Neil Gaiman
76 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
77 P.S, I Love You – Cecelia Ahern
78 All That Remains – Patricia Cornwell
79 The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch
80 Past Secrets – Cathy Kelly
81 The Persimmon Tree – Bryce Courtenay
82 Husband – Dean Koontz
83 Plain Truth – Jodi Picoult
84 Wicked – Gregory Maguire
85 Spot Of Bother – Mark Haddon
86 Always And Forever – Cathy Kelly
87 The Road – Cormac McCarthy
88 Cents & Sensibility – Maggie Alderson
89 Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris
90 The Shifting Fog – Kate Morton
91 We Need To Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver
92 Everyone Worth Knowing – Lauren Weisberger
93 Hour Game – David Baldacci
94 Darkly Dreaming Dexter – Jeff Lindsay
95 The Woods – Harlan Coben
96 Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
97 Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
98 Scar Tissue – Anthony Kiedis
99 Infidel – Ayaan Hirsi Ali
100 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
So how many books on the top 100 list have you read? Feel free to copy this list onto your blog and drop the link into the comments sections so I can head over and take a look. A link back to this blog would be awfully nice as well.
Also, what books do you think should have made the top 100? For me, it would be Wild Swans by Jung Chang. It is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. Also, I would like to see Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman in there, I enjoyed it more than American Gods.
4 responses so far ↓
stripedsocks // October 8, 2008 at 9:34 am
So, I love Eragon and Eldest, and the latest, Brisingr, but I do not think that Christopher Paolini should have earned 2 spots on the top 100 books of ALL TIME. What about Tolkien? What about the Bronte sisters? Hmph. Now I’m feeling all old-fashioned. I mean, it’s not that they’re not good books, but I’m not left feeling they’re “OMG the best EVAR”, you know?
Riayn // October 8, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Whilst I haven’t read Eragon or the sequels, I agree that some authors are featured far too often whilst others have been neglected. I guess this is what happens when you compile a list based on the votes from the public. They concentrate on what has just been released and forget about the classics.
lelak // October 8, 2008 at 6:56 pm
It lacks any sign of the Bible, the Koran, any of Agatha Christie’s books, Don Quixote … so it doesn’t even cover the most published books of all time. Bah humbug.
Tash // October 25, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Ohh, 39 for me from that list. Surely the title of the published list should be ‘Top titles remembered this year’, rather than All Time! This list seems like one at the front of people’s memory this year!
I think the 1001 Books list is a better one. Many looking at reading them all over on BookCrossing – check it out http://www.bookcrossing.com/friend/Hawkette
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