I have had the goal of reading The Modern Library's Top 100 Novels List since the list was first compiled, but always seem to get distracted from it. So, I'm going to use the "Reading" section of my "Reading and Listening" updates to attempt to rectify this. The goal will be to always include one of the hundred on my reading list at any given time. Of course, there are some that I have already read, so this shouldn't take as long as it might otherwise. I'd love to finish it before this time next year (no promises). So, books to be looking for on my weekly "Reading" updates:
1. ULYSSES by James Joyce
3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
8. DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
9. SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
12. THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
14. I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
15. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
16. AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
22. APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara
23. U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
24. WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
25. A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
26. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
27. THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
28. TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
30. THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
32. THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
33. SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
34. A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
38. HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
39. GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
42. DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
43. A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
44. POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
46. THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
47. NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
48. THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
49. WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
50. TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
51. THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
53. PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
54. LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
57. PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford
58. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
59. ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
62. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
63. THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
65. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
67. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
68. MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
69. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
70. THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
71. A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
72. A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
75. SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
76. THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
77. FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
78. KIM by Rudyard Kipling
79. A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
80. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
82. ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
83. A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
84. THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
85. LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
86. RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
87. THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett
89. LOVING by Henry Green
90. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
91. TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
92. IRONWEED by William Kennedy
93. THE MAGUS by John Fowles
94. WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
95. UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
96. SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron
97. THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
98. THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
99. THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
100. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington
5 comments:
I've had a goal to read them all as well. I don't recall how many I've read to this point. I need to go through the list. I know I have quite a few to go, though.
If you're looking for a book to start attacking the list with again, I recommend Winesburg, Ohio.
i've read 6 1/2 of these. the 1/2 is finnegan's wake, the inclusion of which i contest, because it is literally unreadable. i am positive there are numerous books that could be placed on the list that are more deserving than that one. personal suggestions would be to kill a mockingbird, the brothers k or even gone with the wind.
i guess any list of this kind is going to be somewhat arbitrary.
i should have mentioned this in the original post, but i reserve the right to not finish one or more of these books. i plan to give each of them at least 100 pages. but i've heard that joyce is consistently unreadable.
i'm half way through winesburg, ohio. excellent.
The only Joyce I've read besides Dubliners is Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I liked it and found it rather accessible. He does make quite a few allusions to Irish history, though. My edition explains them in endnotes. As for other Joyce, I may try to take on Ulysses this summer, and I imagine that'll be a bit more of a quagmire.
I'm glad to hear you're liking Winesburg.
i thought portrait of the artist as a young man was good and readable, and i actually enjoyed ulysses, probably because i didn't try very hard to understand everything that was happening. i just read it and enjoyed the word play. but finnegan's wake isn't really good for anything but flipping the pages and saying "weird."
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