50 books to read before you die discussion

Hi all,
I've composed a list based on everyone's suggestions.
The highlighted books are the ones the group has read so far.

1. We Need to Talk About Kevin- Lionel Shriver
2. A Tree Grows in Brookklyn by Betty Smith
3. Mossflower- Brian Jacques
4. The New Jim Crowe Laws by Michelle Alexander
5. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
6. Little Women- Louisa May Alcott
7. Middlemarch- George Elliot
8. The Discworld Series- Terry Pratchett
9. The Collected Works- ee cummings
10. The Thirteenth Tale- Dianne Setterfield
11. The Book Thief
12. I am the Messenger- Markus Zusak
13. A Bell for Adano- John Hersey
14. East of Eden- John Steinbeck
15. Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck
16. A Farewell to Arms- Ernest Hemingway
17. The Art of Racing in the Rain- Garth Stein
18. Tess of the D'urbavilles- Thomas Hardy
19. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared- Jonas Jonasson
20. Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
21. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
22. The Shining- Steven King
23. The Shack-W. Young.
24. The Last Man- Mary Shelley
25. Foundation Trilogy- Isaac Asimov
26. My First White Friend- Patricia Raybon
27. Persuasion- Jane Austen
29. Very Bad Men- Harry Dolan
30. Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury
31. Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens
32. Watership Down- Richard Adams
33. Night - Elie Wiesel
34. Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achebe
35. The Stand - Stephen King
36. A Tale of Two Cities- Charles Dickens
37. Great Expectations- Charles Dickens
38. Fight Club- Chuck Palahniuk
39. The Old Man and the Sea
40. For Whom the Bell Tolls- Ernest Hemingway
41. War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy
42. Atlas Shrugged- Ayn Rand
43. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall- Anne Bronte
44. The Time Traveler's Wife- Audrey Niffeneger
45. Invasion of the Body Snatchers- Jack Finney
46. The Left Hand of Darkness- Ursula K. Le Guin
47. The Hyperion Series- Dan Simmons
48. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress- Robert A. Heinlein
49. Stranger in a Strange Land- Robert A. Heinlein
50. Ender's Game
51. The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway
52. Descartes Bones - Russell Shorto
53. The Kite Runner
54. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter- Carson McCullers
55. A Separate Peace- John Knowles
56. The Name of the Wind- Patrick Rothfuss
57. Looking for Alaska-John Green
58. 12 Years A Slave-Solomon Northup
59. Dove by Robin Lee Graham
60. Revolutionary Road
61. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie- Muriel Spark
62. Tender is the Night- F. Scott Fitzgerald
63. The Power of One- Bryce Courtney
64. A Testament of Youth- Vera Britain
65. Burr- Gorr Vidal
66. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down- Anne Fadiman
67. Pet Cemetary- Stephen King
68. Jurassic Park- Michael Crichton
69. American Psycho- Brett Easton Ellis
70. The Human Comedy- William Saroyan
71. Winesburg, Ohio- Sherwood Anderson
72. The Cellist of Sarajevo- Steven Galloway
73. The discovery of heaven- Harry Mulisch
74. The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow- Rita Leganski
75. My Sister's Keeper- Jodi Picoult
76. Emma- Jane Austen
77. Of Human Bondage- W Somerset Maugham
78. Jude the Obscure- Thomas Hardy
79. The Forgotten Seamstress- Liz Trenow
80. Freedom from the Known- J Krishnamurti
81. Foam of the Daze- Boris Vian
82. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
83. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
84. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo- Stieg Larsson
85. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance- Pirsig
86. Moon and Sixpence- W Somerset Maugham
87. Middlesex- Jeffrey Eugenides
88. Johnny got his gun - Dalton Trumbo
89. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
90. How Green was My Valley- Richard Llewellyn
91. Uncle Tom's Cabin- Harriet Beecher Stowe
92. The Jungle- Upton Sinclair
93. Scaramouche- Rafael Sabatini
94. The Age of Reason- Thomas Paine
95. The Faiths of the Founding Fathers- David L. Holmes
96. The Communist Manifesto- Karl Marx
97. The Prisoner of Zenda- Anthony Hope
98. Dhalgren- Samuel R. Delany
99. The Marid Audran Sequence- George Alec Effinger
100. When The Sacred Gin Mill Closes- Lawrence Block

I like this list!

No.s 16 and 40 - For Whom the Bell Tolls - duplicate
No. 25 Foundation trilogy

Steve wrote: "I like this list!"
I'm glad. Although you & Buck did contribute a lot of Sci Fi...

Buck wrote: "No.s 16 and 40 - For Whom the Bell Tolls - duplicate
No. 25 Foundation trilogy"

I meant A Farewell to Arms. Will fix.

Lisa wrote: "Steve wrote: "I like this list!"
I'm glad. Although you & Buck did contribute a lot of Sci Fi...

Buck wrote: "No.s 16 and 40 - For Whom the Bell Tolls - duplicate
No. 25 Foundation trilogy"

I mea..."

That is true, we could lose a heinlen or the time travellers wife and add a mystery writer, or Cormac Mccarthy, blood meridian should be on the list!!!!!

If we remove books from the original list, we lose nine.
Time Traveller's wife is awesome.

Steve wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Steve wrote: "I like this list!"
I'm glad. Although you & Buck did contribute a lot of Sci Fi...

Buck wrote: "No.s 16 and 40 - For Whom the Bell Tolls - duplicate
No. 25 Foundation t..."

We could lose a Hemingway or two...

Hi all, so the idea is to create a list of books not on the original list.
I'm not going to limit the length of this list (but Steve can't contribute more than 10 books)
Please suggest more awesome books you have read, not on the original list.
We will call the list- the books they didn't tell you about...

I'm not sure if we should also exclude BBC top 100, but that gets complicated...

So I would want to add:

We need to talk about Kevin- Lionel Shriver
Mossflower- Brian Jacques
Her Fearful Symmetry- Audrey Niffenegger
Little Women- Louisa May Alcott

Further suggestions please

Lisa wrote: "So I would want to add:

We need to talk about Kevin- Lionel Shriver
Mossflower- Brian Jacques
Her Fearful Symmetry- Audrey Niffenegger
Little Women- Louisa May Alcott"

I suggest editing this list to replace the titles that are repeats from the original list of 50.

Lisa wrote: "Further suggestions please"

How about a poll to add (or remove) titles from this list. And/or, it might be interesting to have an ongoing poll to see how many of the books have been read by group members, kind of a survey.

Buck wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Further suggestions please"

How about a poll to add (or remove) titles from this list. And/or, it might be interesting to have an ongoing poll to see how many of the books have been..."

Not sure how to do that
Waiting for more books before I remove from original 50

Updated to number 200
More suggestions still needed

Looking for Alaska-John Green

12 Years A Slave-Solomon Northup

Dove by Robin Lee Graham

If anyone is interested in non-fiction travel, I'm obliged to recommend this.

Another book I've been dying to read that might be good for this list:

Gerry wrote: "
If anyone is interested in non-fiction travel, I'm obliged to recommend this.

Another book I've been dying to read that might be good for th..."

Hey Gerry, we've kept it fiction so far.
Grapes of Wrath is on the original list of 50 so we haven't included it here.

Lisa wrote: "Gerry wrote: "
If anyone is interested in non-fiction travel, I'm obliged to recommend this.

Another book I've been dying to read that might ..."

Okay, thanks Lisa. I'll look closer at the list again and check back.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. 100% my best book for many reasons.

Scott wrote: "The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. 100% my best book for many reasons."

Gosh, I read it years ago. Loved it but didn't enjoy his others. How about you?

"A Testament of Youth" by Vera Brittain is exactly this sort of book--I stumbled onto it by accident and it was so good I couldn't believe that no one had recommended it to me before. It's a memoir of a young Englishwoman during World War I whose brother, best friend, and fiance all went to fight, and she served as a nurse. It was one of the most powerful and affecting books I've ever read.

Burr, by Gore Vidal got me started on the other side of American history. Invaluable.

I made my own list, of Curmudgeons, the ones who tell uncomfortable truths. And get me to think.
http://bandannabooks.com/cur/curmudge...

I very much enjoyed The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down (By: Anne Fadiman), Jurassic Park (By: Michael Crichton) and Pet Sematary (By: Stephan King)

Lisa wrote: "Hi all,
I'm composing a list based on everyone's suggestions. In no specific order. This is what we have so far.

1. We Need to Talk About Kevin- Lionel Shriver
2. A Tree Grows in Brookklyn by Bett..."

Thanks for including the New Jim Crow! That book has actually started a social movement and has groups in many major cities. The book is a fantastic read about the pitfalls of the criminal justice system.

I'd like to nominate American Psycho.

count of monte cristo by alexandre dumas!!! must read

Can we add two:
The Human Comedy
Winesburg, Ohio

Taylor wrote: "count of monte cristo by alexandre dumas!!! must read"

It's on the original list of 50. I agree it's a must- read

The Cellist of Sarajevo. The ending still gives me goosebumps!

Falina wrote: "I'd like to nominate American Psycho."

Richard wrote: "Can we add two:
The Human Comedy
Winesburg, Ohio"

Carol wrote: "The Cellist of Sarajevo. The ending still gives me goosebumps!"

Sorry to be difficult, can I ask for authors too please.

Only 28 spots left.
Please can I ask that you include book and author.
Preferably like so:
Book- Author
Makes it easier to update
I may only update again in 48 hours

Freedom from the Known by J. Krishnamurti

This is definitely one to read before I die, rather I'll read it next month! The sooner the better.

The Forgotten Seamstress
Brilliant book! A touching story based in history about the story around a quilt!...Read my review for more info. Happy reading!

Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy - warning - don't read this if you easily get depressed :)

One more from my side which should be there on the list of probables .

those two should be on any list

Updated
Only 20 spots left

Updated again
20 spots left
Book- author please guys

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen

How about the girl with the dragon tattoo by stieg larson? I know its a commercial success but it was a hell of a book.

zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance by pirsig

Marlene wrote: "A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen"

Thanks!

updated
15 spots

Johnny got his gun - Dalton Trumbo

Perfume: The Story of a Murderermy favorite book

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides I picked this book up by mistake when I went to get Middlemarch. Best mistake ever. I love the way he writes.