The 100 Best Books of All Time

Try Ethan Fromm and Custom of the Country

My favourite novel is 'Black Beauty' by Anna Sewell.

Harry Potter is greater than Crime and Punishment? Charlotte’s Web is one of the greatest 100 books of all time? This list is retarded.

The Count of Monte Cristo!!!!
Can you list the books in the comments?

You should read Count of Monte Cristo. Forget about any media adaptations you’ve seen. The second half of the story is vastly different and epic!

My List would be :
Love Poems /Hamlet /Midsummer Nights Dream / The Venice Merchant / The Merry Wives of Windsor, Otelo, etc. (Shakespeare)
1984/Animal Farm/ Pennyless in Paris and London (George Orwell)
Alexandria's Quartet (Lawrence Durrell)
The Red and the Black (Stendhal)
Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
The Portrait of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
The Idiot/ The Demons (F. Dostoyevsky)
Nana/Germinal (E. Zola)
Boule de Suif (Ball of Grease) /Bel Ami/La Maison Tellier /Mademoiselle Fifi /Short Stories (Guy de Maupassant)
Madame Bovary (Flaubert)
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
The Castle of Argol
(Julien Graqc)
The Erl King (The Ogre), (Michel Tournier)
Laughter in the Dark (Nabokov)
Belle du Seigneur (Albert Cohen)
Orlando/ To the Lighthouse / Mrs Dalloway (V. Woolf)
The Dead/ Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce)
East of Eden/Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
The Old Man and the Sea /A Moveable Feast (E. Hemingway)
The Great Gatsby/ Short Stories /The Crack Up (Scott Fitzgerald)
The Sound and the Fury/The Wild Palms (W. Faulkner)
The Rainbow/ Women in Love/ Sons and Lovers (D. H. Lawrence)
Pedro Páramo (Juan Rulfo)
Death of Artemiio Cruz/ Aura /Short Stories two Volumes (Carlos Fuentes)
A Hundred Years of Solitude (García Márquez)
El Pasado-The Past (Alan Pauls)
Jude The Obscure/Tess D'Uberville (Thomas Hardy)
The Clayhangers (Arnold Bennett )
Eugénie Grandet /Père Goriot (Balzac)
The Vagabond Trilogy (Knut Hamsun)
Room with a View /Howard's End/Passage to India (E.M.Forster)
Raj's Quartet/ The Corrida at S Feliu (Paul Scott)
Washington Square /The Turn of the Screw (Henry James)
The Good Soldier (Ford Maddox Ford)
In Praise of Lies (Patricia Melo)
The Last September (Elizabeth Bowen)
All the King Horses (R. Penn Warren)
Novel with Cocaïne (Agueev)
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Yukio Mishima)
Filthy/ Glue (Irvine Welsh)
The Demon (Hubert Selby)
The Pugilist at Rest/ Cold Snap (Thom Jones)
Fingersmith/Affinity /Tipping the Velvet (Sarah Waters)
Wise Blood /Short Stories (Flannery O'connor)
Cockpit/ The Tree of Evil/ The Painted Bird (J. Kozinsky)
Short Stories (Roald Dahl)
Eagles and Ashes (Juli Zeh)
A Singular Man/ A Fairytale in New York (J. P. Donleavy)
Atonement (Ian McEwan)
The Magus (John Fowles)
Short Stories (John Cheever)
A Tree of Night (Truman Capote)
Diary (Chuck Pahlaniuk)
Journals I, II, IiI and IV (Anais Nin)
Depths (Henning Mankell)
The Ragman's Daughter /The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Alan Sillitoe)
The Lottery/We've Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson)
The Bird of Night/ I Am the King of the Castle (Susan Hill)
S. (Claude Cariguel)
Le Grand Meaulnes (Alain Fournier)
Giovanni's Room (James Baldwin)
Demian /Siddharta (Herman Hesse)
Out of Africa (Karen Blixen) /Winter Tales
The Golden Notebook (Doris Lessing)
Dead of a Salesman (Arthur Miller)
A Streetcar Named Desire /Sweet Bird of Youth (Tennesse Williams)
Desire Under the Elms (Eugene O'Neill)
Zoo Story (Edward Albee)
Huis Clos (No Exit)/Baudelaire (J. P. Sartre)
The Barrier (Robin Maugham)
Of Human Bondage (Somerset Maugham)
Lord Jim (Joseph Conrad)
Collected Short Stories (Edgar Allan Poe)
The Decline (Osamu Dazai)
The Constant Gardener (John Le Carré)
Bomarzo (Mújica Laínez)
Noticias del Imperio (Fernando del Paso)
England Made Me/ The Man Within/ A Burnt Out Case (Graham Greene)
Complicity (Iain Banks)
The Moth (James Cain)
Short Stories (Borges). Would add Louise Erdrich, Louis Owens, Willy Vlautin(Northline),
Jane Austin, Charlotte Bronte, Edna O'Brian, Anthony Burgess, Willa Cather, Katherine Mansfield and some more. But this is what comes to me right now, as the ones I 've liked more. Deliberately let out Lolita (Nabokov),Under the Volcano (Malcom Lowry), Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), The Stranger -L' Étranger (A. Camus), Céline, Drieu La Rochelle, Thomas Mann, Kafka, Swann's Death (Proust), Tokyo Blues (Murakami), and some topics that didn't impressed me or were just boring. I've read much more than the ones in this List, needless to say.

I don't patrickly care for catches in the ride. I read it later in life. And it just didn't grab me but a great book is. This is my beloved By walter Benton A collection of poetry written like a diary

you are good in this job.

"The Adventures of Augie March" Saul Bellow "A Fan's Notes" Frederick Exley "Blood Meridian" is McCarthy's best. No Cheever or Updike!?! Yikes!!

Have you read Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart?

Ah, To kill a Mockingbird! I never finished the book, because at the time I tried to read it my English was simply not sufficient. I will try again now after 20 or 30 years.
And my favorite is "Madame Bovary". Not on this list but surely on my list.

Lists are fun. As long as one sees them as reading suggestions and not as dogma.

Good job. This is quite an undertaking. Many of these books I long considered classics…that is until I finally began reading Henry James. He elevated my expectations of what a good novel should be. The language is so elevated and precise, the characters so deeply defined, the inner conflict so poignant. Lately, I’ve been digging in vain for engaging fiction but reading James is like finally discovering a goldmine. The Portrait of a Lady is a good place to start.

Kite Runner ⭕️
Goon Squad ❌

I love lists too. Have you ever read Larry McCaffery's 'greatest English-language novels of the 20th century' list? Published online. It's interesting, especially as it's intended as a direct response to the (not great) Modern Library list, when it came out.

The sglodaxons are not the best but the worst authors. Where is Dostoiefski ,Zola,Hugo ,Flaubert, Balzac,Standale,Baudelaire,Verlaine,Rimbau Nerval the symboliste?Where is Gaite Neieche?where is Proust Sartre Anatol Franch Ionesko Becet Brechte? Whete is Kafka ?Machiaveli? Echo? Elitis Kazatzakis?Seferis? Mishathrope Moliere Tartoufe ,Don Juan.. Rousseau? The europeen ecrivains ate ages superier thsn the aglosaxons. Whete iare the anciens grekks. Aichyle Sofocles Eurypides.?

The sglodaxons are not the best but the worst authors. Where is Dostoiefski ,Zola,Hugo ,Flaubert, Balzac,Standale,Baudelaire,Verlaine,Rimbau Nerval the symboliste?Where is Gaite Neieche?where is Proust Sartre Anatol Franch Ionesko Becet Brechte? Whete is Kafka ?Machiaveli? Echo? Elitis Kazatzakis?Seferis? Mishathrope Moliere Tartoufe ,Don Juan.. Rousseau? The europeen ecrivains ate ages superier thsn the aglosaxons. Whete iare the anciens grekks. Aichyle Sofocles Eurypides.?

Best book by woman.?..and it can't be by Austen or Bronte (either) or Atwood or Woolf

Big James M.Cain fan Raymond Chandler trashed him James Ellroy raves about him (Love controversial people the only ones worth anything)!!!!!

I know this is mainly a fiction book tube channel but did anyone besides myself find the non-fiction selections dated? The most recent book (the self-help book) is from 2012. Also, RD didn’t list what may be the most influential science writer to non-scientists, Charles Darwin (Yes, I am aware that Darwin is dated too, there are newer authors writing about evolution, Adam Rutherford for one.)

As much as I admire Louise Erdrich I was surprised that she was the only author with 2 books on the list as well. What about Trollope, Kingsolver, Oates, Elliot, Wilde, Wilder… ? I have a feeling that RD’s motive was more about their Amazon affiliate links than an honest listing of best books.

Jayne eyre?

I read 21 of these books (2 of them this year actually)

Dostoievski missing on this list is just unforgivable 😱

I read The Kite Runner based on this list. I didn't care for it. I know how popular it was. But I had problems with this book. Sorry. 🤔

I just read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
IMO a lot of people don't understand all this book achieves and how now more than ever how important this book. I love it.
Another book written back then that remains a favorite is At Swim, Two Boys.

Margaret Atwood is a great author!

Roald Dahl, any parent knows these books are fantastic. All Harry Potter books are not just for kids. Adults - please try a Harry Potter book.

I can confidently say that I have read all 100. I can also confidently say that I’m lying right now. Fun recap of the list, thanks for doing this.

I suggest catch 22 first & it's not challenging to read, it's a fun read.

“And I’ve never forgiven her “ 😂 💚💚💚

Roberto Bolano 2666 and in general some more brilliant Latin American authors.

You forgot to mention that they are all fiction! I started reading non-fiction about a year ago and have found so many amazing leaps in science and spiritual realities that I'm excited about life for the first time in many years! Try it. You might fine something new and exciting.

I have read 27 an interesting list.Thanx for video

Where’s Ulysses??

Well, this doesn’t put Reader’s Digest very high on my list ! Quite a few of the books you showed are of relevance and importance, but so many masterpieces are absent from this list. Do us a favor, stick to your personal selection, that way we’ll feel less lost !

Reader's Digest, eh?

to kill a mockingbird❤funny and educative

Thanks for sharing. I've read 47 but have many more. So glad Jennifer Egan made the list!

Sixty-four. And read The Kite Runner! It is SO good. I read it not long after it came out and I still remember exactly where I was when I realized (right at the beginning) that I was going to really really love it. (In the optometrist's waiting room.)

I've read more than Eric! Yea me! 62 I'm not sure I will read many of those I haven't read as they are largely nonfiction and I have no interest in reading Lolita. Many of my favorites are on this list, but I love the Brothers Karamozov. Also, I would choose Stephen King's The Stand over The Shining. I would also add Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the list as one of the best children's books of my childhood. As you said, there are so many wonderful books, there can never be only 100. Oh, and Ms. Oates' books are not on the list! What? I would add The Falls. One of my favorite books. Thank you! I enjoyed this so much! I watched it twice!

İncredible video!

I have read most of the books on this list and would recommend many for being representative of their time, genres or author’s popularity in the literary Canon and also for obviously being great reads; although personally I don’t think Harry Potter is that great a read despite it being so popular with children and adults alike. Plus, I was very surprised to see David Sedaris make this list because although I enjoyed that book to some degree, I don’t think it’s one of the top 100. I do love Gatsby and Cutting for Stone though which would definitely be in my top 100. If I was adding books to the list , some I’d personally like to see would be Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, The Infernal Desire Machine Of Doctor Hoffman or Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter and The Vegetarian by Han Kang.

I've read 40 off the list and was familiar with most of the titles - definitely given me a nudge to pick up a few that I know are waiting patiently on my shelves!

Ahh, I do recommend The Kite Runner! It is extremely hyped, but it's a devastating story and so well done.

Wow you did a real marathon here! I have to say, again such an Anglo-Saxon list with some exceptions here and there. Why putting John Green for example and not Flaubert, Mann, Zweig, Marias, Pahmuk, Joseph Roth to name a few? So much more inventive and deep writing that will be remembered in literary history still in 100 years. You can never do it right with such a list, I do realise, but this is a poor effort to my humble opinion.

Many great books on the list, but they left out the very best books: In Search of Lost Time, Proust; Mrs. Dalloway/To the Lighthouse/The Waves, Woolf; Austerlitz, Sebald; Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky; The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner; Gilead, M. Robinson; War and Peace; Moby Dick....

35

I have read 33. I have a lot of the others in my library.....to be read..... I am now inspired!!!

I'd like to add They Were Her Property by Stephanie Jones-Rogers, which was written by a black woman about the way white women enslavers were raised to exercise mastery over enslaved people. I'd also like to add The Field of Blood by Joanne Freeman, which chronicles honor violence in the antebellum US congress.

55/100, not bad I guess. Nothing specific to miss, just how western/white the list is though...