19.Oct.2009 TSS: Borders 100 Favourite Books of All Time

Musing Mondays TSSbadge3

My first Musing Mondays! Yea I know it’s not Monday. So I’m making this a Sunday Salon post too. (Then I forgot to post it on Sunday, so it’s back to Monday now. Oh well, who’s taking note?)

This past week, Borders re-released it’s 100 Favourite Books of All Times. Do you vote in these kinds of polls when they arise? Do you look through the list, or seek out books featured?

The list is from Borders Australia and I somehow missed the poll. I love book lists I do! I can’t resist to go through each one and mark it, or whatever. It drives me mad though that My Sister’s Keeper is always on popular books list like this one (always near the top too). I read it and hated it. The one book from top 10 that I never heard of is Magician by Raymond E. Feist. Interesting.

Recently Angus & Robertson Australia has also just came out with their own 100 Top Stories. So that’s another list for you. I have the physical list and have marked the ones I read. It’s therapeutic.

Anyway, going back to Borders list, I’ve marked the ones I’ve read in bold, the ones I have on my physical self at home in orange, the ones I really want to read right now underlined, and the ones I’m never going to read in strike (that makes it a bit easier to weed through the list).

I’ve read 17 out of 100.

1. Jane Austen – Pride & Prejudice
2. Harper Lee – To Kill A Mockingbird
3. JRR Tolkien – Lord Of The Rings
4. Jodi Picoult – My Sister’s Keeper
5. Stephanie Meyer – Twilight Saga
6. JK Rowling – Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone
7. Audrey Niffenegger – The Time Traveler’s Wife
8. Markus Zusak – The Book Thief
9. George Orwell – 1984
10. Raymond E. Feist – Magician
11. Khaled Hosseini – A Thousand Splendid Suns
12. Paullina Simons – Bronze Horsemen
13. Gregory David Roberts – Shantaram
14. Margaret Mitchell – Gone With The Wind
15. Bryce Courtenay – Power of One
16. Dan Brown – The Da Vinci Code
17. Dan Brown – Angels & Demons
18. Paulo Coelho – The Alchemist
19. Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre
20. Tim Winton – Cloud Street
21. Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner
22. Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights
23. Arthur Golden – Memoirs of Geisha
24. LM Montgomery – Anne Of Green Gables
25. Joseph Heller – Catch-22
26. Elizabeth Gilbert – Eat Pray Love
27. Niv Mass Market Bible With Bible Guide – International Bible Society Staff and International Bible Society
28. JRR Tolkien – The Hobbit
29. Yann Martel – Life of Pi
30. AB Facey – Fortunate Life
31. Douglas Adams – The Hitch-hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
32. Lewis Carroll – Alice In Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass
33. Diana Gabaldon – Cross Stich
34. Rohinton Mistry – A Fine Balance
35. David Pelzar – A Child Called It
36. Li Cunxin – Mao’s Last Dancer
37. John Marsden – Tomorrow, When The War Began
38. Frank McCourt – Angela’s Ashes
39. Frank Herbert – Dune
40. JD Salinger – A Catcher In The Rye
41. F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby
42. Gabriel Garcia Marquez – One Hundred Years Of Solitude
43. Bryce Courtenay – April Fool’s Day
44. Ken Follet – Pillars Of The Earth
45. Patrick Suskind – Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer
46. Matthew Reilly – Ice Station
47. Carlos Ruiz Zafon – The Shadow Of The Wind
48. Stephen Hawking – A Brief History Of Time
49. Christopher Paolini – Eragon
50. Louisa May Alcott – Little Women
51. Mitch Albom – Tuesdays With Morrie
52. Jane Austen – Persuasion
53. Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
54. Ian McEwan – Atonement
55. Leo Tolstory – Anna Karenina
56. George Orwell – Animal Farm
57. Anthony Burgess – A Clockwork Orange
58. Antoine de Saint Exupéry – The Little Prince
59. Roald Dahl – Charlie & The Chocolate Factory
60. CS Lewis – The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe
61. Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Love In The Time Of Cholera
62. Bill Bryson – A Short History Of Nearly Everything
63. Fyodor Dostoevsky – Crime And Punishment
64. Anthony Bourke – Lion Called Christian
65. Arundhati Roy – The God Of Small Things
66. Paullina Simons – Tully
67. John Grisham – A Time To Kill
68. John Grogan – Marley & Me
69. Vikram Seth – A Suitable Boy
70. Alexandre Dumas – Count Of Monte Cristo
71. Neil Gaiman – American Gods
72. Cormac McCarthy – The Road
73. Aldous Huxley – Brave New World
74. Brendan Shanahan – In Turkey I Am Beautiful: Between Chaos And Madness In A Strange Land
75. Tim Winton – Breath
76. Bryce Courtenay – Jessica
77. Graeme Base – Animalia
78. Donna Tartt – The Secret History
79. Mario Puzo – The Godfather
80. Anne Rice – Interview With The Vampire
81. Steig Larrson – The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo
82. Stephen King – Stand
83. Helen Fielding – Bridget Jones’ Diary
84. Eckhart Tolle – New Earth
85. Matthew Reilly – Seven Ancient Wonders
86. Jung Chang – Wild Swans
87. Nicholas Sparks – The Notebook
88. Bret Easton Ellis – American Psycho
89. David Eddings – Belgariad Vol. 1: Pawn Of Prophecy; Queen Of Sorcery; Magician’s Gambit
90. Louis De Bernieres – Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
91. Melina Marchetta – Looking For Alibrandi
92. Celia Ahern – PS I Love You
93. John Irving – A Prayer For Owen Meany
94. Colleen McCullough – The Thorn Birds
95. John Kennedy Toole – A Confederacy Of Dunces
96. Terry Pratchett – Good Omens
97. Hunter S. Thompson – Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
98. Joanne Harris – Chocolat
99. William Goldman – Princess Bride
100. Charles Dickens – Great Expectations

Comment Pages

There are 10 Comments to "TSS: Borders 100 Favourite Books of All Time"

  • I did vote in this poll and my choice came in at number 31 :) I’ve read 23 of the list though quite a few of those wouldn’t make my own personal top 100.
    .-= [Bernadette in Australia´s last blog: Sunday Salon 2009-10-18: Week in Review] =-.

    • mee says:

      Oh I read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy earlier this year. Would love to continue on the series.
      Quite a few on the list wouldn’t make my personal top 100 too (though I don’t think I have read 100 English novels just yet…)

  • Suko says:

    This is quite a list, Mee!

  • Rebecca Reid says:

    I’ve read 34 of them, but most of them are NOT my favorites, as in they wouldn’t even make the top 1000 best books of all time.

    Then again, a few of my favorites are on there, so who knows?!
    .-= [Rebecca Reid´s last blog: Really Old Classics Challenge] =-.

    • mee says:

      Lol that’s pretty harsh. Now that you mentioned it, I think some of the ones I read on that list are not my favorites too. So, do approach with caution :P.

      ps: I’d be so interested to know what your favorite books of all time!

  • Valerie says:

    I’m curious to know why you decided some of those books are ones you’ll never read? I can understand Twilight Saga — I’m not interested in those books at all.

    Hmm, will have to count up which ones I’ve already read on that list!
    .-= [Valerie´s last blog: Ahem….] =-.

    • mee says:

      Apart from the bible (which I have read most), I see those books everywhere, and reading the summaries, I just don’t think I’m interested. It’s quite simple reason really :)

  • claire says:

    I’ve read 32 from the list, most of which I liked (and some I really loved) but then there are so many others on the list that I wouldn’t really bother to look at at all. I hope you don’t mind my asking what made you not want to read Angela’s Ashes? I thought it was really good.
    .-= [claire´s last blog: I Caved] =-.

    • mee says:

      Well, first the book is everywhere and I get suspicious when a book gets too famous (but it’s probably understandable since it won Pulitzer). Second, I don’t know Frank McCourt and why I want to read his biography. I usually read a biography because there’s something I want to learn out of the person’s life. But his biography revolves around poverty and dysfunctional family (as I understand) and those are not something I need to learn more of. Third I’m pretty sure I read a couple of times somewhere that the biography was claimed “inaccurate”, and with the controversy of A Million Little Pieces around the same time, I’m just very reluctant to get near to any “possibly made-up” biography.

      Well that’s the long answer. But short answer, I’m probably just not that interested in the topic. I’m sorry if I sound a bit harsh. I just tried to express my reasoning. I’m sure it could be a really good book!

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