Angus and Robertson's Top 100 Books

It is always interesting to read someone's elses list of books, which is why I always take an interest in the Angus and Robertson Top 100 Book List that is updated every few years. The last one was up on thr wall of my staffroom, and we were all reading them... I think I had read the most, but that may or may not be a good thing depending on the quality of the books on the list!

As people often ask me for book recommendations, and I haven't done anything like this on the blog yet, I thought I would post my thoughts on the books on this list.

I will write a few general thoughts first, and then start listing books in categories.

Firstly, there are some very banal books on this list - I must admit that some of these I have not read as I have avoided them like the plague. I avoid what might be termed "pulp fiction", mass produced rubbish that authors churn out once every six months (the exception here being Stephen King - the man is a visionary). So I will not have read many of these, and those I have (did anyone else suffer through The Da Vinci Code?) will probably not be high up on my list.

I might also have to add Harry Potter (an un-suprising Number One) to that list. While Rowling is certainly readable, she is also very clever. The threads that lead towards the ending we are all waiting with bated breath for have been weaving in and out of each other since book one.

So, now that I have revealed (further - Deathly Hallows is Number One on my list) the shameful secret that I am a Harry Potter fan, let us address the rest of the books:

MASTERPIECES - MUST READ

Anything by Tolkien

Pride and Prejudice

Magician (Raymond E Feist)

The Kite Runner

Wuthering Heights

1984

The Time Traveller's Wife

Jane Eyre

The Shadow of the Wind (read it!)

The Eyre Affair

WORTH A LOOK

Memoirs of a Geisha

Cloudstreet

The Lovely Bones

Mao's Last Dancer

The Book Thief

Tuesdays with Morrie

Emma

The Pact

The Ancient Future

Great Expectations

The Notebook

Across the Nightingale Floor

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Brave New World

The Other Boleyn Girl

The Secret River

GO TO BED EARLY INSTEAD

The Da Vinci Code

The Alchemist

Wow! That was longer than I thought....