110 best books: The perfect library

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CLASSICS
POETRY
LITERARY FICTION
ROMANTIC FICTION
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
SCI-FI
CRIME
BOOKS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
BOOKS THAT CHANGED YOUR WORLD
HISTORY
LIVES

From classics and sci-fi to poetry, biographies and books that changed the world… we present the ultimate reading list. Illustrations by David Juniper CLASSICS The Iliad and The Odyssey Homer Set during the Trojan War, The Iliad combines battle scenes with a debate about heroism; Odysseus' thwarted attempts to return to Ithaca when the war ends form The Odyssey. Its symbolic evocation of human life as an epic journey homewards has inspired everything from James Joyce's Ulysses to the Coen brothers' film, O Brother Where Art Thou?. The Barchester Chronicles Anthony Trollope A story set in a fictional cathedral town about the squabbles and power struggles of the clergy? It doesn’t sound promising, but Trollope's sparklingly satirical novels are among the best-loved books of all time. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen advertisement Heroine meets hero and hates him. Is charmed by a cad. A family crisis – caused by the cad – is resolved by the hero. The heroine sees him for what he really is and realises (after visiting his enormous house) that she loves him. The plot has been endlessly borrowed, but few authors have written anything as witty or profound as Pride and Prejudice. Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift Swift's scathing satire shows humans at their worst: whether diminished (in Lilliput) or grossly magnified (in Brobdingnag). Our capacity for self-delusion – personified by the absurdly pompous Gulliver – makes this darkest of novels very funny. Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë Cruelty, hypocrisy, dashed hopes: Jane Eyre faces them all, yet her individuality triumphs. Her relationship with Rochester has such emotional power that it's hard to believe these characters never lived. War and Peace Tolstoy Tolstoy's masterpiece is so enormous even the author said it couldn't be described as a novel. But the characters of Andrei, Pierre and Natasha – and the tragic and unexpected way their lives intersect – grip you for all 1,400 pages. David Copperfield Charles Dickens David's journey to adulthood is filled with difficult choices – and a huge cast of characters, from the treacherous Steerforth to the comical Mr Micawber. Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray '"I'm no Angel," answered Miss Rebecca. And to tell the truth, she was not.' Whether we should judge the cunning, amoral Becky Sharp – or the hypocritical society she inhabits – is the question. Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert Flaubert's finely crafted novel tells the story of Emma, a bored provincial wife who comforts herself with shopping and affairs. It doesn't end well. Middlemarch George Eliot Dorothea wastes her youth on a creepy, elderly scholar. Lydgate marries the beautiful but self-absorbed Rosamund. George Eliot's characters make terrible mistakes, but we never lose empathy with them. POETRY Sonnets Shakespeare Shakespeare's sonnets contain some of poetry's most iconic lines – and a mysterious insight into his personal life. Divine Comedy Dante Dante Alighieri's epic tale of one man's journey into the afterlife is considered Italy's finest literary export. Canterbury Tales Chaucer These humorous tales about fictional pilgrims made an important contribution to English literature at a time when court poetry was written in either Anglo-Norman or Latin. The Prelude William Wordsworth This posthumously published work is both an autobiographical journey and a fragment of history from the revolutionary and post-revolutionary years. Odes John Keats Littered with sensuous descriptions of nature's beauty, Keats's odes also pose profound philosophical questions. The Waste Land T. S. Eliot Eliot's vision of dystopia became a literary landmark, and introduced new techniques to the modern poet. He remains one of the defining figures of 20th-century poetry. Paradise Lost John Milton Since its publication in 1667, Milton’s 12-book English epic – in which he sets out to 'justify the ways of God to men' – has been considered a classic. Songs of Innocence and Experience William Blake Blake's short poems are simple in rhythm and rhyme, but sophisticated in meaning. Written during a time of political turmoil, they embody his radical sympathies and anti-dualist ideas. Collected Poems W. B. Yeats Considered a driving force in the revival of Irish literature, Yeats fruitfully engages the topics of youth, love, nature, art and war. Collected Poems Ted Hughes Although Hughes was a colossal presence among the English literary landscape – his work often draws upon the forbidding Yorkshire countryside of his youth – his personal life had a tendency to overshadow his talent. LITERARY FICTION The Portrait of a Lady Henry James James's mastery of psychology has never been more elegantly expressed nor more gripping than in his tale of Isabel Archer, a young American in search of her destiny, and Gilbert Osmond, the ultimate cold fish and one of literature's most repellent villains. A la recherche du temps perdu Proust A novel whose every sentence can be a struggle to finish may sound forbidding, but this masterpiece of modernity, taking us into every nook and cranny of the narrator's fascinating mind, is worth all the effort. Ulysses James Joyce Banned in Britain and America for its depiction of female masturbation, Joyce's Ulysses takes its scatological stand at the pinnacle of modernist literature. Lyrical and witty, its stream-of-consciousness narration deters many, but makes enraptured enthusiasts of others. For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway A sparse, masculine, world-weary meditation on death, ideology and the savagery of war in general, and the Spanish civil war in particular. Sword of Honour trilogy Evelyn Waugh A poignant, ironic study of the disintegration of aristocratic values in the face of blank bureaucracy and Second World War butchery, Men at Arms, Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender are Waugh's crowning achievements. The Ballad of Peckham Rye Muriel Spark Comic, satirical and ineffably odd, Spark's fifth novel introduces Dougal Douglas, ghost-writer, researcher, mysterious figure of Satanic magnetism and mayhem, to the upper working-class/ lower middle-class milieu of Peckham. Rabbit series John Updike We first meet Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom in Rabbit, Run, as a boorish, unhappy former basketball jock who runs from (and to) his pregnant wife. The novels that follow cover 30 years and make up the great study of American manhood. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez The greatest moment in magical realist fiction, García Márquez's passionate, humorous history of Macondo and its founding family, the Buendías, has the seductive power of myth. Beloved Toni Morrison Morrison brought to life a version of the slave narrative that has become a classic. Her tour de force of guilt, abandonment and revenge plays out against the background of pre-emancipation American life. The Human Stain Philip Roth Roth's brilliant, angry dissection of race, disgrace and hypocrisy in Clinton-Lewinsky era America brings to a close his grand and meticulous American trilogy (American Pastoral, I Married a Communist). ROMANTIC FICTION   Rebecca: the narrator is haunted by the housekeeper's worship of her predecessor Rebecca Daphne du Maurier Cornish estate owner Maximilian de Winter's second wife – also the nameless narrator – is haunted by the housekeeper's oppressive worship of her predecessor, Rebecca. A masterful tale of suspense. Le Morte D'Arthur Thomas Malory Malory's yarn explores the possibility that chivalry is best revealed by a knight's loyalty to his fellow knights, and not simply his devotion to a woman. Les Liaisons Dangereuses Choderlos de Laclos Paris in the 18th century: the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont concoct a scheme of seduction to entrap members of the aristocracy. Their roguish machinations lead to their climactic undoing. I, Claudius Robert Graves An invented autobiographical account of Claudius, the fourth emperor of ancient Rome. Graves draws upon the historical texts of Tacitus and Suetonius to write Claudius's story after claiming a visitation from the ancient ruler in his dreams. Alexander Trilogy Mary Renault Renault transports readers to Ancient Greece in a historical trilogy that presents the life and legacy of Alexander the Great in a humanising fictional portrait. Master and Commander Patrick O'Brian Set during the Napoleonic Wars, O'Brian's books journey the seas with Commander Aubrey and his crew aboard HMS Sophie. The novel follows Aubrey's convincing and complex friendship with Maturin, the ship's surgeon, as they fight enemies and storms. Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell Scarlett O'Hara manipulates her way through the American civil war. This selfish, but gutsy heroine idealises the unattainable Ashley before realising her love for her third husband, Rhett, who dismisses her with, 'My dear, I don't give a damn.' Dr Zhivago Boris Pasternak Yuri Zhivago loves two women, his wife, Tonya, and the captivating Lara. Pasternak juxtaposes romance with the stark brutality of the Russian civil war in this extraordinary historical epic. Tess of the D'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy Disgraced by an illegitimate child, Tess is tainted with shame and guilt, which destroys her marriage to Angel Clare. She emerges as a tragic heroine, incapable of escaping the hypocrisy of Victorian society. The Plantagenet Saga Jean Plaidy A collection of novels inspired by the Plantagenet dynasty. Jean Plaidy is one of the many noms de plume of Eleanor Alice Burford Hibbert, the celebrated historical fiction writer, who died in 1993. CHILDREN'S BOOKS Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome Four children sail to Wildcat Island, where they encounter a rival camping party then join forces to hunt treasure. Robinson Crusoe meets The Famous Five in a tale of sailing and ginger beer. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy discover the land of Narnia and the malevolent White Witch. The novel uses Christian iconography in Aslan's dramatic sacrifice and resurrection. Edmund's transition from self-interested schoolboy to heroic young man is also resonantly spiritual. The Lord of the Rings J.R. R. Tolkien Frodo and friends journey to Mordor to destroy the ring, making the young Hobbit one of the greatest fictional heroes of all time. More than 100million copies have been sold of the trilogy that brought fantasy to a mainstream literary audience. His Dark Materials Philip Pullman Will is a boy from Oxford. Lyra is a girl from Oxford in a parallel world. Together they have an epic adventure spanning parallel universes. The trilogy has inspired criticism for being heretical – Pullman himself declared the books were about 'killing God'. Babar Jean de Brunhoff Babar brings clothes and cars (and Madame) from Paris to his African kingdom. With his family and the wise Cornelius by his side, Babar protects his land from the Rhino King Rataxes. The big, beautiful books are enriched by Brunhoff's wonderful illustrations.   The Railway Children: the children adapt to a poverty-stricken life helped by waving to trains The Railway Children E. Nesbit Nesbit’s classic, made famous by the 1970 film, tells of how Bobby, Phyllis and Pete, missing their beloved father, adapt to a poverty-stricken life in the country, helped by Mr Perks, the Old Gentleman, and by waving to the train. Winnie-the-Pooh A.A. Milne The Silly Old Bear, with his friends in Hundred Acre Wood, is more than a British institution. A.A. Milne created a life philosophy with the trials, triumphs and tiddley-poms of the honey-loving, always kind-hearted Pooh. Harry Potter J.K. Rowling The boy wizard's dealings with the forces of adolescence and evil have sold more than 350million books in 65 languages. The Harry Potter phenomenon has its detractors, but the success of special 'grown-up' covers, allowing commuters to read Rowling without shame, tells its own tale. The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame Lonely and miserable trying to clean his hole, Mole ventures outside. He meets Ratty, Toad and Badger, and embarks on a new life defending Toad Hall from the weasels, protecting Toad from himself and messing about in boats. Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson The piratical coming of age of Jim Hawkins, who discovers a map of Treasure Island among an old sea captain's possessions – and then follows it. Parrots, 'pieces of eight' and the lovable, but morally ambiguous Long John Silver. SCI-FI Frankenstein Mary Shelley The great genius of Shelley's novel has often been overwhelmed by images of schlocky bolt-necked 'Frankensteins'. Brought to life by Dr Victor Frankenstein, Shelley’s creature is part gothic monster, part Romantic hero. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne Among the deep-sea volcanoes, shoals of swirling fish, giant squid and sharks, Captain Nemo steers the Nautilus. Nemo is the renegade scientist par excellence, a man madly inventive in his quest for revenge. The Time Machine H.G. Wells A seminal work of dystopian fiction, Wells's tale of the voyages of the Time Traveller in the distant future (AD802,701) is also a cracking adventure story. Brave New World Aldous Huxley Ignorance is far from bliss in Huxley’s terrible vision of a future of rampant consumerism, worthless free love, routine drug use and cultural passivity.   1984: chilling, wry and romantic, Orwell's novel is a passionate cry for freedom 1984 George Orwell So persuasive and chilling was the world summoned up here that 'Orwellian' has entered the language as shorthand for government control. Chilling, wry and romantic, it is above all a passionate cry for freedom. The Day of the Triffids John Wyndham Shifty Soviets and the clipped vernacular make this a Fifties horror story. But as humans cope with disasters (mass blinding by meteor shower; ruthless walking, flesh-eating plants) the tale becomes taut, terrifying, and far from ridiculous. Foundation Isaac Asimov 'Great Galaxy!' It is not for literary brilliance that one approaches the first in the Foundation series, but rather for the sweeping grandeur of Asimov’s epic universe-wide tale of the decline and fall of empires. Once you've finished this, 14 novels and countless more short stories await. 2001: A Space Odyssey Arthur C. Clarke The first in Clarke's quartet was written as a novel and, in collaboration with Stanley Kubrick, as a film script. As the Discovery One mission drifts towards Saturn, Clarke creates the embodiment of the perils of computer technology, HAL9000. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick Dick's masterpiece questions what it is that distinguishes us as human, as we follow Rick Deckard on his mission to 'retire' recalcitrant androids. Spawned Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Neuromancer William Gibson A violent slab of cyberpunk sci-fi, in which techie activities (artificial intelligence, hacking, virtual reality) are married with a grimy, anarchic, slangy sensibility, and a cast of hustlers, hackers and junkies trying to make sense of a world ruled by corporations. CRIME The Talented Mr Ripley Patricia Highsmith Tom Ripley is one of 20th-century literature's most disturbingly fascinating characters: a suave, charming serial killer, who's utterly amoral in his pursuit of la dolce vita.   The Maltese Falcon: a tale of greed and deceit, complete with flawed hero and femme fatale The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett A tale of greed and deceit that's also the archetypal work of 20th-century detective fiction: complete with flawed hero (Sam Spade), femme fatale and a convoluted plot that unravels grippingly. The Complete Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle It's one of literature's most wonderful ironies that Conan Doyle himself became a spiritualist so soon after creating the most famously rational character in all literature. The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler His oeuvre may be small, but with the help of long-time protagonist PI Philip Marlowe – who appears here for the first time – Chandler helped define the genres of detective fiction and, later, film noir. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John le Carré Le Carré, master of the Cold War novel, follows British spymaster George Smiley as he tries to uncover a Moscow mole, and faces his KGB nemesis, Karla. Red Dragon Thomas Harris Hannibal Lecter's second literary appearance sees him called upon by old FBI chum (and near-victim) Will Graham, to help solve the case of the serially morbid 'Tooth Fairy'. Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie From Istanbul to London, Hercule Poirot's little grey cells rattle away to improbable effect as he untangles the mystery of the life and violent death of a sinister passenger. The Murders in the Rue Morgue Edgar Allan Poe Poe's blackly ingenious tale of brutal murder in 19th-century Paris establishes C. Auguste Dupin, a man of 'peculiar analytic ability', as the model for pretty much every intellectual detective to come. The Woman in White Wilkie Collins A sensational 19th-century epistolary tale of women in peril adds one of the most charismatic, refined and straightforwardly fat villains to the pantheon. Killshot Elmore Leonard Leonard is known for his pithy dialogue and freaky characters. Here he manages to create a sweatily suspenseful thriller, with a married couple as the unexpected heroes. BOOKS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD Das Kapital Karl Marx His thinking may not be as popular as it was in the Sixties and Seventies, but it's as relevant. The cardinal critique of the capitalist system. The Rights of Man Tom Paine Written during the heady days of the French Revolution, Paine's pamphlet - by introducing the concept of human rights - remains one of modern democracy's fundamental texts. The Social Contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau 'Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.' How are we to reconcile our individual rights and freedoms with living in a society? Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville This treatise looked to the new country's flourishing democracy in the early 19th century and the progressive model it offered ‘old’ Europe. On War Carl von Clausewitz The first, and probably still foremost, treatise on the art of modern warfare. The Prussian general looked beyond the battlefield to war's place in the broader political context.   The Prince: the ultimate mandate for politicians who value power above justice The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli Written during his exile from the Florentine Republic, Machiavelli's bible of realpolitik offers the ultimate mandate for those (still-too-many) politicians who value keeping power above dispensing justice. Leviathan Thomas Hobbes Hobbes's call for rule by an absolute sovereign may not sound too progressive, but it was based on the then-groundbreaking belief that all men are naturally equal. On the Interpretation of Dreams Sigmund Freud Drawing on his own dreams, plus those of his patients, Freud asserted that dreams – by tapping into our unconscious – held the key to understanding what makes us tick. On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin No other book has so transformed how we look at the natural world and mankind's origins. L'Encyclopédie Diderot, et al Subtitled 'A Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts', with contributions by Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot and others, the 35-volume encyclopedia was the ultimate document of Enlightenment thought. BOOKS THAT CHANGED YOUR WORLD   Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: a feel-good memoir that became the biggest-selling philosophy book of all time Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig Pirsig's feel-good memoir about a father-son motorcycle trip across America became the biggest-selling philosophy book of all time. Jonathan Livingston Seagull Richard Bach Bach's fable about a dreamy seagull called Jonathan, who seeks to soar above the ideology of his flock, became a New Age classic, and is dedicated to the 'real seagull in all of us'. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams Originally broadcast on Radio 4, this quotable comedy about a hapless Englishman and his alien friend proved that sci-fi could be clever and funny. The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell Gladwell uses everything from teenage smoking to Sesame Street to show how one person's small idea, or way of thinking, can spark a social epidemic. The Beauty Myth Naomi Wolf Wolf, the controversial American feminist (and teenage victim of anorexia), argues that women's insecurities stem from society's demands on them either to be beautiful or face judgment. How to Cook Delia Smith The cookery queen's series is credited with teaching culinary delinquents how to prepare good wholesome food from scratch. Her latest book, How to Cheat at Cooking, does the opposite. A Year in Provence Peter Mayle For those who've dreamt of leaving it all to live in the South of France, expat Peter Mayle's diary offers a dose of reality, from unexpected snowfalls to an algae-coated swimming pool. A Child Called 'It' Dave Pelzer Pelzer's graphic account of his abusive childhood topped the bestseller lists worldwide. Since then, he's had to fight off accusations of embellishment and fantasy from family members. Eats, Shoots and Leaves Lynne Truss In an attempt to stamp out poor punctuation, Truss compiled a lively and useful account for all those in doubt about how to use an apostrophe. Schott's Original Miscellany Ben Schott Dip into Schott's compendium of trivia and impress your friends with such questions as, 'Do you know who makes the Queen's pork sausages?' The answer: Musks of Newmarket. HISTORY The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon Compressing 13 turbulent centuries into one epic narrative, this is often labelled the first 'modern' history book. Gibbon fell back on sociology, rather than superstition, to explain Rome's demise. A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Winston Churchill Taking us from Caesar's 55BC invasion to the Boer War's end in 1902, Churchill’s four-volume saga makes the proud, but now-unfashionable, connection between speaking English and bearing 'the torch of Freedom'. A History of the Crusades Steven Runciman Still the landmark account of the Crusades, Byzantine scholar Runciman's work broke with centuries of Western tradition, claiming the crusading invaders were guilty of a 'long act of intolerance in the name of God'. The Histories Herodotus Ostensibly about Greece's defeat of the invading Persians in the 5th century BC, it blends fact, hearsay, legend and myth to tell tales of life in and around Ancient Greece. The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides Famously fastidious over the reliability of his data and sources, Thucydides – with this detailed study of the 25-year struggle between Athens and Sparta – set the template for every historian after him. Seven Pillars of Wisdom T. E. Lawrence Lawrence of Arabia's fascinating, self-mythologising account of how he united a string of Arab tribes and successfully led them to rebellion against their Ottoman overlords. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Compiled at King Alfred's behest in the AD890s, this is the earliest-known history of England written in old English. It's also the oldest history of any European country in a vernacular language. A People's Tragedy Orlando Figes Figes charts the Russian Revolution in stark detail, telling the tale of 'ordinary people' and boldly concluding that they 'weren't the victims of the Revolution but protagonists in its tragedy'. Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution Simon Schama Before he was on television, Prof Schama offered 948 pages of proof that there was more to the French Revolution than fraternity, equality and eating cake. The Origins of the Second World War A.J.P. Taylor Was Hitler all that bad? Wasn't he just an opportunist who took advantage of Anglo-French dithering and appeasement? The label 'iconoclastic' applies to few historians so well as it does to Taylor. LIVES Confessions St Augustine In probably the first autobiography in Western literature, the Church Father recounts his life-journey from sinner to saint, from the boy who stole pears from a neighbour's tree to the articulator of key Christian doctrines. Lives of the Caesars Suetonius Charting the lives of Julius Caesar, Augustus and the 10 subsequent Roman emperors, with scandalous tales of imperial decadence, vice and lunacy. Lives of the Artists Vasari The history of Italian Renaissance art, as told through the biographies of its heavyweight practitioners. If This is a Man Primo Levi His background as an industrial chemist from Turin may not sound remarkable, but Levi's poised account of his hell-on-earth experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz undoubtedly is. Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man Siegfried Sassoon He's best known for his anti-war poems, but Sassoon was also once popular for his semi-autobiographical trilogy of novels, of which this was the first. Eminent Victorians Lytton Strachey Strachey didn't do hagiography. His unflattering biographical essays on major Victorian figures debunked the myth of Victorian pre-eminence. A Life of Charlotte Brontë Elizabeth Gaskell A biography of the intriguing Jane Eyre author, by her friend and fellow-novelist, Gaskell. One of the definitive 'tortured genius' biographies. Goodbye to All That Robert Graves A friend of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, Graves was another Englishman to write unsparingly about the horrors of trench warfare. The Life of Dr Johnson Boswell He's one of English literature's all-time heavyweights, but most of what we know about Samuel Johnson, the man, comes from his friend Boswell’s hearty anecdotal biog. Diaries Alan Clark The late Tory MP was not one to get bogged down in matters of policy. His indiscreet memoirs detailed countless extra-marital affairs and character assassinations of colleagues.

 Have your say    

What the hell is this?
It's the egocentric list of English Literature.
Spanish and French Literature are as great as English, even More.

Posted by Putos on August 23, 2008 7:15 PM
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What about Eminescu, Creanga, Sadoveanu, Ionesco, ...
Posted by Someone from Romania on August 22, 2008 4:02 PM
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Recently there was a book by someone who ATE the 100 best books, then wrote a book about the experience. Or did I dream it?
Posted by W. Greeganolumpanovich III on August 21, 2008 3:47 PM
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I have neither the time nor the inclination to read all of these comments (so maybe my posting one is a contradiction in terms) but I would suggest:

Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
Dante, La Vita Nuova
Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven and other poems
Stephen Hawking, A brief history of time
Posted by Kieran S Tobin on August 18, 2008 5:05 PM
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Charlotte's Web is a must on any Children's Literature list of best books!
Posted by Suzy on August 11, 2008 5:19 AM
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Crime and Punishment really should be there. 1984 and the Iliad should be compuslory reading.
Posted by Wendy Ragiste on August 1, 2008 12:28 PM
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And what about Fyodor Dostoevsky, Harper Lee, J. D. Salinger??
Posted by Marianne on July 22, 2008 1:43 PM
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john fante´s "ask the dust"

Posted by Elisa on July 17, 2008 4:41 PM
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Oh, erm, you forget the most important book: D. QUIXOTE. And others, for sure. The BEST BOOKS includes other languages besides english.

Stop being so self-centered.
Posted by i know not what tomorrow will bring on July 16, 2008 4:44 AM
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Where are the women: Doris Lessing and Ruth Rendall, both produce literature.
Posted by Anne on June 23, 2008 4:43 PM
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I am fed up with this egocentric of this so proudness of American -English position ; the simple idea of thinking "a perfect library" you should first watch a perfect globe and see there is an asian continent : dao de jing, yi king...
Posted by open minded french guy on June 8, 2008 7:29 PM
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I am fed up with this Americano - english proudness which think themselves as the center of the world ; does they know there is an Asian continent ? Yi king, Dao de Jing...
Posted by open minded french guy on June 8, 2008 7:19 PM
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Typical as it may be of a GCSE student to fight for the inclusion on Of Mice And Men in this list, I hasten to add that it is not merely the result of my having read no books other than those on my school reading list.

A beautiful, if harrowing, portrayal of human nature, surely we cannot be deprived the genius of Steinbeck in Books That Changed Our World?
Posted by "Deano" on June 8, 2008 12:44 PM
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you NEED to include noughts and crosses in there!
Posted by joy on May 30, 2008 6:49 PM
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Hmmm I'll add in some asian classics.
Romance of the 3 Kingdoms.
Art of War
The Deer and the Cauldron
Mahabarata
Posted by Jonathan on May 30, 2008 3:21 AM
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wat happened to all da beautiful short stories?????? surely GIFT OF THE MAGI and THE LAST LEAF should feature??? somebody has sadely forgotten O HENRY,MAUPASSANT,SAKI,MAUGHAM IN THIS LIST....
Posted by DWEEPOBOTEE on May 26, 2008 8:54 PM
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What about "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair?


Posted by Sarah on May 10, 2008 7:26 AM
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Having just stumbled upon this list i find it seriously lacking from The grapes of wrath, of mice and men, to kill a mickingbird, santanic verse
virginia wolfe is missed of completely.
Fyi Jrr tolkien wrote his series of books aimed at children and adults worshipped the same way that adult over the world are reading harry potter which has been aimed at the teenage audience.
Posted by cthomas on May 7, 2008 2:51 PM
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Keeping it fictional, I think we could go further and distill it down to 10 or so (I’m leaving out sacred texts).
It would have to include:
Alice in Wonderland
Lord of the Rings
1984
Christmas Carol
Wuthering Heights
Vanity Fair
Barchester Chronicles
I’m sure you can all nominate candidates for the remaining 2.
I say 2, as I'm keeping 10th place for Ken Grimwood's "Replay"
I fyou find better let me know
Posted by Tom on May 5, 2008 11:26 PM
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Why doesn't this include Harry Potter collection or anything related to the Hardy Boys
Posted by Harry Potter Quiz on May 5, 2008 11:13 PM
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What a great list...thanks.
Posted by Terry Finley on May 4, 2008 5:49 AM
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What about Hafez,Molavi,sadi peoms. I`m shure japan and china also have very nice peoms.buddha had very important effects in our worlds such as bibble and quran
Posted by persian gulf on May 1, 2008 10:07 AM
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blah i have already read all these books. i can't find any new books.


IF YOU WANT A REALLY REALLY REALLY GOOD BOOK THAT IS FUNNY, SAD AND HEROIC READ A PRAY FOR OWEN MEANY. BEST BOOK YOU WILL EVER READ.

other wise read a once and future king!! of the book list

Posted by hannah gaston on April 24, 2008 10:30 PM
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How about comedy?

David Nobbs ... The Reggie Perrin series, Henry Pratt series and A Bit of Ado ... oh, to hell with it, his whole damn lot.

Followed swiftly by Jonathan Coe ... especially What A Carve Up, Rotters Club and Closed Circle.

I don't like his stuff ... but Tom Sharpe would have to be included.

Jane Gardham ... fantastic.

Mark Gattis' Lucifer Box series.







Posted by Sue on April 24, 2008 12:14 PM
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I don't found latinamerican's literature, only Gabriel García Márquez.
Posted by Rocío Arango on April 23, 2008 1:22 AM
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No room for "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland" or "Through The Looking Glass" in the kiddies' section but Harry Bloody Potter gets in? I know these lists are always highly subjective but... come on!
Posted by S Kane on April 22, 2008 10:47 AM
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If you don't like this list, why not come up with your own and post the link so we can share in everyone's faves?
Posted by Heather on April 21, 2008 7:34 PM
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Not one female poet? Shame on you.
Posted by anna zen on April 19, 2008 2:46 PM
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He's got some real howlers on there. A Child Called It -- !

Nice to see Day of the Triffids, though. Had the idea way before Saramago.
Posted by ann@zenofwriting.com on April 19, 2008 3:19 AM
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As far as crime goes, the list is too much on the safe side. Hardly anyone will dispute any title here. But how about giants like Michael Connelly, James Elroy, Mickey Spillane, John Creasy, Peter Robinson, Ian Rankin, Jonathan Kellermann?
Posted by Thorsten Krings on April 18, 2008 7:28 AM
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Where is The Babysitter's Club #17, Reflections on a Cigarrette? It's the first children's book to explore female desire for multiple sex partners and voyeurism, and is written from stream of consciousness.
Posted by Tim on April 17, 2008 7:02 PM
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How bout' "Tale of Genji", or Mishima's Sea of
Fertility series, or Rushdie's "Midnight Children"?

All these worthy picks would help round out your
list.
Posted by Silencedogood on April 17, 2008 6:09 PM
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Difficult to understand how the above list can be described as 'The Perfect Library' with the glaring omission of WUTHERING HEIGHTS and absence of the greatest novel of the 20th Century: A GLASTONBURY ROMANCE by John Cowper Powys!
Posted by Frank Kibblewhite on April 17, 2008 6:04 PM
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Apparently no nations other than the United Kingdom and Ireland have produced poetry worth reading. Oh, Dante is there as a token entry. My mistake...
Posted by Enrique on April 17, 2008 2:17 PM
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Everyone keeps complaining about omissions of books from Asia etc., but no one seems to be suggesting any.
Posted by Marie on April 17, 2008 4:41 AM
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There should be room on this list for 'Goedel, Escher and Bach' by Douglas R. Hofstadter. Read this and think.
Posted by Margaret on April 17, 2008 3:10 AM
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Dear Idiot Britons & Co.:

Please read Friedrich Nietzsche's On The Geneaology Of Morals and the essays collected in Jacques Derrida's Writing And Difference.

Then go out and change your world, the world, and make your nostalgia for punk rock look like an angry shopping spree. (I'm such an elitist!)

Steven Trull

One more book: File under children's books: Index, Peter Sotos.
Posted by Steven Trull on April 16, 2008 9:27 PM
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It strikes me that whomever compiled your
compendium must have died some time in the
late 1950s, his (the list seems decidedly male)
notes updated by an intern warned to "make it
NOT-ethnocentric."

I simply can't wait for the year 2108 when we can
hear about all the great writing going on in the
late 20th-early 21st centuries.
Posted by clay mccann on April 16, 2008 8:30 PM
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Nice list...it is only that: 110 best books in English Literature ,should be more apropriate I think.
One Italian and a couple of French...surely there are wonderufl writers over there.
Posted by MFERRER on April 16, 2008 6:09 PM
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Atlas Shrugged is a terrible book about one womans unhappiness with politics. If you can get away from her political tirades and just enjoy the story it is a good book. Too much of it is ruined by her rantings.
Posted by Greg on April 16, 2008 2:39 AM
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I'm not going to add to the fray about the contents of the list itself, but just wanted to point out that in the first heading on the list, a title is misspelled. Probably not the kind of impression one wants to be putting forth in a literary list...
Posted by st on April 16, 2008 1:23 AM
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I often reserve criticism on lists of anything, there will always be an omission to offend. It is exceedingly difficult for even a team of people, much less a single author, to compile a comprehensive list of culture that will satisfy most of those who read it.

However, your list has a fundamental, tragic error. You evidently forgot that Europe is but one, relatively small part of a huge world. Now this is something that I would not bother with had you stuck to your romances and mysteries. Claiming that all the best literary fiction is borne of the English language is a little shift, but acceptable.

But you omitted great, wide spanning historical works in favor of navel-gazing Europeans writing about very specific instances in history. Where are the works of other cultures who constituted a much greater span of history? Where's the Islamic histories produced in a golden age of humanity that saw Europe rolling in the muck? Where is the similar literature from China and India?
Posted by A Concerned Postmodernist on April 16, 2008 1:00 AM
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Someone's finger must have slipped to include "Jonathan Livingstone Seagull"in your list. It is the most awful meretricious tosh, and well-nigh unreadable. It makes Mills and Boon novels look like Shakespeare. Please wash your mouths out.
Posted by John Ticehurst on April 15, 2008 5:18 PM
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I'm sorry but in that list there should be Roberto Saviano's Gomorra. It is very interesting and there is no other which describes so worthily the hidden world o f Camorra.
Posted by Francesco Somma on April 15, 2008 4:41 PM
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The average age of these books must be over 50 years. Have you not read any good books in the last decade? It strikes me as cowardice to committ yourselves only to time honored classics, and not give any new info! How about the recent McSweeneys book Arkansas, that is a pretty awesome book. Or what about the series of Picasso biographies by John Richardson? You have assembled a sad list that should be useful to the most boring high school teachers.
Posted by Bill D on April 15, 2008 7:31 AM
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A really good list, you can tell by looking at the comments. The majority want to add stuff to the list and very few want to take a book off of it. Some very good suggestions in the comments as well, apart from people getting a bit too hung up on religious works (I noticed its the bible and the Koran that keep getting mentioned, its amazing how the media affects peoples thinking). I have a suggestion for people to read, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. The thought put into this novel is astounding.
Posted by Steve on April 14, 2008 8:51 PM
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I dont know how and who decided that they are "the best" books, but I appreaciate it and would like to read the books you recommend.
Posted by ywang17 on April 14, 2008 8:34 PM
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Of course, we are all voices of experience. I would take a care not to hear the comment of someone on a book if they haven't so much as attempted to write one themselves. The list is good. To please everyone, however, it'd have to be a library.
Posted by Blake Adams on April 14, 2008 5:49 PM
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Though my suggestion is not the best, I must say that it was disappointing not to see "Utopia" by Sir Thomas More, among the books that changed the world, "The Rhime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Coleridge, among the poetry, "A Tale of Two Cities," by Charles Dickens, among the classics, with "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville to boot, and "Wuthering Heights" among the romances. Some of these books, however, are very well placed, such as "Frankenstein," "Sherlock Holmes," and "The Chronicles of Narnia." This list was clearly very researched.
Posted by Blake Adams on April 14, 2008 5:41 PM
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I would rather call it "a small set of English and French books the article authors were able to read and understand".
Posted by Piotr on April 14, 2008 9:03 AM
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Michael Ondattje's The English Patient, needs to be included in the literary fiction sub-section.

It is the modern For Whom the Bell Tolls only a far more complex tale with much more poetry in the telling.
Posted by Annielaural leFaye on April 14, 2008 2:06 AM
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Title should read the 110 best western books. Like most westerners, you fail to recognize the contributions of non-westerners.
Posted by David Small on April 13, 2008 10:22 PM
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I suppose we need a list of the best ten thousand books ever.
Posted by Bambi on April 13, 2008 8:51 PM
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No list is complete without Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men'
Posted by Jennie on April 13, 2008 4:23 PM
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The Tin Drum
Posted by Jimbo on April 13, 2008 4:17 AM
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For the sake of my grand children would I pay £500
for the 100 selected books? Yes.

But I suppose the price would be thrice that.




Posted by John D. Miller on April 12, 2008 6:04 PM
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Not much science here and no maths.

How about "The Ladybird Book of Perturbation Methods in Non-Linear Systems"?

I can well remember reading the waterproof version, splashing about with my plastic yellow duck at bath time. Long out of print, in fact impossible to find, but an inspiration to many five year olds.
Posted by Mark OB on April 12, 2008 12:38 PM
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"Lord of the Rings was actually written by JRR for his children so yes it is a children's book, even if you didn't read it until you were an adult."


I am sorry, but you really need to do a little more research.
The Hobbit was indeed written for children, but the Lord of the Rings were written mostly as a way for Tolkien to tell the story of his mythical world to any age group. But considering the prose and the use of at least 3 fictional languages, one can hardly call it a children's book.

That some literary snobs consider it a work for children because it does not happen in the "real" world or has a heavy-handed meaning trust in the readers face should not mean much....

One could also consider the feat of creating a completely new world, with it's own rules, detailed history and fully workable fictional languages rather more impressive than writing a stuffy, over-analyzed version of the Odyssey set in the plat and boringly uninteresting streets of Dublin....
Posted by Axel on April 12, 2008 12:33 PM
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The list is definitely lacking G.K. Chesterton--maybe his book on Thomas Aquinas? There should be at least one biography of a Saint in the list.

In the historical section, how about The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, by Bernal Diaz? This is an incredibly detailed eyewitness account of the conquest of Mexico by Cortes.


Posted by Brian Marley on April 12, 2008 7:45 AM
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Books that changed the world? Please replace Das Kapital for Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations."
Posted by P. Preston on April 12, 2008 6:22 AM
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Strong start, just lacking a couple thousand other books. Perhaps not the definitive 100-book list. I would have enjoyed seeing books like "All Quiet On the Western Front," or some Dumas included. I happened to notice Marx on the list, but I guess I must have missed seeing Adam Smith!? Oh, and we've forgotten Poe's splendid, "The Fall of the House of Usher!" :)
Posted by Samuel on April 12, 2008 4:02 AM
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OutRAGEous! How to omit the Incomparable La Taylor Bradford from the romance section? No Tom Clancy, no Dan Brown? And where's de Quincey? There are passages in his Confessions that are worthy of a St. Augustine or a Lynne Truss (say what you like about the man, he knew how to use a comma).
Posted by lt on April 12, 2008 3:08 AM
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ATLAS SHRUGGED

I did a search as soon as I got to this site and when it wasnt listed I didnt bother reading the list. Atlas Shrugged is the most important book ever written.
Posted by Peter G on April 12, 2008 2:35 AM
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I love this kind of discussion about 'the best books.' Looking through the comments, I know I'm not alone. Looking through this list, though, there is nothing that would have interested my childhood self. Plus, I read about 100 books a year so this library would last me about 2-2.5 years (allowing time to get through the more dense books). Good list, but I'm just glad we have more than 110 books in the public libraries.
Posted by Kat on April 12, 2008 1:05 AM
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ATLAS SHRUGGED

I did a search as soon as I got to this site and when it wasnt listed I didnt bother reading the list. Atlas Shrugged is the most important book ever written.
Posted by Peter G on April 12, 2008 12:55 AM
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Such a mean tally of children's books when they are the inspiration for enjoyable adult reading and a sense of critical judgement. For shame.
While we are at it, Lord of the Rings, I thoroughly agree, is not a children's book. It can be read by older children, but it is an adult title- you owe us another children's book, ladies and gentlemen.
No Southall, no Montgomery, no McCaughrean, no........ let us have some modern "classics" too- you mention Pullman and Rowling...keep going.
This is fun, an exercise in how responsive the public is to the question. Delightful to see them so worked up about it!
Posted by Andrea Deakin on April 12, 2008 12:14 AM
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Hom could you forget Macaulay's "History of England"?
Posted by jimijam on April 11, 2008 10:34 PM
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John Locke - Two Treatises of Government?
Posted by Eric on April 11, 2008 9:54 PM
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You left out the Travis McGee series by John D. McDonald, who had an economics background, and who is credited by many modern fictional authors, including Dean Koonz, as being the inspiration for their work. (Koonz's "Dark Rivers of the Heart" is one of my personal top 100; it depicts a dark and corrupt government's sinister operations as devastatingly and depressingly as any Kafka novel.)

I also see no mention of any of Kafka's works.

What about the sci-fi/speculative fiction works of Robert Heinlein?

Finally, no list of any libertarian-leaning, freedom-loving individual is complete without "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand.
Posted by Tina Terry on April 11, 2008 9:39 PM
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My goodness. If you're going to choose the best book on the horrors of The Great War, you should also choose one for WWII.

That would be With the Jocks by Peter White.
Posted by Barry Basden on April 11, 2008 9:30 PM
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No one changed the world more than Galileo Galilei. His Dialogue or the Starry Messenger should be on the list.
Posted by Rolf Lindgren on April 11, 2008 9:26 PM
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According to Mark Twain, the best way to start a library is to leave out the works of Jane Austen.
Posted by Charles Santiapillai on April 11, 2008 9:07 PM
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Surely The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged should have been in the "Books that Changed Your World" section. The idea the Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a better book is -- well, just goofy.
Posted by Lester Hunt on April 11, 2008 7:42 PM
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The Fountainhead could have fit nicely on the list, but there's room for debate on that one.

But there's really no room for debate on Atlas Shrugged.
Posted by Butler T. Reynolds on April 11, 2008 6:45 PM
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What a load of crock - no doubt some of these books are great and I have love many of them.

But what the article implies is that African, Middle Eastern and Asian literature has no value.

What about history of Asia, Middle East and Asia?

This list stinks of intolerance and racism.

Posted by Amit Gadhvi on April 11, 2008 6:42 PM
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Yes, all very subjective, but nonetheless an absorbing exercise to review and ponder. Still, any great books list that excludes Joseph Conrad but includes Toni Morrison is suspect, to say the least.
Posted by Mike Hartnett on April 11, 2008 6:29 PM
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How can you leave off Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. It is the best selling book after the Bible and has been translated into over 150 languages. I first saw it as a kid 40 years ago in an Estonian translation. It has a universal message.
Posted by Tom on April 11, 2008 6:27 PM
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Eh...what about Plato? Aristotle? Cicero? If you leave these out, then you can't be serious.
Posted by Andre Ras on April 11, 2008 6:23 PM
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Ditto on Bastiat's huge little book The Law. Listen to it here: link
Posted by Mark Yannone on April 11, 2008 6:06 PM
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So you struck a nerve here then.
Posted by Anne on April 11, 2008 5:28 PM
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Shakespeare's sonnets give us "a mysterious insight into his personal life." Actually, they give us no insight whatsoever into the life of Will Shakespeare (also spelled Shaxper and Shakespere). They give us perfectly clear insight into the life of their real author, Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. The author of the sonnets was of noble birth, gay or bisexual, old, lame, and in disgrace, just as Oxford was. Will Shakespeare was none of these. Those who believe Will Shakespeare is the real author are forced to argue that the sonnets are NOT biographical in any way.
Posted by Richard Carpenter on April 11, 2008 4:21 PM
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Take 2 billion people. Ask each one to list the 100 best books and I bet that not one list will be the same as any other.
Come on people don't take this list so seriously. It is just one person's entirely subjective list and a bit of fun, that's all.

Posted by Reg Tripp on April 11, 2008 4:17 PM
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Economics in One Lesson
by Henry Hazlitt

link

Every politician should be required to read this book.
Posted by stewart on April 11, 2008 3:43 PM
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I'm not sure of a single title to prove my point The Blank Slate by Stephen Pinker might do, as might The Bell Curve, by Herrenstein and Murray, but there is a significant "blank slater" bias in your more modern books.

Don't look now, but that particular, not to say sole, chaos that has bedevilled the world since the romantics and Marx is rapidly losing ground. There may well be a great convulsion coming, but the tide has turned and the Marxists and "blank slaters" will be nothing more than a footnote in history, a diversion from reality.

You don't even seem to know it's happening.
Posted by Fred Marshall on April 11, 2008 2:25 PM
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You Anglo-Saxons make us Latin Europeans laugh!!!! Where is the true Catholic bible on this list, and other wondrous non-British literature? Remember, we Latins civilized you Britons.
Posted by Edgar on April 11, 2008 2:19 PM
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You forgot to add the world's first modern novel! In fact, a quite 'metaphysical novel',: Cervantes' Don Quixote. How can you forget to add such a grand master work to your list?
Posted by Edgar on April 11, 2008 2:15 PM
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Someone pointed out that the best library is the one you built yourself. Well said. But the important thing about this article is that people are discussing great books. The conversation here is what is important, not the list itself.
Posted by John in Freehold, NJ, USA on April 11, 2008 1:30 PM
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How could a British newspaper omit:

Evelyn Waugh: Love Among the Ruins;
G.K. Chesterton: Orthodoxy
Hilaire Belloc: The Path to Rome, Sonnets & Verse, The Servile State, The Four Men, Hills & The Sea;
Ronald Knox: Essays in Satire;

Posted by paul likoudis on April 11, 2008 1:10 PM
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I would have inclded Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quite on the Western Front."
Posted by Dennis on April 11, 2008 1:10 PM
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What about the man that T.S. Eliot called "the most promising writer of the twentieth century": Lawrence Durrell?

His Alexandrian Quartet should count for at least four of the top 110!
Posted by Integer on April 11, 2008 10:47 AM
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Dear Telegraph,
I thought it was hard to miss the best and most important books of the universal (it means "not-only-english") literature... but you made it! As the French would say, chapeau!
Posted by Carlo on April 11, 2008 10:24 AM
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As a mere uncultured Texan, my thoughts on great works of literature probably don't count for much.
Still, I'm surprised to find that the likes of Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea didn't make The List. And the grand scope of Colleen McCullough's "First Man in Rome" series ought to fit somewhere in the fiction.
Likewise I'm surprised that Tacitus and Polybius--two of the three best historians of ancient times--failed the cut, as did Plutarch's Parallel Lives and Caesar's The Gallic War. Major General J.F.C. Fuller's autobiography, Memoirs of an Unconventional Soldier is worthy, too, in part simply because he changed the way war was fought; he isn't called "The Father of Armored Warfare" for nothing. Douglas Southall Freeman's R.E. Lee, and Lee's Lieutenants, aren't considered classics of history 'cause they aren't worth reading and aren't eminently good reads.
A poetry list with no Shakespeare and no Goethe? No Lewis Carroll in the children's section--for children of all ages? No Jack McDevitt or Robert Heinlein in Science Fiction? No Federalist Papers? No Treasure Island? No Don Quixote?
Methinks your compiler could profitably stand to broaden his less- than-broad reading horizon a wee tad before he next attempts an ultimate reading list.


Posted by Rob on April 11, 2008 9:50 AM
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I'm sure each of the classics listed has stood the test of of time, just as surely as they are dull reading for today. William Shirers Rise and Fall of the Third Reich should beat the last four books on the history list. I'll second the few observations that Wealth of Nations, Marco Polo's book,
and even How to win Friends and Don Quexote could be on the list of Influential books.
And add Robinson Crusoe and of course
The Fountainhead.
Posted by Gregg Stanley on April 11, 2008 8:58 AM
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I'm sure each of the classics listed has stood the test of of time, just as surely as they are dull reading for today. William Shirers Rise and Fall of the Third Reich should beat the last four books on the history list. I'll second the few observations that Wealth of Nations, Marco Polo's book,
and even How to win Friends and Don Quexote could be on the list of Influential books.
And add Robinson Crusoe and of course
The Fountainhead.
Posted by Gregg Stanley on April 11, 2008 8:57 AM
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Where is Francis Bacon's Novum Organum? This is
ONLY the most important book in Western
Civilization...
Posted by Corey Sax on April 11, 2008 8:30 AM
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Parkinson's Law - The seminal text on how
governments operate and how they always collapse
under their own weight.
Posted by jimmydoane on April 11, 2008 7:15 AM
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"To Kill A Mockingbird" isn't a great novel; it's political opportunism at its worst. Read the novel out loud some time and ask yourself if that's *really* the way a 9-year-old girl would talk. Better yet, have an audience and wait for the horse laughs. Politically correct--that's the only reason TKAM is ever put on "best of" lists. If it were about racism in the American North, it would have been denounced and laughed out of existence long ago. (Southerners, you see, are the ONLY real racists in America, of course....)
Posted by Jay Northam on April 11, 2008 6:49 AM
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Howard Zinn? What a joke! The real omission is Frederic Bastiat's "The Law" (1850). The most important book any high schooler or adult will read about the true function of government, written with flair and wit, and less than 100 pages!
Posted by FB on April 11, 2008 6:46 AM
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I'm no Brit, but the Paddington Bear series was what stirred my Anglophilia at a young age. And now, as an adult, i still read Mr. Bond's books and delight in the sheer wonder of Paddington's "hard stare" (something I wish my fellow countrymen would affix on Mr. Bush). I cannot believe these books have been left off the children's list. Perhaps this is why children disdain books.
Posted by Richard Sossel on April 11, 2008 6:37 AM
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I think they left out "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, the best-selling and most influential novel of the 20th century.
Posted by Craig on April 11, 2008 6:06 AM
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I also believe ALICE IN WONDERLAND is the greatest books all times. As mathematician i could enjoy every line of this pseudo-child book.

Maeby at least could go inside Fantasy section. Ohh there isn't bad played
Posted by Faryshta on April 10, 2008 11:36 PM
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For what it's worth, I'd have had some Ovid. And the Mr Men. Blah blah blah...
Posted by Steve on April 10, 2008 7:10 PM
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Is no-one going to take a moderated view?
The list was only 110 books long and had some fairly redundant catagories in my opinion. They made some choices that people will disagree with but it's not as though every other book in history will be destroyed.
To be a complete hypocrit, To Kill a Mockingbird really should be on the list :D
Posted by david on April 10, 2008 4:42 PM
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Somebody forgot Anna Karenina and Crime and Punishment (the greatest novels of all time). This list is mediocre at best. It leaves out way too much of traditional fare. Harry Potter pales in comparison to the Aeneid.
Posted by zyeung on April 10, 2008 4:20 PM
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A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES By Howard Zinn
---probably the most important history book ever written.
Posted by Teya on April 10, 2008 3:55 PM
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Very hungry catapillar?
Posted by Lisa on April 10, 2008 3:37 PM
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Well i think the author may have got the point by now that every reader of this list thinks him an idiot and i hope he/ she feels throughly stupid for this incredibly lack lustre effort. I only fear that he'll get a pat on the back for generating alot of comments above. Therefore I suggest that no more comments are added with this in mind.

Posted by eddy on April 10, 2008 3:13 PM
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Polly wrote “Even The Hobbit, which is more suitable for a younger audience, isn't really any good for anyone much under twelve.”

I think that should read “Even The Hobbit, which is more suitable for a younger audience, isn't really any good but at least it’s better than Lord of the Rings”

Posted by redrobbo on April 10, 2008 2:25 PM
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The Cat in the Hat - Dr Seuss
It sure changed my life!
Posted by rhubarb on April 10, 2008 1:43 PM
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Well, 110 books are too few to build the perfect library, nor at all the perfect shelf. But the suggestions coming from people in this forum caused by this fact may help to achieve a larger good library! Thank you.

Mauro

Posted by mauro on April 10, 2008 1:23 PM
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This list is good but incomplete without TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee which not only won a Pulitzer Prize but was voted the nest novel of the century.
Posted by Cecil on April 10, 2008 1:22 PM
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Thank you Telegraph (even if I agree with most of the comments ... too british selection), and most of all thank you all readers ... with your suggestions I can complete MY perfect library. Francesca (Italy)
Posted by Francesca on April 10, 2008 9:54 AM
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Lots of great books, and choices I agree with, but please, The Lord of the Rings is not and never was intended to be a children's book! Even The Hobbit, which is more suitable for a younger audience, isn't really any good for anyone much under twelve.
Posted by Polly on April 10, 2008 6:11 AM
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this list is average at best.
Posted by simon on April 10, 2008 4:12 AM
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Everyone should read "Diary of a Young Girl" Anne Frank.
Posted by MJM on April 10, 2008 4:12 AM
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One of the authors you British will be unlikely to have read is a Montreal Canadian and Anglophile who lived in your fair land for many years before returning home to die. ANY book by Mordecai Richler is worthy of your list but my favourite is 'Barney's Version'.
Enjoy !
Posted by JWP on April 10, 2008 2:27 AM
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Hermann Hesse????

Kontrad Lorenz????

Milan Kundera???


arghhhhhhhhhhh
Posted by Tony on April 10, 2008 1:03 AM
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I've thoroughly enjoyed the comments. Like many, I'm always slightly agrieved when my pet favourite doesn't appear in a list - Finnegans Wake in my case - but I would like to see Dawkins'-The Selfish Gene alongside Darwin, especially instead of Freud(!?!)
Classics
Gogol - Dead Souls
Comdey Literature Section? (We have Adams)
Gibbons - Cold Comfort Farm
P G Wodehouse
Pratchett.......


Posted by Pevs on April 9, 2008 11:51 PM
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Sorry, but can't help myself.

No The Power and the Glory, Satanic Verses, Grapes
of Wrath, An Area of Darkness? What is wrong with
you people? Chauser maybe mildly amusing as a 14
years old, but two books - come on!
Posted by Michael Banks on April 9, 2008 11:29 PM
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What about 'The Road to Serfdom' by Hayek?
Posted by Greg on April 9, 2008 10:58 PM
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im a 14 yr old boy nt a 70yr old man with a beard with nothing to do
my point is that even my naive mind can see many oversights,
firstly....no Bible?
moving on..no shakespear
lord of the rings should be changed for the hobbit as a childrens book
...and your telling me mr Dahl hasnt managed to get himself in there?
and were has the famouse five got to?
im sure somwere along the line Da vinci has made somthing worthy of this list.
And i dont see all that many forigne works, are you telling me that all great peices of writting must be in English?
Perhaps telegraph you have bitten off more than you can chew, you've clearly started a gd debate so well done on that point ;)
Posted by kirky 14 on April 9, 2008 10:56 PM
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Why is the list of comments so much longer than the original article? Frankly, I got bored with the submissions and would rather get stuck in to a good book - any on the list would do.
Posted by Nick Kruger on April 9, 2008 10:47 PM
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2 misses worth mentioniong:
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Gitanjali, Ravindranath Tagore
Posted by MD on April 9, 2008 10:09 PM
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Well, there seems to be a consensus here: this list if far from perfect. Omitting Dumas, Cervantes, Voltaire??
Kipling? Twain? And anybody remembers Lord Byron? Seriously!
And how can any children's books list claim to be "perfect" and not include the classic fairy tales we all grew up with? Remember: Andersen, Brothers Grimm, Perrault, Hoffman?
One should do a bit more research before publishing a list with such an ambitious title..

Posted by Mary on April 9, 2008 9:51 PM
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Big Ommissions: Hans Christian Andersen's & Brothers Grimm's Fairy Tales
Taking the mickey: The Talented Mr Ripley / Red Dragon / Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance / L’Encyclopedie 35 volumes (eh?) / Eats, Shoots and Leaves /
Unforgivable inclusions: Delia Smith’s How to Cook / Alan Clark’s Diaries. Honestly!!!

Posted by Marian Copilet on April 9, 2008 9:46 PM
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I'd say the Bible too.

It's changed the world, most definitely. For both bad and good reasons.
Posted by Carolyn on April 9, 2008 9:40 PM
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'Carl Sagan
Stephen Hawking
Virginia Woolf
Ezra Pound
The book versions of the Harry Potter movies
Playboy magazine
Posted by ehhh on April 8, 2008 10:31 PM
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I have reported this comment to the moderator as being exceptionally silly.

Elliot I can accept.Ezra Pound was just crap.
Posted by Ian Crause on April 9, 2008 9:24 PM
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Anything by Octavia Butler blows this entire list into outer-space,what a joke!!
Typical Telegraph Taste Tyranny!
Posted by Jill on April 9, 2008 9:01 PM
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Surely, the perfect library is the one you build for yourself??
Posted by Sue Day on April 9, 2008 8:57 PM
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I'm sorry, but "The Lord of the Rings" is NOT a children's book. "The Hobbit," however, is.
Posted by Hal on April 9, 2008 8:54 PM