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The Guardian, Books You Can't Live Without: The Top 100 [2007]

114 ventries: 113 monographical, one otherwise

Ranked

The Guardian's list stands apart as the first of several lists published from 2007 onward, but otherwise is easily one of the least important, barely meeting the Greater Books criteria, with only one book from ancient times, the Bible. This list includes a significant number of modern-day popular favorites.

  1. Jane Austen

  2. Pride and Prejudice
    originally anonymously published 1813—English

  3. J R R Tolkien

  4. The Lord of the Rings
    published in three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; The Return of the King, 1954-5—English

  5. Charlotte Brontë

  6. Jane Eyre: An Autobiography
    originally published under the pseudonym, Currer Bell, 1847—English

    J K Rowling
  7. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

  8. 1997—English

  9. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

  10. 1998—English

  11. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

  12. 1999—English

  13. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

  14. 2000—English

  15. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

  16. 2003—English

  17. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

  18. 2005—English

  19. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

  20. 2007—English

  21. Harper Lee

  22. To Kill a Mockingbird
    1960—English

    --
  23. The Bible

  24. —Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek

  25. Emily Brontë

  26. Wuthering Heights
    originally published 1847 under the pseudonym, Ellis Bell; revised 1850—English

  27. George Orwell

  28. Nineteen Eighty-Four
    1949—English

  29. Phillip Pullman

  30. His Dark Materials
    originally published in three volumes: Northern Lights, 1995 (U S title: The Golden Compass); The Subtle Knife, 1997; The Amber Spyglass, 2000—English

  31. Charles Dickens

  32. Great Expectations
    originally published serially Dec. 1860-Aug. 1861 in All the Year Round—English

  33. Louisa M Alcott

  34. Little Women
    originally published in two volumes: Little Women, 1868; and Good Wives, 1869—English

  35. Thomas Hardy

  36. Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
    published in part serially Jul.-Dec. 1891 in the Graphic—English

  37. Joseph Heller
    Catch-22
    1961—English

    • William Shakespeare

  38. Complete works
    late Sixteenth-early Seventeenth centuries—English

  39. Daphne du Maurier

  40. Rebecca
    1938—English

  41. J R R Tolkien

  42. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
    1937—English

  43. Sebastian Faulks

  44. Birdsong
    1993—English

  45. J D Salinger

  46. Catcher in the Rye
    1951—English

  47. Audrey Niffenegger

  48. The Time Traveler's Wife
    2003—English

  49. George Eliot

  50. Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life
    originally published serially Dec. 1871-Dec. 1872—English

  51. Margaret Mitchell

  52. Gone With the Wind
    1936—English

  53. F Scott Fitzgerald

  54. The Great Gatsby
    1925—English

  55. Charles Dickens

  56. Bleak House
    originally published serially Mar. 1852-Sep. 1853—English

  57. Leo Tolstoy

  58. Voyna i Mir"
    War and Peace
    originally entitled 1805, published in part, 1865 and 1867; retitled and published in its entirety, 1869—Russian


  59. Douglas Adams

  60. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    1979 novel based on 1978 radio play—English

  61. Evelyn Waugh

  62. Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder
    1945—English

  63. Fyodor Dostoevsky

  64. Prestuplénie i Nakazániye
    Crime and Punishment
    originally published serially Jan.-Dec. 1866 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian


  65. John Steinbeck

  66. The Grapes of Wrath
    1939—English

  67. Lewis Carroll

  68. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
    1865—English

  69. Kenneth Grahame

  70. The Wind in the Willows
    1908—English

  71. Leo Tolstoy

  72. Anna Karenina
    published in part serially 1873-7 in Rússkij Véstnik; in its entirety, 1877—Russian

  73. Charles Dickens

  74. The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account)
    originally published serially May 1849-Nov. 1850—English

    C S Lewis
  75. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

  76. 1950—English

  77. Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia

  78. 1951—English

  79. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

  80. 1952—English

  81. The Silver Chair

  82. 1953—English

  83. The Horse and His Boy

  84. 1954—English

  85. The Magician's Nephew

  86. 1955—English

  87. The Last Battle

  88. 1956—English

    Jane Austen
  89. Emma

  90. originally anonymously published 1815—English

  91. Persuasion

  92. originally anonymously published 1817—English

  93. Khaled Hosseini

  94. The Kite Runner
    2003—English

  95. Louis de Bernières

  96. Captain Corelli's Mandolin
    1994—English

  97. Arthur Golden

  98. Memoirs of a Geisha
    1997—English

  99. A A Milne

  100. Winnie-the-Pooh
    published in part serially 1924-5; in its entirety, 1926—English

  101. George Orwell

  102. Animal Farm
    1945—English

  103. Dan Brown

  104. The Da Vinci Code
    2003—English

  105. Gabriel García Márquez

  106. Cien Anõs de Soledad
    One Hundred Years of Solitude
    1967—Spanish


  107. John Irving

  108. A Prayer for Owen Meaney
    1989—English

  109. Wilkie Collins

  110. The Woman in White
    originally published serially in All the Year Round Nov. 1859-Aug. 1860—English

  111. L M Montgomery

  112. Anne of Green Gables
    1908—English

  113. Thomas Hardy

  114. Far From the Madding Crowd
    originally anonymously published serially Jan.-Dec. 1874 in Cornhill Magazine; revised 1895 and 1901—English

  115. Margaret Atwood

  116. The Handmaid's Tale
    1985—English

  117. William Golding

  118. Lord of the Flies
    1954—English

  119. Ian McEwan

  120. Atonement
    2001—English

  121. Yann Martel

  122. Life of Pi
    2001—English

  123. Frank Herbert

  124. Dune
    1965—English

  125. Stella Gibbons

  126. Cold Comfort Farm
    1932—English

  127. Jane Austen

  128. Sense and Sensibility
    originally published under the pseudonym, A Lady, 1811—English

  129. Vikram Seth

  130. A Suitable Boy
    1993—English

  131. Carlos Ruiz Zafón

  132. La Sombra del Viento
    2001—Spanish

  133. Charles Dickens

  134. A Tale of Two Cities
    originally published serially Apr.-Nov. 1859 in All the Year Round—English

  135. Aldous Huxley

  136. Brave New World
    1932—English

  137. Mark Haddon

  138. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
    2003—English

  139. Gabriel García Márquez

  140. El Amor en los Tiempos del Cólera
    Love in the Time of Cholera
    1985—Spanish


  141. John Steinbeck

  142. Of Mice and Men
    1937—English

  143. Vladimir Nabokov

  144. Lolita
    1955—English

  145. Donna Tartt

  146. The Secret History
    1992—English

  147. Alice Sebold

  148. The Lovely Bones
    2002—English

  149. Alexandre Dumas

  150. Le Comte de Monte-Cristo
    originally published serially Aug. 1844-Jan. 1846 in Journal des Débats—French

  151. Jack Kerouac

  152. On the Road
    published in part as 'The Mexican Girl', the Paris Review; 'Jazz of the Beat Generation', New World Writing; and 'A Billowy Trip in the World', New Dimensions; in its entirety, 1957; alternate version, 2007—English

  153. Thomas Hardy

  154. Jude the Obscure
    originally published serially Dec. 1894-Nov. 1895 in Harper's New Monthly Magazine—English

  155. Helen Fielding

  156. Bridget Jones's Diary
    1996—English

  157. Salman Rushdie

  158. Midnight's Children
    1981—English

  159. Herman Melville

  160. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
    1851—English

  161. Charles Dickens

  162. Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress
    originally published under the pseudonym, Boz, serially Feb. 1837-April 1839 in Bentley's Miscellany—English

  163. Bram Stoker

  164. Dracula
    1897—English

  165. Frances Hodgson Burnett

  166. The Secret Garden
    originally published serially 1910-11 in the American Magazine—English

  167. Bill Bryson

  168. Notes From a Small Island
    1995—English

  169. James Joyce

  170. Ulysses
    published in part serially Mar. 1918-Dec. 1920 in the Little Review; in its entirety, 1922—English

  171. Sylvia Plath

  172. The Bell Jar
    originally published under the pseudonym, Victoria Lucas, 1963—English

  173. Arthur Ransome

  174. Swallows and Amazons
    1930—English

  175. Émile Zola

  176. Germinal
    originally published serially Apr. 1884-Jan. 1885 in Gil Blas—French

  177. William Makepeace Thackeray

  178. Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero
    originally published serially Jan. 1847-Jul. 1848—English

  179. A S Byatt

  180. Possession
    1990—English

  181. Charles Dickens

  182. A Christmas Carol
    1843—English

  183. David Mitchell

  184. Cloud Atlas
    2004—English

  185. Alice Walker

  186. The Color Purple
    1982—English

  187. Kazuo Ishiguro

  188. The Remains of the Day
    1989—English

  189. Gustave Flaubert

  190. Madame Bovary
    originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de Paris—French

  191. Rohinton Mistry

  192. A Fine Balance
    1995—English

  193. E B White

  194. Charlotte's Web
    1952—English

  195. Mitch Albom

  196. The Five People You Meet in Heaven
    2003—English

  197. Arthur Conan Doyle

  198. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
    1892; stories originally published serially Jul. 1891-Jun. 1892 in the Strand—English

    Enid Blyton
  199. The Enchanted Wood

  200. 1939—English

  201. The Magic Faraway Tree

  202. 1943—English

  203. The Folk of the Faraway Tree

  204. 1946—English

  205. Up the Faraway Tree

  206. 1951—English

  207. Joseph Conrad

  208. Heart of Darkness
    originally published serially Feb.-Apr. 1899 in Blackwood's—English

  209. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

  210. Le Petit Prince
    1943—French

  211. Iain Banks

  212. The Wasp Factory
    1984—English

  213. Richard Adams

  214. Watership Down
    1972—English

  215. John Kennedy Toole

  216. A Confederacy of Dunces
    written early 1960's; published 1980—English

  217. Nevil Shute

  218. A Town Like Alice
    1950—English

  219. Alexandre Dumas

  220. Les Trois Mousquetaires
    The Three Musketeers
    originally published serially Mar.-Jul. 1844 in Le Siècle—French


  221. William Shakespeare

  222. Hamlet
    1602—English

  223. Roald Dahl

  224. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
    1964—English

  225. Victor Hugo

  226. Les Misérables
    1862—French