The Amazon books editors got together and chose 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime. You can see that list here: http://www.amazon.com/100Books/ref=10...

This list was compiled by Goodreads readers.
1

by
4.26 avg rating — 6,772,977 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
4.20 avg rating — 5,332,417 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
4.29 avg rating — 4,711,733 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
4.20 avg rating — 4,126,325 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
4.47 avg rating — 11,214,007 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
4.54 avg rating — 723,186 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
3.93 avg rating — 5,811,213 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
4.01 avg rating — 4,442,483 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
4.30 avg rating — 4,396,077 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
10

by
4.16 avg rating — 2,288,094 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
3.97 avg rating — 2,770,657 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
3.99 avg rating — 2,044,883 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
13

by
4.21 avg rating — 2,017,630 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
4.17 avg rating — 2,421,081 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
4.39 avg rating — 2,835,677 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
3.80 avg rating — 3,842,757 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
4.31 avg rating — 1,250,545 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
4.35 avg rating — 9,730,257 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
4.17 avg rating — 3,410,621 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
4.24 avg rating — 3,100,619 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
3.90 avg rating — 39,412 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
4.47 avg rating — 2,987,503 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
3.83 avg rating — 1,329,030 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
24

by
3.70 avg rating — 3,153,634 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
4.35 avg rating — 3,443,125 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
4.02 avg rating — 982,065 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
3.92 avg rating — 39,174 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
4.33 avg rating — 2,419,550 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
4.38 avg rating — 1,346,850 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
4.03 avg rating — 1,033,156 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
3.89 avg rating — 2,787,693 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
4.22 avg rating — 1,990,831 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
33

by
4.53 avg rating — 18,195 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
3.74 avg rating — 2,792,038 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
4.17 avg rating — 1,278,313 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
4.09 avg rating — 904,450 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
3.97 avg rating — 1,271,395 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
3.88 avg rating — 1,003,765 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
4.15 avg rating — 2,368,442 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
4.12 avg rating — 2,765,290 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
4.62 avg rating — 4,055,009 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
3.90 avg rating — 1,993,539 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
43

by
4.14 avg rating — 3,397,786 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
4.12 avg rating — 5,641,921 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
4.35 avg rating — 1,494,290 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
46

by
4.32 avg rating — 1,095,293 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
3.89 avg rating — 1,809,643 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
48

by
4.26 avg rating — 978,584 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
4.32 avg rating — 1,006,318 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
4.17 avg rating — 163,277 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
3.89 avg rating — 1,004,391 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
3.92 avg rating — 1,007,034 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
53

by
3.89 avg rating — 290,353 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
4.08 avg rating — 1,044,722 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
3.72 avg rating — 743,446 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
56

by
3.96 avg rating — 288,114 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
4.07 avg rating — 369,146 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
4.28 avg rating — 744,554 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
59

by
4.58 avg rating — 4,749,685 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60

by
3.96 avg rating — 3,242,566 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
61

by
3.96 avg rating — 547,964 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
4.08 avg rating — 1,342,252 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
4.45 avg rating — 312,735 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
4.31 avg rating — 1,103,145 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
65

by
3.65 avg rating — 697,994 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
3.90 avg rating — 365,441 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
3.94 avg rating — 874,535 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
68

by
3.94 avg rating — 828,386 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
69

by
4.43 avg rating — 619,092 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
70

by
4.18 avg rating — 1,443,223 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
4.03 avg rating — 396,356 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
72

by
4.16 avg rating — 2,095,447 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
4.45 avg rating — 2,700,962 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
74

by
4.25 avg rating — 712,376 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
3.99 avg rating — 879,792 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
76

by
4.30 avg rating — 505,718 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
77

by
4.31 avg rating — 1,461,135 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
78

by
4.10 avg rating — 918,077 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
79

by
4.09 avg rating — 719,192 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
4.35 avg rating — 823,990 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
81

by
4.21 avg rating — 836,850 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
82

by
4.26 avg rating — 1,141,718 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
3.80 avg rating — 865,014 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
84

by
3.81 avg rating — 1,286,737 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
4.58 avg rating — 3,605,974 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
86

by
4.09 avg rating — 502,301 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
87

by
4.13 avg rating — 221,183 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
88

by
4.02 avg rating — 1,440,619 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
89

by
4.01 avg rating — 670,747 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
90

by
3.94 avg rating — 1,739,638 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
3.99 avg rating — 210,023 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
92

by
3.97 avg rating — 737,854 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
93

by
3.97 avg rating — 580,166 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
94

by
4.13 avg rating — 564,995 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
95

by
4.28 avg rating — 700,589 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
4.30 avg rating — 323,062 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
97

by
4.35 avg rating — 819,110 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
98

by
4.04 avg rating — 949,660 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
99

by
4.17 avg rating — 921,008 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
100

by
3.83 avg rating — 1,122,688 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15,128 books · 17,328 voters · list created February 3rd, 2014 by Chris Schluep (votes) .
1969 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Chris 155 books
145 friends
Mari 12 books
107 friends
Sara Nelson 57 books
204 friends
Oma 440 books
3 friends
Joliene 511 books
15 friends
Heath 820 books
135 friends
Janice 1533 books
70 friends
Cyd 1564 books
31 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-50 of 286 (286 new)


message 1: by Jane (new)

Jane Tiny Sunbirds Far Away


message 2: by Susan (new)

Susan Balzac?


message 3: by Donald (new)

Donald Scott Some good ones - but also some truly weird or idiotic choices. Will be VERY interesting to see how this goes ... nice poll!


message 4: by Leanne (last edited Feb 04, 2014 06:53AM) (new)

Leanne Mark Twain???

The Alchemist


message 5: by Mary (new)

Mary  BookHounds Leanne wrote: "Mark Twain???

The Alchemist"



I agree -- Mark Twain needs to be on this list.


message 6: by Jim (new)

Jim very limited and the time frame is quite constricted, basically amateur hour.


message 7: by Jesse (new)

Jesse Rice-Evans James Baldwin


message 8: by Lynette (new)

Lynette Rosenblum Where is 100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE??????????????!!!!!!!!!!
Madame Bovary or ANY TWAIN? Not pleased.


message 9: by Lynette (new)

Lynette Rosenblum Lynette wrote: "Where is 100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE??????????????!!!!!!!!!!
Madame Bovary or ANY TWAIN? Not pleased."


Wait, I take that back, I see Tom Sawyer. Mi malo.


message 10: by Wanda (new)

Wanda Cook Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Madame Bovary by Flaubert


message 11: by Lynette (new)

Lynette Rosenblum No Hemingway, but a nod to Stieg Larsson? Hmmm... And as a side note: Where the Red Fern Grows, fave as a child. Ok, thanks for the list. Sorry if I come off as a complainer; this stuff just really hits home for me.


message 12: by Chris (last edited Feb 04, 2014 11:57AM) (new)

Chris Schluep The list on Goodreads is a list composed by readers. You can add your favorites and vote.

The Amazon editors' list is here - http://www.amazon.com/100Books

There's some interesting crossover, and many of the books on the readers' list are ones that we struggled over. Alas, we could only pick 100.


message 13: by shelley (new)

shelley Why are there duplicates?


message 14: by Barbara (new)

Barbara Bailey Love In The Time of Cholera


message 15: by Barbara (new)

Barbara Bailey Cold Sassy Tree - my favorite all time book


message 16: by Linda (new)

Linda I've read 66 of the 100. I think it's lame that 4 Harry Potter books are on the list; I've only read the first one and that should suffice. The same goes for the Hunger Games - I've read all of them, but I think just the first one should be listed.


message 17: by Joshua (new)

Joshua Kramer I agree with Linda, it also seems most of the books were written or made into a movie in the last 10 years, this only has some of the classics, but the ones it does have are really good.


message 18: by Cherri (new)

Cherri Where the Red Fern Grows.


message 19: by Geeta (new)

Geeta Roy - God of Small Things
Seth - A Suitable Boy
Naipaul - A House for Mr. Biswas
Hemmingway - most any of his work
Mantel - Bring Up the Bodies
Rushdie - Midnight's Children
Marquez - 100 Years of Solitude


message 20: by Bookman8 (new)

Bookman8 Moby Dick? One of the, if not the, seminal works of American letters, and it is not here? HMMM?


message 21: by Cyndi (new)

Cyndi The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk


message 22: by Kirk (new)

Kirk Westbeld Theodore Roosevelt's list
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/02...

Im going for instead of amazon's list its too modern for my tastes and contains too many clunkers


message 23: by Lloyd (new)

Lloyd Pratt Yes, it is.


message 24: by Lisbeth (new)

Lisbeth Solberg Just added 16 unread from this list to my to-read. I've read the rest, excluding the Bible of which I've only read parts.


message 25: by Linda (new)

Linda The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn IS on the list. Mark Twain fans can relax.


message 26: by Marilyn (new)

Marilyn JAWS by, I think, Peter Benchley. Way scarier than the movie, with an extra romantic duo smartly left out of the movie.


message 27: by Luccia (new)

Luccia Gray Leanne wrote: "Mark Twain???

The Alchemist"

I'm sure I voted for both Huckelberry Finn and Tom Sawyer!


message 28: by Kris (new)

Kris Harriet the Spy. Seminal children's work on what it means to be a writer, and an outsider.


message 29: by Kris (new)

Kris If Lord of the Rings (v. 1-3) is one entry, so should the Hunger Games and Harry Potter series be counted as one entry each.

Was there a goal % to divide between children's books and adult books (what percentage of each on the list)? I think I'd like to see these as two separate top 100 lists, to allow room for both types of reading.


message 30: by Chris (last edited Feb 05, 2014 04:08PM) (new)

Chris Schluep We tried to cover all stages of reading, so children's books and adult books are on the same list. Someday in the future we'll break it down-- 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime, 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime, 100 Biographies, etc. That will hopefully be an easier task.


message 31: by Catherine (new)

Catherine Lynette wrote: "Lynette wrote: "Where is 100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE??????????????!!!!!!!!!!
Madame Bovary or ANY TWAIN? Not pleased."

Wait, I take that back, I see Tom Sawyer. Mi malo."


AND Huck Finn..


message 32: by Catherine (new)

Catherine I am sure there are many more wonderful books to be added to this list..but it sure was fun..


message 33: by Benjamin (new)

Benjamin This list is completely ridiculous... No Homer, no Plato, no Aristotle, no Dante, no Milton, no Shakespeare, no Augustine, no Virgil, no Descartes, NO DOSTOEVSKY???? Yet harry potter and the hunger games... All faith in society is gone.


message 34: by Bob (new)

Bob Rice How about Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy? Or Zurcher's Buddhist Conquest of China? After reviewing the list of 100 titles, my sense is I've got it wrong... "Must Read" to me means those books which one should read to gain knowledge, perspective and intellectual stimulation about the world around us. Some of the suggested titles on this list are "entertainment" and lack substantive observation / challenging points of view. I've read Water for Elephants and Memoirs of a Geisha and enjoyed the read immensely. But I hardly consider those two titles as "MUST READ" books.


message 35: by Eugene (new)

Eugene Zilberman It was clearly compiled by 20-year old.

Harry Potter, and The Lion, the Witch, and the shitty Wardrobe,
and nothing of Wells or Azimov or Lem?

BOO, goodreads, and goodbye


message 36: by Brahe (new)

Brahe I agree there are many more wonderful books to be added to this list such as: Toad In the Mud ... In 1932 a young black Mobile Alabama woman became part of a secret scientific research project that was funded by the US government. She was put to sleep in a hibernation test as part of the experiment (for 5 weeks). They (the scientists) failed to detect that the young woman was pregnant, prior to the experiment.
The experience was a success from the government’s point of view, the experiment proved that there was a process that would allow a person to be put to sleep for an indefinite period of time without undue hardship on the body. The process was to duplicate the same process that frogs incur when they are buried in the mud during long drought periods. The scientists did not know nor had a way to determine the true effects the experiment would have on the human body for any period of time. Over the months and years the experiment was forgotten until the spring of 1997 when some young medical student happened upon the body of a body they thought was a mummy in an old abandoned research facility somewhere in Los Angeles County.


message 37: by Christopher (new)

Christopher Lovejoy Agreed, list looks like it was written for adolescents. In no world are the Hunger Games a "must read". Not a single non-fiction title to be found and completely skewed to western lit. And Poe's The Raven is a book? Really? How about Tales of Mystery and Imagination instead of listing a poem as a book.


message 38: by Clay (new)

Clay Shannon Chief ones missing that I can think of are Twain's "Roughing It" and "The Innocents Abroad." Also more of Steinbeck and at least one Saroyan.


message 39: by Kerri (new)

Kerri Lynn There are repeats and no mark twain... Insanity.


message 40: by Jbhedgehog (new)

Jbhedgehog Mark Twain...duh.

David Foster Wallace

How about some poetry? Poetry's nice!

I had an entire grad school course on Milton...no Milton?

Burroughs?

Kerouac, Frost, Updike...so many great ones missing.

But whaddya' gonna' do when you only have 100 slots to fill, right? AMIRITE???


message 41: by Clay (last edited Feb 06, 2014 04:58PM) (new)

Clay Shannon Twain is on it with Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, but there are others that should arguably be there, too.


message 42: by Alex (new)

Alex Bird Seriously lacking in Lovecraft.


message 43: by John (new)

John Hargrove Diary of a Young Girl by Ann Franks is my favorite.
I find great satisfaction by seeing people share their pain and struggle to be set free.


message 44: by Gullahgal (new)

Gullahgal You all fancy yourselves as readers but many have not even read the top of this page where it indicates that this is the list of "Readers' Picks."

The list above is NOT the Editors' List. The link for that site is also provided at the top of this page.


message 45: by Alanna (new)

Alanna The Hunger Games books are in no way important to read in a lifetime. The writing is not of high enough quality. Gone Girl? That book will not be remembered as a great book in 10 years even.


message 46: by Alison (new)

Alison Brown I know there is only room for 100, but two key ones missing for me are "Cry the Beloved Country" and "The Red Tent". Yes, I think Hunger Games and Gone Girl are there for the sake of "Current" selections...not that I have read them :)


message 47: by Kathleen (new)

Kathleen Rowe Where are Walt Whitman, Washington Irving, Longfellow, and other classic authors?


message 48: by Kathleen (new)

Kathleen Rowe Linda wrote: "I've read 66 of the 100. I think it's lame that 4 Harry Potter books are on the list; I've only read the first one and that should suffice. The same goes for the Hunger Games - I've read all of the..."

I agree. Listing several books in a series like Harry Potter rather "weights" the results unjustly.


message 49: by Stephanie (new)

Stephanie Wernet We're missing some classic sci-fi on the list:
"I Robot" by Isaac Asimov
"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne
"War of the Worlds" by H. G. Wells


message 50: by Frank (new)

Frank Garcia No Spanish culture books? no Quijote, Cela(Nobel prize) etc


« previous 1 3 4 5 6
back to top