Normally I do not participate in Top Ten Tuesday but I’ve really enjoyed reading other people’s responses to this question today and thought I would offer my own. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
If you had asked me this question back in May, my list would have included Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Now that I’ve read all those books, though, I didn’t have a ready answer for this question of the top of my head. I guess I don’t feel like there are too many books out there I haven’t read yet.
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – This seems to be a book that most people read in high school but I decided to read Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison instead.
- 1984 by George Orwell – Love, love, love Animal Farm and I’m slightly afraid I won’t like his other popular novel.
- The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane – Another popular book assigned in high school that I missed.
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – When newspapers mourned to loss of Salinger last year after his death, I realized I had never read this novel. I still haven’t rectified this.
- Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier – I didn’t realize how popular this novel is until I started book blogging.
- Something other than A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – I’m kind of cheating because I’m currently reading A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens. But until I finish it, he will still remain on my list of books everyone has read but me.
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyesky – I started and abandoned this novel much to the chagrin of several of my readers who love it. I’d like to try it again sometime but I just haven’t been in the right mood.
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – And I’m now just exposing even more holes in my high school literature classes.
- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins – This book made the rounds on book blogs awhile back and even jumped onto my TBR list. I was thinking about reading it next month but I honestly don’t know if I’ll have time.
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn/The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain – Probably the two books I’m most embarrassed about not reading. I’ve tried listening to Huck Finn but the narrator wasn’t engaging enough to hold my attention.
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September 20, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Anna (Diary of an Eccentric)
I haven’t read most of what’s on your list. I loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but I don’t remember anything about The Red Badge of Courage or Dickens’ Great Expectations from reading them in school.
September 20, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Christina
I’m finding the same thing about other people’s lists.
I’ve heard great things about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn but just always forget about picking it up when I get to the library. Great Expectations was required reading for the other honors English class my freshman year; my class read A Raisin in the Sun instead.
September 20, 2011 at 12:39 pm
Jamie
Ahh Crime and Punishment. I got half way through that and then left it somewhere while I was in Europe and never finished it. I also want to read The Woman in White, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, and Catch 22. I LOVED Catcher, Rebecca (I also loved her book called My Cousin Rachel) and 1984.
Here’s my top ten books that I feel like everyone has read if you feel like moseying on over to my blog!
September 20, 2011 at 3:27 pm
Christina
I maybe got a third of the way through. I was trying to listen to the audiobook and readalong with my printed copy, but they were two different translations and I was so confused.
I’m hoping to pick up either The Woman in White or Catch-22 in November for Erin Reads’ Reading Buddies program.
September 20, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Simon T
Gosh, now you’re making me feel poorly read! I’ve only read three of these… two are absolutely brilliant (Rebecca; 1984) and one I thought was awful (Catcher in the Rye). I’ve barely heard of some of these… perhaps the difference between US and UK high school reading lists?
September 20, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Christina
I imagine it would be different. Several of the books on here are by American authors. I’ve heard pretty negative things about Catcher in the Rye but I hear Americans make references to Holden Caulfield all the time. I feel like I’m missing out.
September 20, 2011 at 8:21 pm
everybookandcranny
Whew, I’m glad to see that Catcher in the Rye is on several blogger’s lists, as I was sure I was the only one to have never read it.
I loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (a good pick for the holiday season, I think) and Rebecca. And A Woman in White is particularly good for this time of year. I remember enjoying 1984 but it has been many years since I read it.
September 22, 2011 at 3:57 pm
Christina
Me too! Very glad to see that others have not read it.
September 21, 2011 at 9:23 am
Shannon (Giraffe Days)
I’m with you on Catcher in the Rye – I actually stubbornly resisted reading it for several years, just because EVERYONE had read and loved it -petty I know! But I am planning on rectifying that.
I loved Rebecca (but then, I love everything du Maurier writes it seems!)
I sympathise with you on Crime and Punishment – I ended up skimming the last third, I couldn’t read it, honestly I thought it was terrible. I get lynched for it on Goodreads. (I’ve been told I shouldn’t be allowed to read literature, for instance.)
I’m keen to read Woman in White, it was even on my TBR challenge last year but I didn’t get around to it.
September 22, 2011 at 9:23 am
Christina
I hate comments like that! I got several of them for my review of Island of the Blue Dolphins. I saw Catcher in the Rye on a couple of people’s lists so it looks like we’re not alone, Shannon!
September 22, 2011 at 8:38 am
Alex
I think my list would look very similar to yours. i’m only guilty of having read 1984, a couple of Dickens, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (which I really recommend) and Tom Sayer.
September 22, 2011 at 9:24 am
Christina
Sounds like I will have to pick up A Tree Grows in Brooklyn very soon!
September 22, 2011 at 9:13 pm
Jillian ♣
Our lists are very similar. I think it would be fun to check back on this post in a year and see how many we’ve read.
September 22, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Christina
It would be! So many people included Catcher in the Rye on their lists that I was thinking about hosting a readalong for it.
September 22, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Erin
I haven’t read Catch 22, either! It may win for Reading Buddies for November, we’ll see. The Woman in White is in the lead, though, so either way we can cross one off our lists! Actually, the only book on your list I’d really count myself has having read is Catcher in the Rye. A couple of others I’ve not read in at least 10 years, which for me means I pretty much haven’t read them as my pre-blogging book memory is atrocious!
September 23, 2011 at 9:44 am
Christina
Anything selected for November is a win-win for me! I haven’t read any of the books listed!
September 25, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Anna
I’ve only read three on you list – A Woman in White, Catcher in the Rye and 1984, so you’re definitely not alone! I used to feel compelled to read everything everyone else seems to have read but I find that what they all read and enjoyed, I really did not like! Rebecca was one of them (which is sacrilege I know) and out of the three I have read noted on your list, I only really remember thoroughly enjoying A Woman in White, but I suppose you never know how you feel towards a book until you read it!
September 25, 2011 at 7:24 pm
Christina
I’m still kind of in the phase. If a blogger recommends a book or gives it a perfect score on whatever scale they use, I find that I have to put it on my TBR list as well. I’m trying to be better about it since there have been quite a few books recently that I’ve picked up and found I’ve not enjoyed.