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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

  2. J R R Tolkien

    3. 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

  3. Charlotte Brontë

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

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

    5. 1997—English

  5. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

    6. 1998—English

  6. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

    7. 1999—English

  7. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

    8. 2000—English

  8. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

    9. 2003—English

  9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

    10. 2005—English

  10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

    11. 2007—English

  11. Harper Lee

    12. To Kill a Mockingbird
    1960—English

    --
  12. The Bible

    13. —Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek

  13. Emily Brontë

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

  14. George Orwell

    15. Nineteen Eighty-Four
    1949—English

  15. Phillip Pullman

    16. 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

  16. Charles Dickens

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

  17. Louisa M Alcott

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

  18. Thomas Hardy

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

  19. Joseph Heller
    Catch-22
    1961—English

    • William Shakespeare

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

  20. Daphne du Maurier

    21. Rebecca
    1938—English

  21. J R R Tolkien

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

  22. Sebastian Faulks

    23. Birdsong
    1993—English

  23. J D Salinger

    24. Catcher in the Rye
    1951—English

  24. Audrey Niffenegger

    25. The Time Traveler's Wife
    2003—English

  25. George Eliot

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

  26. Margaret Mitchell

    27. Gone With the Wind
    1936—English

  27. F Scott Fitzgerald

    28. The Great Gatsby
    1925—English

  28. Charles Dickens

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

  29. Leo Tolstoy

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

  30. Douglas Adams

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

  31. Evelyn Waugh

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

  32. Fyodor Dostoevsky

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

  33. John Steinbeck

    34. The Grapes of Wrath
    1939—English

  34. Lewis Carroll

    35. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
    1865—English

  35. Kenneth Grahame

    36. The Wind in the Willows
    1908—English

  36. Leo Tolstoy

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

  37. Charles Dickens

    38. 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
  38. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

    39. 1950—English

  39. Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia

    40. 1951—English

  40. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

    41. 1952—English

  41. The Silver Chair

    42. 1953—English

  42. The Horse and His Boy

    43. 1954—English

  43. The Magician's Nephew

    44. 1955—English

  44. The Last Battle

    45. 1956—English

    Jane Austen
  45. Emma

    46. originally anonymously published 1815—English

  46. Persuasion

    47. originally anonymously published 1817—English

  47. Khaled Hosseini

    48. The Kite Runner
    2003—English

  48. Louis de Bernières

    49. Captain Corelli's Mandolin
    1994—English

  49. Arthur Golden

    50. Memoirs of a Geisha
    1997—English

  50. A A Milne

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

  51. George Orwell

    52. Animal Farm
    1945—English

  52. Dan Brown

    53. The Da Vinci Code
    2003—English

  53. Gabriel García Márquez

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

  54. John Irving

    55. A Prayer for Owen Meaney
    1989—English

  55. Wilkie Collins

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

  56. L M Montgomery

    57. Anne of Green Gables
    1908—English

  57. Thomas Hardy

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

  58. Margaret Atwood

    59. The Handmaid's Tale
    1985—English

  59. William Golding

    60. Lord of the Flies
    1954—English

  60. Ian McEwan

    61. Atonement
    2001—English

  61. Yann Martel

    62. Life of Pi
    2001—English

  62. Frank Herbert

    63. Dune
    1965—English

  63. Stella Gibbons

    64. Cold Comfort Farm
    1932—English

  64. Jane Austen

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

  65. Vikram Seth

    66. A Suitable Boy
    1993—English

  66. Carlos Ruiz Zafón

    67. La Sombra del Viento
    2001—Spanish

  67. Charles Dickens

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

  68. Aldous Huxley

    69. Brave New World
    1932—English

  69. Mark Haddon

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

  70. Gabriel García Márquez

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

  71. John Steinbeck

    72. Of Mice and Men
    1937—English

  72. Vladimir Nabokov

    73. Lolita
    1955—English

  73. Donna Tartt

    74. The Secret History
    1992—English

  74. Alice Sebold

    75. The Lovely Bones
    2002—English

  75. Alexandre Dumas

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

  76. Jack Kerouac

    77. 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

  77. Thomas Hardy

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

  78. Helen Fielding

    79. Bridget Jones's Diary
    1996—English

  79. Salman Rushdie

    80. Midnight's Children
    1981—English

  80. Herman Melville

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

  81. Charles Dickens

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

  82. Bram Stoker

    83. Dracula
    1897—English

  83. Frances Hodgson Burnett

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

  84. Bill Bryson

    85. Notes From a Small Island
    1995—English

  85. James Joyce

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

  86. Sylvia Plath

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

  87. Arthur Ransome

    88. Swallows and Amazons
    1930—English

  88. Émile Zola

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

  89. William Makepeace Thackeray

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

  90. A S Byatt

    91. Possession
    1990—English

  91. Charles Dickens

    92. A Christmas Carol
    1843—English

  92. David Mitchell

    93. Cloud Atlas
    2004—English

  93. Alice Walker

    94. The Color Purple
    1982—English

  94. Kazuo Ishiguro

    95. The Remains of the Day
    1989—English

  95. Gustave Flaubert

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

  96. Rohinton Mistry

    97. A Fine Balance
    1995—English

  97. E B White

    98. Charlotte's Web
    1952—English

  98. Mitch Albom

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

  99. Arthur Conan Doyle

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

    Enid Blyton
  100. The Enchanted Wood

    101. 1939—English

  101. The Magic Faraway Tree

    102. 1943—English

  102. The Folk of the Faraway Tree

    103. 1946—English

  103. Up the Faraway Tree

    104. 1951—English

  104. Joseph Conrad

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

  105. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

    106. Le Petit Prince
    1943—French

  106. Iain Banks

    107. The Wasp Factory
    1984—English

  107. Richard Adams

    108. Watership Down
    1972—English

  108. John Kennedy Toole

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

  109. Nevil Shute

    110. A Town Like Alice
    1950—English

  110. Alexandre Dumas

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

  111. William Shakespeare

    112. Hamlet
    1602—English

  112. Roald Dahl

    113. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
    1964—English

  113. Victor Hugo

    114. Les Misérables
    1862—French