(They have since updated the list with a new edition, expanded to 72 books through 1998. I've stuck with the original.)
The list is in chronological order. Trilogies are listed as one book, by the date of the first volume. Two of the trilogies are available in one-volume editions and are linked as such.
Those I have read are in red. So far, I have read 44 of the 60 – or 50 of the 66, if you count the separate volumes of the two trilogies, U.S.A. and Studs Lonigan. Those currently on my TBR shelf are in blue, although I intend to get to them all some day, mostly as they double up with other lists.
As always, if anyone has adopted this as a "Must Read" list, and would like me to link their progress post, I would be happy to do so. Just leave your link in a comment and I will add it.
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (reviewed here)
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
U.S.A. by John Dos Passos
Light in August by William Faulkner
Studs Lonigan by James T. Farrell (reviewed here)
Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James Mallahan Cain
Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara
Vein of Iron by Ellen Glasgow
Heaven's My Destination by Thornton Wilder
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Late George Apley by John P. Marquand
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson Mccullers
Trees by Conrad Richter
What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg
Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty
All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford
Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer (reviewed here)
Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote
The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
The Wall by John Hersey
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
From Here to Eternity by James Jones
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Lie Down in Darkness by William Styron
The Recognitions by William Gaddis
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor
Seize the Day by Saul Bellow
The Assistant by Bernard Malamud (reviewed here)
The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
The Magic Christian by Terry Southern
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley
Them by Joyce Carol Oates
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (reviewed here)
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Burr by Gore Vidal
Nickel Mountain by John Gardner
Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
The World According to Garp by John Irving
The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
NOTE
Last updated on December 28, 2022.
OTHERS READING THE BOOKS ON THIS LIST
(If you would like to be listed here, please leave a comment with links to your progress reports or reviews and I will add them here.)
OTHERS READING THE BOOKS ON THIS LIST
(If you would like to be listed here, please leave a comment with links to your progress reports or reviews and I will add them here.)
Ooooo! I starred this post. I need to take a closer look at this list. . . :-)
ReplyDeleteLezlie
This is a good list, because the books strike me as being good, but also popular -- or at least they were popular at some point. There is a lot of entertainment value as well as literary value here.
ReplyDeleteCool list. I like the "impact" focus of the criteria. And there are a handful I've never heard of before, which is a good thing. I'm always on the lookout for new material.
ReplyDeleteJ.G. -- I agree about the impact idea. And when I look back on the books I have read from this list, I think they made thoughtful choices.
ReplyDeleteThere are some books on this list that do not show up on every Must Read list and I like that. For instance, Gone With the Wind didn't win any prizes or show up on the fancy pants lists, but it is a terrific book and just think about the impact of that story on the American psyche. More for the movie, of course, but there wouldn't have been the movie without the book.
Also, The Assistant is my favorite book plucked from a Must Read list. I had never heard of it until I saw it on this list and the Anthony Burgess list. It is beautiful. I think it should be required reading for every high school student -- time to retire A Separate Peace!
This list strikes a cord with me. I was a BOTMC member for many years. I didn't always get their choice for the month but I would pick something. Now that I look back on the list I see so many I wish I had read. Oh well, it's not too late. I'm going to copy your list. I will let you know if I decide to pursue this one so you can link to me. Thanks for finding and sharing this one.
ReplyDelete