the latest book, it was great....
I wrote this list wanting to get better books from the library and ordering more decent stuff to read via interlibrary loan. This list was written about 18 months ago. The Dune series except the last book and Tolkien's books were read in the last 8 months. There will be some overlap from my 2025 list. I love to read. In my case, being disabled, bad at housework, there is more time to read. Add any books you like too in the comments.
I was focusing on classics but there were others I added as well. A few books on the list were read in high school but reading them again as an adult sounded like a good idea. The ideas for what to read came from one good writer friend who is very well versed in literature, a collection of classic books at a small town library, Youtube videos specializing in reading, and following favorite authors of mine like Wally Lamb.
More books will be added to this list too.
My list of books to read
[highlighted means I have read it/books marked owned]
Watership Down Richard Adams
The Hitchhikers Galaxy Douglas Adams
The Handmaid’s Tale Margot Atwood
When Things Fall Apart Achebe
Emma Jane Austin
Mansfield Park
Northanger Abbey
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Another Country
Eugene G Balzac
Oroonoko Behn Aptea
Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow
Ravelstein
The Willows Algeron Blackwood
Ancient Sorceries and Other Stories
Dances with Wolves
The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury
Dandelion Wine
The Mists of Avalon
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
Pearl S Buck:
The Good Earth
The Pavilion of Women [own]
Peony [own]
Sons
The Mother
A House Divided
Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Old Creole Days Caleb Carr
The Alienist
Alice in Wonderland Caroll
Willa Cather:
Death Comes to the Archbishop
O Pioneers
The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler
The Awakening
Agatha Christie various
Space Odessey Clarke
Rendezvous Clark
The Moonstone Collins
Steinbeck
East of Eden
The Grapes of Wrath
Cannery Road
Travels with Charley
The Winter of Our Discontent
In Dubious Battle
Sweet Thursday
The Red Pony
Tortilla Flats
The Moon is Down
The Pastures of Heaven
The Wayward Bus
Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Gulliver’s Travels
The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan
The Hobbit Tolkien [own]
The Lord of the Rings
The Fellowship of the Rings
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
War and Peace Tolstoy
Anna Karenina [own]
Hard Times by Stud Terkel
Johnny Got His Gun
Fathers and Sons
Rabbit Run John Updike
Rabbit is Rich
Rabbit Redux
Hocus Pocus Vonnegut
Cat’s Cradle
Slaughter House Five
The Invisible Man
The Island of Dr. M
The Time Machine HG Wells
Collected Stories Eudora Welty
The Once and Future King
Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe
I am Charlotte Simmons
Look Homeward Angel
To the Lighthouse Virginia Wolfe
Native Son Richard Wright
The Short Stories of Frank Yerby
A Confederacy of Dunces
Mere Christianity CS Lewis
Sickness Unto Death Kierkegaard
The Mill on the Floss
Silas Marner George Eliot
Like Water for Chocolate
Soldiers Pay
The Sound and Fury
Giant
The Beautiful and the Damned
The Great Gatsby
This side of Paradise
Madame Bovary
Casino Ian Fleming
Moonraker
Live and Let Die
Mr. Midshipman
Lonesome Dove
A Message to India Forester
The Forsythe Sage Galsworthy
The Count of Monte Cristo
Catch-22 Jospeh Heller
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wives and Daughters Elizabeth Gaskell
Cranford
The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Dead Souls Gogol
The Nose
Princess Bride
Marathon Man Goldman
The Tin Drum Guter Grass
The End of an Affair Graham Greene
The Quiet Americans
Far From the Maddening Crowd Thomas Hardy
The Mayor of Galesbridge
Tess of the D’Urberville’s
Legends Jim Harrison
The House of the Seven Gables Nathan Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter
A Stranger in a Strange Land Heinlein
For Whom The Bell Tolls Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea
True at First Light
Siddhartha Hesse
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Brave New World
The Return of the Day
The Portrait of a Lady
The Turn of the Screw
Three Men in a Boat
From Here to Eternity
Dubliners Joyce
Ulyssess
Shogun
On the Road Jack Kevoac
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Ken Kesey
Fahrenheit 451 [own]
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapter House Dune
Flowers for Algineron.
Darkness at Noon
The Mood Sinclair Lewis
Babbit
It Can Happen Here
The Room
Moby Dick
Tales of South Pacific James Michener
Centennial
Tropic of Cancer
A Canticle for Lebonitz
Sula Toni Morris
Animal Farm Orwell
I am not Your Negro James Baldwin
Free to Choose
Ten Acres Enough
Leaves of Grass Whitman
The Moviegoer Percy
Walden
Go Tell the Bees I am Gone [latest Outlander book-read all the others]
The Mysteries of Paris Smith
Nicholas Nickelby
The Eighth Life
The River is Waiting Wally Lamb
You Don’t Know Me
Couldn’t Keep It to Myself
I’ll Fly Away
Taiko Eiji Yoshikawa
Underworld DeLillo
The Ghost in the Machine
Hard Rain Falling Don Carpenter
The Tunnel Gass
Love and Terror Hendrick
Wild Swans [own]
The Man with the Golden Arm
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
The Spirit of Crazy Horse
Cloud Spitting Russell Banks
Tree of Smoke Dennis Johnson
The Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt
The Ascent to Truth Merton
The Seven Storey Mountain
The Sign of Jonas
The Way of the Pilgrim
Saint Paisos of Mount Athos
Against the Machine Kingsnorth
QuickSand Larsen
Young Lonigan James T. Farrell
The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan
Judgment Day
A World I Never Made
No Star Is Lost
Father and Son
My Days of Anger
The Face of Time [and other books]
