Top 100 Books You Can't Live Without

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2023967,00.html

That is a great list.  A lot of my favourites are on there and  5 of my own top 10 are in the top 20!

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute is even on there. One of my favourites!

Great list!  Is has a little bit of everything in there.   

Quite the list!
I counted 38 that I've read, but I'd have to disagree with the "can't live without" part for some of them..

I've read more than half of them ... but The Davinci Code should never ever be on anyone's top list of books!! 

I've read more than half of them ... but The Davinci Code should never ever be on anyone's top list of books!! 

Ohhh, I like that book 

That is an interesting list... classics mixed in with popular fiction from the last few years. But I don't think it is can't live without worthy!!

I am a fan of Paulo Coelho and much preferred East of Eden to Grapes of Wrath or of Mice and Men.

I've read more than half of them ... but The Davinci Code should never ever be on anyone's top list of books!! 

lol  gotta agree with you there! 

I've read more than half of them ... but The Davinci Code should never ever be on anyone's top list of books!! 

Ohhh, I like that book 

I thought it was ok, just not one of the "great books of all time" sort of books.

Love that they included Winnie-the-Pooh on there.  I have a set of little red-bound early edition copies of Winnie-the-Pooh and the House at Pooh Corner that are very treasured items from my childhood.

They included some children's books so I'm surprised The Cat in the Hat isn't listed. Maybe they just wanted to do chapter books?

I do like a lot of the books on the list. Some of those books I've read and just didn't care for, like Anna Karenina.

I love Gone With the Wind 

I've read more than half of them ... but The Davinci Code should never ever be on anyone's top list of books!! 

Add Mitch Albom to that list.  What a waste of paper!

It's a good list, and I like that it's not just 'classics'.  But why do they list Hamlet and The Complete Works of Shakespeare separately?  Seems a bit odd. 

I wonder where they got the list from? It seems more like a list of popular books, or books that high school English teachers like to teach, rather than a list of books that are excellent from a standpoint of literary criticism.

Harry Potter in the same league as Hamlet and Heart of Darkness? I think not. I like the Harry Potter series, by the way.

edit: The H alliteration was unintentional.

Add Mitch Albom to that list.  What a waste of paper!

Word. 

edit: The H alliteration was unintentional.

I liked it!

Great thread, Britwife!

One of the many things I love about the UK is its literary tradition.  I think children find their own portal into the world based on their particular circumstances, and mine was through books.

Life is a wonderful mystery, and I think that the great writers ("great" being defined individually but these top 100 lists do identify books of common greatness) make life ever so much richer.

I remember the BBC top 100 best loved books list from a few years ago, and it highlighted books I hadn't been exposed to in the States, so I picked up a few over here and loved them - they have changed my life forever.  The BBC also ran a series on the top 21 of the top 100 books with 30 minute time slots for each.  I cried at the 30 minute segment Simon Sharma did about "War and Peace" and why it was his best loved book (yet I still haven't read it - shame on me, must show discipline for breaking down a 1,400 page book into a manageable reading schedule!)