100 Books to Read Before You Die – Best Book List Ever!

100 books to read before you die – how many of the books on this list have you read?

Let’s take a look at 100 amazing books on this must-read list and also find out how many books to read before you die you have left?  And no you don’t need 100 years of solitude – (gabriel garcía márquez) to get through them, thought it might help!

100 Books to Read Before You Die

100 books to read before you die 

“A good book is an event in my life.” – Stendhal

Oh, I do like a good book list. You may recently have read my list on best books on happiness? That list is now a year old but still full of some of my faves.

Well if you did and if you enjoyed that I have a new one for you today – 100 books to read before you die, this was a pure labour of love, I do so hope you like it. No Anna Karenina or Brave New World but still a host a of truly great books.

100 Books to Read Before You Die

How many books you have left to read before you die?

Apparently the average American reads 12 books a year so you can work it out from that. I reckon I read at least double that but what about you?

What are the top 100 books of all time?

My list is purely mine and maybe Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen will top your list or Charles Dickens whereas they don’t even feature on mine.  Are you a fan of Frances Hodgson Burnett or Gabriel García Márquez or perhaps world war books or science fiction? Perhaps you like books first published in the 20th century or set in New York or a chocolate factory? Maybe you like a little Evelyn Waugh or George Eliot and books about human nature really float your boat. 

I am not going to give you a 100 books to read before you die quiz nor is this juts a blanket copy of 100 books everyone should read new york times or 100 books to read before you die bbc.

Nope this list in entirely my own. I am aware there are few short stories here and if you read slowly I do apologise. 

Your list may well be different there is no absolute authority or definitive list and your rating of a novel is likely very different to mine.  There are however some books that just had to make the list and will likely be on most peoples but nope no absolute on this.  

What is the one book everyone should read on the 100 Books to Read Before You Die

The number one best selling book of all time (in the UK)

Do you just assume it is Harry Potter or Fifty Shades? Actually it is neither of them. It is actually The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – cracking good thriller but it did surprise me. Take look l at this list for the full breakdown. despite being the top sellers though I think on ly one or two appear on my list of 100 Books to Read Before You Die

What is the hardest book to read?

 I found A short history of Tractors in Ukrainian really tough to read, and the entirety of my 3 person book club agreed.  (and it is bizarrely number 68 on the list above!) I have struggled reading the bible especially the lists and lists of name. 

Do you have a wish list of 100 books to read before you die?

Here is one I have compiled. How many have you read? I am intrigued to know? Would any of them make your list of 100 books to read before you die perhaps?

Many book bucket lists haven’t been updated in quite some time. They include the classics, but leave out many modern-day works. This list includes those classics that are on every list, in addition to modern fiction, self-help books, and other fantastic reads. How many have these have you already read?

I have read a lot of them and some are ones I absolutely must read again or long to read. There is a hefty dose of American modern classics and a lot of love stuff because that’s what I like As I have said every single  100 books to read before you die will be skewed by the curators preferences. 

100 books to read before you die  – a matter of personal choice

Everyone’s list would be different just as it should be – we are unique as readers and we choose stories that reflect our lives in so many ways and at different times. So toss out my suggestions and add in your own to this list of 100 books to read before you die – start from scratch if that suits you best but do read read read it makes you wise and kind ad it brings you life biggest pleasures and treasures.

What are the top 100 books to read before you die?

Are you ready?

You cannot beat a good book and there really are a lot of good books. So why don’t you grab a coffee or a piping hot cup of tea, get comfy, put your reading lamp on and turn off your phone  and start your read of these amazing 100 books to read before you die in this, the ultimate book list ( well, according to me at least) . 

I love little more than a great cup of coffee in the sunshine when I am reading. Take a look at my list of 21 books about bookstores if you fancy a little more inspo.

My 100 books to read before you die list

My book list is just as yours would be – very personal but, in spite of that a lot of my choices I imagine are pretty universal.

It is not a heavy list and it is not all classics but the books  on my list are special They are books without exception that have touched me or that I long to read. I am so excited to make my way through the unread books on my list. I have them all listed separately a dream shopping list if you will!

Can I challenge you to create your 100 books to read before you die? And if you do create a list of your 100 books to read before you die can I ask you to please share it with me I would be intrigued to see your ideas. I do wonder if we would have many that overlap? I am sure there would be a few at least. 

100 Books to Read Before You Die

100 books to read before you die … here we go let’s dive right in

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
3. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
4. 1984 by George Orwell
5. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult (the book ends drastically differently than the movie!)
6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (trigger warning: mental health themes)
8. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
9. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (trigger warning: child abuse/child sex trafficking as the main plot)
10. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
11. The Hobbit or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
12. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
13. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
14. Go Ask Alice (trigger warning: drug addictions and other serious mental health themes)
15. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
16. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
17. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
18. Freakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt
19. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
20. The second sex by Simone de Beauvoir
21. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
22. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown
23. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
24. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
25. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
26. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
27. Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
28. His Dark Materials  by Philip Pullman
    

    

    100 Books to Read Before You Die – better get comfy for this top 100 books of all time checklist

     

    And there are more in the 100 books to read before you die list    ….

29. Moonbath by Yanick Lahens
30. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
31. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
32. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
33. Animal Farm by George Orwell
34. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
35. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
36. Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
37. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
38. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
39. Go Set a Watchmen by Harper Lee
40. War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
41. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
42. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
43. The art of war by Sun Tsu
44. The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson (trigger warning: graphic sex scene right from the start)
45. The Prophet Kahil Gibran
46. Bridget Jones Diary Helen Fielding
47. Keeper of Lost Things Ruth Hogan
48. The death and life of Charlie St Cloud  by Ben Sherwood 
49. Create your own happy by Becky Goddard-Hill Penny Alexander
50. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
51. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
52. Candide by Voltaire
53. Madame Bovary by Flaubert
54. The reader on the 6.27 by Jean Paul  Didierlaurent
55. A man called Ove – by Fredrik Backman
56. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
57. One Day by David Nicholls
58. 84 Charing Cross Road Helen Hanff
59. The fault in our stars – John Green
60. The Little Prince by Antonie de Saint-Exupery
61. The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon
62. The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
63. Song of Soloman by Toni Morrison
64. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
65. Paper Towns by John Green
66. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
67. I know why the cage bird sings Maya Angelou
68. The god of small things by Arundhati Roy
69. If You Feel Too Much by Jamie Tworkowski
70. The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime by Mark Haddon
71. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
72. Looking for Alaska by John Green
73. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
74. The Go-Between by LP Hartley
75. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
76. The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
77. Five Feet Apart by Rachel Lippincott (the movie’s about to come out!)
78. Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
79. Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions by Valeria Luiselli
80. The Celestine Prophecy James Redfield   
81. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
82. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
83. Night by Elie Wiesel
84. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (trigger warning: rape and violence)
85. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
86. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
87. The Color Purple
88. The Kurdish Bike by Alesa Lightbourne
89. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
90. All my Sons by Arthur Miller
91. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
92. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
93. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
94. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
95. Dracula by Bram Stoker
96. The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
97. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
98. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
99. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
100. The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

 My 100 books bucket list

Do you like this list of 100 books to read before you die? Were you nodding along or saying what is she thinking???? Were you muttering where is Wuthering heights and Jo’s boys? If so it is time to mkae your own list of 100 books to read before you die.

‘No two persons ever read the same book.’

Love your library & go find those 100 Books to Read Before You Die

Although you could buy these books on Amazon, it’s much cheaper to rent them from your local library. That will also help reduce the amount of clutter in your home. Libraries really are the most amazing places – all those wonderful stories , true or make believe all withoin the reach of you and your family and all for free. It is absolutely the gift that keeps giving. You have to get your self a library membership it is worth worlds.

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of a Library.”

“Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you back the right one.” (Neil Gaiman)

100 books to read before you die – which would you read first?

Which book are you most excited to read on this list of 100 books to read before you die?  Head to your local library with a list and see which ones you can find.

Why would you want to read 100 books to read before you die?

Oh so many awesome reasons, take a look at the video below – are you surprised by some of these? i cannot encourage you to read enough – the places it will take you cannot be measured in words ( which is ironic if you think about it!) 

Did you count? I bet you counted how many you had read of my 100 Books to Read Before You Die

So what’s your number? How many of these 100 books to read before you die can you tick off your list?

A love of reading

Reading has been and probably always will be one of the very greatest pleasures of my life, books have taught me, lifted me, helped me escape. They have inspired me, soothed me and helped me cope. Books are my passion and my pleasure and being able to make a living as a writer has pleased me absolutely no end.

I long to write a book so amazing it would be included in a book list like this by someone else..I definitely snuck my Create Your Own Happy book up on my list but oh, to write a great epic love story! or a book of poems that touched the heart of someone hurting.

That is what I would love to achieve.

“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall.” – Roald Dahl

“Books are, let’s face it, better than everything else. If we played Cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go fifteen rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time.”
― Nick Hornby, The Polysyllabic Spree

Yes Nick I agree and I don’t think it matters if you read them on your indle, computer or in old fashioned paperback. Books are the business!

My favourite of all on the 100 books to read before you die list

My number 1 favourite book of all times is probably Rebecca and The Great Gatsby and I Capture the Castle and …oh I can never ever, ever pick just one…..

I wonder what your favourite is.

If you forced my hand I would go for I capture the castle it is truly the most romantic of books with incredibly drawn characters in. Just marvellous. 

I do hope you have enjoyed my list of 100 books to read before you die, I got so much pleasure out of compiling it. Such a delight always to reflect on book s I have loved and to share them. 

pin 100 books to read before you die for later

100 Books to Read Before You Die

Quotes for book lovers

Quotes for book lovers make me smile because what book lover doesn ‘t love a great quote?

Here are a few of my favourites:

Alberto Manguel

“The things I want to know are in books;
my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.”

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

An original idea. That can’t be too hard. The library must be full of them.

– Stephen Fry

The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.

– Albert Einstein

100 Books to Read Before You Die

The library card is a passport to wonders and miracles, glimpses into other lives, religions, experiences, the hopes and dreams and strivings of ALL human beings, and it is this passport that opens our eyes and hearts to the world beyond our front doors, that is one of our best hopes against tyranny, xenophobia, hopelessness, despair, anarchy, and ignorance.

– Libba Bray

 

“Of all the places I have walked into, libraries must be the most magical. Have you ever opened the cover of a book and wondered what you would find inside? Where you would go? Whom you would meet? A story has the power to send you back in time or into the future, to transport you to other lands and kingdoms. I’ve met ogres, talking rabbits, and some of my best friends in the pages of books.

Librarians might just have the best jobs ever. With each library card they hand out, they offer a ticket to strange and marvelous worlds. Open a book and, like Reading Beauty, you might fall under a spell—the magic of a deep read. But chances are, unlike the Sleeping Beauty of the original fairy tale, you will never want the spell to be broken.”
― Kimberly Long Cockroft, Reading Beauty ( and you can find all these 100 Books to Read Before You Die in a library)

 

Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.

Malala Yousafzai

 

Time to get started on 100 Books to Read Before You Die

 

She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.

Annie Dillard

Even more awesome book quotes for 100 books to read before you die lovers

“I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

“Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky, My pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.” – Arnold Lobel

“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.” – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis  ( oh my goodness how I totally agree with this !) 

100 books to read before you die

Further reading on from 100 books to read before you die

You might to take a look at my post on quote books for kids

You might also like to take a little look at my post on the best books from my childhood

You might also find value in my post on inspirational TED talks on racism

If you enjoyed this post you might also like my post on easy ways to promote your book

Reading is such a fab way to help you feel calm – here are many more ways to help you calm down 

100 books to read before you die – where will you start!

This post 100 books to read before you die contains Amazon affiliate links .

Please love your library  is it THE best place to find and fund these 100 Books to Read Before You Die)

You don’t need to buy these books juts head on down to your library – magical worlds await you there.

“I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.” – J.K. Rowling

“My grandmother warned that too much reading would ruin my eyesight, but I couldn’t hear her over the chatter of characters.”
― Gail Carson Levine, Ella Enchanted

Tell me, tell me, tell me your 100 books to read before you die

What would you add or alter in this list of 100 books to read before you die? Are my best 100 books similar to yours?

“Fairy tales are more than true:
not because they tell us that dragons exist,
but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” Neil  Gaiman