NPR's Top 100 Beach Reads...

[akujunkan]

...as voted upon by NPR listeners and ganked from pussreboots. Apparently the NPR audience divides pretty evenly between people who take brain candy to the beach and people who take serious literature. The titles I've read cover to cover are bolded, the titles I've yet to finish are underlined, the titles I own but haven't read yet are italicized, and hotlinks redirect to my reviews of the novels or authors in question.

1. The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
    At least large portions of the online were able to develop the potential in these novels that Rowling couldn't deliver.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
    One of the few classics I read in high school that I feel deserves the description.
3. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
    Terribly overrated.
4. Bridget Jones's Diary, by Helen Fielding
5. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
    My favorite Austen.
6. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells
7. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
    This book leaves me cold.
8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
9. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, by Fannie Flagg
10. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver

Total: 7



11. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
12. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
    Perhaps one of the worst books I have read.
13. The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan
14. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
    The first adult novel I ever read, around first grade. It took months.
15. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
16. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
17. Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett
18. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
    I think most readers of this journal are already well familiar with my thoughts on Tolkien.
19. Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
20. Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen

Total: 3
Unfinished: 1


21. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
22. The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver
23. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith
24. The World According to Garp, by John Irving
25. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
    One of the best war novels ever.
26. The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy
27. Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
    Intelligent chick lit, but chick lit nonetheless.
28. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
    One of the few books where I feel that the movie is better.
29. The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler
30. Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer
     One of the most mockable books, ever.

Total: 5
Unfinished: 1

31. A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
32. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
33. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
34. Beach Music, by Pat Conroy
35. One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    This book left me with no desire to ever read any more GGM.
36. Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier
    No one does impending doom like Du Maurier.
37. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
38. Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry
39. The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough
40. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon

Total: 2
Unread: 1



41. Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett
42. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
43. Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice
    The only good book AR has ever written.
44. Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier
45. Empire Falls, by Richard Russo
46. Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes
47. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
48. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, by Tom Robbins
49. I Know This Much Is True, by Wally Lamb
50. Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie

Total: 1

51. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
52. The Stand, by Stephen King
53. She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb
54. Dune, by Frank Herbert
55. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
56. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
57. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
58. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
59. The Godfather, by Mario Puzo
60. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith

Total: 0
Unfinished: 1

61. Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver
62. Jaws, by Peter Benchley
63. Good in Bed, by Jennifer Weiner
64. Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner
65. Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
66. The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
67. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
68. Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut
    His second best novel, and one of the his most universal. Try reading it without forgetting it’s the Vietnam war he's criticizing, not Iraq, and see how far you get.
69. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
70. The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler

Total: 2



71. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
72. The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy
73. Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns
74. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
74. Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe [tie]
76. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
77. Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon
    The series jumped the shark approximately two books later.
78. The Shell Seekers, by Rosamunde Pilcher
79. Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver
80. Eye of the Needle, by Ken Follett

Total: 1
Unread: 1



81. Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
81. The Pilot's Wife, by Anita Shreve [tie]
83. All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy
84. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
85. The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
86. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
    Scifi for people who are too pretentious to realize that this is just a mediocre scifi novel.
87. One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich
88. Shogun, by James Clavell
89. Dracula, by Bram Stoker
90. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera

Total: 1
Unfinished: 2


91. Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow
92. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
93. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
94. Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris
95. Summer Sisters, by Judy Blume
96. The Shining, by Stephen King
97. How Stella Got Her Groove Back, by Terry McMillan
98. Lamb, by Christopher Moore
99. Sick Puppy, by Carl Hiaasen
    I'm pretty sure I read this, but I remember the plots of Hiaasen's books, not their titles.
100. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

Total: 3

Grand Total: 25/101. Not bad.


That will be all.

Comments

[red-rapture.livejournal.com]

Lists like this always want to make me read more. And I echo your sentiments on Pride and Prejudice; Catch-22; and One Hundred Years of Solitude. You should check out Lolita and The Poisonwood Bible if you get a chance. I still need to get a copy of The Hunger Games (not on this list but I'm too lazy to comment here and on your other entry concerning said book).

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

The Poisonwood Bible comes highly recommended to me by a variety of sources, so hopefully I'll be reading it soon. I've heard Lolita is amazing stylistically, but it seems like the kind of book you need to have a free week to devote to, so it might be awhile before I get a chance to read it.

Do, do read Hunger Games, especially if you're a fan of YA fiction, because this is YA fiction that does not pull punches.

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

I just read Sick Puppy. It's about a guy named Twilly who follows a litterbug home and kidnaps his dog. The litterbug turns out to be an important lobbyist working on getting an island turned into a golf resort. It has Skink in it, who is one of my favorite characters, and a rhinoserous. And I loved when he wrote from the perspective of the Labrador.

I think I'm 19/100, so good job to you on that, with one or two on a pretty soon to be read list (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, One for the Money), and a couple on will get to it eventually (Dracula, Cannery Row).

Speaking of Cowgirls, I'm about to dive into one of his books because I've known a lot of people who have read him. Have you? Do you have an opinion or reviews?

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Ooh, then I don't think I have read Sick Puppy yet. I really need to go make a list of Hiaasen titles for reference; aside from his YA books I just can't keep them straight.

Here's the thing about that 25/101: with about ten or twelve exceptions, I don't have any plans to pick up any more of those books any time soon, even though the fact that NPR listeners have recced them makes me slightly more curious than before. And I've heard of Cowgirls' author, but have neither read or reviewed him, so you'll have to tell me what you think.

And out of curiosity's sake, what are your top 100 books? It occurs to me that we talk books all the time but have never made any sort of list...

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

I'll work on that this week and have a list posted for you. The problem that I'll have is that I'm like my dad and I read by author, so I'll probably say something like Chris Moore, especially Lamb or Robert B. Parker, minus that one book of his that I didn't like but can't remember the title. Occasionally an author puts out something that is fantastically different from his other work, but a lot of times if you've liked one, the rest fall in place. I'm sure there are exceptions.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, I understand that feeling. Some books--especially ones with recurring characters--work best as whole units themselves. I love the Prydain Chronicles, but I don't think they'd be as amazing if you're only looking at The Castle of Llyr or The Horned King.

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

The nice thing about some of the mystery series that I really enjoy is the fact that you can just pick up the best ones and not lose too much in the process. With the exception of Terry Pratchett, I don't know too many fantasy or scifi authors where that is the case, though I'd gladly be wrong.

[bran420-7.livejournal.com]

Why the hell is Lamb 98th!?

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

My guess is because if other NPR listeners are anything like me, they want to read Lamb either around Christmas or Easter,o and neither of those are beach seasons.

I would have expected one of Moore's less serious books to make a list of beach read. BF, maybe?

[bran420-7.livejournal.com]

Or Lust Lizard? What better way to spend a beach day then reading about a small cove community?

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Point taken.