100 Books To Read: A Literature Student’s Recommendation

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind”

– Virginia Woolf

I could have titled this 100 books you should read before 100, but I could not bring myself to do so.

As a literature student, it has come to my attention that my blog features very little about my degree. Second-year Summative Stress is a thing – but after handing in a 3,500-word essay, two 4,000-word essays and a 5,000-word creative writing portfolio I am giving myself a few days rest bite from essay writing. This is not to say I am not working – the grind never stops when you are in your second year at uni. But hey, I am using this opportunity to write in a more relaxed way.

After the blog drought, I am compiling a list of books that I have read and would encourage you to also.

I am going to split the books I mention into their rough genre, although, there is some overlapping with novels that do not fit a prescribed category so (as Tilly in Miranda would say) “bear with”.

Fiction

1. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath – if you decide to read any book from this list, please let it be this one.

2. Emma by Jane Austen

3. The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector

4. Girl, Interrupted by Susana Kaysen

5. Maria or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

6. Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter

7. The Vegetarian by Han Kang

8. The Colour Purple by Alice Walker

9. List of the Lost by Steven Patrick Morrissey

10. 1984 by George Orwell

11. Persuasion by Jane Austen

12. Molloy by Samuel Beckett

13. Animal Farm by George Orwell

14. A Mercy by Toni Morrison

15. Villette by Charlotte Bronte

16. Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins

17. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

18. Mildred Pierce by James M Cain

19. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

20. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

21. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

22. The Devil Wears Prada by Laura Weisenberger

23. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

24. Quicksand by Nellie Larsen

25. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky

26. A City Girl by Margaret Harkness

27. Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Non-Fiction

28. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. Like The Bell Jar, this book holds a very deep meaning to me.

29. The Time in Between by Nancy Tucker

30. An Apple a Day by Emma Woolf

31. Autobiography by Steven Patrick Morrissey

32. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

33. Why I Write by George Orwell

34. Reasons To Stay Alive by Matt Haig

35. The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

36. The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud

37. The Death of the Moth by Virginia Woolf

38. The Body Book by Cameron Diaz

39. A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen

40. Thin by Grace Bowen

41. Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman

42. Body Positive Power by Megan Jayne Crabbe

43. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

44. The Ministry of Thin by Emma Woolf

45. Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag

46. Persepolis by Marjanne Satrapi

Gothic

*on another note, I am obsessed with the Gothic.

47. Dracula by Bram Stoker

48. Northanger Abbey by Charlotte Bronte

49. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

50. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. An A Level classic.

51. The Madwoman in the Attic by Charlotte Gilman Perkins

52. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

Children’s Books/Teen fiction

53. The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. These books were literally my childhood. I could write a separate blog post about each individual book but I thought it better just to combine the series as one.
My favourite ones are: The Bad Beginning, The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill and The Austere Academy.

54. The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer. Twilight is my favourite out of all of them.

55. War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

56. Harry Potter by J.K Rowling. My personal favourite is The Prisoner of Azkaban!

57. Girl, Missing by Sophie McKenzie. I remember a time where everyone in reading period was hooked on this book!

58. Malory Towers by Enid Blyton

59. Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Murpurgo

60. Matilda by Roald Dahl

61. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

62. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

63. Charlotte’s Web by E.B White

64. Divergent by Veronica Roth

65. My Naughty Little Sister by Dorothy Edwards

66. The Tulip Touch by Anne Fine

67. Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian

Poetry

68. Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti

69. Ariel by Sylvia Plath

70. Howl by Allen Ginsberg

71. Poems of 1912 – 1913 by Thomas Hardy

72. Sincerity by Carol Ann Duffy

73. Lunch Poems by Frank O’Hara

74. The Waste Land by T.S Eliot

75. Don’t Tell Me Not To Ask Why by Samantha King

76. Shakespeare’s Sonnets

77. Running Upon The Waves by Kate Tempest

Short Stories

78. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

79. I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen

80. Paper Losses by Lorrie Moore

81. Mrs Fox by Sarah Hall

82. Track by Nicole Flattery

83. Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses by Bret Anthony Johnston

84. This is How They Tame Us by Rupert Dastur

85. The Lady of the House of Love by Angela Carter

Classics

86. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

87. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

88. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

89. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

90. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

91. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

92. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

93. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

94. Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare

Plays

95. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

96. An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

97. A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

98. Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare

99. Endgame by Samuel Beckett

100. Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose

You don’t have to be reading 100 books a year, but even setting yourself the goal of 6 books a year (that is one every two months) is achievable. Consuming knowledge from literature is an invaluable skill to have.

Admittedly, I know reading is not for everyone, but there are also other ways of “reading” books without actually having to read. For example, Amazon offers the app Audible, which is an accessible way of listening to books on the go. I have recently taken to audible as a great way of keeping on top of my reading when I do not have the time to be at my desk. I have even been known to listen to books on the treadmill.

I hope you find this list useful or perhaps inspiring to encourage you to read more.

Lots of love,

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