Whitcoulls

[gerbie]

In New Zealand there is a book chain called Whitcoulls. Not a bad one either, I have to say. When I was there, earlier this year, I found they had always some books on display from a top 100. It appeared to be their books of the century, as voted by their own staff. Even though several classics made the final cut, I'm still not convinced that their choices are that good. As always in these cases, I start counting to see how many I have read. Not too many I discovered. Only 13 out of 100. Though 6 of the books I had read are in the top 16, I guess I have read some of the best ones, the ones above discussion.

Their list:

1. J.R.R. Tolkien - The lord of the rings
2. Harper Lee - To kill a mocking bird
3. Bryce Courtenay - The power of one
4. Anne Frank - The diary of a young girl
5. Keri Hulme - The bone people
6. William Golding - Lord of the flies
7. J.D. Salinger - The catcher in the rye
8. Joseph Heller - Catch 22
9. Alan Duff - Once were warriors
10. J.R.R. Tolkien - The hobbit
11. George Orwell - Animal farm
12. Arthur C. Clarke - 2001 A space odyssey
13. D.H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley's lover
14. Jung Chang - Wild swans
15. Douglas Adams - The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
16. Ken Kesey - One flew over the cuckoo's nest
17. Stephen Hawking - A brief history of time
18. Margaret Mitchell - Gone with the wind
19. Nelson Mandela - Long walk to freedom
20. John Gray - Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
21. Frank McCourt - Angela's ashes
22. Alex Haley - Roots
23. Katherine Mansfield - The best of Katherine Mansfield
24. Edmonds cookery book
25. Germaine Greer - The female eunuch
26. Erica Jong - Fear of flying
27. E. Annie Proulx - The shipping news
28. Jean M. Auel - The clan of the cave bear
29. Peter Mayle - A year in Provence
30. Stephen King - It
31. Ken Follett - Pillars of the earth
32. Raymond E. Feist - Magician
33. Bryce Courtenay - April fool's day
34. Diana Gabaldon - Cross stitch
35. Sebastian Faulks - Birdsong
36. Maeve Binchy - Light a penny candle
37. Yates gardening guide
38. Paulo Coelho - The alchemist
39. F.Scott Fitzgerald - The great Gatsby
40. Anthony Burgess - A clockwork orange
41. Wilbur Smith - Birds of prey
42. Kahlil Gibran - The prophet
43. Patrick Suskind - Perfume
44. Rosamunde Pilcher - The shell seekers
45. Irvine Welsh - Trainspotting
46. Jeffrey Archer - Kane and Abel
47. John Grisham - The firm
48. Robert Pirsig - Zen and the art of motor cycle maintenance
49. Jules Verne - 20.000 leagues onder the sea
50. Frank Herbert - Dune
51. Thomas Keneally - Schindler's ark
52. Barbara Erskine - Lady of hay
53. Arundhati Roy - The god of small things
54. John Irving - The world according to Garp
55. Robert Ludlum - The bourne identity
56. Maurice Gee - The plumb trilogy
57. Leon Uris - Exodus
58. Thomas Harris - The silence of the lambs
59. Dale Carnegie - How to win friends and influence people
60. Danielle Steel - Family album
61. Anon - Go ask Alice
62. Colleen McCullough - The thorn birds
63. Jilly Cooper - Rivals
64. John Wyndham - The day of the triffids
65. Marilyn French - The women's room
66. Witi Ihimaera - The matriarch
67. Lee Child - Killing floor
68. Pat Conroy - The prince of tides
69. Virginia Andrews - Flowers in the attic
70. Frances Mayes - Under the Tuscan sun
71. Christina Noble - A bridge across my sorrows
72. Arthur Hailey - Detective
73. Ernest Hemingway - For whom the bell tolls
74. Sylvia Plath - The bell jar
75. John Steinbeck - The grapes of wrath
76. Janet Frame - Owls do cry
77. Barry Crump - Bastards I have met
78. John Fowles - The magus
79. Ian Cross - The god boy
80. Eric Segal - Love story
81. Umberto Eco - The name of the rose
82. James Joyce - Ulysses
83. Tom Clancy - The hunt for the red october
84. James Herriot - All things bright and beautiful
85. Virginia Woolf - To the lighthouse
86. Daphne du Maurier - Rebecca
87. Stephen Convey - Seven habits of highly effective people
88. Elizabeth Knox - The vintner's luck
89. Norman Vincent Peale - The power of positive thinking
90. Victor Hugo - Les miserables
91. Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany's
92. Frederick Forsyth - The day of the Jackal
93. Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones's diary
94. Iris Murdoch - The bell
95. Barbara Taylor Bradford - A woman of substance
96. Nicholas Evans - The horse wisperer
97. John le Carre - The spy who came in from the cold
98. Tom Sharpe - Wilt
99. Dick Francis - Bonecrack
100. Edward Rutherford - Sarum

While typing them out, I even more strongly resent their idea of this being the best 100 in the last century. There is some crap in this list. I think I'm proud I've only read so few of this list.

Comments

[jellyrose.livejournal.com]

1. J.R.R. Tolkien - The lord of the rings
2. Harper Lee - To kill a mocking bird
3. Bryce Courtenay - The power of one
4. Anne Frank - The diary of a young girl
5. Keri Hulme - The bone people (Kerewin.. much better)
6. William Golding - Lord of the flies
7. J.D. Salinger - The catcher in the rye
10. J.R.R. Tolkien - The hobbit
11. George Orwell - Animal farm
12. Arthur C. Clarke - 2001 A space odyssey
13. D.H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley's lover
16. Ken Kesey - One flew over the cuckoo's nest
21. Frank McCourt - Angela's ashes
30. Stephen King - It
38. Paulo Coelho - The alchemist
39. F.Scott Fitzgerald - The great Gatsby
41. Wilbur Smith - Birds of prey
42. Kahlil Gibran - The prophet
43. Patrick Suskind - Perfume (Only 43?!?!?!??!?!?! This should be way up there in the top 10!)
47. John Grisham - The firm
49. Jules Verne - 20.000 leagues onder the sea
54. John Irving - The world according to Garp
57. Leon Uris - Exodus
73. Ernest Hemingway - For whom the bell tolls
74. Sylvia Plath - The bell jar
75. John Steinbeck - The grapes of wrath
81. Umberto Eco - The name of the rose
82. James Joyce - Ulysses
83. Tom Clancy - The hunt for the red october
84. James Herriot - All things bright and beautiful
90. Victor Hugo - Les miserables
93. Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones's diary
94. Iris Murdoch - The bell

Haha.. can you tell I did literature at uni?
I have no idea about most 'recent' books