The Ultimate “100 Books To Read Before You Die List”

Compiled from 50 sites and over 6,000 references

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I’m an avid reader, and as many of my articles corroborate, I’m constantly looking for the next book to read. From Forbes’ wealthiest men’s recommendations to what the Dalai Lama reads.

The other day, I ran across an article by Joel Patrick titled “100 Books to Read Before You Die: Creating the Ultimate List.” Comparing eight lists from different sites, where he gathered a total of 520 books and searched for repeating titles among them.

I thought, could 520 mentions create the ultimate list? Why not 1,000, 2,000, or even better, a 5,000 books list?

Remembering Isaac Newton’s famous statement: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” I decided to use his 520 books as the start and search the internet for other 100 books lists

Table of Contents

· Where did my list come from? · Here are the sources: · Creating the List · And the winners are… · Summary

Where did my list come from?

I started with either physical or online libraries, magazines, news sites, online catalogs/encyclopedias, publishing companies, and influencers such as Denzel Washington’s The Equalizer movie, which I had to discard because his list is a copy from the Norwegian Book Club.

When I was about to quit looking for 5,000 titles, a friend told me he had some books containing 100 and 1,000 book lists, which helped me exceed my goal. After debugging the list and taking out the repeated lists, I ended with over 6,000 books references from 50 sources.

Here are the sources:

7 Libraries

1 Abebooks’ 100 (fiction) books to read in a lifetime. 2 Boston Public Library’s The Most Influential Books of the 20th Century 3 Library Heaven’s 100 Books Everyone Should Read. 4 Library of Congress’ Books That Shaped America. 5 New York Public Library’s 125 Books We Love for Adults. 6 Online Computer Library Center’s The Complete 500 Book List. 7 The Gutenberg Project’s Top 100 Ebooks yesterday.

6 Magazines

1.- The Art of Manliness’ 100 Must-Read Books. 2.- GQ Magazine’s The 110 best books to read right now. 3.- New Internationalist’s Top 10 Third Worlds Novels. 4.- Reader’s Digest’s 100 Best Books of All Time. 5.- Stylist’s The 100 most powerful and poignant closing lines from literature. 6.- Time’s All-Time 100 Novels.

14 News Sites

1.- Business Insider’s 100+ books everyone should read before they die. 2.- The BBC’s Big Read Top 100. 3.- Entertainment Weekly’s Top Fiction Books Of The Decade. 4.- Houston Public Media’s Top 100 Science Fiction And Fantasy Novels. 5.- Le Monde’s 100 Books of the Century. 6.- New York Times reader’s Best Book of the Past 125 Years. 7.- New York Times’ 15 Remarkable Books by Women. 8.- PBS’s The Great American Read. 9.- Stacker’s 100 of the best science fiction novels of all time. 10.- The Guardian’s The 100 greatest novels of all time. 11.- The Guardian’s 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time. 12.- The Independent’s The 40 best novels to read before you die. 13.- The Telegraph’s The 100 greatest novels of all time. 14.- Thirteen WNET Group’s The 100 Books on the Great American Read List.

4 Online Catalogue & Encyclopedias

1.- Infoplease’s Top 100 Works in World Literature. 2.- Wikipedia’s Best Selling Books. 3.- Montana State University’s The Greatest Books. 4.- University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s 100 Books Selected.

9 Publishing Companies

1.- Barnes and Noble’s 37 Best Books of All Time You Must Read. 2.- Modern Library’s 100 best Novels. 3.- Modern Library’s 100 best Non-Fiction. 4.- Norwegian Book Club’s Top 100 Works in World Literature. 5.- Pac Macmillan’s 44 Vital Books to Read Before You Die. 6.- Penguin Random House’s 100 must-read classic books. 7.- Reedsy’s 100 Books to Read Before You Die. 8.- TCK Publishing’s 100 Books to Read Before You Die. 9.- The Book Riot’s The 100 Greatest American Novels.

6 Influencers

1.- Darius Fox’s 100 Great Books to Read in a Lifetime. 2.- David Bowie’s Top 100 Favorite Books. 3.- Elevate Abundance’s 100 Best Personal Development Books to Read Before You Die. 4.- Jamie Lee’s The 100 Greatest Books Challenge. 5.- List Challenge's Top 100 Books You Need to Read Before You Die. 6.- National Book Foundation’s 100 Life-Changing Books

4 Books

1.- 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written by Martin Seymour-Smith. 2.- 1000 Books to Read Before You die. 3.- For the Love of Books. 4.- Ten Greatest Novels and their authors

Creating the List

After capturing all the information, I sorted the book references by title, origin, and author. With that database, summarize all the repeated title references and count them.

With this summary, I created the list, containing the rank depending on the number of times each book appears. The title of the boo, its author, the number of mentions, and a brief description of the plot.

I tried to make the description fit into 3 or 4 paragraphs without spoiling the end. and selected the first 100 books with the most mentions.

And the winners are…

1 .- 1984 by George Orwell — 35 times. A chilling prophecy about the future was published in 1949 following the life of Winston Smith, a ranking member of the ruling party who struggles with the Ministry of Truth and how the ruler referred to as ‘Big Brother’ controls and watches through monitors every people’s lives.

2 .- The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald — 34 times. Self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby’s tragic story of his pursuit of his former lover Daisy Buchanan, a wealthy young woman, and their doomed love story. It is considered one of the greatest American novels of the 20th century.

3 .- The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger — 30 times. Holden Caulfield recounts his days after being expelled from Pencey Prep, a private school, and how he left after fighting with his roommate. Exploring New York before returning home, meeting teachers, prostitutes, nuns, and an old girlfriend along the way. The novel depicts a teen’s dramatic struggle with death and growing up.

4 .- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller — 28 times. The plot follows Captain John Yossarian, a crewman on a World War II bomber stationed on Pianosa, a fictionalized island in the Mediterranean between mainland Italy and Corsica, where he struggles to stay alive.

5 .- One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez — 28 times. One of the twentieth century’s most daringly original works tells the story of seven generations of the Buendia family at Macondo, the town they built. A little town surrounded by mountains, where they live wars, disasters, and life’s wonders and miracles. A microcosm of Columbian life, its secrets are hidden, encoded in a book, and only Aureliano Buendia can unravel its enigmas and reveal its enigmatic fate.

6 .- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen — 27 times. The book follows Elizabeth Bennet’s struggle with matters of marriage, morals, and education in the aristocratic society of her time to save her family after her sister escapes with a man, leaving them shamed by society. She meets Mr. Darcy, a wealthy gentleman, but he is not interested in marriage until the end.

7 .- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee — 26 times. The book delves into civil rights and racism in the 1930s segregated Southern United States. You learn about Scout Finch’s father, Atticus Finch, an attorney who desperately tries to prove the innocence of a black man wrongfully accused of rape.

8 .- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov — 25 times. A middle-aged professor relocates to Ramsdale, a small town in New England, to work on his book, but his intended residence is destroyed in a fire. He meets Charlotte Haze, a widow looking for a tenant. After the professor moves in, he becomes obsessed with the widow’s 12-year-old daughter, Dolores Haze, also known as Lolita, whom he sexually molests.

9 .- The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck — 24 times. It tells the story of the Joads, an Oklahoma farm family forced to travel west in search of the promised land of California. Encountering the harsh realities of an America, divided between those who have and those who do not, and the conflict between the powerful and the powerless in the Great Depression.

10 .- Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison — 23 times. An unnamed narrator tells the story from the basement lair of the Invisible Man, who he imagines himself to be. The book tells the story of growing up in a Black community in the South, then moving to New York, and how he worked his way up becoming the chief spokesman of Harlem’s “Brotherhood.”

11 .- Beloved by Toni Morrison — 22 times. It tells the story of Sethe, an African American born into slavery who escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later, she is still not free. Remembering her of Sweet Home, the lovely farm where so many horrible things occurred. And how her new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died without a name and whose tombstone bears only the word “Beloved.”

12 .- Moby Dick by Herman Melville — 22 times. Call me Ishmael is how a sailor starts the story of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, searching for revenge on the albino sperm whale Moby Dick, which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab’s ship and severed his leg at the knee

13 .- On The Road by Jack Kerouac — 21 times. Based on the author’s adventures with Neal Cassady, two friends on four cross-country road trips in search of meaning and true experience while enjoying life, sex, drugs, and music.

14 .- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn — 21 times. This is a direct sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huckleberry Finn arrives at Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson, who plan to teach him religion and proper manners. Huck embarks on an adventure to assist the widow’s slave, Jim, making his way up the Mississippi to the free states.

15 .- Ulysses by James Jones — 21 times. Captures a single day in the life of Dubliner Leopold Bloom, his friends Buck Mulligan and Stephen Daedalus, his wife Molly, and a scintillating cast of supporting characters. Pushing Celtic lyricism and vulgarity to splendid extremes with exuberant wordplay and earthy humor.

16 .- Wuthering Heights — 21 times. The plot follows Heathcliff’s self-destructive journey as he seeks vengeance for losing his soul mate, Catherine, to Edgar Linton. As the story progresses, themes such as good versus evil, chaos versus order, selfishness, betrayal, and obsession intertwine. Wuthering Heights paints a psychological examination of the nature of love.

17 .- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley — 20 times. This 1932 novel presents a terrifying vision of a future society set in 2540 CE, or the year 632 AF as the novel identifies it. AF stands for “after Ford,” when Henry Ford introduced his Model T’s assembly line that is revered as a god in a society based on science and efficiency.

18 .- Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky — 20 times. The story of Raskolnikov, an impoverished student plagued by nihilism, brutally murders an elderly woman, regarding her as “good for nothing.” He later confesses to the crime and goes to prison, where he realizes that happiness and redemption can only be obtained through suffering.

19 .- Great Expectation by Charles Dickens — 20 times. Philip Pirrip inherits an enormous fortune from an unknown benefactor in a country village and moves to London. He enters high society, becoming a gentleman and fulfilling his “great expectations” through a series of thrilling adventures.

20 .- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë — 20 times. Tells the story of Jane, a ten-year-old orphan living with a family who despises her. She excels in school and is appointed governess. Later, she falls in love with Edward Rochester. After learning the truth about him, Jane goes to Marsh End, regaining her spirituality and discovering her strength.

21 .- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy — 19 times. It tells the tragic love story of Anna, a sensual and rebellious young woman, and Count Vronsky, a dashing officer. Tragic events unfold as Anna rejects her passionless marriage, exposing herself to society’s hypocrisies.

22 .- Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie — 19 times. The book depicts India’s transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition. Saleem Sinai, the main protagonist, tells the story set in the context of actual historical events.

23 .- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut — 19 times. It is centered on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Germany, by the British and American air forces in February 1945. It relates Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time after living that time in history.

24 .- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll — 18 times. It tells the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by strange creatures. The story plays with logic, and it’s popular with adults and children. It is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of the literary nonsense genre.

25 .- Animal Farm by George Orwell — 18 times. The animals on a farm take over because they are overworked and mistreated. They set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality, with flaming idealism and stirring slogans. Resulting in one of the most telling satiric fables ever written as a fairy tale for adults that chronicles the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism.

26 .- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley — 18 times. The novel depicts Victor Frankenstein’s triumph in resurrecting a dead body, followed by his guilt for doing so. When the “Frankenstein monster” realizes how he was made, and feels the rejection by mankind, he seeks vengeance on his creator’s family to atone for his pain.

27 .- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell — 18 times. Scarlett O’Hara, the beautiful, spoiled daughter of a wealthy Georgia plantation owner, must use every means available to her to claw her way out of the poverty she finds herself in after the Civil War, and deal with her difficult relationship with Rhett Butler.

28 .- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood — 18 times. The novel is set in a future New England where a Christian fundamentalist theocratic regime rules in response to a fertility crisis. Offred, the narrator, recalls her past as the daughter of a feminist activist who chose to be a single mother. Alternating between stories from her current life and memories from her past.

29 .- The Stranger by Albert Camus — 18 times. Meursault is the title character, an uninterested French settler in Algeria described as “a citizen of France domiciled in North Africa, a man of the Mediterranean, who hardly partakes of the traditional culture.” Weeks after his mother’s funeral, he murders an Arab man in French Algiers who was involved in a dispute with one of his neighbors, and is sentenced to death.

30 .- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe — 18 times. The novel follows Okonkwo, the leader of an Igbo community, from his banishment from the community for accidentally killing a clansman to his return home seven years later. Considering the problem of white missionaries and colonial government intrusion into tribal society in the 1890s.

31 .- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy — 18 times. Focusing on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and the events, following characters from various backgrounds — peasants and nobility, civilians and soldiers — as they struggle with problems, history, and culture.

32 .- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury — 17 times. Fahrenheit 451 is the story of Guy Montag, who goes from being a book-burning firefighter to a book-reading rebel. Montag lives in an oppressive society that strives to eliminate all sources of complexity, contradiction, and confusion to ensure simple happiness for all of its citizens. Discovering, in the process, his fellow citizens are not so much happy as spiritually hollow.

33 .- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad — 17 times. Marlow’s job as an ivory transporter down the Congo. During his journey, Marlow develops a strong interest in investigating Kurtz, an ivory-procurement agent, and he is astounded by what the European traders have done to the natives.

34 .- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien — 17 times. Set in Middle-earth, a place similar to Earth at some distant time in the past. It is a sequel to Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit, but it has grown into a much larger work. It tells the story of Eleven-smiths who crafted the Rings of Power in ancient times. Sauron, the Dark Lord, used his power to forge One Ring, allowing him to rule over all others. However, the ring gets lost and must be found and destroyed.

35 .- Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra — 16 times. A man obsessed with chivalrous ideas and a little insane mounts his old horse Rocinante and sets out to defend the people while fighting giants and wicked people. On the way, he persuades a man named Sancho Panza to accompany him as his squire in search of adventure and to win the heart of his love, Dulcinea.

36 .- The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky — 16 times. The plot revolves around the assassination of a cruel man named Fyodor Karamazov. Who had three sons: a passionate man named Dmitry, an intellectual named Ivan, and a devoted man named Alexei, also known as Aloysha. When Fyodor dies, the police blame Dmitry for the crime, only to discover that it was an epileptic man, Smerdyakov's fourth and illegitimate son.

37 .- The Color Purple by Alice Walker — 16 times. The Color Purple follows Celie, an African American adolescent raised in rural isolation in Georgia, as she learns to resist the paralyzing self-concept imposed by others. Celie tells the story of her life in the form of honest and painful letters to God.

38 .- The Lord of the Flies by William Golding — 16 times. A group of British schoolboys who have become stranded on a tropical island attempt to recreate the culture they left behind. Choosing Ralph as the leader, while Jack also wants to lead, draws the boys away from civility and reason and into savage primeval hunters.

39 .- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway — 16 times. The moods, feelings, and attitudes of a hard-drinking, fast-living group of American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. This book was first published in 1926 under the title “Fiesta.”

40 .- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess — 15 times. The author presents a terrifying vision of the future in this novel, in which criminals take over after dark. Alex, the teen gang leader, narrates his youth’s violent acts of rebellion against society in an inventive slang.

41 .- Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White — 15 times. The plot revolves around the friendship of a pig named Wilbur, his devoted friend Charlotte, the spider who saves his life by writing about him in her web, and the love of a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur’s life when he was a piglet.

42 .- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott — 15 times.The plot follows the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, as they grow from childhood to womanhood. It is classified as a semi-autobiographical novel because it is based on the author’s and her three sisters’ lives.

43 .- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert — 15 times. Madame Bovary’s desire and its consequences are the subject of the novel. The protagonist is tormented by her inexplicable, sensual longings and her desire to escape her small-town life. While living above her means to escape the monotony and emptiness of provincial life.

44 .- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams — 15 times. A novel about the journey of two space travelers, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, an out-of-work actor, both start a trip seconds before an intergalactic crew demolishes Earth to make way for a galactic freeway. They begin a journey through space aided by a two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie, a girl Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party, and a chronically depressed robot.

45 .- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston — 15 times. The novel follows the main character Janie Crawford as she matures from a vibrant but voiceless adolescent girl into a woman, as well as the traditional gender roles of the time, when society believed Janie should marry a man not for love but for protection.

46 .- Dracula by Bram Stoker — 14 times. Jonathan Harker, the main character, recounts in his journal entries, letters, and telegrams how, as a young lawyer, he travels to Transylvania to meet Count Dracula, a client of his firm. But before completing some real estate transactions, he discovers his client’s evil secrets.

47 .- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo — 14 times. After nineteen years in jail and the galleys for stealing a loaf of bread, Jean Valjean is finally released, but he steals his savior’s silverware. When the cops apprehend him, the owner claims that the silverware is a gift. Following this act of kindness, Jean begins his redemption, assisting many others while being pursued by the fanatical Inspector Javert.

48 .- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf — 14 times. The novel follows Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class Londoner married to a member of Parliament, through one day in her life.

49 .- Native Son by Richard Wright — 14 times. Bigger Thomas, a 20-year-old black youth living in utter poverty in a poor area of Chicago’s South, is on his way to prison for murder and rape. The plot follows his story as a black man who finds himself in a downward spiral after killing a young white woman in a panicked moment.

50 .- The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas — 14 times. Edmond Dantes imprisoned for 13 years on the island of Chateau d’If, spends his time plotting revenge on those who have betrayed him. He escapes the island by impersonating a dead prisoner and proceeds to transform himself into the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo as part of his plan to exact revenge.

51 .- A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens — 13 times. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The themes of duality, revolution, and resurrection are explored in this novel. As a result of economic and political unrest, after the American and French Revolutions occurred.

52 .- Middlemarch by George Eliot — 13 times. It debuted in eight installments, each set in a fictional English Midland town called Middlemarch. It focuses on four residents. Dorothea Brooke’s life, Tertius Lydgate’s career, Fred Vincy’s courtship of Mary Garth, and Nicholas Bulstrode’s disgrace.

53 .- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry — 13 times. One morning, a pilot stranded in the desert awakens to find the most unusual little fellow standing before him. “Please,” the stranger asks… From here, the story of an extraordinary boy, his planet with a rose, and their journey through various locations, including Earth, begins.

54 .- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner — 13 times. The novel details the destruction and downfall of the aristocratic Compson family from different points of view, Caddy, Benjy, Quentin, Jason, and their color servant.

55 .- The Trial by Franz Kafka — 13 times. This is a terrifying look into the life of an ordinary man who is accused of a crime he did not commit, though the nature of the crime is never revealed. He is released after his arrest, but he is required to return to court on a regular basis, which causes him to lose control of his life.

56 .- Anne Of Green Gables by LM Montgomery — 12 times. Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, an elderly brother and sister who live on Green Gables Farm, adopt a red-headed orphan. The girl, named Anne Shirley, adds color and adventure to their lives in this eight-book series.

57 .- Atonement by Ian McEwan — 12 times. When a thirteen-year-old girl sees her older sister and the son of a family servant at the fountain, she misinterprets what is going on and sets in motion a chain of events that will affect all of them, when she accuses the young man of a crime he did not commit.

58 .- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens — 12 times. The novel traces David Copperfield's life from birth to his mature manhood when married. He lived happily in the company of his widow mother and her servant, Peggotty. One day, his mother decides to marry Mr. Murdstone and his life becomes unbearable.

59 .- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier — 12 times. The novel depicts a young woman who marries a wealthy widower without hesitation, only to discover that both he and his household are haunted by the memory of his late first wife.

60 .- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway — 12 times. After 85 days without catching anything, an old man named Santiago sets out to sea, searching for an epic fish. Hours later, he catches a marlin of great proportions and straps it along his skiff heading home. An hour later, a shark attacks the marlin, tearing away a great piece of its flesh, which brings more sharks. Santiago fights the aggressors until he kills several with his harpoon, but after hours, tired, wounded, and with his fish gone the old man returns home.

61 .- Walden by Henry David Thoreau — 12 times. Walden elaborates on Henry David Thoreau’s two-year stay in a self-built cabin by a lake in the woods, where he shared what he learned living alone about nature, work, understanding, and life expectations during this time away of city life.

62 .- Watership Down by Richard Adams — 12 times. Fiver, a small, young rabbit, has the ability to predict when events will occur. And today he sensed danger, so they must flee immediately in search of safety. Watership Down, an upland meadow, is the destination of Fiver’s vision. They must, however, continue to face difficult challenges.

63 .- A Passage to India by EM Forster — 11 times. Miss Adela Quested’s and those around her lives change forever when she meets a young doctor named Aziz on a trip to India with her companion Mrs. Moore. Adela and Aziz’s unlikely friendship eventually leads to a disastrous expedition to the Marabar caves, during which she offends him, resulting in false accusations, arrests, and miscommunications.

64 .- Dune by Frank Herbert — 11 times. It tells the story of Paul Atreides, a young man who grew up to become the enigmatic Maud’dib. He will avenge his noble family’s betrayal on the desert planet Arrakis, and bring humanity’s most ancient and unattainable dream to a successful conclusion.

65 .- Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin — 11 times. It tells the story of John Grimes, a bright adolescent in 1930s Harlem, and his relationships with his family and church. It also investigates sin and morality, as well as sex and sin. Finally, John prostrates before God and surrenders his soul to Christ.

66 .- Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift — 11 times. Gulliver’s Travels is an adventure story about Lemuel Gulliver, a ship surgeon who ends up on several unknown islands where he meets people and animals of unusual sizes, behaviors, and philosophies.

67 .- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote — 11 times. The true story of the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959, written as if it were a novel, complete with dialogue, tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and their two teenage children, Kenyon and Nancy. And how Dick Hickock and Perry Smith brutally murdered them for no apparent reason.

68 .- The Call of the Wild by Jack London — 11 times. The journey of Buck, a St. Bernard and Scotch collie mix, from his comfortable home in Santa Clara, California. Until the gardener kidnaps Buck and sells him to a dog trader. When the dog arrives in the north, he is abused and beaten by his new owners. When John Thornton appears, he threatens the three owners if they continue to beat Buck, and he takes him along on their adventures until John dies.

69 .- The Iliad by Homer — 11 times. The story of the battles between the Achaians and the Trojans to reclaim Helen (Helen of Troy), who was kidnapped by Paris, the son of the king of Troy. The Iliad details the subsequent battles with characters such as Achilles, Agamemnon, and Hektor.

70 .- The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis — 11 times. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is the second book in C. S. Lewis’ classic fantasy series, in which four adventurous siblings, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, step through a wardrobe door and into the frozen and enslaved land of Narnia, to fight the White Witch, but this time with the help of the Great Lion, Aslan.

71 .- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh — 10 times. It follows the protagonist Charles Ryder’s life and romances from the 1920s to the early 1940s, particularly his friendship with the wealthy English Catholic family Flytes, who lives in a palatial mansion called Brideshead Castle, where Ryder has a relationship with Sebastian and Julia Flytes.

72 .- Life of Pi by Yann Martel — 10 times. Pi is a young man who grew up surrounded by animals in his family’s zoo in India. The family decides to move to Canada and sell the animals, including Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger. Pi ends up in a lifeboat with Richard, where they must rely on each other to survive the many dangers of being lost at sea with few provisions.

73 .- Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck — 10 times. The book explains what it means to be a human. The story of George and Lennie’s dream of owning a ranch, and the obstacles that stand in their way, when Lennie, the mentally handicapped giant, stands between George and his dream of owning a ranch.

74 .- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak — 10 times. Liesel Meminger moves in with Hans and Rosa Hubermann after losing her brother and being separated from her mother. She is mocked at school because she cannot read, but Hans teaches her. When the Nazi Party forces Liesel to join the Band of German Girls, they gather for a bonfire to burn enemy propaganda and books. Ilsa Hermann notices Liesel hiding a book under her shirt and decides to share her love of books and libraries with Liesel.

75 .- The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien — 10 times. This is the first book of stories set in Middle-earth, where Bilbo Baggins lives a peaceful and comfortable life as a hobbit. Until Gandalf the wizard and a band of dwarves persuade him to raid the treasure of Smaug the Magnificent, a large dragon. On his journey, he comes across a magical ring and a terrifying character named Gollum.

76 .- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini — 10 times. The story follows Amir, a young man from Afghanistan who is trying to find his place in the world, only to discover that his beliefs and those of his country are not the same. It highlights the parallels and differences between Afghanistan and the United States. It’s also about fathers and sons, right and wrong, and the nature of evil.

77 .- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf — 10 times. Mrs. Ramsay’s childhood emotions are revisited in the novel, as are the adult relationships of Mrs. Ramsay, their children, and various guests on vacation on the Isle of Skye. It describes the complex tensions and allegiances of family life through what appears to be a trivial postponement of a visit to a nearby lighthouse.

78 .- In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust — 9 times. It consists of seven parts published in French as la recherche du temps perdu from 1913 to 1927 and follows the narrator’s recollections of childhood and experiences into adulthood. The author’s life story is depicted as an allegorical search for truth.

79 .- Memoirs Of A Geisha by Arthur Golden — 9 times. A young woman describes being taken from her home as a nine-year-old girl and sold into slavery to a geisha house. Witnessing her transformation into a world where a girl’s virginity is auctioned, women train seducing powerful men, and love is merely an illusion.

80 .- The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow — 9 times. During the Great Depression, Augie grows up. The novel is a textbook example of a Bildungsroman, following the progress and development of a single character from childhood to adulthood through a series of encounters, professions, and relationships.

81 .- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho — 9 times. After having a recurring dream about treasure in the Egyptian pyramids, a boy named Santiago sets out on a journey to find it. Along the way, he meets mentors, falls in love, and, most importantly, learns the true value of who he is and how to improve himself and focus on what truly matters in life.

82 .- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath — 9 times. Esther Greenwood, a college student who aspires to be a poet, is the protagonist of The Bell Jar. She is chosen for a month-long summer internship as a guest editor at Ladies’ Day magazine, where she struggles with her identity and societal norms.

83 .- The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler — 9 times. Detective Philip Marlowe’s debut novel. In this case, a dying millionaire hires private investigator Philip Marlowe to track down the blackmailer of one of his two daughters, and Marlowe becomes involved in more than just extortion.

84 .- The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri — 9 times. The novel depicts Dante’s journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven (Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso). Dante’s journey from darkness and error to the revelation of divine light is described in his story, which culminates in the Beatific Vision of God.

85 .- The Giver by Lois Lowry — 9 times. The haunting story revolves around Jonas, who lives in what appears to be an ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Where children receive their jobs at the age of 12 and are trained to do them for the rest of their lives. Jonas’ job is the Receiver of Memory, compiling the tribe’s memories; at this point, he begins to understand the community’s dark and complex secrets.

86 .- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne — 9 times. The story takes place in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1642 to 1649. It tells the story of Hester Prynne, who has a daughter through an affair and is forced to use the letter “A” for adultery so that everyone knows her fault, all while struggling to live a new life of repentance and dignity.

87 .- The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame — 9 times. The stories follow the exploits of several animal friends and neighbors in the English countryside, most notably Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Although the animals converse, philosophize, and act like humans, each creature retains its own unique animal habits.

88 .- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens — 8 times. The most famous Christmas story is about Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited one night by the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, who transforms him into a kinder, gentler man.

89 .- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Jones — 8 times. Traces Stephen Dedalus’s religious and intellectual awakening as a young man. The book depicts Stephen as a young man exploring what it means to be an artist. In the end, the main character abandons his family and friends to pursue his career as an artist.

90 .- Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle — 8 times. This is the first book written by the eponymous detective Sherlock Holmes. The book was the first collection of Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories, previously published in magazines. Setting the start of a series of novels in which Holmes attempts to resolve cases, and apprehend the evasive Professor Moriarty with the assistance of his partner John H. Watts.

91 .- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque — 8 times. It is the story of a group of young Germans who enlist in World War I after being swayed by patriotic and honorable slogans. Only to discover that their conception of war does not correspond to the battlefields. Describes the physical and mental stress soldiers face during the war and how they are treated when returning home from the front.

92 .- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner — 8 times. It’s a touching story about the Bundren family’s journey across Mississippi to bury Addie, their wife, and mother. Narrated in turn by each family member, including Addie, and others, ranges in mood from dark comedy to deep emotions.

93 .- Emma by Jane Austen — 8 times. Emma is a story about adolescent romantic miscommunication. It is set in the fictional country village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls, and Donwell Abbey, and it focuses on the relationships of members of a few families.

94 .- Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez — 8 times. Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall madly in love. but she decides to marry a wealthy, well-bred doctor. As a romantic, Florentino confirms that love sickness is a literal illness, a plague comparable to cholera. As he advances in his business career, he distances himself from Fermina, but his heart remains with her. Florentino attends her husband’s funeral to declare his love for Fermina once again.

95 .- Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe — 8 times. The story of a man shipwrecked on a desert island and his adventures thereafter thirty years, where he transforms the island, fights pirates and cannibals, and saves a man before he is rescued.

96 .- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse — 8 times. It depicts a young Brahmn’s quest for ultimate reality. His quest leads him from sensual indulgence to the rigors of asceticism and self-denial. Finally, he understands that wisdom cannot be taught; it must be gained through personal experience and inner struggle.

97 .- The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton — 8 times. It tells the story of Newland Archer, a young lawyer who is about to marry virginal socialite May Welland in the 1870s New York, when he meets her cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, and falls in love with her, resulting in a love triangle in which May has the worst part.

98 .- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank — 8 times. It’s a diary kept by a young Jewish girl during the two years she was forced to hide due to Nazi persecution of European Jews. Anne Frank recorded her feelings, emotions, and thoughts, as well as the events that occurred to her, in the diary that her father had given her as a birthday present.

99 .- The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers — 8 times. The story revolves around the friendship of two deaf friends, John Singer and Spiros Antonapoulos, who have been living together for several years. Antonapoulos is eventually committed to an insane asylum outside of town after becoming mentally ill and misbehaving. Singer relocates to a new location where he meets a tomboyish girl, an alcoholic, a diner owner, and an idealistic physician.

100 .- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins — 8 times. The Capitol forces each of Panem’s 12 districts to select two teenagers to compete in the Hunger Games, a grueling, televised battle to the death. Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the 12th district, takes her younger sister’s place in the Games, fighting for her life and his partner Peeta Mellark.

Summary

So, here are the most mentioned books among the experts and News Sites. I hope it helps you to pick the next book you would like to read or to check how many of them you have read.

If you are interested in the complete 500 books list, here is the list: “The 505 Most Mentioned Books on the “Books to Read Before You Die Lists.”

If you are a control freak, have OCD, or want to fill your computer with useless information, leave a comment, send an email, or click here 👈 and I’ll send you the list with the 6,013 book references.

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . .

The man who never reads lives only one.”

— George R.R. Martin

© Copyright Jose Luis Ontanon, 2022