I've only read two books on the list - "Their Eyes Were Watching God" (#39) and Hexbear's favorite "1984" (#16!)
No Grapes of Wrath ๐ Any omissions you feel should've been included or works that are too high/low on the list?
At the bottom of the list is a "see all votes" list of the authors and other people asked to make a top 10.
I've read some? of The Metamorphosis recently, not sure how I got sidetracked or even if I finished it. Got a few pages into Catch-22 back in high school but I didn't connect with it.
Not even sure where to begin in filling in the holes in my classics and modern gems of reading. The classic Black writings of Walker, Baldwin, and Morrison maybe? Jump right into Moby Dick? Maybe some female writers?
I also struggle to read books like I used to as a voracious bookworm teenager; with phones, Hexbear, YouTube, and streaming taking up much of my free time when I'm not working or parenting. I'm currently past the halfway mark in East of Eden but I've been working on that for a couple of months now.
Many of these are book associated with childhood. Though I didn't read them, I know they are commonly assigned or picked up by kids.
I read a dozen of them before age 17 or 16. The other dozen or so I read later were mostly written by black writers whos work was not as easily available in the small public library back in the pre woke days of when I grew up. (And many of them not so much aimed at children. Since there is a good half of this list I don't know anything about, I wouldnt draw any strong conclusions. But I wonder if that pattern is borne out by the others.)
Honestly if your goal of reading is to be more keyed into culture and references, you should read the Bible if not already done. I bet you all 100 books on that list reference the bible. Ive only read parts but they really stuck in my mind. I would like to get a good, modern, annotated version.
Also this list is discredited by Lolita being #25. I read that one at 15 or so because it is culturally associated with horned up kids, such as myself. Nothing but disappointment. In 2026, who is voting for this book?
Yeah this list seems like the books people read before graduation that felt the most intellectual. I would guess this is related to dropping literacy and reading levels, as well as directly related to the type of person to vote on this stuff. Majority are likely just normal people who don't read much anymore and remember a favorite high school book.
Edit: just checked methodology. It's the best read who were polled, which surprises me a bit more.... idk what to think now. I guess it's likely what people considered impactful on their lives. So it has a huge bias towards old and for younger audience.
A high school reading list and it doesn't even have The Picture Of Dorian Gray? For shame!
Is that the one where the image gets more fucked up the more bad things he does? I remember reading that when my English got good enough, but I still don't really understand what it was supposed to mean except "they may look ugly on the outside but be rotting on the inside" or something like that. Still had fun i think
Though I must admit I was pretty young when I read it. Just remembered that aspect hahah