100 books to read in a lifetime

100 Books to Read in a Lifetime

  1. 1984 (Signet Classics)
    1984 (Signet Classics)
    George Orwell, Erich Fromm
    6,868
    Mass Market Paperback: $7.49
    Kindle Edition: $0.99
  2. A Brief History of Time
    A Brief History of Time
    Stephen Hawking
    1,776
    Paperback: $11.15
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  3. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
    A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
    Dave Eggers
    1,077
    Paperback: $10.84
    Kindle Edition: $11.99
  4. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
    A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
    Ishmael Beah
    1,827
    Paperback: $7.69
    Kindle Edition: $9.94
  5. The Bad Beginning: Or, Orphans! (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 1)
    The Bad Beginning: Or, Orphans!
    Lemony Snicket, Brett Helquist
    1,336
    Paperback: $6.99
    Kindle Edition: $5.99
  6. A Wrinkle in Time (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet)
    A Wrinkle in Time (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet)
    Madeleine L'Engle
    3,560
    Mass Market Paperback: $6.99
    Kindle Edition: $6.99
  7. Selected Stories, 1968-1994
    Selected Stories, 1968-1994
    Alice Munro
    96
    Paperback: $38.94
    Kindle Edition: $14.99
  1. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (Bantam Classics)
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the...
    Lewis Carroll
    5,279
    Paperback: $5.95
    Kindle Edition: $0.99
  2. All the President's Men
    All the President's Men
    Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein
    362
    Paperback: $18.50
    Kindle Edition: $13.99
  3. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir
    Angela's Ashes: A Memoir
    Frank McCourt, Brooke Zimmer...
    2,121
    Paperback: $10.82
    Kindle Edition: $12.99
  4. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
    Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
    Judy Blume
    1,731
    Paperback: 
    Kindle Edition: $14.99
  5. Bel Canto (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
    Bel Canto (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
    Ann Patchett
    1,600
    Paperback: $12.23
    Kindle Edition: $12.99
  6. Beloved
    Beloved
    Toni Morrison
    1,063
    Paperback: $12.52
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  7. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
    Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and...
    Christopher McDougall
    3,890
    Paperback: $10.51
    Kindle Edition: $11.99
  1. Breath, Eyes, Memory (Oprah's Book Club)
    Breath, Eyes, Memory (Oprah's Book Club)
    Edwidge Danticat
    250
    Paperback: $15.14
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  2. Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition
    Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition
    Joseph Heller, Christopher Buckley
    1,617
    Paperback: $15.76
    Kindle Edition: $11.99
  3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
    Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake
    1,077
    Hardcover: $14.86
    Kindle Edition: $7.99
  4. Charlotte's Web
    Charlotte's Web
    E. B White, Garth Williams
    1,913
    Hardcover: $7.99
    Kindle Edition: $5.99
  5. Cutting for Stone
    Cutting for Stone
    Abraham Verghese
    4,077
    Paperback: $9.33
    Kindle Edition: $10.99
  6. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
    Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be...
    Brené Brown
    3,155
    Hardcover: $15.74
    Kindle Edition: $13.99

  1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 1
    Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 1
    Jeff Kinney
    11,299
    Hardcover: $9.89
    Kindle Edition: $7.99
  2. Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)
    Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)
    Frank Herbert
    3,344
    Paperback: $7.86
    Kindle Edition: $1.99
  3. Fahrenheit 451
    Fahrenheit 451
    Ray Bradbury
    3,429
    Paperback: $7.99
    Kindle Edition: $11.99
  4. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
    Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage...
    Hunter S. Thompson, Ralph Steadman
    1,068
    Paperback: $6.87
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  5. Gone Girl
    Gone Girl
    Gillian Flynn
    44,938
    Paperback: $6.75
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  6. Goodnight Moon
    Goodnight Moon
    Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd
    3,367
    Hardcover: $8.99
    Kindle Edition: $8.99
  7. Great Expectations (Dover Thrift Editions)
    Great Expectations (Dover Thrift Editions)
    Charles Dickens
    3,086
    Paperback: $5.98
    Kindle Edition: $0.83
  1. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
    Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human...
    Jared Diamond Ph.D.
    2,473
    Hardcover: $23.02
    Kindle Edition: $8.55
  2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
    Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
    J.K. Rowling, Mary GrandPré
    35,665
    Paperback: $8.87
    Kindle Edition: $8.99
  3. In Cold Blood
    In Cold Blood
    Truman Capote
    1,881
    Paperback: $12.30
    Kindle Edition: $11.99
  4. Interpreter of Maladies
    Interpreter of Maladies
    Jhumpa Lahiri
    1,286
    Paperback: $9.00
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  5. Invisible Man
    Invisible Man
    Ralph Ellison
    760
    Paperback: $12.79
    Kindle Edition: $11.99
  6. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (Pantheon Graphic Library)
    Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth
    Chris Ware
    Paperback
    186
    $18.02  
  7. Kitchen Confidential Updated Edition: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.)
    Kitchen Confidential Updated Edition...
    Anthony Bourdain
    Paperback
    3,374
    $12.79  
  1. Life After Life: A Novel
    Life After Life: A Novel
    Kate Atkinson
    3,776
    Paperback: $9.29
    Kindle Edition: $11.99
  2. Little House on the Prairie: Full Color Edition
    Little House on the Prairie: Full Color Edition
    Laura Ingalls Wilder, Garth Williams
    597
    Hardcover: $13.74
    Kindle Edition: $0.99
  3. Lolita (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series)
    Lolita
    Vladimir Nabokov, Martin Amis
    1,444
    Hardcover: $22.50
    Kindle Edition: $11.99
  4. Love in the Time of Cholera (Oprah's Book Club)
    Love in the Time of Cholera (Oprah's Book Club)
    Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    980
    Paperback: $10.87
    Kindle Edition: $12.99
  5. Love Medicine: Newly Revised Edition (P.S.)
    Love Medicine: Newly Revised Edition (P.S.)
    Louise Erdrich
    169
    Paperback: $16.30
    Kindle Edition: $9.48
  6. Man's Search for Meaning
    Man's Search for Meaning
    Viktor E. Frankl, William J. Winslade...
    4,470
    Paperback: $11.66
    Kindle Edition: $9.99

  1. Me Talk Pretty One Day
    Me Talk Pretty One Day
    David Sedaris
    1,501
    Paperback: $10.16
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  2. Middlesex: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)
    Middlesex: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)
    Jeffrey Eugenides
    1,887
    Paperback: $14.66
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  3. Midnight's Children: A Novel (Modern Library 100 Best Novels)
    Midnight's Children: A Novel
    Salman Rushdie
    430
    Paperback: $12.23
    Kindle Edition: $13.99
  4. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
    Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
    Michael Lewis
    1,360
    Paperback: $6.16
    Kindle Edition: $5.85
  5. Of Human Bondage (Bantam Classics)
    Of Human Bondage (Bantam Classics)
    W. Somerset Maugham, Jane Smiley
    440
    Mass Market Paperback: $5.95
    Kindle Edition: $0.83
  6. On the Road
    On the Road
    Jack Kerouac
    1,452
    Paperback: $9.00
    Kindle Edition: $12.99
  7. Out of Africa (Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction Books)
    Out of Africa
    Isak Dinesen
    Hardcover
    407
    $15.63  
  1. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Pantheon Graphic Library)
    Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
    Marjane Satrapi
    Paperback
    1,098
    $8.88  
  2. Portnoy's Complaint
    Portnoy's Complaint
    Philip Roth
    282
    Paperback: $12.99
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  3. Pride and Prejudice (Oxford World's Classics)
    Pride and Prejudice (Oxford World's Classics)
    Jane Austen, Fiona Stafford
    8,291
    Paperback: $6.86
    Kindle Edition: $0.59
  4. Silent Spring
    Silent Spring
    Rachel Carson, Linda Lear...
    632
    Paperback: $14.20
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  5. Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel (Modern Library 100 Best Novels)
    Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel
    Kurt Vonnegut
    2,993
    Paperback: $13.39
    Kindle Edition: $7.99
  6. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
    Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham...
    Doris Kearns Goodwin
    3,208
    Paperback: $14.28
    Kindle Edition: $15.99
  7. The Age of Innocence (Signet Classics)
    The Age of Innocence (Signet Classics)
    Edith Wharton, Regina Barreca...
    927
    Mass Market Paperback: $5.95
    Kindle Edition: $0.49
  1. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
    The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
    Michael Chabon
    1,111
    Paperback: $14.12
    Kindle Edition: $10.99
  2. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley
    The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex...
    Malcolm X, Alex Haley...
    1,307
    Paperback: $7.99
    Kindle Edition: $7.99
  3. The Book Thief
    The Book Thief
    Markus Zusak
    18,001
    Paperback: $10.69
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  4. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
    The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
    Junot Díaz
    1,561
    Paperback: $10.00
    Kindle Edition: $12.99
  5. The Catcher in the Rye
    The Catcher in the Rye
    J. D. Salinger
    Paperback
    3,406
    $8.99  
  6. The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
    The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to...
    James McBride
    1,304
    Paperback: $12.55
    Kindle Edition: $12.99

  1. The Corrections: A Novel
    The Corrections: A Novel
    Jonathan Franzen
    1,267
    Paperback: $12.19
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  2. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
    The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and...
    Erik Larson
    5,861
    Paperback: $11.23
    Kindle Edition: $11.99
  3. The Diary of a Young Girl
    The Diary of a Young Girl
    Anne Frank, Otto H. Frank...
    2,528
    Hardcover: 
    Kindle Edition: $0.99
  4. The Fault in Our Stars
    The Fault in Our Stars
    John Green
    37,671
    Paperback: $7.59
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  5. The Giver
    The Giver
    Lois Lowry
    7,593
    Paperback: 
    Kindle Edition: $8.99
  6. The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials
    The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials
    Philip Pullman
    1,354
    Mass Market Paperback: $7.19
    Kindle Edition: $7.99
  7. The Great Gatsby
    The Great Gatsby
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    6,621
    Paperback: $9.14
    Kindle Edition: $12.99
  1. The Handmaid's Tale
    The Handmaid's Tale
    Margaret Atwood
    14,159
    Paperback: $10.94
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  2. The House at Pooh Corner (Winnie-the-Pooh)
    The House at Pooh Corner (Winnie-the-Pooh)
    A. A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard
    1,649
    Paperback: $6.99
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  3. The Hunger Games (Book 1)
    The Hunger Games (Book 1)
    Suzanne Collins
    73,882
    Paperback: $8.79
    Kindle Edition: $7.99
  4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
    The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
    Rebecca Skloot
    14,739
    Paperback: $9.59
    Kindle Edition: $10.99
  5. The Liars' Club: A Memoir
    The Liars' Club: A Memoir
    Mary Karr
    514
    Paperback: $8.16
    Kindle Edition: $13.99
  6. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)
    The Lightning Thief
    Rick Riordan
    4,794
    Paperback: $5.59
    Kindle Edition: $5.99
  7. The Little Prince
    The Little Prince
    Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Richard Howard
    4,084
    Paperback: 
    Kindle Edition: $0.49
  1. The Long Goodbye
    The Long Goodbye
    Raymond Chandler
    1,174
    Paperback: $11.24
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  2. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
    The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
    Lawrence Wright
    922
    Paperback: $13.75
    Kindle Edition: $11.99
  3. The Lord of the Rings
    The Lord of the Rings
    J.R.R. Tolkien
    19,666
    Paperback: $15.99
    Kindle Edition: $16.99
  4. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales
    The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And...
    Oliver Sacks
    775
    Paperback: $10.84
    Kindle Edition: $8.93
  5. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
    The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of...
    Michael Pollan
    1,566
    Paperback: $10.20
    Kindle Edition: $12.99
  6. The Phantom Tollbooth 50th Anniversary Edition
    The Phantom Tollbooth 50th Anniversary Edition
    Norton Juster, Jules Feiffer
    1,423
    Hardcover: $35.78
    Kindle Edition: $7.99

  1. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel
    The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel
    Barbara Kingsolver
    2,553
    Paperback: $15.90
    Kindle Edition: $11.49
  2. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
    The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of...
    Robert A. Caro
    Paperback
    348
    $17.68  
  3. The Right Stuff
    The Right Stuff
    Tom Wolfe
    800
    Paperback: $14.32
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  4. The Road
    The Road
    Cormac McCarthy
    4,622
    Paperback: $13.26
    Kindle Edition: $12.99
  5. The Secret History
    The Secret History
    Donna Tartt
    2,370
    Paperback: $12.79
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  6. The Shining
    The Shining
    Stephen King
    4,459
    Mass Market Paperback: $7.75
    Kindle Edition: $8.99
  7. The Stranger
    The Stranger
    Albert Camus, Matthew Ward
    1,639
    Paperback: $12.71
    Kindle Edition: $11.99
  1. The Sun Also Rises
    The Sun Also Rises
    Ernest Hemingway
    1,403
    Paperback: $14.17
    Kindle Edition: $1.99
  2. The Things They Carried
    The Things They Carried
    Tim O'Brien
    2,588
    Paperback: $14.39
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
    The Very Hungry Caterpillar
    Eric Carle
    4,445
    Board book: $6.59
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  4. The Wind in the Willows
    The Wind in the Willows
    Kenneth Grahame, Inga Moore
    1,635
    Hardcover: $17.45
    Kindle Edition: FREE
  5. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
    The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
    Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin
    904
    Paperback: $7.96
    Kindle Edition: $12.99
  6. The World According to Garp: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
    The World According to Garp: A Novel
    John Irving
    347
    Paperback: $11.55
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  7. The Year of Magical Thinking
    The Year of Magical Thinking
    Joan Didion
    1,278
    Paperback: $13.85
    Kindle Edition: $11.99
  1. Things Fall Apart
    Things Fall Apart
    Chinua Achebe
    1,700
    Paperback: $9.68
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  2. To Kill a Mockingbird
    To Kill a Mockingbird
    Harper Lee
    10,097
    Mass Market Paperback: $6.12
    Kindle Edition: $11.99
  3. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
    Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival...
    Laura Hillenbrand
    27,805
    Paperback: $9.49
    Kindle Edition: $9.99
  4. Valley of the Dolls
    Valley of the Dolls
    Jacqueline Susann
    393
    Paperback: $15.91
    Kindle Edition: $8.27
  5. Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein (25th Anniversary Edition Book & CD)
    Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings...
    Shel Silverstein
    Hardcover
    1,782
    $17.64  
  6. Where the Wild Things Are
    Where the Wild Things Are
    Maurice Sendak
    Hardcover
    2,318
    $13.29  
100 books to read in a lifetime
100 children's books to read in a lifetime
100 science fiction and fantasy books
100 biographies and memoirs
100 young adult books
100 mysteries and thrillers
100 cookbooks
100 leadership and success books

So many books, so little time. With this in mind, the Amazon Books editors set out to compile a list of 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime. We had a few goals when we started out: We wanted the list to cover all stages of a life (which is why you'll find children's books in here), and we didn't want the list to feel like homework. Of course, no such list can be comprehensive – our lives, we hope, are long and varied – but we talked and argued and sifted and argued some more and came up with a list, our list, of favorites. What do you think? How did we do?

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