We all have those books we think we should have read by now… the classics, the ones everyone’s been talking about, the ones that have just fallen through the cracks. As a future librarian, this burden feels particularly heavy. It can lead to some embarrassing conversations.
(Someone else: I just read Little Women again and I never make it through Beth’s death without sobbing, you know?
Me: Yeaaaah, uhhhh…)
Lately, I’ve seen other bloggers who made this list of theirs public, embracing the shame, taking back the night. But then, once they’ve read the book, they get to cross it off! And it seemed like a good idea. So here’s my list. Feel free to gasp and groan where appropriate.
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1984, by George Orwell
A
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Malcolm X
B
The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
C
Coraline, by Neil Gaiman 3/26/2012
D
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson
Devil’s Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea
E
East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
F
A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry
Five Quarters of an Orange, by Joanne Harris
G
The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
H
The Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
I
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer
L
Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan 3/27/12
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
M
Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie
Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian
P
The Passage, by Justin Cronin
Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leraux
Plainsong, by Kent Haruf
R
Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare
A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster
S
Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
T
Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
W
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
Z
Zeitoun, by Dave Eggars
