The following is a list of my twenty favorite works of literature. The list is entirely subjective and takes into account how much I enjoyed the book, level of the writing, story, message, and issues dealt with. I also consider there to be a slight tier between 5 and 6.
True literature can only exist when it is created, not by diligent and reliable officials, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels and skeptics -Zamyatin
1. The Last Temptation of Christ, Nikos Kazantzakis
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
3. The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
4. Magister Ludi, Hermann Hesse
5. Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
6. The Radetzky March, Joseph Roth
7. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
8. Keep the Aspidistra Flying, George Orwell
9. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
10. We, Yevgeny Zamyatin
11. Dr. Faustus, Thomas Mann
12. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
13. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
14. For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
15. Coming Up For Air, George Orwell
16. Catch 22, Joseph Heller
17. Creation, Gore Vidal
18. Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
19. American Gods, Neil Gaimon
20. Down and Out in London and Paris, George Orwell
Others I liked a lot, just not quite as much:
Good Omens, Neil Gaimon, Terry Pratchett
Burmese Days, George Orwell
The Clergyman’s Daughter, George Orwell
Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis
Star Maker, Olaf Stapledon
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, John Le Carre
Obviously this is a list based on personal judgement so it brooks no argument, but are there thoughts on this list or are there other books (perhaps that I have not read) that deserve a look to make the list?
Noodlings 