I always wonder who made the list. Sometimes they seem to make sense and other times I wonder who the heck picked these things. It never seems like I've read or watched any of the titles. I decided I might as well make a list of books I think are important. The only criteria is that I think they should be read. I stuck with fiction except for two fine examples of non-fiction novels. In the future I might add more. I put the list together quickly so I know I'm missing books I will slap myself in the forehead about when I realize I forgot them.
Here's the challenge...how many of these have you read?
Leave a comment with the number you've read. If you want, mention which one is most important to you.
Out of this list I'd note, Sometimes a Great Notion, by Ken Kesey.
The Incomplete List of Important Books as of June 2012
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
ALL THE KING’S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
SOPHIE’S CHOICE by William Styron
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving
ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by William Faulkner
WISE BLOOD by Flannery O’Connor
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving
NAKED LUNCH by William S. Burroughs
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST by Ken Kesey
MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather
ILLUSIONS by Richard Bach
Zoli by Colum McCann
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall
Red Light at Morning by Richard Bradford
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
No Great Mischief, A Novel by Alistair MacLeod
Forever by Pete Hamil
The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols
The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenedes
A Distant Trumpet Paul Horgan
Leaving Cheyenne by Larrry McMurtry
Crooked River Burning by Mark Winegardner
Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis
Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
The Mammoth Cheese by Sheri Holman
Twilight by William Gay
Woe to Live On by Daniel Woodrell
Remember Ben Clayton by Stephen Harrigan
The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich
Bucking the Sun by Ivan Doig
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Feast Day of Fools by James Lee Burke
Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
America, America by Ethan Canin
The Gay Place by Billy Lee Bramer
Strange Peaches by Bud Shrake
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving
Cider House Rules by John Irving
Diezmo by Rich Bass
The Heartsong of Charging Elk by James Welch
Peace Like a River by Lief Enger
Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella
Montana 1948 by James Welch
The Propheteers by Max Apple
The Fool’s Progress, an Honest Novel by Edward Abbey
SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION by Ken Kesey
A Moment in the Sun by John Sayles
Geronimo Rex by Barry Hannah
The Time it Never Rained by Elmer Kelton
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut
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