Teachers' Top 100 Books

[Janet]

For those of us who like lists, the TES have done a poll of Teachers' favourite reads - and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen came out top of the list!

 

Below is the list in full.  Not too many surprises in the list!

 

 

TEACHERS’ TOP 100 BOOKS

1. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen

2. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee

3. Harry Potter (series) J.K. Rowling

4. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte

5. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte

6. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell

7. The Lord of the Rings (series) J.R.R. Tolkien

8. The Book Thief Markus Zusak

9. The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien

10. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

11. The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini

12. The Hunger Games (series) Suzanne Collins

13. The Time Traveller’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger

14. The Chronicles of Narnia (series) C.S. Lewis

15. Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck

16. Birdsong Sebastian Faulks

17. His Dark Materials (series) Philip Pullman

18. The Gruffalo Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

19. The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger

20. Life of Pi Yann Martel

21. Tess of the d’Urbervilles Thomas Hardy

22. Rebecca Daphne du Maurier

23. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon

24. Lord of the Flies William Golding

25. Matilda Roald Dahl

26. Catch-22 Joseph Heller

27. Millennium (series) Stieg Larsson

28. Animal Farm George Orwell

29. The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood

30. Persuasion Jane Austen

31. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez

32. Kensuke’s Kingdom Michael Morpurgo

33. Goodnight Mister Tom Michelle Magorian

34. The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck

35. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl

36. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas John Boyne

37. Little Women Louisa May Alcott

38. One Day David Nicholls

39. We Need to Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver

40. The Twits Roald Dahl

41. Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel

42. A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini

43. The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame

44. Frankenstein Mary Shelley

45. Great Expectations Charles Dickens

46. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Louis de Bernieres

47. George’s Marvellous Medicine Roald Dahl

48. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams

49. Room Emma Donoghue

50. Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy

51. Atonement Ian McEwan

52. Emma Jane Austen

53. Middlemarch George Eliot

54. The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon

55. The Color Purple Alice Walker

56. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eric Carle

57. Brave New World Aldous Huxley

58. Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen

59. The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath

60. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll

61. Charlotte’s Web E.B. White

62. Dracula Bram Stoker

63. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury

64. A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving

65. The Secret History Donna Tartt

66. The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupery

67. Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky

68. The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver

69. Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy

70. Skellig David Almond

71. The Woman in White Wilkie Collins

72. Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell

73. Game of Thrones (series) George R.R. Martin

74. David Copperfield Charles Dickens

75. Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro

76. Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak

77. Twilight (series) Stephenie Meyer

78. Beloved Toni Morrison

79. The Help Kathryn Stockett

80. Sherlock Holmes (series) Arthur Conan Doyle

81. Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

82. Moneyball Michael Lewis

83. My Family and Other Animals Gerald Durrell

84. Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden

85. On the Road Jack Kerouac

86. Cloud Atlas David Mitchell

87. Wild Swans Jung Chang

88. Anne of Green Gables L.M. Montgomery

89. Les Miserables Victor Hugo

90. Room on the Broom Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

91. Private Peaceful Michael Morpurgo

92. Noughts and Crosses Malorie Blackman

93. Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee

94. Danny the Champion of the World Roald Dahl

95. Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell

96. The Magic Faraway Tree Enid Blyton

97. The Witches Roald Dahl

98. The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy

99. Holes Louis Sachar

100. The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde.

[chesilbeach]

We do love a good list here, don't we!  Not a bad one this, and I've read 46 on there, and enjoyed most of them too.

[Kidsmum]

I've read 53 of them & have quite a few sitting on my shelves waiting to be read like The God Of Small Things,Wild Swans, Half Of A Yellow Sun, Never Let Me Go, Beloved, A Prayer For Owen Meany & The Colour Purple. Not surprised to see so many Roald Dahl books on the list 

[Athena]

This is a nice list, there are some I've read, some that are on my TBR and some I haven't heard of or that I'm not interested in.

[ummlilia]

I've read 64...I doubt I'll get around to reading the recent YA stuff (eg The Hunger Games..) not my scene.. 

[Janet]

I've read 43⅓ of them and have 17 to read, either on my TR pile or my Kindle. 

 

[Miss Mabel]

I've read 34 and have over half of the rest sitting on my shelves waiting for me to find the time to read them. Intentions are great. Time is less.

[lauraloves]

I've read 20 of them and have another 17 on my TBR. I really think i might add this to my every growing reading lists!

[bobblybear]

That's quite a comprehensive list with books from all genres to all age groups. I like to see variety like that in lists, rather than the same books trotted out over and over.

 

Of those I've read 41, and there's quite a few on there that I have on my TBR pile too.

[Hayley]

I love that The Very Hungry Caterpillar is on there, I read that book SO many times at primary school, it had my favourite illustrations!

 

It's a good list, it has a lot of books I've either read or want to read, and I'll definitely have a look at the ones I haven't heard of so thanks Janet

[Ben]

43. Well, depending on if I count the Sherlock Holmes (series) which I've not read in its entirety, but have read some of..

 

I've own quite a few more on the list, and I expect in the next few years that I'll be checking off a lot more of the list.

[risingdawn]

I have read 23 1/3 of those books. Some of them are quite good novels. 

[Michelle]

I've read 64...I doubt I'll get around to reading the recent YA stuff (eg The Hunger Games..) not my scene.. 

Remember YA has a massive range, with lots of subgenres - don't write them all off.  

[muggle not]

Good list. There are a number of books though that I think should be on the list such as "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemmingway and "East of Eden: by John Steinbeck.

 

Also noticeably absent is any book  by Cormac McCarthy. Arguably, the best writer in recent times.

[Kylie]

I've read 57 and have most of the rest of them on my TBR pile. I would be tempted to add this as a reading challenge because I'm well on the way to completing it anyway, except that I have no intention of ever reading Twilight.

[ummlilia]

Remember YA has a massive range, with lots of subgenres - don't write them all off.

 I 'm not writing them off, just saying they don't float my boat, at least given what I have read so far. (Am not 'anti'  ; I'm  currently reading Among Others by Jo Walton which could loosely be described as Fantasy/YA ,which I was lucky enough to win  in a blog giveaway) 

 

'Boomer Lit' is more my speed..., I hadn't heard of it until recently. (http://www.indiesunlimited.com/2012/12/18/are-you-ready-for-boomer-lit/. )

I'm a 'baby boomer' just (born 1964) and am now ready, not for coming -of- age, but for coming- of- the -change....lol..     

[Chryssie]

I have read 27 of them, but most of them are on my TBR pile! If I ever get around to reading them is a different question.... 

[Kell]

Good list, but I'm surprised and disappointed that teachers would vote the Twilight series onto the list of top 100 books! (But then, I cannot understand why ANYONE likes those books - I found them the worst load of repetitive and predictable tripe.)

 

Out of the list given, I've read...

55 in their entirety

1 book of 1 series mentioned (Millennium - I won't bother with the rest because I hated it so much!)

2 series mentioned that i have almost completed (Sherlock and Game of Thrones)

A further 9 are on Mount TBR

 

Sad to see no Pratchett in there - I would have put his entire Discworld series on the list in place of the Twilight books.

[dex]

I've only read 13 of the books on the list ,3,6,7,9,12,14,17,24,28,35,48,73,80. 56 if you want to be picky

Edited April 8, 2013 by dex

[chaliepud]

I've read 26 of them and there are maybe a dozen I'd like to read but there are too many contemporary books I'd like to read to try many of the others.

[chesilbeach]

I've actually read 9 our of the top 10 - the only one I haven't read is The Hobbit and that's because I didn't enjoy the LotR trilogy that much, and OH said if I didn't like them, then definitely not worth bothering with the prequel!

 

I'm also surprised there are very few that I would refuse to read on there - usually with these lists, at least 20% of the books are ones I have no inclination to read at all, and wouldn't contemplate reading, it's much lower than that with this list.

[Michelle]

 I 'm not writing them off, just saying they don't float my boat, at least given what I have read so far. (Am not 'anti'  ; I'm  currently reading Among Others by Jo Walton which could loosely be described as Fantasy/YA ,which I was lucky enough to win  in a blog giveaway) 

 

'Boomer Lit' is more my speed..., I hadn't heard of it until recently. (http://www.indiesunlimited.com/2012/12/18/are-you-ready-for-boomer-lit/. )

I'm a 'baby boomer' just (born 1964) and am now ready, not for coming -of- age, but for coming- of- the -change....lol..     

Hmm.. I'm not sure I'd class Among Others as YA (I appreciate you said 'loosely' ). I also don't class The Hunger Games as strictly YA, and most people love it.

 

I've actually read 9 our of the top 10 - the only one I haven't read is The Hobbit and that's because I didn't enjoy the LotR trilogy that much, and OH said if I didn't like them, then definitely not worth bothering with the prequel!

 

I'm also surprised there are very few that I would refuse to read on there - usually with these lists, at least 20% of the books are ones I have no inclination to read at all, and wouldn't contemplate reading, it's much lower than that with this list.

It probably depends on why you didn't like LotR - I gave up with that half way through the middle book, and yet I love The Hobbit. It's much more to the point, and I believe he wrote it for a younger audience?

[emelee]

Must say that this was a very predictable list! None of the titles surprised me at all. The only small surprise was that the Twlilght series only made #77 on the list. 

 

Well, one other thing did come to mind. There were no autobiographies on the list, or biographies that I can recall. I would not have been surprised if Anne Frank's diary had been on the list. Or A boy called "it". 

[Kylie]

I agree with Michelle. The Hobbit is much more to the point and enjoyable. I would highly recommend it over The Lord of the Rings.

[Alexi]

I agree with Michelle. The Hobbit is much more to the point and enjoyable. I would highly recommend it over The Lord of the Rings.

Interesting - I've never tried The Hobbit because I didn't particularly get on with The Lord of the Rings although I did finish it!

 

It's fairly comforting that I did find the films worse though, which is usual.