Chris' Fill in the Gaps Top 100 List — Final!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: my fill-in-the-gaps book list.

The list is arranged alphabetically by author and will be read in no particular order.  I will offer a review or response as I read the books.

Now, I am not going to carve these into stones.  I give myself permission to adjust over the years.

What do you think?  Have I chosen books you love?  Did I miss one of your favorites?  Let me know!

Chris' Fill in the Gaps Book List


Things Fall Apart
Chinua
Achebe

Foundation
Isaac
Asimov

Pride and Prejudice
Jane
Austen

Sense and Sensibility
Jane
Austen

Sundays With Vlad
Paul
Bibeau
The
Lost Symbol
Dan
Brown
The
Good Earth
Pearl S.
Buck
A
Little Princess
Frances Hodgson
Burnett
The
Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson
Burnett

Cold Sassy Tree
Olive Ann
Burns
The
Land that Time Forgot
Edgar Rice
Burroughs

Tobacco Road
Erskine
Caldwell
The
Plague
Albert
Camus

Ender's Game
Orson Scott
Card

Death Comes for the Archbishop
Willa
Cather

O Pioneers
Willa
Cather
The
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Michael
Chabon
The
Big Sleep
Raymond
Chandler
The
Stories of John Cheever
John
Cheever

Girl with the Pearl Earring
Tracy
Chevalier
The
Woman in White
Wilkie
Collins

Moll Flanders
Daniel
DeFoe
The
Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot
Diaz
A
Tale of Two Cities
Charles
Dickens

David Copperfield
Charles
Dickens

Little Dorrit
Charles
Dickens

Oliver Twist
Charles
Dickens

Great Expectations
Charles
Dickens
The
Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre
Dumas
The
Man in the Iron Mask
Alexandre
Dumas
The
Last Cavalier
Alexandre
Dumas
A
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Dave
Eggers

Middlemarch
George
Eliot

Madame Bovary
Gustave
Flaubert

Where Angels Fear to Tread
E.M.
Forster
The
Corrections
Jonathan
Franzen
The
Quiet American
Graham
Greene

Goodbye, Mr. Chips
James
Hilton

Lost Horizon
James
Hilton
Les
Miserables
Victor
Hugo

Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale
Hurston
The
Lost Weekend
Charles R.
Jackson
The
Haunting of Hill House
Shirley
Jackson
The
Portrait of a Lady
Henry
James

Three Men in a Boat
Jerome K
Jerome

Up the Down Staircase
Bel
Kaufman

On the Road
Jack
Kerouac

Please Don’t Eat the Daisies
Jean
Kerr
The
Poisonwood Bible
Barbara
Kingsolver
The
Jungle Books
Rudyard
Kipling
The
Man Who Would Be King
Rudyard
Kipling
A
Separate Peace
John
Knowles

Little Drummer Girl
John
LeCarre
The
Golden Notebook
Doris
Lessing

Sliver
Ira
Levin

Elmer Gantry
Sinclair
Lewis
The
Monk
Matthew Gregory
Lewis
The
Call of the Wild
Jack
London
The
Best of H.P. Lovecraft
H.P.
Lovecraft

One Hundred Years of Solidude
Gabriel Garcia
Marquez

Love in the Time of Cholera
Gabriel Garcia
Marquez
The
Road
Cormac
McCarthy
The
Member of the Wedding
Carson
McCullers

Atonement
Ian
McEwan

Lonesome Dove
Larry
McMurty

Moby-Dick
Herman
Melville

Peyton Place
Grace
Metalious
The
Seven-Per-Cent Solution
Nicholas
Meyer

Beloved
Toni
Morrison

Lolita
Vladimir
Nabokov

Suite Francaise
Irene
Nemirovsky
A
Confederacy of Dunces
John Kennedy
O'Toole

Doctor Zhivago
Boris
Pasternak

Bel Canto
Ann
Patchett

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Robert M.
Pirsig

Atlas Shrugged
Ayn
Rand
The
Fountainhead
Ayn
Rand

All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria
Remarque

Home
Marylynne
Robinson
The
Human Stain
Philip
Roth
The
God of Small Things
Arundathi
Roy

Midnight’s Children
Salman
Rushdie

Sarum
Edward
Rutherford

Frankenstein
Mary
Shelley

Enemies, A Love Story
Isaac Bashevis
Singer

Angle of Repose
Wallace
Steigner

Dracula
Bram
Stoker
The
Valley of the Dolls
Jacqueline
Suzanne
The
Magnificent Ambersons
Booth
Tarkington
The
Man who Fell to Earth
Walter
Tevis

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Hunter S.
Thompson

Anna Karenina
Leo
Tolstoy

War and Peace
Leo
Tolstoy

All the King's Men
Robert Penn
Warren

Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn
Waugh

Night
Elie
Weisel

Journey to the Center of the Earth
H.G.
Wells

Trainspotting
Irvine
Welsh
The
Age of Innocence
Edith
Wharton
The
Inimitable Jeeves
P.G.
Wodehouse

1001 Nights / Arabian Nights




Comments

  1. Good list. I see some I've read as well as some on my Fill In The Gaps List.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you -- I think I'll start with Dracula. I've been eyeing that one for a while....

    I'd love to see your Fill in the Gaps List!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great list! I'm excited for you... some of my personal thoughts. I suggest So Big by Edna Ferber in place of the Magnificent Ambersons... I found it much more readable and they give me the same kind of vibe, same period, I think.

    I disliked Tobacco Road intensely, but that could be because I was living in the South when I read it and it was too close to home!

    Love many of the books on your list and I think they'll lead you to further reading of some of the authors. GWAPE by Chavalier is great, and I also enjoyed her Virgin Blue and and the Lady and the Unicorn (her other books not so much for me). Angle of Repose is on my to-read list, and I also highly recommend Crossing to Safety.

    I admit that I could not force myself to wade through War & Peace and Moby-Dick. I tried and I tried and I failed.

    Surprised that I loved Lolita. Atonement is also a personal fave (and I love the movie).

    Have you looked through our book club list (it's posted in the databases on the Yahoo site). Some on your list were discussed in the book club, so you can look back and see the discussions, too.

    Have fun filling in your gaps!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you! I shall read some of the discussions as I devour the books.

    I fear I'll venture down a single author's lane and never return. I seriously wondered if so much Dickens was a good idea, but I wanted to read every single one of those. Plus, I read Drood last year, so I'm fascinated by all that is Dickens and Collins. However, A Tale of Two Cities always puts me to sleep, so I wonder how many times I'll have to pick it up. :-)

    Chevalier is a great read, I've heard, and I figured I'd start with the one everyone talked about. Have you read her latest?

    I hope Tobacco Road isn't my Bastard Out of Carolina. I got about 60 pages into the book and was so depressed I had to stop. That might be the sign of a good book, but I couldn't go on.

    I'll have to keep So Big in mind. You and Carole have spoken very highly of it. LOVED Crossing to Safety, so I can't wait to start Angle. Why can't I just quit work to read?????

    ReplyDelete
  5. With Tracy Chevalier, I'm afraid I have suffered from Author Repeatitis! ;) I loved the 3 I mentioned. I was lukewarm on Fallen Angels. I read about 50 pages of Burning Bright and could not go further. So... I have to admit, I was not eager to get Remarkable Creatures and now with the Shakespeare thing going, I probably won't read it for a while!

    Try watching the movie version of a Tale of Two Cities... then read the book. I love the film and it gives you the big picture before you fall into the details of the book. It's been many years since I've read Dickens, but he's worth the effort. You will enjoy it! You should add A Christmas Carol... it's really a great book.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oooh, I hate Author Repeatitis! Few authors can weather that. I felt the same way about Dan Brown: the two Robert Langdon novels were good, but the other two were just okay. I haven't read The Lost Symbol yet for that very reason.

    Great suggestion for A Tale of Two Cities! Is there a particular production you find most worthy?

    I just finished A Christmas Carol last month and loveloveloved it! I think that will become a holiday tradition....

    ReplyDelete
  7. I saw one last year that was really good. I think it must have been the 1980 version with Chris Sarandon.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I shall look for it. I found War and Peace, starring Audrey Hepburn, at the library. Guess what I'm watching while David ODs on the Olympics?

    ReplyDelete

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