To kick off this fledgling project, I think it'd be a good idea to set up a working list of some good books I've read over the years. Hopefully the list will introduce some truly great books that have regrettably been lost or overshadowed by other great works of literature. The main point of the list is to break away from the conventional "best of" lists I've encountered and also to keep track of great books.
Now in every good list, "War & Peace" is a staple. It's big, it's profound, and it's boring. Chalk it up to the terrible translation courtesy of Constance Garnett or the sloooow pacing, but it was just a herculean effort to get through the 1000+ pages of the darn book. Don't get me started on the court scenes.
Anyway, the books are numbered in no particular order so there are no rankings. In the near future, I also hope to review a few of these books in-depth. For the most part I'm a superficial reader, prone to books with rip-roaring stories, but occasionally I like to step out of my comfort zone.
1. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
2. And Quiet Flows the Don (Quiet Don Pt. 1) - Mikhail Sholokhov
3. The Don Flows Home to the Sea ( Quiet Don Pt. 2) - Mikhail Sholokhov
4. Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa
5. The In-Between World of Vikram Lall - M. G. Vassanji
6. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
7. The Executioner's Song - Norman Mailer
8. With Fire and Sword - Henryk Sienkewicz
9. Monsoon - Wilbur Smith
10. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
11. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
12. War of the End of the World - Mario Vargas Llosa
13. Legionnaire - Simon Murray
14. Truth, Love, and a Little Malice - Khushwant Singh
15. The Peloponnesian War - Thucydides
16. The Histories - Herodotus
17. Freedom or Death -Nikos Kazantzakis
18. The Last Temptation of Christ - Nikos Kazantzakis
19. When the Lion Feeds - Wilbur Smith
20. The Three Musketeers - Alex Dumas
21. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
22. The Agony and the Ecstasy - Irving Stone
23. 2666 - Roberto Bolanos
24. The Making of a Legionnaire - Bill Parris
25. The Covenant - James Michener
26. East of Eden - John Steinbeck
27. Schindler's List - Thomas Keneally
28. Roots - Alex Haley
