A chill is in the air across the country, and no better time to stay inside and catch up on some reading… but what to read? The library shelves are full of books and the bookstores, well, you never know what you’re going to get. One sure fire way to make sure your reading time is well used, is to read the classics.
In 2005 Time Magazine put together a list of the top 100 English language novels published since the magazine started in 1923…. that’s a good place to start.
Newsweek has a more “up to date” list, published in December 2009, and they don’t limit the date or language… so their list has some true classics and allows for international translations. Newsweek gives War and Peace the honour as the best book of all time.
A list compiled by the Telegraph newspaper in the UK, puts To Kill a Mocking Bird at the top of their 50 Best list.
And for those of you with a bias for Canadian Literature, here’s a list, compiled from various online sources of some Top CANLIT Choices.
Malcom Lowry, Under the Volcano
Robertson Davies, The Deptford Trilogy
Robertson Davies, The Rebel Angels
Alice Munro, Something I’ve been meaning to Tell You
Margaret Atwood Surfacing
Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace
Robertson Davies, Fifth Business
Mavis Gallant, From the Fifteenth District
Margaret Laurence, A Jest of God
Alistair MacLeod, The Lost Salt Gift of Blood
Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance
Brian Moore, Black Robe
Alice Munro, Friend of My Youth
Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion
Mordecai Richler, St. Urbain’s Horseman
Margaret Atwood, Life Before Man
Leonard Cohen, The Favourite Game
Mavis Gallant, Selected Stories
Hugh Hood, Around the Mountain
Brian Moore, Black Robe
Alice Munro, Selected Stories
Mordecai Richler, St. Urbain’s Horseman
Mordecai Richler, Solomon Gursky Was Here
Rudy Wiebe, The Blue Montains of China
