Read MLA's 30 Books Every Adult Should Read Before They Die

List completed! This is a pretty good list. Gone with the Wind rates 5 stars. My mother has read it 13 times and who knows how many times she has watched the movie. Lots of people seem to feel that way about this book and I can see why. It is very well written. The main characters seem so alive. I’m glad I finished the list on a high note with this book.

read 1 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
read 2 The Bible
read 3 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
read 4 1984 by George Orwell
read 5 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
read 6 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
read 7 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
read 8 All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
read 9 His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
read 10 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
read 11 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
read 12 The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
read 13 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
read 14 Tess of the D’urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
read 15 Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
read 16 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
read 17 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
read 18 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
read 19 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
read 20 The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
read 21 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
read 22 The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
read 23 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
read 24 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
read 25 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
read 26 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
read 27 Middlemarch by George Eliot
read 28 The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
read 29 A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
read 30 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

3/22/09 read A Clockwork Orange. rated 3/5. Gone with the Wind is the last one. It may take a while.

29 completed, 1 to go!

read 1 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
read 2 The Bible
read 3 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
read 4 1984 by George Orwell
read 5 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
read 6 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
read 7 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
read 8 All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
read 9 His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
read 10 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
read 11 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
read 12 The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
read 13 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
read 14 Tess of the D’urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
read 15 Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
read 16 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
read 17 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
18 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
read 19 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
read 20 The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
read 21 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
read 22 The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
read 23 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
read 24 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
read 25 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
read 26 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
read 27 Middlemarch by George Eliot
read 28 The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
read 29 A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
read 30 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

I picked up a copy of A Clockwork Orange today and I still have Gone with the Wind (both from the library). This will wrap up this list. The language in A Clockwork Orange is so full of made up slang that it is slow reading. It might take a while to get through this one, even though it is a thin book. Gone with the Wind is 959 pages! So far all I’ve read is the preface and that took me up to page 25.

So the end is in sight, but not all that close. It is a good thing that getting there is most of the fun.

3/17/09 read The Master and Margarita. Pretty strange. I picked up Gone With the Wind from the library. Still waiting for a copy of A Clockwork Orange to be available.

28 completed, 2 to go!

read 1 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
read 2 The Bible
read 3 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
read 4 1984 by George Orwell
read 5 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
read 6 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
read 7 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
read 8 All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
read 9 His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
read 10 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
read 11 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
read 12 The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
read 13 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
read 14 Tess of the D’urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
read 15 Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
read 16 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
read 17 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
18 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
read 19 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
read 20 The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
read 21 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
read 22 The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
read 23 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
read 24 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
read 25 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
read 26 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
read 27 Middlemarch by George Eliot
read 28 The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
29 A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
read 30 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

3/14/09 read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I think I might have read this before, years ago, when I read a lot of Russian literature. Anyway, It was pretty interesting. It is exactly as the title describes, a day in the life of one man. He is eight years into a 10 year sentence at a Soviet prison camp.

27 completed, 3 to go!

read 1 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
read 2 The Bible
read 3 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
read 4 1984 by George Orwell
read 5 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
read 6 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
read 7 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
read 8 All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
read 9 His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
read 10 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
read 11 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
read 12 The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
read 13 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
read 14 Tess of the D’urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
read 15 Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
read 16 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
read 17 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
18 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
read 19 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
read 20 The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
read 21 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
read 22 The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
read 23 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
read 24 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
25 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
read 26 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
read 27 Middlemarch by George Eliot
read 28 The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
29 A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
read 30 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

3/10/09 read The Lovely Bones. It looks like this goal will be finished soon. I need to get three books from the library as they become available. They currently have one waiting for me. The fourth book is coming in the mail via Paperbackswap.com. My library does not have a copy of The Master and Margarita.

26 completed, 4 to go!

read 1 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
read 2 The Bible
read 3 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
read 4 1984 by George Orwell
read 5 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
read 6 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
read 7 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
read 8 All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
read 9 His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
read 10 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
read 11 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
read 12 The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
read 13 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
read 14 Tess of the D’urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
read 15 Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
read 16 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
read 17 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
18 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
read 19 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
read 20 The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
read 21 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
read 22 The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
read 23 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
read 24 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
25 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
read 26 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
read 27 Middlemarch by George Eliot
read 28 The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
29 A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
30 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

3/9/09 read The Prophet. Picked it up from the library today along with The Lovely Bones. I thought that The Prophet was okay, but it wouldn’t make my personal top 30 list of books.

25 completed, 5 to go!

read 1 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
read 2 The Bible
read 3 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
read 4 1984 by George Orwell
read 5 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
read 6 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
read 7 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
read 8 All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
read 9 His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
read 10 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
read 11 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
read 12 The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
read 13 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
read 14 Tess of the D’urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
read 15 Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
read 16 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
read 17 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
18 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
read 19 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
read 20 The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
21 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
read 22 The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
read 23 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
read 24 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
25 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
read 26 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
read 27 Middlemarch by George Eliot
read 28 The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
29 A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
30 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

3/8/09 read The Poisonwood Bible. I’m waiting for my library to have another book available so I can continue working on this list. For now I’ll have to switch to one of the other lists I’m working on.

24 completed, 6 to go!

read 1 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
read 2 The Bible
read 3 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
read 4 1984 by George Orwell
read 5 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
read 6 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
read 7 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
read 8 All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
read 9 His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
read 10 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
read 11 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
read 12 The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
read 13 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
read 14 Tess of the D’urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
read 15 Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
read 16 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
read 17 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
18 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
read 19 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
read 20 The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
21 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
22 The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
read 23 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
read 24 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
25 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
read 26 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
read 27 Middlemarch by George Eliot
read 28 The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
29 A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
30 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

3/6/09 read The Alchemist. I’d never bother to read this one again. Once was more than enough.

23 completed, 7 to go!

read 1 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
read 2 The Bible
read 3 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
read 4 1984 by George Orwell
read 5 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
read 6 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
read 7 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
read 8 All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
read 9 His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
read 10 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
read 11 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
read 12 The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
read 13 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
read 14 Tess of the D’urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
read 15 Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
read 16 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
read 17 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
18 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
read 19 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
read 20 The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
21 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
22 The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
read 23 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
read 24 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
25 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
read 26 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
read 27 Middlemarch by George Eliot
28 The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
29 A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
30 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

3/6/09 read The Wind in the Willows. I read this before but it’s been a very long time ago. Plus, I like to read about Rat going on about “messing about in boats.”

22 completed, 8 to go!

read 1 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
read 2 The Bible
read 3 The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien
read 4 1984 by George Orwell
read 5 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
read 6 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
read 7 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
read 8 All Quiet on the Western Front by E M Remarque
read 9 His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
read 10 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
read 11 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
read 12 The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
read 13 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
read 14 Tess of the D’urbevilles by Thomas Hardy
read 15 Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
read 16 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
read 17 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
18 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
read 19 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
read 20 The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
21 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
22 The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
read 23 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
24 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
25 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
read 26 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
read 27 Middlemarch by George Eliot
28 The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
29 A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
30 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn