Yesterday, a book I’d ordered from TheBookDepository.co.uk came and as usual I found one of their original 
paper bookmarks inside the package next to my spanking brand new book, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal,and the Real Count of Monte Cristo. Love these bookmarks! I already have a collection of them; even one that glows in the dark that has a Halloween theme. This time the bookmark was labeled on one side ‘International Books you should read as voted for by our customers’. The titles were marked in different languages. The other side was marked ‘Books you should read as voted for by our customers’. I’m not sure when this survey took place but I would guess within the last year. From what was listed, I’d personally like to finish Harry Potter, and read The Fault in Our Stars, A Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and The Road. What do you think of the list? Is there anything that surprised you on this list? What would you like to read on this list? Here is what was listed:
Life of Pi The Lord of the Rings
Great Expectations The Hobbit
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy The Slap
Catch-22 Tomorrow When the War Began
The Alchemist Little Women
The Book Thief A Game of Thrones
Pride & Prejudice The Catcher in the Rye
Jane Eyre The Hunger Games
The Thorn Birds Wuthering Heights
1984 The Great Gatsby
Cloudstreet A Fortunate Life
Harry Potter American Gods
To Kill a Mockingbird Alice in Wonderland
Animal Farm My Sister’s Keeper
Dracula The Road
The Help We Need to Talk About Kevin
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Twilight
The Time Traveler’s Wife The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Fault in Our Stars The Perks of Being a Wallflower
I remember reading George Orwell’s 1984 when I was at school and to be honest he was not far wrong when he spoke about cameras monitoring your every move and perhaps he could also read into the future re, political correctness and people being forced to think in a certain way. Animal FArm was also great in the way he portrayed communism. The people overthrough the govenment and in no time at all they abuse power and become corrupt.
Now, I wanted to ask you whether you have reviewed any romantic novels of note that are worth reading? Modern ones…not Jane Austin 🙂
Honey you’re asking the wrong person about that genre. The only love story I read was YA last year called Anna and the French Kiss. It was very good, but it was YA. I don’t read love stories. One of the ladies in my book club reads love stories. I’ll ask her the next time I see her for some titles. 🙂
OK, please do. I don’t usually read that genre either, but as I’ve written am writing one, I just interested to know what is popular and what sells 🙂
No worries. I’ll definitely ask her. 🙂
What a cool bookmark! The one that came in the copy of Anna and the French Kiss you sent me had foods listed with their calorie counts. So awesomely random! 🙂 I’m excited to see The Perks of Being a Wallflower, one of my favorite YA books on that list. I just put The Picture of Dorian Gray on my Kindle, so I’m looking forward to reading that.
Good choice!
Happy to see you have a copy of Black Count! And love those bookmarks, so much inspiration. I just watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower the movie having seen many reviews of the book. It was a bit cliché for me, all that teenage angst – but then I’m not really it’s audience I guess. 🙂
I agree. I haven’t seen the movie. The book was well written but the ambience was dark for me. I felt such a heavy sadness from the very beginning of the story. Wench is doing the same thing to me.
I also didn’t like the way they portrayed the Aunt, given what she was supposed to have to have done, all the images of her were of ‘a loving, caring, smiling woman’ nothing about her gave off any inkling of negative intention. It’s the kind of message that cultivates fear and distrust of those closest to us – even those who appear to be genuinely caring. I don’t deny that female predators exist, but the wider implications against innocent Aunts who are mistrusted or to be feared concerns me. The faces of predatory women are sure to be very different from that portrayed I am sure.
Yeah, I understand what you mean. The whole book was just damn depressing. It’s well written but too dark. I wouldn’t read it a second time. I think it was banned because of the sex and drugs. Most teenagers won’t be shocked at all by this book.
I think they need more of the opposite, stories that uplift without all the cliches.
So right. This is the main thing that’s wrong with YA, clichés and repetitiveness.
Some of these strike me as books that will not be on such a list ten years from now. The Slap for example. I tried reading We Need to Talk About Kevin but gave up after 50 pages. Didn’t finish watching the film either.
I tend to agree with you. I was really surprised to see The Slap on there. I read The Slap for my book club and thought it was awful. You can check out my review. I don’t think I’ve read a book with so much cursing. It got old by page 30. I felt that was something people would want to watch on tv but it just didn’t feel bookish enough for me. Not to mention the characters seemed to be a little stereotyped.
Hmmm…I’m pretty impressed my this list overall, and gald I’ve read many. I still have The Time Traveler’s wide on the To Read list. I would disagree with Karen about We Need to Talk About Kevin. While it was an emotionally painful read, I really think it’s an excellent book. It inspired a lot of conversation and thought.
We Need to Talk About Kevin is on my TBR and my shelf and I really want to read it. I’ve read a lot of the books on this list but I feel some of them aren’t must reads, i.e. The Slap.
Great list! I would add The Grapes of Wrath to it. Nothing says The Great Depression and the plight of the migrant workers like a Steinbeck novel. I have on my TBR list The Fault in Our Stars. 🙂
Yeah I have The Fault in Our Stars on my TBR as well. Not ready to cry yet so it’s staring me down on my bookshelf.
I was surprised to see “My Sister’s Keeper” on the list.
Not really. This is what came out of a survey of their clients and I would guess My sister’s Keeper has been read by many. Is it a book everyone should read? I’m not so sure about that. Haven’t read it nor any of her books for that matter. Have you read it? If so what did you think about it?