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Latest comment posted at 12:04 PM EDT 03/07/08

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  1. KAT Man from Canada writes: Without a question...the greatest book written is 'To Kill a Mockingbird' although 'The Good Earth' does come in a very close second
  2. A Wong from Montreal, Canada writes: My favourite book of all time is The Bone People by New Zealand writer Keri Hulme. Never have I read a book as poetic and emotionally resonant as this Booker Prize-winning novel (though Joy Kogawa's Obasan comes pretty darn close). It weaves in threads of the Maori language to depict a tale of three individuals who come together through acts of abusive violence and ends with a moment of redemptive grace. And it's the only book to ever make me cry.
  3. Janis Miller from Canada writes: I am sure that one worthy novel that will be overlooked is Tim Winton's 'Cloudstreet'.

    But, my first pick would be 'Lolita' by Nabokov.
  4. Richard Picard from Chelsea, QC, Canada writes: Another vote here for 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. The story is, quite simply, perfect. Bless Ms. Harper Lee for writing it.
  5. Reid Levesque from Toronto, Canada writes:
    My humble opinion is that '1984' is the greatest English book ever written. It has come to mean so much more than the words written on the page.
  6. Open Mike from Vancouver, Canada writes: Ummm, let's see---that's only in English, right? Are these 'timeless classics' such as Shakespeare, and the Dead White Male Canon? Moderns? (yes, but which moderns? Twentieth Century moderns? or Twenty-First Century moderns?). Fiction only? Novelists only? Does this include short-story writers? Technicals? Popular Authors? Children's? Oh, Grown-ups, too? Nature writers? Biographers? Autobiographers? How about Experimentals? No? Too narrow an appeal? Oh, hell, I give up. I'll just recommend the most seminal title of our modern age: the classic from the early 1970's 'How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive--A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot', from which a million offspring titles have sprung.
  7. Bruce MacDonald from gatineau, Canada writes: Canadian? Yes. Mordecai's novels. All of them.
  8. Peter Parker from Far Far Away, Canada writes: 50 Greatest English books. Wow that's tough. My first introduction to reading was DR Seuss. Does that count? From there I moved to the Narnia series. Is a great book a work that get's a child interested in reading? Life of Pi I enjoyed. Anything by Charles de Lint. Tom Sawyer and Huk. Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Georges 1984. Yes, To Kill a Mockingbird. Short History of Progress. The Armchair Economist and so many more. I think a great book is any piece of literature that gets people reading and keeps people reading.
  9. AM Crossman from Centrelea, Nova Scotia, Canada writes: I would like to nominate Ernest Buckler's The Mountain and the Valley, a 'pioneering work' in Canadian Literature. The book looks at real life in rural Nova Scotia. There's a party in Centrelea, Nova Scotia this summer on July 19 to celebrate what would have been his 100th birthday.
  10. dave barker from Canada writes: 'Birdsong' by Sebastian Faulks is the best book I've ever read. Beautiful and gut-wrenching, it's a novel that made me realise just how blessed I am to be living in Canada in 2008. You will never view the First World War the same again. The battles are not points to memorise in a history class; they're made unforgettably real by Faulks. The characters are so well-drawn that you don't want the book to end. Read it. It's excellent.
  11. David Morgan from Moncton, writes: Any such list must include Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
  12. On-Line Reader from Canada writes: The most amazing book I've ever read (translated into English from Spanish) was 'Autumn of the Patriarch' by Gabriel Marquez Garcia.
  13. John Vernon from Markham Ontario, Canada writes: To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee Cry, the Beloved Country - Paton Vanity Fair, Thackeray A Prayer for Owen Meany - Irving Silas Marner - Eliot Richard Picard put it well...bless Harper Lee.
  14. Isaac Norman from Canada writes: John Jakes wrote a series The Kent Family Chronicles that should be on any list of great books.
  15. Dawn Clarke from Sorrento, BC, Canada writes: Undoubtedly the all time greatest is 'Love in The Time of Cholera' - Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Close seconds: 'Enduring Love', Ian McEwen, '100yrs of Solitude' Gabriel Garcia Marquez and 'Perfume' by Patrick Suskind.
    All these books are beautifully written and provide moments of pure and utter enjoyment for me.
  16. Jonny Fairplay from Canada writes: Goodnight Moon. 'Goodnight moon, goodnight air, good night noises, everywhere.'
  17. Dave T from midwest, Canada writes: The highly subjective nature of such a list makes this a daunting task, yet since all of my books are covered in dust, perhaps a little mental housekeeping is just what the doctor ordered. I could not exclude The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, Ulysses, The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevski, The Illiad, Rousseau's Confessions, Fathers and Sons by Turgenev, Stendal's Rouge et Noir, Hamlet, Montaigne's Essays,Dante's Inferno,Sentimental Education and The Decline of the West by Spengler. To that I would add the poetry anthologies of Wallace Stevens, Rilke, W.B. Yeats, Hypnos Waking by the great Surrealist poet Rene Char, and oddly enough, The Complete Poems of Laura Riding. It would be remiss of me to exclude As I Lay Dying by Faulkner, Herzog by Saul Bellow, Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun, Jean Christophe by Romain Rolland, Five Women by Robert Musil which is not his most famous work, Independent People by Halldor Laxness, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Don Vincente Blasco Ibanez, and really anything by Garcia Marquez. My list would likely not be complete without adding St. Petersburg by Andrei Biely, Dreiser's American Tragedy, Midnight's Children, The Waning of the Middle Ages, The Civil War Stories of Ambrose Bierce, The Sleepwalkers by Hermann Broch, The Enigma of Arrival by V.S. Naipaul, and Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier. Having said that, the only books that ever rescued me from a self-imposed cage were, strangely, A Box of Matches by Nicholson Baker, and A River Never Sleeps.
  18. Alberta Roy from Canada writes: The Diviners, Margaret Laurence
  19. mary jo burles from Pincher Creek, Canada writes: 'The Mill on the Floss' by George Eliot, (Mary Ann Evans) had a profound impression on me, perhaps because I identified with Maggie, the little girl who did so many things wrong as her aunts tried to make her into a lady.
    'Oliver Twist' by Charles Dickens is another classic, still relevant in today's world of homeless children, and still brings tears to the eyes as it tells the stories of other people's lives.
  20. Amanda Sanders from Thompson, Canada writes: Anne of Green Gables - L.M Montgomery. Great Canadian Novel plus it appeals to all ages.
  21. Michael Cox from Vancouver, Canada writes: Martin, two of my all-time favourites among the greatest books ever written are Cervante's 'Don Quixote' (especially in the latest translation by Edith Grossman) and Homer's 'Odyssey.' Some will argue that Homer didn't write the epic poems, and there are convincing arguments that this and 'The Iliad' were written by an unknown woman poet. Nevertheless, whoever finally put to parchment the Odyssey knew how to tell a hell of a good tale, and in Robert Fagle's hands, the translation of choice, it is a rollicking read.

    Cervantes most certainly wrote his novels, the first and second parts of Don Quixote, and they are as modern and readable as any twentieth century author. There is a post-modern sensibility to the second part as the Knight of the Sad Countenance and his faithful, fretful partner Sancho Panza realize they are characters, made famous in a book, and now mocked by people they meet who have read of their exploits.

    I'd like to add a third book here, which is difficult to find (although I have encouraged Random House to publish it in their Everyman series): Nikos Kazantzakis resumption of Odysseus' voyages in his 33,333 line epic, 'The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel,' published in 1958.
  22. Glenn Finockio from Winnipeg, writes: Maybe the editors should clarify what they mean by 'book'. Any literary work? Just novels? Poems included, or only collections of poems? I once read a computer programming design manual that was excellent...
  23. Stephen Atkinson from Vancouver, Canada writes: First, I thought the first article mentioned the 50 Greatest Books written in English, but I guess not if Proust is the next author.
    My strong contenders, then:
    War and Peace
    Wuthering Heights
    Great Expectations
    To Kill a Mockingbird
    To the Lighthouse
    A Fine Balance
    Middlemarch
    Doctor Zhivago
    The Good Soldier
    Pride and Prejudice
  24. Trying to be Rational from Canada writes: Most of the great 'classics' have already -- and justly so -- been named ... though I didn't see Thomas Hardy. Any of 'Jude, 'Tess,' 'Return of the Native,' or 'Mayor of Casterbridge' must be considered. And beyond these tried and true, the best book I've read in my lifetime is 'Riddley Walker,' by Russell Hoban.
  25. Alan Pater from Vancouver, Canada writes: Catch-22
  26. Anna Mancuso from Toronto, Canada writes: First time I read Huckleberry Finn I was in a library and so had to supress my laughter. Eventually I burst and couldn't stop laughing long enough to explain to a friend why I was laughing. Huck is so mischievous yet innocent and transparent. His logic and conclusions are hilarious yet warm your heart and his transformation is subtle and inspiring. To this day whenever Huck Finn is mentioned, I smile. Definitely a favorite. Glad it made your list!!!
  27. heather morgan from port rexton, Canada writes: The Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope - although written in the mid to late 1800s, these political novels are as relevant today as they were then, must reading for politcal junkies
  28. Bill Gekoski from Montreal, Canada writes: My candidate for the list is Charles Darwin's 'Voyage of the Beagle'. I decided to read it as background for a recent a trip around Cape Horn. Expecting it to be informative but dull I was thoroughly surprised at what an incredible writer Darwin was - his ability to verbally capture his own thoughts and feelings as well as those of others, in addition to his evocative descriptions of natural phenomena, made his prose simply spellbinding. I was delighted to find that he was as keen an observer of social as of natural phenomena. It was exhilarating to realize that he was so eloquently and clearly formulating for the first time, so many ideas which we have now come to glibly accept as commonplace. I found this book so exciting from both intellectual and literary perspectives that I now think everyone should read it!
  29. SOLOMON LESLIE from Canada writes: there seem to be few non-Canadians.
    One of the most perfect reads of the last few years was Ian McEwan's 'Saturday' that encompasses in one day how life can be turned upside down in an instant. The humanity of the doctor and the deeper search for meaning in an aggressive violent world , mke it stand out as one of the best of the best.
    I wil write again
  30. Fred Bilton from Canada writes: The Lord of the Rings. When I first saw it on display in a bookstore I started reading and they asked me to leave 3 hours later. I walked home, got the necessary and went back to buy the 1st volume. I was back the next day to get the other 2. I still go back to read it and can probably recite several hundred pages from memory.
  31. Dave Arthur from writes: I can't claim to have read all the literature, but so far these stand out my favourites:

    E. Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man and the Sea
    K. Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-five, The Sirens of Titan and Cat's Cradle
    M. Bulgakov - Master and Marguerita
    J. Steinback - Grapes of Wrath
    H. Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
    G. Orwell - Animal Farm, 1984

    I still have a lot of reading to do! But I think this 50 books thing to find more reading material. I'm always so stumped when I walk into a bookstore!
  32. Juliet Gill from Ingleside ON, Canada writes: I'd like to mention Joan Didion's 'The Year of Magical Thinking'. The author is a magician: without introducing emotion she conveys the devastating loss of bereavement.
  33. Rob McArthur from Canada writes: These are my favourites:

    Of Human Bondage or The Razor's Edge -- Somerset Maughm
    Possession -- A.S.Byatt
    Midnight's Children -- Salman Rushdie
    Lord Jim -- Joseph Conrad
    Crime and Punishment -- Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Two of the above are Booker prize winners; almost anything considered for that award is great!
  34. Sleepy Head from Canada writes: The topic says 'greatest English books' but I guess that means 'written in English' rather than 'written by English authors'. Some of my choices are Jude the Obscure, Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, Persuasion, and Paradise Lost.

    Some 20th-cent. favourites are The Remains Of the Day, The Little Prince, 1984, Orlando, Midnight's Children, and The Heart of the Matter.
  35. Sleepy Head from Canada writes: Darn, I have to take The Little Prince off my list. I'm sleepy. ;)
  36. Slow Rain from Canada writes: A Perfect Spy by John le Carré
    The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
    Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
    The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
    The Human Stain by Philip Roth
    The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
    Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
    Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
  37. Marinka Kaine from Canada writes: The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
  38. Jack Aubry from Canada writes: The Lord of the Rings. I read the series when I was at university. When I finished the first one at midnight, I went over to a friend's who had the second one at one in the morning and woke him up to get the next one. Since then I have read the series another 3 times and in each case found something new. It saddened me when I finished the series, because I would not experience it for the first time again.

    The series from Patrick O'Brian on the adventures of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin at the turn of the 19th century during the Napoleonic Wars as well as with the American War of 1812 should be included. Although multiple navy adventures are the background, the most intriguing part is the relationship between the two, one being a fearless naval hero while the other a doctor who is a naturalist.
  39. George Hall from Canada writes: Maybe Netochka Nesvanova by Dostoevsky or something by Knut Hamsun
  40. Greg Stevens from Sidney, Canada writes: Catch 22
  41. black and white from canmore, Canada writes: For Starters:

    Great Expectations
    Moby Dick
    Green Eggs and Ham
    The Old Man and the Sea
    The Red Pony
    Tender is the Night
    Fifth Business
    Oliver Twist
    On the Road
    Mrs. Dolloway
    The Grapes of Wrath
    The Great Gatsby
    1984
    Mr Weston's Good Wine..........
  42. J S from Canada writes: Some of my favourites:

    The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
    Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
    The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass
    The Diviners - Margaret Laurence
    Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
    Invitation to a Beheading - Vladimir Nabokov
  43. George Hall from Canada writes: Elizabeth Smart...By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept
  44. Lisa Jean from Canada writes: A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
    Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
    A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
    Utopia - St. Thomas More
    Emma - Jane Austen

    A better clarification of what exactly constitutes a 'book' would be helpful. For example, would Kafka's Metamorphosis count as a book, or is it too short? Do plays or works of non-fiction count?
  45. robert lidsone from Canada writes: Some recommendations in no particular order:

    Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
    Women in Love, DH Lawrence
    Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry
    He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope
    Little Nell, Charles Dickens
    The Subteraneans, Jack Kerouac
    A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
    V., Thomas Pynchon
    Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut
    Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, Tom Robbins
  46. sally bonshor from Kelowna B.C., Canada writes: How about the Catcher in the Rye? I read this years ago, I remember I was reading it on the bus going to work and laughing out loud. I have since reread it, enjoyed as much, and gave it to my daughter who also laughed out loud.
    A great coming of age book. Too bad he didn't write mre b ooks. I have read Franny and Zoey, but didn't enjoy them as much.

    Sally Bonshor.
  47. black and white from canmore, Canada writes: one classic that hasn't been mentioned:
    Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
  48. NR Connor from TO, Canada writes: The Tao Te Ching is the wisest book ever written. The works of Stephen Leacock are the funniest. The Lord of the Rings is the most imitated. The essays of George Orwell are the most carefully constructed. ...
  49. C K from Toronto, Canada writes: Fifth Business by Robertson Davies is my suggestion. It makes you think about your role in life. Am I the hero / heroine of my own life? God forbid I be a bit player in my own life! There's a lot to be said about letting guilt rule your life (who doesn't have that problem?). Davies writing is also flawless: the characters seem real even as they are drawn from Jungian archetypes. I haven't read it in 15 years (since I loaned it to my father), yet I think about it and its themes every couple of weeks.
  50. brokeback mountain from toronto, Canada writes: defintely the 4 Books and 5 Classics from China...
    here in north america, 'He is just not that into you'
  51. Middleov Nowear from Canada writes: My two nominations would be:
    Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls - this is a book that transcends ages - we've used it as a family read aloud and it impacts the adults and kids in the room equally

    Little Britches: Father and I were Ranchers by Ralph Moody - we started with this one and ended up owning every book Moody wrote.
  52. chris woodall from Tranna, Canada writes: I see Tropic of Cancer, above. Excellent choice, but Tropic of Capricorn is better. Read them both! Read them out loud, to really 'get' Henry Miller's ferocious attitude to live fully no matter what the personal penniless condition.

    Indeed, reading a book out loud is the best test to any author's greatness: that's why Dickens' works continue to dominate any list.

    I'd also offer any of Hunter S. Thompson's 'Fear and Loathing' books, especially 'In Las Vegas,' but also the on the campaign trails.

    As for Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey: fie upon you sir! C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series is a broadside you cannot withstand. Horatio is the Star Wars (first film) to Jack's Star Trek the first TV year.

    There should be a sub-category: 50 best 'small-sized' English novels: Cannery Row, A Christmas Carol, 39 Steps, Two Solitudes.

    Let Boney have it from all decks, Mr. Bush!
  53. joe johnson from Toronto, Canada writes: I would nominate

    1) Martin Eden by Jack London
    2) Pillars of the earth by Ken Follet
    3) Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
  54. Dave T from midwest, Canada writes: It is interesting to see so many great books alive and well in the thoughts of different commentators, particularly the references to Don Quixote (Grossman translation), as well as Conrad, Ford Maddox Ford, and Lawrence. I read that in a poll in France, the number one choice for the greatest work in French literature was Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Milan Kundera wrote that no other country would have made that choice. In our own lists here, I see no reference to either Camus or Jean Paul Sartre who were more or less staples in my day. In addition, I think a case could be made for Goethe's Werther which allegedly caused a wave of romantic suicides, Thucydides, Vanity Fair, the complete stories of Flannery O'Connor or even Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Thoreau's Walden, or perhaps the Alexandria Quartet by Durrell. If we happened to be Norwegian, there would be comments in support of Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter, or Ibsen, and if Spanish was our first language we would certainly see, in addition to Cervantes and Garcia Marquez, support for Neruda and Julio Cortazar, Carlos Fuentes and Miguel Angel Asturias, Garcia Lorca and the great Juan Ramon Jiminez from Generations '27 and '98. And Borges, of course.
  55. Ann Bishop from Regina, Canada writes: I am loathe to be among the thousands of LOTR groupies who will name the Tolkein trilogy among the best English speaking books, but there you are. They are indeed wonderful. I also want to suggest the works of Jane Austin, some better than others - Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion are two of the best in my view. And of course Dickens' wonderful grim tales.
  56. Ann Bishop from Regina, Canada writes: After I reveiwed some of the other suggestions, I wanted to add the 'naval novels' of Patrick O'Brien - the Jack Aubrey series is just great entertainment, not profound but wonderfully written and engaging. His skill at character development is among the best I have ever read. Also C.S. Forrester's Hornblower series.
  57. Honestly! from Ontario from Waterloo, Canada writes: Murther and Walking Spirits - Robertson Davies
    Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
    The Skystone - Jack Whyte
  58. leo bloom from radisson, sask, Canada writes: What a great list so far! I might add Vanity Fair and Wuthering Heights to the Victorian mix and anything by Flannery O'Connor to the mid 20th-century theme. Also, did anyone submit Joyce's Ulysses? The Penguin annotated student edition is very good. And what about Delillo's Underworld? That is an amazing read. Peace.
  59. M S from Toronto, Canada writes: Limiting myself to full-length prose works written originally in English and widely known: Gulliver's Travels, Emma, Great Expectations, Wuthering Heights, Call It Sleep (Henry Roth), Lord of the Rings, Slaughterhouse Five, the Zuckerman Bound trilogy (Philip Roth), Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
  60. gargi ganguli from montreal, Canada writes: Wuthering Heights, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Mayor of Casterbridge, Mill on the Floss, Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, Lolita.
  61. Peter Hambly from Canada writes: The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov.
    Non-Fiction:
    World War II (All 6 volumes) by Winston Churchill.
    Oxford English Dictionary
  62. Rachel F from Toronto, Canada writes: Most of my favs would never make a list like this because I enjoy a great parody of our modern pop culture and selfish selves. SOmeof my favourite authors are Christopher Brookmyre and Douglas Coupland. But for thought provoking or intelligent literature (although not nearly as high brow as the classics listed above) I loved:
    The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
    Animal Farm by Orwell
    Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
    and of course Lord of the Rings....
    I know I'm such a geek! lol
  63. N. Hooten from La Prairie, Canada writes: Re Mr.Alxis' artcle on Proust's 'Remembrance of things pas'.

    Your shows a great insight in Proust's 'A la recherche du temps perdu'. Space alloted to you did not allow you to go deeper in his of this masterful work, where I discover something new every time I re-read some parts of it.
    Mr. Alexis, you may be the only one who does not who 'Albertine' really was. Although 'Albertine' is most probably a composite character, it is well known who (HE) really was and the bounds Proust had with him.
    But, that's a detail and does not diminish the quality of your article.
    N.Hooten
  64. N. Hooten from La Prairie, Canada writes:
    It may be a little early to nominate a work by Paul Auster but time will probably prove his 'The New York Trilogy: City of Glass, Ghosts and The Locked Room' to be among the great books at least of American Literature.
    N. Hooten
  65. Common Sense from Canada writes: Has anyone mentioned Timothy Findlay? 'Not Wanted on the Voyage' and 'Famous Last Words'. Read and reread and reread.
  66. Mike Saunders from Houston, United States writes: Laurence Durrel's 'Alexandria Quartet'. Robertson Davies' 'The Deptford Trilogy', in particular 'Fifth Business'. Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'.
  67. Eye Sore from Dog Pound, Alberta, Canada writes: For Canadian writing, Robertson Davies' Deptford trilogy - but, as noted up above, esp. Fifth Business; for American, Vonnegut's Slaughthouse-Five; for French, Flaubert's Madame Bovary; for Russian, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina; for Italian, Dante's Inferno; for Spanish, Cervantes' Don Quixote;
    for German, Thomas Mann's Death in Venice; for English, Shakespeare...
  68. Eye Sore from Dog Pound, Alberta, Canada writes: Having looked at what other have posted again, I realize I could have had a
    list of 500 titles - let alone 50 - and still felt this was inadequate.
  69. john garnett from Canada writes: Based on the criteria outlined-'astonishing ideas, unforgettable characters, imaginative sublimity, glorious prose - that cannot be got elsewhere and tells us something new about the human condition'; I submit ALICE IN WONDERLAND, first read to my young children and then read with quiet adult enjoyment since.
  70. raine turner from Canada writes: This is fantastic! Okay- now some may laugh 'The Little Princess' do not rememver the author- but a fabulous book and my inspiraton as a little girl..... Then yes- To kill a mockingbird-(I think this one will win number one spot) Salmon Rushdie- he is so amazing- you can touch feel and smell his scenes- and the famous line ' red corvette complete with matching blond' or something of that flavour---and my all time hero- rock star writer and said to be the most prolific writer of our time --anything by Tom Robbins: Jitterbug Perfume, Skinny Legs and All, Half asleep in Frog Pajamas, Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates- Another Roadside Attraction- all dealing with modern life- politics, relationships, aging even - fabulous- a writers' writer!
    (I am keeping notes on the books I have not read or heard about and adding them to my 'lookinto' list!
  71. We are Spirits in the Material World from Kamloops, Canada writes: The Magus - John Fowles
  72. Mary Serniak from Toronto, Canada writes: I nominate Dynasty of Death by Taylor Caldwell as the most influential book I have read. This book had a profound influence on my thinking and resulted in a complete change in direction of my life. It deals with the background of the armaments industry combined with the forces in the world that lead to wars and manipulations between countries.

    The closest to it is The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. This book, too, deals with the same manipulations, but from an economic point of view - fascinating reading.

    Another compelling book that relating to the history of Israel and the Middle East is Dangerous Liaison. This, too, is an expose of sorts - a powerful book dealing with the background of the area which is the basis of the problems in the Middle East. It is superlative reading for understanding the current problems.
  73. Luke P from Vancouver, Canada writes: Newton's Principia is still perhaps the most influential work ever written - I think it has to be included in the list.
  74. Linda Patki from Toronto, Canada writes: A Book of Common Prayer by Joan Didion

    Regeneration, The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road (first world war trilogy) by Pat Barker

    Dubliners by James Joyce (short-story collection)

    The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
    Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood

    Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

    Famous Last Words by Timothy Findlay (and Headhunter has one of the best openings of any book I've read)

    The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (I can't help it - it had enormous influence on me when I was young)

    Women's Room by Marilyn French (ditto)

    Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro

    Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
    Unless by Carol Shields

    The Diviners by Margaret Laurence

    Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Fairy Tales and Stories - Hans Christian Andersen

    Shipping News by Annie Proulx

    Does something written as a play count? Because I found these to be influential and startling to me:

    Long Day's Journey into Night - Eugene O'Neill
    A Doll's House - Henrik Ibsen

  75. Robin M. from Canada writes: Books that captured my imagination:

    The Aeneid of Virgil - translated by W.F.Jackson Knight - (describes the legendary origin of the Roman nation..truly fascinating as it relates to the world as we know it now - should be on the 50 best list)

    Pompeii - Robert Harris
    The Outsider - Albert Camus -
    Walden - Henry David Thoreau
    Santuary - William Faulkner
    Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
    Shantaram -Gregory David Roberts
    The Prophet - Kahil Gibran (one of the most beautiful books in print)
    Animal Farm- George Orwell
    The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
    Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
    No Man is an Island - Merton
    Count of Monte Cristo - Alexander Dumas
    House on the Strand - Daphane Demurier
    Children of Men - P.D. James
    Independence Day - Richard Ford
    The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
    The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel..
    Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follet
    Eye of the Needle - Ken Follet
    The Kite Runner =Khaled Hosseini
  76. The Radish from London, Canada writes: The Unconsoled - Kazuo Ishiguro
    David Copperfield - Dickens
    The Brothers Karamozov - Dostoevsky
    Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino
    I Served The King Of England - Bohumil Hrabal
    The Count Of Monte Cristo - Dumas
    Les Miserables - Hugo
    The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
    The Collected Works Of Billy The Kid - Michael Ondaatje
    hard to choose one but the list needs some Jose Saramago
  77. Angie Mohr from Savannah, United States writes: Most of the classics have already been mentioned. Some of my favorites (modern and classic) are:

    A Prayer for Owen Meany~ John Irving
    The Sweet Hereafter~ Russell Banks
    Cold Mountain~ Charles Frazier
    The Fountainhead~ Ayn Rand (with absolutely no apologies)
    The Good Soldier~ Ford Madox Ford
    The Handmaid's Tale~ Margaret Atwood
    The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul~ Douglas Adams
    The Notebook~ Nicholas Sparks
    Lost Girls~ Andrew Pyper (yeah, well, sue me...)
    As I Lay Dying~ William Faulkner
  78. David Basskin from Toronto, Canada writes: 10 Recommendations - no particular order - not an exhaustive list - plays and poetry count, too:

    1. Homer: Odyssey (trans. Fagles)
    2. Joyce: Ulysses
    3. Pynchon: Gravity's Rainbow
    4. Davies: Fifth Business
    5. Richler: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
    6. Ginsberg: Howl and other poems
    7. Kerouac: On The Road
    8. Stoppard: Arcadia
    9. Waugh: Brideshead Revisited
    10. Thompson: Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas
  79. Frank Dixon from Kingston, Canada writes: Here are my nominations for the 50 Greatest English books (which appeared ORIGINALLY in English, both fiction and non-fiction): 1)Hamlet; W. Shakespeare 2)Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; J. le Carre 3)Huckleberry Finn; M. Twain 4)The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; W.L. Shirer 5)The Incredible Canadian; B. Hutchison 6)The Hobbit; J.R.R. Tolkein 7)A Tale of Two Cities; C. Dickens 8)The Mitrokhin Archive; C. Andrew, V. Mitrokhin 9)American Caesar; W. Manchester 10)Willie's Time; C. Einstein 11)Mulroney: The Politics of Ambition; J. Sawatsky 12)On The Take; S. Cameron 13)Lord of the Flies; W. Goulding 14)A Perfect Spy; J. le Carre 15)Golf in the Kingdom; M. Murphy 16)Robinson Crusoe; R.L. Stevenson 17)The Fountainhead; A. Rand 18)Blind Ambition; J. Dean 19)Romeo and Juliet; W. Shakespeare 20)1984; G. Orwell 21)The Godfather; M. Puzo 22)Bonfire of the Vanities; T. Wolfe 23)A Thousand Days; A. Schlesinger Jr. 24)Industry and Humanity; W.L.M. King 25)Anne of Green Gables; L.M. Montgomery 26)All the President's Men; B. Woodward, C. Bernstein 27)Two Solitudes; H. McLennan 28)Fifth Business; R. Davies 29)Oliver Twist; C. Dickens 30)The Hound of the Baskervilles; A.C. Doyle 31)Sons and Lovers; D.H. Lawrence 32)A Beautiful Mind; S. Nasar 33)The Catcher Was A Spy; N. Dawidoff 34)Bodyguard of Lies; A.C. Brown 35)The Upside of Down; T. Homer-Dixon 36)Future Shock; A. Toffler 37)Catch 22; J. Heller 38)Marathon Man; W. Goldman 39)The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz; M. Richler 40)Cat's Cradle; M. Atwood 41)Solomon Gursky Was Here; M. Richler 42)The Puzzle Palace; J. Bamford 43)The Man Who Loved Only Numbers; S. Singh 44)Living History; H. Clinton 45)Sophie's Choice; W. Styron 46)King Lear; W. Shakespeare 47)The Distemper of our Times; P. Newman 48)The Codebreakers; D. Kahn 49)Straight From the Heart; J. Chretien 50)Who Has Seen the Wind?; W.O. Mitchell. Undoubtedly room for debate, which is the purpose, I think!!
  80. Errol Fraser from Toronto, Canada writes: Whatever you like, but it must include Lolita and Pale Fire by Nabokov. Angie Mohr are you kidding? - The Handmaid's Tale? this is Atwood's reworking of Poe in a cloudy red puddle of derivative mediocrity.
  81. Peter Walker from Calgary, Canada writes: War and Peace
  82. Mike Davies from Calgary, Canada writes: I took a quick look at the selections so far; many book choices would be difficult to argue with, quite a few are surprising.
    One Canadian I didn't see was Sinclair Ross' 'As For Me and My House'.
    Books I have enjoyed and think notable, or impressed me when I first read them include: Vikram Seth 'A Suitable Boy'; Paul Scott's Raj Quartet, esp. 'A Division of the Spoils'; Victoria Glendinning 'Leonard Woolf: A Biography'; Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time esp. 'The Military Philosphers'; Margaret Drabble 'The Ice Age'; Gabriel García Márquez 'Love In a Time of Cholera'; Colette 'Gigi'; Jaroslav Hašek 'The Good Soldier Švejk'; TE Lawrence 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom'; Aldous Huxley 'Brave New World' - I'd better stop, there are just too many.
  83. gargi ganguli from montreal, Canada writes: Forgot MOBY DYCK. How could I.
  84. j wilson from vancouver, Canada writes: Hmmm... surprised not to see the 'English Patient' on anyone's list, or 'A Fine Balance.' Too obvious? Well, I'll throw them in. Excellent, each. Either could easily be argued the Greatest Canadian Novel written (a comment inviting spirited retorts!)

    As well...
    Dave Richards' 'Night Below Station Street' and 'Mercy Among the Children.'
    Vonnegut's 'Cat's Cradle' (or the underrated 'Bluebeard')
    Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian.'
    Langston Hughes 'the Weary Blues'
    Brendan Behan's 'Borstal Boy'
    Margaret Laurence, well, her books.

    Nice to see 'The Mountain and the Valley' mentioned (man, what a great ending), and Robinson Crusoe. I'll have to re-read Mockingbird, as it seems to have such a following here. Catch-22 is a great read as well.

    Just for fun, I'll mention that I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than read Ayn Rand.
  85. j wilson from Vancouver, Canada writes: Sorry, Stephen Atkinson, you did indeed mention A Fine Balance. Well then, I second that pick!
  86. Ryan Ginger from ottawa, Canada writes: I think Margaret Laurence's 'The Stone Angel' should be on this list, but alas, Hagar Shipley must wait...
  87. Sarah Mulderrig from Calgary, Canada writes: The first to come to mind;

    Italo Calvino - If on a Winters Night a Traveller
    Marquez - The general and his Labyrinth
    Borges - Library of Babel/Deatha and a Compass
    Vladimir Nabokov - Invitation to a Beheading
    Chaim Potok - My Name is Asher Lev
    Dickins - Our Mutual Friend
    Findlay - Famous Last Words
    John Fowles - the Magus
    Dostoevksy - the Brothers Karamozov
    Hosseini - The Kite Runner
    Calvino - Numbers in the Dark
    Michael Ondaatje - In the Skin of a Lion
    Shakespeare - Hamlet
    Jose Saramago - The Blindness
    Ian McEwen - Between the Sheets
    Roald Dahl - Someone Like You
    Robertson Davies - Fifth Business
    Brontes - Wurthering Heights

    Thats what comes to mind at the moment.....Calvino is my fav, I wish more ppl read him!

    Sarah
  88. Dennis sinneD. from Calgary, Canada writes:
    Some of my favorites:

    One Day In the Life Of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
    The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck.
    Animal Farm, George Orwell.
    The Apt Pupil, Stephen King.
  89. Dennis sinneD. from Calgary, Canada writes:

    Forgot one...

    The Robe, Lloyd C. Douglas.
  90. Kennedy Stewart from Vancouver, Canada writes: I think George Gissing's New Grub Street (1891) should be considered one of the 50 greatest books. While bleak, the author brilliantly captures how the emerging publishing market both allowed a greater number of authors to flourish in this new industry while simultaneously limiting overall freedom of expression. The novel provides lessons to artists of all types by illustrating the struggle to balance personal integrity with profit-seeking.
  91. Fred Bilton from Canada writes: I often come back to One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. It seems to be an antidote for many moods.

    The Pickwick Papers is another old friend, as is John Buchan's John Macnab.

    The Irish R.M. is the book my wife least wants to see me bring to bed - my giggles, guffaws and belly-laughs keep her from getting any rest.

    I'm also a fan of Compton Mackenzie's books.
  92. Catherine Fancy from Canada writes: Orwell - Animal Farm
    Bronte - Wuthering Heights
    Ondaatje - In the Skin of a Lion/The English Patient
    Milton - Paradise Lost
    Rand - Atlas Shrugged
    Atwood - The Edible Woman
    Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
    Tolkien - The Silmarillion

    Just to name a few.
  93. Eye Sore from Dog Pound, Alberta, Canada writes: Other titles should also include:

    Alan Paton's Too Late the Phalarope, Nikos Kazanzakis' Report to Greco, Henry Miller's Colossus of Maroussi, Herman Hesse's The Glass Bead Game, Dostoevsky's the Idiot, short stories by Anton Chekhov, Voyage au bout de la nuit (Journey to the End of the Night) by Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Gide's The Immoralist, Camus's La peste (The Plague), Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, Pablo Neruda's love poems, John Cheever's short story 'The Swimmer,' Oriana Fallaci's A Man.
  94. quintin winks from Canada writes: I'm surprised the bible isn't mentioned here... or is that opening a can of worms?
  95. nairb elttik from Hamilton, writes: Keep in mind that we're talking about the 50 Greatest books in written in ENGLISH -- which leaves out works such as the 'bible', Cervantes 'Don Quixote', and any ancient works, including Homer's 'Odyssey' or 'Iliad'.

    As such, let's get down to naming names of books written in ENGLISH:

    'Dubliners' by James Joyce
    'King Lear' by William Shakespeare
    'V for Vendetta' by Alan Moore
    'Moby Dick' by Herman Melville
    'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare
    'High Society' by Dave Sim
    'Heat of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad
    'Pride & Prejudice' by Jane Austin
  96. tom figg from Peru, Canada writes: So little time, so many books unread. Such is the tragedy of the human condition.
  97. Glen Black from Montreal, Canada writes: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein
    The Gods Themselves, Asimov
    Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
    Barometer Rising, McLennan
    Godel, Escher, Bach, by Hofstader
    Night Flight, Saint-Exupéry
    The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway
  98. Jane Doe from Canada writes: There was that Kurt Vonnegut novel (I think) about the book-people - if I had to choose a novel that I would be, and recite, for the rest of my life, it would be Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. In case that's taken, a second close is The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint Exupery) or perhaps Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
  99. Jeff Pritchard from Canada writes: Since there will no doubt be many more than 50 submissions, I'm going to mention a couple of authors I feel should not be included on the list: Ayn Rand or Issac Asimov.

    Ayn Rand is an ideological hack whose stories are chock full of straw man argumentation and transparent, juvenile philosophical extremism. It is no accident that the only people enthusiastic about her work are teenagers. Issac Asimov - while gifted with a fantastic imagination and able to craft immense and compelling visions of the future - is a merely adequate (and occasionally banal) literary stylist. His literary shortcomings often go unnoticed simply because he is so effective at engaging the imagination of the reader that the reader fills in the blanks.

    In place of either of these mediocrities I would suggest anything by Cormack McCarthy and Samuel Beckett.
  100. Simon Pieman from Canada writes: People on this post really need to get some literary taste. Didn't any of you study lit at university? Here's a much more comprehensive list:

    The Carpetbaggers - Harold Robbins
    Hollywood Wives - Jackie Collins
    Collected Poems - Paul McCartney
    Blitzfreeze- Sven Hassel
    Amazing Grace - Danielle Steele