I liked the idea of starting at the top. A reading list of the 100 greatest books of all time would be a good place to start, I thought. Instead of shelling out $45 to $55 for each "masterfully bound in top-grain leather, decorated in gold" edition, I realized that I could probably settle for the paperbacks.

Unfortunately, the Franklin Library didn't offer them in paperback, nor did they enclose the "100 greatest" list in the mailer. I did a little research on the internet to try and find this greatest books list. What I found was several lists, all of which had many overlapping titles. As I read through the lists and realized how pathetically few of them I had read, I was inspired further. I have no doubt that there are many, many more lists out there, but I stopped with these 5 since they seemed reputable and comprehensive enough for my goal.

I compiled all of the book titles into a database and eliminated the duplicates. The list looked jaded towards pre-20th century authors. I thought, "someone must have written a good books in the last 100 years." I searched for and found 2 lists containing the top books of the 20th century to add. The current list of 312 covers works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, short stories, plays, philosophy and theology, and is sorted only by author's last name.

Only one of the lists had biographical data on the authors, so much of this information in the final list is incomplete. As I finish the books over time, I'll add the rest of that data to the database. I think this list will probably keep my busy for the next 20 years or so.

If you have any comments, or have any information you'd like to share on these books, please let me know.

List sources:
The Guardian
The top 100 books of all time

Sybervison
The World's 100 Greatest Books CD Collection

The Modern Library
100 Best Novels

Radcliffe Publishing
Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century

Waterstone's
The Books of the Century