The Official OSTTDBIS Book List

So, before the 17th August 2023 I am going to read the following books, and write a review of each one on here. I am still thinking about the order of reading but I may just work my way through the list to stop me cherrypicking and leaving myself all the ones I am least enthusiastic about. It shouldn't be too difficult; if I manage one a month it will only take 5 years. I am really looking forward to some of them, a bit dubious about others and dreading a couple, but I am hoping it will be an interesting experience.

Thank you to everyone who has made suggestions. I haven't been able to include all of them, mainly because of the one book per author limit, but even if they are not on the list I will still read them too. I am now considering a companion list of films I should see. Despite the list below I like to think I am reasonably well read but I cannot pretend to be well viewed. I'll be asking for suggestions soon.

1. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

2. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

3. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

4. Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe

5. Zuleika Dobson - Max Beerbohm

6. The Heart of Midlothian - Walter Scott

7. Life of Pi - Yann Martel

8. Casino Royale - Ian Fleming

9. Barchester Towers - Anthony Trollope

10. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

11. The Mysteries of Udolpho - Ann Radcliffe

12. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte

13. The Dispossessed - Ursula le Guin

14. The Crow Road - Iain Banks

15. Baba Yaga Laid An Egg - Dubravka Ugresic

16. Ridley Walker - Russell Hoban

17.  Hawksmoor- Peter Ackroyd

18. What Was Lost - Catherine O'Flynn

19. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

20. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

21. The Summer Book - Tove Jansson

22. Dracula - Bram Stoker

23. Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett

24. Possession - AS Byatt

25. Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks

26. Tristram Shandy - Laurence Sterne

27. The Girl With the Pearl Earring - Tracey Chevalier

28. The Vicar of Wakefield - Oliver Goldsmith

29. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

30. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

31. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

32. Human Traces – Sebastian Faulkes

33. Two Serious Ladies – Jane Bowles

34. The Catcher in the Rye – J D Salinger

35. Evelina – Fanny Burney

36. Howards End – E M Forster

37. Anna of the Five Towns – Arnold Bennett

38. Mr Norris Changes Trains – Christopher Isherwood

39. The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco

40. Black and Blue – Ian Rankin

41. The Death of the Heart – Elizabeth Bowen

42. The Go Between - LP Hartley

43. Atonement – Ian McEwen

44. Beloved – Toni Morrison

45. A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court – Mark Twain

46. The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton

47. The Thirty Nine Steps – John Buchan

48. To Kill A Mocking Bird – Harper Lee

49. A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini

50. The Daisy Chain – Charlotte M Yonge

51. Stalky and Co – Rudyard Kipling

52. Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys

53. The Best of Everything – Rona Jaffe

54. My Brilliant Career – Miles Franklin

55. The Edwardians – Vita Sackville-West

56. To Bed With Grand Music – Marghanita Laski

57. The Making of a Marchioness – Frances Hodgson Burnett

58. Brighton Rock – Graham Greene

59. The Bell – Iris Murdoch

60. Under the Greenwood Tree – Thomas Hardy