List :: Top 100 Books by Harvard Book Store

  • Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

    #51

    Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

    by Haruki Murakami

    (5 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 400

    50 points

    "The elevator continued its impossibly slow ascent."

  • Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction

    #52

    Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction

    by J. D. Salinger

    (1 Review)

    Overall Rank: 408

    49 points

    "One night some twenty years ago, during a siege of mumps in our enormous family, my youngest sister, Franny, was moved, crib and all, into the ostensibly germ-free room I shared with my eldest..."

  • Shadow of the Torturer

    #53

    Shadow of the Torturer

    by Gene Wolfe

    (4 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 300

    71 points

    "It is possible I already had some presentiment of my future.To those who have preceded me in the study of the posthistoric world, and particularly to those collectors - too numerous to name here -..."

  • The Scarlet Letter

    #54

    The Scarlet Letter

    by Nathaniel Hawthorne

    (19 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 100

    187 points

    "A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the..."

  • Watchmen

    #55

    Watchmen

    by Alan Moore

    (9 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 418

    46 points

    "Rorschach's Journal. October 12th, 1985: Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face."

  • The Complete Stories

    #56

    The Complete Stories

    by Flannery O'Connor

    (1 Review)

    Overall Rank: 210

    95 points

    "Old Dudley folded into the chair he was gradually molding to his own shape and looked out the window fifteen feet away into another window framed by blackened red brick."

  • Orlando: A Biography

    #57

    Orlando: A Biography

    by Virginia Woolf

    (3 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 255

    82 points

    "He - for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it - was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters."

  • Moby-Dick

    #58

    Moby-Dick

    by Herman Melville

    (16 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 37

    348 points

    "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see..."

  • High Fidelity

    #59

    High Fidelity

    by Nick Hornby

    (3 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 409

    48 points

    "My desert-island, all-time, top five most memorable split-ups, in chronological order: 1) Alison Ashworth 2) Penny Hardwick 3) Jackie Allen 4) Charlie Nicholson 5) Sarah Kendrew."

  • Watership Down

    #60

    Watership Down

    by Richard Adams

    (11 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 82

    225 points

    "The primroses were over."