List :: Books You Can't Live Without by The Guardian

  • Pride and Prejudice

    #1

    Pride and Prejudice

    by Jane Austen

    (30 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 19

    540 points

    "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

  • The Lord of the Rings

    #2

    The Lord of the Rings

    by J. R. R. Tolkien

    (36 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 11

    691 points

    "When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton."

  • Jane Eyre

    #3

    Jane Eyre

    by Charlotte Brontë

    (34 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 17

    562 points

    "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined..."

  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

    #4

    Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

    by J. K. Rowling

    (45 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 69

    252 points

    "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

  • To Kill a Mockingbird

    #5

    To Kill a Mockingbird

    by Harper Lee

    (63 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 10

    701 points

    "When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."

  • Bible: King James Version

    #6

    Bible: King James Version

    by KJV

    (13 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 124

    155 points

    "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.Bibliographical introduction....

  • Wuthering Heights

    #7

    Wuthering Heights

    by Emily Brontë

    (32 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 26

    417 points

  • Nineteen Eighty-Four

    #8

    Nineteen Eighty-Four

    by George Orwell

    (68 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 3

    946 points

    "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

  • His Dark Materials

    #9

    His Dark Materials

    by Philip Pullman

    (13 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 63

    277 points

    "Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen. (Northern lights)Will tugged at his mother's hand and said, "Come on, come on..."..."

  • Great Expectations

    #10

    Great Expectations

    by Charles Dickens

    (20 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 41

    337 points

    "My father's family name being Pirrip, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be..."