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

  • Of Mice and Men

    #61

    Of Mice and Men

    by John Steinbeck

    (37 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 36

    349 points

    "A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green."

  • Lolita

    #62

    Lolita

    by Vladimir Nabokov

    (35 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 5

    856 points

    "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palette to tap, at three, on the teeth."

  • The Secret History

    #63

    The Secret History

    by Donna Tartt

    (8 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 348

    63 points

    "The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation. (Prologue)Does such a thing as "the fatal flaw," that..."

  • The Lovely Bones

    #64

    The Lovely Bones

    by Alice Sebold

    (11 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 451

    37 points

    "My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie.Inside the snow globe on my father's desk, there was a penguin wearing a red-and-white-striped scarf. "

  • The Count of Monte Cristo

    #65

    The Count of Monte Cristo

    by Alexandre Dumas

    (15 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 107

    180 points

    "On February 24, 1815, the watchtower at Marseilles signaled the arrival of the three-master Pharaon, coming from Smyrna, Trieste and Naples."

  • On the Road

    #66

    On the Road

    by Jack Kerouac

    (14 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 18

    543 points

    "I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up."

  • Jude the Obscure

    #67

    Jude the Obscure

    by Thomas Hardy

    (3 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 196

    99 points

    "The schoolmaster was leaving the village, and everybody seemed sorry."

  • Bridget Jones's Diary

    #68

    Bridget Jones's Diary

    by Helen Fielding

    (7 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 360

    59 points

    "I WILL NOT Drink more than fourteen alcohol units a week."

  • Midnight's Children

    #69

    Midnight's Children

    by Salman Rushdie

    (9 Reviews)

    Overall Rank: 29

    391 points

    "I was born in the city of Bombay . . . once upon a time."

  • Moby-Dick

    #70

    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..."