Random House Modern Library Readers’ 100 Best Novels

In response to their list of 100 best novels, the Modern library let the readers respond with their favorite books. This list was derived from an online user poll conducted on the Modern Library web site from July 20 to October 20, 1998, during which 217,520 votes were cast.

**Note from Steph: Consider the first ten entries, and ask yourself if the internet culties weren’t overloading the Modern Library online poll with votes. Damned Scientologists! And, really, who the hell is Charles De Lint, the guy with something like twelve books that made this list? After awhile I just stopped linking to his books.

1. Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged

2. Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead

3. Hubbard, L. Ron. Battlefield Earth

4. Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord Of The Rings

5. Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird

6. Orwell, George. 1984

7. Rand, Ayn. Anthem

8. Rand, Ayn. We The Living

9. Hubbard, L. Ron. Mission Earth

10. Hubbard, L. Ron. Fear

11. Joyce, James. Ulysses

12. Heller, Joseph. Catch-22

13. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby

14. Herbert, Frank. Dune

15. Heinlein, Robert. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress

16. Heinlein, Robert. Stranger In A Strange Land

17. Shute, Nevil. A Town Like Alice

18. Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World

19. Salinger, J. D. The Catcher In The Rye

20. Orwell, George. Animal Farm

21. Pynchon, Thomas. Gravity’s Rainbow

22. Steinbeck, John. The Grapes Of Wrath

23. Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five

24. Mitchell, Margaret. Gone With The Wind

25. Golding, William. Lord Of The Flies

26. Schaefer, Jack. Shane

27. Shute, Nevil. Trustee From The Toolroom

28. Irving, John. A Prayer For Owen Meany

29. King, Stephen. The Stand

30. Fowles, John. The French Lieutenant’s Woman

31. Morrison, Toni. Beloved

32. Eddison, E. R. The Worm Ouroboros

33. Faulkner, William. The Sound And The Fury

34. Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita

35. De Lint, Charles. Moonheart

36. Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom!

37. Maugham, W. Somerset. Of Human Bondage

38. Flannery O’Connor. Wise Blood

39. Lowry, Malcolm. Under The Volcano

40. Davies, Robertson. Fifth Business

41. De Lint, Charles. Someplace To Be Flying

42. Kerouac, Jack. On The Road

43. Conrad, Joseph. Heart Of Darkness

44. De Lint, Charles. Yarrow

45. Lovecraft, H.P.. At The Mountains Of Madness

46. Spillane, Mickey. One Lonely Night

47. De Lint, Charles. Memory And Dream

48. Woolf, Virginia. To The Lighthouse

49. Percy, Walker. The Moviegoer

50. De Lint, Charles. Trader

51. Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

52. McCullers, Carson. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

53. Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale

54. McCarthy, Cormac. Blood Meridian

55. Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange

56. Shute, Nevil. On The Beach

57. Joyce, James. A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man

58. De Lint, Charles. Greenmantle

59. Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game

60. De Lint, Charles. The Little Country

61. Gaddis, William. The Recognitions

62. Heinlein, Robert. Starship Troopers

63. Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises

64. Irving, John. The World According To Garp

65. Bradbury, Ray. Something Wicked This Way Comes

66. Jackson, Shirley. The Haunting Of Hill House

67. Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying

68. Miller, Henry. Tropic Of Cancer

69. Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man

70. Windling, Terri. The Wood Wife

71. Fowles, John. The Magus

72. Heinlein, Robert. The Door Into Summer

73. Pirsig, Robert. Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance

74. Graves, Robert. I, Claudius

75. London, Jack. The Call Of The Wild

76. Flann O’Brien. At Swim-Two-Birds

77. Bradbury, Ray. Farenheit 451

78. Lewis, Sinclair. Arrowsmith

79. Adams, Richard. Watership Down

80. Burroughs, William S.. Naked Lunch

81. Clancy, Tom. The Hunt For Red October

82. Hamilton, Laurell K.. Guilty Pleasures

83. Heinlein, Robert. The Puppet Masters

84. King, Stephen. It

85. Thomas Pynchon. V.

86. Heinlein, Robert. Double Star

87. Heinlein, Robert. Citizen Of The Galaxy

88. Waugh, Evelyn. Brideshead Revisited

89. Faulkner, William. Light In August

90. Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

91. Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell To Arms

92. Bowles, Paul. The Sheltering Sky

93. Kesey, Ken. Sometimes A Great Notion

94. Cather, Willa. My Antonia

95. De Lint, Charles. Mulengro

96. McCarthy, Cormac. Suttree

97. Holdstock, Robert. Mythago Wood

98. Bach, Richard. Illusions

99. Davies, Robertson. The Cunning Man

100. Rushdie, Salman. The Satanic Verses

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