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