100 Books You Must Read Before You Die

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

BBC Radio Oxford, 102 Books

This BBC list was chosen mainly by authors but also other 'book' experts such as bookshop staff, with short audio discussions on each work.
Actual number of books chosen was 102.

This list was originally published in 2020 and was added to this site over 1 year ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
60 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 1958 Nigerian English
397 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman 1995 British English
3205 Homo Deus Yuval Noah Harari 2015 Israeli Hebrew
332 Parallel Lives Plutarch 100 Greek Greek
4246 The Whitsun Weddings Philip Larkin 1964 British English
2075 A Little Princess Frances Hodgson Burnett 1905 British English
216 A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens 1843 British English
3916 Wonder R. J. Palacio 2012 American English
1997 Freedom Jonathan Franzen 2010 American English
791 A Kestrel for a Knave Barry Hines 1968 British English
4246 Welcome To Hard Times E. L. Doctorow 1960 American English
808 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
2318 Being Mortal Atul Gawande 2014 American English
170 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 1937 American English
2698 Close Range Annie Proulx 1999 American English
6084 The Secret History Of The World Jonathan Black 2007 British English
32 Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf 1925 British English
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
3198 Fever Pitch Nick Hornby 1992 British English
86 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque 1928 German German
1108 The Overstory Richard Powers 2018 American English
1400 Silence of the Sea Vercors 1942 French French
205 The Complete Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle 1927 British English
6683 The Tattooist Of Auschwitz Heather Morris 2018 Australian English
4837 The World's Wife Carol Ann Duffy 1999 British English
4795 The Wolf Of Masada John Fredman 1978 Unknown English
186 Bonjour Tristesse Francoise Sagan 1954 French French
219 Brighton Rock Graham Greene 1938 British English
85 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
2706 The Help Kathryn Stockett 2009 American English
1040 Danny The Champion Of The World Roald Dahl 1975 British English
139 The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame 1908 British English
557 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
3492 The Return Of Martin Guerre Natalie Zemon Davis 1983 Unknown English
769 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 American English
2422 A View From The Bridge Arthur Miller 1955 American English
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
108 In Cold Blood Truman Capote 1966 American English
5099 Brother Of The More Famous Jack Barbara Trapido 1982 British English
55 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
31 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 1899 British English
327 Household Tales Brothers Grimm 1812 German German
3 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 American English
452 I, Claudius Robert Graves 1934 British English
197 Lady Chatterley's Lover D. H. Lawrence 1928 British English
249 A Hero of Our Time Mikhail Lermontov 1840 Russian Russian
218 The House of Mirth Edith Wharton 1905 American English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
1404 The Twits Roald Dahl 1980 British English
75 The Portrait of a Lady Henry James 1881 American English
93 Little Women Louisa May Alcott 1868 American English
1092 Gorky Park Martin Cruz Smith 1981 American English
2069 Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson 1994 American English
204 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro 1989 British English
166 Tender Is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald 1934 American English
432 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
7652 The Wild Places Robert Macfarlane 2007 British English
891 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
118 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy 1891 British English
277 A Wizard Of Earthsea Ursula K. Le Guin 1968 American English
1846 The Little Sister Raymond Chandler 1949 American English
2989 A Child's Christmas In Wales Dylan Thomas 1955 Welsh English
115 Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson 1883 British English
1323 A Far Cry From Kensington Muriel Spark 1988 British English
250 Anne of Green Gables L. M. Montgomery 1908 Canadian English
1143 A Month In The Country J. L. Carr 1980 British English
470 Waiting for the Barbarians J. M. Coetzee 1980 South African English
53 Dracula Bram Stoker 1897 British English
1896 Tenth of December George Saunders 2013 American English
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
54 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952 American English
1691 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 2002 American English
407 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 2012 American Italian
66 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
4246 Autumn Journal Louis MacNeice 1939 British English
240 The Godfather Mario Puzo 1969 American English
138 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 1860 British English
313 Peter And Wendy J. M. Barrie 1911 Scottish English
193 Persuasion Jane Austen 1817 British English
2276 Goodnight Mister Tom Michelle Magorian 1981 British English
7 Moby-Dick Herman Melville 1851 American English
6267 Primary Colors Unknown 1996 American English
1875 Home Marilynne Robinson 2008 American English
236 Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling 1997 British English
2666 The Power Naomi Alderman 2016 British English
203 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
4980 The Wandering Falcon Jamil Ahmed 2011 Pakistani English
187 The Power and the Glory Graham Greene 1940 British English
690 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John le Carré 1974 British English
278 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
1081 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005 Australian English
530 A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving 1989 American English
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
276 The Stand Stephen King 1978 American English
13 War and Peace Leo Tolstoy 1869 Russian Russian
814 The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett 1911 British English
750 All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy 1992 American English
28 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
141 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 1945 British English
2493 Room Emma Donoghue 2010 Irish English