Books of the Century Challenge

 

***Challenge not active*** 

Dates: This is a perpetual challenge, beginning in 2010
Hosted by: Tim (A Progressive on the Prairie)

Guidelines:

• This challenge is based on Daniel Immerwahr's Books of the Century website.
• The challenge provides an opportunity to "combine some excellent and classic reading from the history of popular American reading."
• Given the number of books, this will be a perpetual challenge.
• Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.

At least for the first year, the levels of participation will be:

• Popular Literary Culture 101 -- Five books from the entire list.
• Popular Literary Culture 201 -- Ten books from the entire list.
• Popular Literary Culture 301 -- One book from any of five different decades on the list.
• Popular Literary Culture 401 -- One book from each decade on the list.
• Master's in Popular Literary Culture -- Twenty books from the entire list, with at least each decade represented once.
• Doctorate in Popular Literary Culture -- Two or more books from each decade on the list.

See my original post about the challenge here.
See the challenge announcement page here.
See the challenge blog here.
See Daniel Immerwahr's Books of the Century website here.

I'm going to start off at the first level: Popular Literary Culture 101; so I'll be reading a total of five books from the list.

MY READING LIST:

1. Contact. Carl Sagan (published 1985) [See Review]
2. Animal Farm. George Orwell (published 1945) [Review to come]
3. The Man in Lower Ten. Mary Roberts Rinehart (published 1906) [See Review]

List of Possibilities:

• 1900-1909:
  The Golden Bowl. Henry James
  The House of Mirth. Edith Wharton
  The Man in Lower Ten. Mary Roberts Rinehart
  The Old Wives' Tale. Arnold Bennett
  The Wings of the Dove. Henry James
  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. L. Frank Baum
  
• 1910-1919:
  The Ambassadors. Henry James
  The Magnificent Ambersons. Booth Tarkington
  Swann's Way. Marcel Proust
  The Window at the White Cat. Mary Roberts Rinehart
  Winesburg, Ohio. Sherwood Anderson
  
• 1920-1929:
  Babbitt. Sinclair Lewis
  The Bishop Murder Case. S.S. Van Dine
  The Enchanted April. "Elizabeth"
  Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Anita Loos
  Good-bye to All That. Robert Graves
  The Greene Murder Case. S.S. Van Dine
  The Hotel. Elizabeth Bowen
  Jalna. Mazo de la Roche
  The Magic Mountain. Thomas Mann
  Main Street. Sinclair Lewis
  
• 1930-1939:
  Appointment in Samara. John O'Hara
  The Big Sleep. Raymond Chandler
  Call It Sleep. Henry Roth
  Invitation to the Waltz. Rosamond Lehmann
  Seven Gothic Tales. Isak Dinesen
  
• 1940-1949:
  Animal Farm. George Orwell
  Father of the Bride. Edward Streeter
  The Human Comedy. William Saroyan
  Mistress Masham's Repose. T.H. White
  Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Eric Hodgins
  Random Harvest. James Hilton
  
• 1950-1959:
  The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. Sloan Wilson
  Peyton Place. Grace Metalious
  
• 1960-1969:
  Portnoy's Complaint. Philip Roth
  Rabbit, Run. John Updike
  
• 1970-1979:
  Angle of Repose. Wallace Stegner
  The Best and the Brightest. David Halberstam
  Captains and the Kings. Taylor Caldwell
  Condominium. John D. MacDonald
  The Day of the Jackal. Frederick Forsyth
  The Dead Zone. Stephen King
  Evergreen. Belva Plain
  The Greek Treasure. Irving Stone
  How to Save Your Own Life. Erica Jong
  If on a winter's night a traveler. Italo Calvino
  The Passions of the Mind. Irving Stone
  Play It As It Lays. Joan Didion
  Rabbit Redux. John Updike
  Time and Again. Jack Finney
  Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. John Le Carre
  Touch Not the Cat. Mary Stewart
  Travels With My Aunt. Graham Greene
  
• 1980-1989:
  ". . . And the Ladies of the Club." Helen Hooven Santmyer
  The Bourne Identity. Robert Ludlum
  Contact. Carl Sagan
  Lake Wobegon Days. Garrison Keillor
  The Parsifal Mosaic. Robert Ludlum
  The Pillars of the Earth. Ken Follet
  Texas. James A. Michener
  
• 1990-1999:
  The Celestine Prophecy. James Redfield
  The Hours. Michael Cunningham
  September. Rosamunde Pilcher