MLA’s 30 Books Everyone Should Read Before They Die

In 2006 the Museum, Libraries, and Archives Council asked librarians across England to name a book every adult should read before they die. The following is the result of that poll ordered by the number of votes each one received. The books in green are the ones that I have already read.

  • My Reading Stats
    • 2013: 12 of 30 read (40%)
    • 2014: 12 of 30 read (40%)
    • 2015: 19 of 30 read (63%)
    • 2016: 28 of 30 read (93%)
    • 2017: 28 of 30 read (93%)
    • 2018: 28 of 30 read (93%)
    • 2019: 28 of 30 read (93%)
    • 2020: 28 of 30 read (93%)
    • 2021: 28 of 30 read (93%)
    • 2022: 28 of 30 read (93%)
  1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  2. The Holy Bible
  3. Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
    • The Fellowship of the Ring
    • The Two Towers
    • The Return of the King
  4. 1984 by George Orwell
  5. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
  7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  8. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
  9. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
    • The Golden Compass
    • The Subtle Knife
    • Amber Spyglass
  10. Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War by Sebastian Faulks
  11. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
  12. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  13. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
  14. Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
  15. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
  16. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  17. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
  18. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  19. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
  20. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
  21. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
  22. The Prophet by Kahlil Gilbran
  23. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  24. The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho
  25. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
  26. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
  27. Middlemarch by George Eliot
  28. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
  29. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
  30. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

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