My Wishlist of 100 Books (2019 Update)

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time to celebrate the start of the Christmas season. For those who are looking to this blog and wondering "Thomas, what can we get you?" It only makes sense that Willett Reads would be dedicated to sharing all things that interest me in literature. Well, if you're one of those kind people who want to send me a book, here is a recommendation list of 100 books ranging from different genres and centuries. I am not too picky on quality of the book, save for my desire that the book not be filled with personal annotations. Beyond that, I hope that this list will help you prepare gifts that I not only want, but can often be found at a reasonable price. Click on to discover the list and where to send any comments regarding this list.

TOP 10

These are the 10 books that I would desire getting over everything else on this list. The list is ranked in order of preference. 

1. “The Joy Luck Club" - Amy Tan
2. "Forrest Gump" - Winston Groom
3. "The White Album" - Joan Didion
4. "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" - Victor Hugo
5. "Addie Pray" - Joe David Brown
6. "My Year of Flops" - Nathan Rabin
7. "Mrs. Dalloway" - Virginia Woolf
8. "Rumble Fish" - S.E. Hinton
9. "A Supposedly Fun Thing That I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments" - David Foster Wallace
10. "Peyton Place" - Grace Metalious

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

While this list is all books that I would love to get, these are the ones that I would keep a closer eye out. This list is published in alphabetical order by title. 

-"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" - Michael Chabon
-“And Then There Were None" - Agatha Christie
-"Anna Karenina" - Leo Tolstoy
-"The Awakening" - Kate Chopin
-"Beloved" - Toni Morrison
-"The Big Sleep" - Raymond Chandler
-"The Black Swan" - Thomas Mann
-"Blindness" - Jose Saramago
-"The Book Thief" - Markus Zusak
-"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" - Junot Diaz
-"A Confederacy of Dunces" - John Kennedy Toole"
-"Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning" - David J. Skal
-"Fantastic Mr. Fox" - Roald Dahl
-"Flowers in the Attic" - V.C. Andrews
-"The Graduate" - Charles Webb
-"The Hate U Give" - Angie Thomas
-"Heart of Darkness" - Joseph Conrad
-"House of Leaves" - Mark Z. Danielewski
-"How to Build a Girl" - Caitlin Moran
-"If Beale Street Could Talk" - James Baldwin
-"The Intuitionist" - Colson Whitehead
-"Looking for Alaska" - John Green
-"Lord of the Flies" - William Goulding
-"The Martian" - Andy Weir
-"Murder on the Orient Express" - Agatha Christie
-"Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc" - Mark Twain
-"Planet of the Apes" - Pierre Boulle
-"Psycho" - Robert Bloch
-"Rosemary's Baby" - Ira Levin
-"The Sirens of Titan" - Kurt Vonnegut
-"To the Lighthouse" - Virginia Woolf
-"Ulysses" - James Joyce"
-"Wonderstruck" - Brian Selznick

CLASSICS

The following is a list of books that are deemed literary classics, or books of acclaim that I had trouble fitting into another category. This is presented in alphabetical order by title. 

-"Billy Budd" - Herman Melville
-"Doctor Zhivago" - Boris Pasternak
-"Gulliver's Travels" - Jonathan Swift
-“Leaves of Grass” - Walt Whitman (NOTE: This edition only)
-“Logan's Run" - William F. Nolan, George Clayton Johnson
-"Lord Chatterly's Lover" - D.H. Lawrence
-"The Moviegoer" - Walker Percy
-"Naked Lunch" - William S. Burroughs
-"The Outsiders" - S.E. Hinton
-"Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" - James Joyce
-"A Tale of Two Cities" - Charles Dickens
-"Treasure Island" - Robert Louis Stevenson
-"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - Betty Smith

FURTHER READING

The following is a list of books from authors that I have enjoyed in the past and would love to read more by. The list is presented in alphabetical order by title. 

-"Absalom! Absalom!" - William Faulkner
-"Animal Farm" - George Orwell
-"Blood Meridian" - Cormac McCarthy
-"East of Eden" - John Steinbeck
-"Legion" - William Peter Blatty
-"The Man Who Laughs" - Victor Hugo
-"Pale Fire" - Vladimir Nabokov

MOVIES

The following is a list of literature that I am curious to read that was in some ways adapted into either film, TV, or other noteworthy works. The list is presented in alphabetical order by title. 

-"American Gods" - Neil Gaiman
"Atomic Blonde: The Coldest City" - Antony Johnston
-"Call Me By Your Name" - Andre Aciman
-"Coraline" - Neil Gaiman
-"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" - Philip K. Dick
-"From Here to Eternity" - James Jones
-"Get Shorty" - Elmore Leonard
-"The Goldfinch" - Donna Tartt
-"The Handmaid's Tale" - Margaret Atwood
-"High-Rise" - J.G. Ballard
-"Jules and Jim" - Henri-Pierre Roche
-"The Maltese Falcon" - Dashielle Hammet
-"Mary Poppins" - P.L. Travers
-"Matilda" - Roald Dahl
-"Misery" - Stephen King
-"Oil!" - Upton Sinclair
-"Ragtime" - E.L. Doctorow
-"Terms of Endearment" - Larry McMurtry
-"You Were Never Really Here" - Jonathan Ames

 MODERN HITS

The following are books that I haven't categorized in any significant way, but feel that they are recent enough to warrant their own section. This list is presented in alphabetical order by title.

-“John Adams” - Ron Chernow

-“Persepolis” - Marjane Satrapi

COMPILATIONS

The following is a list of subjects that don't have one specific compendium to recommend, but I feel would be valuable to have compilations of their work. This list is presented in alphabetical order by subject, last name in case of authors.

-Hans Christian Anderson

-The Brothers Grimm

-H.P. Lovecraft

-Mythology

-“One Thousand and One Nights”

MARTIN SCORSESE

The following is a list of books that were later adapted into movies by director Martin Scorsese. I am making it a challenge to read every adaptation that he has made. This list is presented in alphabetical order by title.

-“Bringing Out the Dead” - Joe Connelly

-“Casino” - Nicholas Pileggi”

-“The Color of Money” - Walter Tevis

-“The Executioners” - John D. MacDonald

-“I Heard You Paint Houses” - Charles Brandt”

-“The Invention of Hugo Cabret” - Brian Selznick

-“The Last Temptation of Christ” - Nikos Kazantzakis

-“Raging Bull: My Story” - Jake LaMotta”

-“Sister of the Road” - Ben L. Reitman

-“The Wolf of Wall Street” - Jordan Belfort

THE DARK TOWER SERIES

The following is a list of books within Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" series that I have yet to read. The list is presented in chronological order, which is also preference

-"Dark Tower: Wind Through the Keyhole" - Stephen King

If you would like to donate/gift your books to me, please contact my e-mail at WillettReads@gmail.com. If I believe you to be an honest and trustworthy person, I will provide further information in confidential manners. I am also accepting further recommendations to expand the scope of what I read. While this blog doesn't get updated as much as I'd like, I always find joy in reading and feel that it's important to stay open-minded. Enjoy the holidays, and feel free to share what books you'd like to get as a gift.