100 MUST READ BOOKS IN A LIFETIME

1984 was also named to Amazon's 100 must read books

THE ALPHABETICAL LIST—Last week Amazon released a list of 100 books that the online retailer believes should be read in a lifetime.  The list goes back 200 years and includes a wide range of authors living and dead, genres and fiction and nonfiction. It abides by its list only one book per author rule.

Which is the best book?

Amazon cops out and insists all are presented in alphabetical order because everyone on the list is important.

100-Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

99—Breath, Eyes Memory by Edwidge Dantica

98—The Stranger by Albert Camus

97—The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, Illustrations by Jules Feiffer

96—Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

95—Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

94—Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

93—Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

92—To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

91—Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

90—The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

89—The World According to Garp By John Irving

88—The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

87—The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

86—The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

85—The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

84—The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

83—The Shining by Stephen King

82—The Secret History by Donna Tartt

81—The Road by Cormac McCarthy

80—The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

79—The Power Broker by Robert Caro

78—The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

77—The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

76—The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

75—The Fellowship of the Ring/The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

74—The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright

73—The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler

72—The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

71—The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordon

70—The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr

69—The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

68—The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

67—The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

66—Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

65—The Handmaiden’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

64—The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

63—The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman

62—Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead by Brene Stone

61—The Giver by Lois Lowry

60—The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

59—The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

58—The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

57—The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

56—The Color of Water by James McBride

55—The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

54—The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

53—The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

52—Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley

51—The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier Clay by Michael Chabot

50—The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

49—Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

48—Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

47—Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

46—Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth

45—Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

44—Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

43—On the Road by Jack Kerouac

42—Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham

41—Moneyball by Michael Lewis

40—Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

39—Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

38—Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

37—Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

36—Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich

35—Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

34—Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

33—Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

32—Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

31—Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

30—Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware

29—Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

28—Interpreter of Maladie by Jhumpa Lahiri

27—In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

26—Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

25—Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

24—Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

23—Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

22—Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72 by Hunter S. Thompson

21—Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

20—Dune by Frank Herbert

19—Diary of a Wimpy Kid—by Jeff Kinney

18—Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

17—Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

16—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

15—Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

14—Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

13—Beloved by Toni Morrison

12—Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

11—Are You There God?  It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

10—Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

9—All the President’s Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

8—Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

7—Selected Stories by Alice Munro

6—A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

5—A Series of Unfortunate Events #1 by Lemony Snicket

4—A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

3—A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

2—A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

1—1984 by George Orwell

Source: The list was compiled by a team led by Sara Nelson, who is Amazon’s editorial director of print and Kindle books.