the 100 essential novels -- how many have i read?

main channel: / thejackexperience
Instagram: / jackbenedwards

[@Ilovelmand1D]

You should make your next celebrity book club about Pedro Pascal! He has great taste

[@emiliaburgos5404]

Oooh yes! That would be so cool

[@safiyeserdengecti7487]

I second that motion!

[@natalieluther05]

Yesss boost this comment !

[@Lune1118]

Omg yesss

[@WAHOME.]

I'm drowning in edits of this man and people increasingly going feral

[@MauraVH]

At this point with how many books you've been meaning to read for ages, I feel like you should make a 'Subscribers hold me accountable'-video where we get to pick which ones need to get off your really old TBR-pile first

[@elisazouza]

yessss

[@vargapaula6992]

I would love that!

[@ohpaperbacks5195]

thats a really good idea!

[@apinchofdisappointment]

You’re a geniussss I’d love this kind of video

[@bishop_breloom]

I have officially read 2 books that Jack Edwards has not. This will do wonders for my ego. Also, Infinite Jest is a behemoth and I just kind of know you’d hate it despite its incredible writing and themes.

[@yaeli_i_guess]

i love infinite jest so much

[@HC-hx8fd]

Honestly, A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the only one I've read that he hasn't and it made me feel great! I got 12/100 and I have an English degree!!!

[@likeicare458]

Same here actually! Which two was it?

[@yaeli_i_guess]

@@likeicare458 infinite jest, for one, i'm guessing.

[@laurapanteleit4849]

I just commented the same loool

[@lauraelizabeth_]

as i counted along with you, i had to make sure i was only counting novels i *actually* read and not the novels i *pretended* to read for my degree lmaooo (42/100)

[@Gwydda]

I was thinking do half-read books count? Some of those were insufferable and I couldn't finish them.

[@MH-ql4nh]

​@@Gwydda I think DNFs should be counted! There was an attempt, after all :-)

[@lauraelizabeth_]

@@Gwydda completely agree, some of these are… not great lmao. i didn’t count anything i didn’t finish, but i wish i could, because i got like 400 pages into Infinite Jest before giving up 😭😭 which was the worst in your opinion?

[@Gwydda]

@laura I know this is an unpopular opinion, but The Catcher in the Rye is definitely a book I don't like, and I wasn't even forced to read it as a teenager. But as it's short I'm not too upset about it. Moby Dick I'm definitely upset about, I read almost half of it before realising that I actually quite enjoy my life and could do a million things rather than read through the rest. How about you?

[@lauraelizabeth_]

@@Gwydda omg so fair, i completely agree about Moby Dick; so long, so boring, and what cultural impact did it leave?? nothing, besides Starbucks lmao. besides Infinite Jest, i also never finished Don Quixote, it was just too long. The Red Badge of Courage was soooo boring when i read it in middle school, i hated it, but i did finish it. i also hated The Scarlet Letter (Jack calling it a perfect piece of art is… a choice), but finished it because i had an AP exam on it 🙃

[@linatenenbaum6595]

I've read only 19 of these, but most of the ones I've read are ones that Jack hasn't read, so that feels like some kind of selfish redemption 😂

[@nl3064]

Ditto.

[@nabaaeyddan7565]

Kinda mad that The Picture Of Dorian Grey isn't on this list.

[@CheemsTheCheeseDog]

I’ve been scrolling in the comments for 5 minutes to find someone say this I totally agree

[@Littlerose8]

I read 12/100. I realized recently that my high school English class curriculum was severely lacking because there are so many of these books that everyone else reads in high school that I was never given an opportunity to. These past few years, it has been my goal to change that, and watching Jack and Emmie's videos have really helped with that! I'm in the same boat as Jack when he kept saying he had books on that list that he hadn't read but are currently on your TBR. We'll get to them someday!

[@ninja_boy]

Your pronunciation of "I, Claudius" is gonna make me chuckle for some time to come 😅

[@musicgal365]

My dad's always pronounced it like that. Makes me smile every time. 😂

[@Christine-jg2ch]

@@musicgal365 it was a tv series years ago, we all watched it when we were at school and pronounced it like this because the title was in mosaic. Maybe your dad is around same age as me 😂

[@musicgal365]

@@Christine-jg2ch Very possible! We all watched it together as a family a couple of years ago and it became an inside joke for a while.

[@jennysterg322]

Well, in classical Latin the letter ‘u’ is often pronounced as a [v] sound - so I assumed that’s what he was going for or influenced by.

[@ninja_boy]

@@jennysterg322 The Romans didn't differentiate between U and V. U was created later. V was used for the /u/ sound and the /w/ sound (later /v/ by Medieval Latin). I've heard people pronounce it this way for fun but it seemed like Jack didn't recognize the name. It was just funny to me. It's not a dig against him.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

So happy to see Jack being a fan of ‘Easy A’. He’s the Lobster Todd of Booktube.

[@neemagatumbu7850]

You're so right! He is the Lobster Todd of booktube

[@susanalfieri4487]

"Easy A" is perfection.

[@Kamila_Koziol]

I've got 42/100. That's an extremely Anglo-focused list. Not that it's a bad thing, it's an English speaking chanel after all. And I love those scratch off gifts like that. And of course a canon is a canon. Even though I haven't read most of them I at least heard about all but two of these books. The one that I'll probably never read: Wuthering Heights, I feel like I've missed the time to read it. There are some of my faves on here: Catch 22, One hundred years of solitude, Fahrenheit 451. Nice, it is so satisfying to scratch it off.

[@tiakiwi]

I actually read Their Eyes Were Watching God because it was in one of your videos haha! It’s become one of my favourite book titles of all time, as well as one of my favourite opening lines of all time! Such a great novel. Can’t wait to see what you think whenever you get around to it, Jack:)

[@OZMTWI]

Literally same! I saw it in one of his videos, read it and it’s become one of my favourite books!

[@mourningpapers]

Anna Karenina is a lot less intimidating than other Russian lit in my opinion - it's large but easy and stunningly real to read, highly recommend! Also Grapes of Wrath (or any Steinbeck, for that matter) is super easy and beautiful, and has that metaphorical underlying nature that books like 1984 do in a strange way.

[@2DS3]

Which translation did you read?

[@malgorzatakleczkowska8461]

I agree! I did love the other huge novels such as War and Peace or Crime and Punishment, but Anna Karenina was definitely easier to read. I also found The Idiot easy, as it was almost only dialogue and very few philosophical run-ons.

[@jowens197]

I have to try grapes of wrath again. The colloquialism was a little thick for me to comprehend, but I could see the beauty of the prose

[@juliannegarlich1595]

As a 14 year old, having read 13 books already I feel pretty good about myself

[@19farahasheer34]

that's amazing i'm 15 yo and i've only read 6 book :(

[@juliannegarlich1595]

@@19farahasheer34 hey that's fine! You've got plenty more years to read more books!

[@-composer]

as 15, I've only read... 0

[@thegurm]

im 29 an english lit student and only at 12 🤧🤣 y'all are doing fantastic

[@jazzandbooks]

Queen 💛

[@bibi-no7cu]

as a Polish medical student (so no literature background really haha), I have read 13 of these, so i guess not bad! 1. Pride and Prejudice 2. Jane Eyre 3. Crime and Punishment 4. House of Darkness 5. Animal Farm 6. 1984 7. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe 8. The Catcher in the Rye 9. Fahrenheit 451 10. Lolita 11. To Kill a Mockingbird 12. Wide Sargasso Sea 13. Handmaid's Tale

[@majamaciejewska1449]

as a polish highschooler I feel you! I have read 12 of them for school + 7 of those I wanted to read. I think we read a lot of classics in Poland which is good :))

[@Evermorereads]

So happy to see A House for Mr. Biswas and Wide Sargasso Sea here. Two amazing post-colonial, West Indian reads. Read Caribbean month is in June, it would be nice if you did a challenge to read Caribbean books in June.

[@magda_mf]

'If on a winter's night a traveler' is so great! Really makes you think about the structure of a novel

[@anjuanand7685]

I read it during lockdown and I absolutely hated it lmao. I don’t know if it was the isolation or the absolutely confusing plot and structure that did it for me. And it was in my tbr for a long time too!

[@gabrielaharries8149]

@@anjuanand7685 I didn't like it too, some chapters were really good but some were sooo boring. It's definitely interesting but you can feel the experimental side of it which I didn't like.

[@ketasar2278]

Now do a video series of reading books from this list, that you haven't read!!

[@RaptorsCantSwim]

Yess! I was gonna comment this!

[@magdalenaarias3753]

one hundred years of solitude is AMAZING. LIKE AMAZING. and without it and its contributions and being the book that essentially made magical realism a genre, we would not have so many of the amazing books we have today. besides it's so beautifully written and SO SO GOOD

[@lizzy9702]

I only read 9 out of these 💀 but on the other hand, I'm not British. I'm German and I read many German classics and not so many British ones which I feel like they dominate this list. But this is a really cool poster 👌

[@KiraFriede]

The only German book that made it on this list is "Verwandlung" by Franz Kafka.

[@BlackCampariBlue]

@@KiraFriede though written in German, one could debate wether Franz Kafkas work is German or Czech :)

[@willemijn8005]

Interesting! I have a Dutch version of this poster and totally different books are on it! Wonder if there's an international one, like a worldwide version of the 100 most essential books or something along those lines😊

[@MRJarwson]

I’ve only read 6 of these, but so many are on my tbr 😂😭

[@dittesque]

I also read only six! Work to do 😅

[@DaniCalderon_G]

Dude One hundred years of solitude is SO GOOD, as a colombian I love it and i feel like you would LOVE Love in the time of Cholera as well

[@CynicalDuchess]

as someone who considers herself a voracious reader, the fact that I only got 8/100 is so embarrassing omg. That being said, some I didn't include like Don Quixote and the Metamorphosis because I only read excerpts. still too low hahahaha

[@valeramirez9259]

i was also dismayed when i realized i had only read 1 (!!) book lol

[@drewpy-uy5dh]

same here! i’ve read 7/100. Im debating making my own poster out of a hundred of my favorite books for the egos sake.

[@ericapedroza7067]

Some lists I fare better, this one wasn't too bad

[@Safiyahalishah]

I've read only 15 of these but most were when I was a child. I can't even in good conscience say I've read them because I remember nothing at all about them, except for my favourites. 😓

[@Jannyl13]

​@@valeramirez9259 did you at least enjoy that one? Which one did you read? :) I think, if I had to pick one from that list, I'd read Pride and Prejudice or The Handmaid's Tale!

[@bysarahalexander4426]

I've only read 10 or 11 of these.....but in my defense, I did not study English lit in college and my high school English teacher loved to make us read the less famous novels by famous authors. I'm looking at you A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

[@fennecfox9490]

Same! And I don't read a lot of fiction, so I'm happy with my result lol.

[@jasminesmith6361]

THE BRIDGE TO SAN LUIS REY WAS LITERALLY ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS EVER! Sorry for the all caps 😂 But that book was so impactful for me and I wasn't expecting to see it on this list! I read it in 7th grade and it was one of the first classics that I ever fell in love with, it was just so unique to anything I had read at the time, and it just really made a mark on me for some reason. I actually haven't read it since then, but it's still on my bookshelf and I'm planning to reread it next month and see how much of it I actually remembered 🥰

[@jasminesmith6361]

@@nony_mation omg yessssssss!!! 🥰📚🥰📚

[@isabellew3904]

I was really hoping there would be a comment about this book! I read it in a Lit class and I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of my favorite school essays I ever had the privilege of writing. I think Jack should read this one and he will hopefully like it. It isn't that long at all.

[@siduney]

‘Anna Karenina’ is an amazing book! It’s huge but you will never regret reading it!

[@BrandonGates]

I agree, but what was missing was The Brothers Karamazov.

[@CarynEmblingSmith]

I first read 1984 in high school and HATED it with a burning passion. The ending was a goddamn nightmare. Read it again last year, (almost a decade after first reading it) and absolutely loved it! It's truly a masterpiece, wild how opinions change as you get older

[@starsandsuch7778]

I’m curious which of those books is the most recently published, like how old does a book need to be before it becomes “classic”?

[@celeluwhen]

They are in chronological order. Only the first line or so is before the 20th century!

[@jack_in_the_books]

@@celeluwhen omg i didn't clock this!!

[@awkwardsity]

That’s an interesting question because what we consider a classic vs a modern classic vs just a contemporary book fluctuates a lot. Before the industrial revolution, any book in the last 50-100 years would have been considered basically contemporary because things didn’t change that fast, but now a 50 year old book is easily considered classic. Slaughterhouse Five was written in the 70s, the bell jar and to kill a mockingbird were written in the 60s, these books in the scheme of things are relatively new but they’re not contemporary anymore, they’re classics, and not even modern classics. The idea classic basically is just that the book will be read a lot in coming years, which means if it’s popular for a reasonable amount of time-regardless of if it’s good or not-it becomes a classic. Some people argue that a book has to be 100 years old and still being read somewhat regularly to become classic, but I would disagree with this because I believe with the changes in technology it only has to be 50 or 60 years old to become classic. Books that were written before computers were common all have this completely different feel that we who have lived with computers our whole lives equate with the classics and so those books, despite not yet being 100 years old, are already considered by many of our generation to be classic. Examples include the sun also rises (almost 100 years old now, was written in 1926) gone with the wind, animal farm, of mice and men, I already mentioned the bell jar and slaughterhouse five, on the road. These are all books often considered classic and under 100 years old. On the other hand-and you might hate hearing this-twilight is around 20 years old and is widely considered a modern classic, but it’s my opinion that it will eventually phase out and people will stop reading it and it won’t ever truly become classic because even if people are reading it in 100 years those of us who grew up around it’s publication will so vehemently protest it being considered a classic that people won’t willingly call it that. Until those alive now die and other generations are allowed to make their own decisions about the book, it won’t be considered classic, and by then it will probably be so deeply scorned that they won’t want to label it so. Some people believe that that is the key to what determines how old a classic is: if most the people who were alive when it came out are no longer alive, and if the majority of living people were born after the book come out, then the book could be considered classic. With people living longer and longer lives, that makes it so that a book must wait longer and longer to “become” classic. But really, it’s all just a guessing game and there’s no real true definition for what is a classic, other than what readers and literature people decide gets the label.

[@raisavlogs8877]

@awkwardsity wow that was such an insightful comment!

[@awkwardsity]

@@raisavlogs8877 it’s just such an interesting topic because there’s no consensus on what constitutes a classic so there’s no real way to determine how old a book has to be in order to become one

[@DvdLott]

I kept losing my place but I'm pretty sure I've read at least 47 of them. But I'm old (72). I started trying to read all the classics when I retired. I tried Infinite Jest but gave up. Too damn many footnotes! I still have Don Quixote and Middlemarch sitting around somewhere but haven't tackled them yet. (FYI - I googled this list and came up with what I thought was the same poster as Jack was reading from; however, some of them were not the same, so now I'm confused.)

[@jmsl910]

boomer here: 72 does not = old

[@saffiremidnight8685]

I've only read 5, but most within the past year! Trying to catch up on influential works and classics lately

[@kojagoribhattacharya7720]

I read 2 it's okay

[@kaatharinaas4949]

this is such a good christmas gift

[@gwenhutchinson5817]

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides is one of my favorite books of all time! You definitely need to read it! Changed my life!

[@ishatrivedi5900]

Middlesex is amazing! I thought it was so much better than The Virgin Suicides even though I feel like the latter is more well known?

[@nl3064]

I tried Middlesex. I gave up really quickly because it was such a huge fucken bore. I love the Virgin Suicides, though.

[@briancox9357]

Great book, as is The Virgin Suicides by Eugenides.

[@whitej7888]

Pale Fire and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest are absolutely amazing, 11/10 books. You HAVE to read them!

[@nl3064]

Honestly, Pale Fire is one of my favorites. I was disappointed Jack didn't know it.

[@livtupi]

I started pale fire like 3 times but i keep getting scared I'm not smart enough for it lol even tho i read house of leaves twice and wasn't put off by it at all so idk

[@fatboyslim496]

You must read "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler!" Read it last year. It's so strange but also beautiful. Never read anything with a comparable structure.

[@Cupcake3453]

I got 14 but my mum is a Literature lecturer so I've heard of most of them. The Shipping News is incredible, one of my favourite books ever, by the author of Brokeback Mountain. It's super interesting!

[@ariadnaknight]

hearing jack say that 1984 was the reason he got into the degree he did makes my heart happy, because I also got into my degree because of that book!

[@WhaleMilk]

I’m surprised At Swim-two-birds is on there. It’s a super obscure meta fictional surrealist Irish novel that’s so fun to read. Super funny and just so strange

[@nl3064]

It's not that obscure. Most literary people have at least probably heard of it.

[@nehaaswal10]

I thought I wouldn't have read any, but 5/100 seems pretty good to me😂

[@SakuraNana09]

Same 😂🥳

[@Katya__.]

I didn’t get any 😂

[@kavya12kohli]

Hey Jack, inspired by your video, I started reading these books. I started with Don Quixote and it was a great experience. It took me about two something months to complete, but I stayed firm. I had read 14 books from this chart and now it's fifteen! When I finish reading all 100 of these, I'll be sure to comment.

[@kar4388]

I’ve read 27 of those since the start of the year. Definitely been keeping up on my New Year’s resolution!

[@karissaridge8145]

THE WAY I LITERALLY GOT THE SAME LIST FOR CHRISTMAS LAST YEAR?? THIS IS SO SICK OMGGG

[@jmsl910]

can you please write the name of the publisher?

[@aaatt268]

15. As a non English speaker from Engineering background from Bangladesh where you don't even have most of these books, I feel a great deal of pride in myself

[@fennecfox9490]

I've only read 10 of these. I want to say 11 but I can't remember if I finished Gilead. The Red Badge of Courage is a pretty short book and a famous American war novel. There was a film with Audie Murphy. I only remember this because we watched it the night before my brother was born.

[@rauldjvp3053]

If on a winter’s night a traveler is a wonderful choice for Calvino, but Calvino books are like Pringles: you can’t have just one!

[@BibiixMusic]

I bet you would really enjoy 'The Palace of Dreams'. It's an Albanian classic with very strong Orwell and Kafka vibes!

[@chiejavier5468]

I only got 12/100 so I’d say you did pretty good!! Last year, I fell back in love with reading, but I’ve been stuck in my comfort zone (poetry, memoirs, art history biographies). Your channel has been very helpful at re-introducing classics and current releases 😊

[@blackanne]

I'm interested on your take on The Road! I had a beatnik phase during my university times.

[@voxnihili4960]

It‘s only 22/100 for me, unfortunately. English is not my first language though. I‘ve got some more must-reads: The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath), The Stranger (Albert Camus), Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky), Siddhartha (Hermann Hesse), Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) and finally Ham on Rye (Charles Bukowski), just because I love it. Thanks for your video!

[@meganw4244]

new jack vid = day made

[@brandondouglas2436]

Wow! I have not heard of the majority of those. I have only read 5% of that list: "Don Quixote," "Robinson Crusoe," "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," "Catcher in the Rye," and "To Kill A Mockingbird." When it comes to classics, I have mostly read Francophone and Hispanophone literature.

[@katiehands2633]

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is one of my favorite books. Highly recommend.

[@elisabetharcon8459]

Jack, you HAVE to read don quijote (as a Spanish person myself) its literally the most famous book in my country and i heard that is the second most sold book in the world after the bible (ill have to look it up tho) its a must.

[@josiegjackson]

I've read 7 books from this list, 3 from my school - pretty pleased about that considering that I don't often read from 'classic' authors. Interested in reading a couple more from that list (100 Years of Solitude and Fahrenheit 451) but I have read quite a lot of other books that doesn't appear here and that's okay! Don't let this list define your reading accomplishments - its only one genre (well kind of - classic literature) and there's so many great books out there that isn't on here!

[@isabel35]

Anna Karenina is my favorite book, highly recommend!

[@wonderwoman5528]

What’s so good about it?

[@ailen9859]

im 12 years old, BUT that wont stop me from wanting to read all of this books! im looking foward reading 1984, war and peace, the great gatsby and some jane austen too. im really excited to get into literature, to be honest

[@pandaseal1611]

I would start with Anna Karentina first before war and peace as it is a bit of an easier way in to Tolstoy writing

[@OrnaLipkin]

That was fun. Maybe you should be selling a poster like that with your picks.. American Pastoral was a nice read, but I think Roth's The Plot Against America is more of a must-read.

[@alisezone1800]

16 of these! Not bad considering… also surprised at a couple of choices: I read Appointment in Samarra thinking it was so niche, surprised anyone thought it good enough to put on this list

[@0218jess]

I've only read 8 😂 got all my essential amino acids though. But seriously, I feel so much pressure when I think about reading classics that I can't bring myself to do it. Need to try and knock one or two off this year! 😬

[@Jannyl13]

I've read 24 of those! The only ones that I've read, that you haven't are Anna Karenina (for a class on the "Rise of the European Novel", loved that one!), Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Clockwork Orange! I've mostly read 18th century novels because that's what I'm writing my phd about! Once I'm done, I'll finally have the time to read some 19th and 20th century and some contemporary fiction!

[@elimeg]

oh, well ive only read 8 :D but here are some other important classics ive read so i dont feel bad about that number: - A Room of One's Own, - The Three Musketeers, - The Stranger by Camus, - Les Misérables, - The Yellow Wall-Paper, - La vida es sueño (ok that one's a play), - A hundred years of solitude, - Die unendliche Geschichte - Alice in Wonderland - Candide by Voltaire

[@SueJacksonDE]

Fun video! And, wow, I think 44 is great. I've only read 34 of them ... and I am considerably older than you! I was interested to see it's not just classics but quite a few modern books on the list, too. I just read Their Eyes Were Watching God in February and definitely recommend it - excellent! Sounds like you need to catch up a bit on your American Lit :) This was fun - thanks!

[@kiratheelf772]

Lmaooo I've only read 9/100, I only really got back into reading during 2020 and I hadn't willingly read classics since school, but I do looove them now. There were several of those I have copies of and haven't read yet, I'm literally in the midst of reading Moby Dick, there were some I want to read and don't have copies yet, And the majority of those I haven't heard of! Thank you very much for this list!

[@FuzzyMonkey95]

I got 10! Both my favorite (To Kill a Mockingbird) and least favorite (Great Expectations and Invisible Man) novels were on the chart, which is interesting. Best of luck with Invisible Man! It was definitely not my cup of tea (though it does have some important messages), but i I am excited to hear your thoughts!

[@sineadcarty7256]

An unseen extract being a book you read is THE best feeling

[@lalala4426]

To I smell a Beat Generation Video coming? I would love one

[@ttcgr]

the sound and the fury is so good, def wacky but so important to understanding American modernism

[@kathleenjohnson4592]

I loved that book!

[@addunk355]

'Tell it on the Mountain' by James Baldwin... a MUST! 'Passage to India' by E.M. Forster! Beautifully written. It examines prejudice and what we perceive the truth to be... Well worth the read...

[@belleellis]

Hi Jack, I found a theme in the books that I have personally read which you haven't and that's 20th century American literature. I'm not American but I did a class on it at uni and particularly love Southern gothic literature to this day. It would make a great video and I highly recommend reading the following. The Sound and the Fury Their Eyes were Watching God The Grapes of Wrath The Big Sleep The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Go Tell it on the Mountain Ragtime The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is one of my all time favourite novels and I think you will really love it too. Be warned it will shatter your heart into a million beautiful pieces. Happy reading! P.S. I got 32.

[@annemontgomery6167]

I read 29; I think the BBC great reads challenge from years ago is a better list. A lot of these titles are so random? Maybe popchart got a bit of a bonus for mentioning certain books from a certain publishing house :)

[@jstyler2583]

Good List! I've read 60/100; reading 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveller' currently (No. 61)

[@elimar7339]

I’ve read 52/100, but I have to admit I studied literature to post-graduate level, and I’m on the wrong side of 40, so no much of a feat 😆 Great video, Jack! I’ve added quite of those to my TBR list. Thank you

[@jmsl910]

that is fabulous!!! well-done!! 💚📚💚

[@ambientchillshop2639]

Stopped by to vote for getting The Heart is a Lonely Hunter on the TBR.

[@nimthirielhime]

I also read 44 books! I'm happy that my favorite novel, Blood Meridian, was on the list. It's incredibly well written, though very violent and not for the faint of heart

[@briancox9357]

Agreed, it's the last great novel of 20th Century.

[@samanthasouthard1108]

Red Badge of Courage was beautifully written. The first page was like a painting.

[@lliving2326]

I read solid 5 of these Books 😅 But there are a lot of English writers on the map and I'm German and read a lot German Books. Great Video loved it ❤

[@Yorcen]

“The Charterhouse of Parma” by Stendahl has to be definitely on this list.

[@Boudleaux]

I have to say that Flann O'Brien is an author I only discovered in the last 2 years and I've become such a fan. At Swim Two Birds is extreme meta fiction. It's very funny but very Irish. Flann O'Brien is not for everyone, but I can honestly say that I've finished more than one of his books and have said aloud, "What the hell did I just read." The Third Policeman is one of the weirdest books I've ever read. I loved it.

[@constantineholmes]

Jack makes my day brighter!

[@TheVolterra13]

I feel like the proper title for this list would be "essential books for americans/westerners". As someone who grew up in Europe, I never even heard of most of these.

[@spilledsalt]

You should read Native Son. Had to read it for school but it was crazy good.

[@dedasab]

I've read only 15 from this list 😅, I love classics and I read a lot of them. But I usually read the mystery genre, or read multiple books by the same author. So if Sherlock Holmes was there, I could've scored higher. I also read all 6 major novels by Jane Austen, a couple of Joseph Conrad's novels (Almost 4), and many of his novellas. I also like to read George Orwell's memories and novels. I read a tale of two cities by Charles Dickins, which is weird that it wasn't part of the list.

[@Idk-oe9tc]

Me too! I ALWAYS mix up Jane Austen and Jane Eyre. It doesn't help that they were both in the 19th century.

[@elodie_k221b]

I've read 14 of them, 6 are on my TBR, and then there's On The Road, which I've tried reading 3 times and always DNF about halfway through.

[@laurenschenck5355]

So proud of you Jack! ❤❤❤❤

[@PokhrajRoy.]

I remember a video on Rory’s book list and the title reminded me of it.

[@olimpialigarotti4977]

make your own list of 100 essential novels pleaseee

[@sierray3101]

the best vids from jack!!! lots of love from nyc

[@tescomealdeals]

Gonna be honest, I really think you should give The Crying of Lot 49 another chance. Unfortunately a lot of people get fucked over by university courses which use it as the default Pynchon novel to study just because it's short, ignoring the fact that it's also easily one of his densest books. However, it is a book which is immensely rewarding with each subsequent reread and is made significantly easier to understand if you've read some of Pynchon's more accessible stuff, I really reccommend Inherent Vice which is admittedly a far more fun read on a page-to-page basis

[@artlesscalamity]

I got 36 out of 100, but some of the blind spots for me are truly embarrassing (Pride and Prejudice, Native Son, 100 Years of Solitude). Thanks for the motivation. And please read Don Quixote! It’s a lot of fun.

[@marianbaroi7526]

I kinda want you to not scratch them (if the covers are the scratch-offs) since they look so nice with the gold! And no shame to have not read so many of these - I've only recently gotten back to reading so my score is very low (4/100)

[@carolineschaffbeatrous]

You’ve GOT to read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. So good and right up your alley.

[@stellar2435]

for a non-english major, i feel like 13/100 isn't too bad but this showed me that i've definitely got some work to do

[@karenschmocker8711]

43. And fyi Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve volume opus so listing it as one book is a little like ignoring that Remembrance of Things Past and Lord of the Rings were huge trilogy sets

[@cate7540]

I have read 15 of those books. Many of them I. the last few years. I also have 17 of those books on my TBR bookshelf.

[@zahraiziy7982]

In Iran we're living in more frightening situation than the Handmade's tale and us women after 6 months still fighting with dictator regime and not giving up. Stand with us however you can. We need more global support. #woman_life_freedom

[@proudestmonkee07]

You should add the link to that poster in the description!

[@lauravsthepage]

Me, refusing to read classics 🙅🏻‍♀️ 9/100

[@saveena8035]

I’ve read four 😭

[@KiraFriede]

​@@saveena8035 I also read four. Pride & Prejudice Don Quixote Metamorphosis Lord of the Rings

[@KiraFriede]

I also read Sense& Sensibility and Emma by Jane Austen which I would also consider those classics.

[@m4rtt4_]

my count was stuck at 10 for so long and I was afraid it'd stay there.. but nope, I got 17! still not very proud of that, but to my defense I've read none of these books for school and every single one for my own enjoyment :) so many of these are on my tbr!

[@briancox9357]

White Noise is a great choice. Don De Lillo is the greatest author of the late 20th Century. If there is no Joseph Conrad on the list there needs to be. 'The Secret Agent', or 'Nostromo'. 'Invisible Man' appears on many of the lists I've watched recently, and is one of the best novels I've ever read.

[@isagf4804]

Animal Farm, Narnia, Catcher in the Rye and LoTR are the only ones I've read and now I feel so basic lol