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100 Books You Can't Do Without

In 2010, a viral Facebook meme (remember those) was created featuring 100 books you "can't do without". Can you name the authors of those books?
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Quizmaster
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Last updated: March 4, 2026
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First submittedDecember 5, 2010
Times taken63,925
Average score34.6%
Rating4.49
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Book
Author
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
Harry Potter series
J.K. Rowling
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
The Bible
Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte
Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell
His Dark Materials
Philip Pullman
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy
Catch-22
Joseph Heller
Complete Works of Shakespeare
Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier
The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien
Birdsong
Sebastian Faulks
Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
The Time Traveler's Wife
Audrey Niffenegger
Middlemarch
George Eliot
Gone With The Wind
Margaret Mitchell
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Bleak House
Charles Dickens
War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy
Douglas Adams
Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll
The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy
David Copperfield
Charles Dickens
Chronicles of Narnia
C.S. Lewis
Emma
Jane Austen
Persuasion
Jane Austen
The Lion, the Witch and
the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Louis de Bernieres
Memoirs of a Geisha
Arthur Golden
Winnie the Pooh
A.A Milne
Animal Farm
George Orwell
The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown
One Hundred Years
of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia
Marquez
A Prayer for Owen Meaney
John Irving
The Woman in White
Wilkie Collins
Anne of Green Gables
L.M. Montgomery
Far From the
Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood
Lord of the Flies
William Golding
Atonement
Ian McEwan
Life of Pi
Yann Martel
Book
Author
Dune
Frank Herbert
Cold Comfort Farm
Stella Gibbons
Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen
A Suitable Boy
Vikram Seth
The Shadow of the Wind
Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
The Curious Incident of the
Dog in the Night-time
Mark Haddon
Love in the Time of Cholera
Gabriel Garcia
Marquez
Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov
The Secret History
Donna Tartt
The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas
On The Road
Jack Kerouac
Jude the Obscure
Thomas Hardy
Bridget Jones's Diary
Helen Fielding
Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick
Herman Melville
Oliver Twist
Charles Dickens
Dracula
Bram Stoker
The Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson
Burnett
Notes From A Small Island
Bill Bryson
Ulysses
James Joyce
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath
Swallows and Amazons
Arthur Ransome
Germinal
Emile Zola
Vanity Fair
William Makepeace
Thackeray
Possession
A.S. Byatt
A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens
Cloud Atlas
David Mitchell
The Color Purple
Alice Walker
The Remains of the Day
Kazuo Ishiguro
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert
A Fine Balance
Rohinton Mistry
Charlotte's Web
E.B. White
The Five People You Meet
In Heaven
Mitch Albom
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
The Faraway Tree Collection
Enid Blyton
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad
The Little Prince
Antoine de
Saint-Exupery
The Wasp Factory
Iain Banks
Watership Down
Richard Adams
A Confederacy of Dunces
John Kennedy Toole
A Town Like Alice
Nevil Shute
The Three Musketeers
Alexandre Dumas
Hamlet
William Shakespeare
Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory
Roald Dahl
Les Misérables
Victor Hugo
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98 Comments
HighFidelity
+24
Level 59
Dec 5, 2010
This is a ridiculous list. Two cases where one of the books is a part of another "book" listed (Lion, Witch and Wardrobe/Narnia; Hamlet/Complete Works of Shakespeare), two that have no answer (!!)- would be better if you stripped the list down to 50 or so, said that all the books appeared on the list/meme in question and gave less time.
Freestatebear
+6
Level 88
Sep 1, 2015
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is part of the Chronicles of Narnia series. It, and the other six in the series, were all originally published as stand-alone books, even if today they're sometimes packaged together in a single volume.
howard38
+2
Level 62
Jul 10, 2018
So what?
LosScorpions
+1
Level 44
Dec 6, 2011
The Bible was written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
plattitude
+17
Level 94
Aug 23, 2012
And Moses, Daniel, Ezra, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul, James, Jude... and we're still not to half of the authors. I suppose you could say they were all ghost writing for God...
Sifhraven
+7
Level 76
Sep 4, 2019
The bible was not "written" it is a collection of writings put together, some written centuries apart. Though with a common subject.
kalbahamut
+4
Level 79
Sep 1, 2018
No it wasn't. Even devout believing Christians who know what they are talking about know this. I'm not being disrespectful I'm trying to save you from looking silly. This is just flat out wrong and we know it to be wrong.
JonOfKent
+1
Level 61
Apr 18, 2026
"Even"?
coolandhip
+1
Level 36
Apr 18, 2026
The earliest written references to the four Gospels attribute them to the authors they are associated with today. John to John the Evangelist, Mark as the account of Peter (Mark being his scribe), Luke to Luke and Matthew to Matthew. There are many of such citations from the late second / early third century and later.
theLAYTshow
+1
Level 41
Jan 6, 2012
How great is Atonement? I love it...
Nobody
+2
Level 15
May 22, 2012
I'm surprised how few people got Life of Pi and the Kite Runner. 'course, I just read them both this year...
buck1017
+2
Level 78
Jul 17, 2013
Kite runner is fantastic. And the movie didn't get NEARLY enought credit.
kalbahamut
+5
Level 79
May 14, 2015
1000 Splendid Suns was better
DerMan4
+8
Level 33
May 22, 2012
Count of Monte Cristo is a great read
travelfan
+4
Level 67
Dec 5, 2014
So true! This might be my all-time favorite book.
clr231
+2
Level 59
Dec 29, 2012
sad only 3% knew Toole and Tartt. Two great writers. Good quiz
cledun2
+2
Level 95
Feb 20, 2022
I know Tartt because a friend of mine went to school with her. Great book btw
TheWombat
+3
Level 72
Oct 7, 2013
I thought it was a great quiz, but I did used to work in a bookshop, so that makes it easier. I got 65/80 and there were another half dozen that were on the tip of my tongue but my brain froze.
cwasims
+3
Level 61
Apr 9, 2014
Coming from Canada, I was surprised as to how much Canadian lit there was (Anne of Green Gables, Life of Pi, The Handmaid's Tale). It seems Canadians do produce good novels after all!
Gartholomew
+2
Level 45
May 20, 2014
I'm fairly well-read and I only got 45. I would've gotten 46 if I remembered that Thackeray was spelled with an "ay" at the end rather than just a "y." Still, I'm okay with my result, because I tend to stick to the classics and not knowing the author of books like The Lovely Bones is fine by me.
sillie
+2
Level 75
Jun 12, 2014
But The Lovely Bones is a great book! I shared your score, 46, but I suppose I had more modern ones in there.
sillie
+2
Level 75
May 13, 2015
Got 50 now I redid it. And I just couldn't remember who wrote Moby Dick! Missed about 5 more that I know/should know.
aliberti68
+1
Level 53
Jun 28, 2014
Got 45. Couldn't spell Du Maurier...
thecoolestdude2
+4
Level 67
May 13, 2015
Pride and Prejudice? C'mon...
ander217
+9
Level 73
May 13, 2015
My favorite book ever. Groundbreaking for its day.
reverendmeat
+2
Level 86
Apr 18, 2026
Pride and Prejudice is great! And this is coming from a guy who mainly reads warhammer novels
JonOfKent
+2
Level 61
Apr 18, 2026
"C'mon"?? C'mon...
bigvbdude
+2
Level 98
May 13, 2015
I'm happy that my favorite book made the list. A Prayer for Owen Meany is amazing!
JWatson24
+1
Level 71
Apr 19, 2026
I'm sorry but that book just was mind-numbingly boring for me. I'm glad you liked it though!
Gosuman
+12
Level 45
May 13, 2015
Da Vinci Code, Bridget Jones Diary, two books of Narnia series but not Don Quixote, the Divine Comedy or Metamorphosis? Who the hell made this list?
PorcNBeanz
+11
Level 57
May 13, 2015
Why are "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" and "Hamlet" listed as two different entries?
RobNobody
+3
Level 80
Apr 18, 2026
Same reason The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe are.
ander217
+2
Level 73
May 13, 2015
Loved this quiz. But would you consider accepting Lucy Maude Whats-her-name for Anne of Green Gables? ;)
zimbabwe12
+4
Level 52
May 13, 2015
This would be so much better if you had to guess the book, not the author. I know many of the books here but less than half of the authors
Quizmaster
+6
Level ∞
May 13, 2015
Knowing what I do about JetPunk stats that seems unlikely.
JesusPotter
+5
Level 69
May 14, 2015
"The Catcher in the Rye," the most overrated book in history. Absolute garbage.
Quizmaster
+7
Level ∞
May 14, 2015
Nobody asked me, but my personal vote for most over-rated book is "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Never has a book gotten so much mileage out of a great title. Many people claim to like it. Fewer have read it. Even fewer can explain it (probably because it's mostly nonsense).
LarryLovage
+1
Level 55
May 15, 2015
Robert Persig! Do I get an extra point??
Sifhraven
+1
Level 76
Sep 4, 2019
I read it and I really liked it! I cant remember much about it though, cause it was about 20 years ago. I can almost only remember that a teacher asked his class to look at a coin and keep looking at it and write everything they see. And another part about how input goes through several filters of the mind. Things about perception.

Other than that I dont remember much so, I can't tell you much about what is was about, but I remember the things I felt reading it. (atleast parts of the book could be the rest wasnt interessing) I found it very interesting, refreshin and inspiring if i remember correctly. Completely different than other books, quite weird, but touching subjects I was allready interested in

Sifhraven
+1
Level 76
Sep 4, 2019
thoughI feel like I am the only one in my country that has ever heard of it. Well at least one other person, cause I think I got it via a friend of my sister. I wonder where that book went... maybe I should reread it. no idea if I just loaned it or if it is in possesion ( I have got wayy too many books, and I give a lot of them away very often, but they still take up an entire room (and are scattered around all the other rooms expect, usually.. the kitchen haha)
kenpo17
+2
Level 65
May 14, 2015
I agree with you JesusPotter. One of the worst books I've ever read.

Although The Great Gatsby is right up there with it.

LarryLovage
+2
Level 55
May 15, 2015
Missed 18 for a 78% pass rate, which surprisingly beats 98% of takers!

Did The Guardian really list Hamlet separately from the Complete Works? Old Billy Shakes is the only name with an extraneous final letter that you require to type in. Ironically some of the ones I couldn't remember are ones I've actually read (Curious Incident, Capt Corelli).

Findlay
+2
Level 80
Sep 20, 2016
I think I'd be just fine doing without Dan Brown. That said, I think overall it's a good list. Is it exactly the list I would have chosen? No, but on balance, not bad.
Djilas
+5
Level 86
Jan 2, 2017
Why can't I do without Hamlet if I already have Complete Works of Shakespeare? The most mind-boggling question about this list.
Quizmaster
+3
Level ∞
Jan 2, 2017
That's Facebook memes for you. :)
tkv
+1
Level 35
Aug 9, 2017
Spelling is way too tough on this - Margaret Attwood not accepted for Margaret Atwood? Come on!
ingriddurden
+1
Level 59
Sep 28, 2017
too personal a quiz. Some classics are missing and several books are personal choice, not yet considered classics..
howard38
+2
Level 62
Jul 10, 2018
Nothing is missing as the list is based only on opinions and does not claim to be comprehensive.
Froststar101
+1
Level 73
May 16, 2018
My quizbowl knowledge wasn't good enough for 5 points - I only got 51. I maybe should have gotten Zola, Toole, and Khaled Hosseini, but it still wouldn't have been enough. Shocking that I am not good enough! :)
Froststar101
+1
Level 73
Sep 9, 2020
Up to 60 so I have learned some stuff in the past two years... and that's enough for the 5th point
stubart409
+2
Level 69
Sep 1, 2018
No Haruki Murakami, Peter Carey, Mickhail Bulgakov, Thomas Pynchon, Henry Miller or Anthony Burgess. But somehow Dan Brown is on here, JK Rowling and Jane Austen 3 times!? Also, it's amazing how a movie series can give credence to a series of books. When I was younger, The Lord of the Rings was only considered serious reading by mega-nerds and people who smoked too much pot.
akela
+2
Level 35
Sep 1, 2018
you did not list Cervantes? as important as Shakespeare!
Malbaby
+1
Level 70
Sep 1, 2018
Every true JetPunker should read 'Extreme Cosmos' by Bryan Gaensler.......... this book is the ultimate non-fiction book regarding the extremes on Earth and the Universe:......... did you know the Sun loses between 4 and 5 Million tons of mass EVERY SECOND!
InterAlia
+1
Level 83
Apr 18, 2026
Alright, I'll put it on my list
stone222
+1
Level 47
Oct 10, 2018
knew so many but spelling and time defeated me.
NathanIQMaster
+3
Level 20
Feb 17, 2019
What no Frankenstein
jayhiatt
+3
Level 72
Mar 22, 2019
Dickens is good. But six books in a list of only 100 seems a bit excessive. (As well as Shakespeare and C.S. Lewis each getting the same book on there twice.) Especially when Twain is left out entirely.
vermiciousknid
+2
Level 91
Jul 19, 2019
You know it's a tough quiz when you miss 24 answers and still get 5 points.
vomitingdiamonds
+1
Level 87
Oct 14, 2019
The bottom guessed book is great. Surprised it is bottom.
stylus
+1
Level 79
Nov 30, 2019
pretty sure the book is 'alice's adventures in wonderland', isn't it?
jennraven
+1
Level 67
Nov 30, 2019
Quite a few books that I've read, but couldn't remember the authors' names
PHG1960
+2
Level 69
Nov 11, 2020
The Guardian is crazy. Some of these books are utter rubbish and some all time great books are missing. The list was distinctly slanted towards snobby books. Catcher in the Rye was dreadful.
emmasuttttt
+1
Level 59
Dec 21, 2020
surprised there's no animal farm
jayrod
+3
Level 96
Dec 22, 2020
Not a single book by Hemingway!?!! The Sun Also Rises, For Whom The Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea are all worthy inclusions.
AnsoCharmz
+1
Level 77
Apr 30, 2021
I can do very well without the bible thankyou
Angbo
+1
Level 67
May 31, 2021
How about Dictionaries?

It's very important for students!

AlBysmal
+4
Level 56
Jun 8, 2021
I say this as someone who generally loves Ulysses and James Joyce: I think most people could probably do without Ulysses
ogamer
+1
Level 63
Aug 2, 2021
Where are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey? Where is Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics? Where is Dante's Divine Comedy? Where is Machiavelli's Prince? Well, this seems to be a very poor list to me.
xXViolaXx
+1
Level 67
Jun 30, 2022
Perhaps zoom out and consider: does everyone need or want to have access to Homer, Machiavelli, or Dante? I love me some Homer, but as one of the earliest to give us the major Western archetypes, anything after will reflect some of that pretty well. As for Machiavelli, are we all studying to overthrow our political enemies all the time? Are we, in fact, princes? And Aristotle: Christian and Ancient Greek thought got married beautifully by Sts. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and even Dante. While I agree with you that these works are still somewhat relevant, I'm not sure the average perhaps Needs them, ya know?
Ainmclarach
+2
Level 71
Jun 28, 2024
Yeah, like does everyone need to read Dante’s self insert Bible fanfic?
Shambles84
+1
Level 46
Sep 15, 2021
no clock work orange , or any of kings novels and no Irvine welsh
cactus
+1
Level 71
Sep 21, 2021
no country for old men is the best book I've ever read, it should be here.
rubuenaso
+4
Level 56
Jun 6, 2022
Harry Potter series and not Don quijote de la Mancha or the divine comedy? Really?
akipopopopooon
+2
Level 81
Aug 22, 2022
it's the guardian sadly what would you expect
WWEFan619
+2
Level 60
Jan 31, 2023
No Ernest Hemingway? I'm surprised, he's one of the most influential authors of his time!
brandybuck96
+2
Level 82
Apr 27, 2023
Heavens... around 10 of these were originally written in a language other than English, mostly Russian and French. I know this simply reflects the literature Guardian readers are most likely to be exposed to, but it's so bizarre to me how few translated works are well-known by Anglophones
elcampeador
+2
Level 77
Jul 5, 2023
In Japan, I would expect such a list to be predominated by Japanese language works... (Japan just being a random example)
brandybuck96
+1
Level 82
Oct 23, 2023
It would however be a completely different story in countries without very strong national literatures and incredibly low rates of literary translation.
SirPhilippines
+3
Level 73
Nov 22, 2023
Fun Fact: Did you know Leo Tolstoy was originally going to name his book War and Peace “War (What Is It Good For)”?
Moff
+1
Level 73
Mar 20, 2024
Why isn't 50 Shades of Grey not on here? Brilliant book.
flycc
+2
Level 86
Jul 16, 2024
I wonder if English speaking people don't read authors of other languages...
JonOfKent
+1
Level 61
Apr 18, 2026
In my experience, on the whole no. Also have the most cursory idea of the history of non-English-speaking countries, and very little curiosity about either.
quizfalcon4002
+2
Level 60
Nov 15, 2024
No Hemingway, Twain, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island), Herman Melville (Moby Dick), Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, or Agatha Christie?
InterAlia
+1
Level 83
Apr 18, 2026
Moby Dick is there, but I agree with your list of conspicuous exclusions otherwise.
AnnikaKim
+2
Level 66
Nov 25, 2024
Could you cut us some slack with spelling Dostoyevsky? It's extremely hard to remember how English speakers spell Russian. And only seven minutes???
MovieQuizGuy
+3
Level 64
Dec 28, 2024
Only a ridiculous list would include Winnie the Pooh and omit The House at Pooh Corner, which is the greatest book ever written. Take that, Bible.
IamTheSam
+2
Level 48
Jan 9, 2025
Oh dear: there are some very poor choices on this list. Remember: The Guardian is a media entity; as such, its list was designed to attract attention and clicks as much as anything else.

No HG Wells, though...

bachslunch
+1
Level 93
Jan 30, 2025
Not enough time. Not even close.
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Mar 4, 2026
Added some more time.
Davesorphanage
+1
Level 30
Feb 22, 2026
The Handmaid's Tale is complete trash. Daniel Stein's American Dystopia shows how it is factually inaccurate and also just plain wrong.
RobNobody
+2
Level 80
Apr 18, 2026
I'm sorry, the speculative fiction near-future dystopian novel is "factually inaccurate"? Are you telling me those events didn't actually happen?
timshorts
+1
Level 61
Apr 20, 2026
I thought it was by Chaucer
Quizmaster
+2
Level ∞
Mar 4, 2026
It turns out that we could, in fact, do without those books as people mostly stopped reading thanks in large part to social media like Reddit.
JWatson24
+1
Level 71
Apr 19, 2026
Reddit? Of all the places on the internet, I feel like Reddit is one of the few that still has large communities for readers. Any book or author you're into, you can find a subreddit for. And BookTok is certainly a thing, plenty of book recs on Instagram too. (We can debate about the recs they give, but they certainly aid people in finding books.) IMO, it's not a question of "readers" reading less; people who grew up reading will remain avid readers. And there are always going to be people who don't enjoy reading, if they have better things to do with their time, that doesn't bother me.

What I'm more concerned about is younger generations, especially Gen Alpha, and their engagement with books. Because the content you get reflects your interests, and if people aren't actively looking for those topics, threads, videos, it doesn't register in their feed. And of course AI slop and brainrot is going to be more readily available to kids than things that are educational or enriching.

Bonifratz
+2
Level 53
Apr 18, 2026
Me trying "Caulfield" for the author of the Catcher in the Rye... *facepalm*
Remster
+1
Level 81
Apr 18, 2026
Blyton, Dahl, Tolkien … I’m surprised to see so many children’s authors in the list.
Jeremy2011
+4
Level 46
Apr 18, 2026
I don’t see Agatha Christie on this list.
Woland
+1
Level 51
Apr 19, 2026
Way too many garbage Austen, Rand, Bronte lmao. Get real.
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