I read quite a bit, in the last couple of years I’ve tried to read more classics and I know that there are as many “greatest and best” lists as there are reader. Yet looking at The Observer’s list I’m tempted to say that I suck. I’ve only read 10 of them (actually I’m currently finishing the tenth) and own 3 more that I haven’t read yet.

I have read (in reverse order of the list):

The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

On the Road, Jack Kerouac

The Lord Of The Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien

Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde (that’s the one I’m reading now)

Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift

I haven’t done any research on this so it’s just a feeling from going through the list quickly but weren’t the vast majority of these books written in the late 19th and early 20th century? What gives?

How about you? What’s your “score” and do you agree with the list?