In 2005, prestigioasa revista TIME oferea publicului sau o lista de 100 de carti, in ordinea alfabetica a titlurilor , ca fiind cele mai importante carti ale umanitatii. Daca sunt intradevar cele mai populare ramane de vazut…fiecare cu gusturile si preferinte lui.E de remarcat ca americanu’ e mare cinefil, multe dintre carti sunt de fapt scenarii de film, cred. Iata lista:
- Aventurile lui Augie March, (The Adventures of Augie March) – Saul Bellow
- Toti oamenii regelui (All the King’s Men) – Robert Penn Warren
- Pastorala Americana (American Pastoral) – Philip Roth
- O tragedie americana (An American Tragedy) – Theodore Dreiser
- Ferma animalelor (Animal Farm) – George Orwell
- Intalnire in Samarra (Appointment in Samarra) – John O’Hara
- Esti acolo , Doamne ? Sunt eu, Margaret (Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret) – Judy Blume
- Asistentul (The Assistant) – Bernard Malamud
- La doi lebadoi (At Swim-Two-Birds) – Flann O’Brien
- Ispasirea (Atonement) – Ian McEwan
- Preaiubita (Beloved) – Toni Morrison
- Adio, Berlin (The Berlin Stories) – Christopher Isherwood
- Somnul de veci (The Big Sleep) – Raymond Chandler
- Asasinul orb (The Blind Assassin) – Margaret Atwood
- Meridianul sangeriu/Amiaza sangerie (Blood Meridian) – Cormac McCarthy
- Intoarcere la Brideshead (Brideshead Revisited) – Evelyn Waugh
- Podul din San Luis Rey (The Bridge of San Luis Rey) – Thornton Wilder
- Call It Sleep – Henry Roth
- Catch-22 (Catch-22) – Joseph Heller
- De veghe in lanul cu secara (The Catcher in the Rye) – J.D. Salinger
- Portocala mecanica (A Clockwork Orange) – Anthony Burgess
- Confesiunile lui Nat Turner (The Confessions of Nat Turner) – William Styron
- Corectii (The Corrections) – Jonathan Franzen
- Strigarea lotului 49 (The Crying of Lot 49) – Thomas Pynchon
- Un dans pe muzica timpului (A Dance to the Music of Time) – Anthony Powell
- Ziua lacustei (The Day of the Locust) – Nathanael West
- Moartea vine pentru arhiepiscop (Death Comes for the Archbishop) – Willa Cather
- O moarte in familie (A Death in the Family) – James Agee
- Moartea inimii (The Death of the Heart) – Elizabeth Bowen
- Eliberarea (Deliverance) – James Dickey
- Dog Soldiers – Robert Stone
- Falconer (Falconer) – John Cheever
- Iubita locotenentului francez (The French Lieutenant’s Woman) – John Fowles
- Carnetul auriu (The Golden Notebook) – Doris Lessing
- Go Tell it on the Mountain – James Baldwin
- Pe aripile vantului (Gone With the Wind) – Margaret Mitchell
- Fructele maniei (The Grapes of Wrath) – John Steinbeck
- Curcubeul gravitatiei (Gravity’s Rainbow) – Thomas Pynchon
- Marele Gatsby (The Great Gatsby) – F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Un pumn de tarana (A Handful of Dust) – Evelyn Waugh
- Inima e un vanator singuratic (The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter) – Carson McCullers
- Miezul lucrurilor (The Heart of the Matter) – Graham Greene
- Herzog (Herzog) – Saul Bellow
- Gospodaria (Housekeeping) – Marilynne Robinson
- O casa pentru dl. Biswas (A House for Mr. Biswas) – V.S. Naipaul
- Claudius, Zeul (I, Claudius) – Robert Graves
- Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace
- Omul invizibil (Invisible Man) – Ralph Ellison
- Lumina de august (Light in August) William Faulkner
- Sifonierul, Leul si vrajitoarea (The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe) C.S. Lewis
- Lolita (Lolita) Vladimir Nabokov
- Imparatul mustelor (Lord of the Flies) William Golding
- Stapanul inelelor (The Lord of the Rings) J.R.R. Tolkien
- Iubirea (Loving) Henry Green
- Jim cel norocos (Lucky Jim) Kingsley Amis
- Barbatul care iubea copiii (The Man Who Loved Children) Christina Stead
- Banii (Money) Martin Amis
- The Moviegoer – Walker Percy
- Doamna Dalloway (Mrs. Dalloway) Virginia Woolf
- Pranzul dezgolit (Naked Lunch) William Burroughs
- Fiul natural (Native Son) Richard Wright
- Neuromantul (Neuromancer) William Gibson
- Sa nu ma parasesti (Never Let Me Go) Kazuo Ishiguro
- 1984 – George Orwell
- Pe drum (On the Road) Jack Kerouac
- Zbor deasupra unui cuib de cuci (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) Ken Kesey
- Pasarea vopsita (The Painted Bird) Jerzy Kosinski
- Foc palid (Pale Fire) Vladimir Nabokov
- O calatorie in India (A Passage to India) E.M. Forster
- Play It As It Lays – Joan Didion
- Plangerea lui Portnoy (Portnoy’s Complaint) Philip Roth
- Posesiuni (Possession) A.S. Byatt
- Puterea si Gloria (The Power and the Glory) Graham Greene
- Domnisoara Brodie in floarea varstei (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) Muriel Spark
- Fugi Rabbit (Run Rabbit) John Updike
- Ragtime – E.L. Doctorow
- Recunoasterile (The Recognitions) William Gaddis
- Recolta rosie (Red Harvest) – Dashiell Hammett
- Revolutionary Road – Richard Yates
- Cerul ocrotitor (The Sheltering Sky) Paul Bowles
- Abatorul cinci (Slaughterhouse-Five) Kurt Vonnegut
- Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson
- The Sot Weed Factor – John Barth
- Zgomotul si furia (The Sound and the Fury) William Faulkner
- Cronicarul sportiv (The Sportswriter) Richard Ford
- Spionul care a iesit din joc (The Spy Who Came in From the Cold) John le Carre
- Si soarele rasare (The Sun Also Rises) Ernest Hemingway
- Ochii lor il urmareau pe Dumnezeu (Their Eyes Were Watching God) Zora Neale Hurston
- O lume se destrama (Things Fall Apart) Chinua Achebe
- Sa ucizi o pasare cantatoare (To Kill a Mockingbird) Harper Lee
- Spre far (To the Lighthouse) Virginia Woolf
- Tropicul Cancerului (Tropic of Cancer) Henry Miller
- Ubik – Philip K. Dick
- Prins in mreje (Under the Net) Iris Murdoch
- Sub Vulcan (Under the Volcano) Malcolm Lowry
- Paznicii (Watchmen) Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
- Zgomotul alb (White Noise) Don DeLillo
- Dinti albi (White Teeth) Zadie Smith
- Intinsa mare a Saragaselor (Wide Sargasso Sea) Jean RhysSursa: http://www.time.com/
