An Almost 100 Books to be Read in 5 Years

After reading numerous blogs, I have decided to also challenge myself by assigning to myself 100 books to be read in 5 years, depending on availability and cost.

The first set of books comes from Africa's Top 100 books as researched by the Zimbabwe Library Foundation. If I should come across interesting translations from Francophone and Lusophone writers, I would read them alongside these. As it stands now, all these writers are from Anglophone countries (except Mahfouz Naguib, from Egypt). Since this list contains mostly the classic, new writers would be read alongside these.

Note: All books by the following authors would be read as and when they become available:

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Books I have read would be italicised;
Books I have read and reviewed on this blog would be italicised, crossed and linked;

Books from Africa's Top 100 Books by the Zimbabwean Library Foundation:

1. Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
2. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
3. Anowa by Ama Atta Aidoo 
4. The Beautyful Ones are not yet born by Ayi Kwei Armah
5. A Dry White Season by Andre Brink 
6. The Life and Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee 
7. Nervous Condition by Tsitsi Dangaremba
8. The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
9. The Blood Knot by Athol Fugard 
10. Burgher's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer
11. A Question of Power by Bessie Head
12. Bones by Chenjerai Hove 
13. Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night by Sindiwe Magona 
14. The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz (I: Palace Walk; II: Palace of Desire; III: Sugar Street) 
15. House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera 
16. Indaba, My Children by Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa
17. Chaka by Thomas Mofolo
18. A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiongo'o
19. Labyrinths by Christopher Okigbo 
20. The Famished Road by Ben Okri
21. Song of Lawino by Okot P'Bitek 
22. Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadwai 
23. Season of Migration to the North by Salih El Tayyib
24. Third World Express by Mongane Serote 
25. Death and the King's Horsemen by Wole Soyinka
26. The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola
27. Butterfly Burning by Yvonne Vera 

Other books by African writers:

1. Summertime by J.M. Coetzee 
2. The Healers by Ayi Kwei Armah
3. Osiris Rising by Ayi Kwei Armah 
4. They Say you are One of Us by Uwem Akpan
5. Tsoti by Athol Fugard 
6. Toads for Supper by Chukwuemeka Ike 
7. Mine Boy by Peter Abrahams
8. Ake: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka 

The second set of books consist of acclaimed translations:

1. The Trial by Franz Kafka 
2. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
3. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
4. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky 

The third category of books are selected Booker Winners

1. The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer
2. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee 
3. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
4. Possession by A.S. Byatt

The fourth set of books is by Nobel Laureates (some have been covered already). Books for this set were taken from different Top 100s such as Modern Library Top 100 Novels; Readers' List and Boards' List; Times Top 100 Novels etc.

1. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
2. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner 
3. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 
4. Light in August by William Faulkner 
5. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
6. Beloved by Toni Morrison
7. Kim by Rudyard Kipling 
8. A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
9. A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
10. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing 
11. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 
12. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 
13. Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann 
14. the Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann 

The fifth set of books is other Classics by non-Nobel Laureates:

1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
4. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
6. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
7. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood 
8. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood 
9. White Teeth by Zadie Smith

The sixth set of books is those that some readers say are difficult to read:

1. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon 
2. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon 
3. Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon 
4. Vineland by Thomas Pynchon 
5. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace 
6. Poker by Wittgenstein 
7. Mistress by Wittgenstein 
8. Tractatus Logico Philosophicus by Wittgenstein 
9. Philosophical Investigations by Wittgenstein 
10. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 
11. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 
12. The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald
13. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes 
14. Moby-Dick by Hermes Melville 
15. Ulysses by James Joyce 

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This List is not up to 100. The categories add up to 82. Please add the remaining 18. Also if there are some mistakes please let me know. Note: Additions and Revisions have been done here