List :: Books of the Century by Waterstone

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  #1

  The Lord of the Rings

  by J. R. R. Tolkien

  (36 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 11

  691 points

  "When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton."

  

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• 

  #2

  Nineteen Eighty-Four

  by George Orwell

  (69 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 3

  946 points

  "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

  

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  #3

  Animal Farm

  by George Orwell

  (46 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 23

  495 points

  "Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes."

  

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• 

  #4

  Ulysses

  by James Joyce

  (13 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 4

  925 points

  "Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed."

  

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• 

  #5

  Catch-22

  by Joseph Heller

  (31 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 6

  823 points

  "It was love at first sight."

  

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  #6

  The Catcher in the Rye

  by J. D. Salinger

  (45 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 7

  735 points

  "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they...

  

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  #7

  To Kill a Mockingbird

  by Harper Lee

  (64 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 10

  701 points

  "When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."

  

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  #8

  One Hundred Years of Solitude

  by Gabriel García Márquez

  (25 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 12

  667 points

  "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de..."

  

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  #9

  The Grapes of Wrath

  by John Steinbeck

  (35 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 2

  963 points

  "To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth."

  

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  #10

  Trainspotting

  by Irvine Welsh

  (5 Reviews)

  Overall Rank: 221

  91 points

  "Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low..."

  

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