Our book club of long and noble standing, the Notting Hill Napoleons, are heading out today for our annual autumn weekend together. It's a tradition we very much enjoy and it's more than just a couple of days retreat. Indeed, it is on this weekend that we discuss our annual Charles Dickens novel and decide (through a rigorous, sometimes tumultuous, but always democratic process) the books to be read for the coming year.
But before we take off (actually, Claire and I have a "When Swing Was King" show up in Blair before we go), I thought I would share with Book Den visitors the complete list of books read (and a few re-read) by the Napoleons over our long history together. I do so in hopes it will give you a few ideas for reading possibilities.
The Notting
Hill Napoleons' Total Reading List
1992
1) A Man Called Thursday by G. K.
Chesterton
2) Inferno by Dante
3) 1984 by George Orwell
4) The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
5) One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
6) The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark
Twain
7) Bleak House by Charles Dickens
8) The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
9) Christmas Stories by George MacDonald
& The Fourth Wiseman by Henry Van
Dyke
1993
1) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor
Dostoyevsky
2) Shadows in the Grass by Isak Dinesen
3) The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas
4) The Power by James Mills
5) The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare
6) The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton
7) That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
8) Our Town by Thornton Wilder
9) First Circle by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
10) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
1994
1) Journey to the Center of the Earth by
Jules Verne
2) Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
3) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
4) One of Ours by Willa Cather
5) Love’s Labour’s Lost by Shakespeare
6) The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexander
Dumas
7) Four Faultless Felons by G.K. Chesterton
8) Cancer Ward by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
9) The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar
Allan Poe
10) Billy Budd by Herman Melville
11) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
1995
1) The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor
Dostoevsky
2) The Club of Queer Trades by G.K.
Chesterton
3) The Source by James Michener
4) O Pioneers by Willa Cather
5) Henry V by Shakespeare
6) Ivanhoe by Walter Scott
7) The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor
Hugo
8) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
9) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
1996
1) The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner
2) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
3) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
4) The Children of Men by P. D. James
5) The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter
Wangerin
6) Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare
7) Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
8) The Ball and the Cross by G.K.
Chesterton
9) Wise Blood by Flannery O' Connor
10) Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh
11) Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
12) Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
1997
1) Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
2) Spring Came on Forever by Bess Streeter
Aldrich
3) Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
4) The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond by G.K.
Chesterton
5) Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
6) Julius Caesar by Shakespeare
7) The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper
8) Old Mortality by Walter Scott
9) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
10) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis
Stevenson
11) The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles
Dickens
1998
1) The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R.
Tolkien
2) The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
3) Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa
Cather
4) How Green Was My Valley by Richard
Llewellyn
5) The Last of the Mohicans by James
Fenimore Cooper
6) Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare
7) Rob Roy by Walter Scott
8) Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
9) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander
Dumas
10) The House of the Seven Gables by
Nathaniel Hawthorne
11) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
12) Snow by Calvin Miller
1999
1) Vanity Fair by William Makepeace
Thackeray
2) Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
3) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
4) Watership Down by Richard Adams
5) The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness de
Orczy
6) Macbeth by Shakespeare
7) The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
8) August 1914 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
9) Waverley by Walter Scott
10) Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
11) A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt
2000
1) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
2) Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
3) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
4) My Antonia by Willa Cather
5) The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
6) Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare
7) Quentin Durward by Walter Scott
8) Don Quixote by Cervantes
9) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar
Wilde
10) Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
11) Lilith by George MacDonald
2001
1) Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy
2) The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
3) Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott
4) Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher
Stowe
5) Giants in the Earth by Ole Edvart
Rolvaag
6) Hamlet by Shakespeare
7) The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
8) The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K.
Chesterton
9) All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich
Maria Remarque
10) The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
11) Sir Nigel by Arthur Conan Doyle
12) Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
2002
1) The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
2) The White Company by Arthur Conan Doyle
3) Moby Dick by Herman Melville
4) The Chosen by Chaim Potok
5) Officers and Gentlemen by Evelyn Waugh
6) The Tempest by Shakespeare
7) Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
8) The Flying Inn by G.K. Chesterton
9) Animal Farm by George Orwell
10) The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis
Stevenson
11) Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
12) Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
2003
1) Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas
Hardy
2) Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
3) Magnificent Obsession by Lloyd C.
Douglas
4) End of the Battle by Evelyn Waugh
5) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth
Grahame
6) Othello by Shakespeare
7) Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara
8) The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott
9) The Once and Future King by T.H. White
10) Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
11) Manalive by G.K. Chesterton
2004
1. The Human Comedy by William Saroyan
2) Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
3) Cyrano De Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
4) The Desert of Wheat by Zane Grey
5) The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
6) Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini
7) Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
8) The Wreath by Sigrid Undset
9) Southern Mail by Antoine de
Saint-Exupery
10) Hard Times by Charles Dickens
11) True Grit by Charles Portis
2005
1) Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
2) Black No More by George S. Schuyler
3) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
4) The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston
Leroux
5) Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
6) Guy Mannering by Walter Scott
7) Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
8) Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
9) Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot
10) Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
11) Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
2006
1) The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne
Bronte
2) Rodney Stone by Arthur Conan Doyle
3) Pied Piper by Nevil Shute
4) Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace
5) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
6) The Antiquary by Walter Scott
7) The Hounds of God by Rafael Sabatini
8) North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
9) The Warden by Anthony Trollope
10) Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
11) The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles
Dickens
12) A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg
2007
1) The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
2) Peace Like a River by Lief Enger
3) Barchester Topwers by Anthony Trollope
4) A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
5) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
6) The Song of Roland translated by Dorothy
Sayers
7) Witch Wood by John Buchan
8) Bellarion The Fortunate by Rafael
Sabatini
9) Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
10) Tales of the Long Bow by G.K. Chesterton
11) Bleak House by Charles Dickens
12) The Good Shepherd by Gunnar Gunnarsson
2008
1) Toilers of The Sea by Victor Hugo
2) Lost Horizon by James Hilton
3) Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope
4) To The Last Man by Jeff Shaara
5) Parnassus On Wheels by Christopher
Morley
6) The Tragedy of Korosko by Arthur Conan
Doyle
7) King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard
8) The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West
9) The Sea Hawk by Rafael Sabatini
10) Ruined City by Nevil Shute
11) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
12) Selected Stories by O. Henry
2009
1) The Heart of Midlothian by Walter Scott
2) Out of The Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
3) The Virginian by Owen Wister
4) Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
5) Landfall by Nevil Shute
6) The Rising Tide by Jeff Shaara
7) Bardelys, the Magnificent by Rafael
Sabatini
8) Ninety-Three by Victor Hugo
9) Random Harvest by James Hilton
10) The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins
11) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
12) O Little Town by Don Reid
2010
1) November 1916 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
2) Sea Wolf by Jack London
3) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
4) The Monastery by Walter Scott
5) The Steel Wave by Jeff Shaara
6) No Less Than Victory by Jeff Shaara
7) Fortune's Fool by Rafael Sabatini
8) No Highway by Nevil Shute
9) The Silver Chalice by Thomas B. Costain
10) The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
11) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
12) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie
Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
2011
1) Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara
2) The Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara
3) The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
4) Shiloh by Shelby Foote
5) Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas
6) Keys of the Kingdom by A.J. Cronin
7) Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
8) The Lost King by Rafael Sabatini
9) The Breaking Wave by Nevil Shute
10) The Black Arrow by Robert Louis
Stevenson
11) Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
12) Paris in
the Twentieth Century by Jules Verne
2012
1) The Final Storm by Jeff Shaara
2) Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
3) Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
4) The African Queen by C. S. Forester
5) Safely Home by Randy Alcorn
6) No Name by Wilkie Collins
7) The Shame of Motley by Rafael Sabatini
8) The Chequer Board by Nevil Shute
9) Strangers on a Train by Patricia
Highsmith
10) That Printer of Udell’s by Harold Bell
Wright
11) The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles
Dickens
12) Tevye the Dairyman
by Hillel Halkin
2013
1) Adam Bede by George Eliot
2) The President's Lady by Irving Stone
3) The Emigrants
by Vilhelm Moberg
4) The Card by Arnold Bennett
5) The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
6) Cimarron by Edna Ferber
7) A Blaze of Glory by Jeff Shaara
8) Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah
Orne Jewett
9) The Bridges at Toko-Ri by James
Michener
10) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
11) The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth
Tarkington
2014
1) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
2) In the Beginning by Chaim Potok
3) The Nine Taylors by Dorothy Sayers
4) Poor Miss Finch by Wilkie Collins
5) The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa
6) Saint Martin’s Summer by Rafael Sabatini
7) The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine
Childers
8) South by Java Head by Alistair MacLean
9) Prester John by John Buchan
10) Random Harvest by James Hilton
11) Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
12) Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister
2015
1) A Chain of Thunder by Jeff Shaara
2) Persuasion by Jane Austen
3) On the Beach by Nevil Shute
4) The Gentleman from Indiana by Booth
Tarkington
5) Mr. Standfast by John Buchan
6) Run Silent, Run Deep by Edward Beach
7) Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini
8) The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers
9) Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
10) Knight Without Armor by James Hilton
11) Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
12) Miss Bishop by Bess Streeter Aldrich
2016
1) The Smoke At Dawn by Jeff Shaara
2) That Hideous Strength by C. S Lewis
3) Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D.
Edmonds
4) The Children of The New Forest by
Frederick Marryat
5) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander
Dumas
6) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
7) Vandemark's Folly by Herbert Quick
8) Ross Poldark by Winston Graham
9) The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van
Tilberg Clark
10) Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
11) The Snare by Rafael Sabatini
2017
1) Ice Palace by Edna Ferber
2) Trustee of the Toolroom by Nevil Shute
3) The Fateful Lightning by Jeff Shaara
4) The Meaning of Names by Karen Shoemaker
5) The Gates of Doom by Rafael Sabatini
6) Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
7) Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordoff
8) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
9) Frozen Hours by Jeff Shaara
10) Good Bye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton
11) Dombey & Son by Charles Dickens
12) The Golden Ring by John Snyder
2018
1) The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
2) To Try Men’s Souls by Newt Gingrich, et
al
3) Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
4) A Bell for Adano by John Hershey
5) The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
6) The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monserrat
7) Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
8) Fire Over England by A.E.W. Mason
9) My Family and Other Animals by Gerald
Durrell
10) The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
11) Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
12) Lilies of the Field by William Edmond
Barrett
2019
1) Valley Forge by Newt Gingrich, et al
2) November 1916 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
3) The Good Shepherd by C.S. Forester
4) The Little Minister by J.M Barrie
5) Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
6) Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Septys
7) At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
8) Gone for Soldiers by Jeff Shaara
9) The Rim of the Prairie by Bess Streeter
Aldrich
10) Hard Times by Charles Dickens
11) Seventeen by Booth Tarkington
