Filling in the 'Gaps' 2016

Do you think classic books (even modern classics) are best left to students? Or do you indulge throughout your life?

I am in the latter camp. I read some great books in school, but there are too many good books to simply stop because no grades are involved.

As a result, I have begun "Filling in the Gaps" of my reading. The original challenge was to make a list of 100 books to read in five years. My list was originally published in 2010, was ambitious — and one that was destined to change. I realized some books were not worth reading after all, and others I discovered I already had read.

Additionally, the list was influenced by an interactive project with my friend Carole: Weighty Reads, in which we chose 20 books to read together in the next decade, with a few related books tucked into our repertoire along the way.

Frankly, one should adjust one's list as time goes on. Is Asimov as important as Bradbury? Should I keep three Dickens at the cost of Jerome K. Jerome and Patricia Highsmith? Do I sacrifice classics for modern classics? The answers differ depending on who one is at the time the decision is made.

Here is the most recent iteration of the list, with a few more books marked off since it was published.


Fill in the Gaps, 2016

1. 1001 Nights / Arabian Nights
2. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
3. Highsmoor, Peter Ackroyd
4. Foundation, Isaac Asimov
5. Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
6. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
7. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
8. √ Sundays With Vlad, Paul Bibeau
9. Ten Days in a Mad-House, Nellie Bly
10. √ The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
11. The Early Fears, Robert Bloch
12. The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
13. A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett
14. Cold Sassy Tree, Olive Ann Burns
15. √ The Land that Time Forgot, Edgar Rice  Burroughs
16. √  Tobacco Road, Erskine Caldwell
17. √  Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
18. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
19. O Pioneers!, Willa Cather
20. Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
21. Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
22. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
23. The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever
24. Girl with the Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
25. √ The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
26. Moll Flanders, Daniel DeFoe
27. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
28. Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens
29. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
30. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
31. The Man in the Iron Mask, Alexandre Dumas
32. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
33. Middlemarch, George Eliot
34. So Big, Edna Ferber
35. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
36. Where Angels Fear to Tread, E.M. Forster
37. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
38. The Women’s Room, Marilyn French
39. In the Woods, Tana French
40. The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
41. √ Unbroken, Lauren Hildenbrand
42. √ Goodbye, Mr. Chips, James Hilton
43. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
44. The Bone People, Keri Hulme
45. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
46. The  Lost Weekend, Charles R. Jackson
47. √ The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson
48. The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
49. Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
50. √ Up the Down Staircase, Bel Kaufman
51. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
52. √ Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, Jean Kerr
53. √  The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
54. The Jungle Books, Rudyard Kipling
55. The Man Who Would Be King, Rudyard Kipling
56. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
57. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, John LeCarre
58. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
59. Sliver, Ira Levin
60. Elmer Gantry, Sinclair Lewis
61. √ The Monk, Matthew Gregory Lewis
62. The Call of the Wild, Jack London
63. √ The Best of H.P. Lovecraft, H.P. Lovecraft
64. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
65. Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
66. The Road, Cormac McCarthy
67. The Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers
68. √ Atonement, Ian McEwan
69. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurty
70. Peyton Place, Grace Metalious
71. Beloved, Toni Morrison
72. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
73. Suite Française, Irene Nemirovsky
74. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy O'Toole
75. The Portable Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker
76. Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
77. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
78. Anubis Gates, Tim Powers
79. Remembrance of Things Past/In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust
80. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
81. Home, Marylynne Robinson
82. The Human Stain, Philip Roth
83. The God of Small Things, Arundathi Roy
84. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
85. √ A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
86. Prayers to Broken Stones, Dan Simmons
87. Enemies, A Love Story, Isaac Bashevis Singer
88. Angle of Repose, Wallace Steigner
89. √ Dracula, Bram Stoker
90. The Magnificent Ambersons, Booth Tarkington
91. The Man Who Fell to Earth, Walter Tevis
92. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
93. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
94. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
95. Traffic, Tom Vanderbilt
96. All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
97. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
98. Night, Elie Weisel
99. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
100. The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
101. The Inimitable Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse

I tried to make my list as inclusive as possible. If you have suggestions, please share your ideas with me.

Do you have a Fill in the Gaps list? What's on it? If you haven't compiled such list yet, what would you put on it? Let me know!

Fill In the Gap: The 2015 List — New and Improved!

The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things...

Which for me usually means books.

It's been years since I mentioned my "Filling in the Gaps" list, and for good reasons. First, I have knocked a few more off my list (including, but not limited to, Ender's Game and Tobacco Road).

Second, the list evolved into an interactive project with Carole regarding Weighty Reads. We chose 20 books to read in the ensuing years, with a few related books included along the way.

For those of you playing along at home, "Filling in the Gaps" is a list of 100 books the reader strives to finish in five years. I first posted my list in 2010. I have not finished all 100 books. 

My list has changed little since 2010, most often because I realized I already read it. A few others fell off the list because I didn't want to read them after all, while others have regained their seat at the table. For example, does Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance really deserve to be on the list after all? How about Love in the Time of Cholera? Three Men in a Boat?

So, without further ado, I give you:

Fill in the Gaps, 2015

1. 1001 Nights / Arabian Nights            
2. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
3. Highsmoor, Peter Ackroyd
4. Foundation, Isaac Asimov
5. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
6. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
7. √ Sundays With Vlad, Paul Bibeau
8. √ The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
9. The Early Fears, Robert Bloch
10. The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
11. A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett
12. Cold Sassy Tree, Olive Ann Burns
13. √ The Land that Time Forgot, Edgar Rice  Burroughs
14. √  Tobacco Road, Erskine Caldwell
15. √  Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
16. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
17. O Pioneers!, Willa Cather
18. Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
19. Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
20. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
21. The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever
22. Girl with the Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
23. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
24. Moll Flanders, Daniel DeFoe
25. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
26. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
27. Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens
28. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
29. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
30. The Man in the Iron Mask, Alexandre Dumas
31. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
32. Middlemarch, George Eliot
33. So Big, Edna Ferber
34. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
35. Where Angels Fear to Tread, E.M. Forster
36. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
37. In the Woods, Tana French
38. The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith
39. √ Unbroken, Lauren Hildenbrand
40. √ Goodbye, Mr. Chips, James Hilton
41. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
42. The Bone People, Keri Hulme
43. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
44. The  Lost Weekend, Charles R. Jackson
45. √ The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson
46. The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
47. Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
48. √ Up the Down Staircase, Bel Kaufman
49. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
50. √ Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, Jean Kerr
51. √  The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
52. The Jungle Books, Rudyard Kipling
53. The Man Who Would Be King, Rudyard Kipling
54. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
55. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, John LeCarre
56. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
57. Sliver, Ira Levin
58. Elmer Gantry, Sinclair Lewis
59. The Monk, Matthew Gregory Lewis
60. The Call of the Wild, Jack London
61. √ The Best of H.P. Lovecraft, H.P. Lovecraft
62. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
63. The Road, Cormac McCarthy
64. The Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers
65. √ Atonement, Ian McEwan
66. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurty
67. Peyton Place, Grace Metalious
68. Beloved, Toni Morrison
69. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
70. Suite Française, Irene Nemirovsky
71. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy O'Toole
72. The Portable Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker
73. Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
74. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
75. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig
76. Anubis Gates, Tim Powers
77. Remembrance of Things Past/In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust
78. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
79. Home, Marylynne Robinson
80. The Human Stain, Philip Roth
81. The God of Small Things, Arundathi Roy
82. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
83. √ A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
84. Prayers to Broken Stones, Dan Simmons
85. Enemies, A Love Story, Isaac Bashevis Singer
86. Angle of Repose, Wallace Steigner
87. √ Dracula, Bram Stoker
88. The Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Suzanne
89. The Magnificent Ambersons, Booth Tarkington
90. The Man Who Fell to Earth, Walter Tevis
91. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
92. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
93. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
94. Traffic, Tom Vanderbilt
95. All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
96. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
97. Night, Elie Weisel
98. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
99. The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
100. The Inimitable Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse

I tried very hard to choose only one book per author, or maybe two. Charles Dickens was an exception with three, but that may change in the future. Narrowing Jane Austen to two was a challenge as well.

There is a dearth of non-fiction, and I may have to include A Brief History of Time. Stay tuned.


I tried to make my list as inclusive as possible. If you have suggestions, please share your ideas with me.

Do you have a Fill in the Gaps list? What's on it? If you haven't compiled such list yet, what would you put on it? Let me know!

Fill In the Gaps, the 2012 Edition

I've gone particularly slow on this task....  Shame on me. However, in my defense, I've had a lot happening in life in the past year, and many good "new(er)" books have passed through my hands. Plus: National Poetry Month.

Also, to my credit, I have finished a few recently (including The Land That Time Forgot, which was a disappointment, and I wish I had chosen Princess of Mars instead). 

At any rate, I've adjusted the list — again. I think I'm one short, but I started out with seven extra, so it all balances out in the end. (The books on the list I have read are marked with √ — and I warned you!)

Are any of these on your list? Can you recommend any to add (or subtract) from this list? Feel free to share your comments, either in the comments section below or via e-mail.

Fill in the Gaps, the 2012 version

1.  1001 Nights / Arabian Nights            

2.  Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe

3.  Highsmoor, Peter Ackroyd

4.  Foundation, Isaac      Asimov

5.  Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

6.  Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

7.  √ Sundays With Vlad, Paul Bibeau

8.  The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown

9.  The Early Fears, Robert Bloch

10.The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck

11.A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson      Burnett

12.Cold Sassy Tree, Olive Ann      Burns

13.√ The Land that Time Forgot, Edgar Rice      Burroughs

14.Tobacco Road, Erskine Caldwell

15.The Plague, Albert Camus

16.Ender's Game, Orson Scott      Card

17.Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather

18.O Pioneers!, Willa      Cather

19.Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon

20.The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler

21.The Stories of John Cheever,  John Cheever

22.Girl with the Pearl Earring,      Tracy      Chevalier

23.Remarkable Creatures,      Tracy      Chevalier

24.The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins

25.Moll Flanders, Daniel DeFoe

26.The Brief Wondrous Life  of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz

27.A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

28.Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens

29.Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

30.The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

31.The Man in the Iron Mask, Alexandre Dumas

32.The Last Cavalier, Alexandre Dumas

33.A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers

34.Middlemarch, George Eliot

35.So Big, Edna Ferber

36.Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert

37.Where Angels Fear to Tread, E.M. Forster

38.The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen

39.The Quiet American, Graham Greene

40.The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith

41.√ "Goodbye, Mr. Chips", James Hilton

42.Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

43.Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston

44.The      Lost Weekend, Charles R. Jackson

45.√ The      Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

46.The      Portrait of a Lady, Henry      James

47.Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K      Jerome

48.Up the Down Staircase, Bel Kaufman

49.On the Road, Jack      Kerouac

50.Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, Jean      Kerr

51.Under the Dome, Stephen King

52.The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver

53.The Jungle Books,      Rudyard Kipling

54.The Man Who Would Be King, Rudyard Kipling

55.A Separate Peace, John Knowles

56.Little Drummer Girl, John LeCarre

57.The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, John LeCarre

58.The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing

59.Sliver, Ira Levin

60.Elmer Gantry, Sinclair Lewis

61.The Monk, Matthew Gregory Lewis

62.What the Dead Know, Laura Lippman

63.The Call of the Wild, Jack London

64.√ The Best of H.P. Lovecraft, H.P. Lovecraft

65.One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

66.Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

67.The Road, Cormac McCarthy

68.The Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers

69.√ Atonement, Ian McEwan

70.Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurty

71.Peyton Place, Grace Metalious

72.Beloved, Toni Morrison

73.Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

74.Suite Française, Irene Nemirovsky

75.A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy O'Toole

76.Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak

77.Bel Canto      Ann Patchett

78.Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig

79.Anubis Gates, Tim Powers

80.Gravity’s Rainbow      , Thomas Pynchon

81.All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque

82.Home, Marylynne Robinson

83.The Human Stain, Philip Roth

84.The God of Small Things, Arundathi Roy

85.Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

86.Sarum, Edward Rutherford

87.√ A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute

88.Prayers to Broken Stones, Dan Simmons

89."Enemies, A Love "Story, Isaac Bashevis Singer

90.Angle of Repose, Wallace Steigner

91.√ Dracula, Bram      Stoker

92.The Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Suzanne

93.The Magnificent Ambersons, Booth Tarkington

94.The Man Who Fell to Earth, Walter Tevis

95.Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson

96.Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

97.War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

98.All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren

99.Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

100.        Night, Elie Weisel

101.        Journey to the Center of the Earth      , H.G. Wells

102.        Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh

103.        The Inimitable Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse

104.        In the Woods, Tana French

105.        Unbroken, Lauren Hildenbrand

106.        Traffic, Tom Vanderbilt