I liked Catch-22 when I read it as a teenager, but from what I remember, I don't think I'd be all that impressed today. There's a lot of stuff in the same vein from the 70s, I'm not sure why this book makes it so high on the list, while there is no Vonnegut, for instance, who I think of as kind of similar, but less long-winded.
I'm intrigued that elissaann flew through _The Woman in White_ which I haven't read. One of my favorite books of all time (and kmd's as well -- she introduced me to it) is _the Moonstone_ also by WC and not on this list, but no question it would make much shorter lists of mine.
_Watership Down_ is very good, and similar in spirit to Tolkien. I would say one of the few early imitators who was successful artistically. It added some key memes/words to my mental vocabulary and I am always thankful for a book that can do that. Whether it deserves to be on this list or not I wouldn't say, but I doubt you'll regret reading it. BTW, I read it when I was 30 -- most of the people I know read it only as children, and I'd always thought of it as written for juveniles until I read it myself.
I found _Les Miserables_ to be a bit of a slog, but that may be a combination of translation issues and being too young (16) when I read it.
_The Five People you Meet in Heaven_ is trite, chicken soup for the unexamined soul stuff. The writing isn't terrible, but if you went out of your way to read it, you'd be pretty disappointed. It's a "stuck in the airport and nothing really good is on the shelf" kind of book.
_Bridget Jones' Diary_ is much better than that, but I can't see how it makes this list.
_DaVinci Code_ has some interesting plot, but not enough -- a lot of the history is bogus and it gets pretty ugly if you can't stand hack writing. It's like a really bad version of _Illuminatus!_ centered on skewering christianity.
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I'm intrigued that elissaann flew through _The Woman in White_ which I haven't read. One of my favorite books of all time (and kmd's as well -- she introduced me to it) is _the Moonstone_ also by WC and not on this list, but no question it would make much shorter lists of mine.
_Watership Down_ is very good, and similar in spirit to Tolkien. I would say one of the few early imitators who was successful artistically. It added some key memes/words to my mental vocabulary and I am always thankful for a book that can do that. Whether it deserves to be on this list or not I wouldn't say, but I doubt you'll regret reading it. BTW, I read it when I was 30 -- most of the people I know read it only as children, and I'd always thought of it as written for juveniles until I read it myself.
I found _Les Miserables_ to be a bit of a slog, but that may be a combination of translation issues and being too young (16) when I read it.
_The Five People you Meet in Heaven_ is trite, chicken soup for the unexamined soul stuff. The writing isn't terrible, but if you went out of your way to read it, you'd be pretty disappointed. It's a "stuck in the airport and nothing really good is on the shelf" kind of book.
_Bridget Jones' Diary_ is much better than that, but I can't see how it makes this list.
_DaVinci Code_ has some interesting plot, but not enough -- a lot of the history is bogus and it gets pretty ugly if you can't stand hack writing. It's like a really bad version of _Illuminatus!_ centered on skewering christianity.