The Century Club Challenge

I re-discovered my love of reading two years ago when I was commuting to work three hours each day on public transit. I started my commuting days listening to my iPod but after I went through five different sets of ear buds in three months, I switched to reading and I haven't regretted it once. I love the worlds authors create for me and the excitement each time I near the climax of a great story. I've read a number of biographies, novels, how-to's and even some teen series (unbeknownst to me at the time).

One thing made the reading experience tiresome and that was the constant surveying of friends and family of what I should read next. While most offered great suggestions, it was always a leap of faith to assume I was going to like what they liked. Don't get me wrong, most were great (Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne Series & Stephen King's Under the Dome) but others were terrible (most notably Stieg Larsson's trilogy). 

I decided to do something about it. 

And I think I've finally bitten off more than I can chew. 

I'm going to read the top 100 novels of all time. And I'll write about it all right here. 

Finding the list wasn't scientific in any way. I simply Google'd the top 100 novels of all time and found a list that didn't put The Da Vinci Code as #1. I believe the list I'm going off of was the result of a large on-line survey where readers and the public alike were asked to rank their top ten novels. I'm pretty happy with the list - a nice blend of old and new, Russian, Spanish, English, American, Canadian (and other) authors, books I've never heard of and only a few that I've already read. While I'm happy with the list, I know some will have issue with it. That's fine. It's subjective. This blog will be too but that's what opinion is all about, right? The goal here isn't to critique the list but to read through some of the best pieces of literature of our time and have some fun doing it. 

So, please add this blog to your RSS Reader, subscribe via email and/or visit often. We'll read through the Top 100 Novels of All Time together and see where that takes us. You may have joined the Century Club in university but this one is a little safer and certainly more enlightening.

Enjoy!