I’m writing a book “500 best books originally written in English” for Japanese audience, and I have made a tentative list of fiction books I am considering including in the book. I have lists for nonfiction books, children’s books, and classics separately.
This list is not completed and I would like your input. Some of the book’s audience are beginning readers of English and some are native level, so I need a mix of books that would appeal to these various levels that I believe are enjoyable for the Japanese readers. Some are entertaining, and some are mind stimulating, and some of them are informative. The most important thing is that the book gives a Japanese reader a good reading experience. If that experience encourages the reader to pick up another English book, it will be a success.
The following are the criteria I used for the tentative list.
1) The reader feels “ I’m glad I have read this book”.
2) The book has a reasonably wide range of audience.
3) The book must be reasonably well written.
4) The book must be still in print and available in Japan.
I’m including some books I personally do not like very much, because I believe there are many Japanese readers who can learn to enjoy English books from them. Because of the limited number I can list for the book, I decided to chose only one book for one category by each author.I will mention other notable books by the same author when I introduce the book in “500 Best Books”.
I separated into several genres, but please keep in mind that some of them are mixture of different genres.
コージーミステリー（多くはシリーズで、読みやすいミステリー）、cozy mystery
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards
(The Cat Who series)
The Quiche of Death (Agatha Raisin Mysteries)
On What Grounds (Coffeehouse Mysteries, No. 1)
The Ghost and Mrs. McClure (Haunted Bookshop Mystery)
Murder Is Binding
The Godwulf Manuscript
(Spencer series)
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (Book 1)
ミステリー／スリラー／心理ドラマ, Mysteries, thrillers, psychological thrillers
The Long Goodbye (1953)
The Talented Mr. Ripley** (1955)
From Russia with Love (James Bond) (1957)
A Judgement in Stone (Ruth Rendellの初期の代表作。日本では『ロウフィールド館の惨劇』として知られている)
The Runaway Jury
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice
Beautiful Lies
Stephanie Plum novels
Dog On It
Shutter Island
Down River
Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Mysteries)
What the Dead Know
Promised Land
Tell No One
Maisie Dobbs
Silent in the Grave
The Surgeon: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (Cordelia Gray Mysteries, No. 1)
Postmortem (Kay Scarpetta Mysteries)
Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less
Sister
Before I Go to Sleep
Gone Girl
スパイ、軍事、戦争、政治、スリラー、アクション,
Spy, Military, Govt & High Tech Thrillers
The Quiet American (1955)
Catch-22* (1961)
From Russia with Love (James Bond)
Hunt for Red October
Plum Island
The Round House
The Innocent
The Tourist (Milo Weaver)
The Da Vinci Code
The Silence of the Lambs
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
歴史小説 Historical novels
The Pillars of the Earth
Wolf Hall
The Other Boleyn Girl
Here Be Dragons
Water for Elephants
Beloved
Color Purple
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
The Help
Seabuiscuit
Snow Falling on Cedars
Loving Frank
Alice I Have Been
Clara and Mr. Tiffany
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Schindler’s List
The Paris Wife
ロマンス小説／恋愛小説／メロドラマ的な小説 Chick Lit, Romance Books
A Walk to Remember
Confessions of a Shopaholic
In Her Shoes
Bet Me
The Tea Rose
Bridget Jones’s Diary
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Winter Sea
Lord of Scoundrels
Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand
Slightly Married (Get Connected Romances)
Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate)
The Witness ( or any of Nora Roberts)
The Duke and I (Bridgerton Series, Book 1)
Dreaming of You
The Leopard Prince
Slave to Sensation (Psy-Changelings, Book 1)
Dark Lover (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 1)
Outlander
SF/ファンタジー Sci-fi & fantasy
Animal Farm* (1945)
The Dying Earth* (1950)
The Lord of the Rings** (1951)
Invisible Man (1952)
Fahrenheit 451 *（1953）
Foundation(1951)
The Once and Future King (1958)
The Mist of Avalon
Flowers for Algernon* (1959)
Stranger in a Strange Land(1961)
Dune* (1965)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
Slaughterhouse-Five** (1969)
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=FFFFFF&IS1=1&npa=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=yofaclja-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=0812417755
and, Cat’s Cradle* (1963),
The Left Hand of Darkness
What Dreams May Come
The Name of the Wind
Ender’s Game
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Mistborn (Mistborn, Book 1)
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Jurassic Park
Interview with Vampire
The Dresden Files
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire series)
His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire series)
The Magicians
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
Poison Study
The Night Circus
A Discovery of Witches
Never Let Me Go
The Road
Cloud Atlas
11/22/63
The Handmaid’s Tale
文芸, 娯楽性が高いものも含む。Contemporary fictions and other popular fictions
The Art of Racing in the Rain
A Dog’s Purpose
Still Alice
Forrest Gump
High Fidelity
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore
Little Children
by Tom Perrotta
The Lovely Bones
Room
The Power of One
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Bright Lights, Big City
The Last Time They Met
My Sister’s Keeper
The Forgotten Garden
The Thirteenth Tale
The Joy Luck Club
Prince of Tide
The Poisonwood Bible
Bel Canto (P.S.)
Let the Great World Spin
The Accidental Tourist
Middlesex
The Kite Runner
The New York Trilogy
Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
A River Runs Through It
White Noise
Freedom
The World According to Garp
Life of Pie
The God of Small Things
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=FFFFFF&IS1=1&npa=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=yofaclja-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=0812979656
短編集 Short stories, Anthologies & Literary Collections
Where I’m Calling From
A Bit on the Side
Birds of America: Stories
Dear Life by Alice Munro
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Interpreter of Maladies
Olive Kitteridge
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
The Best American Short Stories
近代クラシック文学 Modern Classics
The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
The Old Man and the Sea (1952),
Lord of the Flies* (1954)
A Fable by William Faulkner (1954)
Lolita (1955)
Seize the Day (Penguin Classics)
(1956)
Atlas Shrugged (1957)
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=FFFFFF&IS1=1&npa=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=yofaclja-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=0452011876強い印象を与えるので、若者には危険な小説でもある。個人的には嫌いだが、どういう本かを知っておくべきだと思うのでリストに入れた。
Goodbye, Columbus (1958)
To Kill A Mockingbird**(1960)
Rabbit, Run (1960)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest *(1962)
A Clockwork Orange (1962)
The Godfather (1969)
All Creatures Great and Small (1972)
The Sea, the Sea
Waiting for Godot (Eng rev): A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (Beckett, Samuel)
(1952,脚本）実に多くの作家がこの本を激賞しているのに驚いた
My Family and Other Animals
(1956)
100 Best-Loved Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)
Great Short Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)
*** The books I considered (or recommended by others), but less likely to make the list. ***
The Day of Jackal (1971), because it’s currently unavailable at US Amazon
Alexandria Quartet
(1961)
A Confederacy of Dunces
Heart of Darkness
Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Midnight’s Children (because I chose ‘Haroun and the Sea of
Stories’ instead)
Mervyn Peake
Crossing to Safety
March by Geraldine Brooks
Homestead by Rosina Lippi
The Kitchen God’s Wife – Amy Tan ( I chose another Amy Tan
book)
The Moonstone
Clan of the Cave Bear
Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics
Just the Sexiest Man Alive by Julie James
Sex and the City
