Top 1000 Books

OCLC Research has compiled a list of the top 1000 titles owned by member libraries—the intellectual works that have been judged to be worth owning by the "purchase vote" of libraries around the globe.

The Top 10
#1 Census [various] United States
Actually, a collection of books. Not exactly what you sit down and read. I have consulted census data.
#2 Bible
Umm. Yep. Read this one. Past and present tense.
#3 Mother Goose
I've read lots of selections, if not the whole thing.
#4 Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri
I haven't made it through the entire trilogy, but have read most or all of Inferno and selections from Purgatorio and Paradiso in various lit classes.
#5 Odyssey Homer
Read it in lit class.
#6 Iliad Homer
Read selections in lit class.
#7 Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
Read it for pleasure while I was in junior high or high school.
#8 Hamlet William Shakespeare
Read it in lit classes.
#9 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
Read it for pleasure while I was in junior high or high school.
#10 Lord of the Rings J. R. R. Tolkien
Read it for pleasure while I was in college. I read the Hobbit while in high school, but didn't get to the trilogy until a few years later.

They also posted a comparison list of 268 titles from their list of 1000 that are also on some other awards and "best" lists.

I quickly went through the list of 268 titles. At least 95 of them I have read. Another half-dozen or so I have at least started. Another couple dozen I have heard mentioned so often or I have seen the movie and can't remember if I've actually read the book.