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The Ideal Library

100 prominent cultural figures, mostly writers, were polled for their choice of an "ideal library". The following list is a tally of the books that were chosen the most often.
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avg. score: 18 of 116 (15%)
required scores: 1, 8, 12, 18, 26 
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First Folio
First Folio
1
Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
Lolita
2
Vladimir Nabokov
The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor (Flannery O'Connor)
The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor
3
Flannery O'Connor
Moby Dick (Herman Melville)
Moby Dick
4
Herman Melville
The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens (Wallace Stevens)
The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens
5
Wallace Stevens
Stories: Anton Chekhov (Anton Chekhov)
Stories: Anton Chekhov
6
Anton Chekhov
Ulysses (James Joyce)
Ulysses
7
James Joyce
Windup Bird Chronicle
Windup Bird Chronicle
8
Jesus' Son (Denis Johnson)
Jesus' Son
9
Denis Johnson
In Search of Lost Time (Marcel Proust)
In Search of Lost Time
10
Marcel Proust
The Collected Fiction of Jose Luis Borges (Jose Luis Borges)
The Collected Fiction of Jose Luis Borges
11
Jose Luis Borges
Selected Poems of William Carlos Williams (William Carlos Williams)
Selected Poems of William Carlos Williams
12
William Carlos Williams
Nine Stories (J.D. Salinger)
Nine Stories
13
J.D. Salinger
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
To Kill a Mockingbird
14
Harper Lee
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
Catch-22
15
Joseph Heller
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
One Hundred Years of Solitude
16
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop
17
Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)
Blood Meridian
18
Cormac McCarthy
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (David Foster Wallace)
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
19
David Foster Wallace
The Life of Samuel Johnson
The Life of Samuel Johnson
20
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
Jane Eyre
21
Charlotte Bronte
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
22
Lewis Carroll
Middlemarch (George Eliot)
Middlemarch
23
George Eliot
Through the Looking Glass (Lewis Carroll)
Through the Looking Glass
24
Lewis Carroll
The Elements of Style (William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White)
The Elements of Style
25
William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White
Duino Elegies
Duino Elegies
26
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
The Great Gatsby
27
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)
Mrs Dalloway
28
Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)
To the Lighthouse
29
Virginia Woolf
The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner)
The Sound and the Fury
30
William Faulkner
Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier)
Rebecca
31
Daphne Du Maurier
The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
32
The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
The Catcher in the Rye
33
J.D. Salinger
Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)
Invisible Man
34
Ralph Ellison
The Poems of Dylan Thomas
The Poems of Dylan Thomas
35
On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
On the Road
36
Jack Kerouac
Collected Essays
Collected Essays
37
Pale Fire (Vladimir Nabokov)
Pale Fire
38
Vladimir Nabokov
Lunch Poems (Frank O'Hara)
Lunch Poems
39
Frank O'Hara
The Waste Land (T.S. Eliot)
The Waste Land
40
T.S. Eliot
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