Lots Of Lists

I always find top 100 lists interesting, especially when it comes to books.  I am always interested to see how many I have read, how many I actually liked and so on so forth.  Just for fun, I looked up a bunch of top 100 lists and put each book in one of five categories:  Read it and liked it, read it and didn't like it, want to read it, don't want to read it, never heard of it.  Here is the break down.

Amazon 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime 
Read and Liked - 27
Read and Not Liked - 4
Want to Read - 15
Do Not Want to Read - 19
Never Heard Of - 35

Goodreads 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime: Readers Picks
Read and Liked - 52
Read and Not Liked - 9
Want to Read - 15
Do Not Want to Read - 14
Never Heard Of - 10

Wikipedia: The 100 Best Books of All Time
Read and Liked - 19
Read and Not Liked - 6
Want to Read - 15
Do Not Want to Read - 20
Never Heard Of - 40

New York Times 100 Novels
Read and Liked - 3
Read and Not Liked - 7
Want to Read - 13
Do Not Want to Read - 13
Never Heard Of  - 64

Modern Library Readers Top 100
Read and Liked - 7
Read and Not Liked - 10
Want to Read - 24
Do Not Want to Read - 20
Never Heard Of - 39

So looking over my results, it seems I would be better served sticking to actual readers choices rather then the old institutional lists.  This makes sense for several reasons, the first being that reading is so personal that every reader is going to have a very individual top 100 list (I will post mine soon) and second, readers lists tend to include books a lot of people actually read as opposed to what may be a really good book to the super smarty pants, but may not appeal to us masses.  All this being said, my favorite way to find a new book is still by a personal recommendation...so recommend away :-)