http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html
I started with Brideshead Revisited mainly because recently a movie version came out, and I'd been interested in seeing the movie. The book starts off slow, and is kind of hard to get into. But once I became more familiar with the characters and the author's style of writing, I started to enjoy it. I like how it is a glimpse into the lives of the wealthy in the 1920s. Our modern culture seems so different, but in many ways it reminded me that people are always the same.
After looking into it a bit, I was suprised to see that Waugh usually wrote comedic novels because this is a sad story about a very dysfunctional family. But looking back, there are definitely funny parts that might hint at what his other books might be like. My favorite is Charles Ryder's (the main character) father, who passively aggressively tries to get Charles to leave during his summer home by inviting tedious dinner guests.
The rest of the book, though, is about love lost and ambivalence about religion. During most of the book, you would swear that the author must hate religion, but apparently he converted to Catholicism late in life. His struggle with faith is one of the most interesting parts of the book. Overall, I'd recommend Brideshead Revisited, but you really have to have some patience to get to the meat of the story.
We'll see how I do with the other 99 novels. I started The Invisible Man, but I think I may just have to come back to that one. It isn't holding my interest right now. I think I may stray from the list and read Twilight, which I've heard so much about.
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