A top 100 reading list, just in time for the summer

Curling up with a good novel in the air-conditioned comfort of your home or under a big shady tree in the park is one way to spend lazy summer days without shelling out much money.

Now you just have to find the right book.

U.S.-based magazine Newsweek is here to help, offering up this week its ranking of The Top 100 Books of All Time.

Similar lists are everywhere. But Newsweek said on its Web site that it took a new approach by compiling recommended reading lists from libraries, major newspapers and other sources including the Modern Library, the New York Public Library, St. John s College and Oprah Winfrey s book club.

Leo Tolstoy s War and Peace, which tells the story of five aristocratic families during the French invasion of Russia, topped the list, while George Orwell s 1984 and James Joyce s Ulysses came in second and third.

William Shakespeare had the most books Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Sonnets on the list, while novels by several other authors including William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway also made the list more than once.

Here are the top 50 books from Newsweek s list. For the complete rankings, visit www.newsweek.com/id/204478.