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I have a problem in finding books to read. I used to not read at all, and now I am realizing how much I've missed. I am trying to formulate a list of the 40 most important, classical, fiction or non-fiction readings. philosophy, politics, history, religion -everything can be included in this list. Can anyone help???
Try looking at this site.
Thanx, Jay
what about non-fiction?
Here are some books i'd recommend to your list:
Crime and punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
The State - Plato
Das Kapital (The Capital) - Karl Marx
Der wille zur macht (The will for power) - Friedrich Nietsche
The Bible ------------------
The Koran -------------------
1984 - George Orwell
These are only a few, but.....
Jay I do believe that list you posted to be rubbish. Any list that attempts to compile the greatest books ever written and includes harry potter should really be disregarded. And yes, I am aware that it was based on a voting population, not scholars. But than, isn't that really the problem?
Geoffrey, I think that the list Jay posted was quite good, well that is a matter of opinions. Personally, I find Harry Potter an entertaining series.
I agree with Pantelej and recommend Orwell's 1984
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Originally Posted by Pensive
:eek: Well to each there own indeed. I read only the first one with great reluctance anyways, so have little knowledge on Potter and his doings. I can say that I thought the first in the harry potter series to be very poorly written and not at all interesting. I guess the few movies from the series that I have seen were in fact a bit entertaining though.
On the other hand, I found the books a bit better than movies or perhaps it was because I knew the story when I watched the movie because I had read the novels before watching the movies.Quote:
Originally Posted by Geoffrey
I admit that Harry Potter's writing style was not oh-so-great but I will say that I found the book extremely entertaining and pleasurable.
I will stronly recommend it to everybody. :D
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Originally Posted by Geoffrey
moreQuote:
In April 2003 the BBC's Big Read began the search for the nation's best-loved novel, and we asked you to nominate your favourite books.
Geoffrey, where does it say that is attempting to list "the greatest books ever written?"
It's all a matter of opinions. Not everyone who reads books is a scholar. The list, in my opinion, was not meant to be taken as a scientific research on greatest books ever. It's a list based on popularity, not geniality, although quite a few books mentioned are significantly high on the genius scale.Quote:
Originally Posted by Geoffrey
Judging from your last comment, you're suggesting that such lists should be created by scholars? Or that the voting population should be scholars only? I don't agree with you on that, based on the fact that the reading population ranges from children to adults of all degrees of education. If anything, the list shows that there's possibly more 'unscholarly' readers than scholars.
Check out this list:
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlib...estnovels.html
It's only for the 20th century, and I think it's only for novels written in Englihs, but it's pretty decent. It has one list compiled by scholars and another by readers, so you get plenty of diversity.
Or this one:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/art...711520,00.html
It's a little messier, but it covers all languages and all countries.
what about Don Quijote de la Mancha (Don Quixote)??
I wonder who those readers are, I think the readers list is slightly slanted, how is it possible that 4 Ayn Rand books made it in to the top 10 (and 2 L. Ron Hubbard)? I love lists like this, it gives me knew ideas and a starting point.Quote:
Originally Posted by Unspar
definitely the Portrait of Dorian Grey. dang, it's raining out. when did that start?