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You have done a great job, now I know which books I should read, thank you!:thumbs_upQuote:
Originally Posted by DavePatron
But list is based on readers picks, some novels are definitely much higher then they really should be. I understand that if 10 people say that book A is better then B, then A is probably better than B, but some books are really overrated.
Wow, thanks very much DavePatron. I was just about to jet off to the B&N, so this list comes in handy. Are you in desperate need of book reviewers? I've read a good dozen or so on the list already, and I can review some of them if you would like. Just let me know. I'm very surprised that the Scarlet Letter isn't there -- or is it? -- I might have missed it.
That is a very good list. A few of them I would have moved, but I like it a lot. What types of reviews are you looking for, because I've read quite a bit of them. Thanks for putting that list together and sharing your results with us.
It was about what people did at the time. It didn't make sense, but it wasn't poor creativity on Steinbeck's part.Quote:
Originally Posted by atreides
I firmly believe in the supremacy of the Russian writer, for whatever mysterious reason that is so. It is interesting to note that the Russian novel developed really 200+ years after the English novel, and yet, perhaps because of geography or history, the Russian novel quickly surpassed the English novel in its first century, not to mention decade. I am not a big fan of Victorian literature which was the beneficiary of 200 years of opportunity to improve but nonetheless failed to better itself. The ten best novels or works of fiction are hard to pinpoint, but I think that at least 6 would have to be russian.
e.g
War and Peace
Anna Karenina
Any collection of Chekhov stories
Any collection of Gogol stories
Fathers and Sons
The much underrated A Hero of Our Time
Anything by Solzhenitsyn or Bulgakov
And even though I'm not a big fan of Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment or The Brothers Karamazov, because I still believe he's a unique contribution to Russian fiction.
One must realize that Hemingway and Faulkner and Fitzgerald and Dickens and the Brontes etc. are all good writers but they are really just weak similes to what the Russian masters have mastered. The whole of life is there in the immediate summit of Russian literature.
All my top ten have already been listed except one which is Johnny Mad Dog by Emmanuel Dongala
Awww... most of my favourite books didn't even make it in Top 100. :bawling: Oh well. I always knew I was weird. :D
Foucalt's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos
A Chronicle of Death Foretold by G.G. Marquez
Lord of the Flies by Wiliam Golding
1984 by George Orwell
The Scaffold by Chingiz Aitmatov
The Late Mattia Pascal by Luigi Pirandello
The Education of *H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N* by Leo Rosten
Life of Pi by Yan Martel
Pirandello and Bernanos are recent discoveries, which moved The Name of the Rose and One Hundred Years of Solitude to position 11 and 12, though these positions are not "fixed" (except first two:D), and what was one day on the 5th position, may be on the 9th next day and vice versa.
What are the 'must-read' books for you, on both English and American Lit.? Or any other kinds of literature for that matter. What are the books that you think everyone should read/have on thier to-read list?!
Amm.. there are plenty, my list is really long. During this summer I wish to read everything that James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Nabukov have ever written.
I love Nabukov...he is amazing. I have been compiling a list for the past year...its indecently long...Quote:
Originally Posted by JuLe
I'm gonna try and keep this to 5 books (these are the 5 of the books that had the most impact on me - not in any order)
Narziss & Goldmund
Hard Times
Less Than Zero
Slaughterhouse 5
Frankenstein
Pynchon, Faulkner, Beckett. Nuff said.
Slaughterhouse Five
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Picture of Dorian Gray
I, Lucifer
The Secret Life of Salvador Dali
Lolita
The Iliad
The Metamorphosis
Running With Scissors
Fahrenheit 451
some have already been stated...but here are some of my favorites in no particular order:
Dostoyevsky - Crime & Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov
Gogol - Dead Souls
Voltaire - Candide
Camus - The Outsider, The Plague
Balzac - Old Goriot
Hesse - Peter Camenzind
Rand - Atlas Shrugged
Not necessarily my top ten favourite books but these are what i recommend everyone to read at least.
1. 1984
2. Angela's Ashes
3. American Psycho
4. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
5. Dubliners
5. Frankenstein
6. Catcher in the Rye
7. Alice in Wonderland
8. On the Road
9. Cannery Row
10. Great Gatsby