All's fair in love and war and Best Books list?

These are the ones I've read among the top 100 by voters

(in red, those on my top ten personal list of novels in English or Science Fiction novels; in orange, those I did not finish)

THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand - Started it, got bored.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien - Started it
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee
1984 by George Orwell
ULYSSES by James Joyce - Started it, twice.
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert Heinlein
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac -Started it.
AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS by H.P. Lovecraft
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury
NAKED LUNCH by William S. Burroughs - Started it
THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles

And these are the ones I've read that are in the (much better) Board list and not in the voters list.

U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos (The Big Money)
TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley (started it)
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell (Justine)
RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow

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what I find most interesting is reading the picks of posters here on a2k. I don't know what that tells me but I do find them interesting.

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@dyslexia,

From the various lists posted thus far, I've read...

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen
Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1984 by George Orwell
Dune by Frank Herbert
Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Lord Of The Flies by William Golding
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Magician by Raymond E. Feist
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Little Country by Charles De Lint
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay
Harry Potter (All) by J. K. Rowling
The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
A Series Of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snickets
Winnie The Pooh by A. A. Milne
The Bible " (OK, not all, but maybe half.)

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@dyslexia,

Probably, like me, you just like lists, Dys.

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@Merry Andrew,

Lists are the internet version of comfort food!

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These lists are funny. I've read about a third of the Modern Library's list--and less of the readers' list (barf)--and don't argue with the top selections, really. But I have a question: are these strictly English-language novels? I'm too lazy to click the link. Are translations not allowed? The list is way too heavy on British and American novels written at least fifty years ago.

Also, anyone else detest Walker Percy's The Moviegoer? I'd rather read a five-hundred-page description of an abortion.

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@Gargamel,

Quote:

Also, anyone else detest Walker Percy's The Moviegoer? I'd rather read a five-hundred-page description of an abortion.

I feel this way about Mill on The Floss by George Eliot.

I've read, or at least attempted to read, about 1/2 the books- probably because for most of my life I did not have a TV. I've never gotten past page 20 of a James Joyce novel, but I've read all of Dickens, Austin, the Brontes, Tolstoy, Fitzgerald and Steinbeck . I did it on purpose starting as a young teen. I would pick an author and then read everything I could find by them. I did it for years. You would think I could write better myself after stuffing myself with all that writing. Alas, it does not rub off. I find Ayn Rand tedious, but I know I finished at least The Fountain Head. The Ron Hubbard thing just baffles me, maybe people lied. Probably people who don't read picked him because he was the only author they could think of and remembered the ads for his books. I doubt many men would vote for Little Women and I've never met a woman who was gaga over reading Hemingway. Recently I read Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things, it's probably list worthy. The list does seem short of authors outside of the US and UK. I'm not sure these lists really mean or say anything.

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I noticed there was a complete bias for Brit and American writing, funny if it weren't sad, and re 'older' books - which is why I thought both lists peculiar. But even within those constraints, I found both lists I looked at a tad odd (missed seeing the aussie list).

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@ossobuco,

ossobuco wrote:

I noticed there was a complete bias for Brit and American writing, funny if it weren't sad, and re 'older' books - which is why I thought both lists peculiar. But even within those constraints, I found both lists I looked at a tad odd (missed seeing the aussie list).

I wonder how much responsibility can be placed on the bookstores and the publishers (regarding the marketing of general of books not initially published in English)....

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@tsarstepan,

Interesting question, as many might pick up and buy a book if it was right in front of them. On the other hand, the big bookstores do, I think, base inventory on customer choices over time.

Adds, I used to looooove my university bookstore for its book selection, but I'd be broke in 4 seconds flat..

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@Green Witch,

Quote:

I'm not sure these lists really mean or say anything.

Amen.

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@Merry Andrew,

Merry Andrew wrote:

Quote:
I'm not sure these lists really mean or say anything.

Amen.

They may well not...but I always find it interesting to look at what people take the time and trouble to vote for.

Sometimes these lists get me to try something I would not otherwise have done.

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@ossobuco,

ossobuco wrote:

Interesting question, as many might pick up and buy a book if it was right in front of them.
On the other hand, the big bookstores do, I think, base inventory on customer choices over time.

Adds, I used to looooove my university bookstore for its book selection, but I'd be broke in 4 seconds flat..

My attache case broke after I left a bookstore
(crammed too full of books).

My dead friend, Neil, joked about how it happened:
" now the case did not break on the way TO the bookstore . . . . ; it broke on the way FROM the bookstore. . . ."

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@dlowan,

that's what i like about them too

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@dlowan,

tsarstepan wrote:

Nope. Nothing wrong with that MP.

I've managed to read 12 of the following books. Three of these books, I've cheated and read only the first and last chapters and skimmed through the remainder enough to be able to bull my through with a book report.
5. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee
6. 1984 by George Orwell
13. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
14. DUNE by Frank Herbert
16. STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert Heinlein
18. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
20. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
23. SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
25. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
29. THE STAND by Stephen King
43. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
51. THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams

I've since read The Great Gatsby 3 times in entirety. It's one of my all time favorite books.

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@tsarstepan,

I on the other hand, still haven't read Gatsby. I'm not much of a fan of Fitzgerald.

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@Sturgis,

Sturgis wrote:

I on the other hand, still haven't read Gatsby. I'm not much of a fan of Fitzgerald.

C'est la livre?

Or would it better be said as C'est la lecture?

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@Green Witch,

Green Witch wrote:

I'm not sure these lists really mean or say anything.

I went back to the OP to take a look at the source.

randomhouse

A decent guess is that back in 2010, most people taking a randomhouse survey was at that site because they were interested in randomhouse books/authors - and that would skew the results to start off with.

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http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/

Quote:

Since the “100 Best” story first broke in The New York Times on Monday, July 20, 1998, all kinds of opinions about the list – and theories about the Modern Library’s purpose in concocting such a contest of sorts – emerged.

The goal of the “100 Best” project was to get people talking about great books. We succeeded beyond our wildest imaginings — more than 400,000 avid readers rushed online to cast votes for their favorite books and the students of the Radcliffe Publishing Course quickly responded with rival list of 100 Best Novels.

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@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

ossobuco wrote:

I noticed there was a complete bias for Brit and American writing, funny if it weren't sad, and re 'older' books - which is why I thought both lists peculiar. But even within those constraints, I found both lists I looked at a tad odd (missed seeing the aussie list).

I wonder how much responsibility can be placed on the bookstores and the publishers (regarding the marketing of general of books not initially published in English)....

Hey, do you guys remember book stores? Ah, we were so young!

1 Reply

All's fair in love and war and Best Books list?

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