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The Greatest Books of All Time, as Voted by 125 Famous Authors
The Atlantic ^ | Janaury 30, 2012 | Maria Popova

Posted on 01/31/2012 8:21:59 AM PST by C19fan

"Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work," Jennifer Egan once said. This intersection of reading and writing is both a necessary bi-directional life skill for us mere mortals and a secret of iconic writers' success, as bespoken by their personal libraries. The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books asks 125 of modernity's greatest British and American writers—including Norman Mailer, Ann Patchett, Jonathan Franzen, Claire Messud, and Joyce Carol Oates—"to provide a list, ranked, in order, of what [they] consider the ten greatest works of fiction of all time- novels, story collections, plays, or poems." Of the 544 separate titles selected, each is assigned a reverse-order point value based on the number position at which it appears on any list—so, a book that tops a list at number one receives 10 points, and a book that graces the bottom, at number ten, receives 1 point

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature
KEYWORDS: books; fiction; nobelinliterature; pages
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21 posted on 01/31/2012 8:48:15 AM PST by deoetdoctrinae (Gun-Free zones are playgrounds for felons)
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To: C19fan
I must be a literary heathen. Although I was forced to read most of these books in High School and College, I found virtually all theme to be dull and ponderous and I certainly wouldn't re-read any of them by choice or as leisure reading. Give me some Agatha Christie, Steven King, or Tom Clancy any day...
22 posted on 01/31/2012 8:48:28 AM PST by apillar
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To: C19fan

Monkeys at their keyboards: eventually they’ll type everything LOL~!

Well, at least Shakespeare, though none of his works, got a mention...


23 posted on 01/31/2012 8:50:49 AM PST by mrsmith (What Tea Party nominee have you found for your House seat?)
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To: Cicero

Good call on those last two for the 20th Century list. The intellectuals loathe LOTR.


24 posted on 01/31/2012 8:53:00 AM PST by cdcdawg
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To: mrsmith

Fools Die - Mario Puzo


25 posted on 01/31/2012 8:53:42 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (Most Conservative in the Primary, the Republican Nominee in the General.)
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To: C19fan

My List (and I am a lit. teacher)

1. The Bible (no other work is so often alluded to)
2. The Iliad/Odyssey
3. MacBeth
4. Sound and the Fury (narrative experimentation)
5. Hamlet
6. Scarlet Letter
7. Huck Finn
8. Nichomachean Ethics
9. Mere Christianity
10. Walden/Civil Disobedience


26 posted on 01/31/2012 8:53:58 AM PST by struggle (http://killthegovernment.wordpress.com/)
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To: C19fan
Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus Tales comprise some of the greatest American literature. Too complex for modern intellectuals, they are have been consigned to the racist bin along with Twain. Truth is too offensive for modern sensibilities...
27 posted on 01/31/2012 8:54:54 AM PST by antidisestablishment (Our people perish through lack of wisdom, but they are content in their ignorance.)
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To: C19fan

I’ll take THE ILLIAD, ODESSEY, THE AENEID any day along with the works of Kipling and the short stories of John Russell(THE LOST GOD), Don Quixote, and some of the works of Ernest Hemingway.

Most of the so-called “great novels” are extremely boring, and in my youth I read hundreds of good novels.


28 posted on 01/31/2012 8:54:54 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

Amen!


29 posted on 01/31/2012 8:55:57 AM PST by milagro (There is no peace in appeasement.)
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To: cdcdawg
I just couldn’t get into it. Parts were interesting, certain themes were intriguing, but it was an overall drag for me.

Although it's been quite a long time, this is pretty much my recollection of the hours that I wasted on perhaps 100 pages of this book.

30 posted on 01/31/2012 8:55:57 AM PST by InterceptPoint (TIN)
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To: Silentgypsy
The consensus is that the intellectuals can take a long walk off a short pier.

The intellectuals - - the same people who declare 'The English Patient' and 'Shakespeare in Love' to be "Best Picture" of the year.

31 posted on 01/31/2012 8:57:29 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: C19fan

They always leave off “Homer Price and his donut machine”.
What were they thinking?


32 posted on 01/31/2012 8:58:29 AM PST by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: Cicero

The list is of best fiction, that is why the Bible is excluded.


33 posted on 01/31/2012 8:58:50 AM PST by kosciusko51 (Enough of "Who is John Galt?" Who is Patrick Henry?)
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To: C19fan

The Atlantic? No.....come on.....The Atlantic? Their idea of great literature is “Any Curious George book”.


34 posted on 01/31/2012 8:58:50 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Cicero

“Brave New World”

People forget it was written in the early part of the last century, long before socialistic governments had become the norm.

“1984” presents a vision of the future where citizens are kept in line by governmental brute force. “Brave New World” though, presents a vision where citizens are controlled by government paternalism, which results in a voluntary self-enslavement to the government.

Every modern story of a dystopian future has its roots in “Brave New World.”

And, it’s easy to see “Brave New World’s” vision of the future slowly coming to pass.


35 posted on 01/31/2012 8:58:59 AM PST by Brookhaven (Mitt Romney has been consistent since he changed his mind.)
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To: struggle

Good list.

Except for “Scarlet Letter.” Terrible, terrible book.

I wasn’t too keen on Hamlet. I saw the Branagh movie in high school and it was much more enjoyable than reading it. MacBeth seemed to be just as good either way to me.


36 posted on 01/31/2012 9:00:26 AM PST by Future Snake Eater (Don't stop. Keep moving!)
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To: C19fan

I’m just glad it wasn’t ‘The Audacity of Hope” or something by Alynski.


37 posted on 01/31/2012 9:01:02 AM PST by LucianOfSamasota (Tanstaafl - its not just for breakfast anymore...)
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To: Brookhaven

There’s a book by Anthony Burgess (of Clockwork Orange fame) called “1985” in which Islam and unions take over Britain.

It is almost IMPOSSIBLE to find, but VERY ACCURATE.


38 posted on 01/31/2012 9:01:35 AM PST by struggle (http://killthegovernment.wordpress.com/)
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To: C19fan

This list is CRAP!

No Tolkien, Lewis, Hawthorne, or Steinbeck.

No Dumas, Dante, or Heinlein.

But the Marxists just LOOOOOVE the Russians...


39 posted on 01/31/2012 9:03:26 AM PST by Old Sarge (RIP FReeper Skyraider (1930-2011) - You Are Missed)
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To: Future Snake Eater

>>Except for “Scarlet Letter.” Terrible, terrible book.

People hate “Scarlet Letter,” but like “Sound and the Fury” it has so many layers to peel back. I teach it to a bunch of bored regular ed kids in public school and a lot of them love it.

There is no greater explanation other than it is a very convoluted diorama of many different aspects of the “human heart in conflict with itself”.


40 posted on 01/31/2012 9:04:33 AM PST by struggle (http://killthegovernment.wordpress.com/)
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