100 Best Books of All Time
100 Best Books of All Time
#1100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 1:15am
I recently found this list, and searched and didn't find anything about it... how many have you read, and do you agree with it?
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html
#2re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 1:20am
damn i've only read 12 of those x_X
guess i need to go to the library.
glad to see slaughterhouse-five on both lists though
Less is more
Ugly is beautiful
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Ugly is beautiful
"My brother plays a drag queen... and I'm surprised he looks as good as he does in drag." - Adam Rapp
"thanks, abba. now i'll forever have an image of you as a tattoed hardcore straightedge grrl savaging people in the mosh pit." - papalovesmambo
"Yeah Abba. All the filthy crap you spew out there on those boards. I for one, am equally shocked. :-P" - AnnaK
NathanLaneStalker
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#2re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 1:22am
I've read 9 of those. I need to look into some of them.
Hopefully within the next couple of years, My French Whore will be on the list. 
"I'm tellin' you, the only times I really feel the presence of God are when I'm having sex and during a great Broadway musical." - Nathan Lane - Jeffrey
*thinkpink18*
Stand-by Joined: 2/14/07
#3re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 2:45amwoah... I consider myself a pretty avid reader and I haven't even heard of some of those. Glad to see My Antonia on there though, it's a fabulous book. Updated On: 5/15/07 at 02:45 AM
#4re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 3:02amI've read eleven. It seems like a pretty standard list, but there will always be ones I disagree with -- I found My Antonia to be a tremendous bore, for example. It really varies by taste, as evident in how the readers' opinions differ.
#5re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 7:18amWhy do lit. critics allways name Ulyses as the best book of all time? It is an impenetrable bore about nothing.
....but the world goes 'round
#6re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 7:28am
ive read 5 of the Board list and 12 of the reader's list.
11 of the Radcliffe's Rival list
Updated On: 5/15/07 at 07:28 AM
#7re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 7:31amWell, my favorite book of all time is on there, so tha'ts okay. But Lord of the flies? honestly? i thought that was a terrible book. I haven't read as many of those--or even heard of as many of those--as I feel i should have.
"I can't figure out what kind of life this is, comedy or tragedy, I just know it's showbiz. And what if I don't agree with the lines I have to read? They don't pay me enough, the way I see it."
#8re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 8:27am
I've read 12 off the Board's list and 17 from the Reader list.
And from each of those, I probably disliked at least 3 that I read. Plus I enjoyed "Anthem" and all, but what is up with the Reader list's obsession with Ayn Rand? She is very good, but her writing can be SO dense!
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vmlinnie
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/06
#9re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 8:32amI've only read 4 or 5 off either. But you guys have had a head start. I've thusfar tried to avoid Joyce, so I'll have to stop that.
The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
#10re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 9:02am
I have read:
BOARD'S LIST--7
READER'S LIST--6
I need to get crackin'
"They're eating her and then they're going to eat me. OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!" -Troll 2
#11re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 9:14am
Board list: Why no To Kill a Mockingbird? Makes no sense.
Readers list: SOMEONE likes Ayn Rand. All I have to say.
Glad Kurt Vonnegut was honored, though.
"The art of Illusion is the art of love; and the art of love is the blood-red heart of the world." - Tony Kushner, "The Illusion"
#12re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 9:34am
I don't understand how IT by Stephen King is considered a "Top 100" book.
And I agree about To Kill A Mockingbird being left out. BLASPHEMY!
"They're eating her and then they're going to eat me. OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!" -Troll 2
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#13re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:29amI think the Board's List is a bit snobbish. Gone with the Wind deserves a place on that list (and a higher place on the Reader's List). The city of Atlanta is what it is today specifically because of the book and movie of GWTW. It's a classic.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#14re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:32am
Can someone please explain to me the readers list??? 3 L. Ron Hubbard books and 4 Ayn Rand in the top ten????? Bitch, please! Something was rigged.
I'm ashamed to say that many of these books--THE MAGUS, ULYSSES, even TENDER IS THE NIGHT--I started and couldn't finish.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#15re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:34am
I agree Gotham. Any list that has Ulyses as #1 is gonna be snobbish.
And no Pynchon or Delillo or Dickens.
....but the world goes 'round
#16re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:37am
i'm surprised that Philip Roth isn't on the list, he was on the New York Times' list for a bunch of different novels... plus my favorite, A Confederacy of Dunces, isn't on there, which i disagree with
I've read 11, and am going to try to read them all... but i have such a hard time getting into Ulysses...
vmlinnie
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/19/06
#17re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:38amUlysses just tries to be more artsy and confusing than it is just to try pass into the realm of high culture.
The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller
#18re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:38amI've read 35 on the boards list, but I stopped on the readers list when I saw Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Jerk-off, er, I mean Hubbard. To even consider that literature at all is insulting.
It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story...
AGATHA CHRISTIE, Life magazine, May 14, 1956
#19re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:41am
Torch, I also LOVE Dunces.
And Watership Down by Adams.
Philip Roth was on the list, btw.
....but the world goes 'round
ShbrtAlley44
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/1/03
#20re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:41amI love Gatsby. Glad to see it so high on the list. And Sophie's Choice. Both beautiful books.
kelzama
Broadway Star Joined: 9/14/04
#21re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:42amLove me some Ayn Rand, but pick one. The themes get a little repetitive. L. Ron Hubbard? please. Some (many?) of the titles seem to be there simply because your english teacher told you they were great, and you believed her.
#22re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:44am
oh he was... i'm an idiot, thanks...
i'm just happy that on the reader's list they picked A Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy...
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#23re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:45amPORTNOY'S COMPLAINT was on the list but no SABBATH'S THEATER or OPERATION: SHYLOCK.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#24re: 100 Best Books of All Time
Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:45am
I looked on the non-fiction list. Where is The Diary of Anne Frank?
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
Updated On: 5/15/07 at 10:45 AM
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