Bogus list... ANY list of top 100 novels would have to include at least one Steinbeck book, preferably "The Grapes of Wrath", though "Of Mice and Men" or "Cannery Row" could both be worthy.

I want my Steinbeck.

Kyosuke: Don Quixote is a Spanish novel.

I don't read anything without pictures and centerfolds.

top 100 books that british journalists enjoy.

Not a bad collection. American authors are not well represented, but given the sampling methods, understandable.

Hell yeah where is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Looking at the top 25, the compilers would suggest that great literature has been extinct for more than 150 years. Asinine.

/two favorite novels - Les Miserables (19th century)and Infinite Jest (1998?)

WTF?? No Alice Walker???? She's amazing, the Color Purple is amazing.

Oh, and what about Out of Africa?

the Bible, unfortunately, does not have a single author. So at best, it's an anthology, who's collected authors are largely unknown (unless they were kind enough to sign it, like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)

Whether or not it's fiction or nonfiction, that's for others to decide. (but as for my part, I say fiction)

"I'll write the Great American Novel."

me too, notorious!

dogbone - Bluest Eye is good, though.

Still can't get the fark through to the site. Is Remembrance of Things Past on there?

I've read about 30 of these books, and most of them are very good novels. 1984 is on the list like Cheesus mentioned, you missed it because it's spelled out Nineteen Eighty-four.

I'm just happy that Catch 22 is on there, in my opinion it's one of the top 5 books of the last 60 years.

Seriously, most of the books on this list are good
choices, even if the rankings are a bit out of whack.

Also, on the second time over I noticed something important. Unless I missed one, all the authors are included on the list only once. So really the makers of the list decided to use one novel by each author that demonstrates their worth. Thus the list can be a little skewed because Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Hemingway, Orwell, Dickens, Twain, or Camus are only allowed one book.

No Kurt Vonnegut? I spit on this list. Ptooey!

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Snow Crash

/the greats

Bogus list... ANY list of top 100 novels would have to include at least one Steinbeck book, preferably "The Grapes of Wrath", though "Of Mice and Men" or "Cannery Row" could both be worthy.

I want my Steinbeck.

hrm posted twice, no refresh button for me

I would have included "Stand on Zanzibar", and more Camus and Kafka, but then I'm a fan of dystopian darkness. I'd also have preferred George R. R. Martin's (still in progress) "Song of Fire and Ice" series to LOTR; fewer damn songs, for starters...

No George Eliot?

so much whining about the lack of american authors.


draw you own conclusions.

Great. So, when does the American list come out?

What's up with all the Hemingway fans? Hemingway blows.

What's up with all the Hemingway fans? Hemingway blows.

I think Hemingway would agree with you.

RE: #6 How can this list be authoritative on English when they include "unputdownable"?

I've read about 30 of these books, and most of them are very good novels. 1984 is on the list like Cheesus mentioned, you missed it because it's spelled out Nineteen Eighty-four.

I'm just happy that Catch 22 is on there, in my opinion it's one of the top 5 books of the last 60 years.

Seriously, most of the books on this list are good
choices, even if the rankings are a bit out of whack.

Also, on the second time over I noticed something important. Unless I missed one, all the authors are included on the list only once. So really the makers of the list decided to use one novel by each author that demonstrates their worth. Thus the list can be a little skewed because Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Hemingway, Orwell, Dickens, Twain, or Camus are only allowed one book.

I wouldn't vote in anything by Hemmingway. He wrote great short stories, but none of his novels are great.

2003-10-13 02:46:06 PM VinDiesel
/of course, I just said Lonesome Dove is great, so who am I to talk?

Plus, it's really hard to shiat on a book that won the pulitzer price for fiction...it can't be all bad = )

Oh, and the author did write an explanation, it tells why the Bible is not on there, nor Beowulf and Canterbury Tails and Shakespeare.

And this is not a ranked list of best to worst. In case you didn't notice, it's in order of oldest to most recent.

I've read 7 of them, most of which should not be on the list.

Charlotte's Web - my eye!
Robinson Crusoe - I liked it as I child but I find it booring now.
The Great Gatsby - Dull, no one can keeps their pants on.
Huckabery Finn - great but frowned on today.
The Call of the wild - Great book, lousy movie.
1984 - Preferred Animal farm (Funny at least).
The Lord of the Rings - GREAT!

" would have included 'Stand on Zanzibar'"

i'll see your zanzibar and raise you one dhalgren

Ugh, finally got through. Leave it to the UK to think Charles Dickens should be on the list (#16 David Copperfield). The most over-hyped writer in history.

I have no idea how that got posted twice.

Though it does stress my point.

Bah not a single book from Salvatore, what snobs, I see DR Laura's book did not make the list either. Bah

Does everyone else have the ad on the side where the guy in the bowler is swinging a light-saber? WTF?

And as for Hemingway, I'll just comment that writing the occasional long complex compound sentence, far from being a crime, can improve the flow over a constant staccato.

The whole thing is a damn high school reading list. Fark this, these aren't the greatest novels in history, just a bunch you should have either read or at least know about.

The Princess Bride?
Okay, maybe it's not the best written thing, but I bet it's more entertaining than most of those books.

Gulliver's Travels rocked- glad to see it on there. Oh, and am I the only person who can't stand Dickens' writing style? *shudders*

Glad Oscar and Lucinda got a heads up, too. Wonderful story.

AcadianSidhe, Hemingway is definitely overrated. And so is Steinbeck. James Joyce bores me because he makes no sense whatsoever.

Then again, requiring me to read a given author is a good way to turn me against him. I'm ornery that way; if I had been told that I had to read Moorcock in school, I'd probably say that Moorcock sucks.

Trapezoid


The Princess Bride?
Okay, maybe it's not the best written thing, but I bet it's more entertaining than most of those books.

The original or the "good parts" version?

Paradise Lost?? Animal Farm?? Hello where are you?

I agree, there's no Steinbeck when there should farking well be.

They forgot some of the new masters like Palahniuk, Clevenger, Coupland, Hempel, and Ballard.

http://jdonnelly.blogspot.com

"The whole thing is a damn high school reading list."

Actually it is a list for someone majoring in English in college.

No. No, no, no.

She's just insufferable. She's convinced herself that being a black woman is a blank check to employ vague, masturbatory mysticism as a plot device. Everything she writes is a fcuking Scooby-Doo episode.

Ech. I'm going to go dig out Song Of Solomon and pee on it.

Vman, you should elevate your tastes. Even Robert Jordan is capable of better writing than that hack Salvatore. But what do I know? I read Terry Goodkind and like it.

Korovyov

I agree that the run-on sentence, although sometimes difficult to absorb as one cohenerent thought, can nonetheless acheive an effect not available to grammatical facists.

Salinger and Hemingway are a bit overrated. But that realization only comes once the mind has matured a bit.

Most of the picks are spot on... but of course the notable misses also stick out - one could make a strong argument for

A Separate Peace
Daniel Martin
Slaughterhouse Five

As far as The Tin Drum... no effing way that should make the top 100.

The whole thing is a damn high school reading list. Fark this, these aren't the greatest novels in history, just a bunch you should have either read or at least know about.

"Paradise Lost?? Animal Farm?? Hello where are you?"

Paradise Lost is not a novel, it is a poem.