Where do I find a top ten list of the best books to read?

[Bobo]

I'm looking for a list of the best classic literature out there. Anybody? Or any suggestions for a GOOD book?

 

[Netopia]

Genesis
Exodus
Kings 1
Kings 2
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Revelation

Hope you enjoy.... I always do.

Joe

 

[yata]

Ahh, it's fiction.

 

[chipbgt]

-Romans

-Lord Of the Rings series

-Catcher in the Rye

-Bondage of the will

-Anything by CS lewis

-1984

Not really classical literature but still stuff I enjoy over and over.

 

[Yeeny]

Lets see, John Steinbeck is an excellent author, I loved everything he wrote. Gone With The Wind, Lord of the Rings, as ChipBGT stated, and Angela's Ashes are all good. Guy De'Maussapant (spelling?) is an excellent author, and Charles Dickens or Edgar Allan Poe are always must reads. Thats all I can think of for now, unless you like horror. Then you must read The Stand by Stephen King or The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub (author of Ghost Story).

 

[AMDJunkie]

Dune by Frank Herbert, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, and pretty much what chipbgt said.

 

[The Dancing Peacock]

AMD, I just read Ender's Game. It was awesome. I read it in one night, I could not put it down. Bout to start the sequel, Speaker for the Dead tonight. The target audience may be younger ppl, like 14-17, but I definitely enjoyed it. My 14 year old sister has it on her summer reading list, and my friends here at college are reading it. Very good if you like Sci-Fi at all, even if you don't, the story is amazing.

I also recommend Shogun by James Clavell, It's an epic story, you will definitely get drawn into it. The Godfather by Mario Puzo. If you liked the movies at all, this is better. It is all of the first movie, and part of the second. Mario Puzo also wrote the Last Don, which was pretty good, similar to Godfather I suppose. Also Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Uhm, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee are both "classics" in any sense of the word.

I like reading


late.


TDP

 

[Mday]

i don't read.

 

[Mday]

sister carrie was nice, i read it in HS, by Theodore Dreiser.
i read some edith wharton in HS too, nice.
and jane austen is nice...

and i read some EB white essay collections... nice...

stay away from shakespeare :Q

see if you can "cuddle" up to a good collection of short stories.

---------

everything is from school... the only thing i have not enjoyed reading for english class is shakespeare (well, julius caesar to be exact).

 

[Bobo]

Thanks for the suggestions!
I'm taking English 301 (great books) so it's inspiring me to read even after class finishes.
We're reading "Desert Solitaire" by Edward Abbey. It's pretty good. Very descriptive about nature, and he is funny.
Also, I would recommend "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. I read all 6 of his books in 2 weeks! Couldn't put them down!
Let me know of anymore books you may think of.

 

[ltk007]

Please explain these books you speak of. BA-OH-KA

 

[Bobo]

I'm looking for good reading, mostly classics like "Catcher in the Rye" for example, or "Walden" by Thoreau. Stuff like that, to enhance my thinking. But I am very open to sci-fi as well, or fantasy.

 

[thedarkwolf]

heres a link to a page with several top 100 books of the century polls.

http://www.bestonly.com/books_top100.htm

Little disappointed McCammon's Swan Song didn't show up on any of the lists. On the others I have seen he ussually pops up around 70-90 well atleast on Reader's polls.

 

[nickdakick]

Try MS documents on their SW, you'll abandon reading forever.

 

[Raincity]

Ayn Rand " The Foutainhead" Integrity bringing a battle against conventional standards to express the spirit of a noble mans creation in current society.

Rain

 

[HorB]

http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/english/guilt.htm

This list, from San Jose State University, is entitled:

GUILT LIST
(Any English major who hasn't read most of these has no right to joy.)

 

[InTheClouds]

I am a very avid reader who also reads to expand my thinking. Here are some books I would mark as must reads for insight.

1. Island by Aldous Huxley
2. The Tibetan Book of the Dead
3. The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield
4. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinland
5. JOB by Robert A. Heinland
6. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
7. 1984 by Orson Wells
8. Any book on Buddhist Thought
9. Sidhartha - I cant think of the author at this moment
10. Any book on the Dead Sea Scrolls

Hope you enjoy.

 

[SirFshAlot]

Sidhartha was written by Hermann Hesse; great book and one of my favorites.

others;
Illusions by Bach
1984
Catcher in the Rye
The Talisman by Stephen King

 

[chipbgt]

Anything by Mark Twain or Ernest Hemingway I would also suggest

HorB, Of the 150 or so books on that list I have only read 25 Good thing im not an english major

 

[CyberSax]

As long as you avoid anything written by Ayn Rand and Ernest Hemmingway, you should be OK.

I would recommend that you read "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey, and then watch the movie with Jack Nicholson because they both kickass (even though the author dissaproved of it)

Another good book is Exodus by Leon Yuris, but the content of the book might be too Zionist for some people's tastes.

If you're looking for a fantasy book, the Hobbit by J. R. Tolkein is an all time classic, though I haven't personally read it.

If you're looking for an action novel (and have lots of free time on your hands), Shogun by James Clavell is quite good.

If you're looking for a sci-fi novel that's different from the usual formulaic Michael Crichton crap-o-rama, I would recommend "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. The book was written back in the 1970's, but it's remarkable how farsighted it is.

If all you want is a timeless American classic, few have been dissapointed with Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn". I would avoid "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" though, as it's more of a kiddy book.

I'm looking for good reading, mostly classics like "Catcher in the Rye" for example, or "Walden" by Thoreau. Stuff like that, to enhance my thinking. But I am very open to sci-fi as well, or fantasy.

Though there are several thousands of books known as "Classics", I can recommend about a dozen that you should read:

The Odyssey by Homer
Julius Caesar by Shakespeare
Hamlet by Shakespaere
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickins
Crime and Punishment by Fedor Dostoevsky
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

If you want books that will "enhance" your thinking, read some of these (and consider it an accomplishment if you can read and fully understand any one):

Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill
On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
A Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
Meditations Rene Descartes
A Theory of Justice by John Rawls
The Republic by Plato
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin


In all honesty, I haven't fully read any of those from the second category, though I have read many passages from all of them.

 

[montanafan]

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

 

[bones10]

I don't believe anyone has yet mentioned the foundation trilogy by Issac Asimov. This "trilogy" has become 6-7 books by now, but I am referring to the original 3 books. They are a collection of short stories that all relate to each other. They are pretty amazing.

SciFi:
The Foundation Trilogy by Issac Asimov (as mentioned above)
"The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells
"The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells
Books written by Ray Bradbury

Fantasy:
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
books writteny by J.R.R Tolkien (as mentioned previously)

Other:
The Bible
"The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis
"Animal Farm" by George Orwell
"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens
"Through the Looking-Glass" Lewis Carroll


More recent books that are thought provoking:
SciFi:
"Hyperion" by Dan Simmons - on who or what makes God, God.
"The Gap into Conflict : The Real Story" by Stephen R Donaldson - whole series is on manipulative behavior
"Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" by Spider Robinson - a collection of short stories; great story telling.

Fantasy:
"Wizards First Rule" by Terry Goodkind - the wizards rules apply to real life.
"Magician: Apprentice" by Raymond E Feist - best epic fantasy since the Lord of the Rings, IMHO.


Other:
"The Education of Little Tree" by Forrest Carter - an autobiography of a native american growing up in early America.

Ok, that's enough for now.

Some of the classics are old enough now that you can legally download the text in electronic form for free. Also you can check some of the internet sites such as www.amazon.com that have synopsis and reviews of the books.

- bones

 

[Xede]

I have a text file where I've saved several previous book lists... I just added a few of the lists that were mentioned in this thread. The lists all have different scopes, but this file can be a great resource.

http://www.mit.edu/~saunders/book%20list.txt

 

[tinneric]

If you like fantasy lit. be sure and read Raymond Feist, start with the riftwar saga.

also,

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Battlefield Earth (movie sucked, book rules)
A Clockwork Orange
1984
Dune
The Man Who Used the Universe

 

[chess9]

MDAY:

Edith Wharton! You da man! How did you know? Edith Wharton has become quite popular the last 10 years. I read all of her books in high school. No one can use more adjectives and adverbs in a sentence. Her writing is the functional opposite of poetry. But her writing is poetry. Though Ethan Fromme is frequently mentioned, The Age of Innocence is surely her best, in my view. Hudson River Bracketed is also a very interesting story about Victorian manners in N.Y. If you can appreciate a prolix style, Edith Wharton is the best.

Other great books:

1. Any anthology of the works of e.e.cummings; for example:

e.e. cummings

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

(I fantasize that cummings wrote this for Wombat Woman)

2. Ulysses, by James Joyce. An impossible book, but an incredible showcase of the language.

3. Madame Bovary, by Flaubert. Flaubert may have been the greatest writer who ever lived. This book may be the greatest book after the bible.

4. La Recherche du Temps Perdu (Remembrance of Things Past), by Marcel Proust. Read it in the original French for a full appreciation of the talent of this great writer. One of the top 10 books ever. I just finished reading the English translation because my French has deteriorated badly since I read it in college.

5. The Diary of Anne Frank. What can I say? Innocence and a love of life were her strengths. She did more by dying than she probably would have done had she lived, but her death was tragic nonetheless.

And, here's a question: "What book, until the 20th Century, was the second best selling book of all time?"