Official Book Discussion and Last Book You Read Thread

[BendtheBar]

Which have you read?

The 100 greatest novels of all time: The list | Books | The Observer

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

Which have you read?

The 100 greatest novels of all time: The list | Books | The Observer

Have read:

10. Frankenstein Mary Shelley
16. David Copperfield Charles Dickens
20. The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
21. Moby-Dick Herman Melville
31. Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
45. Ulysses James Joyce
53. Brave New World Aldous Huxley
59. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
64. The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien
73. To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee

Seems I have some work to do

[Chameleon]

Some of us have got more work to do than others

Very comprehensive list of books though, spreads through different genres. I'm forever indebted to Tann for posting that link.

[Tannhauser]

I've read fewer than I thought.

3. Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe
4. Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
5. Tom Jones Henry Fielding
8. Dangerous Liaisons Pierre Choderlos De Laclos
9. Emma Jane Austen
17. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
21. Moby-Dick Herman Melville
22. Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
23. The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
24. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland Lewis Carroll
31. Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
33. Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome
38. The Call of the Wild Jack London
49. The Trial Franz Kafka
53. Brave New World Aldous Huxley
55. USA John Dos Passos
59. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
61. Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
64. The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien
65. Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis
69. Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
70. The Tin Drum Gunter Grass
74. Catch-22 Joseph Heller
75. Herzog Saul Bellow
76. One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
82. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino
86. Lanark Alasdair Gray
89. The Periodic Table Primo Levi
99. American Pastoral Philip Roth

Of these, I would single out:

USA - the first non-sci-fi grown up book I read. I never looked back after that.
American Pastoral - heartbreaking.
Emma - strange choice for a powerlifter, perhaps, but the nuance of the writing makes it one of the very best novels I've ever read.

I could not get on with:

Lanark
Herzog
The Trial

I have a few more from that list I have in the pipeline. 'Diary of a nobody' looks really good.

[Tannhauser]

I have this book at home, which someone has turned into a convenient list: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die/

Every so often, I get to tick another off, which satisifies my profoundly nerdish side. Unfortunately, it's occurred to me that I'm very unlikely to read even half of them before I die.

[BendtheBar]

I am surprised that the Old Man And The Sea wasn't on the list. That is perhaps the most memorable classic for me.

[T-Bone]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

Which have you read?

The 100 greatest novels of all time: The list | Books | The Observer

I was surprised I've only read 36 out of the 100. Many of the modern works have escaped me. I don't read much modern literature. Here are the titles I have read:
Robinson Crusoe
Gulliver’s Travels
The Count of Monte Cristo
David Copperfield
Wuthering Heights
Jane Eyre
Vanity Fair
The Scarlet Letter
Moby Dick
Madame Bovary
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
The Brothers Karamozov
The Portrait of a Lady
Huckleberry Finn
Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde
Jude The Obscure
The Call of the Wild
The Wind in the Willows
The Rainbow
Ulysses
The Great Gatsby
The Trial
Men Without Women
Brave New World
Scoop
The Plague
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Catcher in the Rye
Charlotte’s Web
The Lord of the Rings
Lord of the Flies
On The Road
Lolita
To Kill A Mockingbird
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Housekeeping

One work I feel should have been included is The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton.

[Tannhauser]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

I am surprised that the Old Man And The Sea wasn't on the list. That is perhaps the most memorable classic for me.

'Greatest' lists like that are endlessly debatable. I would have on there:

Joseph Heller 'Something Happened',
Anthony Burgess 'Earthly Powers'
T.H. White 'The Once and Future King'
John Updike 'Rabbit' series
L.P. Hartley 'The Go-Between'

...and so on.

[Chameleon]

I couldn't see The Godfather either. I thought it was an incredible book.

[big_swede]

Im currently reading George R.R. Martings books, the serie Game of Thrones are based on them and I could not wait for S2 to come out. In the middle of the second book and enjoying it very much. Reccomended if youre into medival storys with a touch of fantasy.