http://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/vote/#telescope-widget
How many have you read? 46 with another 10 or so I saw in movie form but never read.
Which would you vote for? Tough choice. Probably To KIll A Mockingbird with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as a close second.
I was surprised by some of the titles listed in the 100 books. Some are real schlock and not what I’d consider literature.
I would say that I read about 35 and seen many film versions as well. Some genre titles here wouldn’t interest me and I am also surprised by some commercial fiction that are hardly literature. Will be interested to see how this progresses. There are other books that I would have suggested/nominated but looking at this list as is, I would have to go with To Kill a Mockingbird.
Pride and Prejudice, The Grapes of Wrath, Great Gatsby hard to compare those titles with Narnia or Harry Potter.
Only 26 (counting books only), how could many books on this list be named “great” is kind of beyond me.
Read 34. Some of my least favorites are on there (looking at you, Catcher in the Rye) but some of my favorites from every reading stage of life are on there: Little Women, 1984, The Giver, Harry Potter
I’d probably vote for 1984 because it’s a book that I read over and over again. I read it for the first time middle school and have read it most recently last summer.
I’m disappointed that the likes of 50 Shades is on there. Not because I have a problem with that type of literature (I welcome and embrace more books that explore different aspects of sex and sexuality) but because it’s just a terrible book and an a horribly wrong portrayal of bdsm. It glorifies abuse.
For classics I am voting for “pride and prejudice” and “Jane Eyre”, (“middlemarch” should be a contender).
For contemporary on the list “the wonderous life of Oscar Wao”
I actually like “go set a watchman” better than “to kill a mockingbird”.
I’ve never read Go Set A Watchman, @makemesmart. I need to add it to my reading list.
So hard to pick one book.
I’ve read 55 of these, but I’m not sure which one I’d vote for above others (although some really don’t seem like they belong on here). Favorites on the list in no particular order: The Grapes of Wrath, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, To Kill a Mockingbird, Anne of Green Gables, The Handmaid’s Tale (all of which I read when I was younger and again more recently). But I’ve also really enjoyed some more recent books like Americanah, The Help and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. I think it’s impossible to pick a favorite.
I thought the Twilight books were some of the worst written books in history. Well, I should say the first one, because I refused to read the rest because the first was so awful. Bad grammar, bad plots, no redeeming value.
Some of the books were really great when I read them, like A Separate Peace, but I don’t think in the great scheme of things it is the best ever written.
I voted for many. I could make an argument for many of my choices.
I’ve read at least 41, and I’d vote for “Things Fall Apart” or “The Handmaid’s Tale” as the best.
I’m disappointed in quite a few of the selections (*The Da Vinci Code *… please). I’ll have to look at how they came up with these 100 titles. I don’t quite understand how Don Quixote, Crime and Punishment, and War and Peace are on the same list with Fifty Shades of Gray and I, Alex Cross.
I guess it’s heartening that so many Americans would choose hefty classics as their favorites (not sure I entirely believe it, though). And do The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Count of Monte Cristo have big fan bases these days? I liked both those books - I’m just surprised they’re favorites. And no John Updike or Philip Roth or William Faulkner? No Neal Stephenson or Joyce Carol Oates or Ursula LeGuin? Twilight and Left Behind but nothing by Donna Tartt?
Sounds like “America’s Got Books!” Tell you what, though - I’m glad The Stand is on there.
55 read. Another half dozen started (more than once for some of them) and given up partway through. I think my favorites on this list are Rebecca, A Separate Peace (which I think is best the first time you read it), Pride & Prejudice, and Dune. @frazzled1, I largely agree with the list you mentioned of what was left off. I feel like they pandered to popularity too much.
Here’s some info from the website on how the 100 books were selected which I guess explains how some crap wound up on the list.
How were the top 100 books chosen?
PBS and the producers worked with the public opinion polling service “YouGov” to conduct a demographically and statistically representative survey asking Americans to name their most-loved novel. Approximately 7,200 people participated.
How did you narrow that list to the top 100?
The results were tallied and organized based on our selection criteria and overseen by an advisory panel of 13 literary industry professionals. The criteria for inclusion on the top 100 list were as follows:
Each author was limited to one title on the list (to keep the list varied).
Books published in series or featuring ongoing characters counted as one eligible entry on the list (e.g. the Harry Potter series or Lord of the Rings)to increase variety.
Books could be from anywhere in the world as long as they were published in English.
Only fiction could be included in the poll.
Each advisory panel member was permitted to select one book for discussion and possible inclusion on the top 100 list from the longer list of survey results.
I read 43 of them. I can’t believe a book like 50 Shades (which I did not read nor did I see the movie) would be on a list of classics. Some of the others I should read, like Pride and Prejudice, which I have started and put down several times. I couldn’t even get through Pride and Prejudice with Zombies!
I hated Catcher in the Rye when I read it in the early 70’s and I was shocked that my kids still had to read it.
I loved Gone with The Wind when I read it at 11 but I don’t know that I would feel the same now. Little Women holds up because I read it with my kids.
The list seems so random - it crossed my mind that it’s what you’d get if you just asked someone to make a list of 100 books.
Not really - there are some books on the list that I hadn’t heard of that are neither best sellers nor classics, and they may be terrific. I have to find out. I’ve only read 40 on the list.
The list was generated by a poll of people’s favorite books. This is not meant to be a list of great literature or most valuable books. I believe that is one of the reasons so many children’s and young adult books are on the list. I think we develop real attachments to the first novels we loved as children or teens.
I’m probably a bit of a book snob but I don’t think this list should represent my book-snob preferences. For the most part, I think that reading something is better than reading nothing, and if a wide variety of people’s somethings are on the list, that’s a good thing.
Agreed, folks reading anything is better than not reading. I’m still sad to see 50 Shades of Crapola and Twilight on the list.
But that’s kind of the problem with the list. I loved the books as I read them, but I’m not sure I’d love them again a second time. A Separate Peace, Anne of Green Gables (although I did re-read as an adult and did love, but not LOVE) were perfect for me at the age I read them. I love the first books of Harry Potter but the later ones aren’t as well written, IMO, because they are too long and repetitive in the descriptions of the characters and the places. I know that’s so that each book can stand alone, but they don’t. Everyone reads 1 to 7, not just book 5. Anyway, no vote for the ‘best’ book from me.
My daughter (age 22) is very into this and I think she said she’d read 39. Not bad as I’m sure she hasn’t read Grapes of Wrath or 50 Shades.