No Wallace Stegner?
I’ve read 50. A few more I’ve started, but couldn’t finish. Catcher in the Rye is probably my least favorite book of all time. At least I wanted to know what happened next in The DaVinci Code even though I couldn’t believe how terrible the writing was and how implausible the plot.
Books on this list that have stayed with me:
Moby Dick
Pride and Prejudice (reread multiple times)
A Separate Peace (I read it at just right age have no idea if it would hold up)
Dune
Rebecca (not that it’s a great book, but it’s a pretty perfect little gothic confection)
I don’t agree that reading anything is better than reading nothing. Compared to what? Some books are so bad they make me want to wash my mind of them. Reading junk is the same as watching junk on TV. Time that could be better spent listening to good music, taking a walk, writing in a journal, lots of things.
The list has some good books and some bad. And some bad books that for some reason are considered classics. I recently re-read “The Sun Also Rises” and tried to like it and think why it was considered a classic. I couldn’t. There are characters that have no connection to the ‘eventual’ plot. There are pointless sentences “We walked here. Then we went there. Then I met so and so”. Hemingway’s life is more interesting than that book.
I also think it’s okay for people to watch some junk on TV. There’s room in our huge world for different habits and preferences in viewing, reading, and listening. I am not the “how other people spend their time” police.
I don’t know how to vote for “favorites” when many of my favorites aren’t on that list. No Anna Karenina? Madam Bovary? No Cormac McCarthy or Edith Wharton?
I love watching junk TV and reading YA books. Everything I do for work and school is deadly serious and depressing. So when I want to unwind, I watch “bad” tv and read “bad” books and short stories (often that just exist on the internet and haven’t been published).
I’ll never really understand the need to bash others’ preferences.
Read 35 and seen the movies of oodles of the others.
It’s not a perfect book, but it’s full of perfect scenes. And it has one of the best opening lines: “‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” Almost as good as the first lines of Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House.”
I am a book snob and I truly believe there is harm in reading too many books (esp at a young age) that are poorly written, or purely plot-driven, because these books could make our minds lazy, imho. Of course we read for lots of different reasons, relaxation and escape are perfectly good ones. But I think reading is just like eating, too much French fries will ruin our taste buds.
I usually read more biographies and histories than novels. People’s real lives are well, real. Novelists don’t have any more insight into the human condition, interpersonal relations or inner feelings than any of the rest of us, but they know how to express it better and put it into an entertaining story format. I just find biography more revealing of the reality of life than novels.
Watched the show last night and I am not really drawn to read many of the ones I have not yet read and that’s a big number. I was also disappointed to see Fifty Shades and some others on the list, but I realize it’s a popularity contest not a great literature contest. I would have loved to see Pat Conroy on the list with The Prince of Tides, one of my favorite books ever. At least To Kill a Mockingbird and Little Women are there for me.
I gather we’re supposed to vote for our favorite book on the list of 100. Yeesh. I don’t know if I’m prepared to find out that America’s favorite book is *The Da Vinci Code/i. And I’m surprised at PBS giving its imprimatur to several others on the list, which simply aren’t well-written books.
I like escapist reading too, and have done more than my share. But escapist books can be well-written. I really don’t like this list because of the exceptional books that were left off, and the mediocre books that were selected. I’m still wondering how The Count of Monte Cristo got on there, but adventure tales by Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson didn’t make the cut.
My favorites on the list are To Kill a Mockingbird, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Catch-22, and The Great Gatsby.
I loved Harry Potter but not sure I’d vote for it as a great novel. My favorites on he list are To Kill A Mockingbird, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Great Gatsby and The Book Thief.
I’m surprised to learn that some people believe that there is harm in reading something less than “good” writing. I think reading books of any kind is a good thing. It reminds me of my kids’ pediatrician advising me to make sure my kids read one “classic” kids book for every “fun” book they read. Not in my house. You get to read whatever you want. And who’s to say what’s “classic” anyway?
I’ve read 27, some because I had to, some by choice, and some I read to my sons as they were growing up. I’ve also seen several in their movie or TV form. Mockingbird and Gatsby are two I preferred on film.
My favorite on the list is “Lonesome Dove”. My dad introduced it to me not long after it had been published and I introduced it to my son the summer before his senior year in high school. He read it on a road trip we were taking and absolutely loved it. It’s a love story, a friendship story and an adventure story. It’s great story and the characters are endearing. The mini-series with Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones is also excellent.
“The Joy Luck Club” has been on my shelf for years, and for some reason, I’ve never gotten to it. I think I’ll give it a try.
My only book on the list is ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ As was said, this show is not advertised as the greatest books in American literature, otherwise it would have included such works as ‘Babbit’ or ‘A Fool’s Errand.’
I loved Lonesome Dove too.
I loved “Lonesome Dove” too! McMurtry’s voice is amazing in that book. And it’s the rare example of a movie/series that’s as good as the novel.
- Many a very long time ago. Some I read many, many times and some I barely could get through.
I read much more non fiction than fiction.
Fifty Shades of Grey. Really?!?!?!
I’ve read more than I would have because my job involves YA books. I have become addicted to the genre. My district has them available online. When you come down to it, “A tree grows in Brooklyn “, “To Kill a Mockingbird” “A Seperate Peace” All would have been classified as YA novels.
Just perusing the list again. There are a few mysteries, but it looks as if the only straight-up detective story is the James Patterson Alex Cross novel. That one hurts a little bit - or maybe I’ve overlooked something. No P.D James, Dorothy Sayers, Elmore Leonard, Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald, Walter Mosley, Patricia Highsmith … If they’d gone for a Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot from Agatha Christie instead of “And Then There Were None,” which doesn’t have a detective storyline, I’d be happier.
Also, where is John LeCarre? This is bringing out my negative side so I need to obsess about something else.