# Greatest book of all time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 4, 2003, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952 "2003-03-04T06:16:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/21 "2003-03-04T18:39:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Exapno Mapcase \* > \*\*Not one, not two, but **three** posters named LotR as the greatest book of all time. My faith in the intelligence of humanity, already at an all-time low, has had the bottom dropped out of it. Sob. \*\* What would nominate. I suppose Euclid’s Elements and Newton’s Principia should be on the list. I haven’t read them. I can’t imagine any work of fiction deserving to rank as best book ever. ---
**Author:** ![Profane\_Creation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/839c29/32.png) [@Profane\_Creation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane_Creation)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/22 "2003-03-04T19:36:37Z")
**The Divine Comedy** by Dante Alighieri. ---
**Author:** ![Fingolfin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eada6e/32.png) [@Fingolfin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fingolfin)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/23 "2003-03-04T20:16:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Exapno Mapcase \* > \*\*Not one, not two, but **three** posters named LotR as the greatest book of all time. My faith in the intelligence of humanity, already at an all-time low, has had the bottom dropped out of it. Sob. \*\* And it gets worse! Over 5,000 Brits voted it the “Novel of the Century” in a Waterstone Books Poll: [http://books.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4300875,00.html](http://books.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4300875,00.html) And in America, in an [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) poll, it was voted “Best of the Millennium”! [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/features/c/century/best-of-millennium.html/103-2610894-9952664](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/features/c/century/best-of-millennium.html/103-2610894-9952664) Muh-ha-ha-haaaaaa!! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TigoleBitties](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cab0a1/32.png) [@TigoleBitties](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TigoleBitties)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/24 "2003-03-04T20:42:46Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by xenothrope \* > \*\* > Honestly IMHO Lord of the Rings… not that great of a book._\* **RELEASE THE HOUNDS!!!** 😃 😃 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Darkrabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@Darkrabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkrabbit)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/25 "2003-03-04T20:53:22Z")
“Edmund: A Butler’s Tale” – a giant rollercoaster of a novel in four hundred sizzling chapters. A searing indictment of domestic servitude in the eighteenth century, with some hot gypsies thrown in. **Darkrabbit** ---
**Author:** ![Iguana\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@Iguana\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iguana_Boy)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/26 "2003-03-04T21:19:46Z")
Catch-22 I haven’t read Don Quixote yet, but I have it on a bookshelf somewhere. And, hey! I like Lord Of The Rings!! ---
**Author:** ![coyasicanbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bcef8e/32.png) [@coyasicanbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coyasicanbe)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/27 "2003-03-04T21:28:30Z")
Jeez, I can’t believe there’s only one mention of Catcher In The Rye. It gets my vote. And rsa, I hope you were serious, because The Cat In The Hat is in my top five. If the OP were “greatest book of all time to read out loud,” it would be number one on my list. I beg my three year-old to let me read it to him whenever I can. He’s pretty sick of it by now…I still love it. ---
**Author:** ![beajerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@beajerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beajerry)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/28 "2003-03-04T22:07:20Z")
American-- To Kill A Mockingbird World-- The Odyssey I’d vote for The Lord of the Rings as a good second. The Bible? No. It is a paltry collection of jumbled myths and legends and as a whole is interesting and entertaining, but is not cohesive enough to be defined really as a “book”. ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/29 "2003-03-04T22:46:48Z")
I’d like to second Catch 22. One of the few books I can time and time again. V ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/30 "2003-03-04T22:50:02Z")
Okay, let me try that again: I’d like to second Catch 22. One of the few books I can (read) time and time again. ---
**Author:** ![Mephisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/31 "2003-03-04T23:08:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by beajerry \* > **World-- The Odyssey** I don’t know about #1, but _The Odyssey_ should definitely be in the Top Ten, at least IMO. If I were King of the Universe, and if I trusted teachers not to ruin it\*, I would make this story required reading in all my schools. Truly, a great tale. I loved it. _Catcher_ and LOTR would both go in my Top 100, I think. I’m not sure if the Bible would make the cut or not. The very best book of all time, though . . . wow, I think there have been just too many great books written to place one in the top spot. - I know, there’s some truly great teachers out there–some of them, no doubt, even post to the SDMB. I was thinking of some of the teachers I had in school who could take some of the greatest pieces of literature ever written and absolutely ruin them. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/32 "2003-03-04T23:17:35Z")
For shame! No one has mentioned **The Straight Dope** , by that great american author _Cecil Adams_. Your doper cards have now all been suspended.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/33 "2003-03-04T23:41:33Z")
**Huckleberry Finn** **The Grapes of Wrath** And another nod for **To Kill A Mockingbird** ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/34 "2003-03-04T23:49:17Z")
**Ulysses**. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/35 "2003-03-04T23:50:15Z")
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (trilogy) by Douglas Adams is my favorite sci-fi & comedy… Le Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory is my favorite fictional and is the best book on Arthurian Legend… Siddartha by Albert Camus gives interesting perspective of Budda and Hinduism…gets honarable mention for giving me some perspective of a culture… The Bible just can’t be compared to other books…it’s not meant to be entertaining or interesting (I make it sound like a dry read, but I hold The Book in high regard) like any other book. That goes for non-fiction and fiction as well… ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/36 "2003-03-05T00:00:11Z")
Thanks, **Biffy** ; I was beginning to worry that I’d get to the end and NO ONE would have mentioned Joyce. I’ll second James Joyce’s _Ulysses_. Though after a few drinks I might try making a case for _Finnegans Wake_. ---
**Author:** ![RadioWave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RadioWave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadioWave)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/37 "2003-03-05T00:27:59Z")
Seconding Dante’s _The Divine Comedy_ and Dostoesvsky’s _The Brother’s Karamazov_. The first defines epic poetry (with honorable mention to _The Iliad_). The second is like reading a chronicle of every human hope, ambition, weakness and suffering ever experienced. ---
**Author:** ![MusicJunkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@MusicJunkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MusicJunkie)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/38 "2003-03-05T01:17:01Z")
I’ll second the Bible. Come on people it’s beautifully writen, diverse as hell and influential as no other book. LOTR is a great book but best of all time? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/39 "2003-03-05T01:17:01Z")
Threads like this drive me nuts: On one hand, I want to participate - talking about books is the best! One the other hand, it often just becomes everybody offering their list. I always want to take an analytical point of view: What criteria should you use for a “greatest book”? Fiction? Non-fiction? Religious? Most read? (something religious, probably) Highest quality? (in fiction, Ulysses by Joyce is generally considered highest quality in the English language for the 20th century) Most Popular - i.e., most well known? I can’t break down the analysis all by myself. Therefore, I will talk a different angle: [http://www-tech.mit.edu/~subway/Prints/chaucer.html](http://www-tech.mit.edu/~subway/Prints/chaucer.html) I give you: The Kelmscott Chaucer - generally considered to be the most beautiful book printed in the English language. That’s a form of “Greatest Book” isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![mozart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@mozart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozart)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952/40 "2003-03-05T01:32:51Z")
The Bible is not really a book. It is a collection of stories, myths, folklore, and second hand hearsay. It is a mumble-jumble of primative man’s fear,hopes and delusions. It belongs with other studies of early man. Nothing more. my short list would include: Death in Venice Moby Dick crime and punishment king lear# long days journey into night# Anna Karenina Catch-22 Dictionary of Quotations Roget’s Thesaurus Ancesrtal Passions Winny the Poo Any really good cook book #plays[as great as any book when it comes to dealing with the human condition] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-book-of-all-time/158952.md?page=3)