How many Of EWs 100 New Classics Have You Read?

Cafe Society
21

I didn’t list the ones I abandoned, like the Brief Boring Life of Oscar Somebody, or a Heart-Breaking Work of Staggering Narcissism.

22

Wow, I have read 1 of those books.

  1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
    These are on my shelf waiting:

  2. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)

  3. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)

  4. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)

  5. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)

  6. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
    Other than that there are many I’ve never heard of and many I have no desire to read. Weird list, indeed.

23

Only 14?? WTH? (though I have read other books by some of the authors, I’ve read all of Alice Hoffman).

24

Same here.

25

19, God knows why. Seems random.

26

Two; Lonesome Dove and The Da Vinci Code. I have a copy of The Road but haven’t got around to reading it yet. I read a great deal, but much of it is nonfiction, periodicals and books of history, biographies and the like. Never belonged to a book club.
SS

27

I’ve read 13:

  1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
  2. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997) (I’m the only one so far who’s read this? Suprising. Damn fine book, once you struggle past the first chapter or two, and well worthy of its spot.)
  3. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
  4. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000) (I found this one annoyingly self-congratulatory-- and not just the title. Maserschmidt nailed it)
  5. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
  6. Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
  7. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
  8. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992) (Donna Tartt’s idea of how men think is unintentionally pretty funny.)
  9. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
  10. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006) Meh.
  11. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995) Good pick. Should be higher.
  12. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)

Missing in action, IMHO:

Generation X -Douglas Coupland
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal - Christopher Moore (Moore is possibly the greatest comic satirist since Twain, and something of his deserves a spot on the list. Could also be A Dirty Job, or The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, or Fool, or maybe Bloodsucking Fiends.)
Undaunted Courage - Stephen Ambrose

28

(missed edit window)

One more that deserves a slot:

Daytripper Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon

29

Me too, and the weird part is that three of the six are comics, and a fourth is about comics. That’s not representative of my reading habits, I swear.

Yes.

30

Yeah, this is a weird list. I agree with Maserschmidt that it seems more like a list of books frequently chosen for book clubs. Of the books I have read, I’d say some of them are of literary or social importance, some are enjoyable reads but probably not of any lasting significance, and some are just schlock that happened to be popular. With several on the full list I had to stop and say to myself “No, you just saw the movie”, and I’m wondering whether having been made into a movie was actually part of what qualified a book for this list. Of the 23 books I have read, at least eight were adapted for the screen.

Italics indicate books that I have not read in their entirety.

  1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
  2. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
  3. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
    21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
  4. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
  5. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
    27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
  6. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
  7. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
  8. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
  9. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
  10. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
  11. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
  12. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
  13. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
  14. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
  15. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
  16. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
  17. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
    81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
  18. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
  19. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
  20. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
31
  1. I attempted, but I cannot STAND Cormac McCarthy’s writing style. (You aren’t archy/ Don Marquis, so stop! Hey look, punctuation.)’’

2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 15.16, 21,24,25. 27, 28,34,36,48,49,50,57,66,67,73,77,80, 83<I cried like a baby>84,
86, 88, 90, 92,94, 96…
And 100, it was a gift from my parents for yes, Christmas. And I loved it!

I’ve also gotten “This is America, and SO CAN YOU!”

32

Twenty-four for me:

  1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  2. Maus
  3. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
  4. Into Thin Air
  5. Watchmen
  6. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
  7. Bridget Jones’s Diary
  8. On Writing
  9. Lonesome Dove
  10. The Joy Luck Club
  11. Angela’s Ashes
  12. Sandman
  13. The Corrections
  14. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
  15. Jimmy Corrigan
  16. The Bonfire of the Vanities
  17. Cloud Atlas
  18. A Prayer for Owen Meany
  19. Atonement
  20. Holes
  21. High Fidelity
  22. Presumed Innocent
  23. Fast Food Nation
  24. The Da Vinci Code

The one on the original list that stuck out for me was The Ruins by Scott Smith. I had no idea that book was highly regarded, though I’ve only seen the movie. Now I’m tempted to give the book a look. I did like his first novel, A Simple Plan.

33

It’s not a great book. A worthwhile read, I guess, but in no way a “modern classic.”

34

What you said. It was a hot book at the time (I think it sold for serious movie rights before it was even published), but a classic? I doubt it’s on anyone else’s list.

Oh wait, I was talking about A Simple Plan. Never mind in carry on, I didn’t even know The Ruins existed.

No, wait. Is The Ruins the one where they get stuck on a pyramid (hill?) in a remote jungle and the vines are killing them?

35

Big fat zero. I’ve also only seen 6 of the ones that have made it to movies – 24 of them that I think have and I’m sure there are some that I’ve missed.

36

Spoiler alert, but yeah, that’s it.

37

I’ve read 17 all the way through and abandoned 6. Spoke, Cold Mountain was one of the six I decided I didn’t need to finish reading because none of my sins justify inflicting that much punishment on myself.

Practical Magic made the list?? You know which other books by Alice Hoffman are better than Practical Magic? All of them. It’s one of the few cases where I thought the movie was far better than the book, and the movie was no great shakes itself.

38

Doh! I reported my own post. But how the heck was that a classic?

It also turns out I’d read the Ruth Rendell book…in my imagination it was a Barbara Vine.

I liked Practical Magic okay, but I prefer that novel she wrote about 10 times - you know, a single woman/mother is new to town, there’s some magical realism and at least one man of uncertain quality.

39

I was close to quitting it myself, but then it clicked and turned out to be one of the best books I’d read in years. The beginning is a bit of a slog, but if you get through that, the payoff is big. IMHO.

40

I made it to page 190 before washing my hands of it, so it’s not like I didn’t give it a fair chance.