I am here to put in a good word for Henry Miller. Especially Tropic of Capricorn. I have never read anything so full of life and energy.
I’m not claiming anything about “it” or what books “it” refers to. If Exapno Mapcase doesn’t think Tolkien is for kids, then maybe he shouldn’t have said those exact words.
Top 10? Pshaw!
I’ve used that list for suggestions on occasion (mostly stuff that’s available on Project Gutenberg). I’ve gotten some duds and some surprise hits; YMMV.
I don’t want 1000 
This post revolutionized Moby Dick for me:
Really, the whole thread is great.
I agree on the drop list, and yes, add Huckleberry Finn & Crime and Punishment.
Hard to read but worth it,
I’ve read 4 of the books on the “top ten” list, two of which I’d consider deserving - 1984 and To Kill A Mockingbird. Never read any Tolkien (or had any desire to), and prefer F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short stories to his novels.
Proclaiming there are 1000 books I “must” read is an instant turn-off.
Such lists, whether of books, rock n’ roll songs or whatever, seem designed mostly as attention-getting/to generate clicks/as rage bait. I really don’t care whether the books I found most enjoyable/influential wind up on them or not.
A good start, but it’s from 2009.
Yeah. More like “here’s a bunch a great book you might like, and since they are popular, you can then discuss them with others.”
What do you miss if you don’t read any of these books? I mean that should be a guide to must-reads, right? Whether the book is your favorite or not is a secondary consideration.
Along those lines, maybe some of the selections should be a category as in, “Read at least one of these 3 books.” There should be at least one sci-fi category, one mystery category, one historical fiction category.
I say make it a list of 20, with the criteria that all 20 must plausibly be part of the top 10. Or maybe some other number, ditto.
I own a copy of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Great marketing, wholly unsupported, dubious, and ultimately annoying claim. A fail by its own criteria, not bad if you ignore the title.
I like that idea.
At a cursory glance, the only book mentioned in this thread so far that was written since 2009 is “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”.
I’ve read a third of the books on the 1000 list (literally–333, and at that, the list fudges F&SF by counting several series as if they’re a single item). I’d remove quite a few. There have been books at least as good in the last 17 years, but I don’t yet know if they’ll stand the test of time.
No argument here, I mentioned I read some books on that list that were duds. (I think I’ve read about 200 of them.)
I haven’t read any Jane Austin and I should. Is Pride and Prejudice the proper choice?
Does Handmaiden’s Tale belong in the top 20 or 50?
What would be the top 3 or 6 to choose from in the SF, Mystery, and Historical Fiction category?
List of writing genres:
Does alternative history deserve its own category in the plausible top 10 list?
Nonfiction. I opine: doesn’t belong and if it does slot in a textbook, not Origin of Species, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, or Principia Mathematica.
Shout-out for this 1996 effort to round-out best of lists:
Random thoughts. I had Pride and Prejudice forced on me at school so I have dismissed it since as one of those books that only english teachers love. Prehaps I should read it again.
Marquez I haven’t read. Must look him up.
Margeret Atwood. I’m afraid I always put her in the category of “literary writer who decides to write one of these ‘science fiction’ books”. Without a good grounding in the genre…
Paelo Coelho: Don’t know him, must explore.
Authors I like that I would have been delighted to discover if I hadn’t before:
- Cordwainer Smith
- Jack Vance
- Jorge Luis Borges
And Roughing It is the funniest.
Adds another name to The List
Don’t. Just… don’t.
It’s one of her genres, though.
My high school English classes offered choices, so I read, say, Beowulf of my own volition. It was in a unit with John Gardner’s novel Grendel and Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London.” I read I, Robot with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Alan Parsons Project’s “Breakdown.” These were paired with materials on essay composition and creative writing, again with some choices. I didn’t have to read Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath at that time because I wasn’t interested. We met as an instructor-led class twice a week and had individual reading/writing or instructor conference time three times a week. It was a wonderful way to organize the class, and influenced my own courses’ construction greatly years later.