Second place et al depended on the demographic so here’s the rest of the list-
The Lord of the Rings
Gone With the Wind
The Harry Potter Books
The Stand
To Kill A Mockingbird
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
The DaVinci Code
Atlas Shrugged
Catcher in the Rye.
To what extend do you match this? What have you read or gotten some awareness of?
I’ve read The Bible, LOTR, half of the first Potter & much of the last one, The Stand, Mockingbird, Atlas, and Catcher, skimmed A&D. I’ve seen the movies of GWTW, all of Potter, & DaV. Of what I’ve read or seen, I only actively hate Catcher. I can take or leave Dan Brown’s stuff. I appreciate the genius of Mockingbird but don’t have it in my faves.
My faves from this list- Bible, Stand, Atlas, LOTR.
Gone with the Wind is the only one I haven’t read. Honestly I wasn’t even aware the movie was based on a book, I don’t think I’ve known anyone to talk about it before. Maybe it’s really popular with an different generation?
I’ve read 7 of the 10 in their entireity. I’ve not read Angels & Demons or Gone With the Wind, and only parts of The Bible.
I can’t say I think all that much of this list overall. I enjoyed the Harry Books quite a bit, but the’ye not exaclty ‘best of all time’ material. Ditto for the Da Vinci Code. I very much enjoyed Atlas Shrugged up until the last hundred pages or so, when it suddenly turned into a sci-fi novel. I can’t really remember Catcher in the Rye too well; I read it in high school and haven’t been inclined to read it again. I remember the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird much better than the book.
The Stand and LOTR are among my favorites. Personally, I would have put Watership Down up near the top as well.
Oh, and personally I would never have thought of The Bible when putting together a list of ‘favorite books’. I am Catholic, FTR.
I’m just amazed that the Gone With the Wind fanboys managed to stuff the ballot box more than the Harry Potter fanboys!
I greatly enjoyed LOTR and Harry Potter, but I’m not a fanboy who reads nothing except LOTR and Harry Potter over and over. The Bible and The Da Vinci Code were stupid and boring. I really liked The Stand, but it takes way too long to read. Catcher in the Rye and To Kill A Mockingbird were great. I’ve never read Angels & Demons, Gone with the Wind or Atlas Shrugged.
It’s the Bible as the all-time favorite that bothers me. Okay, it was the expected result but honestly how many people read it and go “Now that is a good book!” (pun intended). It feels like a lot of people just had a knee jerk response rather than a truthful answer (I think there’s something in the Bible about that too…).
I’ve read four of them,Bible,Harry Potter,Catcher in the Rye and L.O.T.R. and in their different ways they’re all pretty much average as litereature but no doubt great for talking about at cocktail parties.
I think you have a point here, Just Some Guy. Down here in the South, I am sure many people have been brought up to list the Bible as the greatest book written. And yes, it does seem knee jerk.
What I found interesting was that there was a gender distinction between GWTW and LOTR. Mostly men picked LOTR and women listed GWTW. Well, I happen to love LOTR and would never have picked GWTW, though it is an excellent novel.
Watership Down is a masterpiece. It is a shame that book didn’t make the list.
I think you have a point here, Just Some Guy. Down here in the South, I am sure many people have been brought up to list the Bible as the greatest book written. And yes, it does seem knee jerk.
What I found interesting was that there was a gender distinction between GWTW and LOTR. Mostly men picked LOTR and women listed GWTW. Well, I happen to love LOTR and would never have picked GWTW, though it is an excellent novel.
Watership Down is a masterpiece. It is a shame that book didn’t make the list.
And a second book I would have liked to have seen on the list: Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
It seems to break down pretty firmly between popular tripe and the stuff people were forced to read in high school. I’d say a lot of the people questioned couldn’t come up with the names of ten books without going back that far.
…proving once again that these types of rankings say more about the whims of people at this point in time than the actual timeless quality of the books.
Dan Brown’s books are the Macarena of novels (remember Los Del Rio’s song and dance craze, 1-Hit Wonder lovers?) - popular in their day, but no one for a minute thinks they’ll endure; instead, we’ll look at back at them during an “I love the 00’s” type of TV Show, where hack comedians snark on us for liking them while admitting to a bit of guilty-pleasure appeal…
Jeez, I am surprised the Bridges of Madison County didn’t make the list… :rolleyes:
I would guess they weren’t asked for ten - who here can name their ten favorite books off the top of his head like that? I like lists and I could maybe do my top six.
Anyway… that list really isn’t to my taste. I’ve read Lord of the Rings, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Da Vinci Code, Catcher in the Rye and four Harry Potter books. None would be on any favorites list of mine. TKAM comes the closest, I guess.
I knew I wasn’t going to like this list, but it looks better than the readers’ version of the Modern Library Top 100 list, from 1999:
I’ve only read one on the list – LOTR – and didn’t much care for most of that. It was, actually, the first book I ever picked up and couldn’t finish, though I read it through a few years later in order to better appreciate Bored of the Rings.
Remember, we’re talking “popular”, not “best”. There’s nothing by Shakespeare or Medieval epics or anything like that. I’d be surprised if Asimov & Bradbury didn’t make the top 20, and if Verne & Wells didn’t make the top 50. As far as Stevenson, JEKYLL & HYDE is the only one most people know & I doubt that’s nearly as widely read as DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN are (two books I’d also expect in the top 20).
To “The Bible” pooh-poohers, I doubt if most people have really read the WHOLE thing but I’m sure most people have read parts & many of those have meaningful sections they keep rereading. For some reason, a lot of people seem to set a lot of stock by at least some of that book.
I wonder if the people polled were asked to choose from a list or if they picked the books themselves. I can see all these books making the top ten years from now, except for the Browns.
I haven’t read the Brown books, nor all of the Potters or all of the Bible. The Stand would make my top ten list, but it’s probably the only favorite of mine that might be on other people’s favorites list too. Dopers read all over the map.
The Bible - Check. –
The Lord of the Rings - Check – Among the first books I remember reading.
Gone With the Wind – I’ve never been remotely interested.
The Harry Potter Books – I bought them for my boys, does that count? I’ve got nothing against them, just not my thing.
The Stand – Makes my personal top ten.
To Kill A Mockingbird – has been on my “I’ll get around to it” list for sometime.
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown – Read it: Had to look at a synopsis to remember what it was about.
The DaVinci Code – I thought it was interesting premise for a book. Not sure it should be on a top ten list.
Atlas Shrugged – Also on my “I’ll get around to it list.”
Catcher in the Rye – I must have cut school that week.