# Top 100 books of all time .. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 6, 2009, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-100-books-of-all-time/502059 "2009-07-06T10:36:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-100-books-of-all-time/502059/1 "2009-07-06T10:36:17Z")
… chosen by [newsweek](http://www.newsweek.com/id/204478). "1984 " is in second place. 🆒 list. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-100-books-of-all-time/502059/2 "2009-07-06T10:59:50Z")
This is a terrible list. I’m a big Orwell fan, and come from a town that has a significant connection and infatuation with him, but “Nineteen Eighty Four” is not the second greatest book ever written. Further, Shakespeare gets his first entry at around 50! de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” is in the top thirty (surely if you’re going to place a non-fiction book that high, it would be Euclid’s “Elements”, perhaps the single most influential book every written, behind the holy books of the major religions, and even in terms of political books, “Democracy in America” pales in comparison to books like the “Wealth of Nations”). Although it’s good to see “Gulliver’s Travels” rate so highly: it’s normally written of as a children’s book, when it’s anything but. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-100-books-of-all-time/502059/3 "2009-07-06T11:14:34Z")
From what I can see this list wasn’t “chosen by Newsweek”. They simply took a bunch of other top 10 lists and compiled the results. So this isn’t so much a “top 100 books of all time” as it is “books that are on the most top 10 books of all time lists.” ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-100-books-of-all-time/502059/4 "2009-07-06T11:35:53Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > From what I can see this list wasn’t “chosen by Newsweek”. They simply took a bunch of other top 10 lists and compiled the results. So this isn’t so much a “top 100 books of all time” as it is “books that are on the most top 10 books of all time lists.” You are right ! But since the selection process is stated clearly in the link, I just copied the title from newsweek site. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-100-books-of-all-time/502059/5 "2009-07-06T12:06:44Z")
My objections- No Ayn Rand- Disagree with her, even hate her, but don’t ignore her. She won’t go away. C.S. Lewis only has Lion TW&TW, not Screwtape, while Pullman’s HDM trilogy is considered as one book. Frankenstein is on the list but not Dracula. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-100-books-of-all-time/502059/6 "2009-07-06T12:56:22Z")
Oprah’s list? Can anyone please help me here- does she have a list from her show or what? (Or is it another Oprah?) ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-100-books-of-all-time/502059/7 "2009-07-06T12:59:41Z")
Never mind. Doestoyevsky never got a mention at all but detective novels do. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-100-books-of-all-time/502059/8 "2009-07-06T13:08:49Z")
Check out the methodology – the lists used include both those based around expectations of quality (however that be determined, and by whom) and around popularity (bestseller lists), which are obviously not exactly the same thing. Ties are broken by number of Google hits. :rolleyes: Is this a joke? ETA: Of course, all of these lists are designed mostly to provoke discussion, so I guess it’s serving its purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-100-books-of-all-time/502059/9 "2009-07-06T13:14:11Z")
Little more than a popularity contest. Not to derail the thread, but it reminds me of that contest in the UK a few years back “The 100 Greatest Britons of All Time”. Princess Di came 3rd. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-100-books-of-all-time/502059/10 "2009-07-06T14:02:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Little more than a popularity contest. Not to derail the thread, but it reminds me of that contest in the UK a few years back “The 100 Greatest Britons of All Time”. Princess Di came 3rd. I saw the results of an online poll where people could vote on the most important books in history. Eight of the top ten books were by L. Ron Hubbard or Ayn Rand.