NationStates Jolt Archive

sorry if i miss out on one

Non Fiction = The Bible

Fiction = The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

EDIT Whats "The Plauge" about?

Okay, who voted for Ulysses? I honestly want to know, because I'm of the opinion that Joyce is an awful writer, but whenever I try to debate someone on it in real life, they always try to gouge out my eyes. I seriously want to discuss this.

I'm going with the Bible, simply because the rest don't impress me in particular.. Of course, if I had to think of a list on the spot, I'm not sure I could do much better, so I'm not complaining, per se. :)

Okay, who voted for Ulysses? I honestly want to know, because I'm of the opinion that Joyce is an awful writer, but whenever I try to debate someone on it in real life, they always try to gouge out my eyes. I seriously want to discuss this.

Read Dubliners it's great.

Poll adds up to 250%, eh? That's a new one on me.

Poll adds up to 250%, eh? That's a new one on me.
That's cause it's a poll where you can pick more than one option.

I'm relieved to see that no-one has checked Harry Potter. The world still has some vestiages of sanity.

Read Dubliners it's great.Okay, I haven't read the entirety of the Dubliners, though it's supposed to be his most accesible work. I have, however, read "The Dead" which I found to be both boring and pointless. It was 20 pages of almost nothing happening. Like literary Seinfeld, without the humor.

I'm relieved to see that no-one has checked Harry Potter. The world still has some vestiages of sanity.
Oops, sorry :(

Oops, sorry :(

No! Why? :headbang:

Oh well....

lol.

Non Fiction = The Bible

Since when is the Bible non-fiction?

Tale of Two Cities. It's like tripping acid with more long term permanent brain damage.

Tale of Two Cities. It's like tripping acid with more long term permanent brain damage.
Excellent book, one of Dicken's finest (IMHO).
For something more modern what about Fatherland by Robert Harris, very good! :)

Since LOTR is a trilogy, not a book, I can vote for another trilogy, yes? Well, technically, it's one book still, but SHH.

I'd say I'm caught between:
The Empire Trilogy, by Raymond E Feist/Janny Wurts (Fantasy)
The Lord of the Rings, by Tolkien (Fantasy, duh)
The Nights Dawn Trilogy, by Peter F Hamilton. (SF)

The Fountainhead

My order of the choices:

To Kill A Mocking Bird - Brilliant
For Whom The Bell Tolls - Very good
1984 - Very good
Animal Farm - Very good but too short.
Bible - Impressive, but too many lies.
Lord Of The Rings - Could never get past Tom Bombadil (sp?)
The Plague - By Camus? Haven't read, know of it and it sounds quite good but hardly 'greatest ever' stuff tho.
Harry Potter - ...
Ulycees - Havent read
Lord Jim - Never even heard of


You've missed my favourite book off there: Catch-22 (Heller)
Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)
One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest (Kelsey)
Germinal (Zola)
Les Miserables (argh, i forget.. Hugo? :/)
and On The Road (Kerouac)
are also brilliant books that might have deserved a mention.

Awww, the Da Vinci Code isn't on the list... Have to go with LoTR then.

Dont dismiss Harry Potter. Although not intended strictly for readers of advanced level, it is still an excellent work of fiction.

Personally I would go with Dune by Frank Herbert, God: Emporer of Dune by Frank Herbert, and Prey by Michael Chriton

On that list, The Plague, by Albert Camus.

Ever? Hard one. Bit Frankenstein, Divine Comedies would be some. But cannot thikn at themoment.

LOTR isn't a trilogy, its one book but was too long to be physically put into one book.

What about The Outsider by Albert Camus?

LOTR is a mighty work, although I prefer the prose in silmarillion

big fan of Catch 22, i've read it so many times, and get something every time, much layered book.

as a sci fan, a throw away classic is mary gentle's Grunts, not a great, but worth a read for bucking the trend.

and yes the bible should be listed in the historical fiction based on some real events. about as valuable as say mallory's arthurian tales and homer's epics, (and I'm not referring to tales of bart) ;)

why on earth is crime and punishment not on there? :eek:

Anything written by our lord and savior. (www.maxbarry.com)

why on earth is crime and punishment not on there? :eek:

Personally i find most eastern european/russian stuff i've read (kafka, solzenheitzen, chekhov, dostoyevsky etc) a little too heavy and turgid. Generally multivalent, interesting and great storylines, but i don't actually enjoy the reading as much as, say, Zola or Hemmingway.

edit: Managed to spell the authors right, misspelt 'european' :/

This at least needs Vergil's Aeneid and Dante's Commedia. I'll second whoever mentioned J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.

Also, Miller's A Canticle For Leibowitz, being my favorite book, would earn my vote, but should probably not be up there. It takes about the same background level of knowledge as Ulysses to get everything, but is still entertaining to actually read.

Good omens, by Terry Prattchett and Neil Gaiman

Tale of Two Cities. It's like tripping acid with more long term permanent brain damage.
I absolutely hated Tale of Two Cities. I was forced to read it in school and it was perhaps the worst book they ever assigned.

I'm partial to The Great Gatsby.

1984 He missed by twenty years but read it now and it is scary, too close to the truth.

Why is it that Atheists keep trying to start up arguments on a page that has absolutely nothing to o with Creationism??? :rolleyes:

Anyway, i intended to vote for LOTR and 1984, but accidentally voted for LOTR and to kill a mockingbird. Theres also a lot of classics missing from that list. Dracula, Frankenstein, Lord of the flies, the Sea-wolf (a personal favourite), War and peace, etc.

What about The Outsider by Albert Camus?

Yay, always prefered it to the Plague.

However I blame it for ruining my plan to stop smoking a few years ago (hyper sensitive to any mention of tobacco, and a lot of cigarettes are smoked in that book)

Out of them... 1984 or Animal Farm. Probably 1984.

My favourite book has to be Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman. Truly excellent.

My picks were:

Animal Farm - Best Allegory (I've never read 1984, but I will be soon)

The Lord of the Rings - Best Fiction

To Kill a Mockingbird - Best Realistic Fiction

The Bible - Best Non-fiction

His Dark Materials

OMG, somones voted for potter,

Also, no Lord of the Flies? No Catcher in the Rye? Goodnight Mister Tom? Diskworld? The Da Vinci Code? Yet Potter gets on there.

Mad. And HDM isn't on there eather. I want to kill Potter.

I chose 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' - of the books listed it is easily one of the most interesting in my opinion to read. The dynamics alone are enough to win my vote - it's exciting, it's romantic, it's dangerous, it's tragic and it's very true to life. Would any man be able to deny the raw energy between Robert Jordan and Maria (little rabbit)? The tragic end of their love... Anselmo... I wanted more.

My only gripe, is that it was over edited (not an uncommon occurence of the time), and I wish I could find an unedited version with all of the expletives still exposed. Not my favorite book (there are too many good books to choose one in particular!), but of those listed I think it to be the best. :)

On a side note, if you like this - try and pick up Hemmingway's collected short stories, in particular those about Spain, or about the life of 'Nick Adams'.

Nothing from good ole Shakespeare? :eek:
Also i would add Paradise Lost by Milton and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. And Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck for more modern lietrature. ;)

Nothing from good ole Shakespeare? :eek:
Also i would add Paradise Lost by Milton and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. And Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck for more modern lietrature. ;)

Ergh. How anyone can enjoy Chaucer is beyond me :/

OMG, somones voted for potter,

Also, no Lord of the Flies? No Catcher in the Rye? Goodnight Mister Tom? Diskworld? The Da Vinci Code? Yet Potter gets on there.

Mad. And HDM isn't on there eather. I want to kill Potter.

You must be joking. It is an awful book, Brown is just a third rate Robert Ludlum. I would say that even Harry Potter is better then that piece of tripe.

Although Discworld rules

has anyone read Donasldson's fantasy/sci-fi type books?
Mordant's Need
Thomas Covenant Chronicles
The Gap Series

I love them, especially the way he uses anti-heroes

since i consider reading the ultimate form of learning, i could not pick a favorite. i take something that i like from everything i read. maybe you could vote it like- book that makes you the angriest? book that allows you the best escape from reality? etc. etc. because that poll is tough to decide on. very interesting topic..

There are many great books missing from the list, and several books on the list do not belong. The Holy Bible does not really count because not only is it not literature, but it is a collection of separate books.

First off. Ive never even heard of these supposed great books:
The Plague
Lord Jim

Then there is Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. There is no doubt that both of these are outstanding books and are highly entertaining. In fact, I am in the process of re-reading the Harry Potter books in preparation for the latest installment. However, they are similar to Stephen King. That is, they are page turners. Neither of these two series of books explores any grand concepts in a profound enough way to truly qualify as not just an entertaining read, but as great literature.

Some works that do qualify are not included. Including Lord of The Flies, Dune, and Catch 22.

I don't know if Lord of the Rings deserves to be on this list. Sure it was a good series but greatest of all time? No. Influential, yes. Great, no. Shame on you illiterate people for voting for it.

My vote goes to For Whom the Bell Tolls. Just finished reading it. Hemingway wrote such happy stories...

You must be joking. It is an awful book, Brown is just a third rate Robert Ludlum. I would say that even Harry Potter is better then that piece of tripe.

Although Discworld rules
I enjoyed it, also to ssecond the wuestion, what are The Plague and Lord Jim?

I voted LoTR and 1984. I'm a bit of a SF-fan, so I missed the War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

You can beam me up now, Scotty............

I've read a number of the books on the list, but none of the books that have really made an impact on my life are listed. This list sounds like required reading for a grade 9 English class.

Non Fiction = The Bible

Fiction = The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

No, I'd call them both fiction.

For Whom The Bell Tolls.

Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, 100 years of solitude, the first circle, books by other nobel laureates &c.

Can I just add that if you have seen the first two Matrix films then without doubt the funniest book in the world is 'The Matwix' it retells the Matrix story but changes loads to make fun of the films ie you know the agents can kinda posess people, in this he posesses someone during sex. Quite brilliant, if you see it buy it and you won't regret it.

Nonfic - Illiad and Oddessy

fic - dune
ender's game
anything by our lord&savior, max
The Wheel of Time

you should have put the Illiad in with the Oddessy. No more crappy Roman double translations - it is the oddessy.

Since when is the Bible non-fiction?
the bible has been non-fiction scince right wing christian nazis made it up to control the masses as the great karl marx said religion ios the opiate of the masses

Okay, I haven't read the entirety of the Dubliners, though it's supposed to be his most accesible work. I have, however, read "The Dead" which I found to be both boring and pointless. It was 20 pages of almost nothing happening. Like literary Seinfeld, without the humor.

So, you have read one short story and have concluded that "Joyce is an awful writer."

Sounds fair enough.

the bible has been non-fiction scince right wing christian nazis made it up to control the masses as the great karl marx said religion ios the opiate of the masses
Quite possibly the dumbest thing I have ever heard. You know, when the Bible was written, the Christians were pretty radical and left-wingish. Just because you do not agree with someone's beliefs does not make them Nazis.

Anyway, the Bible is considered non-fiction because of its style. It is not a story made up to entertain. It is there to educate (wheter it is right or not is a different matter). All religious texts and spiritual books are labeled non-fiction. Just like history books. We can not necessarily prove everything that happened as it is written in those but that does not make them fictional works.

Speaking for the noobs on this forum (especially ones who haven't found out how to post yet and so can't defend themselves), I resent the implication that the person has... certain political/religious views because they're a noob.
:D

And, just to give this post some relevance, I'd say 1984, because i thought it contained some very interesting ideas. But I'm only in year 9, so my views on literature aren't exactly developed. I've only read 6 of the books on the list.

Speaking for the noobs on this forum (especially ones who haven't found out how to post yet and so can't defend themselves), I resent the implication that the person has... certain political/religious views because they're a noob.
:D
Not all noobs are bad. Some of them ruin it for the rest though. I know it seems impossible, but I myself was a noob once, back in the day. You seem pretty clear headed though. You may go far.

So as to not hijack this thread: I was betting that 1984 would win because it is an often talked about book here. This is a political forum, for the most part. LOTR will win though...