12 replies to this topic

[danielcraigisjamesbond007]

I don't know how old this list is, but I thought that I'd share it with everyone. As the title of this topic suggests, Time Magazine has posted the top 100 books of all time (I guess). Some of the books included are: The Great Gatsby, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Watchmen (Yes, that's on there Watchmen fans ) and 1984.

http://www.time.com/...plete_list.html

[[dark]]

The list was compiled in 2005.

[Mr. Blofeld]

No The Spy Who Loved Me?

[danielcraigisjamesbond007]

No The Spy Who Loved Me?

Sorry, no Fleming material here. I know. I'm disappointed too...
Boo on you TIME Magazine.

[Jose]

No Huxley?

[Dell Deaton]

Looks like it was compiled by a high school english teacher: More "should" than "compelling."

[danielcraigisjamesbond007]

Out of the 100 books listed here, I've read about two of them. I'm not a big fan of Hemingway (I tried reading A Farewell to Arms, and I couldn't do it.), but it's still sad that books like War and Peace, Anna Karenina, or Paradise Lost aren't on the list, but Hemingway made it.
(Sorry Hemingway fans)

[Aris007]

No Sir Arthur Conan Doyle! Interesting!

[ImTheMoneypenny]

Glad to see A Clockwork Orange, Naked Lunch, Gatsby, 1984, and The Big Sleep on the list. But no The Maltese Falcon or Seven Pillars of Wisdom?

[Harmsway]

It's not a bad list. Not perfect, by any means, but a lot of the right books are on there. Cormac McCarthy's BLOOD MERIDIAN has a well-earned spot on that list. In my mind, it's perhaps the best novel of the last twenty to thirty years.

[Loomis]

Really? Why?

[Harmsway]

Really? Why?

'Cause I haven't read anything from the last 20-30 years I thought superior. But admittedly my sample size is a bit selective, so I can't speak with any real authority about BLOOD MERIDIAN's greatness.

It's a brutal novel, admittedly (BLOOD MERIDIAN is concerned with a scalping expedition organized by American authorities in 1849-1850, and requires a strong stomach to get through). Its narrative feels quite Biblical in its own way, rather like reading the book of Judges. It's an explicit confrontation with the American history of violence and its connections with American religion, among other things. Given that topic, mileage will vary.

But what sets BLOOD MERIDIAN above the rest is that it's a triumph of language, which is astonishingly precise and poetic, with gasp-inducing prose pictures. I find myself re-reading passages over and over again when I worked my way through BLOOD MERIDIAN.

[Red Barchetta]

They should have included "The Hunt for Red October" by Tom Clancy in the list somewhere.

It's a great read! I highly recommend it if you are interested in Cold War stories.

Oh well, not every classic is on there.