The Greatest Books of All Time, as Voted by 125 Famous Authors

The Atlantic ^ | Janaury 30, 2012 | Maria Popova

[C19fan]

"Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work," Jennifer Egan once said. This intersection of reading and writing is both a necessary bi-directional life skill for us mere mortals and a secret of iconic writers' success, as bespoken by their personal libraries. The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books asks 125 of modernity's greatest British and American writers—including Norman Mailer, Ann Patchett, Jonathan Franzen, Claire Messud, and Joyce Carol Oates—"to provide a list, ranked, in order, of what [they] consider the ten greatest works of fiction of all time- novels, story collections, plays, or poems." Of the 544 separate titles selected, each is assigned a reverse-order point value based on the number position at which it appears on any list—so, a book that tops a list at number one receives 10 points, and a book that graces the bottom, at number ten, receives 1 point

[bvw]

That's "Invisible Man" Ralph Ellison holding the tray.

Ayn Rand supplied the opium but avoids its use.

Aldous Huxley penned a note to say he found a better den serving newer drugs, and would not longer be attending.

Hemingway was out hunting or fishing or sumth'in like that, he rarely attends.

Hunter Thompson ... well he, Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey were probably leaving that "newer" place Huxley was heading off to, in search of other odd ventures.

[struggle]

>>What’s wrong with Catcher? It’s just not in the top ten of the 20th century. Salinger was actually something of a conservative. It’s apparent from his other fiction.

It’s just a really limited book. It focuses on frustration and the whole catcher symbol of protecting growing children from the corruption of adulthood. Holden never has to mature suddenly like Huck Finn, who decides to go to hell rather than betray Jim. The one interesting thing about the book, however, is that if you think about it Holden’s sitting in a mental hospital “rest home” telling his story to you direct - so you must have been committed to the hospital to be listening.

[fruser1]

Joyce is to writing, sort of like David Lynch is to film. I think that might be the direction the lit. types are coming from, but don’t know.

Besides, what’s not to love about this opener (first complete sentence) of Finnegans Wake:

“Sir Tristram, violer d’amores, fr’over the short sea,
had passencore rearrived from North Armorica on this
side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight
his penisolate war:

“nor had topsawyer’s rocks by the stream Oconee
exaggerated themselse to Laurens County’s gorgios while
they went doublin their mumper all the time:

“nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf
thuartpeatrick:

“not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended
a bland old isaac:

“not yet, though all’s fair in vanessy, were sosie sesthers
wroth with twone nathandjoe.”

[Borges]

Well he talks about the fact that he’s writing down what happened to him for therapy. So you could be reading his account from anywhere. The novel ends before he has the chance to mature but it’s clear that he’s moving forward.

[struggle]

>>Hunter Thompson ... well he, Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey were probably leaving that “newer” place Huxley was heading off to, in search of other odd ventures.

Well, the book discussions are better here than on DemocraticUndergrond where they would be trumpeting their new favorite book “Drink. Smoke. Occupy.”

[Borges]

It’s not like most of those writers were on the list. Hemingway is about the least ‘dreamy’ writer you could find.

[denydenydeny]

I despise Nabokov’s precious style so I have a lot of problems with the twentieth century list. The 19th century list is better (how could it not be) but their failure to put Brothers Karamazov in the top ten is disgraceful.

[IronJack]

Drivel. Utter pretentious drivel. Anyone who thinks Lolita is the best novel of the 20th century is not only deluded but demented. The rest of these lists can be discredited just by that fact alone.

[nodumbblonde]

I have thousands of books but could be perfectly content with only my copies of Anna Karenina and Atlas Shrugged.

[allmendream]

The authors were asked to rank their ten favorite works of fiction.

Do you consider the Bible a work of fiction?

If not then not including it was NOT an oversight.

[Borges]

Ever read it? It’s as good as any for sure.

[Borges]

He slaved over every phrased. His prose is a delight to read.

[Drawsing]

I had to read and report on “Wuthering Heights” in high school. Too much unrealistic angst for me. I seem to recall Heathcliff beating his head against a tree because of his conflicted writhing emotions over the love of a woman....ridiculous.

[Drawsing]

Thomas Wolfe (not Tom Wolfe) should have been on this list. No one captures the reality of growing up in America the way he does.

[SuzyQue]

I find that the time I read some books is as important as the book. Could be that if I tried to read it now, it would drag for me too. Whatever I was doing at the time, it resonated with me.

[miss marmelstein]

Wuthering Heights is not realism. I don’t think realism had really been introduced into literature at the time. Although, as an Emily Bronte fanatic, I can tell you that the book is a accurate depiction of her fiery, interior life. What a woman!

[Borges]

It wasn’t supposed to be realistic.

[miss marmelstein]

I am a Thomas Wolfe fanatic. Look Homeward Angel is my favorite book. I’ve been to Dixieland many times and walked in Tom’s footsteps. I’m hoping one day he will come back into esteem in the academy. Until then, youngsters will never read him.

[reed13k]

I’ll play: (I will stick to fiction, but not Europe) (ping Daffy)

1) Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
2) Hamlet - Shakespeare
3) Pilgrims Progress - Bunyun
4) Odyssey - Homer
5) Nibelungenlied
6) War and Peace - Tolstoy
7) Rashomon
8) Tale of Two Cities - Dickens
9) Genji Monogatori (my preference over Nihongi or Kojiki for Japan)
10) Faith of the Fallen - Goodkind (while one in a series of 11, this fantasy novel is one of the best stories of liberty overcoming an oppressive government and what men can do that I’ve read; and yes it’s self-serving for my preferences to include it here)
11) Orlando Innamarato (Tale of Roland) - Boriado
12) Don Quixote - Cervantes (this is really really hard to limit to 10)
13) Dee Goong An - Van Gulik (translaton of 17th century chinese detective novel originating in the first century and considered by many to be the first in the genre)
14) Silence - Endo (a historical fiction novel of christian persecution in Tokogawa Japan)

non-fiction
1) Bible (King James Version (pure artistry and accurate lingual interpretations) - God (through Moses and many others) (by the way national geographic had a semi-nice article about the history of the KJV recently just stop 1/2 through as they go into hit mode after a nice start)
2) The Republic - Plato
3) Analects - Confucius
4) Killer Angels - Shaara(very accurate historical fiction on Gettysburg)
5) The Art of War - Sun Tzu (over Musashi’s Book of Five Rings and the Hagakure)
6) Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy - Newton
7) History of English Speaking People - Churchill
8) Wealth of Nations - Smith
7) Heike Story (Japanese historical fiction debatable)
8) Influence of Seapower Upon History - Mahan
9)Revolutions of the heavenly spheres - copernicus
10) Five Love Languages - Chapman (required as it has been a personal help, again self serving)
11)....I’ll stop now

That was much harder than I anticipated I couldn’t get to Tolkien, Locke, Hawthorne, Faulkner, Twain, Kepler, Milton, Frost, Sandburg, Asimov, Yoshikawa, Orson Scott Card, ... sigh

Here’s a nice link by the way to great books that I occasion, note it is euro-centric as most lists tend to be though there is a lot of great literature throughout Asia as well.

http://books.mirror.org/gb.titles.html

[miss marmelstein]

What’s wrong with someone finding Madame Bovary “edgy”? Just modern parliance for “deeply unsettling” - which it surely is. One of the greatest novels ever written...