Courtesy of a spirited discussion over at TBogg, I see that Time has just put out a list of the Top 100 Best Novels, limited to those written in English and published since Time's founding in 1923. (It's all about Time, apparently. Egocentric bastards.)
Anyway, the list is an interesting one, full of surprises both pleasant (Allan Moore's brilliant graphic novel, The Watchmen) and disturbing (Judy Blume's Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret?). Looking over the list, I saw a lot of my own favorites -- Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, George Orwell's Animal Farm, etc. -- but I mostly realized that there were a lot of books there I haven't read or, worse, only read in high school or college as part of an English class. Great novels aren't meant to be crammed into your head at 2am before the midterm, while you're hopped up on more No-Doz than a trucker blaring down I-95. They shouldn't be something you force in between the rest of your schedule, a chore to be completed as quickly as possible. If anything, it should be the other way around. Great novels should be an escape from everything else in your life, a vacation in and of itself. (And yes, I realize I sound like the Reading Is Fundamental campaign.)
Anyway, take a look at the list and drop your thoughts on what's great, what's horrid, and what's missing into the comments below.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
25 comments:
Let's hear it for "Catch 22"!! And my moniker loses it's mystery.
"My Turn" by Nancy Reagan????Ou est il?
I think it got bumped off the list by "Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography" by Kitty Kelley
and to help you find it:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/067164646X/qid=1129770078/sr=8-13/ref=pd_bbs_13/104-6971491-1263917?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I haven't looked at the list yet, but I am wagering there is no way I've read more than 15-20 of them. And it's not because I never read...I just never seemed to have read many of the classics.
Here goes. These are the books on the list I can remember reading:
Catch-22
Go Tell it on the Mountain
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lord of the Rings
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Slaughterhouse-Five
To Kill a Mockingbird
Watchmen
Ugh, not even ten. What a philistine. Fortunately, I don't have to even go to the library to double up. These books are sitting on the shelves just across the room:
Animal Farm
Beloved
The Blind Assassin
The Catcher in the Rye
The Corrections
The Great Gatsby
Light in August
On the Road
The Sound and the Fury
Which one should I pick up first? Anybody?
Furious, out of that list, I'd recommend Animal Farm, Catcher in the Rye, and Beloved in that order. (I'd recommend other Morrison, though, like Song of Solomon.) And the lovely and talented Malibu Stacy recommends The Corrections.
As long as you've opened the door, here's the 20 I've read:
All the King's Men
An American Tragedy
Animal Farm
Beloved
The Big Sleep
The Catcher in the Rye
Go Tell it on the Mountain
The Grapes of Wrath
The Great Gatsby
Invisible Man
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lord of the Rings
Native Son
1984
Rabbit, Run
Slaughterhouse-Five
Things Fall Apart
To Kill a Mockingbird
Watchmen
White Noise
Yes, Yos, there's no Catch-22. I picked it up a couple times as a teen and couldn't get into it. Top of my to-do list.
In the 8th grade I won some silly writing contest at school. The prize? A signed paperback of "Are you there god, it's me Margaret". I foolishly read it. Pretty much wrecked my whole life.
Any list of my Top 100 would have to make allowance for short stories so I could include David Sedaris' Naked.
I'd also add:
The Shipping News
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay*
Motherless Brooklyn
American Tabloid
I'm happy they left out:
A Confederacy of Dunces
*As if I needed another reason to love Chabon, he has a great-looking website, and I found a great op-ed he wrote in defense of Jose Canseco. As well as the story of him pitching an FF movie. Genius.
I'm with you on Chabon. That book was phenomenal.
I'm in the same ballpark, with 20.
All the Kings Men
Animal Farm
Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret
Beloved
Cather in the Rye
The Great Gatsby
I, Claudius
Invisible Man
Lion, Witch, Wardrobe
Lolita
Lord of Flies
Lord of Rings
Neuromancer
1984
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
Snow Crash (funny, I’m reading this one right now)
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Their Eyes Were Watching God
To Kill a Mocking Bird
I've got to wonder why their list doesn't have "In Cold Blood". Yeah, I only thought of it because of that Capote movie that's coming out, but it was a great book and it did start the whole true crime genre.
"In Cold Blood" probably isn't on there because it's essentially non-fiction. I think they went with "novels" in the traditional sense.
I'm with you on Sedaris, but the book of choice would definitely be "Me Talk Pretty One Day." Priceless.
It seems that 20 is the magic number. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Also, good for you Mr. F for reading Catch 22 (the rest of you get right on it already). Little known nerd fact: I own not one, but two autographed copies of Catch 22.
Here is my list:
Animal Farm
Blood Meridian
Catch 22
Cather in the Rye
A Clockwork Orange
The Grapes of Wrath
The Great Gatsby
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Lolita
The Lord of the Rings
Money
Neuromancer
1984
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Rabbit, Run
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Sun Also Rises
Tropic of Cancer
Watchmen
Ooooh, I love lists like this!
Mr. Furious, I'd recommend you start with The Corrections or The Great Gatsby on that shelf of yours. And I concur that Motherless B'lyn be added to the list of greats. I discovered Lethem this summer. He is fabulous!!
I've read 21 on the list (suck it, bitches!) and attempted to read seven others:
Animal Farm
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (pretty much required reading if you're a female)
Catcher in the Rye
The Corrections
The Day of the Locust
Grapes of Wrath (amazing!)
Great Gatsby
Lolita (best. book. ever.)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (this took me like an entire summer when I was about eight)
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Rings
Native Son
1984
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Rabbit, Run
Ragtime
Slaughterhouse Five
Things Fall Apart
To Kill a Mockingbird (prolly about 15 times since I was 10 or so, which means once a year)
White Teeth (nice to see a modern author on there)
Attempts:
Catch-22 (I'm w/ Otto on this one)
Gone with the Wind
The Heart is a Lonely...snnnnoooorrreeee
Midnight's Children (Rushdie, they're called "sentences" and "complete thoughts". Form one! I've seen you speak, so I know you are smart.)
Pale Fire (I'll finish this eventually because Nabokov is a genius)
The Sound and the Fury (holy crap, hands down the HARDEST book I have EVER tried to read. Seriously, Oprah???)
Also, I recently started Portnoy's Complaint and GOD IS IT ANNOYING!!! It's an easy read, so I'm planning on finishing it, but Christ is he neurotic or WHAT?
Stuff that's missing from the Time list:
East of Eden, Steinbeck
Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving
Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera
What I've read (12):
Animal Farm (Orwell rocks)
Beloved (one of the best ghost stories ever)
A Clockwork Orange
The Great Gatsby (which I frickin' hated)
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (but not for over 13 years)
The Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Rings
1984 (did I mention the rockitude of Orwell yet?)
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (not Kesey's best, but still very good)
Slaughterhouse-Five
To Kill A Mockingbird
Watchmen (how the HELL did this get on there? I mean, I'm very happy about it, but talk about surprised.)
What I have started at one time or another (5):
Catch-22 (so bloody hard)
Grapes of Wrath (tried at 14; couldn't identify with anyone)
Infinite Jest (on the list of things to try. Again. For the fourth time.)
On The Road (was too young by far)
Tropic of Cancer (book fell apart while reading it, never bothered to get another copy)
Why the hell aren't they on there?? (2):
Brave New World - Seriously, people, this is one of the classics of modern literature. They include 1984 and not BNW? That's like making a list of top 100 albums and putting PE's "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back" on but not Run-DMC's "Raisin' Hell". For shame.
Sometimes a Great Notion - Cuckoo's Nest is better-known, but this is Kesey's masterpiece. I may not have read a lot of the novels on this list, but this is the best American novel I've ever read.
I discovered Lethem this summer. He is fabulous!!
Read "Fortress of Solitude" yet? I've heard mixed reviews.
As for "The Corrections" the people I know who have read it, hated it. That won't necessarily stop me, but it gives me some pause.
Alas, since I left NYC, my reading has pretty much been relegated to vacations. I would cruise a book a week on the subway. No longer...
I'm with you on Brave New World, Doc. It's a much more plausible vision of a dystopian future.
Ever read Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death? It's a quick read, but one that's interesting on multiple levels. He talks about how changes in media have affected political discourse and, important for our discussion here, about the different scenarios in Orwell and Huxley's visions of the future.
And thanks for the Chabon links, Furious. His idea for the Fantastic Four was brilliant (much much better than the final product), but his ideas for X-Men were cringeworthy. Still, great to see a fanboy/author at work.
Oh, Furious! I consumed Fortress of Solitude. I really liked it b/c I used to spend a LOT of time in the 'hood where it takes place, so that was cool. I wasn't crazy about the end tho...it was a little existential for my tastes. The best part is definitely the childhood. And I think Lethem is one of the best young contemporary writers around. If not THE best.
Otto: Neil Postman is (was) a very interesting writer. I read some of his stuff for an adolescent sociology course I took in college. A lot of what I read was about overstimulation the notion of childhood. "Childhood" was fairly nonexistent until the industrial revolution and laws that disallowed 8-year-olds from working in factories and such but that technology has more or less eroded any traces of childhood because kids just consume SO much media these days that they are as sociologically savvy as most adults. It's a problem because we still observe the trappings of the childhood we outlined in the early 1900s but kids have this pseudo-intelligence they don't know what to do with. Does a nine-year-old REALLY understand what pornography is? Certainly it is titillating, but probably in a different way than a 19-year-old. Kind of like the whole can we really sentence a 13-year-old to Death Row kind of thing. The kid "knew" enough about how to murder someone, but did he fully understand the ramifications of it.
Wow...quite a rant there...sorry!!!
Oh my goodness, I am enjoying this post (and comments) so much! I've already added several books to my mountainous "To Read" pile. Anyway, here is my list.
Read Them:
Are You There God, It's Me Margaret (you're right about this one ORF...what girl hasn't read it?)
Catch-22
Catcher in the Rye
The Great Gatsby
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (sooo many times, along with the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia)
The Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Rings (also multiple times...I'm such a fantasy dork)
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Sun Also Rises (I really really liked this book and was happy to see it on the list)
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Things Fall Apart
To Kill a Mockingbird
Haven't read them, but they are sitting on my bookshelf:
A Clockwork Orange
The Grapes of Wrath (I was supposed to read this in high school but never finished it)
Housekeeping (I was actually a little surprised to see this on the list)
Invisible Man
Lolita
On the Road
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (I know this wasn't on the actual list, but it's been mentioned)
I'm also open to suggestions on what to pick up next.
ORF, I agree there ought to be some Irving on there...but I always go back and forth between Hotel New Hampshire and A Prayer for Owen Meany as to which is my favorite. Usually it's whatever one I've read most recently (can you tell I'm a re-reader? Maybe that's why my list is only 12 books long!).
Mr. F, I would go for Catcher in the Rye. Second pick, The Great Gatsby.
Regarding David Sedaris: I'm with Mr. F - I prefer Naked to Me Talk Pretty One Day. Also, was anyone else slightly disappointed with Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim?
Doc, I have no idea how A Brave New World compared to 1984 (having never read 1984, for shame!), but I do remember liking BNW a lot, so will second your motion for its inclusion.
Wow, this had turned out to be quite a lengthy comment! ORF, I realized I never responded to a post you wrote a while ago...but I would be thrilled if you were to host a book club over at your place :)
Susie, Invisible Man should be the first off your list. A great novel, and wonderful insight into American race relations. Native Son is solid, too, but I'm a big Ellison fan.
And yeah, Corduroy was a let down.
"Naked" is definitely my favorite Sedaris. "Talk Pretty" was good, but too much Hugh and France. It's the family and growing up stuff that kills me.
Saw him live here in Ann Arbor his past year—freaking hilarious. Though a bit shockingly crude. I guess I was just used to the filtered NPR-Sedaris.
Anybody read any Sarah Vowell? Her 'This American Life' pieces are brilliant.
Are they sure American Tragedy didn't accidentally come from the Most Boring list? I'd had high hopes for it, since Sister Carrie was pretty good.
If Neuromancer can count, then so should Ender's Game and/or Dune, unless one thinks that nonsense no one understands makes a novel.
Since 7th grade I've mostly read sci-fi and textbooks, so I have a short list. Sadly, I've seen more of the titles as movies.
An American Tragedy
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
The Catcher in the Rye
Gone With the Wind
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Rings
Neuromancer
1984
The Sun Also Rises
The only thing I remember from the Margaret book is the confusing description of "feminine" gear. Thanks goodness for sticky pads! Poor T'hous. That book wasn't for boys!
Mrs. T, I remember being a little confused by the descriptions of belts and what-not as well. I actually read somewhere that the latest versions of Margaret to hit the shelves have been edited so that the scene where she goes to the store to buy her feminine gear now refers to modern products.
Otto, did you ever try to read Juneteenth, the "lost" Ellison novel? I mistakenly read that FIRST and just couldn't bring myself to read "Invisible Man," b/c Juneteenth was so horrifyingly bad. It just didn't make ANY sense and the chronology of the book was all off and everything. I agree, tho, that Native Son is great. So is Black Boy by Wright.
Susie, I'd recommend that Lolita be the first off that "to read" list. I put off reading it for years but finally picked it up and just laughed from about the first page on in. Nabokov is an absolute genius when it comes to word play, allegory, etc. It's a fantastic book.
Yeah, there's a reason Juneteenth was lost.
Sorry to hear you started with that. It'd be like picking a bands B-sides collection as your first exposure.
Hey Susie, thanks for the update on Margaret. It's about time! Now for a Blume book about online addictions...
Post a Comment