100 novels everyone should read
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#28: Does it count if you've heard Tom Jones in concert? (Terrific experience BTW - that old geezer can certainly keep up the pace) Seriously: I consider myself an educated person and have read MANY classics - but not very many on this list. I guess the fight for what books come into top 100 is quite hard. I'm somewhat surprised that there is no Jules Verne and no Shakespeare on the list... :confused: One book on the list that I HAVE read, though, is "Don Quixote" by Cervantes (all 900 pages), and I can safely say that - although an interesting experience - the reputation of that book is WAY overrated. It's definitely not good enough to put it in the top 10! :doh:
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time -
21. I'm appalled that the Foundation Trilogy by Asimov (or Asimov's I Robot series) is not on that list! Marc
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I've read magister ludi when I was on a Herman Hesse binge in college, but I'd never put it on a must read list.
Curvature of the Mind now with 3D
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megaadam wrote:
heard about a singer called Tom Jones?
It's not unusual! ;)
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time -
With my reading habits I was surprised that I have read about nine and started (add abandoned) another three.
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And then there's those of us who don't give an elephant about any "classic books" list and just read whatever catches our attention. Because life's too short to care about what other people think you should read.
What is this talk of release? I do not release software. My software escapes leaving a bloody trail of designers and quality assurance people in its wake.
Right on. I've read one book from that list, The Lord of the Rings. Which is actually 3 books, but apparently that doesn't matter. I've read plenty of programming books from cover to cover at 1200-1500 pages each. But novels? I simply don't have enough time to sit down and read them. What does he do for a living?
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10; normally on a list like that I'd score around 20....
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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Software Zen:
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The list title is incorrect. It should be "Books that I want everyone to think I personally have read, so they will have to show me respect as a smarter man than they". I'll bet the compiler has read even less than you have.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I've read 8, seen few more as movies, if you count watching the movie. I think there are a number of books that should have been mentioned over what was presented. Other than HG Wells, Mary Shelly or Douglas Adams where were the some of the other notable Sci Fi writers? Phillip K Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury. Too many books, too many books...
It was broke, so I fixed it.
I'd be hard pressed to keep my list down to only 100 if we were listing the 'must read' science fiction novels.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
21. I'm appalled that the Foundation Trilogy by Asimov (or Asimov's I Robot series) is not on that list! Marc
Come now, Marc. This list was for serious literature, not that populist tripe.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
megaadam wrote:
heard about a singer called Tom Jones?
It's not unusual! ;)
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
Me, all the time -
17 No more than that because a) never heard of it b) feeling barfish just contemplating it or c) too busy with better books Saw the movie "Crash". Can't bear Ballard's writing, so didn't rad the book, but the story was good.
We won't sit down. We won't shut up. We won't go quietly away. YouTube and My Mu[sic], Films and Windows Programs, etc.
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Come now, Marc. This list was for serious literature, not that populist tripe.
Software Zen:
delete this;Gary Wheeler wrote:
This list was for serious literature, not that populist tripe.
And that's why Lord of the Rings was on the list? Serious literature? Well, maybe the elven poems could be considered such. :) Marc
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Gary Wheeler wrote:
This list was for serious literature, not that populist tripe.
And that's why Lord of the Rings was on the list? Serious literature? Well, maybe the elven poems could be considered such. :) Marc
You'll note that Lord of the Rings was entry #100, the bottom of the list. I have a feeling the only reason it was included was that Tolkien was English, and his trilogy has earned more money been read more times than the rest of the entries on the list combined.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
You'll note that Lord of the Rings was entry #100, the bottom of the list. I have a feeling the only reason it was included was that Tolkien was English, and his trilogy has earned more money been read more times than the rest of the entries on the list combined.
Software Zen:
delete this;Gary Wheeler wrote:
been read more times than the rest of the entries on the list combined.
Or at least watched. ;) I'm constantly surprised by how few people I meet haven't actually read the books, even The Hobbit. I obviously run in the wrong crowds! Marc
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Gary Wheeler wrote:
been read more times than the rest of the entries on the list combined.
Or at least watched. ;) I'm constantly surprised by how few people I meet haven't actually read the books, even The Hobbit. I obviously run in the wrong crowds! Marc
I'll admit I haven't read them recently... well, since 1985. That's more of a reflection that I've been reading a lot of 'hard' science fiction lately, and haven't been interested in reading fantasy.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
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Don't feel bad. I have a private library of nearly 13,000 volumes -- yes, I've read them all; I'm a novelist as well as a software engineer, and reading widely is a novelist's occupational requirement -- and of the 100 books on the Telegraph's list I've read only 23. But the list contains quite a number of novels I consider garbage, having read snatches of them and tossed them aside with a snort.
What comes to mind in this connection is Ambrose Bierce's definition of a classic: "A book everyone wants to have read, but no one wants to read." That applies to quite a number of the most frequently cited "classics," and sometimes for very good reasons!
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