@@LiterateTexan I hope that you enjoy it! As I said it's a tough read at times but wow, what a helluva story. Once I accustomed myself to Faulkner's way of writing I couldn't get enough of it. It's Southern Gothic plus a whole lot more!
"Absalom, Absalom" is taken from the 3rd psalm in which King David is lamenting his son Absalom's betrayal. This mirrors a situation in Faulkner's novel about a disowned elder son who's trying to get the attention and acknowledgment of his Dad. The book is on my own "Best Novels" list!
I enjoyed your comments! Lists like these drive me nuts. I've read 100 classics, I'm proud to say, but it was blood, sweat and tears for a number of years. I cherry picked them myself from a variety of 100 Best Lists I gathered up. Enjoyed maybe 1/4 of them, the rest had me hunting for a sharp knife. Now I'm free, free at last, to read what I like. And hotdam, there are a lot of great books out there. A novel I would put on a 100 list is Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor or any of her collections of short stories. She was wicked genius.
And don't forget her other novel, "The Violent Bear it Away." It is stupendous. Some of her short stories I have read and re-read many times. She is a top favorite of mine, her work is so wonderful it cheers me up or makes me feel exhilarated, as strange as that may sound given her dark subject matter. She also has some great lectures on literature that are essential reading.
Great job. I enjoyed this video. I was keeping track. I own 34 of these books and I have read 24 of them. Some of the books on this list I don't agree with and some of my favorites are missing but still think this is a great list.
@LiterateTexan The ones I can remember that I didn't enjoy were To the Lighthouse On the Road Heart of Darkness Beloved I didn't enjoy them but I might give them another shot later. I disagree with you on the Stranger. I enjoyed that one especially the ending. Some of the books that are missing Lonesome Dove Gone With the Wind Silence of the Lambs Of Mice and Men I Am Legend Dune Psycho Treasure Island The Omen The Time Machine Jaws The Count of Monte Cristo Slaughter House Five Dracula A Tale of Two Cities The Picture of Dorian Grey Call of the Wild First Blood The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe And The Godfather. That is twenty that I wish were on this list.
My favorite novel is number one on this list. I’ve read Gatsby annually for 11 years-I get something new out of it every time (maybe I just have a bad memory 😮). I am surprised East of Eden isn’t on this list. I’ve read 36 and DNF’d 10. All of the DNFs I plan on reading, but have found them difficult (I’ve tried to read Moby Dick so many times-it is my literary bête noir). Realistically, I doubt that I will ever read In Search of Lost Time.
@@LiterateTexan I couldn't finish Lolita. Did finish Heart of Darkness, but it was hard going. Never understood why Catcher in the Rye, the ramblings of an overprivileged brat, always makes these lists. Also The Red and the Black and Madame Bovary, about which we agree. No Larry McMurtry, Cormack McCarthy or Kazuo Ishiguro. And of course no Sigrid Undset even though she was a Nobel Prize Winner and wrote my favourite novel ever (and one for your 2025 TBR list) - Kristin Lavransdatter.
Great video, Randy. I am also interested in the classics but am woefully behind in reading them. This list provides many good suggestions which I will consider. I also enjoy Hemmingway’s short stories. I’m always happy to hear you mention Garp even if John Irving doesn’t make this list. BTW, the great Claud Rains starred in The Invisible Man (1933). I enjoyed your succinct comment on the Bible (LOL). Warm regards.
@kenyotta67 lol, yeah. Claude Rains was SUCH great actor. I feel bad that I couldn't remember his name, but that happens now and then these days. It's chemo brain, etc. I'm still able to understand what I'm reading, but sometimes my brain just doesn't quite connect when I need to remember a name or something.
@@LiterateTexan I get it. I had chemo this week and was surprised I came up with his name. I almost said it was Claud Aikens (Rio Bravo, Movin On, Sheriff Lobo, etc.) before catching myself. 😅
This list sounds pretty comprehensive. I think there’s a few missing from Virginia Woolf and Kafka and Dickens, maybe a couple of the early science fiction classics too. Good luck with your project it sounds like a blast.
The Sound and the Fury is challenging to read but just wonderful. All about a dysfunctional family, and each section is told from the point of view of a different (f*cked up) character! I've read the book more than once, and each time I find myself liking it more and more.
@@LiterateTexan Absalom, Absalom is a tie-in to The Sound & the Fury, and you'll see why. It's also a somewhat difficult read but absolutely fascinating. Not many people outside a classroom have read it, but it's an emotional punch in the gut and belongs on this "Best Books" list.
I’ve read a fair amount of Kafka, never knew it was supposed to be funny. So I didn’t laugh, but wasn’t looking for laughs, so didn’t end up frustrated. You’re gonna try to hit all these books next year? 😮 Imma be riveted to your channel.🏇
@@davidnovakreadspoetryI generally read about 100 books a year, but these might be so dense that I'll get through then a little more slowly. I would love it if you were riveted to my channel, though. Thanks so much for the kind feedback.
You did a good job on this list. I've read some of the ones you haven't, shared quite a few of the ones you have & I have. And then a (long) list that you've read and I haven't. I think I want to go look at some of the ones I haven't read. You like horror books, so check out Kafka's Metamorphosis. For me, it is one of the creepiest books.
@thecutthroatjourney Which ones did you peruse? I've been chatting art a friend who is 1/3 of the way into The Great Gatsby, and he buddy l just texted me to let me know that he's bored.
Did you happen to read Herman Wouk’s “The Caine Mutiny” (?). I thought somewhere along the line you were reading that one. Also, try to squeeze in B. Traven’s “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1927) sometime. I can almost guarantee you will love it, especially if you liked the old Bogart film.
I have read Diary of a Young Girl more than once. I read anything I can get my hands on about Anne Frank. My husband and I and our daughter toured the Secret Annex in 2002 in a trip to Europe.. ❤Eileen
I’ve read 15 of these books, own 35, read the #1(Gatsby) and disagree on it being the greatest of all time. I find it there quite often and it’s befuddling tbh. It’s a great book. And belongs in the top 50-100 lists. I think what’s missing is W. Collins -The Woman in White, Doyle’s -A Study in Scarlett, Dumas’ -The Count of Monte Cristo So many I want to read this year! Finally reading David Copperfield with Ben’s Hardcore Literature Book Club too! So happy to find your channel!
@@thunder9134 This is just a guess, but I probably spend more time reading every day than you do. I don't watch much television, and I spend very little time playing video games. The time that I spend on social media is also really limited.
17 for me, with 7 others that I tried but didn't like enough to finish. I have had so-so results with the classics. Very few of the 24 I read/tried on this list really bowled me over (Crime and Punishment was great). Most of the others felt like work. At this point, I'm reading books that I want to read, not ones that I "should" read. I do want to get to Huck Finn and Grapes of Wrath, though. ... Oh, you mentioned wanting to get to Faulkner. Fair warning, he can be a difficult read. His sentences can go on for three pages, and he writes in a very impressionistic, stream-of-consciousness that can be hard make heads or tails of.
@@Arven8 I've dipped into Faulkner before, and I did find him really difficult. I tend to like the classics, but from a purely philosophical perspective, I'm all about reading stuff that I'm going to enjoy. I'm too old to worry about reading stuff just because ! *should* have read it.
I refused to read "Catcher in the Rye" when I was in high school. I was getting straight A's in math to junior year and refused to read about some White boy so dumb he got himself kicked out of multiple schools.
That list is messed up to say the least lol I'm a huge fan of Dostoevsky. I'd probably put one of his books at number one. My personal favourite is "Devils", but I'd probably have Crime and Punishment as number one for greatest book of all time. Tolstoy would be high up too. The old Russians were the true masters. Tolkien's Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit too would be in my top ten of course. Gatsby, that laughably holds the top position in this list, wouldn't be on my top 50 list at all. In terms of what effects a book has had on society, I guess the Bible should occupy number one spot though. Well we all have different tastes, I guess.
I’m embarrassed to say I’ve only read 10 of them. However, I am about a third of the way through The Brothers Karamazov, about 10% through Don Quixote and half way through the second book of Lord of the Rings! And I have 37 of them on my bookshelves, so I have no excuse lol. I’m surprised The Count of Monte Cristo isn’t on the list.
Interesting thing about the Great Gatsby After its publication by Scribner's in April 1925 the novel was a commercial disappointment. It sold fewer than 20,000 copies by October, and Fitzgerald's hopes of a monetary windfall from the novel were unrealized. When the author died in 1940, he believed himself to be a failure and his work forgotten. During World War II, the novel experienced an abrupt surge in popularity when the Council on Books in Wartime distributed free copies to American soldiers serving overseas. This new-found popularity launched a critical and scholarly re-examination, and the work soon became a core part of most American high school curricula and a part of American popular culture. Numerous stage and film adaptations followed in the subsequent decades. ( info from Wikipedia )
not bad. If one were to pick the 10 greatest novels of all time, one would have to include 5 Russian novels, leaving only 5 for the rest of the world. "Just a single man, Fyodor Dostoevsky, is enough to defeat all the creative novelists of the world. If one has to decide on 10 great novels in all the languages of the world, one will have to choose at least 3 novels of Dostoevsky in those 10. Dostoevsky’s insight into human beings and their problems is greater than your so-called psychoanalysts, and there are moments where he reaches the heights of great mystics. His book BROTHERS KARAMAZOV is so great in its insights that no Bible or Koran or Gita comes close. In another masterpiece of Dostoevsky, THE IDIOT, the main character is called ‘idiot’ by the people because they can’t understand his simplicity, his humbleness, his purity, his trust, his love. You can cheat him, you can deceive him, and he will still trust you. He is really one of the most beautiful characters ever created by any novelist. The idiot is a sage. The novel could just as well have been called THE SAGE. Dostoevsky’s idiot is not an idiot; he is one of the sanest men amongst an insane humanity. If you can become the idiot of Fyodor Dostoevsky, it is perfectly beautiful. It is better than being cunning priest or politician. Humbleness has such a blessing. Simplicity has such benediction."
If you haven't read any Russian literature, I wouldn't recommend starting with The Master and Margarita. It is, however, a great book and highly enjoyable to read and re-read. I would recommend avoiding the P&V translation. Lists like these are always preposterous and controversial. There are some here that made me wretch in the first paragraph, and I layed them aside. Primary example: Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austin. But I also tried and failed to read Moby Dick numerous times, however when it finally clicked for me, I read it cover to cover, and it became a favorite. Absolom, Absolom I did read, but found extremely challenging. A much better place to start with Faulkner, IMHO, would be Light in August. These lists are always heavily weighted towards books commonly found on Intro-to- Literature courses for high school and undergraduate college courses and books that have been popular on such lists for the last 40 years or so. Any dedicated reader could probably easily think of dozens of books better than 80% of the titles on this list. And there are numerous works that are truly great that never appear on these lists. The only solution is to read, keep reading, keep rereading, find out what you like and what speaks to you, keep an open mind, try to expand your horizons, but not so much that you lose depth, either. It is ok for your taste to be individual, as it must be.
@@blakeray9856 Thank you for the thoughtful comment. Any kind of list like this that's based on a consensus of 410 other lists is going to be like this.
I've read twenty. Was afraid it would be a lot less. I've got four more that I'm at least 40% of the way through and plan to finish, though some have been a slog. Probably more than four. I was supposed to read Great Expectations at some point, no doubt, but I don't recall ever finishing it. Would have to start it over.
I have read 38 and 6 incomplete or DNF. 6 I haven’t read. I’m getting so psyched for Proust. There isn’t much genre fiction on this list. Maybe that’s intentional.
I've read all but these (in their entirety anyway)... 50- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank 49- 1001 Nights (aka Arabian Nights) 46- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery 29- The Bible 16- The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien 3- In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
@eflat6522 To be fair, the list was created by an algorithm that measures how 'great' a book is based on its inclusion in 410 other 'best of' lists. I've read Native Son. It's a really great book.
@@LiterateTexan I realize it is not necessary your list. I think To Kill a Mockingbird is a fine book but a bit overrated. I actually rate it as first rate popular fiction. Btw, I am subscribing to your channel. 🙂
@eflat6522 Thanks so much. I saw the movie before I read the novel, and I really love Gregory Peck. I wonder what my reaction to the book would have been had I read the book first and then saw the movie
I've read 35 of these; will probably read all of them eventually except maybe the Bible, lol, and Proust. 100 Years of Solitude seems way too high on this list.
I must beg to differ, because I recently read The Red and the Black (at age 70!) and found it wonderful. It's a psychological novel with a very complex and (in some ways) EVIL protagonist, a very unusual character study, and IMHO it was anything but boring.
Love Geapes of Wrath,…HATED Catcher in the Rye,…I think one of the best, sweeping sagas I ever read AND s o educational about the roots of a people,…James Michener’s Hawaii. Am dfnitely not in your league, but plan on tackling War and Peace…I remember my mother reading that and The Brothers Kara….lol…and her saying that it was really good, but many names alike…also,…no way does Gatsby rate the top spot… don’t pretend to know what should be, but definitely not that one,,maybe I should try again..🥹 Thankyou,..enjoyed this video a lot..
@suzannebridges7334 Oh, I do love The Great Gatsby. But I think you can easily argue that Huckleberry Finn deserves that spot. I really loved Catcher in the Eye when I was a young man, but I don't love it as much now that I'm creeping up on middle age. And I think we're in the same league, you and I!
Love Faulkner. Have read Absolom, Absolom!, but was blown away by The Sound and the Fury
@@janmeyer3129 Awesome! I think Faulkner’s going to be fun.
@@LiterateTexan Faulkner's a rollercoaster ride!😍😍
Completely agree! Went in blind on The Sound The Fury and man it’s devastating. Next I’d put “As I Lay Dying” and then Absalom as my top 3 Faulkner.
@RewindTime4 I got my copy of Absalom, Absalom! in the mail today!
@@LiterateTexan I hope that you enjoy it! As I said it's a tough read at times but wow, what a helluva story. Once I accustomed myself to Faulkner's way of writing I couldn't get enough of it. It's Southern Gothic plus a whole lot more!
Fascinating list and commentary! I can hear Steve frothing at the mouth at the Infinite Jest copy looming in the background
@@TheActiveMind1 Ha! I put that back there on purpose
"Absalom, Absalom" is taken from the 3rd psalm in which King David is lamenting his son Absalom's betrayal. This mirrors a situation in Faulkner's novel about a disowned elder son who's trying to get the attention and acknowledgment of his Dad. The book is on my own "Best Novels" list!
I enjoyed your comments! Lists like these drive me nuts. I've read 100 classics, I'm proud to say, but it was blood, sweat and tears for a number of years. I cherry picked them myself from a variety of 100 Best Lists I gathered up. Enjoyed maybe 1/4 of them, the rest had me hunting for a sharp knife. Now I'm free, free at last, to read what I like. And hotdam, there are a lot of great books out there. A novel I would put on a 100 list is Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor or any of her collections of short stories. She was wicked genius.
And don't forget her other novel, "The Violent Bear it Away." It is stupendous. Some of her short stories I have read and re-read many times. She is a top favorite of mine, her work is so wonderful it cheers me up or makes me feel exhilarated, as strange as that may sound given her dark subject matter. She also has some great lectures on literature that are essential reading.
Great video Randy!
@@sweetconnectionswithtoni Thank you!
Thanks Randy Ray for an enjoyable commentary on the list. Was surprised that I have read 23 of the 50.
@@ExtraT82 That's a darn respectable number
Great job. I enjoyed this video. I was keeping track. I own 34 of these books and I have read 24 of them. Some of the books on this list I don't agree with and some of my favorites are missing but still think this is a great list.
@@peterthebooklover9375 Thanks for the praise. Let me know which books?
@LiterateTexan The ones I can remember that I didn't enjoy were
To the Lighthouse
On the Road
Heart of Darkness
Beloved
I didn't enjoy them but I might give them another shot later.
I disagree with you on the Stranger. I enjoyed that one especially the ending.
Some of the books that are missing
Lonesome Dove
Gone With the Wind
Silence of the Lambs
Of Mice and Men
I Am Legend
Dune
Psycho
Treasure Island
The Omen
The Time Machine
Jaws
The Count of Monte Cristo
Slaughter House Five
Dracula
A Tale of Two Cities
The Picture of Dorian Grey
Call of the Wild
First Blood
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
And The Godfather.
That is twenty that I wish were on this list.
@peterthebooklover9375 I've read 16 of the 20 on your list, and they were great!
@@LiterateTexan Thank you!
My favorite novel is number one on this list. I’ve read Gatsby annually for 11 years-I get something new out of it every time (maybe I just have a bad memory 😮). I am surprised East of Eden isn’t on this list. I’ve read 36 and DNF’d 10. All of the DNFs I plan on reading, but have found them difficult (I’ve tried to read Moby Dick so many times-it is my literary bête noir). Realistically, I doubt that I will ever read In Search of Lost Time.
@@athertonca The Great Gatsby is also my favorite. I've lost track of his many times I've read it.
What an interesting list! So many tedious books present, so many great books absent.
@@tarquinmidwinter2056 Which ones did you find tedious? Which great books belong on the list but aren't there?
@@LiterateTexan I couldn't finish Lolita. Did finish Heart of Darkness, but it was hard going. Never understood why Catcher in the Rye, the ramblings of an overprivileged brat, always makes these lists. Also The Red and the Black and Madame Bovary, about which we agree. No Larry McMurtry, Cormack McCarthy or Kazuo Ishiguro. And of course no Sigrid Undset even though she was a Nobel Prize Winner and wrote my favourite novel ever (and one for your 2025 TBR list) - Kristin Lavransdatter.
@tarquinmidwinter2056 You and o dhare similar sensibilities
Great video, Randy. I am also interested in the classics but am woefully behind in reading them. This list provides many good suggestions which I will consider. I also enjoy Hemmingway’s short stories. I’m always happy to hear you mention Garp even if John Irving doesn’t make this list. BTW, the great Claud Rains starred in The Invisible Man (1933). I enjoyed your succinct comment on the Bible (LOL). Warm regards.
@kenyotta67 lol, yeah. Claude Rains was SUCH great actor. I feel bad that I couldn't remember his name, but that happens now and then these days. It's chemo brain, etc. I'm still able to understand what I'm reading, but sometimes my brain just doesn't quite connect when I need to remember a name or something.
@@LiterateTexan I get it. I had chemo this week and was surprised I came up with his name. I almost said it was Claud Aikens (Rio Bravo, Movin On, Sheriff Lobo, etc.) before catching myself. 😅
Isn't The Invisible Man by Harlan Ellison about black Americans? Nothing to do with the horror movie
Correction: Ralph Ellison.
@@zsuzsablom8731 That is correct.
I’m new here but am sticking around! Loved hearing your commentary on this list
@OddOdieOnline Welcome to the party! Thank you so much for the kind feedback, too --- I appreciate it more than you know.
This list sounds pretty comprehensive. I think there’s a few missing from Virginia Woolf and Kafka and Dickens, maybe a couple of the early science fiction classics too.
Good luck with your project it sounds like a blast.
@@bigaldoesbooktube1097 2025 is going to be a great year!
Good one 🎉 There's only _one_ Faulkner in this list? 🤔
I think there are two. Absalom. Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury.
I've read 11, dnf'd 1 and already have 10 of these on my tbr for 2025. It's a pretty good list.
The Sound and the Fury is challenging to read but just wonderful. All about a dysfunctional family, and each section is told from the point of view of a different (f*cked up) character! I've read the book more than once, and each time I find myself liking it more and more.
@@hollyvanwye9294 I got my copy of Absalom, Absalom! yesterday. I have a really cool bike l book haul video coming up this week m
@@LiterateTexan Absalom, Absalom is a tie-in to The Sound & the Fury, and you'll see why. It's also a somewhat difficult read but absolutely fascinating. Not many people outside a classroom have read it, but it's an emotional punch in the gut and belongs on this "Best Books" list.
The actor in casablanca was Claude Rains
@@ronrustyshackleford9816 Yeah, he was so great in so many movies from that era. Thank you!
Great actor btw 😊
@JosephCusumano-u6h He was SO great!
I’ve read a fair amount of Kafka, never knew it was supposed to be funny. So I didn’t laugh, but wasn’t looking for laughs, so didn’t end up frustrated. You’re gonna try to hit all these books next year? 😮 Imma be riveted to your channel.🏇
@@davidnovakreadspoetryI generally read about 100 books a year, but these might be so dense that I'll get through then a little more slowly. I would love it if you were riveted to my channel, though. Thanks so much for the kind feedback.
You did a good job on this list. I've read some of the ones you haven't, shared quite a few of the ones you have & I have. And then a (long) list that you've read and I haven't. I think I want to go look at some of the ones I haven't read. You like horror books, so check out Kafka's Metamorphosis. For me, it is one of the creepiest books.
The Metamorphosis is a gem of a novel.
I’ve perused a few of them this year and didn’t find them all that wonderful.
@thecutthroatjourney Which ones did you peruse? I've been chatting art a friend who is 1/3 of the way into The Great Gatsby, and he buddy l just texted me to let me know that he's bored.
@ The Great Gatsby was one of them. Didn’t find it too impressive.
@thecutthroatjourney Of, I love The Great Gatsby. One of my favorites.
Did you happen to read Herman Wouk’s “The Caine Mutiny” (?). I thought somewhere along the line you were reading that one.
Also, try to squeeze in B. Traven’s “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1927) sometime. I can almost guarantee you will love it, especially if you liked the old Bogart film.
@historybuff66 I started The Caine Mutiny, and then I saw something shiny. I've seen the Bogart film; that night be fun book to read.
I have read Diary of a Young Girl more than once. I read anything I can get my hands on about Anne Frank. My husband and I and our daughter toured the Secret Annex in 2002 in a trip to Europe.. ❤Eileen
❤️ Charles Dickens ❤
I hope to never forget Joe.
I’ve read 15 of these books, own 35, read the #1(Gatsby) and disagree on it being the greatest of all time. I find it there quite often and it’s befuddling tbh. It’s a great book. And belongs in the top 50-100 lists.
I think what’s missing is
W. Collins -The Woman in White,
Doyle’s -A Study in Scarlett, Dumas’ -The Count of Monte Cristo
So many I want to read this year! Finally reading David Copperfield with Ben’s Hardcore Literature Book Club too!
So happy to find your channel!
Le petit prince is one of my favorite books
@@Alexandre-51 It was popular when I was in college
That was interesting, I’m curious to know how you read 100 books in a year. I can barely finish one book
@@thunder9134 This is just a guess, but I probably spend more time reading every day than you do. I don't watch much television, and I spend very little time playing video games. The time that I spend on social media is also really limited.
I see that’s interesting, thanks for sharing. I’m going to try and increase the amount of books I read, especially for the upcoming year.
17 for me, with 7 others that I tried but didn't like enough to finish. I have had so-so results with the classics. Very few of the 24 I read/tried on this list really bowled me over (Crime and Punishment was great). Most of the others felt like work. At this point, I'm reading books that I want to read, not ones that I "should" read. I do want to get to Huck Finn and Grapes of Wrath, though. ... Oh, you mentioned wanting to get to Faulkner. Fair warning, he can be a difficult read. His sentences can go on for three pages, and he writes in a very impressionistic, stream-of-consciousness that can be hard make heads or tails of.
@@Arven8 I've dipped into Faulkner before, and I did find him really difficult. I tend to like the classics, but from a purely philosophical perspective, I'm all about reading stuff that I'm going to enjoy. I'm too old to worry about reading stuff just because ! *should* have read it.
I refused to read "Catcher in the Rye" when I was in high school. I was getting straight A's in math to junior year and refused to read about some White boy so dumb he got himself kicked out of multiple schools.
@@psikeyhackr6914 Hahaha! How apropos!
Les Miserables is my favorite novel by far. ❤
@@MelissaBoggan-qk5vd What little I read of it was marvelous.
Have you read Germinal?
@alb0zfinest I have not. Should I?
@@LiterateTexan I think it's better than Les Miserables. Zola is the French equivalent of Steinbeck (but more talented).
@alb0zfinest I've heard the title before, but I don't know anything about it. I'll have to look it up. And I love Steinbeck, of what I've read so far.
That list is messed up to say the least lol I'm a huge fan of Dostoevsky. I'd probably put one of his books at number one. My personal favourite is "Devils", but I'd probably have Crime and Punishment as number one for greatest book of all time. Tolstoy would be high up too. The old Russians were the true masters. Tolkien's Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit too would be in my top ten of course. Gatsby, that laughably holds the top position in this list, wouldn't be on my top 50 list at all. In terms of what effects a book has had on society, I guess the Bible should occupy number one spot though. Well we all have different tastes, I guess.
Crime and punishment is a great book, easy to read
I’m embarrassed to say I’ve only read 10 of them. However, I am about a third of the way through The Brothers Karamazov, about 10% through Don Quixote and half way through the second book of Lord of the Rings! And I have 37 of them on my bookshelves, so I have no excuse lol.
I’m surprised The Count of Monte Cristo isn’t on the list.
@@jamgart I bet it's on the 51-100 list!
Anne Franks Diary is recognised today as being written by her father.
@JohnAndrewMacDonald I did not know this!
You need to read Jane Eyre it really is fantastic!
@peterthebooklover9375 it's driveline on the list! Thanks
Interesting thing about the Great Gatsby
After its publication by Scribner's in April 1925 the novel was a commercial disappointment. It sold fewer than 20,000 copies by October, and Fitzgerald's hopes of a monetary windfall from the novel were unrealized. When the author died in 1940, he believed himself to be a failure and his work forgotten.
During World War II, the novel experienced an abrupt surge in popularity when the Council on Books in Wartime distributed free copies to American soldiers serving overseas. This new-found popularity launched a critical and scholarly re-examination, and the work soon became a core part of most American high school curricula and a part of American popular culture. Numerous stage and film adaptations followed in the subsequent decades.
( info from Wikipedia )
@krzysamm7095 Yeah, this is one of those cases where the story of the novel is just as interesting as the novel's story, if you catch my drift.
not bad. If one were to pick the 10 greatest novels of all time, one would have to include 5 Russian novels, leaving only 5 for the rest of the world.
"Just a single man, Fyodor Dostoevsky, is enough to defeat all the creative novelists of the world. If one has to decide on 10 great novels in all the languages of the world, one will have to choose at least 3 novels of Dostoevsky in those 10. Dostoevsky’s insight into human beings and their problems is greater than your so-called psychoanalysts, and there are moments where he reaches the heights of great mystics. His book BROTHERS KARAMAZOV is so great in its insights that no Bible or Koran or Gita comes close.
In another masterpiece of Dostoevsky, THE IDIOT, the main character is called ‘idiot’ by the people because they can’t understand his simplicity, his humbleness, his purity, his trust, his love. You can cheat him, you can deceive him, and he will still trust you. He is really one of the most beautiful characters ever created by any novelist. The idiot is a sage. The novel could just as well have been called THE SAGE. Dostoevsky’s idiot is not an idiot; he is one of the sanest men amongst an insane humanity. If you can become the idiot of Fyodor Dostoevsky, it is perfectly beautiful. It is better than being cunning priest or politician. Humbleness has such a blessing. Simplicity has such benediction."
Well said about Dostoevsky.
I am also grateful to the exceptional translators who give me access to his writings.
If you haven't read any Russian literature, I wouldn't recommend starting with The Master and Margarita. It is, however, a great book and highly enjoyable to read and re-read. I would recommend avoiding the P&V translation.
Lists like these are always preposterous and controversial. There are some here that made me wretch in the first paragraph, and I layed them aside. Primary example: Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austin. But I also tried and failed to read Moby Dick numerous times, however when it finally clicked for me, I read it cover to cover, and it became a favorite.
Absolom, Absolom I did read, but found extremely challenging. A much better place to start with Faulkner, IMHO, would be Light in August.
These lists are always heavily weighted towards books commonly found on Intro-to- Literature courses for high school and undergraduate college courses and books that have been popular on such lists for the last 40 years or so. Any dedicated reader could probably easily think of dozens of books better than 80% of the titles on this list. And there are numerous works that are truly great that never appear on these lists. The only solution is to read, keep reading, keep rereading, find out what you like and what speaks to you, keep an open mind, try to expand your horizons, but not so much that you lose depth, either. It is ok for your taste to be individual, as it must be.
@@blakeray9856 Thank you for the thoughtful comment. Any kind of list like this that's based on a consensus of 410 other lists is going to be like this.
I've read twenty. Was afraid it would be a lot less. I've got four more that I'm at least 40% of the way through and plan to finish, though some have been a slog. Probably more than four. I was supposed to read Great Expectations at some point, no doubt, but I don't recall ever finishing it. Would have to start it over.
I have read 38 and 6 incomplete or DNF. 6 I haven’t read. I’m getting so psyched for Proust.
There isn’t much genre fiction on this list. Maybe that’s intentional.
@anotherbibliophilereads I think that represents the consensus judgment that this list represents. It's generated from 410 different best of lists.
42.6 and 7.4 for me! (Part credit for being part way through Proust). No way Kerouac belongs.
@JamesRuchala I'm not impressed with The Dharma Bums. I was On the Road might be a lot better.
Suspect you’d like Beloved Randy, Brian at The Bookish Texan had some cool videos on it
I've read all but these (in their entirety anyway)...
50- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
49- 1001 Nights (aka Arabian Nights)
46- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
29- The Bible
16- The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
3- In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
@@Tolstoy111 You still have a lot of reading fun ahead of you, then.
Problem w booklists is that they collate the opinions of college sophmores.
@@ratherrapid Interesting.
The Diary of a Young Girl wasn't written as a diary. It WAS a diary that was published. There is a difference.
@@karlao.4667 Okay, I tried wrestling with that for a minute. Would you mind explaining this distinction?
@LiterateTexan there are fiction books written as a diary. This book is Anne Frank's diary that was published after her death.
@karlao.4667 Okay, I undershirt ehat you're saying now. Thank you!
Abschalom is one of King Davids sons.
@kirchelive6252Ah, okay! Thank you.
So they put the white savior book, To Kill a Mockingbird, on the list but omit Native Son by Richard Wright?
@eflat6522 To be fair, the list was created by an algorithm that measures how 'great' a book is based on its inclusion in 410 other 'best of' lists.
I've read Native Son. It's a really great book.
@@LiterateTexan I realize it is not necessary your list. I think To Kill a Mockingbird is a fine book but a bit overrated. I actually rate it as first rate popular fiction. Btw, I am subscribing to your channel. 🙂
@eflat6522 Thanks so much. I saw the movie before I read the novel, and I really love Gregory Peck. I wonder what my reaction to the book would have been had I read the book first and then saw the movie
I've read 35 of these; will probably read all of them eventually except maybe the Bible, lol, and Proust. 100 Years of Solitude seems way too high on this list.
@@vanhouten64 Impressive!
Jane Eyre is really good
You should read Catch-22, it’s the funniest book of all time
Heart of darkness bored me to tears
Agree with you about The Red and the Black. I read it as an old man (am now a very old man), and it is indeed boring.
@@tarquinmidwinter2056 Ack! I was hoping for better news...
I must beg to differ, because I recently read The Red and the Black (at age 70!) and found it wonderful. It's a psychological novel with a very complex and (in some ways) EVIL protagonist, a very unusual character study, and IMHO it was anything but boring.
"'meets a fox'....of course"
Lol
@@JamesRuchala 😆
Absalom is an Israelite prince. He's in the Book of Samuel.
@@Tolstoy111 Thank you!
East of Eden, any work by Steinbeck. And the Holy Bible is number 1.
@Amy-u3m I'm a big Steinbeck fan, and I can't think of a Steinbeck novel than East of Eden.
The Mamluks overpowered the greatest armies of the middle ages chasing the last of the crusaders from Islamic lands ( 1291)
Love Geapes of Wrath,…HATED Catcher in the Rye,…I think one of the best, sweeping sagas I ever read AND s o educational about the roots of a people,…James Michener’s Hawaii.
Am dfnitely not in your league, but plan on tackling War and Peace…I remember my mother reading that and The Brothers Kara….lol…and her saying that it was really good, but many names alike…also,…no way does Gatsby rate the top spot… don’t pretend to know what should be, but definitely not that one,,maybe I should try again..🥹
Thankyou,..enjoyed this video a lot..
@suzannebridges7334 Oh, I do love The Great Gatsby. But I think you can easily argue that Huckleberry Finn deserves that spot. I really loved Catcher in the Eye when I was a young man, but I don't love it as much now that I'm creeping up on middle age. And I think we're in the same league, you and I!
I love The Great Gatsby but I agree, it hardly qualifies as the very best that's out there.