Time Magazine's Top 100 Novels

Jyqm · #1 10-17-2005, 08:35 AM

In English, that is. And since 1923:

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100boo...lete_list.html

Did I just complain in another thread that top 100 lists are woefully boring? I think I'll amend that to say that book lists are the exception. It usually takes so much longer for literature, as opposed to films or music or entertainers in general, to become remotely "canonized," that these kinds of book lists tend to remain interesting and different year after year. There's always bound to be a bunch of new titles you've never heard of. And on the flip side, of course, it's always fun to see which ones you've already read. I've got 13 under my belt, although there's a lot on there that I'd really love to read at some point:

Atonement, Ian McEwan
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

I've also read parts of Gravity's Rainbow and On the Road (and that aloud, with two friends, on a road trip across western America, because, well, there's no shame in being as cliche as possible).

All truly great books, though, I don't think I can argue with any of them being on there. Well, maybe Naked Lunch. Though I suppose it is very important historically.

Interestingly, only 6 of the books on my list (Grapes, Dalloway, Lunch, Cuckoo, Passage and Mockingbird) are books I read for the first time as part of a class in either high school or college.

I originally checked out the list to see if Ulysses was on there. But I suppose it's sort of de facto #1 since they chose to begin their list in 1923. Yes.

trackaghost · #2 10-17-2005, 09:22 AM

I've read 15 on that list which surprised me. Some were school reading though, I must admit.

Jyqm · #3 10-17-2005, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trackaghost

I've read 15 on that list which surprised me. Some were school reading though, I must admit.

Nothing wrong with that, that's what English class is for, right? Actually, there are a number on the list that I'm surprised I was never assigned in school (like Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies).

Which ones have you read that aren't on my list, and what do you think of them?

trackaghost · #4 10-17-2005, 10:18 AM

These are the ones I've read:

Animal Farm by George Orwell
Are You There God? It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume (every schoolgirl read that)
The Catcher In The Rye - JD Salinger
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
The Grapes Of Wrath - John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
Gone With The Wind- Margaret Mitchell
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Lord Of The Flies - William Golding
The Lord Of The Rings- J.R.R. Tolkein
Naked Lunch - William Burroughs
1984 - George Orwell
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys

Thanks for replying to the "chick music" issue by the way.
I hate arguing with people, as you know.

Jyqm · #5 10-17-2005, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trackaghost

These are the ones I've read:

Animal Farm by George Orwell
Are You There God? It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume (every schoolgirl read that)
The Catcher In The Rye - JD Salinger
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
The Grapes Of Wrath - John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Lord Of The Flies - William Golding
Naked Lunch - William Burroughs
1984 - George Orwell
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys

Thanks for replying to the "chick music" issue by the way.
I hate arguing with people, as you know.

So your list is basically most of mine, plus a few of the ones I feel like I should have read but haven't. I wonder if most folks have read most of the same 20 or so books on the list...

What is Wide Sargasso Sea? I don't think I've ever heard of it.

**mylittledemon** · #6 10-17-2005, 10:40 AM

I've only read 9 of them. I've got a lot of catching up to do.

trackaghost · #7 10-17-2005, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jyqm

So your list is basically most of mine, plus a few of the ones I feel like I should have read but haven't. I wonder if most folks have read most of the same 20 or so books on the list...

What is Wide Sargasso Sea? I don't think I've ever heard of it.

It's kind of a prequel to Jane Eyre. That's another I read at school.
It's great, very atmospheric, sweaty and claustrophobic, set in Jamaica. It's basically the story of Mr Rochester and what happened with his first wife.

SuzeQuze · #8 10-17-2005, 11:07 AM

I've read 11 but I love a good book so this is a good reading list! The ones I read are below:

Animal Farm

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

Beloved

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

1984

Their Eyes Were Watching God

To Kill a Mockingbird

hayley · #9 10-17-2005, 11:20 AM

Here are the books off the list that I've read:

All the King's Men- Robert Penn Warren
Animal Farm- George Orwell
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret- Judy Blume
Atonement-Ian McEwan
Beloved- Toni Morrison
The Blind Assassin- Margaret Atwood
Brideshead Revisited- Evelyn Waugh
Catch-22- Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger
A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess
The Corrections- Jonathan Franzen
Gone With the Wind- Margaret Mitchell
The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter- Carson McCullers
The Heart of the Matter- Graham Greene
I, Claudius- Robert Graves
Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison
Light in August- William Faulkner
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe- C.S. Lewis
Lolita- Vladimir Nabokov
Lord of the Flies- William Golding
The Lord of the Rings- J.R.R. Tolkein
Mrs. Dalloway- Virginia Woolf
Naked Lunch- William Burroughs
Never Let Me Go- Kazuo Ishiguro
1984- George Orwell
On the Road- Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest- Ken Kesey
Play It As It Lays- Joan Didion
Posession- A.S. Byatt
The Power and the Glory- Graham Greene
Rabbit, Run- John Updike
Slaughterhouse-Five- Kurt Vonnegut
The Sound and the Fury- William Faulkner
The Sportswriter- Richard Ford
The Sun Also Rises- Ernest Hemingway
Things Fall Apart* Chinua Achebe
To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse- Virginia Woolf
Tropic of Cancer- Henry Miller
Under the Net- Iris Murdoch
Watchmen- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
Wide Sargasso Sea- Jean Rhys

I think it's kind of amazing and totally weird that they put Watchmen on the list. It deserves to be there, but it still seems disingenuous for Time to jump on the "graphic novels have literary merit too!" bandwagon.

**mylittledemon** · #10 10-17-2005, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hayley

Watchmen- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

I think it's kind of amazing and totally weird that they put Watchmen on the list. It deserves to be there, but it still seems disingenuous for Time to jump on the "graphic novels have literary merit too!" bandwagon.

Yes it IS weird. It is probably one of the best, though. I think they should've included Maus, and The Dark Knight Returns.

David · #11 10-17-2005, 01:42 PM

I don't read this contemporary fiction.

I read only criticism, science & essayistic/explicative/hortatory paraphernalia.

Advice: Don't read "Ulysses" alone. Read it in tandem with Stuart Gilbert's study, which is available in an easy-to-flip-around-it paperback.

If you read "Gatsby," make sure you have the corrected edition (Matthew Broccoli or something -- the authorized text) out from Scribner. No greater a critic than Edmund Wilson Himself -- the towering Olympian among plebs -- messed up some of Fitzgerald's language in the editing: "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future . . ." edited Wilson, when in fact Fitzgerald wanted "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future . . ." The two words mean different things.

The corrected Scribner edition also replaces space breaks that were deleted in earlier editions; Fitzgerald used space breaks here & there in order to signal shifts in time or narrative.

**mylittledemon** · #12 10-17-2005, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David

I don't read this contemporary fiction.

I read only criticism, science & essayistic/explicative/hortatory paraphernalia.

You're missing out!

And if you're only reading criticism...you're basically reading opinions from either learned or possibly unlearned sources. Can that be more interesting that something completely unique from someone's imagination...like say, Chronicles of Narnia?

trackaghost · #13 10-17-2005, 01:53 PM

I've missed out Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein on my list!

Jyqm · #14 10-17-2005, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David

I don't read this contemporary fiction.

I read only criticism, science & essayistic/explicative/hortatory paraphernalia.

Whatever you say, boss. I read only German fiction these days. Fun times.

Quote:

Advice: Don't read "Ulysses" alone. Read it in tandem with Stuart Gilbert's study, which is available in an easy-to-flip-around-it paperback.

I own Gilbert's study, but I haven't read it or used it yet. I was weaned on Don Gifford's book of annotations, so I usually use that . It's bigger than Ulysses itself and ain't all that easy to flip around in sometimes, but it's an invaluable resource if you don't let yourself get too bogged down by it.

But yes (I said yes I will Yes), don't read Ulysses for the first time alone, kids. You could put your brain out with that thing. (And of course it never hurts to read Portrait first, either.)

ragandbone · #15 10-17-2005, 02:12 PM

As I listed these novels, I realized there is very little remember about many of the books I have read. Time to reread them, I guess.
I am not sure I think "Ubik" is Dick's best. And, Where's Truman Capote? I guess that's just how these lists are. I am more of a short story reader, so I don't read many novels. I am about to read "Atonement", and I have had "Pale Fire" by my bedside for months, but I can't seem to begin it.

***For School***
Lord of the Flies-William Golding
Animal Farm-George Orwell
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret-Judy Blume
Beloved-Toni Morrison
1984-George Orwell
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-Ken Kesey
A Clockwork Orange-Anthony Burgess
The Catcher in the Rye-J.D. Salinger
Things Fall Apart-Chinua Achebe
The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald
The French Lieutenant's Woman-John Fowles

***On my own***
On the Road-Jack Kerouac
The Sheltering Sky-Paul Bowles
A Handful of Dust-Evelyn Waugh
Lord of the Flies-William Golding
Catch-22-Joseph Heller
Lolita-Vladimir Nabokov
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter-Carson McCullers
Gone With the Wind-Margaret Mitchell
To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee
White Noise-Don DeLillo ------!!!!One of my favorite books, ever!
The Lord of the Rings-J.R.R. Tolkein
Naked Lunch-William Burroughs
The Berlin Stories-Christopher Isherwood
The Corrections-Jonathan Franzen
A House for Mr. Biswas-V.S. Naipau