Ten Percent of Nuthin'

Special Hell => Book Club => Topic started by: Rosie on April 05, 2013, 01:37:25 PM

Title: Modern Library List of 100 Best Novels
Post by: Rosie on April 05, 2013, 01:37:25 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Library_100_Best_Novels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Library_100_Best_Novels)

Has anyone read any of these?

Editors' list (20th Century Great Novels)# Year Title Author
1 1922 Ulysses Joyce, JamesJames Joyce
2 1925 The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald, F. ScottF. Scott Fitzgerald
3 1916 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Joyce, JamesJames Joyce
4 1955 Lolita Nabokov, VladimirVladimir Nabokov
5 1932 Brave New World Huxley, AldousAldous Huxley
6 1929 The Sound and the Fury Faulkner, WilliamWilliam Faulkner
7 1961 Catch-22 Heller, JosephJoseph Heller
8 1940 Darkness at Noon Koestler, ArthurArthur Koestler
9 1913 Sons and Lovers Lawrence, D. H.D. H. Lawrence
10 1939 The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck, JohnJohn Steinbeck

I started Grapes of Wrath and then could not finish. It seems these books are all very dark, hard, not fun.
Title: Re: Modern Library List of 100 Best Novels
Post by: Spooky on April 05, 2013, 02:15:06 PM
I've read the following from the list of 10 you posted (all when I was in HS).

Brave New World Huxley
Catch-22
The Grapes of Wrath
Title: Re: Modern Library List of 100 Best Novels
Post by: Spooky on April 05, 2013, 02:18:41 PM
Here is a link to the top 100.

http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/ (http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/)

From the readers list I have read all the top 10.


Title: Re: Modern Library List of 100 Best Novels
Post by: Rosie on April 06, 2013, 05:34:06 AM
From reader's list I read:

To Kill A Mockingbird- Loved
Ender's Game-Loved
Call of the Wild-Loved
HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy-OK
My Antonia-Loved

Fahrenheit 451 -did not love
Beloved- did not love

Started but did not finish:
Grapes if Wrath
Catcher in the Rye
Lord of the Flies
Watership Down
Lord of the Rings
Slaughter House Five
Title: Re: Modern Library List of 100 Best Novels
Post by: TinkTanker on April 06, 2013, 06:07:19 AM
Rosie, you might like Stephen King's The Stand.
Title: Re: Modern Library List of 100 Best Novels
Post by: Spooky on April 06, 2013, 10:11:02 AM
Quote from: TinkTanker on April 06, 2013, 06:07:19 AM
Rosie, you might like Stephen King's The Stand.

Laws yes. M-O-O-N, that spells good book.
Title: Re: Modern Library List of 100 Best Novels
Post by: Rosie on April 06, 2013, 11:49:49 AM
Thanks Tink. That list makes me feel like I haven't read anything of woth or merit. So I decided to start a list of the books I have read that I liked that are not on the Modern Library List. I looked up various Recommended reading list.

My Favorite Authors: Jane Austen and Shakespeare

Jane Austen:
Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion, Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility (not my favorite)

I still haven't read Northanger Abbey because then there is no more Jane Austen.

Shakespeare:

Much Ado About Nothing
Taming of the Shrew
Romeo and Juliet
Macbeth
Othello
Tempest
Merchant of Venice
Two Gentleman of Verona

John Steinbeck:
Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, The Red Pony, Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row
Started but did not finish Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden

Jack London:
Call of the Wild, White Fang (Good)

Mark Twain:
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer (Lots of Fun)

Ernest Hemmingway:
A Farewell to Arms

Harper Lee:
To Kill a Mockingbird (Excellent book.)

Ray Bradbury:
The Martian Chronicles (Did not like.)
Fahrenheit 451 (Did not love it.)

Hermann Hesse:
Siddhartha

Chaim Potok:
The Chosen (LOVED IT!!!), The Promise

Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra:
Don Quixote (Read it in Spanish)

Thomas Hardy:
Tess of the d'urbervilles (Stayed with me.)

Charlotte Bronte:
Janey Eyre (Did not love it.)

Pearl S. Buck:
The Good Earth

Willa Cather:
My Antonia, O Pioneers (Loved both)


There are many many books I started but could not finish for various reasons, most boiled down to not wanting to see what happened.

I like stories where I learn about how people lived and what the life and times was like back then.

To clarify, I read lots of books not on the recommended reading list. I have read a lot of the Miss Marple Agatha Christie books as well.

Not sure why this bugs me so.