Best Books of All time?

Those guys are big on Nabokov, welsh.

I also see Gilgamesh and Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching

It's kind of stupid to list stuff like "Shakespeare's collected works" or "Chekhov's short stories" or "Borges' collected fictions". They may be great pieces of prose, but bundled together and read is not how the author intended them and thus not really how they should be judged. It's just a cheap way of getting Shakespeare in there.

It's funny how non-Russian lists never put Crime and Punishment very high, even though (in Russia and Europe) it is considered to be the best work of Dostoevskij in a pure literary context.
 
I see myself in the same boat as you frissy. My best books of all time list probably wouldn't stand much ground in terms of literary quality but it's about books I enjoy. So maybe rather than 10 best books, I could give you my 10 favorite books.

Mmm and Kharn, I was curious about Crime and Punishment. That's the only Dostoevskij I've read and I thought it was great (if a little slow at times).

And what's the fuss with Joyce? I tried reading his stuff before and in terms of approachability, he sucks the big one.

I'll have to think about my top ten but it won't be anything like these :).
 
For me personally, it'd be the collected works of Hans Christian Andersen.

Not that I still read it - but I've read it dozens and dozens of times when I was but a wee little Gob-spawn, and have nothing but fond memories of it.
 
I have read very little, but as a young child I loved LOTR and Roald Dahl and now I am a big Pratchett fan. As it is finally summer holidays now, I can read some of these more adult books.

Here is the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) popular list. It has some Russians as well as several Aussie authors you wouldn't know. No Hubbard either.

The nation's 100 favourite books:
1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. The Bible (Various Contributors)
4. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
6. Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (Book 5) by J. K. Rowling
7. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
8. The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
9. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
10. A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey
11. Dirt Music by Tim Winton
12. 800 Horseman by Col Stringer
13. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
14. Zhaun Falun by Li Hongzhi
15. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (Book 3) by J.K. Rowling
16. Captain Underpants And The Invasion Of The Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies From Outer Space by Dav Pilkey
17. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
18. The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
19. The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame
20. The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
21. The Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett
22. Magician by Raymond E. Feist
23. Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt
24. Dune (Dune Chronicles) by Frank Herbert
25. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
26. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
27. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
28. One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
29. 'Fighting' McKenzie Anzac Chaplain by Col Stringer
30. Deltora Quest Series by Emily Rodda
31. Tomorrow, When The War Began by John Marsden
32. Perfume: The Story Of A Murder by Patrick Suskind
33. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
34. The Ancient Future Trilogy by Traci Harding
35. The God Of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
36. Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (Book 4) by J.K. Rowling and The Power Of One by Bryce Courenay
37. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
39. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
40. Anne Of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
41. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
42. Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon
43. Persuasion by Jane Austen
44. Ice Station by Matthew Reilly
45. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
46. Life Of Pi by Yann Martel
47. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
48. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
49. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
50. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
51. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
52. Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
53. Rage by Steve Gerlach
54. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
55. The Mists Of Avalon by Marion Zimmer-Bradley
56. Cafe Scheherazade by Arnold Zable
57. The Bone People by Keri Hulme
58. Jessica by Bryce Courtenay
59. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (Book 2) by J. K. Rowling
60. The Fortunes Of Richard Mahony by Henry Handel Richardson
61. My Family And Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
62. War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy
63. Wild Swans by Jung Chang
64. Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
65. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
66. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
67. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
68. Memoirs Of A Geisha by Arthur Golden
69. The Riders by Tim Winton
70. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
71. Angela's Ashes by Frank Mccourt
72. The Age Of Reason by Thomas Paine
73. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
74. Middlemarch by George Eliot
75. Emma by Jane Austen
76. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
77. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
78. Matilda by Roald Dahl
79. Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
80. On The Road by Jack Kerouac
81. The Bfg by Roald Dahl
82. Animal Farm by George Orwell
83. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
84. A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving
85. Boyz Rule by Felice Arena and Phil Kettle
86. Scarecrow by Matthew Reilly
87. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
88. Looking For Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta
89. Watership Down by Richard Adams
90. The Thorn Birds by Colleen Mccullough
91. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
92. Winnie The Pooh by A. A. Milne
93. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (Book 1) by J. K. Rowling
94. The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton
95. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
96. Heart Of Darkness by Conrad
97. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
98. Goosebumps by R. L Stine
99. The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay
100. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
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quietfanatic said:
16. Captain Underpants And The Invasion Of The Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies From Outer Space by Dav Pilkey

17. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
20. The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
24. Dune (Dune Chronicles) by Frank Herbert
47. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
48. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
49. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
50. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Click to expand...

The fuck? Captain Underpants is Australia's 16th favourite book? I knew the state of education among prisoners was bad but I never realized how much.
 
I just have to say Catch-22 by Keller is simply amazing. Its a funny, dark, commentary on war and society. Then, its written achronologically, which is tremendous literary feat. If you haven't read, I think you haven't read the best novel written in the past 50 years, at least.

Having Ayn Rand on the list is a joke, and putting her number one is even a bigger joke. I've read some Rand, and she is a terrible novelist. Heck, the best part of Atlas Shrugged (the title) was penned by her husband. She was going to call it The Strike or something lame like that. Yeah, Ayn Rand made a career of telling people it was their right and indeed necessary to be jerks.

As for truly naming a greatest novel, you probably want to start by limiting it to a single culture. Then you need a book that summarizes the values of that culture, has incredible literary merit, and teaches us something about ourselves. Might I suggest See Spot Run?
 
Kharn said:
Sander, since you're here, I'm curious; what do you think the greatest Dutch book ever is? Name a few if you want. I'd go for either Multatuli's Max Havelaar for historical importance or A. Den Doolaard's Small people in the large world for literary value.
Click to expand...

Best Dutch book ever? Easy: that would be 'De avonden' by Reve. Multatuli's 'Max Havelaar' would be a close second, but 'De avonden' is still better in lots of ways.

A top ten of the world's best novels would surely have to include work by Joyce ('Ulysses'), Kafka (I'd go for 'The trial'), Dickens (can't pick one, 'cause most of them are just too bloody good), Vonnegut ('Slaughterhouse Five') and Perec ('La vie une mode d'emploi'). I'm sure some Russians deserve to be in that list as well, but I've yet to read one of the big Russians. The size of their books just completely demotivates me.

My personal list, though, would look like this:

1 Kurt Vonnegut, 'Slapstick or Lonesome No More' (not his best book, true, very true, but the book that intrigued me the most, a bizarre mixture of post-apoc fiction, autobiography and horror)
2 George Perec, 'Un homme qui dort' (one of the only books I know of that was written in the second person singular, about a guy who is bored and depressed and who sleeps a lot, it's only about a hundred pages, but they will haunt you for the rest of your life)
3 Thoreau, 'Walden' (a treatise on individuality, written by the greatest optimistic cynic whom ever roamed the earth or something like that, and full of wonderful sentences)
4 Franz Kafka, 'Die Verwandlung' (in my opinion his best work, starts with one of the most famous sentences in literature (if not the most famous sentence), about a guy who wakes up and finds himself changed into a bug, brilliant)
5 Lewis Carroll, 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' (plus the sequel 'Through the Looking-Glass', simply marvellous fiction, they don't write books like that no more, alas)
6 J.D. Salinger, 'The Catcher in the Rye' (you gotta love this book, it influenced so many writers worldwide)
7 Julian Barnes, 'A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters' (I getting tired of explaining why, so I'll leave it at that)
8 Reve, 'De avonden'
9 Paul Auster, 'Mister Vertigo'
10 George Orwell, 'Animal Farm'

Number 9 and 10 I just filled in because I'm bored thinking up titles. There are better books out there than those, but they're not bad either.

I could easily compile a personal top ten list consisting merely out of Vonnegut novels, though.
 
Got to love Thoreau. Read him and Salinger in 11th grade. Also the Hawthorne's the Scarlet Letter and Huck Finn. It was a good year for fiction.
 
Wow, I don't know if anyone noticed this but GOOSEBUMPS is on the Australian list... mmm I didn't even think those books were written well when i was in 5th grade. e gads.

Though I guess Captain underpants would be a bigger surprise :).

Hrmm mand Davinci code at 9. I can see a lot of people being upset with these.
 
I remember GOOSEBUMPS. I recognized R.L Stein's attempt to pump out as many books as he could when I was 10. They were good when I was in the 5th grade, but on a top ten book list? Whatever floats your boat I guess! Just for shits and giggles...

Favorite GOOSEBUMP books

Night of the Living Dummy
Monster Blood
The Haunted Mask
One Day at Horrorland
Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes
Beast from the East
 
The Heart of the Matter is considered Graham Greenes greatest? Disgusting. And why the hell is Dune lower than Harry Potlet?
 
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