EWB's Top 50 Books

[TGC]

Thanks for everyone who reminded me about Puzo, as I had forgotten The 4th K, a fantastic read. I also edited in The Firm, which is an excellent book and a shitty movie.

And Great Expectations is an awesome book. Just fabulous.

Edited November 15, 2006 by The New Blood TGC

[Zaz]

Thought I'll just add in one negative vote.

-1984 by George Orwell. The first three quarters was great, but then BY GOD, this man knows how to bore people. What, like 20 pages of straight dialogue? I know it's intellectual and shit, but damn it was boring.

[SlickNick187]

1. 1984: George Orwell (Didn't know so many others here liked this book as well)

2. Blackboy: Richard Wright

3. A Time to Kill: John Grisham

4. The Cool World: Warren Miller (Probably not well known, but I have always enjoyed this book since I found it in the library)

5. To Kill A Mocking Bird: Harper Lee

6. Night: Elie Wiesel

7. Animal Farm: George Orwell

8. The Kite Runner: Khaled Hosseini

9. Sideways Stories from Wayside School: Louis Sachar (Loved these books when I was younger)

10. Maniac Magee: Jerry Spinelli

[Plankton]

Thought I'll just add in one negative vote.

-1984 by George Orwell. The first three quarters was great, but then BY GOD, this man knows how to bore people. What, like 20 pages of straight dialogue? I know it's intellectual and shit, but damn it was boring.

[caucasianheat]

I've only picked eight because I read way too much on a regular basis, so if it's not really good it just doesn't stick out. I'm assuming that stage texts are permissable here?

1. American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis

2. The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides

3. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

4. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

5. The Importance of Being Ernest - Oscar Wilde

6. Oedipus Rex - Sophocles

7. The Body - Stephen King

8. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Paradise Lost had a shot at cracking the list, but I'm studying it right now and therefore hate it.

Negatives:

JPod - Douglas Coupland (I didn't feel like doing annotations for everything I picked, but this deserves special attention. I hope no one else puts this on their list, be it positive or negative, because it would indicate that some other human has had the unfourtunate displeasure of reading this. After his Microserfs got such good hype, I grabbed this in hardcover and pissed away several days waiting for it to start not sucking. No such luck. Aimless and self-indulgent and unashamed of it to boot, which makes it all the more insulting to read.)

The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

[Zaz]

I'd have to get meself the Virgin Suicides some day. Saw the first half of the movie (with Kirsten Dunst in it) and it seemed pretty good.

[caucasianheat]

I'd have to get meself the Virgin Suicides some day. Saw the first half of the movie (with Kirsten Dunst in it) and it seemed pretty good.

If you're into books that are really deep visually then you'll love it. The book is really sensory in general, I think, with constant barrages of sounds and smells, but the visuals take precedence. The plot and characters are engaging, but Eugenides' attention to detail in terms of the way a room is laid out without being tedious (see Hardy, Thomas) or the quirky, offbeat way he describes a character's features are something that any writer should be envious of.

Edited November 16, 2006 by caucasianheat

[Skummy]

I'm closing this tomorrow, so if anyone wants to get any more votes in, do so now.

[Skummy]

Right, I'm closing this.....now.

I'll get the first part of the list up at some point in the future. Probably starting this evening, if not tomorrow.