Best Novel? Favorite Novel?

21 Nov 2018

Recently, PBS aired a short series titled The Great American Read, where they allowed people to vote online for what they thought was the best novel/series ever written.

https://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/books/#/

Personally I think that its a bit ridiculous to have Fifty Shades of Grey in the same list as War and Peace... but I guess this is what reading has become. To Kill a Mocking Bird came out on top which seems like kind of something that people feel like they should say.

Take a look at the list... How many have you read? Which do you think is best? Are there any that you think should be included?

Personally, I'm a little disappointed to see no Victor Hugo on the list.

10 Dec 2018

Quote by DamonX
Recently, PBS aired a short series titled The Great American Read, where they allowed people to vote online for what they thought was the best novel/series ever written.

https://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/books/#/

Personally I think that its a bit ridiculous to have Fifty Shades of Grey in the same list as War and Peace... but I guess this is what reading has become. To Kill a Mocking Bird came out on top which seems like kind of something that people feel like they should say.

Take a look at the list... How many have you read? Which do you think is best? Are there any that you think should be included?

Personally, I'm a little disappointed to see no Victor Hugo on the list.

In my opinion, books like Fifty Shades of Grey, The Twilight Saga, The Da Vinci Code etc. should NOT be on a list titled ‘The Great American Read’ but then my reading tastes have always been stuck in the past, maybe I’m the problem.

I suppose the list highlights how inaccessible people find classic literature which is just such a damn shame! I imagine being forced to read certain books in school doesn’t help the situation either.

I agree, Victor Hugo should have been there. I was sad not to see Thomas Hardy and I don’t think I saw DH Lawrence either (please correct me if I’m wrong).

10 Dec 2018

It did say ‘The Great American Read’, maybe as a Brit I should have kept my nose out.

10 Dec 2018

Quote by MaddieGirl
It did say ‘The Great American Read’, maybe as a Brit I should have kept my nose out.

No, no... I just used the TV special as reference because it got me thinking about what my favorite novel was. I also differentiate between "favorite" and what I consider to be the best."

I'm pretty sure that most people on here would agree with your take on Fifty Shades and Twilight.... The TV special was more about fanaticism and less about literary taste since they allowed people to vote as many times as possible.

I think The Count of Monte Christo is probably the most complete novel ever written. Frankenstein is also high on my list since it tells a complete story in a much more succinct manner.

10 Dec 2018

Favorite novel ever?" Has to be Dracula. I've re-read it many times and it still occupies a place of honour on my bookshelf. The perfect vampire horror novel in my books (pun intended).

Is it the best? That's arguable. I've probably read some better written material that just did not grab me enough to make "favorite". I'm a bit skeptical of the whole concept of a "best" novel anyhow because everyone's pick for "best" novel seems to be suspiciously the same as their "favorite". If someone gets their biggest kick from a trashy romance, that's cool as long as they don't expect me to think it's the "best".

H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds is a close contender, too. One of my favorite sf novels and a seminal one, to boot (first true alien invasion novel, rather than demons or other supernatural beings).

10 Dec 2018

Quote by seeker4
Favorite novel ever?" Has to be Dracula. I've re-read it many times and it still occupies a place of honour on my bookshelf. The perfect vampire horror novel in my books (pun intended).

Is it the best? That's arguable. I've probably read some better written material that just did not grab me enough to make "favorite". I'm a bit skeptical of the whole concept of a "best" novel anyhow because everyone's pick for "best" novel seems to be suspiciously the same as their "favorite". If someone gets their biggest kick from a trashy romance, that's cool as long as they don't expect me to think it's the "best".

H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds is a close contender, too. One of my favorite sf novels and a seminal one, to boot (first true alien invasion novel, rather than demons or other supernatural beings).

Dracula is brilliant. Have you read The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe?

10 Dec 2018

Quote by seeker4
Favorite novel ever?" Has to be Dracula. I've re-read it many times and it still occupies a place of honour on my bookshelf. The perfect vampire horror novel in my books (pun intended).

Is it the best? That's arguable. I've probably read some better written material that just did not grab me enough to make "favorite". I'm a bit skeptical of the whole concept of a "best" novel anyhow because everyone's pick for "best" novel seems to be suspiciously the same as their "favorite". If someone gets their biggest kick from a trashy romance, that's cool as long as they don't expect me to think it's the "best".

H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds is a close contender, too. One of my favorite sf novels and a seminal one, to boot (first true alien invasion novel, rather than demons or other supernatural beings).

I love Dracula as well. I think it's underrated due to the mainstream popularity of the vampire genre. I appreciate the epistolary style. I found it quite unique, even when I read it as a kid.

10 Dec 2018

Catch 22, by Joseph Heller

11 Dec 2018

I love the opening to Lady Chatterly’s Lover - the book was banned for many years because of its open depictions of sex and when published in 1960, found itself in the centre of an obscenity trial at the Old Bailey.

“Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.’

12 Dec 2018

Quote by MaddieGirl
I love the opening to Lady Chatterly’s Lover - the book was banned for many years because of its open depictions of sex and when published in 1960, found itself in the centre of an obscenity trial at the Old Bailey.

“Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.’

It's funny.... most books that we now consider "classics" were once denounced as "pornographic" or "immoral."

I just read "Looking for Alaska" (which is on the list) because it was banned by several school districts in the US. It was such a plain, bland, inoffensive book.

23 Dec 2018

1984, is one of my favourites. Picture of Dorian Grey, though, is my all time favourite. I have read and re-read it over and over.

24 Dec 2018

Quote by DamonX

I love Dracula as well. I think it's underrated due to the mainstream popularity of the vampire genre. I appreciate the epistolary style. I found it quite unique, even when I read it as a kid.

I have actually been rereading it on my vacation (still have a ways to go, just past the scene where Dracula forces Mina to drink his blood) and realizing how many of the little details (versus the big picture stuff) I had forgotten in the years since my last reading. Still stands up well 40 or so years after I first read it.

24 Dec 2018

Never heard of the PBS.org or their voting online...lol

Why would I or anyone else around the world have ever watched,
or even know about "Public Broadcasting T.V." in the Americas?
I had to look it up after I saw this thread.

So mostly und only Americans know about it, have ever see it on their Tele,
und are the only ones who ist mostly deciding/voting online what they think ist "The Best Novels Ever Written"
in the whole world? Really?...Whatever...

Well, these are a few thought by the world as "The Best Novels Ever Written"...smiles

In Search of Lost Time.
Don Quixote.
Clarissa.
Tristram Shandy.
The Charterhouse of Parma.
Sybil.
Jane Eyre.
Madame Bovary.

Many 100's more at least und most not on the PBS.org American voting list.

I like und have many hard-backs of the books listed.
It ist so funny to see some of the books that have been chosen on the PBS.org list though.
The DaVinci Code?...lol...Complete crap misinformation portrayed as truth...Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy?...lolol...really?...Would have never even been considered in the top 500 books by anyone who I know.

24 Dec 2018

Quote by ivanka_simkiewisz
Never heard of the PBS.org or their voting online...lol

Why would I or anyone else around the world have ever watched,
or even know about "Public Broadcasting T.V." in the Americas?
I had to look it up after I saw this thread.

So mostly und only Americans know about it, have ever see it on their Tele,
und are the only ones who ist mostly deciding/voting online what they think ist "The Best Novels Ever Written"
in the whole world? Really?...Whatever...

Well, these are a few thought by the world as "The Best Novels Ever Written"...smiles

In Search of Lost Time.
Don Quixote.
Clarissa.
Tristram Shandy.
The Charterhouse of Parma.
Sybil.
Jane Eyre.
Madame Bovary.

Many 100's more at least und most not on the PBS.org American voting list.

I like und have many hard-backs of the books listed.
It ist so funny to see some of the books that have been chosen on the PBS.org list though.
The DaVinci Code?...lol...Complete crap misinformation portrayed as truth...Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy?...lolol...really?...Would have never even been considered in the top 500 books by anyone who I know.

I actually posted a link that had the list on it in my original post.

No Atlas Shrugged or Mein Kampf?