Open Culture has a list from 2007 of a list compiled from lists submitted by 125 modern writers. The formation of this 2007 list is described this way:
“The participants could pick any work, by any writer, by any time period…. After awarding ten points to each first-place pick, nine to second-place picks, and so on, the results were tabulated to create the Top Top Ten List – the very best of the best.”
The list:
1. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
2. Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert
3. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
4. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
6. Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
7. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust
9. The Stories of Anton Chekhov (some of them, but I'm not sure I've read them all)
10. Middlemarch, by George Eliot
I did great on this list! 8+ out of 10. I imagine most folks would find it hard to argue that the books on this list aren't important reading.
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Wow I've read four on the list: 2, 5, 7, 10. Usually I haven't read any on a top ten list.
ReplyDeleteyes, i think this is a good list, with books that most people will have read something from. i would think some of these books would've been assigned reading for a lot of people.
DeleteI have only read 3, I started Anna Karenina but the story developed too slowly for me and I gave up on it.
ReplyDeleteit's been a long time since i read that one, but i do remember it dragging.
DeleteI'm surprised, I've read 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8 (although I suppose only Swann's Way doesn't count!) I do want to read War and Peace but the size is too intimidating.
ReplyDeletedon't let war & peace intimidate you. it actually moves quite well if i remember it right. you can always quit it if you don't like it. :0
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