What are the best pieces of Literature?

[Boris Godunov]

I didn't think so, although Imran jokingly dismissed someone's preference for a Doom book.

I just have an instant antipathy to reverse-elitism, a la Snapcase's uninformed rants against Classical music. In effort to seem anti-elitism, most populists end up becoming elitists in their own way.

[Sava]

I read that Doom book and I enjoyed it ... I misinterpreted Imran's comment as being elitist.

[Dr. Nick]

Originally posted by JohnIII
Blood Meridian or the evening redness in the west by Cormac McCarthy.

I tried this one last summer, I couldn't manage to get through it. Too bloody dense. I loved the imagery and what not, but it was too dense for my liking.

Go with Terry Pratchett and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, though many will argue that it isn't really literature.

Kurt Vonnegut is great too.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Sava
I don't like to classify literature. Every single human being that has ever lived can tell a story. I don't like the fact that just because someone has followed the rules in a language and used descriptive language, that their story can be considered better than anyone elses. I bet that if many of the "great" authors of the past were alive today, a few would be writing video games, commercials, sitcoms or trashy romance novels.

It is all based on someone's opinion. If you want to feel all high and mighty, then brag how you enjoy different so called, "great literature". I have more respect for someone that says, "I enjoyed Tom Clancy's, or Michael Crichton's, or Dean Koontz's last book" than someone who says, "Oh, Shakespeare, Twain and Tolstoy are great pieces of literature compared to that trash..."

How wrong you are. Literature gives insight into the human condition. Clancy, Crichton and Koontz are simply entertainment.

Admittedly, I spend more of my time reading Bernard Cornwell, C.S. Forster, and Walter Mosley than I do Tolstoy, Twain and Shakespeare, but at least I realize there's a qualitative difference about the depth of their works.

[Sava]

I currently reading Zhukov's memoirs. Verrry interesting.

[Dr. Nick]

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Excellent short story. Short story though. I wish there was a whole book on Walter Mitty.

Siddharta I didn't enjoy very much...

No Exit is also very good.

If you want other writers, you should look up Borges's "Ficciones".

[Sava]

My point is that "great" literature doesn't give any better insight than the incoherent ramblings of a bum on heroin.

[Dr. Nick]

Oh, and I also liked "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" very much... good book too. I must get my hands on "The Gulag Archipielago"

[ThePantaloonDog]

I know everone has said but "To Kill a Mockingbird" is very good. So is "The Great Gatsby" which someone already mentioned. I also loved "The Count of Monte Cristo" the recent movie turned what was one of the best portraits of human misery into another Hollywood popcorn happy ending.

The "Scarlet Pimpernel (sp?)" Easily had to be the worst book I have ever read. "Trainspotting" is a very close second. Its amazing how a great movie came from such a miserable book.

[orange]

I don't really enjoy reading, so to make my favorite books list isn't exactly an easy thing...they have to hold my interest...

i have especially enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, Germinal, and a Separate Peace...

yes, rather low on the reading level...but anything over 250 pages usually sends me running away in fear

[Tis I]

This isn't really my favorite but it's the one i ju finished and i rather enjoyedit. Arundhati Roy's "The God of Small Things". The way the story builds up to and forshadows the climax is intriguing

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


How wrong you are. Literature gives insight into the human condition. Clancy, Crichton and Koontz are simply entertainment.

Admittedly, I spend more of my time reading Bernard Cornwell, C.S. Forster, and Walter Mosley than I do Tolstoy, Twain and Shakespeare, but at least I realize there's a qualitative difference about the depth of their works.

Sorry, Zcrib, but as reader of Crichton, I have to say that if that is all you think of Crichton, you don't know Crichton.

Another vote for Les Miserables here, even if a certain starfleet officer did dismiss it as "a rambling melodrama".

[MosesPresley]

"Moby ****" is one of my favorite books. I would also recommend "Post Office" by Charles Bukowski. It is completely barren of metaphors. It is one of the most humane books I have read.

[MosesPresley]

Censorship blows.

[MosesPresley]

Originally posted by Sava
My point is that "great" literature doesn't give any better insight than the incoherent ramblings of a bum on heroin.

That's a Harvard bum.