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A few weeks ago, I posted a link to early reviews of the all-time best novels. In that case, the novels were chosen by the editorial board of the Modern Library. But there’s no shortage of ‘Best Books’ lists. Here are a handful.
• The Guardian’s 100 Best Books of All Time. “Full list of the 100 best works of fiction, alphabetically by author, as determined from a vote by 100 noted writers from 54 countries as released by the Norwegian Book Clubs. Don Quixote was named as the top book in history but otherwise no ranking was provided.”
• BBC – The Big Read – Top 100 Books. Results of a BBC search for the country’s most-loved novel. The Lord of the Rings edged out Pride and Prejudice for the top spot.
• The Book List (Or the 778 Best Books of All-Time). The 778 best books of all-time, as ranked by readers, visitors, friends, and the creator of the Blue Pyramid. To Kill a Mockingbird defeats Hamlet for the gold.
• The Sports Illustrated Top 100 Best Sports Books of All Time. The Sweet Science tops a list that includes Ball Four, Paper Lion, The City Game, North Dallas Forty and Whatever Happened to Gorgeous George?
• The 100 Best Children’s Books of All Time. Parenthood.com names 100 stories that will “excite your kids and remain in their memories for years to come. This list represents the views of parents, children’s literature experts and our own readers.”
• National Geographic Extreme Classics: The 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time. The Worst Journey in the World was named best book of the adventure genre.
Did your favorite list not make this one? Let us know.
Comments (8)
Comment
Time Magazine’s All-Time 100 Novels, which is actually two lists - the 100 ranked by Time critics, and the 100 ranked by reader votes.
posted by Kate on 5-22-2007 at 9:57 am
Since when is Hamlet a book?
posted by Kelly on 5-22-2007 at 10:28 am
“Time Magazine’s All-Time 100 Novels”, as mentioned by Kate, is a great list (and can be found at Time magazine’s web site with a quick Google search — why can’t we post links here?), but the name is pretty misleading: Time describes the list as the 100 best *English-language* novels from *1923* to the present. The “all-time” best list just disqualified most or all of the works of Herman Melville, Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells (among many others). Even without the time constraints, the language barrier kicks out authors like Miquel de Cervantes, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Leo Tolstoy as well.
That said, kudos to Time for having the guts to include a graphic novel on the list: Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s classic graphic novel Watchmen was not overlooked in this case (as it would be on almost any other list).
Speaking of, check out Time’s supplementary “All Time Top 10 Graphic Novels” as well.
posted by Ishmael on 5-24-2007 at 4:13 am
How stupid is someone who asks if ‘Hamlet’ is a book? I suggest anyone who doesn’t know this needs to return to school and get a proper education before inflicting herself on society any further.
posted by Cat on 5-24-2007 at 10:25 am
What’s with calling people stupid, Cat? Kelly wasn’t asking if “Hamlet” is a book or not. She was comment ing on it’s inclusion in a best book list. That’s how I read it anyway. Get off your pedestal.
posted by Sarah W on 5-25-2007 at 7:05 pm
I took the comment to be “book” vs. “play” which perhaps should be a different catagory. But, then, I could be “stupid!”
posted by Gale Siegel on 5-26-2007 at 10:36 am
Woah, chill out, Cat.
posted by JT on 5-27-2007 at 10:12 pm
Blatantly missing are any books by Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged is consistently ranked just below the Bible in public opinion polls).
These lists seem to forward some agenda ala Stalin / Mao / Hitler.
posted by bitpusher on 6-30-2008 at 9:30 am