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So called 'classic' novels top 100 from The Guardian


Exapno Mapcase said:
I saw the film of A Day In The Life if Ivan Denisovich on tv, didn't know it was a book, and mentioned it to my English teacher who promptly found it in the school library for me. Affecting film, the book made even more of an impact. Also read August 1914, The Gulag Archipelago and Cancer Ward. The latter brilliant but utterly harrowing.

Another member of the can't be arsed with Woolf club here. I keep telling myself I should try her again. Two women I talk to a lot about books both said, "don't bother', sharing my antipathy.

Not read Steinbeck since I went through everything in a burst at 20. I didn't study him so that probably helped, it can rip the heart out of a book having to hear a monotone reader trudge through a chapter.

On The Road is a book I think I've calmed down about now and would make my top 100 but used to be top 10. I read The Catcher In The Rye one night when I was 16 and was entirely caught up in it as am almost romantic teenage idyll but read it in my mid twenties and I questioned so much of it.
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Exapno Mapcase said:
I saw the film of A Day In The Life if Ivan Denisovich on tv, didn't know it was a book, and mentioned it to my English teacher who promptly found it in the school library for me. Affecting film, the book made even more of an impact. Also read August 1914, The Gulag Archipelago and Cancer Ward. The latter brilliant but utterly harrowing.

Another member of the can't be arsed with Woolf club here. I keep telling myself I should try her again. Two women I talk to a lot about books both said, "don't bother', sharing my antipathy.

Not read Steinbeck since I went through everything in a burst at 20. I didn't study him so that probably helped, it can rip the heart out of a book having to hear a monotone reader trudge through a chapter.

On The Road is a book I think I've calmed down about now and would make my top 100 but used to be top 10. I read The Catcher In The Rye one night when I was 16 and was entirely caught up in it as am almost romantic teenage idyll but read it in my mid twenties and I questioned so much of it.
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I found Gulag Archipelago a difficult read, not many laughs in it lol

I’ve read about a quarter of that list, some brilliant, some dross - in my opinion.
 
Monty Pigeon said:
Don't forget Bely. This, IMO, is the best Russian novel of all:

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Or Zamyatin (who conceived his dystopian masterpiece when he was living in Newcastle while supervising the construction of Russian icebreakers at Swan Hunter):

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Zamyatin I love, I bought it after a modernist exhibition in London decades ago, bely I haven’t read sadly
 
Son of Stan said:
Sometimes audiobooks are great. All depends on the voice for me. Simon Callow reading Wodehouse was perfect and Stephen Fry narrating all of the Sherlock Holmes books was wonderful.
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I've got one with David Hyde Pierce (Niles in Frasier) reading Gulliver's Travels and it is perfect.

And to lower the tone to a different type of book altogether, Steve Coogan reading the Alan Partridge biography as Alan Partridge is top drawer.

I've had too many audiobooks on Audible where the narrator wrecks it altogether.
 
About 10. I say ‘about’ because there are two or three that I’m not sure I actually finished.

There’s a few on there that I’ve been intending to read for some time.
 
Johnny Alpha said:
I get this completely. I’m quite a clever lad, PhD etc but I always get the impression that Luvvies read these sorts of books rather than real people. I didn’t expect Sven Hassel or Leo Kessler to make the top 100 but all this Booker prize stuff is just tosh IMHO.

I suppose it’s like the top 100 albums you must listen to before you die sort of thing. I don’t care how good Miles Davis sounds to others, I’d prefer to listen to my children being tortured than any of his records. The same applies to this list - no Of Mice and Men for example or, as mentioned above, Animal Farm.

Down with this sort of thing.

Oh as an edit just the three read for me.
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They do it to promote the sale of a product mara in this case its books. It's also always a good way to fill up a few column inches. The film industry have the Oscars and all that carry on. None of it means anything - it's just marketing.

Divvent like Miles Davis ? I still have my original copy of "Bitches Brew" that I bought at that record shop that was on the corner on Maritime Place and Blandford Street back in 1971. It was an absolute bargain -second-hand but in pristine condition. Obviously someone who otherwise liked Miles had bought it without first listening to it. It wasn't you by any chance? I shall put it down to your short attention span after all "Of Mice and Men" and "Animal Farm" are novella rather than novels
 
Monty Pigeon said:
57 for me.

There's a definite sense that the big American beasts of literature are being given the shove. Updike's firmly out of fashion (though his letters, published last year, were great). Philip Roth, DeLillo, Pynchon, Vonnegut, Steinbeck - all by the wayside. Surprised Cormac McCarthy's still in favour, given the revelations about him - this is probably the last time he'll make it.

Joseph Roth's The Radetzky March really should be in there. Also Stefan Zweig's Beware of Pity. The initial omission of Camus was astonishing - but they issued a correction that put The Stranger in at 71.

One writer who never makes these lists is Patrick White, one of the most neglected Nobel Laureates. Voss should definitely be on the list.
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Surprised by no Brideshead Revisited
Very little Maugham or Le Carre
I loved John Irving especially Garp
Nothing from Hunter S Thompson, fear and loathing in Las Vegas is an all time favourite as are most things penned by HST
At the end of the day there will always be issues of taste
 
Cockney Mackem said:
No no no, 9 of the top ten is made up of the multi volume cycle of novels by Nigel Farage collectively known as "The Burning Gammon: Why White Blokes Like Me Have It Tougher Than Anyone Else Ever In The World And Everyone Should Shut Up And Listen While I Phone Up Someone's Employer To Complain About It"
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You nailed it and very eloquently so
 
ErichZann said:
How many of these have you read and what do you recommend? I'm a big reader but have only read 3 of these - Dracula, Moby Dick, and The Road. The best fiction novels i have read are Lord of the Rings, and IT.

Are these in this top 100 really all that.....

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I’ve read quite a few of them but I often find these so called classics to be rather underwhelming.

Two examples from that list which are always mentioned, The Great Gatsby and Great Expectations.

I read both, and at the end had to Google them to see if I had missed something but no, that was it.

I’ve mentioned this before but I’ve got War and Peace lying around waiting to be read. I feel I should read it rather than I really want to read it.
 
Lord Potts said:
They do it to promote the sale of a product mara in this case its books. It's also always a good way to fill up a few column inches. The film industry have the Oscars and all that carry on. None of it means anything - it's just marketing.

Divvent like Miles Davis ? I still have my original copy of "Bitches Brew" that I bought at that record shop that was on the corner on Maritime Place and Blandford Street back in 1971. It was an absolute bargain -second-hand but in pristine condition. Obviously someone who otherwise liked Miles had bought it without first listening to it. It wasn't you by any chance? I shall put it down to your short attention span after all "Of Mice and Men" and "Animal Farm" are novella rather than novels
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Apologies if I offended you re Jazz. And apologies for straying very off topic but I’m also on a hifi forum and had I realised the price people pay for original Blue Note recordings I’d have made much more effort to seek them out when vinyl was being thrown away in the 90s. But personally I hate jazz with a passion.

Your right regards my attention span. I like The hound of the Baskervilles, The picture of Dorian Gray and The old man in the sea. I’d not noticed that these were all novellas. There’s a pattern there I’d not noticed! I’ll put War and Peace on my list.
 
Big Jeff said:
I’ve mentioned this before but I’ve got War and Peace lying around waiting to be read. I feel I should read it rather than I really want to read it.
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It's well worth the effort, but it's a hard slog to get going. In the first chapter, whole sections of dialogue are in French with the English translations in the footnotes - the dialogue is evoking the fact that in the early 19th century most Russian aristocrats chose to speak French.

But once you get going, and get to know the main characters, it's an immersive book.
 
BiG said:
About 10. I say ‘about’ because there are two or three that I’m not sure I actually finished.

There’s a few on there that I’ve been intending to read for some time.
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Exactly the same for me.

Taste is so personal I find these lists equal parts daft and useful, in terms of updating my reading list. Of the ones I have read on The Guardian's top 100 I think there's only 2 or 3 would be anywhere near my personal favourites. I really disliked one of their choices.
 
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Monty Pigeon said:
It's well worth the effort, but it's a hard slog to get going. In the first chapter, whole sections of dialogue are in French with the English translations in the footnotes - the dialogue is evoking the fact that in the early 19th century most Russian aristocrats chose to speak French.

But once you get going, and get to know the main characters, it's an immersive book.
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I’ve seen film adaptations so I’m familiar with the general outline but never taken the leap.

It’s bloody huge and the print is quite small so I’m guessing it’s going to take some time to finish it.
 
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