The 100 best novels of all time
www.theguardian.com
The top 100 novels of all time published in English, as voted for by authors, critics and academics worldwide. How many have you read?

I’ve only read two books on the list - “Their Eyes Were Watching God” (#39) and Hexbear’s favorite “1984” (#16!)

No Grapes of Wrath 😞 Any omissions you feel should’ve been included or works that are too high/low on the list?

At the bottom of the list is a “see all votes” list of the authors and other people asked to make a top 10.

I’ve read some? of The Metamorphosis recently, not sure how I got sidetracked or even if I finished it. Got a few pages into Catch-22 back in high school but I didn’t connect with it.

Not even sure where to begin in filling in the holes in my classics and modern gems of reading. The classic Black writings of Walker, Baldwin, and Morrison maybe? Jump right into Moby Dick? Maybe some female writers?

I also struggle to read books like I used to as a voracious bookworm teenager; with phones, Hexbear, YouTube, and streaming taking up much of my free time when I’m not working or parenting. I’m currently past the halfway mark in East of Eden but I’ve been working on that for a couple of months now.

  • MLRL_Commie [comrade/them, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    8·
    8 days ago

    Yeah this list seems like the books people read before graduation that felt the most intellectual. I would guess this is related to dropping literacy and reading levels, as well as directly related to the type of person to vote on this stuff. Majority are likely just normal people who don’t read much anymore and remember a favorite high school book.

    Edit: just checked methodology. It’s the best read who were polled, which surprises me a bit more… idk what to think now. I guess it’s likely what people considered impactful on their lives. So it has a huge bias towards old and for younger audience.

      • MLRL_Commie [comrade/them, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        3·
        8 days ago

        Is that the one where the image gets more fucked up the more bad things he does? I remember reading that when my English got good enough, but I still don’t really understand what it was supposed to mean except “they may look ugly on the outside but be rotting on the inside” or something like that. Still had fun i think

        Though I must admit I was pretty young when I read it. Just remembered that aspect hahah