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What are the best books of all time and why?

Some of my favorites are:

1. Lord of the Flies--best symbolic book ever written by far. Poignant, and powerful, it tells the story of a society of children better than anything else I can imagine. It is the best book ever written, IMO.
2. Catcher in the Rye--great book and arguably even better than Lord of the Flies. My choice of LotF over Catcher is primarily a matter of taste. It could easily be argued that Catcher is better.
3.To Kill a Mockingbird--Another great book, and perhaps the best character book of all time. A wonderful bildingsroman story with a superb and powerful but necessary message.
4. Gulliver's Travels--my only concession to the classics, Gulliver's Travels was written in a literary vacuum and was TOTALLY revolutionary--far more so than even Huckleberry Finn, the American equivalent. Gulliver's Travels is a spectacular story and one of the best satires ever written. It was so unusual that one cardinal's comment about it was "I don't believe a word of it!"
5. The Naked and the Dead-- The best anti-war book ever written, and I like anti-war books.
6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-- better at taking you into the mind of a madman than any other book or movie in history, I think it is definitely worth the read. It is certainly the only character-book I have read that can challenge TKaMB.
7. Slaughterhouse Five--I think it's even better than Catch-22, but that is certainly debatable. Certainly, Catch-22 is better known and does certain things better, but S5 is one hell of a read. Scary-good.
8. The Lorax-- This is an interesting pick, but I have not yet talked to anyone who can really disagree with it. It is certainly by FAR Dr. Seuss's best book, but it is also not the most recognized. Most people dismiss it out of hand, but I think it is certainly worth the effort of picking it up.
9. The Sound and the Fury--Rated by many as the best of all time, I did not enjoy it quite so much as the other ones on this list, but I can certainly understand how an argument can be made for it. It is certainly the best of the color-writing books. I am interested to hear differing opinions on this.
10. The Scarlet Letter-- An interesting pick over Moby Dick, but I think it is stronger both in writing style and even in symbolism. Its story is also better, and it doesn't overdo anything. This is not a concession to its revolutionality (it was the first symbolic book ever written), I just think it is the tenth best book of all time, even if you do not take into account its era and time period.

You don't have to come up with ten, I just want to hear people's opinions on these books and some other favorites.

Heart of Darkness -Joeseph Conrad

1984 -George Orwell

Lord of the Rings -JRR Tolkien

The Stranger -Albert Camus

The Plague -Albert Camus

Contact -Carl Sagan

Speaker for the Dead -Orson Scott Card

(not in that order)

Scarlett Letter was boring I liked Moby Dick better

7. Slaughterhouse Five

Arrgghh Slaughterhouse Five? I spit on your feeble book Potioe! Catch-22 was at least a half way decent story, meanwhile I felt like a drunken cat had assembled and writtens SH5. Never except when reading creationist lititure have I ever been as motivated to phyical violance aginst the Author!

I view SH5 like I view Chaotic Modern Art, I could roll around in paint then breakdance on canvis for half and hour and you honsetly could not tell the diffrence between it and 2/3 of the Modern Art out there!

Master of Ossus wrote:What are the best books of all time and why?

Some of my favorites are:

1. Lord of the Flies--best symbolic book ever written by far. Poignant, and powerful, it tells the story of a society of children better than anything else I can imagine. It is the best book ever written, IMO.

I'm going to have to beat some sense into you for picking that one.

2. Catcher in the Rye--great book and arguably even better than Lord of the Flies. My choice of LotF over Catcher is primarily a matter of taste. It could easily be argued that Catcher is better.

see above

3.To Kill a Mockingbird--Another great book, and perhaps the best character book of all time. A wonderful buildingsroman story with a superb and powerful but necessary message.

agreed

4. Gulliver's Travels--my only concession to the classics, Gulliver's Travels was written in a literary vacuum and was TOTALLY revolutionary--far more so than even Huckleberry Finn, the American equivalent. Gulliver's Travels is a spectacular story and one of the best satires ever written. It was so unusual that one cardinal's comment about it was "I don't believe a word of it!"

you should give into classics more often

5. The Naked and the Dead-- The best anti-war book ever written, and I like anti-war books.

in response to anti-war books period...

*RayCav beats Master of Ossus over and over again*

6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-- better at taking you into the mind of a madman than any other book or movie in history, I think it is definitely worth the read. It is certainly the only character-book I have read that can challenge TKaMB.

I've been meaning to read that, but methinks me spends too much time on message boards

7. Slaughterhouse Five--I think it's even better than Catch-22, but that is certainly debatable. Certainly, Catch-22 is better known and does certain things better, but S5 is one hell of a read. Scary-good.

see above. S5 and C-22 are probably the only anti-war books I'm willing to read.

8. The Lorax-- This is an interesting pick, but I have not yet talked to anyone who can really disagree with it. It is certainly by FAR Dr. Seuss's best book, but it is also not the most recognized. Most people dismiss it out of hand, but I think it is certainly worth the effort of picking it up.

hehehehe

9. The Sound and the Fury--Rated by many as the best of all time, I did not enjoy it quite so much as the other ones on this list, but I can certainly understand how an argument can be made for it. It is certainly the best of the color-writing books. I am interested to hear differing opinions on this.

see comment regarding OFOTCN and S5

10. The Scarlet Letter-- An interesting pick over Moby Dick, but I think it is stronger both in writing style and even in symbolism. Its story is also better, and it doesn't overdo anything. This is not a concession to its revolutionality (it was the first symbolic book ever written), I just think it is the tenth best book of all time, even if you do not take into account its era and time period.

Man, you're asking for the beating of your life. Scarlet Letter's gonna end up in the fireplace if it ever crawls into my house. Sorry, I'm just not a big Hawthorne fan. Not a big Hawthorne fan at all.

Anyway, my own list, in no particular order....

1.) Great Expectations - I swear, I'm a psychotic Pip
2.) The Great Gatsby - Daisy Buchanon is a bitch. I still like this book that much.
3.) Shadows of the Empire - 'Nuff Said
4.) The Things They Carried - it could be considered an anti-war book, but I place it more into neautral territory. Don't believe the author's disclaimer in the beginning - I swear, this book is 100% true. It's mostly a personal account of the Vietnam War, and the author claims its just fictional, but I swear its true.
5.) LoTR saga - nuff said
6.) The Boys from Brazil - I'm actually still reading this, but a good classic.
7.) Raise the Titanic! - another one I'm still reading. Clive Clusser is the KJA of military fiction, but RT is still a good "no-brainer" read. This is the ONLY one of his books you should read though. Avoid Vixen 03 and his other books at all costs, unless you want to relive NJO outside of Star Wars!
8.) The Hunt for Red October - In my opinion, the only real worthwhile Clancy fiction work.
9.) Any Clancy NON-Fiction work. Very useful references, actually.
10.) Animal Farm - George Orwell's first book. Super, super excellent.
And I know this is OT, but...Grand Theft Auto III. They need to have a novelization of this!

Mr. B wrote: The Stranger -Albert Camus


Scarlett Letter was boring I liked Moby Dick better

Stranger was another good book that I should have mentioned.

And by God do I ever agree with you in regards to Scarlett Letter. Hawthorne sucks, but that's just my opinion. Love EAP though.

My List
The Hunt for Red October- Good book and you like the guy
The Sum of All Fears-Nuke goes off in the US, very well handeled
Debet of Honor- Acutal this is just a GOOD book but the idea of somone acutal taking out all those Pols at once is intresting and the idea is quite sound
Animal Farm-Nuff said
Scott Adams-The Dilbert Future which contains such classic lines as

Prediction 4-The people who are studying Tai Chi Chaun instead of saving money are planning to beat us up and take our stuff when we're retired

Prediction 7-In the future life will NOT be like Star Trek

And my favorite

Prediction 23- Democracy and capitalism will continue to give the shaft to the lazy and stupid people. Neither group will complain

[/quote]

And lastly one that sums up Scott Adams in one sentance

Prediction 29-In the future, religious groups will get mad at me, thus boosting my book sales

Also in refernce to the fact that Dilbert books sell very baddly in North Dakota

Prediction 34-In the future, salaries will go down for people in medium-skilled jobs, thanks to the god-forsaken hell hole called North Dakota

It's lunch time, so a few random ones from my mind (quickly).

The Naked Ape.
To Kill a Mockingbird I'll agree belongs on the list too...

I like scarlet letter, tho it had a sad ending, and it's not in my top ten, and I despised catcher in the rye. you'd have to pay me large sums of money to even own the thing, let alone read it.

I like a song of ice and fire, the first four books of the sword of truth series, wheel of time, lord of the rings, some harry potter, and most anything with drizzt dourden.

Mr Bean wrote:My List

The Sum of All Fears-Nuke goes off in the US, very well handeled

No, no, no. SOAF hits a little too close to him for me, litterally, because he nukes my home town

Otherwise, good I guess.

OT - what the hell is it with every writer/Hollywood producer wanting to nuke Devner?

I swear I will get revenge by nuking California. And I swear not a soul will care.

I HATE HAWTHORNE!

Yeah, I was wondering how you would react to some of those. I wouldn't have thought Scarlet Letter to be the most controversial of my picks. That is kind of surprising.

To be honest, I did not especially like Great Expectations. For me it was a bit slow, and I did not like having to crawl through it because I did not find its climax worth the time it took to set up.

Great Gatsby is a GREAT book. I had to think for a long time before I decided to nix that one from my list. The other one was The Lord of the Rings, but I think that the other ten I put up were better (slightly) than either of these. I was hurting, though, not to put Gatsby and Frodo on the list. Contact is another awesome read, but I never really considered it for this list I was making.

I'm actually kind of surprised how many Clancy fans there are on this site. I like many of his books, but I also wouldn't put him near the best writers of all time. I have always found him to be prolific and consistent, but I think he lacks the flashes of brilliance that many of the other writers I used had.

I'm not at all surprised that many of you disagree about LotF, Catcher in the Rye, and S5. Those are very controversial books for their styles, their messages, and their agendas. You certainly have to put something into reading any of those books, but LotF and Catcher are so spectacularly deep that I felt they needed to be on this list.

Least favourite book:
Naked Lunch

Next of Kin wrote:Least favourite book:
Naked Lunch

Mine is actually the SW book, The Approaching Storm, but I think we should try and stay with our favorite books, on this topic. Maybe you can start your own thread, with everyone's LEAST favorite books.

The increasingly inaccurately named hitchhikers trilogy. Tried to rent the movie for th first one today but it was checked out so I rented Luigi's Mansion

hitchhiker's is great. . . the movie is funny, but doesnt have the best effects. . .

Well effects don't matter in hitchhiker, just the comedy and that fact that it contradicts everthing else made by Adams

my favorite book of all time is Wuthering Heights.
After this I could made a list with Lord of the Rings, The Three Mosqueteurs (even being cheap litterature), The Comedy of Dante, Dom Quixote, Brave New World, Animal Farm...And to Say that James Joyce is abssolutelly amazing. I have read only Ulysses and A portrait of a Artist when Young and he is unique.

I also liked Dune, the Hitchhiker books, Foundation series, and A farewell to Arms. All good books.

I have actually forgotten a book which i should not, Brothers Karamazov, which have in my opnion the bast single chapter of all literature, the one called "The Great Inquisitor".

"Catcher in the Rye" would have to be my favourite mainstream novel. Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", Thomas Pynchon's "Crying of Lot 49", William Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence", Chuck Whatshisname's "Fight Club" and Michael Tolkin's "The Player" would also be rated pretty highly. (Actually, "The Player" was almost let down by the ending, which was improved on in the movie. And like the movie, "Fight Club" is more compelling for its tense portrayal of an ideology out of control than for the ideology itself.)

For the very few mainstream thrillers I've read, Thomas Harris's "Red Dragon" is way out in front. I actually liked it better than "Silence of the Lambs", which I'd read before seeing the movie. (And yes, I liked both. Debate their merits if you must.)

My favourite SF novels are "Blood Music" and "Anvil of Stars", both by Greg Bear. My favourite fantasy novels are almost-but-not-quite quest epics - "Bones of the Moon" by Jonathan Carrol and "Weaveworld" by Clive Barker.

My reading choices haven't been quite as diverse as they should have been, despite - or perhaps because of - my university education. The Australian syllabus places so much emphasis on literary theory that it's sometimes too easy to be sidetracked from literature itself.

lgot wrote:my favorite book of all time is Wuthering Heights.
After this I could made a list with Lord of the Rings, The Three Mosqueteurs (even being cheap litterature), The Comedy of Dante, Dom Quixote, Brave New World, Animal Farm...And to Say that James Joyce is abssolutelly amazing. I have read only Ulysses and A portrait of a Artist when Young and he is unique.

Those are all excellent books. I did not like Brave New World so much as I liked Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis," though. Perhaps you should try that one and see what you think. It has the same "feel" as many of the ones that you have, here.

BTW, the name is actually "The Divine Comedy," and it is commonly referred to as "Dante's Inferno," for obvious reasons. You are quite correct, however, it is an excellent book and one of the most notable classics of that period. Indeed, it is one of the most memorable and lasting books in history. No other book has so successfully been passed down in imagery in all of history. Even to this day, much of what Dante wrote on hell is used by clergy and atheists, alike. It is perhaps the best book ever written, in terms of imagery, and well worth the read.

The ones I can think of, in no particular order:

Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead
The Player of Games
Dolphin Island
The Giver
The Illuminatus! trilogy
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Lord of the Rings-reading some of those chapters over again, irealized how scary some of that shit was.
Farenheit 451-Best Bradbury storry ever.
The Lost World- Sir Author Conan Doyle, they made how many movies on this story?
Enders Game-Nine year olds kick ass on computer games
To Kill a Mockingbird-nuff said
The Complete Hitchickers Guide-all the Hitchiker stories in one book. Awsome

Of sci-fi, my favorite novels are:

Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow(I count them as one, mostly because they interlink so much).
Xenocide.
Memory Of Earth.
Ships of Earth.
Earthfall.

Now, there are more in both series. Speaker For The Dead, for me, didn't engage. It was good, but didn't draw me in. The fourth, Children Of The Mind, seemed to wrestle with the fact Card had given his main character's near-unstoppable powers.

Card's other great series, the Homecoming saga, had similar problems. The second book, The Call Of Earth, simply didn't engage me. I never actually read through it, and missed nothing in the overall series. Earthborn, on the other hand, simply sucked: With all but two of the main characters dead, and those two that remained godlike, it wasn't worth the effort.

My two cents.

The Iliad and The Odyssey - If there is such a thing as timeless stories, these would fit the bill perfectly.

Epic of Gilgamesh - While many lines of this story are still missing, it is still an excellent look at friendship, loss, human frailty, death, and the desire for immortality.

Rights of Man, Common Sense, The Age of Reason - Thomas Paine was briliant. That's all I can say.

There's many more I would add, but this will do for now.