book meme
from from afternoonjazz:
These are the top 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded.
Bold the ones you’ve read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish (or read excerpts). add * beside the ones you liked and would (or did) read again or recommend. Even if you read them for school in the first place. Put a ^ beside the ones you hated.
The Aeneid
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay American Gods Anansi Boys Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir Angels & Demons Anna Karenina Atlas Shrugged Beloved The Blind Assassin Brave New World The Brothers Karamazov The Canterbury Tales The Catcher in the Rye
- Catch-22 A Clockwork Orange Cloud Atlas Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed A Confederacy of Dunces The Confusion The Corrections The Count of Monte Cristo Crime and Punishment Cryptonomicon
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time David Copperfield Don Quixote Dracula Dubliners Dune Eats, Shoots & Leaves Emma Foucault’s Pendulum The Fountainhead Frankenstein Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything The God of Small Things The Grapes of Wrath Gravity’s Rainbow Great Expectations Gulliver’s Travels Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius The Historian: a novel The Hobbit The Hunchback of Notre Dame The Iliad In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences The Inferno Jane Eyre
- Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell The Kite Runner Les Misérables Life of Pi
- Lolita Love in the Time of Cholera Madame Bovary Mansfield Park Memoirs of a Geisha Middlemarch Middlesex Mrs. Dalloway The Mists of Avalon Moby Dick The Name of the Rose Neverwhere 1984 Northanger Abbey The Odyssey Oliver Twist The Once and Future King One Hundred Years of Solitude On the Road One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Oryx and Crake A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present Persuasion The Picture of Dorian Gray The Poisonwood Bible A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Pride and Prejudice The Prince Quicksilver Reading Lolita in Tehran The Satanic Verses
- The Scarlet Letter Sense and Sensibility A Short History of Nearly Everything The Silmarillion Slaughterhouse-five
- The Sound and the Fury A Tale of Two Cities Tess of the D’Urbervilles The Time Traveler’s Wife To the Lighthouse Treasure Island The Three Musketeers Ulysses The Unbearable Lightness of Being Vanity Fair War and Peace Watership Down White Teeth Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West Wuthering Heights Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Comments (11)
Only the ones I've read, for brevity (bolding omitted):
------------------------------------
* The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
* Brave New World
The Canterbury Tales
* The Catcher in the Rye
* Catch-22
^ Cryptonomicon -- I like his other books. Shallow, but fun, good summer reading. This book sucks. To make matters worse, everyone assumes I must like it because I'm a mathematician.
^ David Copperfield
* Dubliners
^ Eats, Shoots & Leaves -- Aside: Lynne Truss is a blight upon society and a shining example of England's continued butchery of the English language. I counted 3 grammatical errors on a single 2-page spread from this supposed treatise on grammar. Anyone who believes that having this book on their shelf "makes them look smart" shouldn't have dropped out of high school before passing 10th grade English. See also the New Yorker's excellent, scathing review of this book.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
* The Hobbit
The Iliad
The Inferno
Life of Pi -- Again, this makes you look smart? What the hell? A mediocre piece of pulp fiction, popular only because Americans can't decide how they want to feel about religion.
* Lolita
* Love in the Time of Cholera
Middlesex
The Odyssey
On the Road
* A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present -- My (marxist) US History teacher made us read this. I am forever grateful.
* A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man -- The most influential book of my adolescence.
The Prince
The Satanic Verses
* Slaughterhouse-five
A Tale of Two Cities
* Ulysses
****** The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- Best novel yet written. Period. I honestly can't conceive of a universe in which a better novel exists.
^ Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -- A girlfriend made me read this book because she thought it was great. I broke up with her because of it.
HAHAHAHAHHHAH
Wow Steve, I agree with you 600% on Life of Pi and Zen... Those two books in particular are doubly irritating because of the sheer number of people who are taken aback when you voice your opinion that they suck. What is it about these books that strikes a chord in everyone but us? Zen was worse for me because of the higher level of pretension. What a pathetic piece of pseudo-philosophical putrescence.
Based on our haterade correlation, I'm putting "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" on my must-read list.
Link to New Yorker review of "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves?"
I think the premise of the meme is flawed. These books are marked as unread but it does not necessarily follow that they are kept on the shelf to make one appear smart. Perhaps they were simply recommended. Or they are part of a cultural cannon despite their lack of quality. I, for one, cannot wrap my head around the fact that so many people want to read Anansi Boys.
I have read these oneses!
*The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
American Gods
Atlas Shrugged
*Beloved (actually my least favorite of Butler's books, but still great)
Brave New World
The Canterbury Tales
The Catcher in the Rye
* Catch-22
A Clockwork Orange
*Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Crime and Punishment
For some reason Firefox is not letting me bold or underline today...
Cryptonomicon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Don Quixote
Dracula
Dune
The Fountainhead
The Grapes of Wrath
Great Expectations
Gulliver’s Travels
*Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
*The Hobbit
In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences
The Inferno
Jane Eyre
****Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
The Kite Runner
*Life of Pi
Lolita
Love in the Time of Cholera
Middlesex
Moby Dick
Neverwhere
1984
The Odyssey
The Once and Future King
One Hundred Years of Solitude
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Oryx and Crake (I preferred Handmaid's Tale...)
Pride and Prejudice
^The Scarlet Letter
The Silmarillion
Slaughterhouse-five
The Sound and the Fury
^Tess of the D’Urbervilles
*Watership Down
Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
^Wuthering Heights
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
what, no greek mythology, and no A Brief History of Time?
Also, I feel dumb for only reading like 15 of these books. Tangentially, do you know what I'm reading right now? Protools: 210m Music Production Techniques. Uuugh.
Right now I'm re-reading Stranger in a Strange Land. I last read it in HS, and I remembered Heinlein being a little obsessed with the orgies, but this time what's creeping me out is how incredibly sexist he makes his male characters. I mean I know Jubal Harshaw is supposed to be that kinda dude and all, but does he have to pat them on the ass and ask "go get me a drink that's a good girl?" Bleh.
The Aeneid*
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
American Gods
Anansi Boys
Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir
Angels & Demons
Anna Karenina
Atlas Shrugged
Beloved
The Blind Assassin
Brave New World
The Brothers Karamazov
The Canterbury Tales*
The Catcher in the Rye
Catch-22
A Clockwork Orange
Cloud Atlas*
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
A Confederacy of Dunces
The Confusion
The Corrections^
The Count of Monte Cristo
Crime and Punishment
Cryptonomicon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
David Copperfield
Don Quixote
Dracula*
Dubliners*
Dune
Eats, Shoots & Leaves^ (agree with commentary above)
Emma*
Foucault’s Pendulum
The Fountainhead
Frankenstein
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything*
The God of Small Things
The Grapes of Wrath^ (my hatred of being forced to read Steinbeck for 4 years in my California high school knows no bounds)
Gravity’s Rainbow
Great Expectations
Gulliver’s Travels
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius*
The Historian: a novel^ (drivel)
The Hobbit
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Iliad
In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences
The Inferno*
Jane Eyre
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
The Kite Runner
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lolita*
Love in the Time of Cholera*
Madame Bovary
Mansfield Park*
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlemarch
Middlesex
Mrs. Dalloway
The Mists of Avalon
Moby Dick (more of a thing that I read just to say I'd read it than something I actually enjoyed)
The Name of the Rose
Neverwhere
1984
Northanger Abbey*
The Odyssey
Oliver Twist
The Once and Future King
One Hundred Years of Solitude*
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Oryx and Crake
A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present
Persuasion*
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Poisonwood Bible
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man*
Pride and Prejudice* (read it first on my own, then for school...twice)
The Prince
Quicksilver
Reading Lolita in Tehran
The Satanic Verses
The Scarlet Letter*
Sense and Sensibility
A Short History of Nearly Everything
The Silmarillion
Slaughterhouse-five
The Sound and the Fury^ (HATE Faulkner. HATE)
A Tale of Two Cities*
Tess of the D’Urbervilles^ (Hated it at the time; found it stupid and found Tess to not stand up to the lofty ideals of an Austen heroine, which was kind of an unfair thing to hold her to; I might like it if I re-read it)
The Time Traveler’s Wife
To the Lighthouse
Treasure Island
The Three Musketeers
Ulysses (someday I will read it all)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Vanity Fair
War and Peace
Watership Down
White Teeth^
Wicked : The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Wuthering Heights* (love it for its pulpiness)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Or often gifted. Anyway I agree with you.
I thought the same thing about Anansi boys. Even Neverwhere is, in my opinion, too predictable to really be a classic...
New Yorker if you haven't found it by now ;)
Good stuff.