Author Topic: The List Thread  (Read 128595 times)

Lightnin' Rod

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #135 on: July 30, 2009, 09:36:32 AM »
My first thought was: no "Gravity's rainbow"? No "Garp"? But then I realized it's great books, not just great novels. I started "Gone With the Wind" and never finished it -- a "great book"? really??

I though GWTW was very good, but wouldn't go with "great' either.  Irving (Garp) is one of my favorite authors, but I'm not sure which individual novel I'd put in this list (probably Cider House Rules, Owen Meany or Son Of The Circus over Garp).

But, also missing, Mailer (The Naked and the Dead), Kundera (The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and/or The Unbearable Lightness of Being), Hesse (Steppenwolf, Siddartha).
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mshray

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #136 on: July 30, 2009, 12:08:16 PM »
Compare to this list: The 50 Best Cult Books
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RGMike

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #137 on: July 30, 2009, 12:23:05 PM »
Compare to this list: The 50 Best Cult Books

Dianetics by L Ron Hubbard is a "cult" book in more ways than one!

Gawd how I *hated* Jonathan Livingston Seagull -- our very au courant English teacher (junior year of HS) assigned it because he LURVED it, and we ribbed him mercilessly for being such a simple-minded wuss.
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Lightnin' Rod

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #138 on: July 30, 2009, 12:39:12 PM »
Compare to this list: The 50 Best Cult Books

Most excellent.  I KNEW Zen and the Art of... would make the list.
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ggould

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #139 on: July 30, 2009, 03:31:10 PM »
Compare to this list: The 50 Best Cult Books
wow, not quite sure I want to admit how many of these books I've read!
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mshray

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #140 on: July 30, 2009, 03:34:58 PM »
Compare to this list: The 50 Best Cult Books
wow, not quite sure I want to admit how many of these books I've read!

A couple of them are on both lists, but overall I've read more cult books than the other even though the other list gives one twice as many opportunities.

I bet I'm the only one here, or most anywhere, to have read both Jonathan Livingston Seagull and The Celestine Prophecy as well as both Godel, Escher, Bach and Gravity's Rainbow.
"Music is the Earth, People are the Flowers, and I am the Hose."

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urth

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #141 on: July 30, 2009, 10:50:33 PM »
Compare to this list: The 50 Best Cult Books
wow, not quite sure I want to admit how many of these books I've read!

Ah, c'mon Geoff, 'fess up. More than 20? More than 30?

I just went thru both lists and compiled the titles I've read. There were a couple I may have read but honestly can't recall (Lolita, for one), so I left those off.

I expected to have read more from the cult list than the top 100, but as with lots of things, I was wrong there, too--13 cult titles compared with 17.5 of the Top 100.

Cult books:

Catch-22
The Catcher in the Rye
Chariots of the Gods
A Confederacy of Dunces
Dune
A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Fear of Flying
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
On The Road
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Teachings of Don Juan
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance


Top 100 Books:

2. 1984
12. Gulliver's Travels
15. The Catcher in the Rye
19. Catch-22
21. The Grapes of Wrath
23. Brave New World
35. Lord of the Rings
36. Winnie the Pooh
39. On the Road
49. Hamlet
54. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
58. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
61. Animal Farm
63. In Cold Blood
74. Charlotte's Web
79. Portnoy's Complaint
82. Tropic of Cancer (partial)
99. The Color Purple
« Last Edit: July 30, 2009, 10:59:50 PM by urth »
Let's get right to it.

ggould

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #142 on: July 30, 2009, 10:57:02 PM »
Compare to this list: The 50 Best Cult Books
wow, not quite sure I want to admit how many of these books I've read!

Ah, c'mon Geoff, 'fess up. More than 20? More than 30?
not really that many I guess.  I don't consider myself much of a reader of books anymore, and the dozen or so I've read off that list seems like a lot!
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RGMike

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #143 on: July 31, 2009, 07:23:33 AM »
There were a couple I may have read but honestly can't recall (Lolita, for one)

Oh, I think you'd remember if you read Lo. Lee. Tah.  ;)
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Lightnin' Rod

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #144 on: July 31, 2009, 09:16:11 AM »
There were a couple I may have read but honestly can't recall (Lolita, for one)

Oh, I think you'd remember if you read Lo. Lee. Tah.  ;)

I was going to say the same thing.   8)

The cult books I've read:

Slaughterhouse-Five
The Bell Jar
Catch-22
The Catcher in the Rye
A Confederacy of Dunces
Dune
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Labyrinths (Borges is cool)
On the Road
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Siddartha
The Stranger
The Teachings of Don Juan
To Kill a Mockingbird
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (an embarrassing number of times)



and any fool knows
a dog needs a home
a shelter
from pigs on the wing

radical347

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #145 on: July 31, 2009, 11:33:57 AM »
Most of these that I've read have been for school assignments, high school or college:

4. Lolita (Not this one... lol)
8. The Iliad / The Odyssey (Why are these counted as one?  The unabridged versions are tedious.  They should be separate or just nix the Iliad, that one was painful.)
9. Pride and Prejudice (For a good time, check out Pride and Prejudice and Zombies)
11. Canterbury Tales (Abridged)
14. Things Fall Apart (In a class called 'Intro to Postcolonial Literature,' one of the worst classes I've taken)
15. The Catcher in the Rye
18. The Great Gatsby
21. The Grapes of Wrath
23. Brave New World
32. Confessions of St. Augustine
35. The Lord of the Rings (My Mom used to read this to me at bedtime, lol)
36. Winnie the Pooh
37. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (I find it interesting how many people that I've known who shrivel up and/or get verbally defensive when someone mentions the word 'religion' loved this movie)
41. The Holy Bible (It was the NJK version though)
49. Hamlet
54. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
61. Animal Farm
62. Lord of the Flies (Yuck)
70. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (I read this for fun but remember absolutely nothing about it)
74. Charlotte's Web
96. The Wind in the Willows

RGMike

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #146 on: August 06, 2009, 02:53:02 PM »
You spin me right 'round, baby, right 'round

Gazoo

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #147 on: August 06, 2009, 03:12:06 PM »
“The choir of children sing their song.  They've practiced all year long.  Ding dong.  Ding dong.  Ding dong.”

ggould

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urth

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Re: The List Thread
« Reply #149 on: August 10, 2009, 10:42:05 AM »
yet another "worst album covers ever" thingy...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/07/new-show-celebrates-worst-album-covers-ever.html

They use some strangely mundane examples.

The show is in Orange County, where Velveeta is considered exotic. Ya gotta consider the source. But yeah, very lame bunch of choices.
Let's get right to it.