But a classic doesn't become a classic unless there are some people who like it, even if it's just a small group of boring academic types.
Newsweek's list of the 100 best books ever
Collapse
Unconfigured Ad Widget
Collapse
X
-
Originally posted by tandfmanNo Atwood, no Richler, no Bellow, no Davies.
The reason The Bible is not on my list is because I don't consider it a 'book' per se, nor The Qur'an, Torah, etc.
As for my lack of furriners, mine is a list of a product of an American education, a good one at that, but yes, parochial in its scope. I have read a number of 'foreign' authors, but nothing that knocked my socks off like these books. As was pointed out, my #1 book was written by a Pole who didn't learn English till almost 20.
Comment
-
-
Newsweek has a list of books and Obama's book is not on it, let alone #1? Hard to believe. :wink:
These lists are usually pretty weak and reflect the biases of the editors no matter how they try to deny it. And lumping fiction and non-fiction together makes no sense at all. Which is why the two categories have separate Best Sellers Lists.
Karl Marx gets a higher rating than the Bible?
Shakespeare barely cracks the Top Fifty?
The Affluent Society by J.K Galbreath gets in, but Capitalism & Freedom by Milton Firedman does not?
The first thing they listed in their criteria was impact. They seem to have widely missed the mark.
Comment
-
-
Reading this thread I get the impression a lot of people missed the fact this list was an aggregate of others' lists which Newsweek compiled from various sources, presumably off the internet. I'm not persuaded many of the original lists are worth a damn or that this was a sensible exercise but they do lay out what they're doing.
Comment
-
-
Originally posted by MarlowOriginally posted by tandfmanNo Atwood, no Richler, no Bellow, no Davies.
The reason The Bible is not on my list is because I don't consider it a 'book' per se, nor The Qur'an, Torah, etc.
As for my lack of furriners, mine is a list of a product of an American education, a good one at that, but yes, parochial in its scope. I have read a number of 'foreign' authors, but nothing that knocked my socks off like these books. As was pointed out, my #1 book was written by a Pole who didn't learn English till almost 20.
After 30+ years in the USA and Canada, I see how little people in general know about the rest of the world's literature. If we are to break down misunderstandings between races/countries, a good start is to be familiar with the history/geography/literature of other nations.
Comment
-
-
Originally posted by catson52If we are to break down misunderstandings between races/countries, a good start is to be familiar with the history/geography/literature of other nations.
Comment
-
-
Originally posted by PegoOnce upon a time I read this definition of a classic.
"An author, everybody wants to have read, but nobody wants to read."
Comment
-
-
Originally posted by kuhaOriginally posted by PegoOnce upon a time I read this definition of a classic.
"An author, everybody wants to have read, but nobody wants to read.""A beautiful theory killed by an ugly fact."
by Thomas Henry Huxley
Comment
-
-
Originally posted by MarlowOriginally posted by catson52If we are to break down misunderstandings between races/countries, a good start is to be familiar with the history/geography/literature of other nations.
Comment
-
-
Originally posted by catson52One aim of the current President - to make American students competitive with the best in the world by ~2025 - is a pipe dream.
The company I work for has about 2000 employees, and the training department has to provide remedial math and English (not ESL issues) classes. I regularly receive memos/emails from upper management with numerous grammatical errors. Pathetic really . . .
Comment
-
-
Originally posted by catson52For typical Americans of today, the main characters of The Great Gatsby have little relevance.
Comment
-
-
Originally posted by bad hammyOriginally posted by catson52One aim of the current President - to make American students competitive in maths and science with the best in the world by ~2025 - is a pipe dream.
The company I work for has about 2000 employees, and the training department has to provide remedial math and English (not ESL issues) classes. I regularly receive memos/emails from upper management with numerous grammatical errors. Pathetic really . . .
Comment
-
-
Originally posted by DaisySo while a command of English is important, one of the largest deficiencies in the student population is the ability to get to grips with relatively complex concepts.
Comment
-
Comment