Five books you've always wanted to read

Bayou Bill

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Newsweek polled it's readers, asking which five books they've always wanted to read, but haven't.

These are the top responses (in alphabetical order):

The Aeneid - Virgil
The Bible
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Gravity’s Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
The Human Condition - Hannah Arendt
The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward, A New Approach
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman
The Major Works - John Donne
Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Paradise Lost - John Milton
The Pilgrim’s Progress - John Bunyan
Remembrance of Things Past - Marcel Proust
Ulysses - James Joyce
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy


That got my curious roused as to what I had/hadn’t read and whether I’d want to read any of the latter. The one thing I’m sure of is, no matter how many books I read, other folks always seem to have read cooler ones.

==

READ MOST OF IT/STILL DO = The Bible
READ/GOOD READ = Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
READ/LONG-WINDED = The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
READ/BRILLIANT = The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
READ/TEDIOUS = Gravity’s Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
READ/LONG TIME AGO = Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman
READ/SOME = The Major Works - John Donne
READ/MORE SHOW THAN SUBSTANCE = Ulysses - James Joyce
READ/GOOD READ BUT AFTER AWHILE, MAGIC-REALISM GETS BORING = One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
READ/TOO MUCH NARRATIVE/HIS, Anna Karenina, IS A BETTER READ = War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

DON’T KNOW/NEW TO ME = The Human Condition - Hannah Arendt

HAVEN'T READ/NOT INTERESTED = The Aeneid - Virgil
HAVEN'T READ/NOT INTERESTED = Paradise Lost - John Milton
HAVEN'T READ/NOT INTERESTED = The Pilgrim’s Progress - John Bunyan
HAVEN'T READ/NOT INTERESTED = Remembrance of Things Past - Marcel Proust
HAVEN'T READ/WON’T/TOO DEPRESSING = The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward, A New Approach

HAVEN'T READ/MIGHT SOMEDAY = Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
HAVEN'T READ/MIGHT SOMEDAY = Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
-The only "might someday" I can think of in addition to those two would be, Pride and Prejudice.



Okay, now it's your turn.

Bayou Bill :cool:
 
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Vincent

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I doubt The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward, A New Approach will still make the list in 100 years time.

But, I'm afraid to say I've only read two of those books, Crime and Punishment, and Paradise Lost.
 

Bayou Bill

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Hmmm... my five are:

INFINITE JEST
MIDDLEMARCH
GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
THE FOUNTAINHEAD
JANE EYRE

It's tough to read long nonwork books when reading is your job.
I know what you mean. I ended up with a minor in Eng Lit because taking those courses was the only way I could squeeze any fiction reading into my schedule while in college.

Bayou Bill :cool:
 

CheshireCat

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I'm rather sad Shakespeare didn't make the list. I'd love to believe it was because most people had already read his works, but somehow ... I doubt it.

The five books I've always wanted to read:

Paradise Lost
The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
War and Peace
I, Claudius
The Fountainhead