Another Fine Book Meme

[lillibet]

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

Comments

[scholargipsy]

Ugh, what a stupid list (no offense). Friends are always asking me to do these memes, and even though I'm a voracious reader and an English literature teacher to boot, I always decline. I just cannot take seriously any grouping of books that contains pseudo-historical hack pulp schlockster Dan Brown, crypto-racist and proponent of le vice Anglais Enid Blyton, chick lit phoner-in Helen Fielding, derivative thief of far better children's fantasy J.K. Rowling, and gooey tripemonger Mitch Albom. What would it say about me if I had read all of those? That I had no taste? That I was wasting my time when I could be experiencing the manifold joys of vastly better books?

I know, de gustibus non est disputandum and all that, but honestly. Leaving aside the weird duplications of (yay) Shakespeare and (ick) C.S. Lewis, what does utility or significance does a list that nestles the Brontes alongside "nigger"[sic]-hater Margaret Mitchell and the author of Swallows and Amazons even possess

[scholargipsy]

Erm, that came out sounding much harsher than I wanted (Rowling and Dan Brown do that to me). But those sorts of lists always remind me of the old Seinfeld routine about people who share your birthday: "It's always an odd group of people too, isn't it? It's like Ed Asner, Elijah Muhammad and Secretariat." Of course, the soi-disant Greatest Snooty Classics Ever lists leave me cold, too; I would sooner peel each and every one of my fingernails backward until it ripped clean off than read Silas Marner or The Sun Also Rises again.

Ernest Freakin' Hemingway: yeesh.

[lillibet]

I do have to wonder why you would ever click on a link to a list of books, if these are your feelings on the subject.

[scholargipsy]

Because...because *choked-back sob* because...I love you.

Seriously, I dunno. Why do I look at any of the things on the Internet that wind me up? No good reason, alas.

[whitebird]

I've read either seven or eight on that list. I think I've read Secret Garden, but am unsure.

And then I look around the living room at the 1,000+ books I've read, and go, "Eh."

[muffyjo]

69 out of 100 for me. Interesting Meme. Nice combination of classics and currently popular books. I'm with you on the "isn't Hamlet part of the entire Shakespeare collection" question but my guess is that it's certainly one of his most famous so might sort of stand alone.

[bookly]

I'm sorry to say that there are books on this list, like Great Expectations and On the Road, that I can't remember whether I've read. But at least I've read 15+ of the first 25, so you don't have to come force more on me. :)