How many of these books have you read?

[Xant]

Which books have you read? List them and we can then discuss their literary merits and whether there might be better books out there or not.

[vipere]

(click to show/hide)

stupidity

Tim Willocks is the proof you are wrong
Some NAs (you) nowadays seem incapable of appreciating anything that isn t from America

[Xant]

You don't understand, Smoothrich thinks that Bridget Jones’s Diary is the best book of all. A must read. Intellectual and stuff.

[Falka]

Most of those books couldn't interest me less, and most of them are also pretty crappy, despite their "cult" status.

HOw can you know that if you haven't read them? I don't say they all or even most of them are "must read" - even if there is such thing as books you "have to" read - or the best books in the history of literature, but most of those which I have read were pretty good. Ofc I have read them when I was a teenager, since then my taste in books has changed and today I don't think I'd enjoy reading let's say The three musketeers as much as I did years ago (or have enough perseverance to read War and peace ).

Also, what does it mean that book is "crappy". I had a great time reading Harry potter or The da Vinci code even though for "critics" it's probably kitsch for kids Mind you, I don't say these books should be considered as classics or whatever, but in their own class they're great books according to me.

[Teeth]

I scored 25 and thought I was embarrassingly low, since at least 3/4 of the books I haven't read I've been meaning to get around to.

Then I read this thread LOL @ illiterate europeans, no wonder American culture has taken over as the dominant force worldwide, EUs nowadays seem imcapable of appreciating or creating anything that isn't a pastiche of American reality TV nowadays

What is really embarrassing is your failure to realize that most EU's have a different first language than English and that this list is hardly a worthy reading list for an American, let alone a European. You might find this astonishing, but the English language is not the only language that books get written in and this list consists nearly exclusively out of English language 'classics', not even very good ones. Looking at this list I reached 4 just from the 6 books I had to read for English class in high school, a small number compared to about 30 books I had to read in Dutch.

I dare to call myself an avid reader and I got 11, and I am not at all ashamed of that.

[Falka]

Then I read this thread LOL @ illiterate europeans,

Reading Statistics
Total percent of U.S. population that has specific reading disorders    15%
Total percentage of american adults who can’t understand the labels on their prescriptions    46%
Total percentage of U.S. adults who are unable to read an 8th grade level book    50%
Total percent of U.S. high school graduates who will never read a book after high school    33%
Total percentage of college students who will never read another book after they graduate    42%
Total percentage of U.S. families who did not buy a book this year    80%
Total percentage of adults that have not been in a book store in the past 5 years    70%
Total number of U.S. inmates that are literate    15%

USA! USA!

PS. tbh I doubt Eu statistics are better 

[Armpit_Sweat]

Which books have you read? List them and we can then discuss their literary merits and whether there might be better books out there or not.

+1

That list is terrible. It's a pop-chart of books. They let you pick between Bieber and Gaga of literature Most of this stuff you either "read" in school or read as a child. Both instances do not count as actual reading imo.

Chronicles of Narnia ?!
Winnie the Pooh - wtf?!
The Da Vinci Code - LOL
Bridget Jones’s Diary ? fuck you
Oliver Twist ?! are you shitting me?!
Adventures of mfcking Sherlock Holmes...
The Three Musketeers - holy shit
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory...
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - where is Harry Potter on that list?

And they mix in such titles as:

Les Miserables
War and Peace
Madame Bovary
Bleak House

How can they do that?.. It's like mixing beluga caviar with coca-cola flavored fudge. Disgusting.
If someone, as an adult, read all these 100 titles, it means only one thing - that someone has no taste.

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[Elmuri]

+1

That list is terrible. It's a pop-chart of books. They let you pick between Bieber and Gaga of literature Most of this stuff you either "read" in school or read as a child. Both instances do not count as actual reading imo.

Chronicles of Narnia ?!
Winnie the Pooh - wtf?!
The Da Vinci Code - LOL
Bridget Jones’s Diary ? fuck you
Oliver Twist ?! are you shitting me?!
Adventures of mfcking Sherlock Holmes...
The Three Musketeers - holy shit
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory...
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - where is Harry Potter on that list?

And they mix in such titles as:

Les Miserables
War and Peace
Madame Bovary
Bleak House

How can they do that?.. It's like mixing beluga caviar with coca-cola flavored fudge. Disgusting.
If someone, as an adult, read all these 100 titles, it means only one thing - that someone has no taste.

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Why doesn't reading count as reading? Whats wrong with good childrens books? I think the list was rather about influential and commonly known than elitist books, which it represented quite well (of those written in English)

Harry Potter was there btw

[Falka]

Most of this stuff you either "read" in school or read as a child. Both instances do not count as actual reading imo.

lol, why not? Crime and punishment is shitty book only because it's required reading in school? All books I've read in my youth and which in big part moulded my character suddenly "do not count" only cause I've read them as a kid? Hm... 

If someone, as an adult, read all these 100 titles, it means only one thing - that someone has no taste.

How can you know that book isn't worth a reading before you actually read it? YOu base your judgment exclusively on the opinion of others? Or maybe on the title?

[Armpit_Sweat]

Why doesn't reading count as reading?

lol, why not? Crime and punishment is shitty book only because it's required reading in school? All books I've read in my youth and which in big part moulded my character suddenly "do not count" only cause I've read them as a kid? Hm... 

Grown up books, like "War and Peace" or "100 years of solitude", were written by adults, for adults. A teenager can read them, but it will be a time wasted. Watching how letters form words, enough to have a vague knowledge of the main plot - it's not reading. But fine! That is my personal opinion Let's leave it at that, and I apologies if it was insulting.
 

Whats wrong with good childrens books?

 
They are for children, and at very best, carry a tiny grain of what an adult story would deliver. In my opinion, Alice in Wonderland is the only title on that list, that delivers something different for both adults and children. Though Carroll was high as kite when he wrote it  
 

I think the list was rather about influential and commonly known than elitist books, which it represented quite well (of those written in English)

 
Why Mark Twain is not on that list?.. Jack London? Hemingway? Swift? Vonnegut? Why not any other, completly random Englsih or American writer? Non-English books represented so briefly, it would be best not to include any at all! Insulting and disgusting.

Harry Potter was there btw

It had to be! 

How can you know that book isn't worth a reading before you actually read it? YOu base your judgment exclusively on the opinion of others? Or maybe on the title?

I don't! As this list is so random, there might just as well be a hidden gem That Japanese author is probably decent, since so few non-English were included.

[Leshma]

Mark Twain?

badass

Jack London?

badass

Hemingway?

badass and had commie friends

Swift?

insane

Vonnegut?

also badass

You see, to be accepted as role model for modern youth you need mindset of a leech. Hemingway isn't acceptable but the person who ordered him to be executed is all american hero.

[Armpit_Sweat]

Check this out:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml

In April 2003 the BBC's Big Read began the search for the nation's best-loved novel, and we asked you to nominate your favourite books.

Explains random titles

[Xant]

How can you know that book isn't worth a reading before you actually read it? YOu base your judgment exclusively on the opinion of others? Or maybe on the title?

I don't have to read "Bridget Jones Diary" to know it's crappy. I know what it's about, no amount of witty writing is going to save gay stories like that.

[Falka]

Grown up books, like "War and Peace" or "100 years of solitude", were written by adults, for adults. A teenager can read them, but it will be a time wasted. Watching how letters form words, enough to have a vague knowledge of the main plot - it's not reading. But fine! That is my personal opinion

Let me express my personal opinion. Books which you read as a child/teenager have bigger impact on your personality, character and sensitivity than those which you read as an adult, whose beliefs are, maybe not set in stone, but at least stably established. I don't want to make general statements, but from my perspective, with my current, much more "cynical" (if it's a correct word in this context) approach, whatever I read these days doesn't count as much as books I've read as a kid. So I definitely wouldn't say it's, as you put it, "wasted time".

What's more, plenty of fine books which are very good read when you're a kid, are "unreadable" when you have bigger store of knowledge and erudition. I doubt today I'd be able - or willing - to read war and peace, even though I've read it when I was 15 ot 16 (though in this case it's maybe a matter of translation, dunno).

They are for children, and at very best, carry a tiny grain of what an adult story would deliver.

Well, when most of these books were written they were supposed to be for adults, years - or centuries - pass and they're for kids in school.

[Clockworkkiller]

I've been reading above a 12th grade level ever since the 5th grade.
Though I hardly read books anymore.