The 110 Best Books: The Perfect Library

[mn dave]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/04/06/nosplit/sv_classics06.xml

[Florestan]

Good books most of them they are, but "the best" invites questions about the criteria used. Besides, it leaves one with the impression that English Literature has a near monopoly on good books, which simply isn't true.

[mn dave]

Good books most of them they are, but "the best" invites questions about the criteria used. Besides, it leaves one with the impression that English Literature has a near monopoly on good books, which simply isn't true.

True.

[mn dave]

Just requested The Portrait of A Lady from the library.

We'll see how far I get. 

[Florestan]

Just requested The Portrait of A Lady from the library.

We'll see how far I get. 

Just across Washington Square? 

[mn dave]

Just across Washington Square? 

[ezodisy]

Good books most of them they are, but "the best" invites questions about the criteria used. Besides, it leaves one with the impression that English Literature has a near monopoly on good books, which simply isn't true.

Why take it so seriously?

1) it's written by a human

2) it's in a newspaper

3) it's an English newspaper (oxymoron?)

4) There's no Platonov  

[mn dave]

I don't take these lists too seriously. I just think they're fun to ponder and discuss.

[ezodisy]

Ponder?

heh

[mn dave]

Ponder?

heh

Yes, like this: 

[Florestan]

it's an English newspaper (oxymoron?)

I assure you a Romanian newspaper is no better. 

[ezodisy]

I was happy to see Iliad at the top of the list. Best Book Ever.

[mn dave]

I'm glad they listed some poetry books. I'm lacking in poetry books. 

[Sergeant Rock]

I'm glad they listed some poetry books. I'm lacking in poetry books. 

The list is seriously lacking American poets: only Eliot is mentioned. No Frost, no Whitman, no Dickinson, no Stevens....no Chuck Bukowski 

Sarge

[mn dave]

The list is seriously lacking American poets: only Eliot is mentioned. No Frost, no Whitman, no Dickinson, no Stevens....no Chuck Bukowski 

Sarge

Well, you have to start somewhere. 

[karlhenning]

A "perfect library" with no Whitman?!

[mn dave]

A "perfect library" with no Whitman?!

I guess he's not perfect enough.

[PSmith08]

No Thomas Mann, no J.M. Coetzee, no William Faulkner, no Günter Grass? Why, one could build a solid library by selecting Nobel laureates from the last 100 years or so who were not selected for inclusion.

It seems that some people need to engage in a little Vergangenheitsbewältigung vis-à-vis the shift away from Britain as the center of the literary world.

[Kullervo]

No Proust, no Mann, no Musil, no Camus, no Kafka, no Maugham.

No like.

[mn dave]

No Proust, no Mann, no Musil, no Camus, no Kafka, no Maugham.

No like.

Yes, but have you read the books they list?