Best 100 novels ever - as rated by TIME magazine

I loved On the Road. The syncopated style grabbed my brain and shook it around for weeks after.

I agree with everything you just said, Iceberg Slimm.

Not based on sales, which is a crap indicator of writing's quality anyway. Link here explaining the process by which they were selected. And if it were the best 100 novels ever, rather than being the best novels originally written in English since the inception of Time magazine, I'd be howling with the rest of them...go back just another 50 years, or widen it to books that have been translated into English, and the list changes significantly.

On the other hand, this is a list that comes closer to one I'd produce than any I've ever seen, actually.

Gibson & Stephenson are no longer the sole province of geeks, sorry. & BTW, I adore Pynchon's work, though GR is not my fave (which didn't make the list). And for the original question: 38.

EDIT: wow. Clear disagreement with IS, though I'm not afraid to admit that the first writer who got me pumped at all was Stephen King. Then again, I'd read everything he'd then written by the age of 14, and haven't read him since.

@GG

The book is far better than the film. Pulled me through a breakup at the time.

I must admit I'm struggling with On the Road at the moment, but it's more the English. I just don#t understand it.

Great Gatsby was well-written in my opinion, but it was a school book so naturally I bought the study guide!

@ papa_geno
GR actually DID make the list. Could you please do me a favor - sit down with me & Iceberg Slim and explain the basic premise of both that and The Crying of Lot 49. Would be much appreciated!

Gibson and Stephenson are not just for geeks anymore, but Neuromancer and Snow Crash are canonical geek novels. I am glad to see them there, but surprised. Next thing you know, Cory Doctorow will be on the list.

Oh, and I was very pleasantly surpised to see Lukcy Jim. That book is one of a very few to actually make me laugh out loud. It's obvious why Martin Amis has a chip on his shoulder, with such a father to live up to (But why money and not the Rachel Papers?).

@GG: GR made the list, my fave Pynchon didn't.

As for explaining...well, he isn't for everyone. Tis more about its own structure than it is about entertainment. But if you wanna swing by my apart-uh here in Kyo Dong for a cuppa, I'd be happy to get stuck into it.

@IS: they were geek novels about 20 years ago. People caught on when they wanted to read where the Matrix came from. Hell, I was just an Okie boy at the time, and not particularly into computers, but had a passing knowledge of some new writing fashion called cyberpunk. And it's exactly why I kinda like this list...it's not all about the dead white guys they teach in college. Which is kinda refreshing. Though, yeah, it's just another list.

Talk about slogging throught books, I thought "The Golden Notebook" was the hardest ever to read and it left me close to suicidical, even though I am fairly stable in general.

I don't understand why Dazzle by Judith Krantz isn't on there?

Not only do I view the world differently, I'm currently experiencing a true metamorphosis.

I've only read one, it was boring...you reckon that's an indication to steer clear of the others?

@papa geno

I like that part of the list as well. It's nice to see some live white guys that they only teach at college in California on the list. Although, I guess neither of these books is 20 years old yet - maybe 15.

As for Pynchon, he is worth the read, even if he's hard to digest. It's all about taking the book on its own terms. If you just read and accept it starts to make sense.

Neuromancer was 1984, Snow Crash 1992.

Gibson's been on the scene longer than 15 years...my how time flies...

ouch. I'm gonna go and dye my gray now.

bite your tongue

If I can say whose works I do like I hope I also have the right to say whose I don't like without being censored by anyone whose opinion I don't happen to share. (I started the Hemmingway thing.)

Why on earth must I bite my tongue? Because I say something you don't like? Talk about close-minded.

Only nine sad number for me...

Well seeing as this is basically the literary equivalent of MTV releasing the "best 100 songs ever" I am not ashamed to admit to only reading about 6 or 7 of them.

Faulkner, Woolf, Nabokov...these are MTV?

Nah. A fair few decent reads on this list. Just because it's relatively current doesn't mean it's automatically shite. Just means Harold Bloom and the other eggheads at Harvard, etc. haven't put their seal of approval on it...and that bunch are notoriously slow about doing so--while whining, out of the other side of their mouths, about how literature just doesn't seem to be as relevant anymore. If literature means having to get your head around Victorian courting rituals, well, yeah, it's a little irrelevant. But contrary to what the profs think, there's some good stuff, some of it even by white guys, that has been written in the last 80 years or so.

And why not? We live in very interesting times.

I second ES opinion...Dont rank on Papa!!!

Yeah. What he said.

Are you guys going to shoot me now? I don't like Hemingway. Fact. I am entitled to an opinion.

Thanks, and I still say that was his best book. It really grabbed me as a young teenager.

Is it me? Where are all those English classics? Jane Austen? Charles Dickens? And then there's Letter To Milena by Franz Kafka. Tolstoy's War And Peace?

Does Time magazine only read pulp?

Who brought "shoot you" up? In fact I like you having your own opinion..now "go bite your tounge"

Sin--the list starts in 1923.

I read "Siesta" (aka "Death in the Afternoon"), "The Old Man and the Sea" and about 30 pages of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and did not like any of them, so my opinion is based on experience, not ignorance. I don't like his topics or his style, but I would never tell anyone who does not like Jane Austen to basically shut up.

No,no,no..Time is pulp.

@Ulysses--mine was a joke, man. Check the name.

I'm shocked to say that I've only read one. Unless you count ones I've started, seen the movie, or read the Cliffs Notes for.

I used to work in Bangor, Maine and saw King daily walking the streets. I veen delivered furniture to his home, and his wife, Tabitha, opened the door. That was a while back.

@Sin

Would've said the same, but only starts in'23.

@Papa

I knew it was a joke. Btw, highly rate your opinion on most subjects. We have actually met before.

@Perdido

Sorry, I was a bit "perdido" there, but I won't hold my tongue even though I'm known to have "foot in mouth" disease!

King can be surprisingly funny in places, the short story in "The Body" at the blueberry pie contest had me breathless and in tears of laughter.

@Ulysses

I am glad you do not hold back your opinion. I never believe in bad or good authors, only in preferences

Agreed. I prefer other authors to Hemingway. I'm more into philosophical novels and ones with a good plot. So, Hesse and Forsyth are more my style, both of which didn't make the list. But who cares, as PG said, it's just a list.

Ah! I'll get my goat.

@ Ulysses...we've met? Well, no doubt. While in TT, I did manage to get out to a few TT meetups, though not as much as some... anyway, no secret on my part that the world of lit is a particular love of mine. I dunno. As I've said, I read a fair few of these, and while the changed topic title seems to be leading some astray (and no, I would not rate these, myself, as the top 100 ever, no limitations), need to keep in mind that these are the top 100, based on the work of two editors in the Times review section, for the past 80 years, originally written in English. I've no doubt my list would have been different, but then, I still have to read 62 of them, so what do I know? Plus, for my money, in the last half of the 20th century, non-fiction's outshined this bunch on a number of fronts. I mean, they're not 'crass' enough to toss Dr. Gonzo onto the list, and he'd be in my top 20 'contemporary' list, especially if it weren't limited to fiction. But then, why does 'On The Road' merit a fiction title and 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' doesn't?

Obviously, these lists are basically arbitrary in nature. I do enjoy seeing the likes of Burroughs, Bowles, Miller, PKD, Pynchon, DFW and Gibson making one of these lists, though. All very good writers...and all worth the read for anyone who really enjoys their fiction. They aren't pulp. They're just not to the point of vintage yet. Though I suspect more than a few will be once our grandchildren are safely tucked away into the old age homes.

I've nothing against Hemingway, but he's not one of the writers that first gave me a boner, either. For that, see King...then Kerouac, though to be honest, again, On the Road isn't my fave of his work. Just the best known.

suprised myself...done 12 of them...but from what I remember about most of them it was about 8 too many

Dharma Bums always goes with me on every trip...

@Papa

Comedy Evening. You were with Hurricane and Texas Tornado.

@ Perdido: if you haven't, the poet the main character of that novel is based on, Gary Snyder, is well worth looking into. I had a serious love affair with the Beats when I was younger, then grew out of it very quickly. Now they sit on my shelf, kept around for sentimental reasons. I tend to say, Snyder is one of the few, in that bunch, that I respect, rather than adore. And that counts for more, I think, in a long-term relationship.

Visions of Cody is my fave Kerouac...though, if you don't already like him, this one's longer than most. Sort of a 'directors cut' of On The Road, more out there, experimental, tape transcripts presented raw, etc. And an interesting look into how the writing was organized by the man. Which is maybe why I liked it...for formal reasons as much, if not more, than for any entertainment value.

Add to the List of Missing Books: The Man of Property, Galsworthy. So post-Victorian in a Victorian setting.

On another note. One book I would not recommend is "1945" by N.Gingrich. It was like reading the USA Today only with 20 chapters. I found it at a garage sale for .50 cent...

Hs! I just bought this from the Regensburg library for about .20 cents. It was part of their excess stock sale. Well I will get on it after I finish my K.V. book...

@ Ulysses:


Ah, jeez, which one? Was I an audience member or a participant? Went to a fair few of those gigs with TT, less with Hurricane (who, hurricane-like, was often otherwise engaged...).

It just occured to me that I was seen in the presence of two vortex-shaped storms. Something oddly appealing about that...

@ perdido: well, at that price, you can hardly go wrong, hm? Though I find it rather amazing that there are even copies of that book anywhere in Germany, much less at bargain basement prices. You'll have to tell me how it reads from the perspective of someone whose brain hasn't been thoroughly addled by visions of beatnik glory...

@Papa

I think it was July this year. Two comedians, one Jewish and the other Mancunian. We stayed until 3am and caught the same taxi back home. Was a great evening. Am struggling with On the Road too. More because the English is weird. My Oxford just doesn't have words like "Okie" in it.

@ Ulysses: was this the night we went out to another restaurant, hung out with a couple of fairly hot Swedish (I think, though I was really rather drunk at the time) babes, etc? Are you S. African? Irish? If I've got my facts straight, I think I have a face to put with the name.

On the Road: yup. I don't particularly recommend it to my Spanish friends either, and for exactly that reason. But I can tell you, in a little too much detail, what an Okie is.

Oddly, another writer, Bukowski, seems to have made a big claim to the poetry in translation market...and I suspect part of the reason is that he's fairly easy to translate. Wonder if that helped Hemingway as well?

Almost enough to make me want to start using smaller words. Hm. Might be onto something there...

EDIT: just checked the profile...yeah, I remember the night, and you. Same one I had in mind. Yeah that was a pretty killer night. Best part about helping out where I could with Daggy's show: getting to hang out with the superstars afterwards and bug them with questions. EX-cellent...

Simple words for simple minds, Papa? hehehehehe

Yes, I'm South African and the Swedish girls were friends of mine. Have never read Bukowski. In fact, I have read preciously little American literature. On the Road was meant to change that.