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50 Books to Read Before You Die

Discussion in 'Other Discussions' started by Crabtownboy, Aug 13, 2015.

  1. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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  2. wpe3bql

    wpe3bql Member

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    CTB---I find it a bit odd that this list--one that you find "interesting"--that the Bible is only considered the 18th most popular book?

    Why do you suppose the people who compiled this list of recommended books rate God's Word (Which has been around for some 1,800 or so years, & has had several translations in at least 60%--or more--of every currently known human language.) so much lower than books (Many of which have either questionable or immoral plots and/or language, or both within their contents.) as low as they did?

    Surely, somewhere on terra firma there must exist a much less offensive compilation of better quality of books/authors than this one, right?

    Thanks in advance for your reply to this post. :wavey:
     
  3. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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    I do not believe they are listed in order of popularity. For instance I really do not believe that Pride and Prejudice is the 3rd most popular book nor do I believe that The Grapes of Wrath is the 4th most popular. Indeed I doubt very seriously that Tolkein's books are not the most popular.

    I have not figured out how them came about the order of listings. One of the mysteries of life I guess.

    If the books were listed in order of sales the Bible would definitely be No. 1 and many on the list would not be in the top 50. I also have no idea what criteria they used.
     
  4. padredurand

    padredurand Well-Known Member
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    24 :thumbsup:
     
  5. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    19.

    I can think of no good reason someone should read "On the Road" or "Money".
     
  6. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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    I have not read "Money", but have read "One the Road" and found it quite interesting. I enjoy memories as they give insights into people. I may or may not agree with their lifestyle, but it does give insights into the lives of people.
     
  7. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    I read about one-third of "On the Road" and had to put it down. There isn't much more there except a couple of drug addicts and drunks having a weekend of debauchery. If you want to know how depraved people can be, this is the book for that 'insight.'
     
  8. Deacon

    Deacon Well-Known Member
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    29 books read as well. Good list!

    I've purchased "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" three times because I keep giving it away and it never returns. In fact, there's an empty spot on my shelf now because I gave it to my SIL (a middle school teacher) last month.

    I've never been motivated to read Bronte or Austin - I'll have to look one up a free one on my Kindle app sometime.

    Rob
     
    #8 Deacon, Aug 14, 2015
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  9. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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    Bronte, Austin, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Dumas, London, Muir, Mark Twain, ... all those authors and many more can be downloaded free. Robert Lewis Stevenson was quite a traveler and wrote some interesting travelogues.

    All the Greek and Roman classics can be downloaded free.

    None of us will live long enough to read everything that can be read for free on an e-reader.
     
    #9 Crabtownboy, Aug 14, 2015
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  10. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    Rom 16:19 For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.
     
  11. Tom Bryant

    Tom Bryant Well-Known Member

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    Maybe a different reading list
    From the New York Times
    </H4>
     
    #11 Tom Bryant, Aug 14, 2015
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  12. Rolfe

    Rolfe Well-Known Member
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    Perhaps I missed it, but I saw no mention of James Fenimore Cooper, Maxim Gorky, Sir Thomas Mallory, or C.S. Forrester.
     
  13. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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    You are right. There are quite a number of authors and books that could well be included in such a list. Faulkner, Gogol, Ibsen, Cervantes, Whitman, George Eliot, Conrad, Chekhov, Kipling, Maugham is not on the list. We could compile a long list of authors that could be added.
     
  14. padredurand

    padredurand Well-Known Member
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    Sinclair Lewis
     
  15. wpe3bql

    wpe3bql Member

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    John A. Stormer.
     
  16. Scarlett O.

    Scarlett O. Moderator
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    I've read 22 on the list. As others have said, it's a good list.
     
  17. JohnDeereFan

    JohnDeereFan Well-Known Member
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    I've read 15.

    I know all lists are subjective, but there were some pretty glaring omissions.

    Having raised our sons on a steady diet of Ballantyne and Henty, I was disappointed to see them not on the list. Was also surprised that Treasure Island wasn't on the list.

    Although I have mixed feelings about Jack London, I'm surprised none of his books were on the list. And only one Hemmingway?

    I'm also disappointed that they only listed fiction books, as I believe Free to Choose, Letters From a Birmingham Jail, the Discovery of Freedom, and other books are critical.
     
    #17 JohnDeereFan, Aug 15, 2015
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  18. Scarlett O.

    Scarlett O. Moderator
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    Oh, I wish you would. The Bronte sisters and Jane Austen aren't light reading or "women's" reading.

    I suggest Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Pride and Prejudice by Austen.


    Jane Eyre Summary

    A little girl, Jane Eyre, loses her family and is shipped off to live with an aunt. Existence there is like being in a lunatic asylum and she is sent to an orphanage where she lives until she is of age and in that orphanage, Jane sees what hell on this earth is.

    She is hired when she is of age as a governess at a dark and gloomy mansion to tend to a young French girl. The rich owner of the mansion seems to never be there and she forges a professional friendship with the head housekeeper. When the owner IS there, he is a tormented soul. A miserable man. And scary. His relation to his ward, the young French girl is never explained....completely.

    He is harboring a terrible secret and a terrible existence. He finds a friendship with Jane that is as moody and odd as the house is and as he is. When his secret is revealed and tragedy and castrophe occurs, she has to leave.

    She finds herself for the first time in charge of herself. It's good, but also hard. She finds work as a teacher in connection with a young minister and his sister who are kind to her.

    But she cannot seem to forget the only true friend she has ever had - the rich man - whose life is now in physical, social, and financial ruin because of the insane secret he kept.

    She's never had choices before - now she has quite the handful of them.
     
  19. MNJacob

    MNJacob Member

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    27, although much of that is due to Comparative Literature classes in college.
     
  20. wpe3bql

    wpe3bql Member

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    I enjoy many of the humorous works of James Thurber.
     
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