10 books to read before you die?

[CptColumbo]

I came across this list of "10 books to read before you die" at the AOL shop.

http://shopping.aol.com/books/best-sellers

1. Holy Bible
2. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
3. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
5. The Stand by Stephen King
6. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
8. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
9. Atlas Shrugged by Ann Rand
10. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

If this had been under the heading "Summer Reading List" I probably wouldn't be as appalled as I am with its actual title.

I read one Dan Brown book and find it hard to believe that I must read another before I die, especially considering how much I disliked the first one I read.

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

I don't know, they are all indisputably books, and reading them before you die is pretty much the only way to get them read, with the possible exception of number 1 which may be available to a subset of us afterward.

If it had been 10 books you must read before you die I'd agree with you.

I do agree with you about Dan Brown anyway, he owes me the 4 hours or so reading 'The Da Vinci Code' took out of my life.

 

[NorfolkAtheist]

Wow.

Worst list of its kind that I've ever seen.

 

[Denver]

That is indeed a curious list. Besides the fact that I could never confine a bucket list of books to only ten, omitting authors such as Dickens, Henry James, O. Henry, Mark Twain, Thoreau, Cervantes, to not even mention poetry, seems to me it should carry some kind of crime against humanity consequences.

 

[paiute]

If I have to read these books before I die, then I am going to live forever!!11!!

 

[MG1962]

Da Vinci Code? - Despite opinions about the content. It is not a particuarly well written book by any standard

 

[HarryKeogh]

I'm guessing that whoever put this list together would probably have Transformers Part II top a list of "movies to see before you die".

 

[Monketi Ghost]

1. Holy Bible... like Fantasia. Multifaceted and unreal.
2. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell... never read it!
3. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien... amazingly good.
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling... never read it.
5. The Stand by Stephen King... among the most overrated authors. I like his columns though
6. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown... collected resorted nonsense.
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee... despite overdoing its importance, quite good
8. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown... not read it
9. Atlas Shrugged by Ann Rand... ugh. John Galt speaks into a mirror.
10. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger... also overdone but quite good.

It Can't Happen Here, and Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis ought to be on this list.

 

[Rasmus]

1. Holy Bible

Culturally important, yes. But since most people that give it its importance haven't read it fully I feel one could easily get away without doing that. Also, there are a few places where the bible is not culturally as important as it is where I happen to be.

2. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

I haven't read it.

3. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

I did enjoy reading it. Very much. One of the first books I read in English, too, so in that aspect it did actually shape and enrich my life. Other than that, though, my life would not be poorer or void of meaning if I had not read it.

4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

How incredibly dumb! What good would it do me if the one book I read was the last in a series of seven?

5. The Stand by Stephen King

I haven't read it.

6. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown

7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I haven't read it.

8. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Seriously - it's not even the good type of airport literature! Why, why, why on earth should I waste my valuable time on this to get it done and over with before I die?

Suppose I'd find myself locked up in an airtight library with my oxygen slowly running out. I have a few hours to live and all I can do is pick up a book and read. Why on earth should I pick any of Dan Brown's works? (Well, yes, I would fall asleep before the symptoms of suffocation set in and it might be the more merciful death, but other than that ...)

9. Atlas Shrugged by Ann Rand
10. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

I haven't read either of these.

I read one Dan Brown book and find it hard to believe that I must read another before I die, especially considering how much I disliked the first one I read.

Oh, I've read them. But then, I was incredibly bored at the time and had little choice of what to pick. I admit that I enjoyed reading them (but I enuoy reading. I will read the ingredients list of a bottle of water if the ingredients are "water", and I would enjoy reading that, too.) but I would never go so far as to suggest that this is in any way, shape or form a "must read" piece of literature.

uh.....

Shakespeare?
Anything that's not in English?
What about these people?
Homer?
Please forgive me a bit of national bias, but Goethe? Schiller? Brecht, even?

Brave New World?
1984?
Fahrenheit 451?
Lord of the Flies?
... to name only a few works of political fiction that my professor at University thought I should rather read than each and everyone on that odd list?

And that's just my suggestions - and I am not very well versed in the literature of the world. I know I have named nothing that's Asian, Australian or African. Nothing indiginous, no mythology (besides Homer), be it greek or roman or nordic or american.

 

[CptColumbo]

IMO the Bible is probably number one because they figured they would get more complaints about that then from the fans of the Great Gatsby.

 

[Red3]

You must be kidding...That's the crappest list of books I've every seen.

Dan Brown? What kind of world do we live in?!

That's more of a "10 books to read before you're 21"

 

[Saintgasoline]

Why should all the most important books be fiction? Where are the damned science books!?

I do agree with including Atlas Shrugged, though. Not because I'm a crazy Objectivist, but because Rand was my "gateway drug" into REAL philosophy. If I hadn't read The Fountainhead, and then subsequently become interested in philosophy and science as a result, I'd probably be the kind of person who makes reading lists including Dan Brown.

 

[Red3]

Why should all the most important books be fiction? Where are the damned science books!?

The Blind Watchmaker would have to go near the top for me in that category.

 

[Wildy]

1. Holy Bible

Honestly, I've never managed to completely read the Bible. There are some books in it that I just cannot read, I start and then just stop because I can't be bothered.

2. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Never read it, so I can't really comment.

3. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

I know that it was rather influential in the fantasy genre, but I don't know if it belongs on such a list. If I were to compile a list I would probably put it on here, but I wouldn't list it at number three.

4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

God no. Especially since it's the last book in a series. I will admit that it did help encourage people to read more books though.

5. The Stand by Stephen King

See #2.

6. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown

If it was a list on "badly contrived pieces of fiction masquerading as factual" then I would agree. But no.

7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To be honest I think that this is the first book that I solidly agree with. It is a rather important book culturally and it's a good read. I'm guessing based on the other books the reason that this is here is for an older book that is still rather easy to read.

8. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

If I was to recommend one book written by Dan Brown it would have to be this one. Chronologically it's set before Da Vinci Code (it's reversed in the movies) but I found it to be better.

9. Atlas Shrugged by Ann Rand
10. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

I haven't read either of these. I've read synopses of Atlas Shrugged and I get the feeling that the book itself isn't a good read.


If I had to suggest other books to put onto this list I would say possibly:
Eigil's Saga
Odyssey over the Illiad (I'm about halfway through the latter, and I never knew that they could make a war story so boring...)
Possibly Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson and/or Magician by Raymond E. Feist
I've only read fully one play by Shakespeare, Macbeth, but I would be willing to put that on there because Shakespeare should be mentioned in such a list.

 

[Brainster]

That really reads more like a list of books you should read while in high school.

 

[Ian Osborne]

Atlas Shrugged? That's top of my list of books I must die before I can read.

 

[Wildy]

That really reads more like a list of books you should read while in high school.

Actually such a list would probably include Twilight.

 

[ZirconBlue]

I came across this list of "10 books to read before you die" at the AOL shop.

http://shopping.aol.com/books/best-sellers

1. Holy Bible
2. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
3. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
5. The Stand by Stephen King
6. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
8. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
9. Atlas Shrugged by Ann Rand
10. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

If this had been under the heading "Summer Reading List" I probably wouldn't be as appalled as I am with its actual title.

I read one Dan Brown book and find it hard to believe that I must read another before I die, especially considering how much I disliked the first one I read.

Maybe it's ten books they want an editor to read, since most of them seem to have skipped that step in the publishing cycle.

 

[Brainster]

Ah, mystery solved. I noticed that there were 11 pages on that list, so I clicked on the last:

This list is based on the results of a Harris Poll that asked 2,413 U.S. adults to name their favorite books. Let us know what you think, do you agree with the list? What's missing?

So it's really a list of the ten most commonly known books.

 

[ZirconBlue]

1. Holy Bible - I've read parts, but even the Cliff's Notes are boring nonsense

2. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - Not bad. Needed an editor to pare it down some.

3. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien - While highly influential and a good World Building exercise, I found it pretty tedius. Maybe a good editor could've helped.

4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling - Haven't read it, although I've seen the first 4 movies.

5. The Stand by Stephen King - I read the "expanded & revised" version, and liked it a great deal. I think it probably should've been pared down a bit, but from what I understand, the version that was originally published cut too deep.

6. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown - Needed an editor to say things like "no", and "this is dumb", and "Enough with the anagrams. Seriously."

7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - I haven't read it since High School. I remember it being a little slow, but that's probably mostly to do with it being required reading, and in comparison to the movie, which ends a lot sooner than the book.

8. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown - Really? Two Dan Brown books in a list of 10?

9. Atlas Shrugged by Ann Rand - I actually liked it, but it was in serious need of an editor. It's probably twice the length it needs to be, and when it comes to 60+ page monologues, one is too many.

10. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger - Haven't read it. Other than being "a classic", I've not heard any compelling reasons I should read it.