50 Books to Read Before You Die

[Crabtownboy]

I have read 29 on the list. How many have you read?

It is an interesting list. If I were making a list I would include many found on this list, not have included some that are on this list.

http://www.listchallenges.com/50-books-to-read-before-you-die

 

[wpe3bql]

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:

 

[Crabtownboy]

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:

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.

 

[padredurand]

24 :thumbsup:

 

[InTheLight]

19.

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

 

[Crabtownboy]

19.

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

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.

 

[InTheLight]

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.

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.'

 

[Deacon]

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

 

[Crabtownboy]

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

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.

 

[Revmitchell]

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.

 

[Tom Bryant]

Maybe a different reading list
From the New York Times

<H4 id=post-mb-9 class=entry-title style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 20px; FONT-SIZE: 16px; MARGIN-TOP: 20px">

Cruz Shares His Reading List

Mr. Cruz reached behind the black leather seat for his briefcase.
“The bus tour doesn’t let me read, I read on airplanes,” he said. “This bus tour is terrible for that.”
As he has zigzagged across the country, often cramming in three or four events a day with hours of travel between, he’s working between too, signing books, doing interviews and playing with his two children.
But, he still came prepared, and offered First Draft a look at his current reading list.
The two books in his briefcase were from prominent conservative voices: “The Conservative Heart,” by Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, which Mr. Cruz said he was in the middle of and enjoying greatly, and “Plunder and Deceit,” by Mark R. Levin, the nationally syndicated conservative radio host.
But Mr. Cruz heaped the most praise on two books he had recently finished. The first was, “Reckless Endangerment,” by Gretchen Morgenson, a Times reporter, and Joshua Rosner, about the financial crisis. “A great book,” Mr. Cruz said.
But his favorite? “The Looming Tower,” by Lawrence Wright.
“It’s just gripping,” Mr. Cruz said, “highly recommending” the book to First Draft. “It traces back to the 1950s and the rise of radical Islam, and it goes through it just with a level of detail.”
“And it’s well written,” he added. “It’s a great read.”
— Nick Corasaniti

</H4>

 

[Rolfe]

Perhaps I missed it, but I saw no mention of James Fenimore Cooper, Maxim Gorky, Sir Thomas Mallory, or C.S. Forrester.

 

[Crabtownboy]

Perhaps I missed it, but I saw no mention of James Fenimore Cooper, Maxim Gorky, Sir Thomas Mallory, or C.S. Forrester.

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.

 

[padredurand]

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.

Sinclair Lewis

 

[wpe3bql]

John A. Stormer.

 

[Scarlett O.]

I've read 22 on the list. As others have said, it's a good list.

 

[JohnDeereFan]

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.

 

[Scarlett O.]

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

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.

 

[MNJacob]

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

 

[wpe3bql]

I enjoy many of the humorous works of James Thurber.