The Best 10 Fictional Works
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Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
 
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Most of you are PhDs and respond to inquiries from the
non-science type to aspects of your field(s). So how about asking a college in the English Lit or World Lit department? Robert, you mentioned you are going to improve your literary education, so the works will generally be older because those have had an effect on the development of literature. The works should provide some understanding of the development of the field as well as being entertaining, insightful, etc. To make a musical analogy, I thoroughly enjoy Bach Fugues but if I wish to understand the musical form of the fugue, I also need to listen to Medieval and Renaissance forms that lead up to it (the ricercar, fantasy, etc) Think of the field as having a core trunk and then many branches at the top. It sounds like you are asking about the 'trunk' of the field. So maybe you need 10 books to represent the trunk of the literary tree and then afterward pick 3-5 more works for each branch to cover the last 150 - 200 hundred years. Steph T On 10/9/2010 3:44 AM, Saul Caganoff wrote: > All great suggestions and timely since my library book is due back > tomorrow. I'll add a couple of other suggestions: > > The English Patient (Ondaatje) > Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Persig) (not sure if this > counts as fiction) > A Glass Darkly (Philip K Dick) > On the Road (Kerouac) > Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kundera) > Heart of Darkness (Conrad) > > and for the Illiad I strongly recommend the audio book with Derek > Jacobi reading the Fagles translation (abridged). > > +1 for all Herman Hesse titles mentioned. > > Regards, > Saul > > On Saturday, October 9, 2010, Alison Jones<[hidden email]> wrote: >> After 10 years of lurking something I can finally comment on. >> >> In no particlular order: >> >> Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy >> Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin >> Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol >> Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie >> Sometime a Great Notion by Ken Kesey >> Beloved by Toni Morrison >> Middlemarch by George Eliot >> Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov >> To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf >> Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky >> Death in Venice by Thomas Mann >> >> >> There are so many more! >> Alison >> (Yeah, I know it is 11. And you are so right Robert (Holmes), I should really say Pevear and Volokhonsky's Karenina ☺) >> >> >> On Oct 8, 2010, at 1:44 PM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote: >> >> >> Ok, so I've decided my literary education is somewhat lacking and would like to know this group's recommendations for the "10 Best Literary Works" I should read. They have to be works of fiction and available in English and not just say of 2009 but of all time. Google searches tend to list the best of a year or be listed by one particular publisher. This is a good group to poll since you all (most) have at least some kind of scientific/technical bent. So I know the suggestions will be good ones for me! >> >> Once I have a list of all suggestions maybe I'll ask you all to vote on them. >> >> My list currently starts with Frank's recommendation today: >> >> "Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West" by Cormac McCarthy >> >> Thanks! >> Robert C. >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >> >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
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In reply to this post by Alison Jones
What? Nobody mentioned Proust, James Joyce or Woolf? (I'm not going to.)
Grant Grant Holland VP, Product Development and Software Engineering NuTech Solutions 404.427.4759 On 10/8/2010 11:54 PM, Alison Jones wrote: > After 10 years of lurking something I can finally comment on. > > In no particlular order: > > Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy > Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin > Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol > Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie > Sometime a Great Notion by Ken Kesey > Beloved by Toni Morrison > Middlemarch by George Eliot > Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov > To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf > Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky > Death in Venice by Thomas Mann > > > There are so many more! > Alison > (Yeah, I know it is 11. And you are so right Robert (Holmes), I should > really say Pevear and Volokhonsky's Karenina ☺) > > > On Oct 8, 2010, at 1:44 PM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote: > >> Ok, so I've decided my literary education is somewhat lacking and >> would like to know this group's recommendations for the "10 Best >> Literary Works" I should read. They have to be works of fiction and >> available in English and not just say of 2009 but of all time. >> Google searches tend to list the best of a year or be listed by one >> particular publisher. This is a good group to poll since you all >> (most) have at least some kind of scientific/technical bent. So I >> know the suggestions will be good ones for me! >> >> Once I have a list of all suggestions maybe I'll ask you all to vote >> on them. >> >> My list currently starts with Frank's recommendation today: >> >> "Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West" by Cormac >> McCarthy >> >> Thanks! >> Robert C. >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
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Somebody did mention "To the Lighthouse," and I'd agree. I mentioned admiring, without particularly liking (except in parts) "Ulysses." The Scott-Moncrieff translation of "Remembrance of Things Past" is heavy weather; a later translation (sorry; it's on a high shelf) lets Proust's humor show through. But you need a lot of sitzfleisch to finish the whole thing.
Speaking of the French, I used to teach Malraux's "Man's Fate," which my undergraduate students loved. They also loved "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," because it reminded so many of them of being in the army in Vietnam. Pamela "How quickly weeks glide away in such a city as New York, especially when you reckon among your friends some of the most agreeable people in either hemisphere." Fanny Trollope, "Domestic Manners of the Americans"============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
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In reply to this post by Grant Holland
Grant,
James Joyce has been mentioned twice, Woolf once... and your top 10 are? but you're right about Proust. Thanks Robert C On 10/9/10 8:31 AM, Grant Holland wrote: > What? Nobody mentioned Proust, James Joyce or Woolf? (I'm not going to.) > > Grant > > Grant Holland > VP, Product Development and Software Engineering > NuTech Solutions > 404.427.4759 > > > On 10/8/2010 11:54 PM, Alison Jones wrote: >> After 10 years of lurking something I can finally comment on. >> >> In no particlular order: >> >> Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy >> Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin >> Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol >> Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie >> Sometime a Great Notion by Ken Kesey >> Beloved by Toni Morrison >> Middlemarch by George Eliot >> Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov >> To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf >> Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky >> Death in Venice by Thomas Mann >> >> >> There are so many more! >> Alison >> (Yeah, I know it is 11. And you are so right Robert (Holmes), I >> should really say Pevear and Volokhonsky's Karenina ☺) >> >> >> On Oct 8, 2010, at 1:44 PM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote: >> >>> Ok, so I've decided my literary education is somewhat lacking and >>> would like to know this group's recommendations for the "10 Best >>> Literary Works" I should read. They have to be works of fiction and >>> available in English and not just say of 2009 but of all time. >>> Google searches tend to list the best of a year or be listed by one >>> particular publisher. This is a good group to poll since you all >>> (most) have at least some kind of scientific/technical bent. So I >>> know the suggestions will be good ones for me! >>> >>> Once I have a list of all suggestions maybe I'll ask you all to vote >>> on them. >>> >>> My list currently starts with Frank's recommendation today: >>> >>> "Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West" by Cormac >>> McCarthy >>> >>> Thanks! >>> Robert C. >>> >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
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In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley
The situation so far... in case you are not keeping count:
Given some restrictions, like only accepting the first 10 mentioned by anyone ... so far we have 73 submissions, 4 have been recommended 3 times, 9 have been recommended twice and the rest once. And just to confirm that my literary education is somewhat lacking, I noticed that I've read only 4 of them. Any more recommendations? Thanks, Robert C On 10/8/10 1:44 PM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote: > Ok, so I've decided my literary education is somewhat lacking and > would like to know this group's recommendations for the "10 Best > Literary Works" I should read. They have to be works of fiction and > available in English and not just say of 2009 but of all time. Google > searches tend to list the best of a year or be listed by one > particular publisher. This is a good group to poll since you all > (most) have at least some kind of scientific/technical bent. So I > know the suggestions will be good ones for me! > > Once I have a list of all suggestions maybe I'll ask you all to vote > on them. > > My list currently starts with Frank's recommendation today: > > "Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West" by Cormac > McCarthy > > Thanks! > Robert C. > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
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In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley
I'd add to Jack's criteria: 9) deep exploration of a particular culture
at a moment in time. Jonathan Franzen's Freedom. Hate to say it because it's been so over-hyped, but it's that good, right up there with Huck Finn and Jay Gatsby. I think it will 10) stand the test of time. Merle Robert J. Cordingley wrote: > Grant, > James Joyce has been mentioned twice, Woolf once... and your top 10 > are? but you're right about Proust. > Thanks > Robert C > > On 10/9/10 8:31 AM, Grant Holland wrote: >> What? Nobody mentioned Proust, James Joyce or Woolf? (I'm not going >> to.) >> >> Grant >> >> Grant Holland >> VP, Product Development and Software Engineering >> NuTech Solutions >> 404.427.4759 >> >> >> On 10/8/2010 11:54 PM, Alison Jones wrote: >>> After 10 years of lurking something I can finally comment on. >>> >>> In no particlular order: >>> >>> Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy >>> Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin >>> Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol >>> Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie >>> Sometime a Great Notion by Ken Kesey >>> Beloved by Toni Morrison >>> Middlemarch by George Eliot >>> Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov >>> To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf >>> Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky >>> Death in Venice by Thomas Mann >>> >>> >>> There are so many more! >>> Alison >>> (Yeah, I know it is 11. And you are so right Robert (Holmes), I >>> should really say Pevear and Volokhonsky's Karenina ☺) >>> >>> >>> On Oct 8, 2010, at 1:44 PM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote: >>> >>>> Ok, so I've decided my literary education is somewhat lacking and >>>> would like to know this group's recommendations for the "10 Best >>>> Literary Works" I should read. They have to be works of fiction >>>> and available in English and not just say of 2009 but of all time. >>>> Google searches tend to list the best of a year or be listed by one >>>> particular publisher. This is a good group to poll since you all >>>> (most) have at least some kind of scientific/technical bent. So I >>>> know the suggestions will be good ones for me! >>>> >>>> Once I have a list of all suggestions maybe I'll ask you all to >>>> vote on them. >>>> >>>> My list currently starts with Frank's recommendation today: >>>> >>>> "Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West" by Cormac >>>> McCarthy >>>> >>>> Thanks! >>>> Robert C. >>>> >>>> ============================================================ >>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >>> >>> >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
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In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley
Oops...
I'll mention two. Far from great literature, but I still enjoy reading it is "Journey to Ixtlan" - Carlos Castaneda. (I know it is advertised as "Sociology", but I regard it as Fantasy.) Another great Fantasy (although held by most as mathematical logic) is Kurt Godel's 1931 paper "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems". Part of the alure for me, admittedly, is that I find it fantastic, mysterious and difficult to understand. But the last sentence of the treatise is plainly spoken, and a wake-up call for would-be intellectuals everywhere: "That is, it can be proved rigorously that in every consistent formal system that contains a certain amount of finitary number theory there exists undecidable arithmetic propositions and that, moreover, the consistency of any such system cannot be proved in the system." Grant Holland VP, Product Development and Software Engineering NuTech Solutions 404.427.4759 On 10/9/2010 8:46 AM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote: Grant, ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
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Grant -
Thanks for the reminder, I haven't visited Castenada since I was in my twenties... perhaps he deserves a revisit. At the time I slogged through several of his works because everyone was raving so much about them (not unlike the ravings about Cormac's work)... they just came off as weird druggie wishful thinking at the time... though I did like things about his writing style. Another great Fantasy (although held by most as mathematical logic) is Kurt Godel's 1931 paper "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems". Godel I visit more often. I don't consider him fantasy one bit, but I do find him mystical/magical... and wonderfully dense and obtuse. His writing quality meets my criteria for literature, his storytelling is abysmal, but the social relevance is subtle unto sublime. "That is, it can be proved rigorously that in every consistent formal system that contains a certain amount of finitary number theory there exists undecidable arithmetic propositions and that, moreover, the consistency of any such system cannot be proved in the system." I may just have to replace my previously favorite tagline of "I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but you may not realize that what you heard is not what I meant" with this one! - Steve ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
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In reply to this post by scaganoff
Saul -
I love (most of) your list. Great Ante. I think you might mean "A Scanner Darkly" by Dick, but there appear to be as many as 5 novels by the Title "Through a Glass Darkly" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_a_Glass_Darkly and then there is Sheridan le Fanu's 1872 collection of Gothic Horror short stories titled "In a Glass Darkly" which feels like it might have been Dick's inspiration? Any other PKDick fans in the audience? I can't believe I didn't ante him up for SF's own candidates for literature. I can do without KerWhack myself... just a bunch of the young and reckless driving around being jerks and being proud of themselves for it. Lame, lame, lame storytelling, modest writing, and not my cup of tea when it comes to social relevance. Though I have to say that when Tom Leech brought the Kerouac show to the Palace of the Governer's Museum, seeing the original typed on a long roll of paper gave me more respect for him. But not so much for the "On the Road" Story. I also have to second Alison's and Stephen's suggestion of Kesey's "One Time a Great Notion", though I have to say I liked the movie with Fonda and Newman (even) better. Ondaatje rocks. So does Kundera. And I agree that the ONLY way to read Homer is to let someone else do it into a microphone for you, abridged, in translation... I tried some of it straight up when I studied Greek in college... harsher than Ouzo... and a much nastier hangover. Not recommended... even for the self abusive. It almost caused the two hemispheres of my brain to fuse together (oblique reference to Julian Jaynes book on the topic). > All great suggestions and timely since my library book is due back > tomorrow. I'll add a couple of other suggestions: > > The English Patient (Ondaatje) > Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Persig) (not sure if this > counts as fiction) > A Glass Darkly (Philip K Dick) > On the Road (Kerouac) > Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kundera) > Heart of Darkness (Conrad) > > and for the Illiad I strongly recommend the audio book with Derek > Jacobi reading the Fagles translation (abridged). > > +1 for all Herman Hesse titles mentioned. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
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In reply to this post by Stephen Thompson
Stephen -
Good points all. Most of us went off on a "my favorite reads" jag with only a minor interest in whether it was "Literature" by any nominal or not-so-nominal standard. It doesn't surprise me that most of us have a collective double-standard. In our own fields of study/expertise we take offense when others don't consult or reference the studied origins of the field, and yet when we wander out of our field, we think that we can make it up as we go along. Like the NewAge (rhymes with SewAge) of the 80's where everything was Laser this and Quantum that... with hardly a clue what any of it meant. Robert's request *did* suggest that he was interested in his "literary education" and I think your response is much more ... "responsive" than the rest of our interjections. Though I do have to say I enjoy hearing the clamor of everyone's favorites (not to mention shouting my own out and dissing others' without regard to any semblance of decorum). Carry on, - Steve > Most of you are PhDs and respond to inquiries from the > non-science type to aspects of your field(s). So how about asking > a college in the English Lit or World Lit department? > > Robert, you mentioned you are going to improve your literary > education, so the works will generally be older because those > have had an effect on the development of literature. The works > should provide some understanding of the development of the > field as well as being entertaining, insightful, etc. > > To make a musical analogy, I thoroughly enjoy Bach Fugues but > if I wish to understand the musical form of the fugue, I also need to > listen to Medieval and Renaissance forms that lead up to it > (the ricercar, fantasy, etc) > > Think of the field as having a core trunk and then many branches > at the top. It sounds like you are asking about the 'trunk' of the > field. > > So maybe you need 10 books to represent the trunk of the literary > tree and then afterward pick 3-5 more works for each branch to > cover the last 150 - 200 hundred years. > > Steph T > > > On 10/9/2010 3:44 AM, Saul Caganoff wrote: >> All great suggestions and timely since my library book is due back >> tomorrow. I'll add a couple of other suggestions: >> >> The English Patient (Ondaatje) >> Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Persig) (not sure if this >> counts as fiction) >> A Glass Darkly (Philip K Dick) >> On the Road (Kerouac) >> Unbearable Lightness of Being (Kundera) >> Heart of Darkness (Conrad) >> >> and for the Illiad I strongly recommend the audio book with Derek >> Jacobi reading the Fagles translation (abridged). >> >> +1 for all Herman Hesse titles mentioned. >> >> Regards, >> Saul >> >> On Saturday, October 9, 2010, Alison Jones<[hidden email]> >> wrote: >>> After 10 years of lurking something I can finally comment on. >>> >>> In no particlular order: >>> >>> Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy >>> Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin >>> Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol >>> Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie >>> Sometime a Great Notion by Ken Kesey >>> Beloved by Toni Morrison >>> Middlemarch by George Eliot >>> Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov >>> To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf >>> Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky >>> Death in Venice by Thomas Mann >>> >>> >>> There are so many more! >>> Alison >>> (Yeah, I know it is 11. And you are so right Robert (Holmes), I >>> should really say Pevear and Volokhonsky's Karenina ☺) >>> >>> >>> On Oct 8, 2010, at 1:44 PM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote: >>> >>> >>> Ok, so I've decided my literary education is somewhat lacking and >>> would like to know this group's recommendations for the "10 Best >>> Literary Works" I should read. They have to be works of fiction and >>> available in English and not just say of 2009 but of all time. >>> Google searches tend to list the best of a year or be listed by one >>> particular publisher. This is a good group to poll since you all >>> (most) have at least some kind of scientific/technical bent. So I >>> know the suggestions will be good ones for me! >>> >>> Once I have a list of all suggestions maybe I'll ask you all to vote >>> on them. >>> >>> My list currently starts with Frank's recommendation today: >>> >>> "Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West" by Cormac >>> McCarthy >>> >>> Thanks! >>> Robert C. >>> >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >>> >>> >>> >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
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In reply to this post by Steve Smith
Thanks, Steve. I've noticed that the breadth of you reading is
exceptional.
Grant Holland VP, Product Development and Software Engineering NuTech Solutions 404.427.4759 On 10/9/2010 10:45 AM, Steve Smith wrote: Grant - ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
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In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley
I make no claims about being among the "10 Best" but here are a few selections not previously mentioned.
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut Candide - Voltaire Perhaps something by John Steinbeck? I guess the obvious is The Grapes of Wrath but I hated it for some reason (perhaps because I grew up in Oklahoma?). I liked Cannery Row. and maybe for the kiddies... Captains Courageous - Rudyard Kipling aha! I might have discovered a latent preference for the letter 'C'! weird. On Oct 8, 2010, at 12:44 PM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote: > Ok, so I've decided my literary education is somewhat lacking and would like to know this group's recommendations for the "10 Best Literary Works" I should read. They have to be works of fiction and available in English and not just say of 2009 but of all time. Google searches tend to list the best of a year or be listed by one particular publisher. This is a good group to poll since you all (most) have at least some kind of scientific/technical bent. So I know the suggestions will be good ones for me! > > Once I have a list of all suggestions maybe I'll ask you all to vote on them. > > My list currently starts with Frank's recommendation today: > > "Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West" by Cormac McCarthy > > Thanks! > Robert C. > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
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In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley
All -
10??? Oh, well . . . When I was a kid, my parents installed this in the living room (you can still sometimes find it in used book stores -- saw one a few years ago for $150, missing Marx and Freud !). I learned a lot :-) : Some years ago, I was asked for "recommended reading" (by a group of students), and I pulled this together: Fiction - July, 2001 (html) (mostly 20th century, but some other stuff . . . This needs to be updated :-) This semester, in a class I am teaching, we're reading (among other things, including "Pandora's Hope" by Bruno Latour). Earth Abides, by George Stewart Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig The Goldbug Variations, by Richard Powers In prior years of the class, we've also read "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller, "The Golden Notebook" by Doris Lessing, "Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs, and "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad (so we could watch Apocalypse Now :-). I guess if I'm ready to require students to read them, I must think they're worthwhile . . . tom On Oct 8, 2010, at 12:44 PM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote:
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Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
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In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley
Here's some in random order.
The Age of Reason, Jean Paul Sartre The Tale of Genji, Lady Murasaki For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway The Beautiful and Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen Cervantes, Don Quixote The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges Leigh On 09 Oct 2010 at 09:14 AM, Robert J. Cordingley related > The situation so far... in case you are not keeping count: > > Given some restrictions, like only accepting the first 10 mentioned by > anyone ... so far we have 73 submissions, 4 have been recommended 3 > times, 9 have been recommended twice and the rest once. And just to > confirm that my literary education is somewhat lacking, I noticed that > I've read only 4 of them. > > Any more recommendations? > > Thanks, > Robert C > > On 10/8/10 1:44 PM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote: >> Ok, so I've decided my literary education is somewhat lacking and >> would like to know this group's recommendations for the "10 Best >> Literary Works" I should read. They have to be works of fiction and >> available in English and not just say of 2009 but of all time. Google >> searches tend to list the best of a year or be listed by one >> particular publisher. This is a good group to poll since you all >> (most) have at least some kind of scientific/technical bent. So I >> know the suggestions will be good ones for me! >> >> Once I have a list of all suggestions maybe I'll ask you all to vote >> on them. >> >> My list currently starts with Frank's recommendation today: >> >> "Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West" by Cormac >> McCarthy >> >> Thanks! >> Robert C. >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >> >> > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
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In reply to this post by Grant Holland
On 10/9/10 11:10 AM, Grant Holland wrote:
Thanks, Steve. I've noticed that the breadth of you reading is exceptional.And that is just the stuff I'm willing to admit to on-list.... I'll save the really juicy stuff for another forum. Most places I'm askeered to admit to reading Russel and Whitehead or Godel or even the man who introduced me to them (Douglas Hofstadter)... It is good to be surrounded by other readers with a wide dynamic range! - STeve ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
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In reply to this post by Tom Carter
Merle Lefkoff wrote:
Thank you for mentioning Richard Powers. And don't forget Powers' "The Time of Our Singing", an extraordinary imaginative leap into the complexities of racial identity. Tom Carter wrote: > All - > > 10??? Oh, well . . . > > When I was a kid, my parents installed this in the living room (you can still sometimes find it in used book stores -- saw one a few years ago for $150, missing Marx and Freud !). I learned a lot :-) : > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World > > Some years ago, I was asked for "recommended reading" (by a group of students), and I pulled this together: > > Fiction - July, 2001 (html) (mostly 20th century, but some other stuff . . . This needs to be updated :-) > > This semester, in a class I am teaching, we're reading (among other things, including "Pandora's Hope" by Bruno Latour). > > Earth Abides, by George Stewart > Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig > The Goldbug Variations, by Richard Powers > > In prior years of the class, we've also read "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller, "The Golden Notebook" by Doris Lessing, "Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs, and "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad (so we could watch Apocalypse Now :-). I guess if I'm ready to require students to read them, I must think they're worthwhile . . . > > tom > > > On Oct 8, 2010, at 12:44 PM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote: > > >> Ok, so I've decided my literary education is somewhat lacking and would like to know this group's recommendations for the "10 Best Literary Works" I should read. They have to be works of fiction and available in English and not just say of 2009 but of all time. Google searches tend to list the best of a year or be listed by one particular publisher. This is a good group to poll since you all (most) have at least some kind of scientific/technical bent. So I know the suggestions will be good ones for me! >> >> Once I have a list of all suggestions maybe I'll ask you all to vote on them. >> >> My list currently starts with Frank's recommendation today: >> >> "Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West" by Cormac McCarthy >> >> Thanks! >> Robert C. >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >> >> > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
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In reply to this post by Steve Smith
and even us lurkers
(10 !? can't even begin to get it down to ten, thus the absence of presence) are getting a kick and learning a lot from this all... Tory On Oct 9, 2010, at 12:41 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
----------------------------------- Tory Hughes Tory Hughes website Tory Hughes facebook ------------------------------------ ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
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In reply to this post by Steve Smith
Merle Lefkoff wrote:
Have I missed something? I don't recall having seen anything by Philip Roth on anyone's list. And now that I think about it, I've been musing for some time about the dearth of neurotic Jewish intellectuals in Friam--especially noteworthy given our Complexity forefathers: Murray, David, Stu, etc. Why do you think this might be so, Nick? Pamela? Merle Steve Smith wrote: > On 10/9/10 11:10 AM, Grant Holland wrote: >> Thanks, Steve. I've noticed that the breadth of you reading is >> exceptional. > And that is just the stuff I'm willing to admit to on-list.... I'll > save the really juicy stuff for another forum. > > Most places I'm askeered to admit to reading Russel and Whitehead or > Godel or even the man who introduced me to them (Douglas Hofstadter)... > > It is good to be surrounded by other readers with a wide dynamic range! > > - STeve > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
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Well, Merle: I'm a neurotic Jewish Intellectual: I just don't happen to be
Jewish. Nick -----Original Message----- From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Merle Lefkoff Sent: Saturday, October 09, 2010 1:29 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The Best 10 Fictional Works Merle Lefkoff wrote: Have I missed something? I don't recall having seen anything by Philip Roth on anyone's list. And now that I think about it, I've been musing for some time about the dearth of neurotic Jewish intellectuals in Friam--especially noteworthy given our Complexity forefathers: Murray, David, Stu, etc. Why do you think this might be so, Nick? Pamela? Merle Steve Smith wrote: > On 10/9/10 11:10 AM, Grant Holland wrote: >> Thanks, Steve. I've noticed that the breadth of you reading is >> exceptional. > And that is just the stuff I'm willing to admit to on-list.... I'll > save the really juicy stuff for another forum. > > Most places I'm askeered to admit to reading Russel and Whitehead or > Godel or even the man who introduced me to them (Douglas Hofstadter)... > > It is good to be surrounded by other readers with a wide dynamic range! > > - STeve > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > -- > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe > at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at > http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
Re: The Best 10 Fictional Works
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In reply to this post by Merle Lefkoff
On Oct 9, 2010, at 3:28 PM, Merle Lefkoff wrote: I don't think I'll go there. :-) P. "How quickly weeks glide away in such a city as New York, especially when you reckon among your friends some of the most agreeable people in either hemisphere." Fanny Trollope, "Domestic Manners of the Americans"============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
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