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 |
I would have to vote for the Bible. Its arguably not great fiction,
but its probably the most influential work of fiction in the English language. Cheers ;). On Fri, Oct 08, 2010 at 01:44:31PM -0600, 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 -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Mathematics UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [hidden email] Australia http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================ 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 |
In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley
Restricting to just novels --
"Ulysses" by James Joyce
"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce
"Moby Dick" (1849) by Herman Melville
"The Sound and the Fury" (1929) by William Faulkner
"The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
"Crime and Punishment: by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
"Atonement" (2002) by Ian McEwan
"Catch-22" (1961) by Joseph Heller
"The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1969) by John Fowles
"Herzog" (1964) by Saul Bellow
On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 1:44 PM, Robert J. Cordingley <[hidden email]> 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! -- George Duncan
georgeduncanart.com (505) 983-6895
Represented by ViVO Contemporary Life must be understood backwards; but... it must be lived forward. Soren Kierkegaard ============================================================ 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 |
In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley
Robert --
The St. John's graduate in me says "whoopie"! Here are 10, in no particular order: Shakespeare: Sonnets Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet Dante: The Divine Comedy Homer: The Iliad Tolstoy: War & Peace Cervantes: Don Quixote Eliot: Middlemarch Austen: Pride & Prejudice Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby Melville: Moby Dick If you're okay with an anthology, The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose is well worth a look, as is anything by Wodehouse, I believe. I'm sure some will quibble with my choices (too Western, too St. John's-y, not really fiction), but I'd aver at least some of them qualify in the sense of being "based on a true story", if not necessarily fiction. Happy Reading! - Claiborne Booker - -----Original Message-----
From: Robert J. Cordingley <[hidden email]> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]> Sent: Fri, Oct 8, 2010 3:44 pm Subject: [FRIAM] The Best 10 Fictional Works
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 |
Take a look at this:
One Hundred Best BooksJohn Cowper Powys
ISBN10: 1116904438 ISBN13: 9781116904437 Publisher: BiblioLife, LLC Format: Paperback Publication date: 07 Nov 2009 cheers, Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] To: [hidden email] Sent: Fri, Oct 8, 2010 3:39 pm Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The Best 10 Fictional Works
Robert --
The St. John's graduate in me says "whoopie"! Here are 10, in no particular order: Shakespeare: Sonnets Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet Dante: The Divine Comedy Homer: The Iliad Tolstoy: War & Peace Cervantes: Don Quixote Eliot: Middlemarch Austen: Pride & Prejudice Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby Melville: Moby Dick If you're okay with an anthology, The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose is well worth a look, as is anything by Wodehouse, I believe. I'm sure some will quibble with my choices (too Western, too St. John's-y, not really fiction), but I'd aver at least some of them qualify in the sense of being "based on a true story", if not necessarily fiction. Happy Reading! - Claiborne Booker - -----Original Message-----
From: Robert J. Cordingley <[hidden email]> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]> Sent: Fri, Oct 8, 2010 3:44 pm Subject: [FRIAM] The Best 10 Fictional Works
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 |
Good grief, I have that as a Little Blue Book published by E. Haldeman-Julius, falling apart on high acid content paper.
Scott
On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 3:47 PM, Paul Paryski <[hidden email]> wrote: Take a look at this: ============================================================ 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 |
In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley
The Glass Bead Game, by Hermann Hesse, is a must-read for any
self-respecting complexity theorist :-) Hugh ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert J. Cordingley" <[hidden email]> To: "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group" <[hidden email]> Sent: Friday, October 08, 2010 12:44 PM Subject: [FRIAM] The Best 10 Fictional Works > 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 |
In reply to this post by Scott R. Powell
Here 'tis for gor nisht - http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12914/pg12914.html
On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 3:55 PM, Scott R. Powell <[hidden email]> wrote: Good grief, I have that as a Little Blue Book published by E. Haldeman-Julius, falling apart on high acid content paper. ============================================================ 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 |
So I take it that our working definition of "best" is "will look good on the coffee table and impress liberal arts graduates" rather than "will be read and enjoyed"? ;-)
-- R P.S. Also: when selecting foreign authors you must specify the translation if you are going to maximize your pseud points. It's not Don Quixote, it's the Grossman Quixote. It's not The Brothers Karamazov, it's the Volokhonsky Karamazov. Collect enough points and you get a merit badge!
============================================================ 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 |
In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley
I've just been reading a collection of Twain's writings on writing itself.
Therefore I have to offer the classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It is the classic American Novel, and not just (though especially) for young men. I squirm at Frank's recommendation of (anything by?) Cormac McCarthy, especially Blood Meridian. Of all his works, No Country for Old Men is the closest I would give him to literary quality. I know several on this list are personal friends/acquaintances with him. No offense... he certainly writes of powerful subjects and with strong and serviceable style. If you have to include something from a local and contemporary author, go for it, but pick up No Country before Meridian. In that very genre/topic, (the overly romanticized but brutal "old west"), I recommend Larry McMurtry's (strangely enough) Lonesome Dove (the novel which was serialized as TV Schlock) where (like Blood Meridian) the disaffected riffraff from the defeated Confederate South came West to play out their myriad psychoses on eachother, on the native inhabitants and on anyone else unfortunate enough to be living west of the Miss. From the same era I'd recommend Jack London (short stories over novels?) and a Dicken's (Copperfield). To avoid total male dominance, I'd recommend a Jane Austen (P&P or S&S equally). For the mystical allegorical journey, maybe some Hesse (Siddartha) For some token (but grand) Science Fiction, I'd have to give Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land) and Stephenson (Snow Crash or Diamond Age) *some* literary credit. Stephen King (even his schlocky horror) is literary in his style and storytelling... Green Mile and Rita Hayworth/Shawshank come to mind. How about something deeply classical like Homer or even (sorry, but it is more fiction than history or prophecy for me) parts of the Bible? I'd also recommend something Sufi, maybe by Rumi (where *is* the border between poetry and fiction?). And a Kipling and a Conan Doyle Solzhenitsyn's ( A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch) Recent literary highs for me include God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy) Life of Pi (Yann Martel) White Tiger (Aravand Adiga) Kite Runner (Hosseini) We Shall Know our Velocities (Eggers) Motherless Brooklyn (Johnathan Letham) Am I over ten yet? So many books, so little time. - Steve > 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 |
In reply to this post by Hugh Trenchard
Hugh Trenchard wrote circa 10-10-08 02:56 PM:
> The Glass Bead Game, by Hermann Hesse, is a must-read for any > self-respecting complexity theorist :-) +1 I was also _very_ fond of Narcissus and Goldmund... Oh! Oh! and Siddhartha and Steppenwolf, as well. I'd also add the following to the list: The Magus by John Fowles The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Shea and Wilson Mother London by Michael Moorcock All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren What's that... 8? Hm. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut There. That's 10. ;-) -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com ============================================================ 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 |
In reply to this post by Steve Smith
Geeze, doesn't anybody like good science fiction any more? Larry Nivin's Ringworld. Poul Anderson's Gateway series.
--Doug
On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 4:21 PM, Steve Smith <[hidden email]> wrote:
I've just been reading a collection of Twain's writings on writing itself. ============================================================ 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 |
In reply to this post by Robert Holmes
R -
So I take it that our working definition of "best" is "will look good on the coffee table and impress liberal arts graduates" rather than "will be read and enjoyed"? ;-)I don't think that was the original question. Is it evidenced in some of the answers? Or is this just Doug spoofing your e-mail address? ;) I assumed he was asking for "good storytelling with high quality writing and maybe some allegorical or other added value" And at the risk of it looking like I'm trying to impress liberal arts majors, let me add (well beyond 10 now) Luis Borges - Ficciones (or Aleph) Carry On! - 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 |
In reply to this post by Douglas Roberts-2
Doug -
> Geeze, doesn't anybody like good science fiction any more? Larry > Nivin's Ringworld. Poul Anderson's Gateway series. I love that shit (much of SF)... but don't quite want to call most of it literature... great storytelling and exposition of esoteric scientific concepts... but not quite always what I want to call literature... It is a good question... in this crowd, naturally sympathetic (I presume) to Science Fiction. "What can pass as literature?" I know a few SF authors and many are great at what I said above of your suggestions (storytelling exposition)... and some of these works may be remembered *as* literary... with enough perspective of time. Jack Williamson was a friend and a prolific writer from the golden age of SF and beyond (Scientifiction he first called it in 1927 and was still cranking things out through the rest of his 100+ lifespan) but I know he didn't claim to have been writing literature. The closest might be his post WWII novel "the Humanoid Touch". It was what rescued him from a long writer's block after realizing the horrors that technology had wrought (in war) when they had been promised as a panacea. Including by himself. It was not his normal pulp-SF adventure/space-opera. Until the 60's I don't think I can call out any other SF as Literature (though the Pre-SF Scientific Romance period with Verne and Doyle has some good entries). London and Twain dabbled in that realm successfully too. Maybe I'm looking for more/deeper social significance than most SF even aspires to (much less achieves)? Some with literary talent/style: Heinlein (only with Stranger and maybe a couple of others) Samuel Delaney Maybe Clarke and Asimov... barely? Tolkien (Fantasy, not SF though) Sterling and Gibson (barely). Stephenson (barely... maybe if he can nail what he was trying to do with his Baroque Cycle) King (though not so much his SF/Horror) In our own neighborhood, I might want to nominate (some of) the works of Walter Jon Williams, J R R Martin, Laura Mixon-Gould and Sage Walker as candidates for having literary qualities. Steve (SM) Stirling gets a "maybe"... I think he has the talent as a writer and a storyteller and there is significance woven through his works but he somehow gets caught up more in juvenile/egoist stuff before he gets down to the important cool, adult issues. Margaret Atwood is assumed to be literary while her content is SF. Ursula LeGuin is sometimes credited with the same. Vonnegut is almost pure SF and yet he is usually considered contemporary Am Lit. and I grant him (most of) that categorization. I love the works of the Hard SF folks (Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Niven, Benson, Bear, Benford, Forward .........) and especially those with a good solid social message/question (Stranger, Dune, 2001, ...) But a lot of it is mostly escapist (albeit into deep scientific curiosities)... I personally do not snub SF as literature because of it's subject... I'm sure some do. And I think good storytelling is key to literature (and I find much of SF to be good examples of that). And some SF authors are very good writers in the technical sense (though many are not). I guess the final key for me is the social relevance. Is the story saying something important... not just interesting and not just well written. That is where (by volume) SF (and most popular fiction) falls short. Romances, westerns, crime, mystery, espionage, etc. all have good storytellers and some good writers... but the deeper social significance seems too often missing or at least thin. Maybe I read too much SF at a young age and missed the social significance of (much of) it, or maybe I developed a taste for it from the few examples I did encounter young... I'd love to be reminded of the many authors and stories I read "back when" that may very well have carried more than grand ideas and fun adventures in space and time (and the inner space of scientific ideas). On re-evaluation (reflection?) I do realize that parts of Anderson's Gateway series probably do deserve a literary nod... and maybe Niven's FootFall (though I read it for my love of dystopianism) too. Among contemporary popular writers, Martin Cruz Smith's work (Stallion Gate, Red Square, Gorky Park, Stalin's Ghost, Rising Sun) are exceptions to this generality (I'm waay over my 10 sorry). He tells a good story, with good imagery, dialog, exposition and the stories he tells and the characters he builds are not just interesting but important to the human experience. I'm not big on "character" novels but his Arkady Renko actually works for me on repitition... the crazy Russian bastard actually makes sense. Just because I'm not a liberal arts major doesn't mean I don't read critically (as well as for informational, educational, informational and escapist) reasons. Damn, I'm having a ramble-y day... sorry to expose all of you to all of this... glad you have a "delete" key and the ability to skim lightly over such. I do hope someone (else) has some strong opinions and ideas about what makes literature and how does that fit with SF (and other usually escapist/popular genres) and that they read far enough to take the challenge here. - 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 |
Lists like this are always a bit odd. I got dressed down last night (gently but firmly) by a professor of English who couldn't believe that I thought Brothers K. was the most tedious thing I've ever read half of (couldn't drive myself to read the second half). I like other Dostoevsky--just not Bros. K.
I can't even name my own top ten favorites. It's such a fluid list . There are books I admire without loving, and books I love without being able to argue for their admirability. I deeply admire "Ulysses" by James Joyce, but love only parts of it (the parts that remind me of my Irish grandpa, plus a few other parts). But certainly "Moby-Dick" (George Duncan and I re-read it this summer in a small group); certainly George Eliot's "Middlemarch," Anthony Trollope's "The Way We Live Now," and on the admirable-even-if-I-didn't-love-it list, "War and Peace," which I re-read last summer, and realized that Tolstoy was trying desperately to capture complexity as we know it now, but he didn't have the vocabulary nor the scientific insights to be able to understand that. But he knew *something* was afoot in the Napoleonic Wars, and it wasn't just Napoleon on the warpath. Pamela On Oct 8, 2010, at 7:14 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
"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 |
I was that liberal arts major, until I came across computer science, then all was lost, then complexity and developmental biology, and all was *really* lost...virtually nothing on the English major curriculum is still on my bookshelf, hmmm, 'cepting 'Alice' and maybe some Carlyle essays, TS Elliot and Coleridge. Oh, OK, there's some Dante and an old Byron, fine, geez. I agree with Pamela, Dostoyevsky fine to read once, but tedium thereafter, maybe even the first time. Not something I would even keep in a box, let alone on 180 feet of bookshelves. (Oh, harsh, yes - well, ok, hmm, I haven't looked through all my boxes for quite awhile, maybe it's there, I'm not saying it sucks, just that I never connected with it). I wouldn't put these up as "10 best", books in any global sense, but they're some I've read in recent years and continue to pull down and reread from time to time. The object would be to have fun reading rather than to read 'Great Litrichar"? I try not to read anything because I feel I should, or because it's on a bucket list. Non-Science-Fiction: "The Last Samurai", by Helen DeWitt. "West With the Night", by Beryl Markham "If On A Winter's Night A Traveler", by Italo Calvino "One Hundred Years of Solitude", by Gabriel Garcia Marquez "Baroque Cycle", "Cryptonomicon" by Neil Stephenson (ok, I was kinda skimming the second time through) "Ceremony", by Leslie Marmon Silko Science Fiction - I mostly select books by authors I like: Greg Benford, just about anything, I liked "In the Ocean of Night" and "Across the Sea of Suns", also "Foundation's Fear" Gene Wolfe, just about anything, really like the short stories. Neil Stephenson, "The Diamond Age" Bruce Sterling, most particularly "Distraction" Greg Bear, most recently "Darwin's Radio", but also "Blood Music", or "The Way" series. C J Cherryh, particularly Foreigner series. Greg Egan, shorter stories, novelettes. R A Lafferty, "Arrive at Easterwine" and some of his short stories Larry Niven, just about anything connected to the Ringworld universe. Phillip K. Dick, just about anything I do aspire to read some Japanese classics, e.g. "Tale of the Genji", or the "Kojiki" but there hasn't been time, what with not being sufficiently good at Japanese, and my music and all. Note to self, figure out a way to live longer. Carl On 10/8/10 5:56 PM, Pamela McCorduck wrote: Lists like this are always a bit odd. I got dressed down last night (gently but firmly) by a professor of English who couldn't believe that I thought Brothers K. was the most tedious thing I've ever read half of (couldn't drive myself to read the second half). I like other Dostoevsky--just not Bros. K. ============================================================ 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 |
In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley
I'd add "Sometimes a Great Notion", by Ken Kesey
and pretty much any volume of Encyclopedia Brown. That kid can solve anything. -S _____________________________________________________________ [hidden email] (m) 505-216-6226 (o) 505-995-0206 sfcomplex.org | simtable.com | ambientpixel.com | redfish.com 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 |
Steve
re: Brown... You have to pick specific volumes! Sorry if I didn't make that clear, otherwise someone could suggest a decalogy and 9 others, ie 19 works! Thanks Robert C On 10/8/10 11:22 PM, Stephen Guerin wrote: > I'd add "Sometimes a Great Notion", by Ken Kesey > > and pretty much any volume of Encyclopedia Brown. That kid can solve > anything. > > -S > _____________________________________________________________ > [hidden email] > (m) 505-216-6226 (o) 505-995-0206 > sfcomplex.org | simtable.com | ambientpixel.com | redfish.com > > 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 |
In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley
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 |
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 -- Saul Caganoff Enterprise IT Architect Mobile: +61 410 430 809 LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scaganoff ============================================================ 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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