what's the best book from the list of americas favorite books?

Key-rist...

...which is to say The Bible, I guess.

haha the bible is definitely the best of those 10

To Kill a Mockingbrid and Catcher in the Rye are both A+++ classic perfect yes will read again. And the reason they made that list is because they're also quick, easy reads. ;)

"Oh, I love the classics. The thin ones."

bible, not even close.

I want to see a poll of what Russia's favorite books are.

the same excpt for lee.

So basically 80% of Americans live in some kind of fantasy world, 10% actually care about justice, and 10% are juvenile, bitter fucks.

i like how the education chart on that page suggests a there's a sizable demographic of people who got so wrapped up in "the stand" that they stopped going to class.

Why doesn't black people want to Gone with the Wind?

yeah i like catcher in the rye but the bible is probably way better than the rest of these

Man, has anyone repping for it read the damn thing?

MESS OF FUCKING POTTAGE IT IS

Really, Atlas Shrugged???

They're voting for Song of Solomon, not Numbers.

yeah salinger and lee are the only good things here. the bible has like 50 good pages out of 5,000 or whatever.

to kill a mockingbird

you guys are fucking psychos, catcher in the rye and tkab were great in high school and are basically the most boring books in the world now, i would rather read angels and demons 40 times than one more word of harper lee

i shoulve voted harry potter actually

i dont read books tho so max you're probably right

it's ok, nobody who voted on that reads books, either

If we're going to bring "boring" into the argument, the Bible is going to have some problems here: there is some great stuff in there, but seriously.

It'd actually be a fun project to have an editor take a stab at working with the Bible as a manuscript. Also possibly bundling a lot of the New Testament as commentaries on the original text. And possibly end-noting a lot of begats and dietary laws.

just more proof that americans don't read but do fondly remember that one time when they read AN ENTIRE BOOK back in eighth grade

i do read, just not books

i'd rep for the stand, though it's got more religious bullshit than the bible and less action.

or at least, not books that i'm not assigned to read for school

also more proof that british ppl are the most self-loathing humans on the planet

Old Testament wars and fuckin' and shit - got me through Friday chapel my one year in a Christian school.

The rest of these are balls.

you're talking about the stand, right?

Of course.

I didn't know people actually read Gone With The Wind! Not even old people.

needs more Dan Brown imo

seems sort of unfair to include series in the list

also why do harry potter and lotr count as series but not da vinci and angels and demons?

Actually I think my two favorite books on this list are The Stand and (wait for it....) Angels and Demons lololololololol

would really like to see the next 15-20 on the list

the bible -- some great stuff in the old testament; i can take or leave the rest
gone with the wind -- confederate dreck
lord of the rings -- D&D dreck
harry potter -- give me louis sachar any day
king -- harlan ellison for dummies
da vinci code -- stephen king for dummies
mockingbird -- lovely book but i'd rather watch the movie
atlas shrugged -- "get thee to a gas chamber, go!"
catcher -- easily the only thing here i'd ever read again

lord of the rings almost has more in common with the bible than with harry potter

prob should vote lotr

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/i_would_say_to_kill_a

^^^ most melancholy onion article ever

seems sort of unfair to include series in the list

-- max, Friday, May 23, 2008 7:08 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

lotr was intended as a single novel and split up into a trilogy at the insistence of his publishers if i remember correctly, so it's defensible to do that, but less so for harry potter

the weird thing about King is how he's been accepted into literary circles now.

angels & demons is the pick for ppl who aren't into big pop books that everyone and their mother reads, it says 'i dig a little deeper'

GAH Angels and Demons

I re-read Gone with the Wind last year and loved the parts of the story and found some of the characters compelling... BUT. The appalling racism and bullshit "the pre-Civil War south was so the perfect world" literally gave me nightmares.

I was raised Catholic, and thus didn't do a lot of Bible reading, but apparently the parts I have read are not the right ones, because it mostly put me to sleep.

Lord of the Rings - Dear Mr. Tolkien, I can't get to the story for all the details and names and history! But some people do love it, and after seeing the movies, I went back and started to get why.

Harry Potter - enjoyed reading them with my kids

The Stand is my favorite of the ones I've read, overall, but it's probably my bloodlust or something because it's the first half, where almost everyone on the planet dies off, that I enjoy the most.

Yeah, the little vignettes of catastrophe are absolutely the best part of that book. Probably the best part of King's IT, as well.

Re-reading the Stand last year, I was kinda uncomfortable about the Mother Abigail character's African-American dialect. Anyone else feel that way, or am I just being overly sensitive?

She never bothered me.

Okay, I'll keep that in mind if I ever pick the book up again. Thanks.

I think it's just that King might not have been a master of nuance at that early point in his career.

He's still doing that dialect, though! It showed up in "Bag of Bones" and again in this year's "Duma Key."

If we're going to bring "boring" into the argument, the Bible is going to have some problems here: there is some great stuff in there, but seriously.

It's time for an edit and re-release of The Bible. The main character in the Bible is not Jesus, it's King David. No, really. I'm tired as hell of people saying, "Man, Christians don't really follow what Jesus said! Jesus was so cool and all peace and love and he hung with prostitutes and people who were sick as fuck!" Like they've just thought of something really original and challenging to say about the Bible. Meanwhile there's a huge chunk of the book that's as muscular as King Lear, and full of moral ambiguities and demon-wrestling and suffering... and even a little redemption... and people remember it episodically if at all. Like, yes, the kid with the slingshot, the dude who committed adultery at basically the same moment he was having the woman's husband killed (whoa), and the Wise King... all the same guy. David works, as they say, on so many levels. Next to that, trying to pattern yourself after Jesus seems as impractical and vapid as trying to move to Walden Woods.

I love how in The Outsiders Ponyboy all reads Gone With the Wind to his bud and get all intense hopeful, "stay golden," and transcendence through that of all books. Man, S.E. Hinton was something else.

David works, as they say, on so many levels. Next to that, trying to pattern yourself after Jesus seems as impractical and vapid as trying to move to Walden Woods.

Much as I am not Jesus' #1 fan, I way prefer the people who attempt to emulate him than the fucking Walden crowd.

Reading The Bible, or at least having a fairly good familiarity with it, helps with the NYT crosswords a lot.

I hate to say it, but Kyle Baker's adaptation of David wasn't really up to par.

I way prefer the people who attempt to emulate him than the fucking Walden crowd.

Oh, I'm encouraging. "Yes, by all means. Please do go Into The Wild. That'll be just dandy."

Hahahahahahahahahahaha

"But Thoreau went to JAIL for what he BELIEVED, man!" Yeah, and he was bailed out the next day. So quit trying to get me to come to your shitty black box play about Issues and shit.

i didn't even like Catcher that much. :-(

Old Ackley cut his goddamn toenails in the living room. Holden has part grey hair and sees some people spitting water on each other through a window. Where do the ducks go when it freezes. Oh gosh, someone wrote the F-word in a museum of great nostalgia. That whore didn't work out at all. He could read Phoebe's notebooks all day. Checkers, old girlfriends, rollerskates.

That's the book for anyone who hasn't read it.

I think it's brilliant. But I'm still a bit fuzzy on what gun-wielding maniacs think they're reading about.

Or perhaps better:

http://cardhouse.com/x07/catcher1.gif
http://cardhouse.com/x07/catcher2.gif

My dad read it in high school and he said Holden ends up in a mental institution (for picking his nose in public). I think he misunderstood it? But I always worry I did.

Oh, beloved teacher sort of gays it up. That's a thing, too.

Wait, guys, waht are you talking about: a Walden crowd??

Surely the wise king was David's son Solomon, Kenan

Abbott: Yes, Holden is telling the story from a mental hospital. He "got sick." Likely had a complete breakdown. And from this he has learned that this unpleasantness can be avoided in the future if he closes himself off completely. Mmmm... healthy. See, he's probably always going to be unhappy. He has settled into his seat and had his ticket punched on the Unhappy Express.

i always thought Holden was supposed to be a pathetic character, not one who the reader's supposed to empathize with, but it seems most people who list the book as a favorite do just that

I sympathize with getting tricked into seeing prostitutes.

I feel kind of embarrassed I didn't get the institution thing...I read that book like 20x when I was fourteen. At least I understood this part of The Bell Jar.

xpost Exactly! It's like thinking The Graduate has a happy ending or something.

kenan makes a great point about the bible upthread. but also in the nt, you've got the adventures of all the apostles traveling round the mediterranean, founding churches and getting knocked off. it really is a tale of picaresque nuttiness, and is absolutely gret reading. and don't forget revelation; entertainment and great poetry.

re britishes being self-loathing, we're not the ones reading this thing regularly are we?

also was the question not 'which is the best book' rather than which one have you enjoyed most?

It's time for an edit and re-release of The Bible. The main character in the Bible is not Jesus, it's King David. No, really. I'm tired as hell of people saying, "Man, Christians don't really follow what Jesus said! Jesus was so cool and all peace and love and he hung with prostitutes and people who were sick as fuck!" Like they've just thought of something really original and challenging to say about the Bible. Meanwhile there's a huge chunk of the book that's as muscular as King Lear, and full of moral ambiguities and demon-wrestling and suffering... and even a little redemption... and people remember it episodically if at all. Like, yes, the kid with the slingshot, the dude who committed adultery at basically the same moment he was having the woman's husband killed (whoa), and the Wise King... all the same guy. David works, as they say, on so many levels. Next to that, trying to pattern yourself after Jesus seems as impractical and vapid as trying to move to Walden Woods.

-- kenan, Friday, May 23, 2008 3:55 PM (44 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

ive recommended this on ilx before but "god knows" by joseph heller is a really funny portnoys complaint take on david's deathbed memoirs & one of my favorite novels
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Y108C79ML._SL500_SS90_.jpg

It'd actually be a fun project to have an editor take a stab at working with the Bible as a manuscript.

I think a Gysin/Burroughs style cut-up version of the Bible would be pretty great.

you've got the adventures of all the apostles traveling round the mediterranean, founding churches and getting knocked off. it really is a tale of picaresque nuttiness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoBYYElyP4c

Picaresque nuttiness, and then the Bible ends with the HOT ORGIASTIC EXPLOSION OF CRAZY that is the book of Revelation.

It would be funny if Revelation ended with the sentence, "Oops! I forgot to have a point."

that would be soooooo wild omg

Well, I think it would be funny. :/

what if it ended with the sentence "not!"

or "PSYCH"

yeah, the epistles are not as fun as acts as izzard shows.

a poll about how many of these we've read (or started, or read bits of) might be relevant. for me it's 5. lotr, catcher, the stand, bible, mockingbird. so, like others, i'm guilty of going on rep of some of thses.

what if it ended with the sentence "not!"

I was trying to reference the Mallard Fillmore thing where he forgot to make a joke, and... uh... I forgot to make a joke.

Like the writers of the bible then.

And, seriously, The Stand is the best King book? It>>>The Stand.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i gotta admit kenan's king david post made me want to take another look at the bible.

though it could used some editing as a "novel" The Bible wins this easily.
all the basic narratives are there and with full power.(along with greek mythology and shakespear probably)

the weird thing about King is how he's been accepted into literary circles now.

-- bnw, Friday, May 23, 2008 7:19 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Link

Has he? At large, I mean.

I know he edited Best American Short Fic a couple years ago, and my creative writing advisor was always going on inna Lex stylee about how "dammit no one takes him seriously but THEY SHOULD," but wasn't there a big fuckaround dustup when he got some award from the National Book Award people?

One gets the impression that among certain crowds he's taken seriously, but in other crowds he's still seen as garbage.

As an immigrant, I get the impression almost everybody in North America is forcefed both Catcher In The Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird through their high school curriculum; is this true? I read the former a long time ago, liked it alright, reread it a couple of years ago and still just kind of thought it was okay, some very good and even great moments, worth reading, etc. But the Harper Lee I'd never read, nor had I seen the film until (finally) curiosity got the better of me and I consumed both about a year ago. I loved them a fuck of a lot.

So, considering I was raised Catholic, became very lost in the LotR books at a reasonably early age and that The Stand is my sentimental favourite of Stephen King's work (it accompanied a summer working at a Butlins Holiday camp)... alongside all of the above, this poll is tough.

I tried to read Dan Brown but was mystified as to why such stultifying shite is at all popular, I read the first Harry Potter novel to my son years ago, but was so underwhelmed (good pacing/plot, decent character work, but no love for the visceral music of language whatsoever) I never read another, and have never even been curious enough to read Ayn Rand despite a predilection for Rush (haha), but given all this I am going to vote for Mockingbird because (as old as it is) to me there's a freshness and spiritedness and lack of cynicism that raises it above the others, just.

Oh, and HOOS, yeah there're some big divisions among the literati re: King.

My own take is that the man needs an editor sometimes, that he can certainly write, that he has a tendency to lapse into sentimental stereotypes and scenarios sometimes, that he's definitely hamfisted when it comes to depicting other races and -- sometimes -- women, but that he's well-intentioned in that classic Baby Boomer way (ha, speaking of sentimental stereotypes), but that despite his shortcomings his best work* will endure. He's one of the most important American writers of our time whichever way you slice it.

*The Stand, Different Seasons, Pet Sematary (as pure horror, it's extremely effective), Salem's Lot, oh I could go on a bit, which I've already done, so I'll leave it there...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

what the fuck

you are all very unique holden caulfields

-- deej, Thursday, May 15, 2008 3:31 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

yeah though i walk thru the valley of the shadow of death vs a kid wit problems

is it really that surprising?