Comments on Best Books Ever - page 38

You know a list is sh*t when Twilight is on top.

Amber wrote: "This list is a joke!"
no it isn't

Michele Anne wrote: "There are a lot of classic books that are wonderful to read that do not go out of print....and are even on audi which is how I now have to "read" books as I am now blind. These liabraries usually k..."

And people will always love books. Care for them, Remember and collect them. Have these wonderful devices on which to store them and read from them. One of the greatest experiences was being allowed to see how members of a reader group here went about reading SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. Everybody had their own way of starting it brand new or a re-read from childhood. I was dazzled by them, how they had doubts and came to like it, to not as much, but they just simply devoured it mostly, and one over riding question, what else has he written for autumn? A reading discussion on LOLITA here also filled with deep interpretations of literary symbolism as well as the novel's theme, so complex, sane and funny--long way of saying writers will always be when there are readers.

Barry wrote: "there are so many wonderful books, writers, but if they're aren't for sale, they don't exist. I've read about 50 books out of print, small publishers or hard to find."

About those rarer treasures - I heartily recommend Great Science-Fiction and Fantasy Works:

Have you heard of Satyrday? A. A. Attanasio? R. A. Lafferty?

The list compiler sounds like someone I'd befriend without a moment's hesitation. :)

The top 8 books are either Twilight or Harry Potter? This really says a lot about the current state of affairs.

It does, yes. TWILIGHT gives Christians permission to read vampire novels. Harry Potter, though, kids and young people have grown up with him and love those books and movies with everything they have, and even if they don't turn out to be readers or writers, it's all found a place in their hearts of imagination and a sense of wonder at what words can bring.

Just got to be Harry Potter! Although I am very disappointed to still be waiting for my letter from Hogwarts...

Cmon guys. How is THE HOST in the 69th percentile???? Its a classic.

About Stephen King's inordinate success:
"Why him?"

answer from BUGEATER:
"Why not?"

A man of few words, but hard to argue philosophy.

I feel bad for Stephanie Meyer, her books have taken quite a battering in these comments!

Don't. She is wildly successful and laughs all the way to the Swiss bank accounts. She doesn't know we exist. Of course, this is success "in the eyes of the world."

Am just imagining all the teenage girls voting here putting Twilight and thinking "Oh well this book has great social value and shows true love...no other book has cached the same essence and has changed the way we see literature."

I think a key to book position can also be intuited by the use of the word "Ever" as the last in the title here.

nicola wrote: "proof that the truth is not democratic =/

seriously, jane austen? errughhh."

The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard did state that truth is subjective. :)

Twilight and the whole herd sucks. Big time.

Quit taking shots at Twilight. It's number one because lots of people like it more than they like your favorite books. Big deal, that's life. Get over it. "Best Books Ever" is subjective.

Allison wrote: "Quit taking shots at Twilight. It's number one because lots of people like it more than they like your favorite books. Big deal, that's life. Get over it. "Best Books Ever" is subjective."

Why don't you get over the fact that I want to hate Twilight?

Lea wrote: "Why don't you get over the fact that I want to hate Twilight?"

I have no problem with you wanting to hate Twilight or straight up hating Twilight. But I'm tired of seeing people whine and complain about Twilight being number one on the list. It's number one because people vote for it, and they're not stupid just because they like a book that you hate.

You could take your negative attitude over to "The Worst Books of All Time" list. Twilight is number one over there too.

Sigrid wrote: "Instead of spending all of your time on a stupid comments page on goodreads go argue somewhere else. The sad thing is I'm always getting notifications about this. It's just a comments page on a web..."

To the right above the comment box there's a gray line of text that says "You are following this Discussion -edit-" If you click the edit button you can choose "None" to disable e-mails alerts. I'm sorry that you're getting notifications informing you of my every annoyed off-hand comment. I promise that after this I will leave this discussion alone and go read a book. :D

nicola wrote: "proof that the truth is not democratic =/

seriously, jane austen? errughhh."

I totally agree

It appears that the average reader is stuck on current best sellers. How sad, because most of the REALLY good books are not on those lists. They are books that require thinking...not what most readers seem to want anymore.

and I rooting for "Harry Potter"

I have no problem with you wanting to hate Twilight or straight up hating Twilight. But I'm tired of seeing people whin..."

So, you have a problem with me saying I hate it because a lot of people hate it.

I also never said I thought the people who liked Twilight were stupid.

Allison wrote: "You could take your negative attitude over to "The Worst Books of All Time" list."
Good point. :)

(It's fun to see the same books occupying the same spots in two supposedly antagonistic lists. :D Ah well ... I did suggest to the creator of this list to change its name to something like "Our Favorite Books". He doesn't want to.)

Twilight books are not good books!

I was wondering if anyone out there would like to swap PDFs? I am looking for World War II. They are hard to fin in the local library and online to buy as well. I would really appreciate it! Thanks. :)

I can't believe that The Mortal Instruments and The Vampire Academy don't crack the top #100! :P But I'm just biased on that part.

Did you read how Stephen King really won the lifetime achievement award of the NBA? No, not fancy dribbling.

if someone made me choose the best twilight book i've read, I'd choose eclipse. Twilight itself, however sucked.

Lea wrote:
So, you have a problem with me saying I hate it because a lot of people hate it.

Let me explain my motives here, because I don't really want to come across like I'm defending Twilight with an iron fist or that I'm trying to be the thought police. I made a general statement of telling everybody who hated Twilight AND was whining in the comments, to get over the fact that it was number one. It was a slightly rude statement, I acknowledge that, but I stand by general idea behind it. This is a list to vote for what you think are the "Best Books Ever", and if your own favorite gets back-paged while books you don't think are good make number one, you've got no right to go tramping around the comments declaring that everyone who likes Twilight is an idiot, that the world is in a sad place when Twilight makes number one, and that people who love Twilight simply have never read a REAL good book. The way I see it, you can hate something. That's just fine and dandy, but making such derogatory statements about the people who love it is not okay. Vise versa too, I made similar comments defending voting for English Classics on the "Worst Books of All Time" page, because there were people saying that whoever voted for so-and-so Pulitzer Prize winner must have failed English class because they were so dumb and wouldn't know a good book if it hit them in the head.

So in short, no I don't "have a problem with you saying you hate it because lots of people hate it". I have a problem with people tromping around these lists declaring their own opinion is the by-all end-all of the universe, and anyone who doesn't see things their way is simply an idiot or at best drastically misguided.

Lea wrote: I also never said I thought the people who liked Twilight were stupid.

And I'm very sorry to have aligned you with the people that I was initially making a general response to. I made an inference that was incorrect.

wow

Barry wrote: "wow"

Wow, what? What I said?

And didn't Stephen King win the National Book Award for lifetime achievement like eight years ago?

... or did he just win another one?

I love the passion for books. Goodreads constantly gives me hope. I'm just not among readers where I am. Yes, it was a long time ago and maybe it's happening like "Oh yeah, my old man liked him."
"Well, what does that tell you?"

It seems to me that Twilight is at the top of the list, because the list is mis-labeled. It isn't the "Best Books Ever" list. The list is really "Most Popular Books in 2011". If this list were started afresh a few years from now, most likely Twilight would be much further down on the list.

Barry wrote: "I love the passion for books. Goodreads constantly gives me hope. I'm just not among readers where I am. Yes, it was a long time ago and maybe it's happening like "Oh yeah, my old man liked him."
"..."

I don't quite understand what you mean here....?

David wrote: "It seems to me that Twilight is at the top of the list, because the list is mis-labeled. It isn't the "Best Books Ever" list. The list is really "Most Popular Books in 2011". If this list were st..."

This list has been up since I joined Goodreads three years ago, and I think that Twilight has been number one at least that long. It was either that or the Book of Mormon... which I see has dropped off the front page altogether. Undoubtably the list will change in a few years, people will change their votes and new people will vote for new books. So you could say that this is the "Most Popular Books of the Moment" list, though obviously they're not all the latest best-sellers. It's not a static list, it's always changing.

It doesn't matter. I'm not good at this.

Barry wrote: "It doesn't matter. I'm not good at this."

Oh... I'm sorry! I hope it doesn't put you off hanging around.

No, not at all. I like it. Thank you.

This is a joke. Crime and Punishment number 23, really? No Hemingway either, people are absolutely ridiculous.

Maybe I'm not clear about this. Best books sentimentally or taught, from which we gain knowledge and an appreciation of literature? If you only read classics, who decided they were classics? And don't the books you love, even not classics, help you learn even more? Seems we should read everything we can. If egalitarianism, it seems, should exist anywhere, isn't it supposed to be in reading and finding our own Hemingway or Rowling or whomever makes us more?

I seriously need to read more books. :D LOL I am getting there. I wish I could read books full time and be paid full time to do it! hehehe

TWILIGHT?? Oh please!! Well i admit it i like this book,kinda love it.but other books are so much BETTER! open your eyes people! if already then,i would not understand..

There has to be some amount of objectivity to it though, the first 8 places being taken up by Twilight and the Harry Potter books are absolutely ridiculous, I refuse to justify either by talking about them in their literary worth, they're kids stories? I mean by your logic "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" may as well be there, but that's simply not one of "The Best Books Ever". I'm sure people would gain more knowledge from Crime and Punishment as opposed to Twilight if they'd only have read it, they only reason for the Twilight series popularity is it's mind numbing accesability and I think it takes alot more than that to make something objectively "good".

Of course, there have to be growth processes in understanding as well as in what one reads. It's for a test, read, memorize, answer and then forget it. This is the essential worth of teachers. They have to make you want to, as well as challenge. Someone read Pippa Passes and agreed with Pippa. Books have to be offered, somewhat in gradation and in enthusiasm but not didactically. It requires hard work like anything else. But, in addition, books can't be rammed down . people's mental throats. Bullying does not do it. Be well-read, yes for God's sake. Fight over books. I've relatives who read only Left Behind books. I want to scream at them, this is it? There is such a vast amount of books out there. Read ATLAS SHRUGGED and see this immensely fascinating book fall flat on its face when the Bush administration unwittingly tried some of it. Or The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street and welcome to this very second.

*sigh*

Why do I even try...

..well, when Michael Moore asked Kurt Vonnegut was it worth it, Vonnegut, in that sweet, crinkly smile of a voice said, "No it's not.But you've go to keep doing it." And then they laughed. So it goes.

Allison wrote: "*sigh*

Why do I even try..."

We're listening. At least some of us. ;)

Sometimes, we try too.

(But it's getting funner and funner to watch from the side...)

Barry wrote: "..well, when Michael Moore asked Kurt Vonnegut was it worth it, Vonnegut, in that sweet, crinkly smile of a voice said, "No it's not.But you've go to keep doing it." And then they laughed. So it goes."

Okay, that did make me smile a little. :D Thanks!

Kalin wrote:

We're listening. At least some of us. ;)

Sometimes, we try too.

(But it's getting funner and funner to watch from the side...)"

Ehh... I guess I shouldn't expect everyone to read all the comments. But it's nice to know someone was listening. At least one person... out of hundreds...