This is topic Amazon's 100 Books in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/main/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=059727

Posted by staredecisis (Member # 13054) on :
 
Thoughts on Amazon's 100 books to read in a lifetime?

http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8192263011

I'm a little shocked that Ender's Game isn't on there. I'd put it on my list (although I don't think it is OSC's best work).
 
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
 
There are so many books on there I'm meh about it doesn't even bother me Ender's Game isn't on there.
 
Posted by Wingracer (Member # 12293) on :
 
I think I saw 4 or 5 that would be on my list plus a couple others that might make my list if I ever get around to reading them.
 
Posted by Aros (Member # 4873) on :
 
The reader's list is a little better. But Hunger Games? On both lists? Really?
 
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
 
Seems like a good list. It's not meant, I think, to be tailored to a specific kind of taste, nor is it a list of "best" books. It seems to be meant to be a sampler of a lot of good books of different kinds, and I don't see anything that seems out of place. Hunger Games is great, for what it is, and they deliberately weren't excluding many kinds of "what it is".

I think one would be better-read than average if one read all those books. (That's not saying a lot, but still.)

*I am not familiar with all the titles. I'm basing my assessment on the ones I recognize.
 
Posted by umberhulk (Member # 11788) on :
 
Ender's Game doesn't belong on it. But neither do a lot of those books.

(which is okay)
 
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
 
Geez, "The Fault in Our Stars" sure made it onto that list fast.

They need to work on some of their four word descriptions atop each novel. A lot of them seemed to come from someone who had only the barest inkling of what the book was either about or how its viewed in popular memory.
 
Posted by Aros (Member # 4873) on :
 
The Lightning Thief. Yeah. Alrighty then. Move along. Nothing to see here.
 
Posted by millernumber1 (Member # 9894) on :
 
Ugh, that list is really awful. While I liked "Gone Girl," I don't think a book belongs there after just a year of being a bestseller. I would definitely put Ender's Game on the list, especially in place of some of those others. This list makes the BBC Big Reads 100 books list look good. [Razz]
 
Posted by Dan_Frank (Member # 8488) on :
 
Silent Spring, huh? Yikes.

Yeah I'm gonna just move on.
 
Posted by SenojRetep (Member # 8614) on :
 
It seems to me to be a pretty effective list for what it's supposed to be, namely a squarely middlebrow snapshot of early millennial reading habits. Amazon makes its money not from identifying the most important or highest quality literature, but from selling the books that most people want to read at some given time and place. So their editors' '100 books to read in your lifetime' should be interpreted (IMO) as '100 books you can feel pretty confident most casual but educated American readers born in the current demographic will have at least heard of and probably read. And you should, too. So buy them from Amazon'.
 
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
 
The list was kind of heavy on the YA stuff.
 
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Dan_Frank:
Silent Spring, huh? Yikes.

Yeah I'm gonna just move on.

Not a Rachel Carson fan, eh?
 
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
 
They lost me when they described The Handmaid's Tale as "Feminist Speculative Fiction." Really? That's the best they can do?
 
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
 
Margaret Atwood's work is admittedly difficult to classify.
 
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
 
How would you label it in 3-5 words?
 


Copyright © 2008 Hatrack River Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.


Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classic™ 6.7.2