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Author Topic: Reading Quest  (Read 2639 times)

Taco Dan

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Reading Quest
« on: January 28, 2010, 11:27:45 am »

This quest, should you choose to accept it, is to become well read, by reading all 100 of the books on the following list, in order, excluding ones you've read before.
Spoiler:  The List: (click to show/hide)
I will be using this list to keep track of the ones that I've read, checking them off as I read them.
(This was not originally my idea, that credit goes to Cthulu)
This thread can also be used to talk about the book(s) you're reading/have read just, please, no spoilers.
Good luck, and happy reading!
« Last Edit: January 29, 2010, 07:15:54 am by Taco Dan »
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Wiles

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2010, 11:37:26 am »

Out of curiosity, what made you choose these specific books?

Oh, and why is hamlet on there when the complete works of Shakespeare is on the list higher up?
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Shades

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2010, 11:52:34 am »

Out of curiosity, what made you choose these specific books?

It's the Telegraph's top 100 books (posted in 2008)
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Judas Maccabeus

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2010, 11:59:55 am »

I was about to post this in the Happy thread until I saw the post mentioning this one, so:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

30/100.  Plus several I intend to read when I get the opportunity (especially Harry Potter...).  It helps that I liked the so-called "girly" books myself.

I do find it amusing that the complete works of Shakespeare is listed separately from Hamlet.
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Wiles

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #4 on: January 28, 2010, 12:20:47 pm »

Out of curiosity, what made you choose these specific books?

It's the Telegraph's top 100 books (posted in 2008)

Did they ever say how they decided their top 100? Seems like a bit of a weird mix.
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Shades

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #5 on: January 28, 2010, 12:23:48 pm »

Did they ever say how they decided their top 100? Seems like a bit of a weird mix.

Not on the post I saw. They probably stole it from somewhere. I'd guess an internet poll of user suggestions (which is why it had the silly duplication of hamlet)

It's the second result for 'top 100 books' on google if your interested.
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Jreengus

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #6 on: January 28, 2010, 12:31:15 pm »

I fail at the first hurdle I refuse to read pride and prejudice it is boring and stupid and I can think of 100 better ways to spend my time.
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Cthulhu

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #7 on: January 28, 2010, 12:36:22 pm »

I have 16.5, and I've started on Pride and Prejudice.

7PM to sleepytime, every day.  Buwks.  Supposedly if you read four hours a day, you could read like five of the classics in a week.  I can't remember which classics it was referring to, though.

I was always thinking "I never have time to read anymore" and I suddenly realized what I do all day.  I totally have time for reading.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2010, 12:42:46 pm by Cthulhu »
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Itnetlolor

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #8 on: January 28, 2010, 12:48:35 pm »

I never really had time to read (or, at least I never really took the time to sit down an read. At least I was more an artist in that timeframe to put it to use).

Well, let's see how badly I score with this:
Spoiler:  8/100 ...Yeah (click to show/hide)

Some of them I have read a bit, and just didn't find the time to read, and I would qualify going to church as somewhat reading the Bible; despite it being specific passages.

Yet oddly enough, I'm familiar with the backgrounds and passages well enough with most the other books on the list, I can somewhat BS myself to other people who haven't actually read them that I know them cover to cover. It's a shame that there are more people than I thought that would actually score far less than I did.

Cthulhu

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #9 on: January 28, 2010, 01:19:14 pm »

Remember, reading is an ice pick driven into the head of stupidity.

Kafka said that, or something along those lines.
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Wiles

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #10 on: January 28, 2010, 01:37:09 pm »

I've only read ten or so of those books. A couple of them I own but haven't had time to read yet (Tolstoy and Dostoevsky). I don't have time to read what I want anymore, I have to read over 20 books for University this semester (none of which are on that list, now that I think of it).
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Jude

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #11 on: January 28, 2010, 03:33:02 pm »

Here is where I'll brag about my literary conquests

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien ()
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling () OK these two are not just one book you cheater
6 The Bible - () I've read more of it than anybody except religious types
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell ()
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman ()
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller ()
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien () If you're lump all six books of "LOTR" as one book then how do you not just include this too and the Silmarillion while you're at it
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger ()
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald () Christ I wish I HADN'T read this turd of a book
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (x)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (x)
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (/)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (X) Really? This is even worse than the Hobbit / LOTR thing. The Lion Witch and Wardrobe is unquestionably part of the Chronicles.
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (x) had it read to me as a small child
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell ()
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley ()
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon ()
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas ( ) Read part of it, got bored as fuck, quit
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac ( ) See "Count of Monte Cristo"
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie () Weirdest goddam book ever
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker ()
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett () had it read to me as a kid
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens () Have heard it read aloud many times
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White () read to me as a kid
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle () My dad read me the entire Sherlock canon as a kid and I've read them as an adult too
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad ()
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams () read to me as a, like, fifth grader
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ( ) this book is the shit
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare () also seen it performed a zillion times
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl ()

Also 1. why is this only fiction and 2. why is Everything is Illuminated not on here, or anything by John Gardner
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Leafsnail

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #12 on: January 28, 2010, 03:34:23 pm »

I think this is a cross section to gauge how much you read in general, not a list of the 100 greatest books ever.
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Vector

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #13 on: January 28, 2010, 03:44:53 pm »

Spoiler:  The List: (click to show/hide)

Hm... I guess I've read a reasonable number.  45/100.
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Creaca

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Re: Reading Quest
« Reply #14 on: January 28, 2010, 04:13:09 pm »

How the hell did the Kite Runner get up there? I think its ties to recent politics gave it a bit of unfair advantage. I mean, the book was good, but it wasn't top 100 out of every book ever made good.

And I didn't see Paradise Lost or Frankensteins Monster on there, which just makes me sad.


Of course, I'm more of Steven King, John Grisham, and Michael Crichton guy myself.
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