What are your three favorite novels of the 20th century?

[Cyrano]

This is, of course, a very subjective question. Nonetheless, there must be a few that stand out in your mind.

My three are:

Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mocking Bird."

J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye."

Joseph Heller's "Catch 22."

There are dozens I wanted to put on this list, but these three stand out in my mind more than all the others I've read. Especially, "To Kill a Mockingbird." I actually slowed down while reading it because her words were so moving that I didn't want the book to end.

[rug]

1. The most memorable:

A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

Stern - Bruce Jay Friedman

The Sot-Weed Factor - John Barth

[RevolutionaryActs]

2. So far, mine are:

J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings"

Marion Zimmer Bradley's "The Mists of Avalon"

Joseph Heller's "Catch 22."

[SeattleGirl]

11. "The Mists of Avalon" is definitely in my top three.

The others are "To Kill a Mockingbird"

and

"1984"

[xmas74]

20. Love Mist of Avalon.

I really need to buy that sometime-always forget about it.

The others I have on my shelves.

[otherlander]

3. I LOVED "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Didn't really like Catcher much. I haven't read Catch 22 but I keep meaning to. The ones that stand out in my mind the most are Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury, Animal Farm by Orwell, and Briefing for a Descent into Hell by Doris Lessing.





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BFADIH was kind of confusing at first, but then when I got to the part about the crystal taking him to see the creation of the universe, it all made sense. I almost cried when he was "cured", and forgot that he had a mission to complete.

[Sonora Nora]

4. Vonnegut et al in no special order

Slaughterhouse Five
Confederacy of Dunces
The Prophet

[av8rdave]

5. My top

East of Eden Steinbeck

Slaughterhouse Five Vonnegut

Mother Night Vonnegut

[YankeyMCC]

6. Asimov's Foundation Trilogy

LoTR
Stranger in a Strange Land

[av8rdave]

8. Love the Foundation trilogy!

[xmas74]

21. Stranger in a Strange Land:

I grew up in a small town and read it when I was 12. It changed my views on almost everything.

I still catch something new or read something differently every time I read it.

[YankeyMCC]

24. It's been a Lot of years since I reread that one

And I like to re-read old favorites, somehow this one fell out of my rotation. I should read it again soon.

[xmas74]

25. Always worth it.

I know a few people who were disgusted by it. I loved it.

[hfojvt]

46. said to be an inspiration for

Charles Manson.

Thou art God.

[ellisonz]

7. The novel is of course not merely a work of fiction:

All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Marie Remarque (1921)
1984 - George Orwell (1948)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson (1971)

[AlienAvatar]

37. Fear and Loathing in LV

had me laughing out loud. Hard. I'd never read anything like that before. A little like Mark Twain with modern day profanity. There is an art to using profanity and HST was a master.

[ellisonz]

41. Best line:

"In this foul year of the lord, 1971..." or something like that.

[dropkickpa]

39. All Quiet had SUCH a profound effect on me

and on how I view war when I read it as a special side project in 5th grade (they had to think up things for me to do during Language Arts, it was either read the high school reading lists or tutor the Iranian boy who'd just immigrated in English). I've gone back and read it at least once a year since.

[ellisonz]

40. Recommendation:

If you liked All Quiet, I've got to recommend Senator Jim Webb's Fields of Fire, which although of a different era, and a different war is a comparable novel, though less appreciated because of its use of dated slang, and it is slightly different in its politics. But otherwise it is a superb work that will make you rethink how you view war. All Quiet is still of course the better work.

[dropkickpa]

45. Thank you

I'll definitely check it out!!

[begin_within]

9. If I had to pick only 3...

"On the Road" - Jack Kerouac
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" - Ken Kesey
"The Grapes of Wrath" - John Steinbeck

[Gatchaman]

10. Can I have four?

Lord of the Rings (yes, it's three books, but was intended to be one until it was split by the publisher)
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Deadeye Dick - Kurt Vonnegut
Steel Beach - John Varley

[hfojvt]

47. Why Deadeye Dick?

Of all the Vonnegut in all the libraries in the world, why did you pick that one?

I would have gone with Jailbird, Rosewater, Player Piano, Mother Night, or Cat's Cradle over DD, not to mention the perennial Slaughterhouse 5.

[Gatchaman]

54. Cause I like it

sheesh.

[querelle]

12. OK Here are My Faves.......

Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
White Teeth - Zadie Smith

Q

[RetroLounge]

13. I think my answer would change every time I am asked

Love in the time of cholera - gabriel garcia-marquez

The sound and the fury - faulkner

the great gatsby - fitzgerald

RL

p.s. - I have not read Mockingbird yet, but bought a copy last week...

[petgoat]

14. ,,

Gatsby

As I Lay Dying

Sometimes a Great Notion

[greendog]

15. Cat's Cradle

White Noise
Tropic of Cancer

[femmocrat]

16. Great topic! Here's my list:

The English Patient

Snow Falling on Cedars

The Cider House Rules

Also just about anything by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I don't read much fiction anymore, but was an avid fiction-reader in my teens and 20s. I've read most of the books you all mentioned.

[Generic Other]

17. 1984 and Brave New World

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

[michreject]

18. This should be interesting

Robert E Howard- The Hour of the Dragon

T. H. White- Once and Future King

Arthur Conan Doyle- Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

[terrya]

19. Sinclair Lewis' "Main Street"...

James Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room"

Gore Vidal's "Lincoln"

There are so many.

[cmkramer]

22. Many to choose from

but my particular favorites are

"Gone With The Wind" -- Nargaret Mitchell

"To Kill A Mockingbird" -- Harper Lee

"Hawaii -- James Michener

[Aristus]

23. Here are mine:

We - by Yevgeny Zamyatin.
The Lord Of The Rings - by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Seed And The Sower - by Sir Laurence Van Der Post.

[ironflange]

26. Hard to decide, there are so many Hardy Boys stories. . .

:evilgrin:

The Grapes of Wrath

Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood

Catch-22

[Penndems]

27. Your first two selections, and "A Confederacy of Dunces"

n/t

[Rabrrrrrr]

28. Dune; Lord of the Rings; A Farewell to Arms

[hfojvt]

50. If I had to pick my three least favorite

Farewell to Arms would be on it.

I could not see the point to a Confederacy of Dunces either, did not get very far into it. Nice title though.

Dune is very good, but it would make some sort of list as "most over-rated" since apparently it is the only work of science fiction respected by English majors, a group that probably never bothers to read science fiction.

[MrSlayer]

29. I'm not that deep. LOTR, Hitchhiker's Guide and DragonLance.

My favorites for sure.

Also have to mention "American Psycho" by Brett Easton Ellis and "IT" by Stephen King as favorites.

[fishwax]

30. Sunset Song, Sundown, and Bless Me, Ultima

Sunset Song is by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, about a small town in Scotland in the early 20th century.

Sundown is by John Joseph Matthews, about an Osage man coming of age in Oklahoma around the time of World War I.

Bless Me, Ultima is by Rudolfo Anaya, is one of the foundational novels of Chicano literature, and is simply an outstanding novel. :thumbsup:

[MissMillie]

31. I also agree w/ Mockingbird

And I love Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany"


Slaughterhouse 5 should probbly be #3

[Reverend_Smitty]

32. my top 3...

To Kill A Mockingbird
Catch-22
The Great Gatsby

[Reverend_Smitty]

33. dupe

[hfojvt]

51. that was your big chance

to pick three more.

Horton hears a who
Babar and Friends
If I had one wish by Jackie French Koller

[mitchum]

34. Selby's "Last Exit To Brooklyn", Price's "Ladies Man" and Faulkner's...

"Absalom, Absalom"

[Montauk6]

35. Mine

Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

The Outsider - Richard Wright

Pulp - Charles Bukowski

[ashling]

36. Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck

The Killer Angels - Sharra

Animal Farm - Orwell

tons of others .... reallly hard to choose three

[UndertheOcean]

38. A farewell to arms ~ Hemingway

Ulysses ~ Joyce

Love in the time of cholera ~ Marquez

[Hardrada]

42. They are:

Catch 22-Heller

Der Prozess- Kafka

On the Road- Kerouac,

Also any novel by Camus or Tarjei Vesaas

[Mendocino]

43. Only three?

Call of the Wild

All Quiet on the Western Front

Of Mice and Men

[WritingIsMyReligion]

44. 1) GATSBY 2) 1984 3)HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy

Those are just the three I can think of off of the top of my head. :P

[hfojvt]

52. who is the author of the trilogy? n/t

[WritingIsMyReligion]

55. Philip Pullman.

:hi:

[hfojvt]

48. Uh oh, mine are all science fiction

Lightning - Dean Koontz
There will be Time - Poul Anderson
All Flesh is Grass - Clifford Simak

[QMPMom]

49. This list keeps changing ....

The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

The Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga by Edward Rutherfurd

[leftofthedial]

53. Slaughterhouse Five--Vonnegut

The Castle--Kafka
Nineteen Eighty-Four--Orwell


this list would change radically at random intervals . . .

[martymar64]

56. My picks

On the Road - Jack Kerouac

Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

At the Mountains of Madness -HP Lovecraft

[Richardo]

57. "Catch-22" is my all-time favorite.

Then I'd put 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and then, I don't know: Let's say 'Foundation' by Isaac Asimov.

[skygazer]

58. Hard to name only 3 and they'd probably change every time you asked me

But right now -

Tolkien - Lord of the Rings

Gaiman - American Gods

Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest