Top 100/Top 10 lists: what do you think? Recommendations...

Eliot Rosewater

What do Boardsies think of Top 100 best novels of <insert time period/all time> lists? Any good recommendations?

The list I usually refer to is the Modern Library 100 Best Novels; critics list. The readers one is ok but I usually only use it to confirm choices made in the other one. The Ayn Rand/Ron Hubbard hijacking is ... annoying.

This Newsweek Top 100 looks good especially as its a compilation of other lists (including the aforementioned Modern Library one).

Other ones:
Time Magazine Top 100
Anthony Burgess' 99 novels from 1939 - 1983
Guardian Top 100
BBC Reader list (not so much purist literature)

And then theres the Guardian Top 10 books of the 1980 - 2006, as voted for by 100 writers and critics including Salman Rushdie, Brian Friel, Ian McEwan, JG Ballard. Notable because Irishman John McGahern features twice.

Denerick

My rather eclectic reading patterns resemble the Time Magazine list. A list of (Not so famous) modern classics.

Plowman

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L.T.D

Nice

Plowman

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jimmymal

thanks for the reading lists,
always loved
flan o brians.... third policeman
foundation series.... issac asimov
also a bit of james cavell...the noble house, theres a samurai one i cant remember the title thats brilliant.
shantaram by gregory roberts which is pretty epic.
just read some haruki murakami.... the wind up bird chronicles and kafka on the shore which were endlessly intriguing. kinda similar vein to paul auster, and at a stretch phillip roth. oh theres another murakami first name ryu wrote a good book called in the miso soup!

they're not to everyones liking but i'd say worth a look no matter what the taste.

St Bunt

Thanks for these. Here's another from The Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3672376/110-best-books-The-perfect-library.html