topic Re: PBS Top 40 Books in Book Club

PBS Top 40 Books

Sooner — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 19:26:32 GMT

Odd that it is so many young adult type books and books you read in school. TOP 40 BOOKS (LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, NOT BY VOTE RANKING)

1984
A Prayer for Owen Meany
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
And Then There Were None
Anne of Green Gables
Atlas Shrugged
The Book Thief
The Catcher in the Rye
Charlotte's Web
The Chronicles of Narnia (Series)
The Clan of the Cave Bear
The Color Purple
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Da Vinci Code
Dune
Gone with the Wind
The Grapes of Wrath
Great Expectations
The Great Gatsby
The Handmaid's Tale
Harry Potter (Series)
The Help
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hunger Games (Series)
Jane Eyre
The Little Prince
Little Women
Lonesome Dove
The Lord of the Rings (Series)
Outlander (Series)
The Outsiders
The Pillars of the Earth
Pride and Prejudice
Rebecca
The Stand
To Kill a Mockingbird
Where the Red Fern Grows
Wuthering Heights

The Great American Read returns to PBS starting on Tuesday, September 11, 2018, with 7 new episodes airing weekly on Tuesday nights at 8/7c. The winner will be revealed in the final episode on Tuesday, October 23, 2018.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

Alison Wonderland — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 20:11:59 GMT

@Sooner wrote:
Odd that it is so many young adult type books and books you read in school. TOP 40 BOOKS (LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER, NOT BY VOTE RANKING)

Not at all weird to me. Books that are required reading in school are chosen as required books for a reason and then read by many people for many years, versus a flash-in-the-pan best seller. Those books have wide circulation and exposure for decades.

And Young Adult books today are read by people of all ages, but the target audience is made up of impressionable people trying to figure out their own life ideas and philosophies, so those books stick with people and are then passed down to their children. That kind of thing doesn't happen with books like Gone Girl.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

smoky22 — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 00:21:04 GMT

I was confused by your post because there were 100 books on this PBS list originally. But I just received the email that said 2 million votes had now been cast and these were the top 40.

Happily, the 5 books I vote for (almost) every day are still on this list.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

teganslaw — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 12:07:56 GMT

The Stand is one of my favorite Stephen King books. It belongs in the top 40. I also like The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck is a master storyteller.

I'll mention once again that Dan Simmons Hyperion series should have been on the 100 books list, although I don't think it is. That series is a masterpiece of science fiction, IMO.

Right now I'm halfway through Wuthering Heights. Interesting , but strange book.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

Ilovetea — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 01:09:28 GMT

The Hunger Games is really on that list?

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

teganslaw — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 14:14:50 GMT

@Ilovetea wrote:
The Hunger Games is really on that list

The Hunger Games is given good reviews on Goodreads and was a popular book. Maybe that's why it's on the list. I didn't care for it, so I wasn't interested in the rest of the series or the movies.

BTW, has anyone here read Atlas Shrugged? That's a controversial book, and I haven't read it or know of anyone else who has. The subject doesn't seem that interesting to me, although it's considerd a classic.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

LoriLori — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 00:37:07 GMT

@teganslaw wrote:

...BTW, has anyone here read Atlas Shrugged? That's a controversial book, and I haven't read it or know of anyone else who has. The subject doesn't seem that interesting to me, although it's considerd a classic.

Yes, I have. Had to, for a class. At one point Ayn Rand had lots of followers of her philosophy she called "objectivism" and "Atlas Shrugged" was very popular. There are still streets and other things named after its protaganist, John Galt. (I just checked. One near where I lived has been renamed.)

Ayn Rand's objectivism is the belief that self-interest is the only thing that is good for our economy and the only thing that matters in our country is the economy. Self-interest is the only way to go. Altruism, any kind of help to others, is weak and bad for our society.

I remember it as dull and boring. If I were you I'd skip it. Or at least read a preview on Amazon before getting it. I thought objectivism was obselete -- yet there's the book in top 40. I'm surprised!

ETA: Actually I just realized there are people in high places who behave exactly like they are objectivists. But that has to be a coincidence because they're neither well read nor familiar with philosophy.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

LoriLori — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 17:23:19 GMT

Everyone has a book or books that they think doesn't belong on the list. It's only natural.

For me it's "Clan of the Cave Bear." I found it both boring and ridiculous. But it's gotten top 40 love so lots of people love it, just not me.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

smoky22 — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 22:39:52 GMT

@LoriLori as I've said many, many times, you do the best reviews. I agree with you on Atlas Shrugged. And I think sometimes people only say they love this book because it gives them an excuse to be greedy and opportunistic.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

insomniac2 — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 01:47:13 GMT

I read Atlas Shrugged many years ago and LOVED it.

I plan on re-reading it: I was enthralled!

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

smoky22 — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 04:18:56 GMT

I never read The Clan of the Cave Bear and had to look it up on Amazon. Apparently this is the first in a series of 5 books and it's listed as a children's book. Looking back over the list, there really are quite a few books that are considered kid's books.

I love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (it's not necessarily a kid's book, but I guess it was written for a young girl).

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

LoriLori — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 13:52:46 GMT

@smoky22 wrote:
I never read The Clan of the Cave Bear and had to look it up on Amazon. Apparently this is the first in a series of 5 books and it's listed as a children's book. Looking back over the list, there really are quite a few books that are considered kid's books.

I love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (it's not necessarily a kid's book, but I guess it was written for a young girl).

Thanks for the kind words, @smoky22.

"Clan of the Cave Bear" is not for children and I just looked and Amazon doesn't have it as a children's book. Sometime I guess the whole series became known as the "Earth's Children" series.

Book one is about the first blonde born, and of course it's a woman and she's shunned by her clan and it goes on and on and...zzzzzz. You can read a sample of it on Amazon and judge for yourself whether it interests you. I think it's horrible, ridiculous and boring. Other than that...LOL.

That's not to say Amazon doesn't miscategorize things, just not here. In the most head-scratching error I've seen yet, they have "Us Against You" (among other things) under "Humor & Satire." And no, have not responded to my emails about it.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

LoriLori — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 14:00:33 GMT

@smoky22I think "Alice," while a children's book, works in a much deeper way for adults. There are other books ("Mr. Toad" comes to mind and "Charlotte's Web") where the child understands it very differently than the adult.

Google Carroll's photos of Alice Liddell. They're gorgeous. Some think he was a pedophile because he also photographed her and other kids nude, but that was the trend at the time. The ones that come up are not nudes, they're staged like painted portraits and they're beautiful.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

smoky22 — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 15:48:42 GMT

@LoriLori my mistake on Clan of the Cave Bear. I had no interest in reading it and skimmed the info too quickly I guess. Thanks for the correction. It must have been way past my bedtime when I looked it up.

Photographing nude children would certainly be frowned on today (hopefully even prosecuted). Victorians did a lot of strange things. That's not to say there aren't strange things happening now, lol.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

Sooner — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 14:45:39 GMT

@LoriLori wrote:
@teganslaw wrote:

...BTW, has anyone here read Atlas Shrugged? That's a controversial book, and I haven't read it or know of anyone else who has. The subject doesn't seem that interesting to me, although it's considerd a classic.

Yes, I have. Had to, for a class. At one point Ayn Rand had lots of followers of her philosophy she called "objectivism" and "Atlas Shrugged" was very popular. There are still streets and other things named after its protaganist, John Galt. (I just checked. One near where I lived has been renamed.)

Ayn Rand's objectivism is the belief that self-interest is the only thing that is good for our economy and the only thing that matters in our country is the economy. Self-interest is the only way to go. Altruism, any kind of help to others, is weak and bad for our society.

I remember it as dull and boring. If I were you I'd skip it. Or at least read a preview on Amazon before getting it. I thought objectivism was obselete -- yet there's the book in top 40. I'm surprised!

ETA: Actually I just realized there are people in high places who behave exactly like they are objectivists. But that has to be a coincidence because they're neither well read nor familiar with philosophy.

@LoriLori @teganslaw Isn't that the way this county is going? When you read about all of the me me me things, and the idea that one isn't to be concerned with what other people think?

I remember reading the book in jr. high or high school and being shocked at that way of thinking.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

Ilovetea — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 18:30:18 GMT

@teganslaw wrote:
@Ilovetea wrote:
The Hunger Games is really on that list

The Hunger Games is given good reviews on Goodreads and was a popular book. Maybe that's why it's on the list. I didn't care for it, so I wasn't interested in the rest of the series or the movies.

BTW, has anyone here read Atlas Shrugged? That's a controversial book, and I haven't read it or know of anyone else who has. The subject doesn't seem that interesting to me, although it's considerd a classic.

There are actually many books on that list that are most likely there because of popularity. As for the literary value of most, not seeing it. Ayn Rand included. Her novels were just an outlet for her Objectivist philosophy. There is a South Park episode where one of the adult characters learns to read, And after reading Atlas Shrugged, vows to never read again.

Goodreads does have a huge list of best literary fiction and that is more like what I was expecting.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

LoriLori — Mon, 27 Aug 2018 17:33:05 GMT

@Sooner, couldn't agree more with your post.

@smoky22, didn't realize "The Lovely Bones" is on the top 100. As much as I love that book Top 100? No way. But people voted it there, go figure.

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

smoky22 — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 02:12:48 GMT

@LoriLori There were several books on the PBS list that I thought I should read. The Lovely Bones was one of those. It's the only book I actually read that I hadn't read previously. There were a few others that I started and gave up on. I guess there was a reason I never read them in the first place.

The Lovely Bones didn't make it to the new top 40 list, nor did any of the other books I started and gave up on. I wonder which books will still be on the next list.

Did they ever say where people voted originally?

Re: PBS Top 40 Books

smoky22 — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 03:38:59 GMT

Reminder for anyone interested: The Great American Read starts up again on Tuesday 9/11 at 8pm eastern time. I'm curious if the list will still be these 40 or if it might have changed. I know people can still vote for any book on the original list.