The PBS "GREAT AMERICAN READ" best of 100 final is in. Interesting show!

[mjp28]

And naturally it's PBS you can buy the book, it would be interesting also, many expanded stories from the 100 down.

Purchase the Companion Book

The Great American Read: The Book of Books will present all 100 novels with fascinating information about each book, author profiles, a snapshot of the novel's social relevance, film or television adaptations, other books and writings by the author, and little-known facts. Also included are themed articles about banned books, the most influential book illustrators, reading recommendations, the best first-lines in literature, and more.

Beautifully designed with rare images of the original manuscripts, first-edition covers, rejection letters, and other ephemera, The Great American Read: The Book of Books is a must-have book for all book lovers.

Purchase Now at ShopPBS

[mjp28]

And if you're a real book nerd, it's a neat check list......

Read the 100 List

Below is the list of America’s 100 most-loved books brought to you by The Great American Read. Explore the book list and visit the book pages to learn more. You can also print a checklist of the books

[The Gipper]

Gilead

I believe that the Handmaid's Tale is based on this..no?

[mjp28]

@the-gipper said:

Gilead

I believe that the Handmaid's Tale is based on this..no?

There are always the "huh" ones in these lists but it was quite a big deal with people having theme parties and voting for their favorites often all over the USA.

IF you didn't see the finale it was interesting with the vote totals, etc. Some changed minutes before the voting close. I'd recommend it.

[The Gipper]

@mjp28 said:

Well the long awaited PBS "The Great American Read"  is over and the results are in, you can also watch the 8 part series one hour show when you want.....it goes fast. https://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/home/

I was surprised to see how many classics withstood the test of time.So how many have you read?  

The results:

Full Results

1. To Kill a Mockingbird <----- classic movie with Gregory Peck but not in my top 5. Some claim it was actually Truman Capote who wrote it....that has been denied.

2. Outlander (Series) <------ I bought the 8 book set for my wife, she just finished it! Saw some of the TV show, I mainly liked the parts where they were naked.

3. Harry Potter (Series)

4. Pride and Prejudice

5. Lord of the Rings

6. Gone with the Wind  <----- from the best movie year ever, 1939.

7. Charlotte's Web

8. Little Women

9. Chronicles of Narnia

10. Jane Eyre

11. Anne of Green Gables

12. Grapes of Wrath <----- like many classics great movie with Henry Fonda. didn't like it, too depressing.

13. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn <---- always liked the movie.

14. Book Thief

15. Great Gatsby <------- my favorite required reading book from college.

16. The Help

17. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

18. 1984

19. And Then There Were None

20. Atlas Shrugged

21. Wuthering Heights...hated it

22. Lonesome Dove

23. Pillars of the Earth

24. Stand (if you are talking about the Steven King The Stand, then yes)

25. Rebecca

26. A Prayer for Owen Meany

27. Color Purple

28. Alice in Wonderland

29. Great Expectations  pretty much hated it

30. Catcher in the Rye didn't like it much

31. Where the Red Fern Grows

32. Outsiders

33. The Da Vinci Code

34. The Handmaid's Tale

35. Dune  (the entire series)

36. The Little Prince

37. Call of the Wild

38. The Clan of the Cave Bear

39. The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy

40. The Hunger Games

41. The Count of Monte Cristo

42. The Joy Luck Club

43. Frankenstein

44. The Giver

45. Memoirs of a Geisha

46. Moby D.i.c.k. 

47. Catch 22

48. Game of Thrones (series) read all so far....series still incomplete

49. Foundation (series) read the whole series

50. War and Peace

51. Their Eyes Were Watching God

52. Jurassic Park

53. The Godfather

54. One Hundred Years of Solitude

55. The Picture of Dorian Gray

56. The Notebook

57. The Shack

58. A Confederacy of Dunces

59. The Hunt for Red October

60. Beloved

61. The Martian

62. The Wheel of Time (series)

63. Siddhartha

64. Crime and Punishment

65. The Sun Also Rises

66. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime read the original Sherlock Holmes story that this was taken from

67. A Separate Peace

68. Don Quixote

69. The Lovely Bones

70. The Alchemist

71. Hatchet (series)

72. Invisible Man

73. The Twilight Saga (series) Saw the movies, they were bad enough.

74. Tales of the City (series)

75. Gulliver's Travels

76. Ready Player One

77. Left Behind (series)

78. Gone Girl

79. Watchers

80. The Pilgrim's Progress

81. Alex Cross Mysteries (series)  some, not all

82. Things Fall Apart

83. Heart of Darkness

84. Gilead

85. Flowers in the Attic

86. Fifty Shades of Grey

87. The Sirens of Titan

88. This Present Darkness

89. Americanah

90. Another Country

91. Bless Me, Ultima

92. Looking for Alaska

93. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

94. Swan Song

95. Mind Invaders

96. White Teeth

97. Ghost

98. The Coldest Winter Ever

99. The Intuitionist

100. Doña Bárbára

One's that I know I have read highlighted.   I am not actually that big of a reader

[mjp28]

@the-gipper said:

One's that I know I have read highlighted.   I am not actually that big of a reader

Not too bad, many good books did not make the top 100 naturally but there were hundreds of candidates. And books like 53. Godfather too high or low? Do movies take away incentives to read?

Wife started watching Outlander, loved it so I bought the 8 books, 4 in a set, 4 seperate through Amazon, the thick paperbacks about $58. Liked the books MORE!

Lots of other interesting book, movie, TV stories.

[TexasAg1969]

Well as you saw in my original list on favorite reads thread I started, To Kill A Mockingbird was my Number 1 then and I was glad to see none of those modern "series" books were able to displace it as one of the greatest American novels ever written. And yes, the character Dill in the book was actually based on Harper Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote.

One more I read that did not make my list or this one, but was nonetheless an excellent and very readable book was The Kite Runner. Highly recommend it.

[mjp28]

@texasag1969 said:

Well as you saw in my original list on favorite reads thread I started, To Kill A Mockingbird was my Number 1 then and I was glad to see none of those modern "series" books were able to displace it as one of the greatest American novels ever written. And yes, the character Dill in the book was actually based on Harper Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote.

One more I read that did not make my list or this one, but was nonetheless an excellent and very readable book was The Kite Runner. Highly recommend it.

Well Tex first to hit three in the top 50 is pretty good remember big groups were working together to promote their likes and a lot of classic books going back even hundreds of years in some places made the list.

They're top 3 were 1, 46 and 18 on your list, not bad at all in a very subjective topic.

And the rest of you can check your own opinions against theirs there could have been 50 or 75 more considered......easily.

Good topic.

[TexasAg1969]

@mjp28 said:

Well Tex first to hit three in the top 50 is pretty good remember big groups were working together to promote their likes and a lot of classic books going back even hundreds of years in some places made the list.

They're top 3 were 1, 46 and 18 on your list, not bad at all in a very subjective topic.

And the rest of you can check your own opinions against theirs there could have been 50 or 75 more considered......easily.

Good topic.

I actually liked Steinbeck's Trask family saga, East of Eden, far better than I did Grapes of Wrath. But that's because I likely identified with Cal Trask (James Dean in the movie). Also not on the list was All Quiet on the Western Front, best novel to come out of WW I. I am amazzed at how many books on their list I have read and how many of the modern "Chronicles" I have not. I just can't get interested in them. I read "The Hunger Games", but as an experienced war survivor I was way too critical of how many mistakes the protagonist makes throughout that book. For that reason I just could not get interested in the followup books of that series. She was an f'n rookie.?

[TexasAg1969]

And here is a good question for everyone. Which 4 or 5 books on the list of 100 do you hope you read at some point? 

So many books and not enough time (well there might be if I didn't waste so much of it BSing with you yahoos).

I will have to go with Don Quixote, The Book Thief, Gone With the Wind and The Stand (I would have put The Shining on there-but I have not read this one).

And how come Cold Mountain didn't make the list? Loved that book. 

EDIT: And Huck Finn was far better than Tom Sawyer. Precursor to To Kill a Mockingbird in terms of addressing racism. Jim becomes a real live human being and not just some runaway slave. Far ahead of the time in which it was written.

[The Gipper]

Which ones of the list have I not read that I may want to:   Perhaps  Pillars of the Earth, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night (because I am curious how it relates to the Conan Doyle story, Silver Blaze, from which that phrase was taken)

Also, forgot that I did read Call of the Wild way back when. (I have even been to Jack London's home ...a shack really...in Dawson City, Yukon).

Also....I believe I have read "And Then there Were None".....which, correct me if I am wrong, but that is the Agatha Christie story,  which went through a couple of name changes.  The original title to that story as given by Agatha was "Ten Little N***ers".  Its true, look it up.  Then when that became obviously politically incorrect it ended up being called Ten Little Indians.....and then that became politically incorrect, and it ended up being called "And then there were none".

[mjp28]

@texasag1969 said:

I actually liked Steinbeck's Trask family saga, East of Eden, far better than I did Grapes of Wrath. But that's because I likely identified with Cal Trask (James Dean in the movie). Also not on the list was All Quiet on the Western Front, best novel to come out of WW I. I am amazzed at how many books on their list I have read and how many of the modern "Chronicles" I have not. I just can't get interested in them. I read "The Hunger Games", but as an experienced war survivor I was way too critical of how many mistakes the protagonist makes throughout that book. For that reason I just could not get interested in the followup books of that series. She was an f'n rookie.?

I actually read All Quiet on the Western Front in school but I read a lot of war themed books primarily WWII like Run Silent, Run Deep and others both novels (here) and biographies.

Books can take you in a lot of directions.

As fun books I loved Ian Fleming and the James Bond books. Fleming worked for Britain's Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War and was involved in planning Operation Goldeneye and in the planning and oversight of the 30 Assault Unit and T-Force intelligence units. His wartime service and his career as a journalist provided much of the background, detail, and depth of the James Bond novels.

The James Bond literary franchise is a series of novels and short stories, first published in 1953 by Ian Fleming, a British author, journalist, and former naval intelligence officer. James Bond, often referred to by his code name, 007, is a British Secret Serviceagent; the character was created by journalist and author Ian Fleming, and first appeared in his 1953 novel Casino Royale; the books are set in a contemporary period, between May 1951 and February 1964. Fleming went on to write a total of twelve novels and two collections of short stories, all written at his Jamaican home Goldeneye and published annually. Two of his books were published after his death in 1964.

Oh BTW.....1964, the year Goldfinger was released in the theaters. 

[DieHardBrownsFan]

@texasag1969 said:

Well as you saw in my original list on favorite reads thread I started, To Kill A Mockingbird was my Number 1 then and I was glad to see none of those modern "series" books were able to displace it as one of the greatest American novels ever written. And yes, the character Dill in the book was actually based on Harper Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote.

One more I read that did not make my list or this one, but was nonetheless an excellent and very readable book was The Kite Runner. Highly recommend it.

I dated a nurse ( a beautiful Irish redhead from a rich family) who was just a new nurse working at the pscyh hospital where Truman Capote would check into in CT.

https://people.com/archive/for-the-rich-and-powerful-who-cannot-cope-silver-hill-may-be-the-last-resort-vol-9-no-4/

[calfoxwc]

I'll have to go look up "looking for alaska"...

right now, I'm reading "A Walk in the Woods", not a great book, but it's about a real hike on the Appalachian Trail.

Any list that doesn't have "The Hound of the Baskervilles" in it is just a dumb list. I'd rather go read my whole library of old
Hardy Boys books etc.

[TexasAg1969]

@calfoxwc said:

I'll have to go look up "looking for alaska"...

right now, I'm reading "A Walk in the Woods", not a great book, but it's about a real hike on the Appalachian Trail.

Any list that doesn't have "The Hound of the Baskervilles" in it is just a dumb list. I'd rather go read my whole library of old
Hardy Boys books etc.

Well "Hound" was really a long "short story" and not really a novel, so it would be on a different list.

[calfoxwc]

nah.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Novel by Arthur Conan Doyle

Book preview

Full book available

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87% liked this book

Google users

The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the crime novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Wikipedia

 

Originally published: April 1902

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

Genre: Detective fiction

Publisher: George Newnes

Illustrator: Sidney Paget

Adaptations: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1981), MORE

[calfoxwc]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hound_of_the_Baskervilles In 2003, the book was listed as number 128 of 200 on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novel."^[2] In 1999, it was listed as the top Holmes novel, with a perfect rating from Sherlockian scholars of 100.^[3]

248 pages

[TexasAg1969]

I guess because I knew it was serialized originally I just didn't think of it as a novel. I stand corrected.

[The Gipper]

@texasag1969 said:

I guess because I knew it was serialized originally I just didn't think of it as a novel. I stand corrected.

Conan Doyle wrote, I believe  Four Sherlock Holmes Novels.  The Hound of the Baskervilles,  The Sign of Four,  A Study in Scarlet, and The Valley of Fear.

These may have "originally" been serialized in The Strand Magazine, but I am not sure about that.  Most of the other Holmes stories were "short stories" that were published in The Strand.

While there have been a few true fairly true depictions of The Hound made into Movies, and at least one faithful treatment of The Sign of Four that I know of,  I am not aware that there has ever been a true depiction of either A Study in Scarlet nor The Valley of Fear  made into movies.   And oddly these two are about the only two of the Holmes stories where a good part of the tale takes place in America. 

Also, both of these cover what could, even to this day, be considered sensitive subjects....and maybe that is why a "real"  true to the books movies have not been made.  Much of the action in A Study in Scarlet takes place in the American West, and is, to be honest, a harsh depiction of how the Mormons treated women.   The Mormon Church would without a doubt make a serious protest over any attempt to produce a film that would be true to that original story.    And,  in The Valley of Fear much of it takes place in the coal fields of Pennsylvania and centers around  the group known as The Molly Maguires, which was an organized group of Irish coal miners who essentially operated much like a Mafia family operation.  They used fear, intimidation, murder, violence to promote their aims.  I suspect that both people of Irish descent, people whose families had a history in those coal mines, and perhaps some organized labor groups would dislike having that story  depicted on film.

And for both of those reasons, I would like to see both stories made that would be truthful to the original stories.  The Hound of The Baskervilles and The Sign of Four do not come with the same potential political controversy.

[The Gipper]

If you want, you can watch the full The Sign of Four here: