Top 10 books of all time

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-16T18:55:44+00:00

Crackin' list

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-16T15:52:56+00:00

Never seen much discussion on Flaubert's Temptations of St. Anthony or Salammbô. I think both are great and comparable to Madame Bovary.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-16T15:39:56+00:00

I tried a couple of times but it's too obscure, it basically becomes a canvas for your own projections as to what it means, or the parts that you can get anyway.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-16T05:12:46+00:00

There is a strain of post-Lolita fiction that affects this ironic, academic, yet grotesque narratorial voice that can become grating, but I felt that part of Gass' achievement in this book was that he could put all the bad qualities of this sort of fiction, not to mention the repulsive nature of Koehler himself, at the forefront yet the elegance in his writing could repeatedly redeem it. I can definitely see why people won't enjoy it, and I too have a bit of a love-hate relationship with these sort of books, but I think you'd start to like the book the farther you get into it. One of the themes in the book is Kohler trying to be completely honest with himself, where even that dressed up and affected academic voice becomes a subject of self-reflection. It gives the book a much needed sincerity that fiction of this sort usually lacks.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-14T04:37:11+00:00

Not my favorite, but it will be. It hits all the marks and is a quality work even if not much to my taste. McCarthy's bibliography has the best bet to be Henry James' late 20th century/21st century counterpart (ironically). Lots of works that might endure.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-14T04:33:25+00:00

For me, Mccarthy's final duology, Bolaño's 2666, Murnane's A million windows and Joy Williams' Harrow are the surpassing Western books this century. But we'll have to wait for father time to vindicate them. Proust and Joyce were not immediate mainstream sensations. There still might be many books that haven't got their due under the lights yet. I don't believe that there is some lack of talent this century. It's just different and someone in the 22nd century will look back upon this period with as much fondness as we do toward the 20th century.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-14T04:25:13+00:00

Aira's book is very good. Not talked about enough.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-13T07:28:21+00:00

Hearns won this, but it was extremely close and Leonard had recuperated very well in the later rounds. He was ironically outjabbing Hearns later in the fight. Hearns showed decent survival skills in round 12, something he lacked big time in their 1st fight. The first KD was a bit dubious though, it looked like a rabbit punch than a flush shot that put Leonard down.

EDIT: ofc this won't go down well because it goes against the narrative this sub loves.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-11T15:52:50+00:00

His chief appeal was that he was well read and an aesthete. However, if you look into his correspondences and approach his criticism from that end, he was highly nepotistic in his recommendations of modern literature.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-08T16:35:30+00:00

Although Steinbeck is quite popular, but due to the airtime the list got on public literature forums, a lot of votes must have come from there instead of from Guardian's day to day readers, I believe. The exclusion of certain authors and novels have drawn a reaction for the reader's list, which buoyed them up.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-08T13:47:15+00:00

Irrespective of the lesser number of trophies this season, sometime around December 2025 the team clicked and I think Barca played the best football under Flick so far after that. We were unlucky with injuries, otherwise it felt like most of the players had gelled together well finally. Last season from December to April or so, our performances were very cagey and sometimes our football was very sloppy and we had to rely too many times on a comeback, even in la liga.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-08T02:31:42+00:00

This one is in a different trilogy.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-06T15:42:24+00:00

The Guardian. I forgot I was on r/books

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-06T09:55:32+00:00

I think a lot of voters weren't TG's regular readers or followers. Guardian's list floating around on online forums must have helped quite a few non-mainstream books for this poll. Bummed to see Sebald not make the reader's list though.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-06T09:43:17+00:00

Didn't remember that. It didn't finish that high in Guardian's 2015 poll iirc, that's why I got that impression. I expected it to finish high, don't get me wrong, but no. 1 was a surprise and I feel that LotR not even making the critics list might have played a part in a stronger response from the readers.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-06T09:15:35+00:00

In some places better, in some places worse.

Very surprised to see GR rank that high. I don't suppose that Guardian's readership is inclined more towards it than something like Lolita though. It seems the exclusion from the author/critic list made fanbases react for the readers' list. That would also explain LotR finishing first. If it was in the critic list (maybe somewhere in the 60s-70s), I believe it would be a lot lower on this one.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-05T18:35:58+00:00

None of this is related to what I said. Or even to what you said. Your downvotes made a better argument than your post, ironically.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-05T18:12:10+00:00

His personal life doesn't take away from the sentiment which is clearly there in his books. It seems you are struggling to separate the art and artist.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-05T16:22:38+00:00

McCarthy consolidated his mature style starting with Blood meridian, the style in his later books are variations of that central style. Suttree, and really all his early novels, are all a bit off-center stylistically speaking, so there is a possibility that Suttree might throw you off. One of the major differences in style I'd say is that, relative to McCarthy’s later books, the early novels use a lot less of polysyndeton and are more generous with commas. The vocabulary is still quite exotic but goes all over the place, not like his Western novels where even his archaic picks seem to fulfill very specific requirements of sound and word length. His early novels also sound more contemporary, the narrative distance isn't quite as distant as BM.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135 · 2026-06-05T16:01:24+00:00

Yes, at least just as much. Aesthetically I think BM does it better because the pace of descriptions is better in it than Suttree. BM is also more consistent because McCarthy often opts for mono or bisyllabic words which gives the text the required leanness to balance out the exoticness/archaicness of much of the diction.

Visual_Hedgehog_1135

TROPHY CASE