50 Greatest books of all time.

Hello…welcome back.
I can’t see the list as it’s behind a paywall but A Thousand Splendid Suns by Kahled Hosseini would be in there.

Well, I think you can still be 'Well read' even if you've read nothing off these lists. I'm an avid reader and I've read many books that I thought had something really important and lasting to say and could have beat some on these lists.Of course I've also read a lot of things on the lists!
Ha I'm not sure I really answered your question but that's the best I could do !

I loved 'A suitable boy' by Vikram Seth.

I'm glad 'my brilliant friend' was on there.

Think I read it after hearing about it on here, and the others in the trilogy, & also paid to watch the TV adaptation (which really got to me).

I'm italophile anyway, & just loved her writing.

These lists get on my nerves they're so prescriptive and they pretty much contain many of the same titles that are on other "so called 50 Greatest Books of All Time" Who decides what qualities books must have to make up a definitive list?. For some that list might contain titles diverse as The Hungry Caterpillar, Finnegan's Wake or Knitting with Dog Hair. I've generally read some on Telegraph type lists. Books are subjective so it's up to the individual. I'm an avid reader of reviews in publications such as The Times or The Guardian or I go on recommendations, but they're not a foolproof guarantee any more than 50 or 100 books YOU MUST read before you die are. I make up my own mind what constitutes a great book. Another person may think my choices are dire. What I do know is the books that I've been moved or swept away by, so much so I felt bereft when I'd finished them, have often stayed with me long after I'd reached the last page. Those are few and far between and they go back in time to different junctures of my life from early childhood onwards.

There aren't enough hours in the day to become truly well read imo. I often want to read more non fiction and regret that I don't get round to the books I've earmarked.

It's literary "snobbery" isn't it? There are so many brilliant writers that to make a list of 50 books is impossible. I have loved different books though out my life. In my teens I maxed out on Russian authors, in my 20's I loved books like The Women's Room and other feminist novels, in my 30's I found American writers like John Irving and Canadians like Attwood and Shields. Every decade has brought fresh literary delights, what I have is a love of reading and tbh I really don't care if it's on a list or not!

I looked at that article and ticked off the ones I’d read - not many, about the same as you, Sago. I was cheered to see how many other people had also said no to many of the titles!

YorkLady

Hello…welcome back.
I can’t see the list as it’s behind a paywall but A Thousand Splendid Suns by Kahled Hosseini would be in there.

My first thought, too.

This is a gift link so should work.

The 50 greatest books of all time www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/6433e8f150592212

I had read 12. The one I most want to read that I haven’t is War and Peace.

I didn’t see A Thousand Splendid Suns in the list.

Skye17 Thank you.

MayBee70

YorkLady

Hello…welcome back.
I can’t see the list as it’s behind a paywall but A Thousand Splendid Suns by Kahled Hosseini would be in there.

My first thought, too.

Why am I not surprised. It wouldn’t surprise me if most of the panel who compile the list haven’t read them.
They are the same people who choose the Turner Prize who go onto insult people who can’t see the art in an unmade bed with some dirty washing thrown around.

Does watching the excellent tv series (tea time Friday nights…) count as reading Monkey King; Journey to the West?

youtu.be/J-SUoHmpRdM

I wonder if A Thousand Splendid Suns is more of a woman’s read? I’ll soon know because I lent it to my ex who is reading his way through the classics.

… our critic picks the half-century of highlights that any serious reader should have on their shelf.

Kerridge has organised his list in to pre-17C,17C & 18C, 19C, 20C and 21C.

Only a serious scholar of literature is going to have read most of those. Several of them are long verse novels and hard going.

I have read many of them as I have degree in English and they were course material but I wouldn’t have picked most of them as reading for pleasure.

I am afraid than like much in the Telegraph nowadays, the headline is misleading. It’s just one man’s choice and he’s trying to impress.

As lists go, I much preferred The Guardian’s recent list of 100 novels which was a collaborative affair, Still serious works but more accessible, in my opinion. I have read all of them.

www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time

I do consider myself well read. My favourite novel is Middlemarch, which I can read again and again, but some evenings I just want to sit with a cosy crime or something equally light that romps along, something by Graham Norton or similar.

I think these lists are a bit like watching University Challenge and makes someone a bit chuffed to find that they’ve managed to answer a couple of questions or read a few of them…

It’s very subjective I think- I don’t think that ten of the top fifty books of all time can have been written since 2000, that doesn’t make sense.

One of my daughters bought me "The 1001 Books you must read before you die" by Peter Boxall. My edition is 2011. It's divided into four sections: Pre 1800, 1800s, 1900s and 2000s. I haven't looked at it for years but have got it out to compare with the Telegraph and Guardian list. What I like about it is that it gives a brief synopsis of each book with a bit of a literary criticism and historical background that would be enough for anyone to bluff that they had read it, should they be of that mindset! I will add, that I am most definitely not.

These lists are always so subjective.
I have read 7, inc. The Iliad, but that’s only because I once did an OU course on Homer, which I did in fact very much enjoy.

Favourites from the list are Persuasion and Middlemarch, both of which I’ve re-read more than once.

If Salman Rushdie really found MM lacking in humour - admittedly it’s not exactly bursting with it, but it’s there - I’d lump him in with Henry James*, who was quite rude about MM at the time.
*(That’s the Henry James whose sentences so often meander along for half a page.)
I was pleased to see that he didn’t feature in the list!

I’ve tried to get into Wuthering Heights more than once, but never got more than about halfway.
Jane Eyre, OTOH, is another I’ve re read more than once.

Is Anna Karenina Tolstoy on the list? My favourite book of all time. My son read it too and said it was like a modern day soap opera!

Having now been able to access the Telegraph's list, thanks to Skye's link up thread, there a lot of what I imagine to be very dry ancient writings on it, which are probably only going to be read by literature academics. Apart from the usual couple of books from the 19th and 20th century that are pretty much on most of these recommended compilations which I've read, the closest I got to further back in time, was a mention of Claire Tomalin as a biographer of Samuel Pepys I really enjoyed her book on him "The Unequalled Self" and sometimes biographies do the hard work without wading through works written by the actual person hundreds of years ago where the language is quite inaccessible. Ultimately, reading has to be about enjoyment if the book informs as well, usually they do about something or other even trivia is worth knowing, then that's an added bonus. Personally I don't want to wade through something just because it's on one of these prescriptive lists.

These lists are always subjective and often the opinions of experts who declare what we ought to be reading.

I've read a few but could add some of my own choice to the list and disregard many others.

I've had a very pleasant afternoon sitting in a cool place thumbing through the list of 1001 books I need to read before I die (only the post 1900's though) and realise I need to live for at least another 25 years to even begin to make a dent in them. I think I'm reasonably well read but I do tend to read later novels, just finished "Flesh" by David Szalay and started "Kin" by Tayari Jones, both relatively recent publications. "Flesh" is written in an interesting style, very short sentences, minimal description with a story that could have been made into a book at least twice the length, but wasn't. I couldn't help but wonder if it was written to reflect modern society and in particular people's unwillingness to invest time in reading more complex sentences.

I have read 7 and have got Maya Angelou’s book in a pile ready to read. I haven’t read the Dickens, Hardy, Austen, or Ferrante on the list but have read others by the same author, some of which I personally judge superior , especially Ferrante.

Books are so subjective aren’t they, it’s very smug I feel to insist some are much better than others, especially when comparing the same author . Just read what you enjoy. I also read just as many factual books as novels .