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Comment by michael_dorfman | Hacker News Reader

I don't want to rain on your parade, but that list is a pretty crappy list. As you probably figured out, it has nothing to do with the BBC-- it is actually a list that was voted on by readers of the Guardian, and it shows some serious evidence of being a user poll; besides the absolute crap you mentioned, there is a lot of things that are there only because they are on the British school curriculum (like all of that Thomas Hardy, which is mostly awful.)

There are some absolute gems on the list, don't get me wrong-- but if your goal is to read 100 good books you haven't read before, you could do a lot better. (And I say this as someone who has read 90 of the 100 titles listed.)

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Is there a better list available that you'd recommend? Because the idea of a curated list of books to read appeals to the lazy side in me. I like reading but not researching what to read..

Well, here's a list proposed by Det Norske Bokklubben (who happens to be a competitor of mine, but I have to give credit where credit is due):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_Best_Books_of_All_Time

You'll notice that it's much less heavily biased toward 20th Century English-language literature.

If you want to stick to things originally written in English, the Modern Library list is a pretty good one:

http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/

I mean "The Board's List", of course--comparing "The Board's List" to the "The Reader's List" is enough to make one cry.

The first link is a really good list. Much better than the original BBC list.

The Reader's List is making me cry... tears of pure hilarity at Ayn Rand capturing not just first place but second place as well, at L. Ron Hubbard appearing not once but thrice on it, and at both Tom Clancy and Orson Scott Card each making an appearance. This is a breathtaking list.

I can't remember where I originally found this list, but I've been slowly working my way through these books over the years:

http://www.hcpl.net/read/phobos-100-best-science-fiction-boo...

The Browser-site is the best when it comes to curated booklists http://thebrowser.com/

Check out their Five Books interviews, always good reads and great interviews :)

You're right, it's a pretty damn non-ideal list. Another problem is that some of the "books" are vast. I really have to read the whole goddamn Bible plus the complete works of William Shakespeare?

But that's okay. My goal isn't to read one hundred books I'll really like, it's to complete an arbitrary set of tasks. If all of the books are enjoyable then there's no sense of achievement when I get to the end. I figure that whatever happens, I'll know a lot more when I finish than when I started. (Do you know what "Timon of Athens" is like? I sure as hell don't...)

"Timon of Athens" is a play by Shakespeare. It's not among his strongest, by any means, but still significantly better than a lot of the crap on the list.

You'll definitely end up knowing a lot more when you finish than when you started, but I doubt that "Bridget Jones Diary" or a half-dozen separate works of Thomas Hardy are going to contribute much to that achievement.

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