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Mark Force
Trad climber
Ashland, Oregon
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Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Grapes of Wrath, and Frankenstein. Good calls.
As long as Gothic novels are on the list - Dracula.
Mr. Donini, I’m curious to know what floats your boat.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Harry Potter, Pillars of the Earth....give me a break. Only one Hemingway...and where are Conrad and Cormac McCarthy?
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Mark Force
Trad climber
Ashland, Oregon
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Thanks! Your curmudgeon is coming out. Must admit I liked Pillars of the Earth, but, no, it’s not a great novel.
Top Twenty Geek Novels - The Survey
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2005/nov/09/top20geeknov
1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams 85% (102) 2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell 79% (92) 3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley 69% (77) 4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick 64% (67) 5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson 59% (66) 6. Dune -- Frank Herbert 53% (54) 7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov 52% (54) 8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov 47% (47) 9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett 46% (46) 10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland 43% (44) 11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson 37% (37) 12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons 38% (37) 13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson 36% (36) 14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks 34% (35) 15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein 33% (33) 16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick 34% (32) 17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman 31% (29) 18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson 27% (27) 19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson 23% (21) 20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham 21% (19)
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Flip Flop
climber
Earth Planet, Universe
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Every climber should read Where Clouds Can Go-Conrad Kain
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JLP
Social climber
The internet
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There are so many 100 best novel lists - this one seems like a waste of time - public high school english lit for the millennials who made it.
The Bible - like seriously - like someone’s read that thing cover-cover in the past 50 years - right there with Harry Potter? Awful, just awful
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Bad Climber
Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
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Sep 10, 2018 - 07:09am PT
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Oh, Crime and Punishment is on there, thank goodness. Glad to see the Odyssey, too, although throwing in multiple Potters and leaving out The Iliad is freakin' bizarre.
BAd
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AP
Trad climber
Calgary
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Sep 10, 2018 - 07:15am PT
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How can we agree on 100 top books when we can't agree on 100 top climbs?
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SC seagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, Moab, A sailboat, or some time zone
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Sep 10, 2018 - 08:06am PT
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Very middle class.
What about that “fixing your motorcycle while praying” book (or something like that). Didn’t we all go gaga over that one?
And no Rod McKuen poetry? Oh the travesty.
Susan
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JerryA
Mountain climber
Sacramento,CA
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Sep 10, 2018 - 08:22am PT
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"A Journey in Ladakh " by Andrew Harvey , "The Worst Journey in the World" by Apsley Cherry-Garrard , "Downward Bound:A Mad Guide to Rock Climbing"by Warren Harding , "In Patagonia" by Bruce Chatwin , "Arabian Sands"by Wilfred Thesiger ,"The Devil Drives :A Life of Sir Richard Burton" by Fawn Brodie , "A Journal of Ramblings through the High Sierras of California " by Joseph LeConte & hundreds of others !
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okay, whatever
climber
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Sep 10, 2018 - 08:26am PT
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I think "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", which I first read back in the mid-1970's, when it first came out, is quite an interesting book. I re-read it last winter, and still found it interesting... partly because the story of what is really going on unfolds slowly. You don't really know what he's saying until the end. That said, I am also very moved by Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", though not quite as much by the movie that was made of it. And then there is "Sophie's Choice"... probably everyone has seen the movie, which was definitely very good, but if you can put the time into reading the novel, which is very long, it's worth it for some of the language... Styron had his moments. "The Life of Pi", by Yann Martel, published in 2001, is also quite a unique and interesting novel (and it has nothing at all to do with the mathematical constant). And from my youth way back when (I'm 64), I liked "A Wrinkle in Time" and "A Separate Peace", among others.
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Capt.
climber
some eastside hovel
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Sep 10, 2018 - 09:07am PT
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I think we need a list of what popular books not to read-- Celestine Prophecy would be #1 for me.
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Bad Climber
Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
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Sep 10, 2018 - 09:44am PT
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Hilarious, Capt.! Another vote for The Worst Journey in the World--amazing.
BAd
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Sep 10, 2018 - 09:51am PT
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Yer better men than me to admit to reading that stuff.
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EdBannister
Mountain climber
13,000 feet
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Sep 10, 2018 - 12:05pm PT
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Man's Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl
any Sharkespear or Hemingway, or Pat Ament leftover before Stephen King or Harry Potter.
recent?
The Rational Bible Dennis Prager
Old?
Some people really did read the Bible in the past 50 years.. and the results of it's wisdom are what gave you the best government in the world, despite your ingratitude.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Sep 10, 2018 - 12:14pm PT
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+1 to Victor Frankl!
+1 to Seven Pillars of Wisdom!
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Bad Climber
Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
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Sep 10, 2018 - 12:23pm PT
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+1 for Frankle
Found much of Seven Pillars to be heavy sledding, but it's a good and important work. I used a passage from it in my college composition classes to illustrate style.
BAd
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JLP
Social climber
The internet
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Sep 10, 2018 - 12:25pm PT
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Some people really did read the Bible in the past 50 years.
Really - have you?
I actually come from a few years of Catholic schooling, so I've met a few of the type. I have never in my life met someone who has sat down and read the Bible cover-cover like one would a novel. In fact, I have never met someone who has read the whole thing in any order over any period of time. If you've read Genesis and the Apostles - maybe 5% of that mess - you're probably in the 0.001%.
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John M
climber
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Sep 10, 2018 - 12:41pm PT
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I have read the bible multiple times.
This is a lecture series by Jordan Peterson on the bible. Its not from the perspective of needing to believe in God. Its from a psychological perspective. I don't necessarily agree with everything that he says, but he is a thoughtful thinker and gives a good understanding of the early stories in the bible.
Edit; Jordan Peterson is a clinical psychologist who taught at Harvard and the University of Toronto. He became well know for his opposition to a bill in Canada, bill C-16, which he claimed would make it hate speech to not address a person by their preferred gender pronoun. He claimed the bill was poorly written and allowed for a myriad number of gender pronouns. Not just Sir, Mister Miss, or Misses, but pronouns like They, or Them, xe, ve, ze, which are supposed to be gender neutral. Its a problem that is likely to come to the US some day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-wWBGo6a2w&t=1s
As for the list, well.. It could be better. There are so many great writers out there.
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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Sep 10, 2018 - 01:25pm PT
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Seven Pillars is indeed very worthy.
If you like the topic, another good one is
Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson
It's partly a biography of Lawrence and partly a broader context on the events of the time and how they have influenced the modern Middle East.
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EdBannister
Mountain climber
13,000 feet
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Sep 10, 2018 - 09:36pm PT
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JLP yes
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