100 Best Novels « Modern Library ULYSSES by James Joyce Written as an homage to Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, Ulysses follows its hero, Leopold Bloom, through the streets of Dublin. Overflowing with puns, references to classical literature, and stream-of-consciousness writing, this is a complex, multilayered novel about one day in the life of an ordinary man. Initially banned in the United States but overturned by a legal challenge by Random House’s Bennett Cerf, Ulysses was called “a memorable catastrophe” (Virginia Woolf), “a book to which we are all indebted” (T. S. Click here to read more about ULYSSES THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Set in the Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby tells the story of the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby, his decadent parties, and his love for the alluring Daisy Buchanan. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce Published in 1916, James Joyce’s semiautobiographical tale of his alter ego, Stephen Dedalus, is a coming-of-age story like no other. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov U.S.A. In E.
Esquire – The magazine for men who mean business If it's funny you want on your holiday reading list, you're in the right place. We asked a panel of authors and comedians to pick the world's wittiest tomes. Here's the first batch: 1 Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth (1969) Portnoy’s Complaint is the Derek And Clive of high literature, a proper book by a proper writer in which the main character fucks a piece of liver. Roth’s key discovery – published in the same decade as British juries agonized over whether to allow the masses to read Lady Chatterley’s Lover, DH Lawrence’s pompous, semi-fascist high seriousness outpouring about sex – was that the best way to render the pain, disgust, uncertainty, anxiety, despair and terror surrounding sex was to make it funny. (Review by David Baddiel) 3 The Moon's A Balloon by David Niven (1972)David Niven is probably best remembered for his glittering Hollywood career, his roguish, moustachioed charm, and his notably thick penis (by a chosen few at least). ‘Should I marry W.?
The Books That Changed Your Lives I have a feeling that many of these are favourite books rather than life-changing. Certainly I love "The Hitch-hikers Guide ...", "Ender" and "Dune" but I don't think they have changed my life. I also love "The Lord of the Rings", by coincidence I married an Arwen so maybe that counts in my case. Jared Diamond's book is very interesting but hardly life-changing. In my opinion "2001: A Space Odyssey" had a huge effect on the way people perceive the benefits of science, undermining the positive attitude created by the Apollo program. "1984" had the biggest effect on me, changing my view of government, communication and words. I have read but cannot recall much of "Zen ..." but you have inspired me to pick it up again and the two Dawkins books are waiting on my "to be read" pile.
Book Review: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead The 10 Greatest Apocalyptic Novels Of All Time After scouring book reviews and Wikipedia, a list of the Top Ten Best Apocalyptic Novels was born. The books on this list take you down the darkest paths in uncivilized worlds, from cannibalistic gangs to vampire infected corpses. If this list doesn't get you thinking on the quickest way stock your basement full of water, canned goods and rifles, I don't know what will! Enjoy! World War Z Documenting the war on zombies, "World War Z" takes you through horific times with some of the most vivid writing this genre has ever seen. "World War Z" paints such a realistic picture of a world after Zombies that even skeptics would find themselves engrossed in the novel! Blindness Forget world wide pandemics of flesh eating bacteria or a zombie illness! The family unit escapes and attempts to build a new life in the outside world, just as sight is returned, just as quickly as it was taken away. I don't know who I felt worse for reading this book. The Road The Postman Oryx and Crake Alas, Babylon Swan Song
A Nobel Laureate in the Family: Newsroom A Nobel Laureate in the FamilyBy Alvaro Vargas Llosa | Posted: Wed. October 13, 2010Also published in Washington Post Writers Group WASHINGTON—A few days ago, I received an early-morning phone call from my father, Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa: “The secretary of the Swedish Academy has just told me that I have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2010. They will announce it in nine minutes.” I shared my joy with him and thanked him for liberating me from a question with which I have been pestered for a couple of decades—“Why did your father not receive the Nobel Prize this year?” The driving principle of my father’s life has been that there is no shortcut to accomplishment. He became globalized well before Latin America’s political economy did. At the time, almost everything else in Latin America pointed in the opposite direction. Another cue I hope younger readers take from my father is that being a “public intellectual” carries responsibility.
In Defense of Human Rights: A Non-Religious Grounding in a Pluralistic World (Routledge Innovations in Political Theory) (9780415479691): Ari Kohen Don’t give him the Nobel – he’s right-wing! ‘I am a bit angry’, said the Swedish literary critic Ulrika Milles during Swedish television’s broadcast of the announcement of the Nobel Prize in literature for 2010. It took the country’s cultural elite just seconds to realise that a mistake had been made in the Swedish Academy’s voting process: you see, Mario Vargas Llosa, the winner, is no longer a socialist. ‘I lost him when he became a neo-liberal’, complained Milles. Many others echoed her. People who never voiced any concerns about the politics of other Nobel Prize winners – like Wisława Szymborska, who wrote poetic celebrations of Lenin and Stalin; Günter Grass, who praised Cuba’s dictatorship; Harold Pinter, who supported Slobodan Milošević; José Saramago, who purged anti-Stalinists from the revolutionary newspaper he edited – thought that the Swedish Academy had finally crossed a line. In Sweden’s biggest newspaper, Aftonbladet , three writers ripped him to pieces on the first day after the announcement of the Nobel Prize.
Books Every Social Entrepreneur Should Read Books take us on an incredible journey—sometimes real, and sometimes not—that hopefully encourage us to be creative, to realize what is possible, and to imagine new possibilities. What books inspire you? What books have really stuck with you? We asked the 2011 Echoing Green Finalists these questions and they shared books ranging from fiction, to how-to, to nonfiction and childhood favorites. Our colleagues have also generated some wonderful collections: Change.org took an interesting angle, sharing five history books social entrepreneurs should read: Fund’s list, quite appropriately, concentrates on those books that focus on the bottom of the pyramid: has two lists, no less! So, what’s on your list? Photo by Paul Watson.