Top 1000 Books
OCLC has posted a list of what they claim are the top 1000 books held by their network of libraries. The top ten:
- Census
- Bible
- Mother Goose
- Divine Comedy
- Odyssey
- Iliad
- Huckleberry Finn
- Hamlet
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
- Lord of the Rings
I have to say that they’re all excellent resources–and that I’ve read all of them. The first modern work is “Garfield” at #18, followed by “Carmen” at #66, “Peanuts” at #70, and “Doonesbury” at #80. “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” sadly lies at #256.
They also have a list of top banned books, of which I will reproduce the top ten modern literary scandals:
- Bible
- Huckleberry Finn
- Don Quixote
- Koran
- Arabian Nights
- Tom Sawyer
- Gulliver’s Travels
- Canterbury Tales
- Scarlet Letter
- Leaves of Grass
Of course, these are now classics–and Mark Twain gets his name in twice.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 30th, 2004 at 5:38 pm and is tagged with alice s adventures in wonderland, huckleberry finn, don quixote, canterbury tales, adventures in wonderland, scarlet letter, divine comedy, doonesbury, excellent resources, arabian nights, mother goose, iliad, gulliver, tom sawyer, mark twain, koran, scandals, peanuts, philosopher, garfield. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.
on December 8th, 2004 at 1:45 am
The true irony is that Harry Potter comes before both the Constitution and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. It makes me wonder what criteria they are using to determine “best”.
on December 14th, 2004 at 6:16 am
You wrote:
“The first modern work is “Garfield” at #18″
What is your definition of ‘modern’? The Lord of the Rings was certainly written in the era of modernity, litterarely speaking.
on December 14th, 2004 at 6:57 am
Mark Twain is also modern, in a sense. When I wrote modern, I was more thinking of “pop culture,” and for me Lord of the Rings is more in the line of classic literature. Perhaps the choice of the word modern isn’t the best, but “pop” is too restricting.
on January 7th, 2008 at 9:19 am
The amazing part ( usually unappreciated) in a case such as Huck Finn what most white high school readers were left with after study of the book that for the most part the only two decent characters in the book were Jim ( the black runaway slave as I recall) and Huck
If anything it gave an appreciation and a terrifically better understanding of the plight , the honor and integrity and struggles of the blacks of america and the American South which in all likelihood I would not of obtained otherwise
The road to political correctness leads nowhere