Monthly Archives: October 2012
The Greatest Books of All Time
Is it possible to rank the world’s best literature?
Well, no, and we’re certainly not going to try. Although in 2007, one publication did. Now we ask, did it get it right?
The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books is a collection of “Top Ten” lists provided by some of the world’s most respected authors–125 altogether, from Norman Mailer, to Jonathan Franzen, to Stephen King and Annie Proulx. In all, a total of 544 works were mentioned at least once in the 125 lists, which were further separated by different criteria to concoct a number of other lists:
• The Top Top Ten Books of All Time
• The Top Ten Books by Living Writers
• The Top Ten Books of the Twentieth Century
• The Top Ten Mysteries
• The Top Ten Comedies
… and many more.
Despite the book’s seemingly absolutist mission to seek out the…
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The Worst (Fictional) Jobs in Literature
Every week in a competition of wits The New Yorkerasks a question of the Twitter-verse. One of our favorite questions was when they asked followers to reply to the question, “What’s the worst job in literature?”
Although James Joyce’s proofreader appeared several times in the list, most tweeters stuck to the fictional theme. In the end the job The NY found worse than Hamlet’s motivational coach and Jay Gatsby’s pool boy was the winning entry “Narcissus’ girlfriend.” There were, however, so many gems within the bunch that we had to round up a Top Ten for you.
Think your job’s unbearable? Check out the hilarious responses below:
1. Captain Hook’s harpsichord key repairman
from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
2. The reception committee for Godot
from Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
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Are You with the Banned?
Banned Books Week is currently celebrating its 36th anniversary! This year’s theme, “Banning Books Silences Stories,” is a reminder that everyone needs to speak out against the tide of censorship.
Did you know that some of the best works of all time, and very often the ones you’ll have studied in school, have at one time or another been censored from the public? Did you know that the practice of censorship in literature still goes on today?
Yup, somewhere out there, a blinkered individual could actually be pondering at this very moment the dangers of a mind raised on an “occultist” story like Bridge to Terabithia, while someone of the same mindset argues that the bildungsroman The Perks of Being a Wallflower is “unsuited to a teenage audience.” Seriously.
And it’s not all Sex, by Madonna, Gossip Girl and l8r, g8r that are considered poised to corrupt our…
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