The FBG Top 300 Books of All Time (fiction edition) | We are currently up to #60 | Running list in posts #3 and #4 (7 Viewers)

[Barry2]

You jerkfaces.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card 1985

Other than the ages of the kids being a little wonky, which is mostly ignorable if you just age them up a little bit in your head, this book is awesome. Loved the battle school/battle room. Loved the "training" with Mazer Rackham and the twist at the end. Loved the firing technology and how the buggers operated. Loved the look into the government's perspective at the beginning of each chapter.

Was also kind of prescient with the potential power and influence of social media/anonymity, with regards to the whole Peter/Valentine storyline.

I liked it. I remember it being darker than the movie.

 

[kupcho1]

I don't really know what's going on, I can't keep up but I didn't rank Wool .... if it matters.

Oops. It was guru_007. I blame my old eyes and small font.

 

[Dr_Zaius]

The Goblet of Fire is my favorite of the HP series. Azkaban is next, but I liked how they expanded a little bit to show other schools, Mad Eye is awesome, and I was a bit surprised that students would be getting offed in the series. One of my favorite things about the series is that it "leveled up" as the series went and allowed for all ages to get on board. I don't think it would be nearly as possible if it kept in the mostly PG range the first few books operated in.

Azkaban is my favorite followed by the 6th and 7th respectively. I think I may be being unfair to the 4th, as thinking back on it now I was really shocked by the ending and it was definitely a bold and correct call by Rowling, but I've always docked it points for all of the Quidditch in the beginning. As a sports and game aficionado the Quidditch parts of all of the books have always stuck in my craw because it's just such a laughably flawed game design, unworthy of such a great book series. But I guess that's my own bugaboo.

 

[Frostillicus]

I had Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King at #21.

It's part of the Dark Tower series, and was one of the most anticipated books of my life. The first three books were amazing, and had me completely hooked. Book 3 came out in 1991. Then, in 1997, we got the next book! But it was 95% flashback, and did not do much to advance the story. We wouldn't get that until 2003 with Wolves of the Calla. And it was was awesome. Who doesn't love Dr Doom robots with lightsabers riding horses?

 

[shuke]

Psycho by Robert Bloch

I'm pretty surprised this didn't make the top 300. This is one of the rare cases where the movie was as good as, or arguably better, than the book, but that should not take anything away from this book. There are some subtle differences, and you get a deeper picture into the mind of Norman. And the book version seems crazier, but one that still believes his mother to be alive.

 

[kupcho1]

Phase 4: Counting down from 100

62	Notes From Underground	Fyodor Dostoevsky	rockaction, Long Ball Larry
61	Hamlet	William Shakespeare	turnjose7, rockaction
60	The Complete Tales and Poems	Edgar Allan Poe	turnjose7, Frostillicus, KeithR, Psychopav

62. Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Long Ball Larry: #5
rockaction: #8
Total points: 225
Average: 112.5

61. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
rockaction: #1
turnjose7: #12
Total points: 226
Average: 113.0

60. The Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Psychopav: #5
KeithR: #26
turnjose7: #32
Frostillicus: #48
Total points: 227
Average: 56.8

Let's have a round of applause for another #1 selection, this one from William Shakespeare. Of course @rockaction isn't here to talk about it or his other top 10 selection.

 

[Eephus]

There was some interest upthread about Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. The e-book version is currently on sale for two dollars.

The second book of the Wolf Hall series is also discounted but I haven't gotten to the first one yet

 

[Psychopav]

I'm so glad to see the Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe make the top 60! I have 3 or 4 different versions of this compilation and I love pretty much everything in them.

Of course Poe is well known and I doubt there's anyone in this thread who hasn't been exposed to plenty of Poe in their time, particularly his short stories which are well known for their exploration of psychology, darkness, and the human condition.

It was also a great way to sneak some poetry into this countdown! Of course everyone's familiar with his most famous poem, "The Raven", which is truly a masterpiece. As a bonus (hey, another poetry post from Pav in the prose fiction thread!), here's my favorite EAP poem:

For MLS-

OF all who hail thy presence as the morning —
Of all to whom thine absence is the night —
The blotting utterly from out high heaven
The sacred sun — of all who, weeping, bless thee
Hourly for hope — for life — ah! above all,
For the resurrection of deep-buried faith
In Truth — in Virtue — in Humanity —
Of all who, on Despair's unhallowed bed
Lying down to die, have suddenly arisen
At thy soft-murmured words, ‘Let there be light!’
At the soft-murmured words that were fulfilled
In the seraphic glancing of thine eyes —
Of all who owe thee most — whose gratitude
Nearest resembles worship — oh, remember
The truest — the most fervently devoted,
And think that these weak lines are written by him —
By him who, as he pens them, thrills to think
His spirit is communing with an angel's.

 

[turnjose7]

Feels a little weird doing a full commentary on Hamlet if @rockaction rated it #1. Maybe he will come by and do one last entry in the thread. And if not, I don't think Hamlet probably needs one anyway.

I'll just say a couple of things. First, I think people have probably gotten the idea that I like things epic, and Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play.

Second, I mentioned it in the entry for The Killer Angels, this play has my favorite Shakespeare monologue including this excerpt:
"What a piece of work is a man, How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, In form and moving how express and admirable, In action how like an Angel, In apprehension how like a god, The beauty of the world, The paragon of animals. And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust?"

 

[krista4]

There was some interest upthread about Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. The e-book version is currently on sale for two dollars.

The second book of the Wolf Hall series is also discounted but I haven't gotten to the first one yet

Bought, thank you! I'm heading on some long flights starting Saturday, so this is perfect!

 

[krista4]

OH and I didn't do plays or poetry collections, because it would just make it so much more difficult to narrow down. Or actually w/r/t poetry collections, I'm not sure we thought they were eligible. But in any case, great picks with the Hamlet and Poe stuff.

 

[Oliver Humanzee]

I had Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King at #21.

It's part of the Dark Tower series, and was one of the most anticipated books of my life. The first three books were amazing, and had me completely hooked. Book 3 came out in 1991. Then, in 1997, we got the next book! But it was 95% flashback, and did not do much to advance the story. We wouldn't get that until 2003 with Wolves of the Calla. And it was was awesome. Who doesn't love Dr Doom robots with lightsabers riding horses?

I really like this book! It's basically The Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven but with all the Gunslinger lore superimposed. King's seatpants inability to plot a story (let alone a series of novels) really bites him in the *** in these books and creates some truly ludicrous shoehorning and deus ex machining to make the events of the novels internally coherent.

THAT SAID

The conceit of Silent Powerful Stranger Assembles a Team of Freaks to Protect a Town generates some of Kings's best, most human writing. That the whole "ka-tet" of gunslingers are nerds and losers and junkies with troubled pasts is fertile soil for some of his best characterization--the Roland/Jake relationship being the absolute best.

 

[Psychopav]

OH and I didn't do plays or poetry collections, because it would just make it so much more difficult to narrow down. Or actually w/r/t poetry collections, I'm not sure we thought they were eligible. But in any case, great picks with the Hamlet and Poe stuff.

Poetry was off limits, but Hamlet is a play and Poe is short stories.

 

[Frostillicus]

I had Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King at #21.

It's part of the Dark Tower series, and was one of the most anticipated books of my life. The first three books were amazing, and had me completely hooked. Book 3 came out in 1991. Then, in 1997, we got the next book! But it was 95% flashback, and did not do much to advance the story. We wouldn't get that until 2003 with Wolves of the Calla. And it was was awesome. Who doesn't love Dr Doom robots with lightsabers riding horses?

I really like this book! It's basically The Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven but with all the Gunslinger lore superimposed. King's seatpants inability to plot a story (let alone a series of novels) really bites him in the *** in these books and creates some truly ludicrous shoehorning and deus ex machining to make the events of the novels internally coherent.

THAT SAID

The conceit of Silent Powerful Stranger Assembles a Team of Freaks to Protect a Town generates some of Kings's best, most human writing. That the whole "ka-tet" of gunslingers are nerds and losers and junkies with troubled pasts is fertile soil for some of his best characterization--the Roland/Jake relationship being the absolute best.

hello exactly!