Found this in Wikipedia:
Great Books refers to a curriculum and a book list. Mortimer Adler lists three criteria for including a book on the list:
* the book has contemporary significance; that is, it has relevance to the problems and issues of our times;
* the book is inexhaustible; it can be read again and again with benefit;
* the book is relevant to a large number of the great ideas and great issues that have occupied the minds of thinking individuals for the last 25 centuries.
--(Adler, "Second Look", pg 142)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
After having recently read the 2005 time list of 100 greatest books, I came to the conclusion that such list are more about the tastes of the contributors rather than true "greatness". Therefore, I decided to open a thread to talk what make a book "great". So pitch out your best definitions, and feel free to use Authors and Titles as examples. I hope a fine time will be had by all.
My overriding definition for a "great book" is it has to be entertaining. Books whose main purpose seems to be showing the abstruse, obscure, diction and grammar habits of an author the the expense of providing entertainment don't qualify in my book, no matter how skillfully done.
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