Nominate MobileRead's 10 best fiction books of the 20th Century

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Nomination and voting are two entirely separate things. I'm with Issy on being surprised if Tolkien and Adams didn't win, but this a function of what people tend to have read. I have only recently (last four years) really started to branch out in my reading. My nominations are heavily weighted to books I've read over this time frame.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

^Nomination and voting are two entirely separate things. I'm with Issy on being surprised if Tolkien and Adams didn't win, but this a function of what people tend to have read. I have only recently (last four years) really started to branch out in my reading. My nominations are heavily weighted to books I've read over this time frame.

This is an internet forum which focuses on technology/eReaders, so I'd be surprised if sci fi/fantasy doesn't dominate every decade, the same way it dominates reading recommendations threads. For that reason, I'm interested in what is nominated by the few outliers and not at all interested in the voting.

[curtw]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Decision for 1901-1910:

The Devil's Dictionary - Ambrose Bierce

Uh-oh, I think we need a ruling from the moderators. I nominated this book for the *second* decade of the century, because that's when it was first published using the current title. I did realize that the first half of it came out in 1906, but that was as "The Cynic's Word Book. I picked a decade based on the availability of the full tome.

[Katsunami]

Zjit. Only one book per decade? Then I'll have to review my posts. I'll collect my nominations in this post, and link to it.

1901-1910: Call of the Wild - Jack London (1903)
1931-1940: Eiji Yoshikawa - Musashi (1935)
1951-1960: JRR Tolkien - Lord of the Rings (1954-55)
1971-1980: James Clavell - Shogun (1975)
1981-1990: Terry Brooks - The Elfstones of Shannara (1982)

Grrr. I seem to have a huge reading gap in between 1925 and 1975, with the exception of 1951-1960. So I read either classics or modern stuff, but hardly anything written in the middle of the 20th century.

I have read no books in the 1911-1930 time bracket (that I can remember being written in it, that is), and also nothing in between 1961 and 1975...

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by issybird

I guess I don't see the significance of this, or even that it's much of a factor.

More Americans voting? Sure. But so what? I think this is only indirectly important, as a factor in the most significant aspect of both books and voters which is that they're overwhelmingly Anglophone. There's a huge British presence in the nominated books, so if you're going to attach some significance to Americans' reading and voting for British books, that's fine, but I don't see what that tells us.

After the Anglophone factor, which I expect crosses Anglophone national lines fairly impartially, I think the next most significant factor is going to be genre. At least to me, this board seems heavily weighted toward SFF. I'd be very surprised if Tolkien and Adams didn't win in their respective categories (and, to state the obvious, they're English).

Also of more importance than the plurality if not majority of American voters, I'd guess would be sex and age. It could be interesting to look at sex when the dust settles, but age would be impossible to quantify. Level of education is also likely to be a factor.

So I'd guess I'd like to know why you think a preponderance of American voters (as opposed to Anglphone voters) matters and what it would say about the selections. I find it odd to see being American singled out, when there are so very many social and demographic differences.

I identified the country as a function of considering the voting process. (shrug) If Vegimitarians had been the greatest contributors (and greatest potential voters) then I would have mentioned that the poll was weighted to those from the land of Vegiemite (yum .... but only in small quantities!)

Issybird I like your thinking re identifying gender and age as part of the vote for each decade, that would be quite informative for those of us who like to ponder such things when considering a poll outcome. (Yep, I'm in that category) Perhaps a tickbox for gender and an over 40(?) tickbox.

As to sci fi/fantasy I barely know that it exists, I just don't notice it. (That's telling isn't it!!)

[everlod]

So here it goes:

1901-1910 Nostromo by Joseph Conrad
1911-1920 Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
1921-1930 Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
1931-1940 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1941-1950 Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
1951-1960 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1961-1970 The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrel
1971-1980 Beloved by Toni Morrisson
1981-1990 Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
1991-2000 Blindness by Jose Saramago

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by curtw

Uh-oh, I think we need a ruling from the moderators. I nominated this book for the *second* decade of the century, because that's when it was first published using the current title. I did realize that the first half of it came out in 1906, but that was as "The Cynic's Word Book. I picked a decade based on the availability of the full tome.

This is a tricky one. I think I'll come down on it being in the 1901-1910 decade.

(I'm tempted to rule it out altogether since most of the definitions were written and published in the 19th Century, and only collected into book form in the 20th. But I think some of the definitions were written in the 20th Century, and so I allow it.)

This is good news for curtw, as he now gets to nominate a different book for the 1911-1920 period!

[Greg Anos]

Didn't mean to cause a problem...If The Devil's Dictionary is unacceptable, please substitute Before Adam by Jack London.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Didn't mean to cause a problem...If The Devil's Dictionary is unacceptable, please substitute Before Adam by Jack London.

Not a problem! I have accepted your nomination date as the right one.

[Rizla]

Spartacus, 1951, by Howard Fast.

This is one of the finest books I've read in years. It inspired the film but is nothing like it. Fast wrote it after being imprisoned during the McCarthy witch-hunts for refusing to reveal the names of members of a charity group collecting money for refugees fleeing the Franco regime, and who were trapped in the mountains without food.

[sun surfer]

Isn't The Devil's Dictionary ineligible anyway, since it's not fiction? I think of it as non-fiction humour, something akin to a collection of epigrams.

[pynch]

Well, it’s written from the perspective of a fictitious character, so I guess it’s fiction.

Or do you think the devil’s real? — Wait, there’s somebody knocking at my door, who might that be???

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

Isn't The Devil's Dictionary ineligible anyway, since it's not fiction? I think of it as non-fiction humour, something akin to a collection of epigrams.

Well, it's certainly not factual, and the entries were written as entertainment. I'm willing to class it as fiction.

Originally Posted by treadlightly

pdurrant, this idea was a fun one! I'm looking forward to the voting. Will we be able to tackle each decade slowly one at a time? I might like to see if there are early leaders and if I haven't read one of them, attempt to finish the book before the poll closes.

I'd say we should have a separate discussion thread and vote for each decade, but run them simultaneously not sequentially. This is already moving along as slow as molasses. Ten discussions and votes to get through, a month maybe for each, it will be 2016 before it ends.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

I'd say we should have a separate discussion thread and vote for each decade, but run them simultaneously not sequentially. This is already moving along as slow as molasses. Ten discussions and votes to get through, a month maybe for each, it will be 2016 before it ends.