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- theblooms, on 10/12/2007, -5/+36No Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler? Holy crap, that book led to WWII and the near extermination of a race of people. Pretty damn influential! I assume that influential can be good or bad.
- theblooms, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29My library card gets a workout. I try to read a minimum of one book a month. The last 2 books I read were The Count of Monte Cristo and Animal Farm. The Classics are called that for a reason. When I was in school, I DESPISED reading Classics, but now that I am older, I find that I really appreciate them. My 12th Grade English teacher told me that would happen, and at the time, I thought she was nuts. Turns out she was right.
Next on the list is (shudder!) Moby Dick. I'm going to try it anyway. Oh, and @ Nicolay77, Cosmos and Contact were both wonderful! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24Where the hell is "The Little Engine That Could"? I mean, come on...
- toast1226, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23where the hell is "The Art of War" and "How to win friends and influence people (by Dale Carnegie)"
- vuke69, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20"I am at about 30 or so for the year."
Damn, in only seven days? Color me impressed. - diablonhn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17"The Art of War" by SunTzu
- hobgobbler, on 10/12/2007, -8/+25No it's the right decision, the iching deserves to be #1. It never started any wars or anything but it kept China mellow (or mellow-er) for a long, long time, and it probably contains the most basic common sense of any book ever written.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19The bible was set in concrete in 325 at the Council of Nicaea and (at least in the Catholic Church) has not changed. The Vulgate was translated about 100 years later and is still the official bible of the Catholic Church. In the 1500's the protestants removed a number of books from the Old Testament but all Christian denominations accept the 325 version of the NT. All of the Orthodox churches agree with the 325 codification as well. That means the majority of Christianity (Catholicism and Orthodoxy) are in agreement and have been for 700 years on its content. Translations are not relevant as the "official" version remains the same.
I predict a lot of digg-downs for this post :) - HeL1ves1nYou, on 10/12/2007, -1/+151984 = Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Nicolay77, on 10/12/2007, -6/+19How about 250+ ?
About 50 of them written by Asimov
About 10 by Carl Sagan
And more than half of them being science fiction books.
Reading is a pleasure for a lot of people like me, so I'm sure several people has read far more books. - gharding, on 10/12/2007, -5/+17No Da Vinci Code? Buried!
- MrFlibble1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12>> who here has actually read 100 books? :)
(Yes, this post has a point, read it all before judging)
Most people read about 1000 books in their lifetime, although this figure might be decreasing. (Source, Carl Sagan's Cosmos) I am a likely exception, as I do not watch television, and hence read a huge number of books. But that is just who I am, others are different.
Having said that, I strongly recommend that people become involved in Audio books. Sure, I will be criticized for the fact that they are audio, I have heard it many times prior. However, I always listen to Audio books while driving, and while in the Gym or running. Why do I do this? Because I cant read a book while doing any of those tasks, and I can absorb information at the same time and learn more. According to Zig Ziglar (Secrets of Closing the Sale), if you listen to audio books during an average commute every working day, you will gain the equivalence of a 2 years college education over a 3 year commuting period.
My point is this, many of those books on that list are available in audio format, and I have either read, or listened to them, though, not all on that list. Many people now days complain that they don't have the "time" to read. Well, you have the time to listen. You absorb the information either way, and even if you only absorb say 20 percent from listening to a book, that is 20 percent more that you have from when you started.
So, if you want to know more things, audio books are a great way of reading when you don't have the time to read, besides, many of the books on that list were meant to be read aloud, as the intended audience was generally illiterate at the time they were written. - Skyhoper, on 10/12/2007, -5/+15USA Today listed Atlas Shrugged as the most influential book next to the bible and it's not even on this list.
- halosniper7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11who hasnt read 100?
- LucerinRed, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12actually, it'd be very inaccurate to put the old testament as a whole like they did, if they're going to split up the bible like that, it might as well have been The Torah (first 5 books) and the new testament. and the new testament definitely deserves to be higher up then that. Its pretty much shaped all of modern western culture regardless of how you feel about its effects.
- iching, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13Not many care to read unless it paid them in some ways,
some would love to but can't
some think it is a chore because they were not taught well
some love the transference of thought
and have to pass it on
and some don't digg it at all.
"The unexamined life is not worth living" Socrates
Ok, too preachy
still good books. - tpv2066, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I completely argee, this list is showing bias. While I'm no Neo-Nazi, that was easily in the top 15.
- Caleb83, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I find it weird that there are so many book-illiterate people on the internet. So you spend time on a medium that is comprised mostly of text, but you consider it a chore to read a book on a topic you find interesting? I'm the only person in my group of friends that actually reads books. One of these guys got intimidated by looking at 4 paragraphs on the back of a DVD case. I'm ashamed to be surrounded by morons. I've only read about a dozen of these titles, though. The worst book ever is Their Eyes Were Watching God. Why must the dialog be written in a vernacular, and not in plain English? I curse my English teacher for making me read this.
- captinherb, on 10/12/2007, -9/+16Nothing by Ayn Rand?
- thekidder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I'm pretty sure any top 100 anything list is going to be subjective.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Lord of the Rings isn't even on the list. It has shaped nerddom around the world for decades. This list is BS.
- brendandonhue, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Yeah, 1984 should be at least in the top 93 on the list.
- Phatt138, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7"Stop trying to outsouce philosophy. It belongs to the west."
"I tend to doubt that the I Ching has been read by many Westerners, or modern Chinese for that matter - the Old Testament is the foundation of Western Civilization, which, like it or not, is probably the world's most influential and globally far-reaching civilization."
It never fails to amaze me how Eurocentric - not to mention downright ignorant - people can be. It's absolutely incredible. I would argue, reminding said posters of the fact that the West is only the most recent (and so far comparatively short-lived) iteration of world-changing human civilizations to date. I would point them to the fact that Middle Eastern scientists and naturalists were on par with Europeans even before the Middle Ages, and most certainly during them. While Catholic churches were burning the collected works of Aristotle, progress continued in other parts of the world.
I would mention that writing, systems of higher mathematics, chemistry and alchemal practices have all evolved far from 'Western' influence. I would remind them that China was the superpower of its day, that dynastic rule - and the highly evolved cultural and social practices that it impressed upon its people - began taking root 1,400 years before roves of marauding Franks and Goths fought to establish modern Europe, laying the seeds for the eventual establishment of America.
I would also remind them that Westernism - with its tenets including Christianity, capitalism, and all the other trappings that these folks seem to think are so vital to the past and present of mankind - succeeded mainly because of a mix of luck, resources, and timing. As the Eastern nations fell, so the Westerners took up the baton - that much is certain. But said baton was carried thusfar by people whose economies, societies, philosophies, and governments were as advanced and world-changing to them as ours are to us.
But then, it's not my responsibility to teach cultural relativism. They should read a book, or maybe deman better from their public school system. Or, God forbid, take on the responsibility of learning something about the world they consider themselves to be such 'experts' in. - borchard76, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Funny, I'd guess I read that many in a year, unless you insist on only counting unique books, then I'm probably down to about 30. About 2/3 of that is fiction, and nearly 100% of that 2/3 is sci-fi/fantasy.
I typically read 2 books a week.
How can a person not read at least two or three a year? - snapdeus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6a list without Ovid is like a list without Shakespeare.
- hiPpymIck, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6listen to them instead...
http://www.oculture.com/weblog/2006/10/audio_book_podc.html
classics, free, read by volunteers, on Digg recently
# 63 Vindication of the Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft...tho good probly was not as
influential as 'Frankenstein' i would guess - amberhaq, on 10/12/2007, -2/+61.2 billion Muslims, and the Koran was #26? shocked.
- oogee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Origin of Species is number 73? Are these in order?
Bull ShhhhhhhhhIT! - RoloTomasie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Mein Kampf wasn't really circulated until Hitler already had a good grip on Germany. The book may have appeared all over Europe, but it wasn't what motivated people to follow Hitler, and therefore should not be on the list.
- seany231, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3seems to me like the author simply went to a history textbook and went straight to the Scientific Revolution/Reformation/Enlightenment section and wrote down all of the big players and their books
- cptn_cardboard, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4***** list.
Should be called "the hundred books i've heard of." - vspazv, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Sooo... how many of the positions do you think your parents tried before you were conceived?
- a10waveracer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Truthfully, even as a fan of Ayn Rand's works, I don't know if I can say that it is the second most influential book of all time... but I would argue that it's definitely in the top 100.
- AKPirate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@mfratt:
If only it were influential enough to make it. Not enought people have read or understood it for it to be considered one of the 100 most influential books.
In general:
Locke's second treatise on government definitely should have been on there. Haven't read enough of the others to make real judgements. - shosterman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I haven't seen this mentioned yet.
http://www.dailylit.com
Once you pick a book to read you receive a small section of it each day through email. Kind of forces you to read that book you never had time for. - jcrewyayo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3thank you for not including the ayn rand ***** I always see on lists like this
- superal1394, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Explain to me why The Social Contract (Rousseau) and Two Treatises of Government (John Locke) are not on that list.
I mean, come on people, the bible is all fine and dandy, but those two books influenced and were the framework to two of the most powerful forces of the past 100 years, the United States of America and Soviet Union, and probably for the next 100 to 200 years, between China and the US - seeohpee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2As good as Catcher in the Rye is, I'm not sure how influential it was. These are mostly books that changed the way people perceived the world. Catcher in the Rye, while being a literary masterpiece, simply did not have the power that the Bible, Koran, or most of the other books.
1984, however, is on the list. Number 93. - themij, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Why is this person being dugg down? It's true- Uncle Tom's Cabin is a highly influential book. Probably more influential than 1984.
- Satertek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"In April 2003 the BBC's Big Read began the search for the nation's best-loved novel, and we asked you to nominate your favourite books."
The Bible isn't a novel. - occularrifts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2without the Kama Sutra many of us would not even be here!
- disparue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well, there are over 1.3 billion people in china and close to 60 million chinese living outside of the middle kingdom.
As an aside, anyone who has taken a liberal arts degree has probably had to read between 20-30 of those books. Mostly the western philosophy and literature. - bierce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What about "Free to Choose" by Friedman? It was at least as influential as von Hayek and Keynes.
- viktro, on 10/12/2007, -1/+31984 ripped off We, its a shame really.
- nikkesen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I can't believe it! BLASPHEMY! I can't believe they left off "My Pet Goat"!
- Kjacks52, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5The most influential book ever in the united states is not on this list...
Harriett Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin - carbonetc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It seems like the Vedas should have been in there.
- zephc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2#5 is aka Tao Te Ching/Dao De Jing. My personal #1.
- shortarabguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah, but it's rar'ed together with a bunch of porn. Go figure.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3# 90The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich von Hayek
BRAVO!!!! But if that is on there how could Adam Smith's "The Wealth Of Nations" not be there.
Also missing Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand -
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