10/8/12

How many "great books" have you read?

Fun question from James Garvey over at Talking Philosophy.

3 comments:

Faust said...

6, almost 7.

Dave Ricks said...

Three, as an undergrad, but I didn't read them nearly as well as I might read them today.  I like this note Richard Dawkins wrote to accompany his 6-hour audiobook recording of On the Origin of Species:

"In this recording, which was a true labor of love, I made no attempt to act the part of Darwin, but instead worked hard, as a modern follower of Darwin, to convey the true meaning of every sentence. I even surprised myself: the exercise of reading Darwin's words aloud and identifying in every phrase the syllable that needed to be stressed, revealed to me subtleties and depths of meaning that I had missed when reading quietly to myself. I hope listeners will be enlightened in the same way."

Brett Hetherington said...

Not many truly great books. Christ Stopped At Eboli by Carlo levi would be one. 1984 by George Orwell, another. The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi is also a great work. Maybe only three. That's less than I first thought.