Walker Payne

Walker Weekly – Top 100 Books of All Time (According to Who?)

Welcome to Walker Weekly, a regularly scheduled newsletter where I share things that I find interesting, useful, inspiring, or thought-provoking. If you have anything of your own that falls into these categories, please let me know in the comments! I’m always looking for new inspiration.

List of best books I’m browsing

4chan’s list of top 100 greatest books – 10-year aggregate (reddit). I should preface this firstly by saying that I’ve never spent any time on 4chan. Despite their reputation, it sounds like 4chan’s /lit/ (literature) board takes itself pretty seriously and is dedicated to the discussion of, well, literature. The thing that’s most interesting about these types of “Top X best Y of all time” posts is how they differ from one another based on the inherent biases of the polling demographic.

Anyways, the reddit post linked above is fascinating and informative. Here are the top 10 as a teaser:

  1. Moby Dick
  2. The Brothers Karamazov
  3. Lolita
  4. Crime and Punishment
  5. Ulysses
  6. Infinite Jest
  7. Don Quixote
  8. Blood Meridian
  9. Gravity’s Rainbow
  10. Holy Bible

Blog post I’m re-reading

1,000 True Fans (kk.org). This post is an always-welcome refocusing for anyone who strives to “make it” on the internet.

Quote I’m pondering

The problem is no longer getting people to express themselves but providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say. … What a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing … the thing that might be worth saying.

Gilles Deleuze

That’s all for this week, thanks a lot for following along!

Stay curious,

Walker

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4 responses to “Walker Weekly – Top 100 Books of All Time (According to Who?)”

  1. ryan7092efdb5f5 Avatar
    ryan7092efdb5f5

    I’ve recently been reacquainting myself with some of the classic literature a lot of us read in high school, starting with Steinbeck. What was once a chore is now a pleasant activity, go figure!

    The reddit link should be a good jumping-off point for further exploration, however I don’t think I’ll take a swing at Ulysses or Infinite Jest any time soon. If I could listen to you dictate Joyce’s stream of consciousness in audio book format, I just might.

    Reply
    1. Walker Avatar
      Walker

      Steinbeck is probably my favorite author of all time 🙂 I highly recommend To A God Unknown, Travels With Charley, and Logs From the Sea of Cortez in addition to his more well known, nobel-prize-winning works (East of Eden takes the cake for me).

      I’m not going to read those other books any time soon, either – I don’t think I’m quite ready for that. I’m a big believer in reading what you want to read, rather than trying to check books off a list to sound smart. That’s a quick way to stifle your reading habit, which I value too dearly. Thanks for dropping in. 🙂

      Reply
  2. M. Payne Avatar
    M. Payne

    I nominate Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Pirsig), A Pattern Language (Alexander), The Perennial Philosophy (Huxley), Simplicity (Rohr) and The Zen Teachings of Jesus (Leong). Oh, and The Last Picture Show series (McMurtry). One more: Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Places (Robbins). One more one more: The Gates of the Alamo (Harrigan).

    Reply
    1. Walker Avatar
      Walker

      I recognize a few of those, but most of them are new to me! I’ll add them to my list. 🙂

      Reply

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