The 100 Greatest Books of All Time: 80-71!

[@GustavoCohen-fh9rc]

0:52 80. Decameron - Boccaccio 2:42 79. Lyrical Ballards - William Wordsworth, Samuel T Coleridge 3:26 78. First Folio (1623) - William Shakespeare 4:40 77. The Consolation of Philosophy - Boethius 6:20 76. Orlando Furioso - Ludovico Arioso 8:28 75. The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams 9:52 74. Confessions - Saint Augustine 11:42 73. Ring of Bright Water - Gavin Maxwell 12:26 72. The Story of the Stone - Cao Xueqin 14:55 71. Roughing It - Mark Twain

[@somebenfen]

It's hilarious that people are already complaining about exclusion when you were still only 20 books in 😅

[@mtngrl5859]

Steve, Thanks for including The Velveteen Rabbit, such a wonderful and profound work!

[@stretmediq]

I bought a copy of the Decameron in Italian in Florence years ago even though I couldn't read it because I told myself I would learn. I still can't read it

[@audreyh7892]

Wow. That is jumping in the deep end. I hope you reach your goal.

[@seangraham9868]

Roughing It!!!!! I love that book discovered it doing research for a class about the way the meaning of America has changed overtime

[@bigaldoesbooktube1097]

Ring of Bright Water, what an inspired choice. I bought the Folio Society edition for my father two years ago.

[@thenewterrorbilly727]

I'm glad I've found your channel

[@elainepereira7483]

I am loving this series!! Thank you for doing this.

[@JosephReadsBooks]

I have been meaning to pick up a copy of The Consolation of Philosophy. Now I know which one to get. I found out about the book thanks to Ignatius in A Confederacy of Dunces and after looking it up I was intrigued. This top 100 list has been fantastic so far!

[@Geraldsbliss]

WW Norton published a facsimile of the First Folio in 1968 and again in 1996. The latter was republished by the Folio Society, which is what I have. Should be relatively easy to find it on the secondary market.

[@LibroParadiso-ep4zt]

Italo Calvino introduced me to Orlando Furioso, a remarkably sensuous adventure for me in reading it. T. S. Eliot in turn introduced me to The Confessions. I liked in Four Quartets the line time present and time past are both present in time future. He took words from Augustine I came to learn. On my comics channel I showed off a page from Frank Miller/Daviz Mazzuchelli's Born Again and read from The Confessions.

[@b-isforbetsy7828]

This is so interesting! I may read through your list.

[@gavinmcintosh5716]

I started the Decameron in December 2023 and am working my through the ebook Delphi edition as there are a few versions to go through. Having fun.😊

[@Diritday]

Love love love!!!!!! Thank you Steve!

[@jordanparsons5703]

Twist ending: Number One will be the Road.

[@seanwebb605]

I think that when I was a child a very sanitized version of The Velveteen Rabbit was read to me. I bought a copy and read it a few months ago and was blown away the the concepts, ideas and story. This was some next level stuff. I can't believe that so much drivel has been offered to children (and adults) today to sell much more simplistic ideas. And I'm someone that truly does believe in the basic principles of inclusion, diversity and multi ethnic society. Without a doubt I'm a left of centre liberal democrat.

[@DanielsBibliophagy]

Oh my gosh I haven't thought about The Velveteen Rabbit in forever. Immediately I got sad.

[@PortStiggs]

Thanks for doing this list! I really enjoy finding out about new books or learning more about the books I've heard of but don't know too much about. I'm currently reading The Decameron slowly, around 3 or 4 stories per day while I spend most of my daily reading time on another book that I'm more focused on. Right now that's The Magic Mountain, which I am reading for it reaching 100 years old this year, a small reading project I started a few years ago to find and read at least one great book for its 100th birthday every year. I have read that Susan Bernofsky is working on a new translation of The Magic Mountain, have you read any of her other translations? I wonder if it's something to look forward to. Regarding The Decameron, do you think there are advantages to knocking it all out at once instead of piecemeal, or does it not matter too much and however you want to enjoy it is fine?

[@Roland96351]

Is the Praise of Folly a satire of The Consolation of Philosophy?

[@anotherbibliophilereads]

I have A Dream of Red Mansions in a 4 volume paperback box set . 2555 pages. Egads. Very intimidating.

[@elenamakridina8196]

100 is too few. I want more!

[@RyanLisbon]

Went a pathetic 1.5/10 today (The Velveteen Rabbit and half of the First Folio) Currently running a 7.5/30. Did I read Meg for nothing?

[@audreyh7892]

I read the Velveteen Rabbit. I feel accomplished.

[@stephenwatson672]

I’ll take Dante’s Inferno over Decameron. Hated Songs of Roland, although I did recommend it to a young man into historical military literature who never heard of it. I’ll take Beowulf over Lord of the Rings. I thought Story of the Stone was sad. I liked Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness because I’m impartial to the River Congo. Never liked anything from Ernest Hemingway. I thought Voltaire’s Candide was humorous. He points out the hypocrisy in humans and so does The Canterbury Tales, always fun to listen to in Middle English.

[@RyanLisbon]

3/10 - Grand Total 11/40

[@yelisieimurai]

0 / 30 yet. Not bad.

[@willieluncheonette5843]

“Somebody asked Saint Augustine, “Define God. What do you mean when you use the word god?” And Augustine said, “It is just like time. I can talk about it, but if you insist on the definition, I am at a loss.” You keep asking people, “What is the time?” And they will look at their watches and reply. But if you really ask, “What is time?” If you ask for the definition, then watches won’t help. Can you define time? Nobody has ever seen it, there is no way of seeing it. If you look, it is gone; if you think, it is not there. When you don’t think, when you don’t look, when you simply are, it is there. You live it. And Saint Augustine is right: God can be lived, but cannot be seen. Time also can be lived, but cannot be seen. Time is not a philosophical problem, it is existential. God is also not philosophical, he is existential. People have lived him, but if you insist on a definition they will remain silent, they cannot answer. And if you can be in this moment, the doors of all the mysteries are open.”

[@treeforged9097]

Its to bad that analogy no longer works because modern science literally gives a way to see time directly. I doubt Augustine would agree with your assertion that "God can be lived, but cannot be seen". If that were true then god would be an action not a being, which would render the entirety of Augustine's belief system false. i don't know what the word existential means in what you said and I assume if I would ask you to define it you would have to repeat the same argument for it as you did for your god definition. If you last sentence is correct then nobody has ever been in this moment because there are still a whole bunch of mysteries that nobody has ever come close to answering.