The greatest book ever written

and I hope you get us to say why we think so.

Oh yes I took that as a given. The reason I ask is that, since we humans have put chisel to stone there has been a multitude of writings. I am just wondering what peoples point of view would be and of course why. Oh and I might get some good reading material out of this thread. :))

My sense of 'greatness' varies from day to day. My answer today is based on recollections stimulated by JackobA

More often it is "The one I am currently reading"

when i was 18, it was "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".   but now that book seems trite.

when i was 21, it was "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand.   but later I realized Objectivists and Libertarians are all a bunch of loonies.

Now I'm tempted to say "Perl in a Nutshell" but that would be kind of silly.

so lemme think some more .... I want to come up with something really clever that makes me look really profound.

Jonathon Livingston Seagull
I also saw jackoba mention this. Sorry I havn't heard of it, but now curiously I think I might.

rwj04 also havn't heard of them, but curiously I dont think I wan't to look those up. :)) keep thinking.

The Pilgrims progress.
By John Bunyan

When I first read this book, I was thinking it was going to be another biblical type scriptury thing. woh to my surprise it wasn't. It is about god and staying on the right path, but it is a story that encapsulates you. It isn't scripture but its a good wholesome and sometimes scarey book. But most of all it makes one think about the path they lead in life, and what happens to a man who struggles to stay on this path, the path of good. but there are times when he comes to forked roads, which path does he take, the path to destruction or the path to goodness. Blah Blah. Its brilliant.

I agree with WaterStreet:   The first "Dune" book was truly a masterpiece of science fiction.   I thought it was a densely insightful commentary on Religion, Politics, Sociology, Anthropology, etc.   I should re-read that book.

geez.  how can anyone really answer this question:   "Greatest Book Ever Written" ?

you just cant answer it.

there are a LOT of "great" books.   but how can you pick one and say *this* one is the *Greatest*

there are too many genres.   even at the most basic divide, fiction and non-fiction.  how can you pick one as being greater than the other?

I also agree, I havn't read the dune books but I loved the movies.

Also the other book waterstreet mentioned sound fasinating. The source. Might have to see what I can do about that one. Wasn't there a movie with the same title.

Waterstreet your showing your age now. "This was probably the first fictional book I read as an adult (in 1966)." This year is when I was born and you were already an adult. that means you must be at least 57 years old. Add onother 2 years for American age limits. So WS your 59 years old. :)) LOL.

OK I can't expect anyone to pick, all I ask is try. Think what is a really great book according to one's self, if not the ultimate book one has read then the ultimate book one can think of at the moment. One can alway's change one's mind if an even greater book comes to mind.

divdove,

Age.

My earliest memory is from about 1945 riding a little 3-wheel bike with wooden wheels (what I didn't know then was that it couldn't be metal because all metal was needed for the war effort).  I was about 3 at that time.

OK! So I gave you a compliment, I will say though my parents are younger than you. But your pic compliments you, if it was taken in the last few years. You don't look 65 years old.

Anyway! Apart from the Pilgrems progress, there are other books that I think are great.

The works of Edgar Allen Poe.
Arthur C Clark 2001 A Space Oddisy.
Fluke by James Herbet.
The catcher in the rye byJ.D. Salinger.

But these are all fictional books. There are other more serious books out there.

Oh I also love Charles Dickens.

divdove

the Dune movie (either of them) was the most unfortunate thing that ever happened to the novel.  

I can see, however, that one might be impressed by the movie if one hadn't read the novel.

but once you experience the richness and fullness of the novel, the movies look like the pale and withered ghost of 'what could have been'

I agree with rwj04 we can't say greatest book, instead we give some good books we our self like and might attract others.

"The God of small things" by Arundhati Roy
"If Tomorrow comes" by Sidney Sheldon

srgilani you named 2 books, but what in your mind makes them great. I have never heard of them, can you give a bit of background as to what they are about, and why you think they are great. :)

In science fiction I think my favorite novel is "Dahlgren". I've read thousands of sci-fi novels and shorts and anthologies over the years so I am sure I have forgotten some really good ones, but Dahlgren stands out in my mind. I'm a little embarassed to say I used to go to sci-fi conventions and attended some award ceremoines for sci-fi stories, but I did get to meet some of the greats and not-so-greats at those conventions and awards ceremonies so it was worth the stigma of being a bit of a geek to go to them. Of course I wore a much younger mans clothes then. I rarely read sci-fi anymore.


Other books:

Fiction:

The Great Gatsby    (Just one of the best books ever written IMHO)
Catch 22    (A must read it)
Slaughterhouse Five    (Who can forget Billy Pilgrim?)
Leaves of Grass    (Poetry by Whitman)
Huckleberry Finn    (What can you say, a great book.)
All Quiet on the Western Front    (Everyone should read this book. Also a  good movie)
Sum of All Fears    (Tom Clancey. A bit long and technical though. Book is much better than the stupid movie adaptation.)
A Prayer for Owen Meany    (Great book adapted into a bad movie: Simon Birch)
Maus I / Maus II (graphic novels that won the Pulitzer prize. Intense set of books. Can be read in one night/day. Almost defines the term page-turner.)


Non-fiction:

Truman (McCullough)
The Fifties (Halberstam)  
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos (for all you cosmotology buffs this is a great book)
A Brief History of Time (Hawking makes it easy to understand and fun to read)

Currently reading:

Mark Twain (sub title: A Life)  (Ron Powers. I've learned a lot about Clemens/Twain and not even half way through the book yet. So far so good though.)

Plato
aristotle
arcamedies

einstien
copernicus
galilio

edison
farad
ohm

I love fictional books, but are there any greatest books from the factual category.
Perl diver has said a couple, but there has to be a greatest book of all time, excepting the scriptures.
Just a suggestion, keep all titles coming though I havn't heard of a lot of books mentioned so far.
And if posters think that they are good but not the greatest, they still deserve to be looked into.
1984 is one that is good, but is it the greatest non scripure book ever written. Personally I believe in the history of man that it isn't.
I know this is a hard one to go for, thats what makes the question good, and the answer even better.
The Ultimate Non Scripture Book Of All Time, What Is It.
:)

Ditto SunBow: More often it is "The one I am currently reading"

Although I'd also like it to be "The one I am about to read."

Different books for different moods, different folks, different days, and different reasons.

A couple of odd ones that I've liked:  Veniss Underground, American Gods, Perfume...

"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." >>

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
... (there are 100 listed)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml

But a lot of that reflected modern fashion trends.  The "Greatest Ever Book" would have to be timeless.

This reminds me a little of Monty Python's World's Funniest Joke...

> when i was 18, it was "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". But now that book seems trite.

Same here. And same here. Funny, that.

It's true though, so many books are great for so many different reasons, it's impossible to take one and elevate it above the others.

* Obviously, Darwin's "Origin" is up there with the best of 'em.

* Zen and the Art.... still is. Trite or not.

* The Bible. As an agnostic I can treat that as just another man-made book so I can include it in *my* list. :P
It may not be "divine", as far as I can tell, but it's a helluva book.

* The Illuminatus! Trilogy

* Gödel, Escher, Bach [...]

Only a few of 'em.

in no particular order

catcher in the rye
Dune
Apprenticeship of duddy kravitz
Lord of the rings
King Lear - not really a book but a great story same with Macbeth
the original Foundation Series - not a true book but great none the less
1984 - maybe wrongly dated, but talk about where things are headed these days, not so hard to believe

The book "1984" is a good book, probably a seminal piece of literature. If you like "1984" you will also like "Animal Farm", "Faranhiet 451" and "Brave New World". All books about dystopian worlds.

"Lord of the Rings" is a book I was never able to read, and I can read almost anything. I think I started reading it three times over many spans of years, and each time found it uninteresting to a fault. It's probably because fantasy/sword and sorcery have just never much interested me for some reason. I did enjoy the movies though.

I read "The Foundation" trilogy (Asimov) a few times. And the "Riverworld"  trilogy (Farmer) at least twice.

Darwins "Origin" is an important book, but I can't put it in a great category as far as pure reading enjoyment goes.  

I'll put in a vote for The Essential Lenny Bruce although the topic of semantics and meaning is covered nicely in Ogden & Richards The Meaning of Meaning and in Orwell's 1984.  Those 3 have probably had the most influence on my life.

You might find this list of interest divdove:

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnonfiction.html

I was a little surprised by how few of the books on that list I have read.

Here are other forms of answer:

(1) Checkout other lists people make for diferent question that can include answer, such as if one were only allowed ten items, what would they be, for: space travel, lost and alone on some island, or possibly the time containers/capsules that they bury, sometimes in foundation of new building.

(2) The "Salamander" series re: Lady Dame Honor Harrington, Duchess and Steadholder Harrington

The series is a minimum of ten books, which I recommend reading in order. If I can only select one, it would be the last book, where the hardcover edition has included a disk with the entire series on it. That way you can still do all ten, but you have to stay near a mouse. As for the TA, the 2nd one is more appropriate, being more about an entire planet founded by religious fundmentalists, they being 'lost' while technology increased for the rest of humanity. Rediscovered, Honor is sent to escort the diplomats attempting to negotiate with the planet. Of course, everyone on the planet believes that women should be kept barefoot and pregnant, while Lady Honor does not understand the value of wearing a dress. <um> I think at beginning of this book she is not quite a Lady. > "May I present Anna, Bernard's third wife." Anna looked up with a smile of her own and held out her hand to be kissed in turn.

http://www.webscription.net/chapters/0743435451/0743435451.htm?blurb [wait, read, <click><next>, continue]

War of Honor - NO ONE WANTED ANOTHER WAR

Chapter One
"Steeeee-riiiiike onnnnne!"

The small white sphere flew past the young man in the green-trimmed, white uniform and smacked into the flat leather glove of the gray-uniformed man crouching behind him. The third man in the tableau—the one who had issued the shouted proclamation—wore an anachronistic black jacket and cap, as well as a face mask and chest protector like the crouching man wore"

(3) Classics, such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "1984", maybe "Tom Sawyer" or "Huck Finn"
Another oldie but goodie (classic?): Siddhartha (novel)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Hesse
Hermann Hesse (2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-born poet, novelist, and painter who became a Swiss citizen. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best known works include Steppenwolf (1927), Siddhartha (1922), Narcissus and Goldmund (1933), and The Glass Bead Game (1943)

Hesse observed the rise to power of Nazism in Germany with concern. In 1933, Bertolt Brecht and Thomas Mann made their travels in exile, and in both cases, were aided by Hesse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhartha_(novel)
"too much searching can get in the way of finding,"

A lot of the books mentioned above are good, but are they really great. The reason I left out scripture is because it has affected a lot of peoples lifes. Like the bible or koran or any type of scripture, they have had an infuence on mankind. That is why we can say the greatest book ever written.

Now there are a lot of non believers out there who would say, the bible, greatest book ever written *Crap*. Well what I am trying to get at is, if the bible or koran or scripture isn't the greatest book ever written what is. I asked my other half this and she said, an encyclopedia, which I thought was a pretty good answer considering she isn't interested in this sort of thing.

If there were no such thing as religeon, what would be the greatest book ever written, what would be our bible if there were no religeous conotations.

I'm not getting between you and your lady friend so I will agree with her about an encyclopedia. I've always loved reading through encyclopedias of all sorts, the bits and pieces of knowledge poeple manage to cull together is pricless. If I get a gift for my neices or nephews or older grandkids I almost always get them some type of an encyclopedia.

look at that random house "readers 100 list" ... its so completely rigged by ballot stuffing nutjobs.

obviously, the scientologists...

#2 DIANETICS by L RON HUBBARD
and
#11 PSYCHIATRY: THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL by BRUCE WISEMAN (published by CCHR a front for church of scientology)

but then the LIbertarians!  Yes, they of the 3% popular vote, managed to practically SWEEP the Random House Reader's Top 100 contest!

1. THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS by AYN RAND
3. OBJECTIVISM: THE PHILOSOPHY OF AYN RAND by LEONARD PEIKOFF
6. AYN RAND: A SENSE OF LIFE by MICHAEL PAXTON

all hail, Ayn Rand.   and thena plethora of lesser known libertarians:

8. ECONOMICS IN ONE LESSON by HENRY HAZLITT
9. SEND IN THE WACO KILLERS by VIN SUPRYNOWICZ
10. MORE GUNS, LESS CRIME by JOHN R. LOTT
14. FREE TO CHOOSE by MILTON AND ROSE FRIEDMAN
15. AIN'T NOBODY'S BUSINESS IF YOU DO by PETER MCWILLIAMS
16. THE ROAD TO SERFDOM by F. A. HAYEK
17. FREEDOM IN CHAINS by JAMES BOVARD
18. AMERICA'S GREAT DEPRESSION by MURRAY N. ROTHBARD
19. THE ROOSEVELT MYTH by JOHN T. FLYNN
21. VINDICATING THE FOUNDERS by THOMAS WEST
39. PROPERTY MATTERS: HOW PROPERTY RIGHTS ARE UNDER ASSAULT AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE by JAMES V. DE LONG
70. BEYOND LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE by WILLIAM MADDOX AND STUART LILIE
78. WHY GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WORK by HARRY BROWNE


every single one of theoe mostly obscure writers are libertarians.   many (hazlitt, friedman, hayek) are legit.  some (lott, bovard, suprynowicz) are laughable.   none are top-100 worthy.

no wonder the Libertarians can never win an election.  their people are too busy rigging book popularity contests.

The Magus
by John Fowles

When I mentioned Dune, I ddn't just mean the first book, Dune.  I meant the whole original series of six books.

There are six of these books, to be read in the order shown below.  They're all connected and follow each other in time.  To me, it is amazing how someone could put together such a complete universe of different kinds of people, religious thought, politics, cloning the dead, knowing the knowledge of all one's ancestors, complications of being able to see the future, and unique science; and treat them consistently over a 10,000 year period of further development.

All of the following is quoted from http://www.dreamersofdune.com/books/


[1] Dune
 The original novel, first published in 1965, remains unsurpassed as a master work of science fiction and also as a great piece of literature. It details the journey of a boy, Paul Atreides, son of a Duke, from the water world of Caladan to the arid wastes of Dune, where he meets his destiny, as a man, as a leader and as a prophet.

It is that rarest of works - one that contains statements about religion, politics, ecology, and yet contains human emotions - love, tenderness, envy and revenge. It has been compared to "Lord of the Rings" in its breadth and depth, and remains one of the most popular works of science fiction ever written.


[2] Dune Messiah
 Picks up where Dune left off. Paul Atreides is Emperor of the Known Universe, but all is not well - corruption is taking root in his Empire, and the forces he deposed are plotting his demise. Worse, his past comes to haunt him in the form of his dead mentor, Duncan Idaho, revived as a clone. The novel shows how even someone with all the powers of an oracle can still be crushed by an unforgiving universe.


[3] Children of Dune
 The Emperor is presumed dead; Paul's sister Alia is Regent, and the children, Leto and Ghanima have to live in an atmosphere of political tension and intrigue. Worse, Alia is becoming increasingly tormented by the voices of the past, including that of the evil Baron Harkonnen, which threatens to take possession of her entirely.

A strange blind Preacher emerges from the desert; is it the Emperor? The children are left to try and survive and take control of the Empire.


[4] God Emperor of Dune
 Leto II is on the throne, and has been for thousands of years, thanks to having accepted symbiosis with the sandworms of Dune. He has put humanity on the Golden Path, thousands of years of enforced stability.

However humanity is chafing underneath his suffocating reign, including the latest clone of Duncan Idaho, and descendants of House Atreides. Is humanity ready to shake off Leto's yoke?


[5] Heretics of Dune
 After Leto, the Scattering. Now humanity is beginning to re-form, with the Bene Gesserit, the Bene Tleilax and the Honoured Matres in conflict.

It into this universe that a strange girl appears with the ability to control the sandworms of Dune, and Duncan Idaho is again brought back from the dead, according to a Bene Gesserit plan. However is the plan immune to the heresy of love?


[6] Chapterhouse: Dune
 The final book in the original series. The original Dune has been destroyed; however the Bene Gesserit are now turning a green world into a replica of Dune, mile by scorched mile.

The conflict with the Honoured Matres continues and reaches its climax and conclusion

WaterStreet > That would definitely be in my personal top five.

:-))

FYI, know that Dune is also in my top 5!  Although I haven't read any of the sequels yet, it is an amazing book and the conceptualization and level of detail is incredible.

American Gods.

I read the rest of the review that I quoted above.  It's really quite a piece in itself and explains why I found this book so fascinating.  A lot of philosophy, Americanism; humor; and seems to put a perspective on the way people are.

Of the books I've mentioned here, this is the one I would first read again.

SunBow, IMO, you would like this on various levels.


All of the following is the continuation of the quote above from http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/americangods.htm

These interludes could be annoying but somehow never are, not even the long ones, mainly because they're just so stuffed full of clever and beautiful and disturbing ideas about why the world is the way it is. For instance, but for one nomad woman's faithlessness fourteen centuries before humans invented a son for God, America would never have suffered the white man and would have belonged to its first natives for eternity. But for the everyday wishing of ordinary people to be ordinarily and consensually good, a mustachioed tyrant may not have gained ascension. This is the kind of stuff that challenges and changes your worldview, and puts to the sword a vast amount of half-arsed intellectual historicizing.

The new gods are far more obviously man-made, and far more inescapably American. There is Media, goddess of television, who comes to Shadow on the idiot-box in the form of Lucille Ball and offers to show him her breasts even when Desi Arnaz is in the room. There is Technical Boy, geek divine, who rides around in a stretch limo spouting Superhighway rhetoric to anyone who'll listen and anyone who won't. And, somewhat inevitably, there is the Agency, a bunch of black hats with names like Mr Town and Mr Stone who run non-stop blacked-out trains across a secret nationwide rail network and exist purely because enough people assume they must do.

American Gods has its flaws -- there are a fair few chunks of mechanical get-hero-from-A-to-B stuff, some lazy repetition of words within sentences, and Gaiman lets himself play authorial god a tad too often for it just to be a clever riff on his themes. But the flaws are not big or plentiful enough to mar the book out of the modern masterpiece class. The plot is a piece of spring-loaded craftsmanship, there's not a single boring character in sight, nearly as many laugh-out-loud jokes as a Discworld novel, and enough passages of sheer gorgeousness (like Mr Jacquel's first dissection, Sam's rant in the car, Shadow's arboreal vigil) to gainsay any slack-brained genre snob who calls you out on your reading tastes.

Some reviewers have pointed out, somewhat snippily, the lack of Greek gods and the rather notable absence of, well, God and Jesus and so on. They're missing the point. Gaiman's principal divine family is just a Nordic variation on a theme -- there's a big daddy god, a troublesome son god, time spent on trees, and enough three-days and multiples-of-three-days references to bludgeon a TV evangelist into atheism. It's just Gaiman's choice, and the oddness of the choice is used deliberately to highlight (or shadow) the other variations.

Besides, Gaiman's one bald reference to Christianity -- Mr Ibis telling Shadow that 'Jesus does rather well over here' -- is in many ways at the heart of American Gods, and is, brilliantly, all that needs to be directly said on the matter. Little enough that it won't alienate a large chunk of the American book-buying public, and more than enough for any engaged reader to see exactly what Gaiman is saying with the whole immense weave of his story. That gods reflect the manner in which they are believed in, which may not be the original manner; and that they do so because, as far as the things that actually matter are concerned, gods are unmistakably, irrevocably, and terribly human.

Like rwj04 say it varies from trim to time
for a while it was
"Arrive at Eaterwine: The autobiography of a ktistec machine." by R.A.Lafferty
Human Condition, Paradox, Love of life and words.

for a longer time it was Tanith Lee's books about the flat earth:
"Nights Master", "Deaths Master", "Delusions Master.", "Deleriums mistress". "Nights Sorceries."
Romanticism, Humanity, The problems of God-hood, justice and life.

but then there was:
"The Dispossessed." by Ursula K. Le Guin
Sociology, technology, political theory versus human nature, hope and humanity.

to round off, when i was 3 I really loved
"The kitten with blue eyes"
I dont remember the author, but I remember the kitten went up the hill and down the hill for several pages to get to that wonderful place where all the other kittens had blue eyes too and nobody teased, and I would join in the reading and say 'up the hill' and 'down the hill' moving my arms up and down as appropriate.

But that was a long time ago, I would probably find it boring today unless I was bouncing a child on my knee while we read the book :-))

It differs.

regards jakobA

Oh, and there is:
"Songmaster." by Orson Scott Card
and ...............................................................................................................

divdove,

I didn't say they are great but they are worth reading.

The God of Small Things.
=================
The God of Small Things is a semi-autobiographical novel by Arundhati Roy that won the Booker Prize in 1997. It is about the childhood experiences of a pair of twins who become victims of circumstance. The book is a description of how the small things in life build up, translate into people's behaviour and affect lives.

For more detail you can visit below link.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_of_Small_Things

If tomorrow Comes
=============
If Tomorrow Comes This is the story of Tracy Whitney and the loss of her innocence. It follows her plans for revenge.

For details have a look on below links.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_Tomorrow_Comes
www.allreaders.com/Topics/Topic_219.asp
www.mouthshut.com/product-reviews/If_Tomorrow_Comes_-_Sidney_Sheldon-925001081.html

sirgilani,

One of the top experts here, zamorin, also recommended "The God of Small Things" a long time ago.  I didn't make the connection unitl I saw the author's name, Arundhati Roy.

here:   http:Q_21039110.html#11413022

[thanks - Boy, that was over two years ago]

WaterStreet,

Its a light natural story written in a very natural way. you will like its style if you are not a reader of fictanious type of literatour.

About the time of my last post, I worked up enough excitement to read American Gods again.

I'm at page 479 about 100 from the end.

It's even much better the second time.

Absalom, Absalom - William Faulkner

Hi freebuddy,

what did you like about it?

>>....read American Gods again.
>>I'm at page 479 about 100 from the end.

Well don't tell me how it ends cuz I'm only on page 406!!!   Great book btw.  :-)

Huntress58,

Great - that's three of us.  Glad muso reminded me.

For about the last 5 years, until just the last 6 mos., I'd been reading about two paperback fiction books a month.  My criteria centered around best-sellers and reading their own descriptions.

I won't tell how it ends, but what I quickly learned about reading good, well-written, books is that the enjoyment is page by page where the ending is almost just another page (not quite, but you get my point).

American Gods is like that.

Right now I've got about 70 pages to go, and I'm thinking about holding it off until I can read it all at once this Saturday afternoon.

Since you are reading it, my suggestion is too not read it quickly, but pay attention to everything.  The author packs a lot into it.  Just about everything is significant or connected with something else that happened or will happen.  Same for the Dune series.

If we had a required reading for P&R participants (ha ha) this would be the one, IMHO.
IMO, this is also a book that Sunbow and BobSiemens (from what I think I know of their style) would enjoy.

I savor every book I read and this one is no exception.  I had read Gaiman's "Neverwhere" prior to this so I'm familiar with his style.  :-)

Waterstreet:

I liked so much the Sutpen character. His mysterious personality and the way of handling things is astonishing to me.

And you? what did you like?

WaterStreet > Glad muso reminded me.

:-D  I must admit that I'd probably benefit from re-reading it too.  There are so many references to myth and legend that I didn't get the first time...


Huntress > I savor every book I read...

So do I :-) although if I find that I'm not getting into something by about the 50th page or so I leave it to another day.  Acclaimed authors like William Gibson and Terry Pratchett I have found difficulties getting into thus far...

I'm really looking forward to starting on "Stranger in a Strange Land" which I'll be on next, although I'm really enjoying "Geek Love" at the moment.

WaterStreet > If we had a required reading for P&R participants (ha ha)

May not be such a bad idea ;-)

The greatest read I ever had was a book that took me on a journey, some 20 years ago. The Lord of the Rings. This book really stimulated my imagination and affected me like no other book. I think there was something very special about Tolkien - couldn't possibly explain what. Perhaps his views on the environment - evident in all his texts - and his gernally unhappiness with we we call "progress". Now the magic of that book has long since gone, but when I was a teenager it was a wonderful thing to get into, and ispired a lot of paintings by me.

But, I can't call it the greatest book ever written.

We're not allowed to mention holy texts but tyo my mind the greatest books ever written are those. the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita. All extremly influential stuff.

Outside religion, no single book stands out.

How can we measure a book's greatness? By its universal appeal? Its timelessness? Fiction? Philosphy? Science?

How could you argue that Shekespeare was better than Dickens?  Or Marcus Aurealius was better than Plato? Or Newton's "Principia Mathematica" was better than Euclid?

Perhaps the greatest book ever written was the one that has not been written yet.

That's exactly what I am getting at. The people that say the greatest book ever written are religios. I know the greatest book ever written is a religious one. But I am wondering, for people that are not religious what their thoughts might be. Or even religious people what their thoughts would be apart from religious texts. its going to be hard for me to award points for this one cos a lot of the books mentioned I havn't read. :( much to my dimay.

Well, I haven't read Principia Mathematica - just in case anyone thought I had!

So far all I have is fiction; to everyone fiction is good but not what I'm looking for. I won’t science, history factual. Things like Astronomy, geology, spacey stuff. History, Anything like this but not electronics or computer stuff cos I'm a genius at this. But don't try to challenge me cos I won't entertain to me it is boring. But at the moment I am into the cosmos so any factual books not just space but anything will do.

Well, I usually like Bill Bryson, and "A Short History of Nearly Everything" is one of the books that I intend to read next.  Richard Dawkins has written some good books...

But you asked for the "Greatest Book Ever"... maybe Darwin's book is up there in terms of it's influence, but it's hardly a book that people keep coming back to.  Same goes for most non-fiction.  Also, most non-fiction only appeals to a relatively small section of the population, as it usually targets interested groups.  Other than that you have dicionaries, thesauruses (thesauri?), encyclopedias...

Oh I have just seen what I had written >Anything like this but not electronics or computer stuff cos I'm a genius at this. But don't try to challenge me cos I won't entertain to me it is boring.< How arrogant :) sorry for this I had a couple of glasses of wine that night. probably not that mutch of a genius. Humbling myself.

Anyway you could always look it up on google even if I wasn't a genius. But sometimes one has to say to themselves shutup. :)

The thing is my son has me interested in Greek mythology at the moment, not something I considered. I was mostly into Egyptian stuff. When you read what the Egyptians did for the time they were living in, I just think it was amazing what they achieved. But my son agrees with me on this but he has pointed out that the Greeks have also achieved some great stuff. Not only the Greeks but Mesopotamians and Inca and aztecs and basically old ancient civilisations. I find this stuff interesting. What I’m saying is that there must be great books that have been written that are nonfiction as well as fiction books. Also the non believers of the scriptures are good at saying they are fictitious but I am interested in if they had a bible what would they say it was. Star trek. (Joke)

For a non fiction book, I recommend "The Challenge of Creation" by Rabbi Natan Slifkin (2006, Zoo Torah).  It is a re-work and expansion of the author's previous book that was banned in certain ultra-religious quarters.  It could be the most important book in a long time, in that it shows a way to reconcile creationism (or traditional Torah/biblical study of Genesis) with science.   Not to worry; Maimonides’ (the Rambam) writings were banned in his time too (the 12th century), but now he is seen as one of the leading Torah scholars

A description of the book is at http://www.amazon.com/Challenge-Creation-Encounter-Cosmology-Evolution/dp/1933143150

It’s not that I consider Slifkin a great authority, on his own, but that he is referring to authoritative sources for what he is saying.  He and his previous book came under extensive criticizm (that he unacceptably departs from traditional Jewish viewpoints.   See the Heresy of Nosson Slifkin at http://www.momentmag.com/features/oct05/slifkin.html).  

I recently made two postings in EE where I extensively quoted from his book

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22025025/Cyclic-problems.html#17771863

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22025025/Cyclic-problems.html#17786095

Closing this in the next few days, anymore comments welcome.

increase 50/100

Well thanks to all for some good reading material. I gave it to WS because Iknow the story of Dune and loved it. lots of good stuff mentioned a lot I never heard of before, but will read.

Still all the books mentioned are no where near the greatest book ever written.

thanks for all who input to this thread. :-)

Thank you.  Caused me to re-read American Gods.  Enjoyed it better the second time (because I knew what was going on).

I've never heard of American Gods, dont know what it is about but I will look it up.

thanks for points :)

now im going to have to read American Gods too.   sounds great

> dont know what it is about but I will look it up.

And then you can give me some poinks! :-P

Hee hee! OK, poinks! I remember from another thread. Did (Muso) mention a book called American Gods, I don't know.
But if you did I will give you a virtual 20 poinks. :-)

Thanks.  Virtual poinks will do just fine ;-)