Consensus Cloud on Books Everyone Should Read



Should Twilight be among the books that everyone should read? It is according to this infographic by David McCandless of great books (according to popular surveys):

Do Top 100 Books polls and charts agree on a set of classics? I scraped the results of over 15 notable book polls, readers surveys and top 100's. Both popular and high-brow. They included all Pulitzer Prize winners, Desert Island Discs choices from recent years, Oprah's Bookclub list, and, of course, The Guardian's Top 100 Books of All Time. A simple frequency analysis on the gathered titles gives us a neat 'consensus cloud' visualisation of the most mentioned books titles across the polls. Do you agree with the consensus?


You can view a much larger version of this image at the link. My wife (a big reader) and I were just discussing this cloud, and she suggests that the list be narrowed to To Kill a Mockingbird and Nineteen Eighty-Four -- and to add King Lear, though it is not a novel. What would you add or remove from this cloud?

Link via GeekDad

Well I really don't get how a book like Twilight gets mentioned with all these great books but if that guilty pleasure can get in I would suggest "Fight Club". And what bout graphic novels. Maybe "Watchmen" or "Y: The Last Man"?
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
I always automatically disregard any reading list that recommends 'Lolita', a poorly-written load of gibberish.

I can't see Hyperion by Dan Simmons on there, but it's the best science fiction I've ever read.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
This is a mess, some guys scrapes a limited data set chosen based off some nonsensical reasoning and it is supposed to mean something?

Oh yeah, it is a word cloud, so it is pretty
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Don't forget "The Illuminatus" by Robert Anton Wilson. And as far as Invisible man goes, the audio book read by Joe Morton is a masterpiece. I think it's the best thing Joe Morton has done.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
I don't see The Great Gatsby, and yet I sport Twilight. Wow...

I was excited to see Ender's Game on the list. I had never even heard of the book until senior year of high school, when my physics teacher made it required reading for the class. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed a science fiction novel, and it really taught me not to completely avoid the genre.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
If I had my druthers, I'd swap the places of Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamzov, for one.

And while Twilight is on here, at least it's small- the same size as Foundation. Even if I don't see as many people on "Team Hari Seldon" as "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob."
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Call of the Wild needs to be there. But I was happy to see quite a few unexpected, yet deserving titles like Middlesex, A Prayer for Owen Meany and A Confederacy of Dunces.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
The Law
A tiny book written by a Frenchman, Fredrick Basitat, around Abe Lincoln's time. If this doesn't teach the real reasoning behind politics I don't know what does. Not until I read that did I fully understand it. Eye awakening in the truth of it. It is amazing they had the time to discuss all this stuff in such clarity way back when.
Kay Sea
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Login to comment.
Click here to access all of this post's 18 comments




Email This Post to a Friend
"Consensus Cloud on Books Everyone Should Read"

Separate multiple emails with a comma. Limit 5.

 

Success! Your email has been sent!

close window
X

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

I agree
 
Learn More