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Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

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Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

Old 03-18-11, 08:46 PM
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Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datab...ooks-read-100#

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?


Nice to see Catch-22, which is probably my favorite non-fiction book, get some large font love. Also pleased to see Watership Down and Dune on there.

Last edited by jfoobar; 03-18-11 at 08:52 PM.
Old 03-19-11, 12:54 AM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

I wouldn't have expected to see Hitchhiker's Guide so prominently featured, fun though it may be.

Very pleased to see One Hundred Years of Solitude in big letters. Just recently read that one and it truly is a remarkable work, one of those unforgettable experiences that only comes along every once in a while.
Old 03-19-11, 02:34 AM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

Damn, only read 7 of them. Prob would be more had i read the books i was supposed to during HS rather than just BSing an essay.
Old 03-19-11, 02:51 AM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

The Da Vinci Code, Kite Runner, and Beloved = NO
Old 03-19-11, 10:59 AM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

Way too much Ayn Rand in there as well, but hey, it's based off of polls. This also explains Twilight and a few others. There are, admittedly, a few in there that I had genuinely never heard of (Middlesex and Scoop are two I noticed immediately).

The Handmaid's Tale also got some relatively large font love. I had always meant to read that and never did.
Old 03-19-11, 03:43 PM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

No Chandler or Hammett. Fail
Old 03-19-11, 08:42 PM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

The Jungle deserves to be bigger, but all in that that is a pretty good list.

Oh, this is in the UK, no wonder the list is so good. I'm not sure I would want to see one from the United States.

Last edited by Lateralus; 03-19-11 at 08:49 PM.
Old 03-19-11, 08:56 PM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

I picked up Wuthering Heights recently. I've never had to use the dictionary lookup on my Kindle before, but with this book I'm using it frequently.
Old 03-19-11, 09:15 PM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

I wonder how many people polled just picked titles because they'd seen the film?
Old 03-19-11, 09:19 PM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

Originally Posted by Suprmallet
I picked up Wuthering Heights recently. I've never had to use the dictionary lookup on my Kindle before, but with this book I'm using it frequently.
I have an edition that has a glossary in the back. It's quite helpful.
Old 03-19-11, 10:21 PM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

"A Fine Balance" should be there. No sale without it.
Old 03-19-11, 10:46 PM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

Originally Posted by Suprmallet
I picked up Wuthering Heights recently. I've never had to use the dictionary lookup on my Kindle before, but with this book I'm using it frequently.
Just read this a couple of weeks ago for a class. It's well-written, of course, with lots of great atmosphere, but I'm not sure I can say that I enjoyed it due to the thoroughly unpleasant characters throughout. I really just wanted everyone to die by the end.
Old 03-20-11, 02:09 AM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

Thanks for posting this, jfoobar!

I'm going to share this with my AP Lit. kids on Monday. We're currently reading Crime and Punishment, and have read from the list Catch-22, Tess of D'Urbervilles, Heart of Darkness, and The Sound and the Fury.

Also nice to see a couple McCarthy novels there (Blood Meridian and The Road).
Old 03-20-11, 06:19 AM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

There seems to be a book missing on that list. Oh yeah...





The only book I've ever read cover to cover.
Old 03-20-11, 09:05 AM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

I suppose I should just be happy that Fahrenheit 451 and Invisible Man made the cloud at all, but I should not have had to look so hard to find either. One wonders whether the short story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" would have made the cut had it not been adapted as Blade Runner. In any event, I'd say this is as good a place as any to start reading for those like me who always meant to read such fare.
Old 03-20-11, 09:31 AM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

When it comes to having read the classics, I am woefully lacking. I keep meaning to start tackling one every month of two, just the ones that naturally interest me, but I always pick up something more current.
Old 03-20-11, 03:55 PM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

I think that list is something awful. They have some classics but not enough of the right ones same goes for the modern stories.
Old 03-20-11, 11:35 PM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

I've only read eleven of the titles listed, but I've seen almost all of the movies.
Old 03-21-11, 12:11 AM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

Originally Posted by PopcornTreeCt
I think that list is something awful. They have some classics but not enough of the right ones same goes for the modern stories.
Such as?
Old 03-21-11, 12:23 AM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

i've read ten of those, started about ten more, but never finished, and seen the movies to also about twenty.

isn't do androids dream of electric sheep a short story?

The list is like half all time classics and the rest just popular books. No dr. suess?! Why'd you post this list! it's making me mad.
Old 03-21-11, 04:09 AM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

Originally Posted by lukewarmwater
isn't do androids dream of electric sheep a short story?

The list is like half all time classics and the rest just popular books. No dr. suess?! Why'd you post this list! it's making me mad.
"DADoES" is a novel. "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" was the short story from which Total Recall derived. Various other PKD short stories have also been transmogrified into film.

Although known/published here, Dr Seuss may not be as big/popular (iconic?) in the UK as in the US.

Methinks there are a good few such lists e.g.

I've read about 30% of these two iterations of the same list:
http://www.listology.com/dashforcove...t-live-without
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/mar/01/news

And 20% of these:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003...atures.fiction

The following is an alleged "best" rather than a consensus:
http://www.listsofbests.com/list/21-...ks-of-all-time
And I've read very few of them! (Less than 10?)
Old 03-21-11, 04:22 AM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

I've read 26. Mostly "classics" and sci-fi/fantasy. Most of the more modern classics I read for school, but I was also on a classic lit kick for a while as a teen and read a lot of pre-20th century stuff on my own.

I started but didn't finish 2. Moby Dick I started 2 or 3 times when I was younger, but never got very far. Started His Dark Materials but wasn't that into it. I recall it had some interesting concepts, but was also a bit immature and I wasn't digging the plot, so I spoilered myself to see if the series as a whole was worth it and decided against it.
Old 03-21-11, 10:00 AM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

I've read 25

School:

A Clockwork Orange
Wuthering Heights
Of Mice and Men
The Stranger
Lord of the Flies
Invisible Man
Dracula
The Sound and the Fury
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Scarlet Letter
Frankenstein
Brave New World
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
A Tale of Two Cities
Slaughterhouse-Five
Heart of Darkness
Great Expectations
Animal Farm

On my Own:

The Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Blood Meridian
Lolita
Catch-22
The Tin Drum
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Old 03-22-11, 12:49 PM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

I've read 43, I think. I hate clouds. I have also started but didn't finish Tristram Shandy, The Sound and the Fury, Stranger in a Strange Land, and The Old Man and the Sea. Only 8 of them were required reading.

Last edited by Nick Danger; 03-23-11 at 12:22 PM.
Old 03-22-11, 04:01 PM
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Re: Books everyone should read: a consensus word cloud

I think I'm close to 40 or so. There's a few I've been meaning to get at for a while.

Originally Posted by jfoobar

The Handmaid's Tale also got some relatively large font love. I had always meant to read that and never did.
I read this years ago and had planned on doing a re-read pretty soon, especially considering a lot of the politics I'm seeing from this new Congress.

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