Comments on: Amazon bucket list

By: D. C. DaCosta

D. C. DaCosta — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 23:03:24 +0000

Yikes. There are “must reads”? It is to laugh, ruefully and with tears in one’s eyes. IMHO, all this particular list does is pass the Bellybutton Test: everybody’s got one [a list, that is].

It seems to me that the purpose of such a list must necessarily be to identify books from which the reader will learn timeless lessons of lasting value: morality; human nature; science; history; philosophy; faith; imagination; good writing.

Too many of these titles are books that simply reflect the attitudes of their times (“Catcher in the Rye”) or have become popular culture (“Charley and the Chocolate Factory”). Where is Twain? Dickens? Julius Caesar? Churchill? O. Henry? Dumas? Orwell? Hugo? Dostoyevsky? My gosh, no Wodehouse!!

The only explanation that comes to mind: these are the books sitting unsold in by the carton on the floor of Amazon’s warehouse. Once you can boast that it’s on the list of the 100 “must reads”, watch the sales go up.

It’s all spin.

By: Kevin A. Lewis

Kevin A. Lewis — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 19:38:26 +0000

I generally ignore book lists as promo gimmicks; I only use Amazon to get hold of things like old-school black magic pulp thrillers by Dennis Wheatley and Basil Copper that are hard to get this side of the UK, otherwise my local bookstore (than I have to drive 10 miles to get to since the corporate book gods have fled this part of northern CA) can fill the bill and are a lot more pleasant to talk to than a PC screen.

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 10:29:54 +0000

Definitely not a bucket list, for everyone’s bucket list is personal.

That said, I liked the list. I felt it was a good representation of books from the last 50 years (and some older).

The classics are a product of the times. How many people nowadays think the Beatles are ‘the’ band? They’re just as likely to think of U2 or Bon Jovi.

I was happy to see Jared Diamond alongside Judy Blume alongside Jane Austen and Eric Carle.