Penthouse Forum.

bogarde73 wrote on Dec 7^th, 2016 at 12:17pm:



bogarde73,

Yes!   .....you gazumped me!



I saw your thread title, and straight away i thought;

"Wow!  bogarde73 is obviously referring to The Bible!!!!! "              

I'm going to say Catcher in the rye. Not that it's the greatest book ever full stop, but because it probably has the most profound effect on people who read it.

The first circle.

I thought I put this up already .... i'll try again

NorthOfNorth wrote on Dec 7^th, 2016 at 8:26pm:


I totally agree.

It's a work of literary art.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Good to see though its all been fiction listed so far

Just about all of Dicken's books.

I see our small coterie of bibliophiles, we few, have trouble in nominating "the greatest" ie. one.

What does the "greatest" mean for me? If it meant the book I most enjoyed, then like issue voter I could not decide.
If it meant the "most significant",  I'd first have to analyse "significant" by which time I'd probably have forgotten the question anyway.

But I guess I was thinking in terms of Herculean task which is why I thought of Domesday Book.
There are in fact two Domesday books, the one normally spoken about and the Little Domesday book, the scribe of which is fairly well agreed upon, but I've forgotten his name.
My reasons for considering it "the greatest" are:
1 it was a huge task, the like of which has never been replicated, carried out within about seven months, across a country of limited roads often barely passable
2 it was of practical use for several centuries as a source of information on land titles
3 at least one of the original copies still exists after nearly 1000 years
4 I just find it amazing that back in the middle of the 1080s such a task could have been envisaged and carried out

bogarde73 wrote on Dec 8^th, 2016 at 7:07am:

OK...

In that case, you would have needed to have defined "greatest" and "booK"...

While not detracting from the obvious fact of the Herculean effort required for its compilation, the Domesday "Book" is more usually characterised as a document or manuscript.

On the other hand, if we didn't limit ourselves to one book, but say a collection or the works of one author, I'd probably plump for those works of Honore Balzac which are collectively know as The Human Comedy or Comedie Humaine I think it is.

I set myself the task once of reading them all but I never finished it, there are just so many books in it.

bogarde73 wrote on Dec 8^th, 2016 at 11:08am:


One silly parent complained.

The school hasn't banned it.

They are discussing it.

bogarde73 wrote on Dec 8^th, 2016 at 11:28am:


Very hard to choose just one.

The Grapes of Wrath

The Catcher in the Rye

The Bible

These three works of fiction all immediately come to mind, but I don't think I could name just one.

I'll meditate on it, and get back to you.

bogarde73 wrote on Dec 8^th, 2016 at 11:49am:


Considering I've never seen any credible evidence that shows anything to the contrary, I consider it a work of fiction.

Albeit, a very good piece of fiction.

I think I will stick with The Grapes of Wrath, though.

That's the one book I can read over and over again.

Orwell took his cue from the Soviets, so we know where today's trendies get it from.

greggerypeccary wrote on Dec 8^th, 2016 at 11:19am:


You're right. It & Huckleberry Finn were taken off the shelves for about a week but are now back in the library.

Will 1984, Catcher in the Rye, Mockingbird & Neferti's list be talked about in a thousand years?
Even known about except by some obscure scholar?

bogarde73 wrote on Dec 9^th, 2016 at 9:38am:



A favourite scene, from one of my favourite movies.

The 'books' bit starts at 2:30

bogarde73 wrote on Dec 9^th, 2016 at 9:54am:


I haven't read many of his books, but The Time Machine is an absolute classic.

As a kid, I read that book about 6 or 7 times.

bogarde73 wrote on Dec 9^th, 2016 at 9:38am:


Fair point.

Fifty spiritual homilies of St. Macarius the Egyptian 

Bible.

Certainly the most influential collection of books.

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2024 at 11:24am:

Very niche. Never heard of it  until now.

Greatest 19th century novel - War and Peace.
20th century - Remembrances of thing past.

The greatest of them all is "Epic of Gilgamesh", the rest is plagiarism.

Strangely it  was banned in US.

Jovial Monk wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2024 at 2:47pm:



The gods--those of the Anunnaki--were weeping with her,
the gods humbly sat weeping, sobbing with grief(?),
their lips burning, parched with thirst.
Six days and seven nights
came the wind and flood, the storm flattening the land.
When the seventh day arrived, the storm was pounding,
the flood was a war--struggling with itself like a woman
writhing (in labor).


Gilgamesh, tablet XI

Lord Herbert wrote on Dec 8^th, 2016 at 5:03am:


yes - the most memorable one I read was -



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities

Dickens opens the novel with a sentence that has become famous:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short,
the period was so far like the present period,
that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received,
for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Would not be surprised at that!

Jovial Monk wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2024 at 3:29pm:


Actually the flood was long before Gilgamesh who only retold story of a man called  Utnapishtim who claimed to know secret of immorality eating right kind of diet.

Jovial Monk wrote on Aug 6^th, 2024 at 3:50pm:



Listen here you heathen,

stop using Ozpolitic to spread your blasphemy and hate messages against Abrahamic religions.

forgiven

namaste

╰დ╮ॐ╭დ╯

I read the Epic of Gilgamesh, OK?

The story of Noah and the Ark is arrant nonsense—the whole world was flooded and ALL the animals came on the Ark? Bullshit—none of the New World animals like kangaroos or koala bears etc were on it, let alone spiders, ticks, mites and insects, earthworms yadda yadda. As water vapor arose from the oceans the moisture got returned to the oceans by rivers etc etc. Crap.

A story for credulous children, like TVI™ and Frank.

I read it. I understood it. I am someone who reads books, Franco! You should try it sometime.

Frank wrote on Aug 6^th, 2024 at 9:33pm:



Monk doesn't realise that much of the Bible is poetic and metaphorical in nature.   

Jovial Monk wrote on Aug 6^th, 2024 at 10:34pm:



You are ungodly:


Psalm 1  KJV

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Jovial Monk wrote on Aug 6^th, 2024 at 11:15pm:



Monk,
you're lucky the Spanish Inquisition is not in charge -

"some souls have turned so far from God that pain is the only way to call them back"   -

I have read both versions of Inferno!

I also read Dante’s second volume, Purgatory. Paradise was just too boring, didn’t get beyond a few pages.

Ah, no, didn’t even know he wrote a sequel!


Copy on its way to me. Thanks Spot!