AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

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AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

In this thread, I will be revealing our forum's top 200 favorite works of fictional literature. 903 individual works received a vote, with a further 269 receiving multiple. These results will only include books which received multiple votes, though I will start with a section highlighting our personal favorites - a new forum favorite might just be waiting to be read.

Our 27 participants:
antonius
BleuPanda
bonnielaurel
DaveC
Dexter
DocBrown
Gillingham
Greg
Holden
Krurze
Listyguy
madzong
Michel
Miguel
mileswide
Nick
ordinaryperson
Pauler
Petri
prosecutorgodot
rumpdoll
schaefer.tk
Schuttelbirne
sonofsamiam
styrofoamboots
Wezzo
whuntva

If you spot any mistakes, please let me know!
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

First, our personal favorites which did not make the top 200; I want to note that the AMF 2017 ranks are approximate. There were a lot of ties at the lower levels that I did not want to spend the time clarifying. Only Listyguy's top choice received another vote and landed at #231, while all of ordinaryperson's 10 choices were ranked and Nick's list was unranked outside the top 10 and thus has too many to list.



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Listyguy's #27. A Midsummer Night's Dream - William Shakespeare (1596)
Score: 74.89 (also received #71 vote from BleuPanda)
AMF 2017 Rank: 348
The Greatest Books Rank: 494

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Dexter's #17. The Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancy (1984)
Score: 60.74
AMF 2017 Rank: 277
The Greatest Books Rank: 1943

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BleuPanda's #12. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson (1962)
Score: 69.23
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: 1003

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schaefer.tk's #10. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne (1870)
Score: 73.33
AMF 2017 Rank: 208
The Greatest Books Rank: 177

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sonofsamiam's #9. Paradise Lost - John Milton (1667)
Score: 75.57
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: 90

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bonnielaurel's #8. Someone Like You - Roald Dahl (1953)
Score: 77.95
AMF 2017 Rank: 304
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

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styrofoamboot's #8. Coraline - Neil Gaiman (2002)
Score: 77.95
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: 2293

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DaveC's #7. Milkman - Anna Burns (2018)
Score: 80.49
AMF 2017 Rank: New
The Greatest Books Rank: 2126

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Holden's #6. Salem's Lot - Stephen King (1975)
Score: 83.19
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

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Michel's #6. Le chameau suavage - Philippe Jaenada (1999)
Score: 83.19
AMF 2017 Rank: 157
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

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DocBrown's #6. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer (2005)
Score: 83.19
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: 2646

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Petri's #6. Not Before Sundown - Johanna Sinisalo (2000)
Score: 83.19
AMF 2017 Rank: 154
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

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Gillingham's #5. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (2009)
Score: 86.09
AMF 2017 Rank: 197
The Greatest Books Rank: 277

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antonius's #5. The Stars, My Destination - Alfred Bester (1955)
Score: 86.09
AMF 2017 Rank: 138
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

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mileswide's #4. Noughts and Crosses - Mallory Blackman (2001)
Score: 89.19
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: 588

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Greg's #4. Petersburg - Andrei Bely (1913)
Score: 89.19
AMF 2017 Rank: 139
The Greatest Books Rank: 1946

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prosecutorgodot's #3. The Green Mile - Stephen King (1996)
Score: 92.52
AMF 2017 Rank: 120
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

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Krurze's #3. Sternstunden der Bedeutungslosigkeit - Rocko Schamoni (2007)
Score: 92.52
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

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Miguel's #3. Moon Palace - Paul Auster (1989)
Score: 92.52
AMF 2017 Rank: 130
The Greatest Books Rank: 1279

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madzong's #3. Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh (1993)
Score: 92.52
AMF 2017 Rank: 119
The Greatest Books Rank: 968

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Pauler's #1. The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Ngyuen (2015)
Score: 100
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: 731

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rumpdoll's #1. Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson (1992)
Score: 100
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

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Schuttelbirne's #1. Belphegor oder Die wahrscheinlichste Geschichte unter der Sonne - Johann Carl Wezel (1775)
Score: 100
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

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Wezzo's #1. The Child in Time - Ian McEwan (1987)
Score: 100
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: 2530

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whuntva's #1. Ishmael - Daniel Quinn (1992)
Score: 100
AMF 2017 Rank: 92
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked
Last edited by BleuPanda on Wed Sep 02, 2020 3:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

“And what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversation?”
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#200. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (1865)
Score: 93.02
AMF 2017 Rank: 284
The Greatest Books Rank: 17

Voters (2):
whuntva (#23)
BleuPanda (#38)
I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
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#199. A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams (1947)
Score: 93.28
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: 913

Voters (3):
Schuttelbirne (#44)
bonnielaurel (#62)
BleuPanda (#65)
The gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.
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#198. Ringworld - Larry Niven (1970)
Score: 93.42
AMF 2017 Rank: 588
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (2):
rumpdoll (#15)
antonius (#60)
Memories are the height of poetry only when they are memories of happiness. When they graze wounds over which scars have formed they become an aching pain.
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#197. Oblomov - Ivan Goncharov (1859)
Score: 94.32
AMF 2017 Rank: 193
The Greatest Books Rank: 358

Voters (2):
Greg (#13)
bonnielaurel (#68)
A good life is not measured by any biblical span.
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#196. For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway (1940)
Score: 94.96
AMF 2017 Rank: 307
The Greatest Books Rank: 57

Voters (3):
Listyguy (#53)
Dexter (#67)
Nick (unranked)
Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you.
I'd rather write about laughing than crying,
For laughter makes men human, and courageous.
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#195. Gargantua and Pantagruel - Francois Rabelais (1532)
Score: 95.8
AMF 2017 Rank: 374
The Greatest Books Rank: 91

Voters (2):
Greg (#26)
Schuttelbirne (#30)
When they got back into the carriage they felt greater strangers than before.
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#194. Therese Raquin - Emile Zola (1867)
Score: 96.22
AMF 2017 Rank: 402
The Greatest Books Rank: 409

Voters (2):
mileswide (#17)
bonnielaurel (#46)
The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow.
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#193. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch - Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1962)
Score: 96.59
AMF 2017 Rank: 121
The Greatest Books Rank: 376

Voters (2):
whuntva (#27)
DaveC (#28)
Love is never any better than the lover.
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#192. The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison (1970)
Score: 96.99
AMF 2017 Rank: 267
The Greatest Books Rank: 854

Voters (2):
Gillingham (#14)
Listyguy (#55)
Intelligence work has one moral law - it is justified by results.
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#191. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - John le Carre (1963)
Score: 97.11
AMF 2017 Rank: 127
The Greatest Books Rank: 580

Voters (3):
Dexter (#38)
Gillingham (#44)
antonius (#97)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

I really don't know why those loonies get so angry when they're kept there. You can crawl naked on the floor, howl like a jackal, rage and bite.
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#190. The Good Soldier Svejk - Jaroslav Hasek (1923)
Score: 97.69
AMF 2017 Rank: 222
The Greatest Books Rank: 195

Voters (2):
Greg (#25)
schaefer.tk (#29)
Even the strongest and bravest must sometimes weep. It shows they have a great heart, one that can feel compassion for others.
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#189. Redwall Series - Brian Jacques (1986-2011)
Score: 97.89
AMF 2017 Rank: 178
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (2):
whuntva (#15)
prosecutorgodot (#49)
Government in general, any government anywhere, is a thing of exquisite comicality to a discerning mind.
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#188. Nostromo - Joseph Conrad (1904)
Score: 98.09
AMF 2017 Rank: 146
The Greatest Books Rank: 134

Voters (2):
schaefer.tk (#12)
Greg (#62)
You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.
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#187. No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy (2005)
Score: 100.02
AMF 2017 Rank: 145
The Greatest Books Rank: 2304

Voters (2):
Listyguy (#19)
Gillingham (#35)
You have a conscience, and a conscience is a valuable attribute, but not if it begins to make you think you were to blame for what is far beyond the scope of your responsibility.
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#186. Nemesis - Philip Roth (2010)
Score: 102.14
AMF 2017 Rank: 175
The Greatest Books Rank: 1334

Voters (2):
Gillingham (#18)
Miguel (#34)
Death was a blessing, so great, so deep that we can fathom it only at those moments, like this one now, when we are reprieved from it.
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#185. Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family - Thomas Mann (1901)
Score: 102.39
AMF 2017 Rank: 308
The Greatest Books Rank: 138

Voters (3):
schaefer.tk (#36)
Schuttelbirne (#40)
Greg (#88)
There are many Beths in the world, shy and quiet, sitting in corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices till the little cricket on the hearth stops chirping, and the sweet, sunshiny presence vanishes, leaving silence and shadow behind.
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#184. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott (1868)
Score: 102.95
AMF 2017 Rank: 469
The Greatest Books Rank: 114

Voters (3):
prosecutorgodot (#38)
BleuPanda (#47)
sonofsamiam (#65)
I've always been very confident in my immaturity.
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#183. Mistborn Series - Brandon Sanderson (2006-???)
Score: 103.49
AMF 2017 Rank: 151
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (2):
rumpdoll (#20)
styrofoamboots (#29)
If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
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#182. The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare (1598)
Score: 103.52
AMF 2017 Rank: 141
The Greatest Books Rank: 2647

Voters (2):
whuntva (#6)
Schuttelbirne (#98)
What an absurd torture for the artist to know that an audience identifies him with a work that, within himself, he has moved beyond and that was merely a game played with something in which he does not believe.
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#181. Doctor Faustus - Thomas Mann (1947)
Score: 104.07
AMF 2017 Rank: 218
The Greatest Books Rank: 129

Voters (3):
Greg (#29)
schaefer.tk (#54)
sonofsamiam (#74)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

Despair came over her, as it will when nobody around has any sexual relevance to you.
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#180. The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon (1966)
Score: 104.67
AMF 2017 Rank: 214
The Greatest Books Rank: 504

Voters (2):
Gillingham (#12)
Nick (unranked)
Every era puts invisible shackles on those who have lived through it, and I can only dance in my chains.
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#179. Remembrance of Earth's Past Series - Cixin Liu (2008-2010)
Score: 105.14
AMF 2017 Rank: 125
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (2):
DaveC (#6)
antonius (#89)
You could tell by the way he talked, though, that he had gone to school a long time. That was probably what was wrong with him.
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#178. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole (1980)
Score: 107.33
AMF 2017 Rank: 216
The Greatest Books Rank: 119

Voters (3):
Dexter (#31)
sonofsamiam (#69)
Nick (unranked)
Once again...welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.
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#177. Dracula - Bram Stoker (1897)
Score: 108.78
AMF 2017 Rank: 243
The Greatest Books Rank: 164

Voters (3):
bonnielaurel (#36)
Greg (#40)
Petri (#63)
There's never a man looked me between the eyes and seen a good day a'terward.
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#176. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson (1881)
Score: 108.95
AMF 2017 Rank: 272
The Greatest Books Rank: 127

Voters (3):
DaveC (#29)
mileswide (#38)
bonnielaurel (#89)
If ever they remembered their life in this world it was as one remembers a dream.
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#175. The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis (1950-1956)
Score: 109.03
AMF 2017 Rank: 244
The Greatest Books Rank: 152

Voters (3):
prosecutorgodot (#28)
madzong (#52)
BleuPanda (#63)
A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.
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#174. Faust - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1808)
Score: 110.2
AMF 2017 Rank: 419
The Greatest Books Rank: 92

Voters (2):
Schuttelbirne (#13)
sonofsamiam (#34)
The planet has survived everything, in its time. It will certainly survive us.
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#173. Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton (1990)
Score: 111.14
AMF 2017 Rank: 685
The Greatest Books Rank: 1533

Voters (2):
Holden (#4)
Petri (#89)
Deep in each man is the knowledge that something knows of his existence. Something knows, and cannot be fled nor hid from.
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#172. The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy (1994)
Score: 111.56
AMF 2017 Rank: 144
The Greatest Books Rank: 2319

Voters (2):
Gillingham (#10)
Petri (#41)
What's terrible is to pretend that second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.
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#171. The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing (1962)
Score: 111.96
AMF 2017 Rank: 162
The Greatest Books Rank: 125

Voters (2):
schaefer.tk (#11)
bonnielaurel (#37)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.
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#170. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1985)
Score: 111.99
AMF 2017 Rank: 147
The Greatest Books Rank: 202

Voters (2):
DocBrown (#19)
antonius (#22)
What is love? There is nothing in the world, neither man nor Devil nor any thing, that I hold as suspect as love, for it penetrates the soul more than any other thing.
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#169. The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco (1980)
Score: 113.28
AMF 2017 Rank: 105
The Greatest Books Rank: 342

Voters (2):
DaveC (#4)
Dexter (#79)
If everyone were like you,' said Orvar, 'then evil would rule for all eternity!' But then I said that if everyone were like Jonathan, then there would be no evil.
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#168. The Brothers Lionheart - Astrid Lindgren (1973)
Score: 113.97
AMF 2017 Rank: 142
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (3):
Petri (#18)
schaefer.tk (#49)
bonnielaurel (#96)
To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.
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#167. Life of Pi - Yann Martel (2001)
Score: 114.29
AMF 2017 Rank: 278
The Greatest Books Rank: 402

Voters (2):
whuntva (#5)
Dexter (#64)
What was a consequence of the premature ending of his fast was here presented as the cause of it! To fight against this lack of understanding, against a whole world of nonunderstanding, was impossible.
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#166. A Hunger Artist - Franz Kafka (1922)
Score: 115.28
AMF 2017 Rank: 416
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (2):
Krurze (#12)
Michel (#30)
To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.
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#165. The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde (1895)
Score: 115.99
AMF 2017 Rank: 358
The Greatest Books Rank: 812

Voters (3):
sonofsamiam (#25)
bonnielaurel (#42)
antonius (#66)
You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.
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#164. The World According to Garp - John Irving (1978)
Score: 117.64
AMF 2017 Rank: 176
The Greatest Books Rank: 191

Voters (3):
Michel (#13)
antonius (#63)
sonofsamiam (#90)
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
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#163. Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami (1987)
Score: 119.05
AMF 2017 Rank: 296
The Greatest Books Rank: 837

Voters (3):
rumpdoll (#18)
Dexter (#78)
Nick (unranked)
Berlin’s a big place. Where thousands live, there’s room for one more.
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#162. Berlin Alexanderplatz - Alfred Doblin (1929)
Score: 119.19
AMF 2017 Rank: 421
The Greatest Books Rank: 213

Voters (2):
Krurze (#6)
Schuttelbirne (#45)
We are sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each the other's opposite and complement.
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#161. Narcissus and Goldmund - Hermann Hesse (1930)
Score: 119.84
AMF 2017 Rank: 95
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (2):
Petri (#4)
schaefer.tk (#57)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

It’s hard to communicate anything exactly and that’s why perfect relationships between people are difficult to find.
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#160. Sentimental Education - Gustave Flaubert (1869)
Score: 120.67
AMF 2017 Rank: 93
The Greatest Books Rank: 84

Voters (2):
schaefer.tk (#1)
Greg (#96)
More often than not he finds what he is looking for, and it destroys him.
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#159. A Personal Matter - Kenzaburo Oe (1964)
Score: 121.16
AMF 2017 Rank: 123
The Greatest Books Rank: 2366

Voters (2):
antonius (#10)
Dexter (#28)
People to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.
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#158. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner (1930)
Score: 121.7
AMF 2017 Rank: 104
The Greatest Books Rank: 62

Voters (2):
Gillingham (#2)
sonofsamiam (#73)
Grieving over fallen cherry blossoms was more than a fad or convention.
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#157. Sasameyuki/The Makioka Sisters - Jun'ichiro Tanizaki (1948)
Score: 121.76
AMF 2017 Rank: 78
The Greatest Books Rank: 521

Voters (2):
Petri (#1)
Dexter (#90)
You can't find someone who doesn't want to be found.
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#156. The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende (1982)
Score: 122.02
AMF 2017 Rank: 165
The Greatest Books Rank: 176

Voters (2):
bonnielaurel (#6)
DaveC (#40)
Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
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#155. The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe - Edgar Allan Poe (1827-1849)
Score: 124.84
AMF 2017 Rank: 354
The Greatest Books Rank: 68

Voters (2):
bonnielaurel (#14)
sonofsamiam (#18)
Loneliness fosters that which is original, daringly and bewilderingly beautiful, poetic. But loneliness also fosters that which is perverse, incongruous, absurd, forbidden.
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#154. Death in Venice - Thomas Mann (1912)
Score: 124.88
AMF 2017 Rank: 266
The Greatest Books Rank: 357

Voters (2):
bonnielaurel (#7)
Schuttelbirne (#32)
However stupid a fool's words may be, they are sometimes enough to confound an intelligent man.
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#153. Dead Souls - Nikolai Gogol (1842)
Score: 124.91
AMF 2017 Rank: 133
The Greatest Books Rank: 71

Voters (2):
Greg (#5)
bonnielaurel (#40)
The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.
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#152. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig (1974)
Score: 125.34
AMF 2017 Rank: 136
The Greatest Books Rank: 163 (non-fiction)

Voters (3):
antonius (#25)
DaveC (#38)
DocBrown (#48)
Everyone has secrets. It's just a matter of finding out what they are.
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#151. Millennium Series - Stieg Larsson (2005-2007)
Score: 125.47
AMF 2017 Rank: 85
The Greatest Books Rank: 944

Voters (3):
madzong (#19)
schaefer.tk (#32)
bonnielaurel (#83)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

And that will be it for day 1 - I wanted to get through the lower ranks quick and will probably slow down tomorrow. Maybe 25 or 30 a day? I have no idea what rate people want this revealed.
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by styrofoamboots »

BleuPanda wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:00 am And that will be it for day 1 - I wanted to get through the lower ranks quick and will probably slow down tomorrow. Maybe 25 or 30 a day? I have no idea what rate people want this revealed.
25 a day seems like a great pace... nice work so far with the rollout!
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by Petri »

styrofoamboots wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:11 am
BleuPanda wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:00 am And that will be it for day 1 - I wanted to get through the lower ranks quick and will probably slow down tomorrow. Maybe 25 or 30 a day? I have no idea what rate people want this revealed.
25 a day seems like a great pace... nice work so far with the rollout!
I second that. Great to see everyones favorite book that no one else voted for.
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

We start today with the lowest book with 4 votes in the first batch. We'll still be seeing 2-vote books for a bit - a single lucky work even managed to land in our top 100 with only two votes, beating out two works which managed 5 votes and still fell outside.

On a personal note, my second favorite novel drops out in this batch - I'm just happy it garnered another vote!


You misinterpret everything, even the silence.
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#150. The Castle - Franz Kafka (1926)
Score: 126.09
AMF 2017 Rank: 135
The Greatest Books Rank: 83

Voters (3):
antonius (#21)
Michel (#31)
Petri (#73)
Your memory is a monster; you forget—it doesn't. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you—and summons them to your recall with will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you!
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#149. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving (1989)
Score: 129.23
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: 145

Voters (2):
BleuPanda (#2)
sonofsamiam (#51)
I am your number one fan.
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#148. Misery - Stephen King (1987)
Score: 130.14
AMF 2017 Rank: 502
The Greatest Books Rank: 1821

Voters (2):
Wezzo (#2)
madzong (#49)
And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.
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#147. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (2003)
Score: 130.97
AMF 2017 Rank: 177
The Greatest Books Rank: 512

Voters (4):
antonius (#24)
DaveC (#50)
Dexter (#81)
sonofsamiam (#89)
You don’t have a soul, Doctor. You are a soul. You have a body, temporarily.
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#146. A Canticle For Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr. (1961)
Score: 131.43
AMF 2017 Rank: 69
The Greatest Books Rank: 1960

Voters (2):
DocBrown (#1)
DaveC (#55)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by Holden »

Thanks Petri for that extra vote for Jurassic Park!
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by Schüttelbirne »

Thanks for the great presentation, BleuPanda!

A few unimportant notes:
- The book cover for my #1 (Belphegor) is pretty stupid. The picture is from the Dictionnaire Infernal and shows the demon Belphegor. The issue I have here is that Belphegor in this novel does not refer to the demon. The demon does not appear and there's hardly anything demonic about the title character who starts off as an idealist. Wezel chose the name because of Machiavelli's novella Belfagor arcidiavolo where the demon Belphegor is ordered by Satan to investigate what this strange thing called "marriage" is, because everybody in hell blames everything bad he did on it. So Belphegor marries a human woman and loses all his possessions. This is also what happens to Belphegor in Wezel's book. He's Akante's lover, but she betrays him and he loses everything. But he is not a demon, and presenting the picture of a demon on the cover of the novel misrepresents the novel completely. I guess the editor(s) either didn't read it (which is entirely possible, considering that the work is in the public domain and could be published by anyone) or hoped that a cover like this would increase sales by appealing to occultists or something like that. Enough said about that.

- There's quite a few books here I've been wanting to read for a long time (Alice in Wonderland, The Name of the Rose, Love in the Time of Cholera, Life of Pi, Sentimental Education, As I Lay Dying...), but just never got to them. They will have to wait, but I will one day.

- I'm glad somebody else likes Gargantua and Pantagruel. It's one of the most original, inventive pieces of literature I've ever read and it's a lot of fun (Renaissance literature is generally a lot of fun). I've actually had the German translation of the first part of the cycle on my list outside of the Top 100, because Fischart adds so much stuff, that it becomes a singular work, in my opinion.

- Seeing Faust here delights me. I'm currently re-reading it and the scope he aims for is simply magnificent. The first part is the one everyone refers to when talking about it, but to me the second part is the real masterpiece, but it's horribly clunky and difficult to read, so I can't really recommend it.

- We've already had three works by Thomas Mann. Apparently he will be the most represented German author here, and I can't complain about that.

- I recently saw the film version of Berlin Alexanderplatz and was astounded by how Fassbinder was able to turn this material into a movie, without losing its quality.

- The Kite Runner would have made my Top 100, were it not for Hosseini's use of child abuse as a narrative tool to portray somebody as evil.
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

Schüttelbirne wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 3:16 pm Thanks for the great presentation, BleuPanda!

A few unimportant notes:
- The book cover for my #1 (Belphegor) is pretty stupid. The picture is from the Dictionnaire Infernal and shows the demon Belphegor. The issue I have here is that Belphegor in this novel does not refer to the demon. The demon does not appear and there's hardly anything demonic about the title character who starts off as an idealist. Wezel chose the name because of Machiavelli's novella Belfagor arcidiavolo where the demon Belphegor is ordered by Satan to investigate what this strange thing called "marriage" is, because everybody in hell blames everything bad he did on it. So Belphegor marries a human woman and loses all his possessions. This is also what happens to Belphegor in Wezel's book. He's Akante's lover, but she betrays him and he loses everything. But he is not a demon, and presenting the picture of a demon on the cover of the novel misrepresents the novel completely. I guess the editor(s) either didn't read it (which is entirely possible, considering that the work is in the public domain and could be published by anyone) or hoped that a cover like this would increase sales by appealing to occultists or something like that. Enough said about that.
I changed the cover to another that is hopefully more acceptable - I am struggling to find much in English about this author or his works. Not sure if this is any more accurate, but at least it's not outright misleading?
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

Your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.
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#145. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (1899)
Score: 131.68
AMF 2017 Rank: 91
The Greatest Books Rank: 26

Voters (3):
Dexter (#10)
Listyguy (#45)
sonofsamiam (#87)
Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.
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#144. The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton (1967)
Score: 133.58
AMF 2017 Rank: 201
The Greatest Books Rank: 878

Voters (4):
madzong (#41)
Petri (#46)
whuntva (#49)
sonofsamiam (#72)
We did not ask for this room or this music. But because we are here, let us dance.
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#143. 11/22/63 - Stephen King (2011)
Score: 133.89
AMF 2017 Rank: 462
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (3):
Holden (#8)
Schuttelbirne (#97)
Nick (unranked)
Please, sir, I want some more.
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#142. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (1837)
Score: 135.39
AMF 2017 Rank: 269
The Greatest Books Rank: 368

Voters (4):
prosecutorgodot (#34)
bonnielaurel (#39)
sonofsamiam (#53)
Schuttelbirne (#95)
A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk.
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#141. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe (1958)
Score: 135.62
AMF 2017 Rank: 352
The Greatest Books Rank: 56

Voters (3):
sonofsamiam (#20)
Listyguy (#33)
Nick (unranked)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by Nick »

I'm glad 11/22/63 gets as much love as it does. It really is King's later-period masterpiece.
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by Schüttelbirne »

BleuPanda wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 3:45 pm
Schüttelbirne wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 3:16 pm Thanks for the great presentation, BleuPanda!

A few unimportant notes:
- The book cover for my #1 (Belphegor) is pretty stupid. The picture is from the Dictionnaire Infernal and shows the demon Belphegor. The issue I have here is that Belphegor in this novel does not refer to the demon. The demon does not appear and there's hardly anything demonic about the title character who starts off as an idealist. Wezel chose the name because of Machiavelli's novella Belfagor arcidiavolo where the demon Belphegor is ordered by Satan to investigate what this strange thing called "marriage" is, because everybody in hell blames everything bad he did on it. So Belphegor marries a human woman and loses all his possessions. This is also what happens to Belphegor in Wezel's book. He's Akante's lover, but she betrays him and he loses everything. But he is not a demon, and presenting the picture of a demon on the cover of the novel misrepresents the novel completely. I guess the editor(s) either didn't read it (which is entirely possible, considering that the work is in the public domain and could be published by anyone) or hoped that a cover like this would increase sales by appealing to occultists or something like that. Enough said about that.
I changed the cover to another that is hopefully more acceptable - I am struggling to find much in English about this author or his works. Not sure if this is any more accurate, but at least it's not outright misleading?
Thanks, that cover is totally fine. It's an old, not very well-known book, so I'm surprised there's even that many versions to chose from.
As far as I know nothing Wezel ever wrote has been translated into English, probably because there's barely an audience for it.
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

Success, after all, loves a witness, but failure can't exist without one.
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#140. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz (2007)
Score: 135.85
AMF 2017 Rank: 97
The Greatest Books Rank: 150

Voters (3):
prosecutorgodot (#15)
Listyguy (#29)
Dexter (#75)
These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.
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#139. Matilda - Roald Dahl (1988)
Score: 136.14
AMF 2017 Rank: 181
The Greatest Books Rank: 2440

Voters (3):
prosecutorgodot (#22)
mileswide (#30)
madzong (#45)
You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing.
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#138. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White (1952)
Score: 138.95
AMF 2017 Rank: 163
The Greatest Books Rank: 88

Voters (3):
prosecutorgodot (#12)
BleuPanda (#39)
Dexter (#58)
He showed me his scars, and in return he let me pretend that I had none.
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#137. Circe - Madeline Miller (2018)
Score: 139.72
AMF 2017 Rank: New
The Greatest Books Rank: 2338

Voters (3):
Pauler (#11)
BleuPanda (#28)
Dexter (#96)
People aren't either wicked or noble. They're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.
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#136. A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket (1999-2006)
Score: 139.87
AMF 2017 Rank: 111
The Greatest Books Rank: 1776

Voters (3):
prosecutorgodot (#5)
madzong (#64)
BleuPanda (#73)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

And this is where I plug Circe, which is one of only two books to have been released since the last poll to make our top 200 (...though even the earlier years in the 2010s are lacking a presence).

Circe is the story of Circe from mythology. Her relationship with Ulysses plays a central role, but it also explores other events where she was either present or at least aware. Madeline Miller does a phenomenal job capturing these stories from a feminine perspective without really 'modernizing' the events themselves (think how Robert Eggers' films are made for modern audiences while exploring archaic anxieties). Instead, she explores how someone of Circe's unique position would view these events - as a woman, as an immortal, and as an exile. It's a perfect shift in perspective to the type of character who historically exists more as an obstacle than an active participant. It's also clearly written by someone who adores the source material.
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

Most of what matters in our lives takes place in our absence.
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#135. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (1981)
Score: 142.92
AMF 2017 Rank: 81
The Greatest Books Rank: 45

Voters (2):
DocBrown (#9)
DaveC (#13)
I dream with my eyes open.
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#134. Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne (1864)
Score: 143.19
AMF 2017 Rank: 107
The Greatest Books Rank: 1103

Voters (3):
Michel (#16)
prosecutorgodot (#32)
schaefer.tk (#44)
Men should be what they seem.
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#133. Othello - William Shakespeare (1603)
Score: 144.75
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: 490

Voters (3):
Schuttelbirne (#12)
sonofsamiam (#38)
Nick (unranked)
He doesn't know it yet, but the infinity of childhood is brief.
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#132. The Elementary Particles - Michel Houellebecq (1998)
Score: 145.21
AMF 2017 Rank: 65
The Greatest Books Rank: 801

Voters (2):
Michel (#1)
Gillingham (#31)
We all float down here!
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#131. It - Stephen King (1986)
Score: 145.38
AMF 2017 Rank: 202
The Greatest Books Rank: 1890

Voters (3):
Schuttelbirne (#5)
Petri (#80)
Nick (unranked)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

His tiredness hurt so much it kept him awake.
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#130. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen (2001)
Score: 145.94
AMF 2017 Rank: 99
The Greatest Books Rank: 141

Voters (3):
Gillingham (#13)
Dexter (#33)
schaefer.tk (#47)
There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.
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#129. The Call of the Wild - Jack London (1903)
Score: 148.04
AMF 2017 Rank: 137
The Greatest Books Rank: 142

Voters (3):
Dexter (#13)
prosecutorgodot (#33)
whuntva (#43)
Let him think that I am more man than I am and I will be so.
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#128. The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway (1952)
Score: 148.98
AMF 2017 Rank: 66
The Greatest Books Rank: 55

Voters (4):
Listyguy (#38)
whuntva (#39)
bonnielaurel (#49)
Nick (unranked)
The more identities a man has, the more they express the person they conceal.
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#127. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John le Carre (1974)
Score: 149.18
AMF 2017 Rank: 54
The Greatest Books Rank: 568

Voters (2):
DocBrown (#8)
Gillingham (#11)
To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world.
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#126. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1943)
Score: 151.14
AMF 2017 Rank: 256
The Greatest Books Rank: 107

Voters (3):
Schuttelbirne (#15)
BleuPanda (#24)
Nick (unranked)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.
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#125. Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury (1957)
Score: 152.69
AMF 2017 Rank: 103
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (2):
DocBrown (#2)
styrofoamboots (#20)
Don’t let us forget that the causes of human actions are usually immeasurably more complex and varied than our subsequent explanations of them.
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#124. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky (1868)
Score: 153.08
AMF 2017 Rank: 77
The Greatest Books Rank: 61

Voters (4):
Krurze (#17)
DaveC (#41)
Listyguy (#60)
Greg (#77)
You've seen yourself how difficult the writing is to decipher with your eyes, but our man deciphers it with his wounds.
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#123. In the Penal Colony - Franz Kafka (1914)
Score: 155.99
AMF 2017 Rank: 327
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (4):
Michel (#19)
Krurze (#30)
Schuttelbirne (#62)
sonofsamiam (#83)
There were trance-like moments during the day when my thoughts weren’t expressed with my internal voice; instead, I saw semagrams with my mind’s eye, sprouting like frost on a windowpane.
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#122. Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang (2002)
Score: 156.85
AMF 2017 Rank: unranked
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (2):
Pauler (#2)
styrofoamboots (#17)
Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so. I feel I have the right to tell you this because, as I am inscribing these words, I am doing the same.
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#121. Exhalation - Ted Chiang (2019)
Score: 157.31
AMF 2017 Rank: New
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (2):
Pauler (#5)
styrofoamboots (#11)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
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#120. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (1890)
Score: 158.45
AMF 2017 Rank: 331
The Greatest Books Rank: 197

Voters (4):
mileswide (#15)
BleuPanda (#58)
Dexter (#62)
Nick (unranked)
Only in chaos are we conceivable.
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#119. 2666 - Roberto Bolano (2004)
Score: 158.95
AMF 2017 Rank: 96
The Greatest Books Rank: 172

Voters (4):
Nick (#7)
sonofsamiam (#59)
Greg (#73)
Petri (#84)
It's necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.
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#118. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexander Dumas (1844)
Score: 159.36
AMF 2017 Rank: 699
The Greatest Books Rank: 130

Voters (4):
whuntva (#13)
antonius (#36)
Dexter (#61)
bonnielaurel (#92)
Silflay hraka, u embleer rah!
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#117. Watership Down - Richard Adams (1972)
Score: 159.36
AMF 2017 Rank: 293
The Greatest Books Rank: 327

Voters (3):
BleuPanda (#13)
Petri (#20)
Nick (unranked)
If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.
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#116. Rebecca - Daphne de Maurier (1938)
Score: 161.06
AMF 2017 Rank: 204
The Greatest Books Rank: 93

Voters (4):
madzong (#17)
bonnielaurel (#38)
Dexter (#56)
sonofsamiam (#61)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.
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#115. The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle (1901)
Score: 161.25
AMF 2017 Rank: 118
The Greatest Books Rank: 170

Voters (4):
bonnielaurel (#19)
schaefer.tk (#42)
madzong (#58)
Nick (unranked)
It sounds plausible enough tonight, but wait until tomorrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning.
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#114. The Time Machine - H.G. Wells (1895)
Score: 161.62
AMF 2017 Rank: 134
The Greatest Books Rank: 230

Voters (5):
bonnielaurel (#22)
sonofsamiam (#49)
DaveC (#63)
Miguel (#76)
antonius (#99)
I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.
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#113. American Gods - Neil Gaiman (2001)
Score: 161.69
AMF 2017 Rank: 79
The Greatest Books Rank: 1770

Voters (3):
antonius (#6)
whuntva (#21)
Dexter (#83)
And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees and changing leaves.
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#112. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf (1927)
Score: 162.95
AMF 2017 Rank: 160
The Greatest Books Rank: 20

Voters (4):
DaveC (#18)
sonofsamiam (#24)
Greg (#54)
Dexter (#100)
In his forty-third year William Stoner learned what others, much younger, had learned before him: that the person one loves at first is not the person one loves at last, and that love is not an end but a process through which one person attempts to know another.
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#111. Stoner - John Williams (1965)
Score: 163.47
AMF 2017 Rank: 114
The Greatest Books Rank: 2195

Voters (4):
Krurze (#22)
Gillingham (#30)
DaveC (#65)
Nick (unranked)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
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#110. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston (1937)
Score: 165.79
AMF 2017 Rank: 217
The Greatest Books Rank: 99

Voters (4):
sonofsamiam (#19)
Listyguy (#36)
bonnielaurel (#56)
Nick (unranked)
More weight.
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#109. The Crucible - Arthur Miller (1953)
Score: 167.15
AMF 2017 Rank: 166
The Greatest Books Rank: 869

Voters (4):
prosecutorgodot (#18)
sonofsamiam (#41)
Listyguy (#44)
Schuttelbirne (#51)
Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.
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#108. The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann (1924)
Score: 167.34
AMF 2017 Rank: 191
The Greatest Books Rank: 53

Voters (2):
Schuttelbirne (#2)
Greg (#11)
And where, I ask you, can a man escape to, when he hasn't enough madness left inside him?
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#107. Journey to the End of the Night - Louis-Ferdinand Celine (1932)
Score: 168.08
AMF 2017 Rank: 55
The Greatest Books Rank: 82

Voters (3):
Greg (#8)
antonius (#14)
bonnielaurel (#77)
By then she was dead. In fact, she may have been dead a while ago. Physically, several seconds ago, mentally, ages ago.
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#106. Battle Royale - Koushun Takami (1999)
Score: 171.44
AMF 2017 Rank: 82
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (3):
prosecutorgodot (#1)
BleuPanda (#45)
Nick (unranked)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by styrofoamboots »

BleuPanda wrote: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:50 pm
#122. Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang (2002)
Score: 156.85

Voters (2):
Pauler (#2)
styrofoamboots (#17)


#121. Exhalation - Ted Chiang (2019)
Score: 157.31

Voters (2):
Pauler (#5)
styrofoamboots (#11)
Back to back! Nice votes Pauler.
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.
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#105. East of Eden - John Steinbeck (1952)
Score: 172.13
AMF 2017 Rank: 98
The Greatest Books Rank: 655

Voters (3):
DocBrown (#3)
Listyguy (#18)
DaveC (#98)
For who would dare to assert that eternal happiness can compensate for a single moment's human suffering
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#104. The Plague - Albert Camus (1947)
Score: 176.64
AMF 2017 Rank: 75
The Greatest Books Rank: 180

Voters (3):
Krurze (#1)
mileswide (#24)
Petri (#76)
If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.
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#103. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (1963)
Score: 179.03
AMF 2017 Rank: 42
The Greatest Books Rank: 255

Voters (4):
schaefer.tk (#9)
Listyguy (#37)
sonofsamiam (#67)
Nick (unranked)
It's the basic condition of life to be required to violate our own identity.
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#102. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick (1968)
Score: 179.57
AMF 2017 Rank: 367
The Greatest Books Rank: 419

Voters (5):
styrofoamboots (#10)
BleuPanda (#64)
sonofsamiam (#91)
Dexter (#94)
Nick (unranked)
Your self…is other people, all the people you're tied to, and it's only a thread.
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#101. The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe (1987)
Score: 179.61
AMF 2017 Rank: 101
The Greatest Books Rank: 175

Voters (4):
Michel (#7)
Dexter (#40)
antonius (#46)
sonofsamiam (#76)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

So we will head into the top 100 tomorrow - 24 books dropped out from 2017, but that also means 24 new works took their place!
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by Pauler »

styrofoamboots wrote: Thu Sep 03, 2020 10:12 pm
BleuPanda wrote: Thu Sep 03, 2020 1:50 pm
#122. Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang (2002)
Score: 156.85

Voters (2):
Pauler (#2)
styrofoamboots (#17)


#121. Exhalation - Ted Chiang (2019)
Score: 157.31

Voters (2):
Pauler (#5)
styrofoamboots (#11)
Back to back! Nice votes Pauler.
YES! Wasn't sure if anyone else was familiar with Ted Chiang's works so I'm very pleased to see both of his masterpieces are represented here.
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

And so we enter the top 100, and the final work with only 2 votes drops in the first batch.

The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.
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#100. Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie (1934)
Score: 180.88
AMF 2017 Rank: 192
The Greatest Books Rank: 633

Voters (4):
bonnielaurel (#20)
styrofoamboots (#23)
madzong (#32)
Petri (#68)
Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.
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#99. Labyrinths/Fictions - Jorge Luis Borges (1935)
Score: 182.2
AMF 2017 Rank: 52
The Greatest Books Rank: 46 for Collected Fictions, 375 for Labyrinths alone, Fictions not listed

Voters (2):
Miguel (#2)
Nick (#5)
No space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused.
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#98. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (1843)
Score: 184.12
AMF 2017 Rank: 70
The Greatest Books Rank: 661

Voters (3):
whuntva (#2)
sonofsamiam (#32)
DocBrown (#33)
Monsters are real. Ghosts are too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win.
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#97. The Shining - Stephen King (1977)
Score: 184.47
AMF 2017 Rank: 73
The Greatest Books Rank: 473

Voters (4):
ordinaryperson (#4)
prosecutorgodot (#39)
madzong (#62)
BleuPanda (#68)
If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?
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#96. Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk (1996)
Score: 186.8
AMF 2017 Rank: 122
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (3):
madzong (#12)
Schuttelbirne (#16)
Dexter (#21)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

We start the next section with the highest work not listed on The Greatest Books website.
Strange as it may seem, horror loses its power to frighten when repeated too often.
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#95. The Neverending Story - Michael Ende (1979)
Score: 186.9
AMF 2017 Rank: 129
The Greatest Books Rank: unranked

Voters (3):
schaefer.tk (#3)
madzong (#25)
Schuttelbirne (#33)
There had never been a death more foretold.
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#94. Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1981)
Score: 188.84
AMF 2017 Rank: 59
The Greatest Books Rank: 1683

Voters (4):
DaveC (#2)
Miguel (#38)
bonnielaurel (#66)
antonius (#75)
As honest as you can expect a man to be in a world where its going out of style.
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#93. The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler (1939)
Score: 192.52
AMF 2017 Rank: 247
The Greatest Books Rank: 135

Voters (5):
mileswide (#20)
Greg (#43)
Dexter (#45)
Listyguy (#47)
bonnielaurel (#65)
There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery.
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#92. The Divine Comedy - Dante Aligheri (1472)
Score: 193.77
AMF 2017 Rank: 442
The Greatest Books Rank: 15

Voters (4):
sonofsamiam (#3)
whuntva (#37)
bonnielaurel (#75)
Nick (unranked)
I am the Raskolnikov of jerking off – the sticky evidence is everywhere!
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#91. Portnoy's Complaint - Philip Roth (1969)
Score: 194.76
AMF 2017 Rank: 61
The Greatest Books Rank: 234

Voters (4):
Michel (#10)
DaveC (#19)
Gillingham (#39)
Miguel (#79)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

It wasn't only wickedness and scheming that made people unhappy, it was confusion and misunderstanding; above all, it was the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you.
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#90. Atonement - Ian McEwan (2002)
Score: 195.13
AMF 2017 Rank: 106
The Greatest Books Rank: 120

Voters (4):
Listyguy (#12)
BleuPanda (#21)
DaveC (#33)
Dexter (#68)
I'm into, oh, murders and executions mostly. It depends.
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#89. American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis (1991)
Score: 196.79
AMF 2017 Rank: 53
The Greatest Books Rank: 482

Voters (4):
Michel (#4)
Dexter (#24)
antonius (#98)
Nick (unranked)
Every life is inexplicable, I kept telling myself. No matter how many facts are told, no matter how many details are given, the essential thing resists telling.
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#88. New York Trilogy - Paul Auster (1987)
Score: 199.31
AMF 2017 Rank: 56
The Greatest Books Rank: 562

Voters (3):
Michel (#11)
Petri (#13)
Miguel (#17)
If I correctly understand the sense of this succinct observation, our poet suggests here that human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece.
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#87. Pale Fire - Vladimir Nabokov (1962)
Score: 201.49
AMF 2017 Rank: 584
The Greatest Books Rank: 60

Voters (4):
BleuPanda (#6)
sonofsamiam (#26)
schaefer.tk (#51)
Nick (unranked)
Beauty lay not in the thing, but in what the thing symbolized.
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#86. Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (1891)
Score: 202.44
AMF 2017 Rank: 62
The Greatest Books Rank: 97

Voters (3):
bonnielaurel (#3)
Greg (#15)
DaveC (#30)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

The world is a possibility if only you'll discover it.
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#85. Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison (1952)
Score: 202.51
AMF 2017 Rank: 143
The Greatest Books Rank: 28

Voters (4):
sonofsamiam (#4)
prosecutorgodot (#30)
Listyguy (#54)
Nick (unranked)
Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be … when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am.
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#84. Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller (1949)
Score: 202.53
AMF 2017 Rank: 550
The Greatest Books Rank: 1657

Voters (4):
Holden (#5)
styrofoamboots (#21)
prosecutorgodot (#50)
sonofsamiam (#66)
When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.
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#83. The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera (1984)
Score: 203.35
AMF 2017 Rank: 67
The Greatest Books Rank: 250

Voters (5):
Petri (#11)
antonius (#30)
DaveC (#37)
bonnielaurel (#78)
Greg (#94)
I would always rather be happy than dignified.
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#82. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (1847)
Score: 206.14
AMF 2017 Rank: 83
The Greatest Books Rank: 36

Voters (5):
sonofsamiam (#16)
Listyguy (#40)
schaefer.tk (#40)
bonnielaurel (#50)
Dexter (#52)
I can't even say I made my own mistakes. Really - one has to ask oneself - what dignity is there in that?
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#81. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
Score: 207.07
AMF 2017 Rank: 209
The Greatest Books Rank: 161

Voters (5):
DocBrown (#17)
BleuPanda (#18)
sonofsamiam (#64)
DaveC (#82)
Nick (unranked)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?
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#80. Lord of the Flies - William Golding (1954)
Score: 208.21
AMF 2017 Rank: 112
The Greatest Books Rank: 66

Voters (6):
whuntva (#30)
antonius (#49)
Dexter (#49)
schaefer.tk (#50)
sonofsamiam (#57)
Listyguy (#59)
Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it.
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#79. The Secret History - Donna Tartt (1992)
Score: 211.29
AMF 2017 Rank: 116
The Greatest Books Rank: 305

Voters (3):
Wezzo (#4)
Petri (#10)
antonius (#27)
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!
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#78. Macbeth - William Shakespeare (1606)
Score: 212.06
AMF 2017 Rank: 270
The Greatest Books Rank: 301

Voters (5):
whuntva (#18)
BleuPanda (#23)
Schuttelbirne (#36)
sonofsamiam (#84)
Nick (unranked)
Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.
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#77. On the Road - Jack Kerouac (1957)
Score: 212.42
AMF 2017 Rank: 71
The Greatest Books Rank: 72

Voters (5):
Dexter (#11)
Krurze (#25)
antonius (#62)
madzong (#71)
Nick (unranked)
A little self-knowledge is a dangerous thing.
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#76. Under the Volcano - Malcolm Lowry (1947)
Score: 213.94
AMF 2017 Rank: 46
The Greatest Books Rank: 79

Voters (4):
Greg (#3)
schaefer.tk (#26)
DocBrown (#32)
antonius (#67)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

Love loves to love love.
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#75. Ulysses - James Joyce (1922)
Score: 215.1
AMF 2017 Rank: 63
The Greatest Books Rank: 2

Voters (4):
antonius (#8)
bonnielaurel (#23)
sonofsamiam (#27)
Nick (unranked)
Well, all information looks like noise until you break the code.
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#74. Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson (1992)
Score: 215.78
AMF 2017 Rank: 80
The Greatest Books Rank: 614

Voters (3):
Nick (#10)
BleuPanda (#11)
DaveC (#11)
What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space.
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#73. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller - Italo Calvino (1979)
Score: 216.37
AMF 2017 Rank: 76
The Greatest Books Rank: 218

Voters (4):
Miguel (#1)
BleuPanda (#32)
Dexter (#44)
Nick (unranked)
His own opinion, which he does not air, is that the origin of speech lie in song, and the origins of song in the need to fill out with sound the overlarge and rather empty human soul.
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#72. Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee (1999)
Score: 217.08
AMF 2017 Rank: 48
The Greatest Books Rank: 241

Voters (4):
Gillingham (#3)
antonius (#16)
schaefer.tk (#35)
DaveC (#99)
There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside of them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself.
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#71. Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse (1927)
Score: 217.57
AMF 2017 Rank: 35
The Greatest Books Rank: 240

Voters (4):
Petri (#2)
Krurze (#28)
schaefer.tk (#30)
DaveC (#66)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

In this batch we have the two highest books to receive only 3 votes.

I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.
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#70. The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka (1915)
Score: 221.11
AMF 2017 Rank: 109
The Greatest Books Rank: 76

Voters (6):
Krurze (#19)
Miguel (#40)
bonnielaurel (#44)
Schuttelbirne (#56)
Dexter (#92)
Nick (unranked)
There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.
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#69. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien (1937)
Score: 222.55
AMF 2017 Rank: 100
The Greatest Books Rank: 184

Voters (6):
prosecutorgodot (#19)
Dexter (#37)
madzong (#56)
BleuPanda (#60)
antonius (#65)
Nick (unranked)
You have been the last dream of my soul.
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#68. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (1859)
Score: 225.79
AMF 2017 Rank: 30
The Greatest Books Rank: 224

Voters (3):
whuntva (#7)
schaefer.tk (#8)
bonnielaurel (#13)
Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions.
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#67. And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie (1939)
Score: 227.38
AMF 2017 Rank: 87
The Greatest Books Rank: 435

Voters (6):
Petri (#24)
madzong (#31)
bonnielaurel (#32)
Miguel (#47)
BleuPanda (#70)
sonofsamiam (#77)
It is odd how, when you have a secret belief of your own which you do not wish to acknowledge, the voicing of it by someone else will rouse you to a fury of denial.
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#66. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie (1926)
Score: 228.63
AMF 2017 Rank: 45
The Greatest Books Rank: 581

Voters (3):
bonnielaurel (#4)
madzong (#9)
Michel (#15)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.
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#65. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon (2003)
Score: 229.6
AMF 2017 Rank: 72
The Greatest Books Rank: 774

Voters (4):
madzong (#4)
mileswide (#8)
DaveC (#35)
bonnielaurel (#98)
Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.
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#64. Blindness - Jose Saramago (1998)
Score: 233.21
AMF 2017 Rank: 102
The Greatest Books Rank: 529

Voters (4):
rumpdoll (#3)
antonius (#4)
BleuPanda (#69)
Dexter (#76)
Fear is the mind-killer.
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#63. Dune - Frank Herbert (1965)
Score: 235.98
AMF 2017 Rank: 258
The Greatest Books Rank: 212

Voters (5):
rumpdoll (#5)
antonius (#37)
whuntva (#41)
DaveC (#46)
Nick (unranked)
Even the company of the mad was better than the company of the dead.
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#62. The Stand - Stephen King (1978)
Score: 239.59
AMF 2017 Rank: 408
The Greatest Books Rank: 193

Voters (6):
rumpdoll (#11)
Dexter (#30)
BleuPanda (#43)
Schuttelbirne (#70)
sonofsamiam (#82)
Nick (unranked)
He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.
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#61. Perfume - Patrick Süskind (1985)
Score: 240.02
AMF 2017 Rank: 37
The Greatest Books Rank: 500

Voters (5):
Miguel (#8)
Krurze (#14)
antonius (#23)
Dexter (#82)
bonnielaurel (#99)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

But there was one other thing that the grown-ups also knew, and it was this: that however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance is there. The chance had to be there.
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#60. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (1964)
Score: 242.18
AMF 2017 Rank: 389
The Greatest Books Rank: 595

Voters (4):
mileswide (#3)
Wezzo (#9)
prosecutorgodot (#27)
BleuPanda (#74)
It is possible to be homesick for a place even when you are there.
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#59. White Noise - Don DeLillo (1985)
Score: 243.58
AMF 2017 Rank: 149
The Greatest Books Rank: 257

Voters (5):
BleuPanda (#1)
Gillingham (#38)
Dexter (#48)
sonofsamiam (#50)
Nick (unranked)
A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time
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#58. The Odyssey - Homer (-700)
Score: 248.94
AMF 2017 Rank: 90
The Greatest Books Rank: 11

Voters (5):
antonius (#9)
whuntva (#22)
sonofsamiam (#28)
bonnielaurel (#45)
Nick (unranked)
Sentimental music has this great way of taking you back somewhere at the same time that it takes you forward, so you feel nostagic and hopeful all at the same time.
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#57. High Fidelity - Nick Hornby (1995)
Score: 252.68
AMF 2017 Rank: 34
The Greatest Books Rank: 686

Voters (6):
madzong (#2)
mileswide (#31)
Michel (#43)
schaefer.tk (#60)
Dexter (#84)
Petri (#90)
As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify.
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#56. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle (1887-1927)
Score: 260.74
AMF 2017 Rank: 60
The Greatest Books Rank: 167

Voters (5):
prosecutorgodot (#10)
Michel (#14)
bonnielaurel (#17)
whuntva (#47)
Miguel (#71)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

And right outside the top 50, we lose the three remaining books with only four votes.
I've never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it.
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#55. Ubik - Philip K. Dick (1969)
Score: 263.6
AMF 2017 Rank: 89
The Greatest Books Rank: 2251

Voters (4):
styrofoamboots (#5)
ordinaryperson (#8)
Michel (#17)
BleuPanda (#40)
Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.
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#54. Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West - Cormac McCarthy (1986)
Score: 263.74
AMF 2017 Rank: 43
The Greatest Books Rank: 140

Voters (5):
Gillingham (#1)
Greg (#17)
BleuPanda (#44)
sonofsamiam (#56)
Nick (unranked)
Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? You're stupid.
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#53. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov (1966)
Score: 265.26
AMF 2017 Rank: 39
The Greatest Books Rank: 102

Voters (4):
antonius (#2)
Petri (#3)
BleuPanda (#35)
Greg (#48)
Perhaps it's impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be.
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#52. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (1980)
Score: 274.66
AMF 2017 Rank: 32
The Greatest Books Rank: 815

Voters (4):
styrofoamboots (#1)
Dexter (#7)
DaveC (#10)
antonius (#95)
She wanted to die, but she also wanted to live in Paris.
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#51. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (1857)
Score: 284.1
AMF 2017 Rank: 84
The Greatest Books Rank: 14

Voters (6):
Greg (#9)
mileswide (#22)
Schuttelbirne (#22)
schaefer.tk (#31)
Listyguy (#56)
bonnielaurel (#79)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.
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#50. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (1861)
Score: 286.6
AMF 2017 Rank: 44
The Greatest Books Rank: 31

Voters (6):
bonnielaurel (#2)
Listyguy (#28)
whuntva (#33)
prosecutorgodot (#42)
schaefer.tk (#43)
sonofsamiam (#78)
Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.
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#49. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell (2004)
Score: 287.24
AMF 2017 Rank: 47
The Greatest Books Rank: 273

Voters (6):
BleuPanda (#8)
bonnielaurel (#25)
antonius (#26)
DocBrown (#27)
Dexter (#77)
Nick (unranked)
You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.
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#48. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway (1926)
Score: 290.49
AMF 2017 Rank: 40
The Greatest Books Rank: 42

Voters (6):
Dexter (#2)
Listyguy (#26)
mileswide (#29)
DocBrown (#36)
sonofsamiam (#95)
Nick (unranked)
Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.
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#47. Beloved - Toni Morrison (1987)
Score: 300.19
AMF 2017 Rank: 117
The Greatest Books Rank: 34

Voters (6):
Holden (#7)
sonofsamiam (#13)
Listyguy (#23)
Gillingham (#36)
Dexter (#86)
Nick (unranked)
When you play a game of thrones you win or you die.
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#46. A Song of Ice and Fire Series - George R.R. Martin (1996-???)
Score: 308.62
AMF 2017 Rank: 126
The Greatest Books Rank: 516

Voters (5):
rumpdoll (#7)
Holden (#13)
DaveC (#16)
madzong (#26)
BleuPanda (#27)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.
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#45. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (1847)
Score: 309.51
AMF 2017 Rank: 33
The Greatest Books Rank: 19

Voters (6):
Listyguy (#8)
bonnielaurel (#11)
Krurze (#21)
Greg (#31)
BleuPanda (#59)
Dexter (#59)
She was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don't apply to you.
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#44. Discworld Series - Terry Pratchett (1983-2015)
Score: 310.93
AMF 2017 Rank: 297
The Greatest Books Rank: 828

Voters (6):
rumpdoll (#8)
whuntva (#8)
styrofoamboots (#24)
BleuPanda (#42)
DaveC (#45)
madzong (#60)
We are all subject to the fates. But we must act as if we are not, or die of despair.
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#43. His Dark Materials Series - Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
Score: 315.74
AMF 2017 Rank: 27
The Greatest Books Rank: 411

Voters (6):
BleuPanda (#3)
prosecutorgodot (#7)
Dexter (#32)
madzong (#53)
antonius (#57)
Nick (unranked)
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
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#42. Neuromancer/Sprawl Trilogy - William Gibson (1984-1988)
Score: 326.76
AMF 2017 Rank: 38
The Greatest Books Rank: 398

Voters (7):
ordinaryperson (#6)
DocBrown (#18)
antonius (#35)
Dexter (#36)
Gillingham (#37)
DaveC (#42)
Greg (#87)
She loved him not only in spite of but because he himself was incapable of love.
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#41. The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner (1929)
Score: 333.21
AMF 2017 Rank: 58
The Greatest Books Rank: 22

Voters (6):
sonofsamiam (#8)
Dexter (#16)
Gillingham (#19)
Listyguy (#24)
prosecutorgodot (#24)
BleuPanda (#55)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
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#40. Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare (1597)
Score: 335.31
AMF 2017 Rank: 88
The Greatest Books Rank: 678

Voters (8):
prosecutorgodot (#11)
Holden (#14)
mileswide (#32)
sonofsamiam (#46)
Listyguy (#51)
bonnielaurel (#63)
Schuttelbirne (#91)
Nick (unranked)
As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.
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#39. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (1937)
Score: 337.74
AMF 2017 Rank: 110
The Greatest Books Rank: 166

Voters (8):
mileswide (#19)
sonofsamiam (#22)
styrofoamboots (#26)
Gillingham (#32)
DaveC (#34)
madzong (#44)
Listyguy (#57)
Dexter (#91)
He knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.
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#38. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey (1962)
Score: 342.58
AMF 2017 Rank: 74
The Greatest Books Rank: 146

Voters (6):
Holden (#2)
prosecutorgodot (#8)
DocBrown (#25)
Listyguy (#34)
Dexter (#39)
Nick (unranked)
The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water.
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#37. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes (1605)
Score: 355.25
AMF 2017 Rank: 19
The Greatest Books Rank: 3

Voters (6):
Nick (#3)
schaefer.tk (#4)
Schuttelbirne (#7)
whuntva (#45)
Greg (#57)
sonofsamiam (#70)
Up ahead they's a thousan' lives we might live, but when it comes it'll on'y be one.
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#36. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (1939)
Score: 356.17
AMF 2017 Rank: 57
The Greatest Books Rank: 27

Voters (9):
BleuPanda (#15)
Holden (#15)
schaefer.tk (#21)
Listyguy (#42)
Greg (#68)
bonnielaurel (#73)
DaveC (#80)
sonofsamiam (#81)
Nick (unranked)
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BleuPanda
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.
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#35. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (1985)
Score: 362.09
AMF 2017 Rank: 115
The Greatest Books Rank: 87

Voters (8):
BleuPanda (#9)
Listyguy (#17)
DocBrown (#22)
sonofsamiam (#33)
antonius (#43)
DaveC (#62)
Dexter (#69)
Nick (unranked)
Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian.
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#34. Moby-Dick - Herman Melville (1851)
Score: 365.9
AMF 2017 Rank: 13
The Greatest Books Rank: 6

Voters (7):
Greg (#1)
prosecutorgodot (#13)
DocBrown (#16)
Listyguy (#30)
Dexter (#53)
bonnielaurel (#86)
Nick (unranked)
Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.
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#33. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain (1884)
Score: 377.86
AMF 2017 Rank: 22
The Greatest Books Rank: 16

Voters (8):
Gillingham (#4)
prosecutorgodot (#23)
Dexter (#25)
whuntva (#28)
Greg (#35)
BleuPanda (#46)
Petri (#79)
Nick (unranked)
If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.
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#32. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (1869)
Score: 384.09
AMF 2017 Rank: 12
The Greatest Books Rank: 7

Voters (5):
DaveC (#3)
bonnielaurel (#5)
Nick (#9)
Greg (#10)
schaefer.tk (#20)
Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.
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#31. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (1831)
Score: 384.1
AMF 2017 Rank: 49
The Greatest Books Rank: 77

Voters (9):
schaefer.tk (#5)
BleuPanda (#14)
Listyguy (#32)
Miguel (#39)
sonofsamiam (#39)
Petri (#69)
Greg (#72)
bonnielaurel (#93)
Nick (unranked)
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BleuPanda
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.
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#30. King Lear - William Shakespeare (1608)
Score: 389.16
AMF 2017 Rank: 113
The Greatest Books Rank: 157

Voters (7):
sonofsamiam (#1)
ordinaryperson (#7)
Listyguy (#22)
whuntva (#34)
BleuPanda (#36)
prosecutorgodot (#37)
Schuttelbirne (#60)
It doesn't make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead.
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#29. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller (1961)
Score: 392.42
AMF 2017 Rank: 21
The Greatest Books Rank: 21

Voters (7):
Nick (#2)
Dexter (#12)
Listyguy (#14)
antonius (#34)
sonofsamiam (#35)
DaveC (#39)
prosecutorgodot (#43)
Is it better for a man to have chosen evil than to have good imposed upon him?
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#28. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess (1962)
Score: 394.03
AMF 2017 Rank: 26
The Greatest Books Rank: 101

Voters (7):
mileswide (#2)
DocBrown (#10)
Gillingham (#17)
Listyguy (#25)
Dexter (#26)
madzong (#65)
Nick (unranked)
I don’t know much about the world, but I do know one thing for sure. If I’m pessimistic, then the adults in this world who are not pessimistic are a bunch of idiots.
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#27. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami (1994)
Score: 397.21
AMF 2017 Rank: 50
The Greatest Books Rank: 179

Voters (7):
BleuPanda (#5)
Dexter (#6)
rumpdoll (#10)
schaefer.tk (#28)
DocBrown (#31)
DaveC (#71)
Nick (unranked)
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
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#26. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson (1971)
Score: 408.87
AMF 2017 Rank: 11
The Greatest Books Rank: 126

Voters (6):
ordinaryperson (#1)
Krurze (#2)
madzong (#8)
Dexter (#18)
schaefer.tk (#38)
Nick (unranked)
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BleuPanda
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

Brevity is the soul of wit.
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#25. Hamlet - William Shakespeare (1601)
Score: 410.2
AMF 2017 Rank: 68
The Greatest Books Rank: 9

Voters (7):
sonofsamiam (#5)
ordinaryperson (#9)
Schuttelbirne (#17)
Listyguy (#20)
bonnielaurel (#26)
BleuPanda (#30)
Nick (unranked)
It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.
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#24. Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling (1997-2007)
Score: 411.39
AMF 2017 Rank: 15
The Greatest Books Rank: 200

Voters (8):
prosecutorgodot (#2)
madzong (#15)
schaefer.tk (#18)
BleuPanda (#20)
whuntva (#32)
Dexter (#57)
DaveC (#75)
Nick (unranked)
And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.
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#23. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
Score: 414.6
AMF 2017 Rank: 41
The Greatest Books Rank: 4

Voters (9):
Listyguy (#3)
Holden (#12)
BleuPanda (#29)
Dexter (#42)
sonofsamiam (#42)
Schuttelbirne (#43)
whuntva (#48)
DaveC (#81)
Nick (unranked)
I have always thirsted for knowledge, I have always been full of questions.
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#22. Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse (1922)
Score: 420.28
AMF 2017 Rank: 18
The Greatest Books Rank: 261

Voters (7):
schaefer.tk (#2)
DaveC (#5)
Krurze (#11)
Schuttelbirne (#20)
Listyguy (#41)
bonnielaurel (#43)
Dexter (#47)
The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll look down and whisper "No.”
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#21. Watchmen - Alan Moore and David Gibbons (1986-1987)
Score: 432.43
AMF 2017 Rank: 9
The Greatest Books Rank: 403

Voters (8):
ordinaryperson (#5)
Nick (#8)
whuntva (#12)
madzong (#14)
BleuPanda (#26)
Petri (#50)
Dexter (#63)
DaveC (#90)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
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#20. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (1813)
Score: 437.77
AMF 2017 Rank: 4
The Greatest Books Rank: 18

Voters (7):
DocBrown (#4)
prosecutorgodot (#4)
schaefer.tk (#15)
bonnielaurel (#16)
sonofsamiam (#17)
Dexter (#43)
Nick (unranked)
Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.
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#19. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (1931)
Score: 438.55
AMF 2017 Rank: 14
The Greatest Books Rank: 67

Voters (9):
Listyguy (#6)
Dexter (#14)
whuntva (#20)
DocBrown (#29)
Miguel (#31)
Michel (#34)
mileswide (#35)
sonofsamiam (#96)
Nick (unranked)
If something is going to happen to me, I want to be there.
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#18. The Stranger - Albert Camus (1946)
Score: 451.36
AMF 2017 Rank: 25
The Greatest Books Rank: 35

Voters (9):
Krurze (#4)
mileswide (#7)
schaefer.tk (#17)
antonius (#19)
Petri (#37)
Miguel (#41)
Listyguy (#49)
sonofsamiam (#62)
Dexter (#93)
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
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#17. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (1877)
Score: 454.55
AMF 2017 Rank: 31
The Greatest Books Rank: 24

Voters (10):
schaefer.tk (#6)
Schuttelbirne (#6)
bonnielaurel (#28)
DocBrown (#34)
Greg (#36)
Dexter (#41)
Listyguy (#50)
DaveC (#69)
sonofsamiam (#88)
Nick (unranked)
Light of my life, fire of my loins.
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#16. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
Score: 467.72
AMF 2017 Rank: 23
The Greatest Books Rank: 8

Voters (8):
Michel (#5)
Listyguy (#9)
BleuPanda (#10)
bonnielaurel (#15)
schaefer.tk (#24)
Schuttelbirne (#26)
Dexter (#54)
Nick (unranked)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.
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#15. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien (1954-1955)
Score: 472.07
AMF 2017 Rank: 17
The Greatest Books Rank: 51

Voters (9):
Nick (#6)
Dexter (#8)
schaefer.tk (#13)
whuntva (#14)
Petri (#27)
antonius (#48)
BleuPanda (#52)
madzong (#55)
DaveC (#57)
Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave.
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#14. The Road - Cormac McCarthy (2006)
Score: 481.81
AMF 2017 Rank: 20
The Greatest Books Rank: 217

Voters (9):
Dexter (#3)
Gillingham (#6)
sonofsamiam (#14)
BleuPanda (#22)
antonius (#32)
Petri (#38)
Listyguy (#46)
Miguel (#56)
Nick (unranked)
Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.
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#13. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (1953)
Score: 491.35
AMF 2017 Rank: 24
The Greatest Books Rank: 183

Voters (8):
Listyguy (#5)
mileswide (#9)
Miguel (#10)
sonofsamiam (#11)
Dexter (#15)
styrofoamboots (#15)
DaveC (#89)
Nick (unranked)
All children have to be deceived if they are to grow up without trauma.
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#12. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
Score: 506.81
AMF 2017 Rank: 29
The Greatest Books Rank: 251

Voters (8):
DaveC (#1)
Dexter (#9)
ordinaryperson (#10)
Pauler (#10)
Listyguy (#15)
BleuPanda (#25)
Miguel (#48)
Nick (unranked)
...time was not passing...it was turning in a circle…
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#11. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1967)
Score: 525.7
AMF 2017 Rank: 36
The Greatest Books Rank: 5

Voters (10):
antonius (#1)
Holden (#1)
Listyguy (#11)
BleuPanda (#16)
sonofsamiam (#47)
Dexter (#50)
whuntva (#50)
Greg (#51)
DaveC (#52)
Petri (#78)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.
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#10. The Trial - Franz Kafka (1925)
Score: 543.41
AMF 2017 Rank: 16
The Greatest Books Rank: 38

Voters (9):
Michel (#3)
Petri (#8)
mileswide (#12)
Krurze (#13)
antonius (#17)
sonofsamiam (#21)
DaveC (#25)
BleuPanda (#34)
Greg (#69)
Four legs good, two legs better!
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#9. Animal Farm - George Orwell (1946)
Score: 552.61
AMF 2017 Rank: 8
The Greatest Books Rank: 74

Voters (12):
Listyguy (#4)
styrofoamboots (#6)
prosecutorgodot (#9)
mileswide (#26)
antonius (#29)
whuntva (#40)
DocBrown (#45)
BleuPanda (#53)
sonofsamiam (#85)
Miguel (#86)
Dexter (#99)
Nick (unranked)
It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames.
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#8. Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace (1996)
Score: 597.07
AMF 2017 Rank: 28
The Greatest Books Rank: 329

Voters (8):
Nick (#1)
styrofoamboots (#4)
DocBrown (#5)
BleuPanda (#7)
DaveC (#8)
Listyguy (#16)
whuntva (#16)
sonofsamiam (#40)
To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.
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#7. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866)
Score: 606.83
AMF 2017 Rank: 6
The Greatest Books Rank: 13

Voters (9):
Michel (#2)
sonofsamiam (#2)
ordinaryperson (#3)
bonnielaurel (#9)
BleuPanda (#19)
DaveC (#20)
Listyguy (#21)
Greg (#33)
Dexter (#51)
I don't exactly know what I mean by that, but I mean it.
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#6. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger (1945)
Score: 622.4
AMF 2017 Rank: 10
The Greatest Books Rank: 10

Voters (13):
Listyguy (#2)
Dexter (#5)
sonofsamiam (#15)
Michel (#25)
styrofoamboots (#28)
prosecutorgodot (#29)
mileswide (#33)
DocBrown (#46)
BleuPanda (#50)
Schuttelbirne (#57)
Petri (#64)
antonius (#80)
Nick (unranked)
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BleuPanda
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.
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#5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series - Douglas Adams (1979-1992)
Score: 626.91
AMF 2017 Rank: 3
The Greatest Books Rank: 198

Voters (11):
madzong (#1)
styrofoamboots (#3)
whuntva (#4)
rumpdoll (#6)
DaveC (#24)
Listyguy (#35)
schaefer.tk (#39)
Dexter (#46)
sonofsamiam (#54)
BleuPanda (#72)
Nick (unranked)
A beast can never be as cruel as a human being, so artistically, so picturesquely cruel.
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#4. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky (1880)
Score: 712.22
AMF 2017 Rank: 5
The Greatest Books Rank: 12

Voters (11):
bonnielaurel (#1)
Greg (#2)
BleuPanda (#4)
Krurze (#5)
schaefer.tk (#7)
Listyguy (#13)
sonofsamiam (#23)
antonius (#38)
DaveC (#47)
Dexter (#60)
Nick (unranked)
And so it goes…
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#3. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
Score: 788.74
AMF 2017 Rank: 2
The Greatest Books Rank: 86

Voters (11):
ordinaryperson (#2)
Holden (#3)
Nick (#4)
Petri (#5)
Kruzre (#7)
styrofoamboots (#7)
Listyguy (#10)
sonofsamiam (#12)
Dexter (#19)
BleuPanda (#51)
DaveC (#58)
The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.
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#2. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (1960)
Score: 823.68
AMF 2017 Rank: 7
The Greatest Books Rank: 29

Voters (13):
Dexter (#1)
mileswide (#6)
Listyguy (#7)
sonofsamiam (#7)
styrofoamboots (#9)
Holden (#10)
DocBrown (#11)
prosecutorgodot (#16)
antonius (#25)
Gillingham (#28)
Schuttelbirne (#49)
bonnielaurel (#52)
BleuPanda (#54)
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
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#1. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell (1949)
Score: 1109.21
AMF 2017 Rank: 1
The Greatest Books Rank: 23

Voters (16):
Listyguy (#1)
mileswide (#1)
styrofoamboots (#2)
antonius (#3)
Dexter (#4)
Miguel (#6)
sonofsamiam (#6)
Petri (#9)
whuntva (#11)
rumpdoll (#14)
Schuttelbirne (#25)
prosecutorgodot (#31)
BleuPanda (#33)
bonnielaurel (#35)
schaefer.tk (#46)
Nick (unranked)
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Re: AMF Favorite Fictional Books 2020 Edition: The Results

Post by Nick »

And in the end it was 1984 in a landslide. Congrats, Orwell, your novel is sadly more relevant today than it was the last time we ran this poll.

Anyway, thanks for hosting, BleuPanda. Here are the top ten entries I haven't read:

#10. The Trial - Franz Kafka (1925)
#46. A Song of Ice and Fire Series - George R.R. Martin (1996-???)
#51. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (1857)
#53. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov (1966)
#56. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle (1887-1927)
#64. Blindness - Jose Saramago (1998)
#66. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie (1926)
#68. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (1859)
#71. Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse (1927)
#72. Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee (1999)

I've really got to get on The Trial. I've read The Metamorphosis and a good deal of Kafka's short stories but I haven't actually read either The Trial or The Castle yet. Now I know what's going on my "to read" list...
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