Books of the Century by Le Monde • Hacker News Board

Re: Books of the Century by Le Monde

#11

Post by onli » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 4:28 PM UTC

jkingsbery wrote: post #9

onli wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When reading "Books of the Century" I expected a list of the most important, most influential or just best books. Skewed towards the french perspective, given Le Monde as a source. But this was never the goal, just a "what stuck in your mind" question. For example, 1984 is missing, and Louis Begley Wartime Lies. And I wouldn't have expected Ulysses in there given the french source, for me it was incomprehensible gibb…

1984 is 22 on the list.

Upps. Searching for 1984 didn't turn it up.

Re: Books of the Century by Le Monde

#12

Post by hammock » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

jdsnape wrote: post #4

onli wrote: post #2

What a strange list. Many books I'd never expect to be listed, others I'd expect to be listed are missing. So I looked up the background and indeed it's based on strange methodology, citing wikipedia: "Starting from a preliminary list of 200 titles created by bookshops and journalists, 17,000 French participants responded to the question, "Which books have stuck in your mind?" (Quels livres sont restés dans votre mém…

Out of interest, why does that seem a strange methodology?

Starting with only 200 titles in the survey, for a final list of 100, seems off to me for starters. Every book surveyed has a 50% chance of making “book of the century”

Re: Books of the Century by Le Monde

#13

Post by kergonath » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC

onli wrote: post #2

What a strange list. Many books I'd never expect to be listed, others I'd expect to be listed are missing. So I looked up the background and indeed it's based on strange methodology, citing wikipedia: "Starting from a preliminary list of 200 titles created by bookshops and journalists, 17,000 French participants responded to the question, "Which books have stuck in your mind?" (Quels livres sont restés dans votre mém…

> Many books I'd never expect to be listed, others I'd expect to be listed are missing

Most of them make sense to me. I don’t know some of them but then I don’t know everything. The methodology can be discussed (and indeed, a pre-selection of 200 books is at the same time a lot and not that much), but none of these lists can be perfect.

Out of curiosity, which one would you remove from the list, and which ones would you add?

Re: Books of the Century by Le Monde

#14

Post by Guestmodinfo » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:24 PM UTC

onli wrote: post #7

jdsnape wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of interest, why does that seem a strange methodology?

When reading "Books of the Century" I expected a list of the most important, most influential or just best books. Skewed towards the french perspective, given Le Monde as a source. But this was never the goal, just a "what stuck in your mind" question. For example, 1984 is missing, and Louis Begley Wartime Lies. And I wouldn't have expected Ulysses in there given the french source, for me it was incomprehensible gibb…

James Joyce wearing his bottle bottom glasses (thick glasses) would like to have a word with you. You can call him genius, dirty, knowledgeable in many languages but certainly not gibberish. He used to hold long book club style readings of his books among the prominent literateur in his times to exactly impinge in their minds that what he writes is clever and not gibberish. In our book club we often discuss for hours what he was trying to say on a page. Sometimes he says things in 3 different dimensions by writing a single sentence.

Re: Books of the Century by Le Monde

#15

Post by rixed » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:29 PM UTC

I find this other list more deserving of this title: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokklubben_World_Library

If only because it's less french oriented, but also maybe because it starts with one of my favorite.

Re: Books of the Century by Le Monde

#16

Post by keiferski » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:30 PM UTC

onli wrote: post #2

What a strange list. Many books I'd never expect to be listed, others I'd expect to be listed are missing. So I looked up the background and indeed it's based on strange methodology, citing wikipedia: "Starting from a preliminary list of 200 titles created by bookshops and journalists, 17,000 French participants responded to the question, "Which books have stuck in your mind?" (Quels livres sont restés dans votre mém…

How is this strange? It’s pretty much what I’d expect from francophone readers. What were you expecting?

Re: Books of the Century by Le Monde

#17

Post by rorytbyrne » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:31 PM UTC

onli wrote: post #7

jdsnape wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of interest, why does that seem a strange methodology?

When reading "Books of the Century" I expected a list of the most important, most influential or just best books. Skewed towards the french perspective, given Le Monde as a source. But this was never the goal, just a "what stuck in your mind" question. For example, 1984 is missing, and Louis Begley Wartime Lies. And I wouldn't have expected Ulysses in there given the french source, for me it was incomprehensible gibb…

Ulysses was first published in Paris during the 20 years that Joyce lived there.

>I thought only the US ranks it high

Joyce never even set foot in the United States... You could say this about The Great Gatsby, which US sources might rank in the top 5 compared to 46 in this list.

Re: Books of the Century by Le Monde

#18

Post by keiferski » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:32 PM UTC

onli wrote: post #7

jdsnape wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of interest, why does that seem a strange methodology?

When reading "Books of the Century" I expected a list of the most important, most influential or just best books. Skewed towards the french perspective, given Le Monde as a source. But this was never the goal, just a "what stuck in your mind" question. For example, 1984 is missing, and Louis Begley Wartime Lies. And I wouldn't have expected Ulysses in there given the french source, for me it was incomprehensible gibb…

1984 is listed at number 22 under its actual title, written out.

Re: Books of the Century by Le Monde

#19

Post by keiferski » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

What would be interesting is to cross reference this list with an Anglophone one and pull out the writers that are big in France but almost unknown amongst the public in America. Céline is definitely one such example, I think.

Re: Books of the Century by Le Monde

#20

Post by mmooss » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

onli wrote: post #7

jdsnape wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of interest, why does that seem a strange methodology?

When reading "Books of the Century" I expected a list of the most important, most influential or just best books. Skewed towards the french perspective, given Le Monde as a source. But this was never the goal, just a "what stuck in your mind" question. For example, 1984 is missing, and Louis Begley Wartime Lies. And I wouldn't have expected Ulysses in there given the french source, for me it was incomprehensible gibb…

Ulysses was written in Paris, where James Joyce lived, and was published in Paris by the now legendary Shakespeare & Co. The US and UK banned it for being obscene.

When I don't know, I ask and don't judge (and lacking omniscience, I don't judge anyway).