The Greatest Books. Ever.

I started a mission a little while back - to discover the best novels ever written, and read them. Well, damn, that sounds like one hell of a task. And the thing I soon realized is that no one agrees on the subject. When it comes to great literature, people have their own humble opinions.

But many thanks to you, good ol' Internet, for your endless possibilities. Through my seemingly endless search, I did start to notice a trend. Most lists I chose to read (out of the hundreds) had a common book at the top.

Say hello to Anna Karenina.


A beautifully intelligent, compassionate, yet selfish and absurd woman. As Leo Tolstoy's great masterpiece, Anna Karenina follows the paths of a handful of people, their lives entwined with one another, and watches as they rise to embrace happiness but also stumble and fall to misery.

Rather watch a movie then read the massive book (you should still read it)? Don't fear, there are plenty of adaptations to watch. I've been afraid to watch any of them, but hear the 1935 version staring Greta Garbo is the best (I always envisioned Anna Karenina as being played by Vivien Leigh, though). And I hear there is a new version by Joe Wright (Atonement) that will soon be in the works, staring, of course, Keira Knightley (Um, Anna Karenina is supposed to be so beautiful that people can't help but to stop and stare. I can name 5 other actresses off the top of my head who are more gorgeous than she. So boo).

As for the other greatest books of all time? That's still up for debate - and probably always will be. But I really liked this list of the top 10 greatest books from TIME. From reading what they have to say, it seems pretty respectable. Here are the next four books on their list:

2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
To see the complete list, check out the article.

I tried, with less luck, to find an equally respectable list of the top books for young adults. I enjoyed this list more than others because it included less recent titles.
1. The Giver by Lois Lowry
2. The entire Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
3. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

Want to see what else this English teacher had to say? Click here.

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"I feel like Alice in Wonderland. Maybe Lewis G. Carroll was on drugs too." - Go Ask Alice

A lyric in this song, White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane (written about drug references that may have been in Alice in Wonderland) is where the book got its name.