www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Top Ten Writers

Glory to Jesus Christ!

The reading habits and interests of others have always fascinated me � particularly because, as I grow older, I realize there is so much to read yet so little time left to do it. So I thought I'd piggyback on Alice's thread on "favorite spiritual books," and ask the Forum participants to list their ten favorite writers of all time, Christian and non-Christian, "canonical" and "non-canonical," sacred and profane. Use whatever criteria you like: clarity or power of message, artistic merit, persuasiveness, etc. Feel free to include theologians, poets, homilists, novelists, science fiction writers, philosophers, etc.

Here are mine, with the works I think best exemplify their artistry or genius:

1. Plato (The Republic)
2. Dostoevsky (Brothers Karamazov / The Idiot)
3. St. John the Apostle (Gospel of John)
4. Shakespeare (King Lear)
5. Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil)
6. T.S. Eliot (The Wasteland / Prufrock)
7. St. Augustine (Confessions)
8. King David / The Psalmist (Psalms 103 and 56 (LXX))
9. Origen (Against Celsus / On First Principles)
10. Rousseau (Emile / Discourse on Inequality)

Honorable Mention:

St. John Chrysostom (Comparison of a King and a Monk / Homilies on Romans); W.H. Auden (In Memory of W.B. Yeats: "With the farming of a verse / Make a vineyard of the curse, / Sing of human unsuccess / In a rapture of distress"); Machiavelli (The Prince); Goethe (The Sorrows of Young Werther); and Homer (The Odyssey).

Looking forward to reading the lists of others.

In Christ,
Theophilos

Don Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra

"Pero, porque s� que una de las partes de la prudencia es que lo que se puede hacer por bien, no se haga por mal, quiero rogar a estos se�ores guardianes y comisario sean servidos de desataros y dejaros ir en paz; que no faltar�n otros que sirvan al rey en mejores ocasiones, porque me hace duro caso hacer esclavos a los que D�os y naturaleza hizo libres. ...all� se lo haya cada uno con su pecado. D�os hay en el cielo, que no se descuida de castigar al malo ni de premiar al bueno, y no es bien que los hombres honrados sean verdugos de los otros hombres, no y�ndoles nada en ello." (Don Quijote de la Mancha)

Greetings Theophilos! Glory to Him Forever!

My top ten list (as of today) of favorite authors and works include poetry and fiction. These are in no particular order:

1.) Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey
2.) Ernest Hemingway: A Moveable Feast, The Old Man and the Sea
3.) Bishop Ware: The Orthodox Way
4.) T.S. Eliot: The Wasteland, Preludes
5.) Geoffrey Chaucer: Complete Poems
6.) John Steinbeck: East of Eden
7.) Plato: The Apology
8.) Thomas Jefferson: The Declaration of Independence
9.) Anonymous: The Way of the Pilgrim
10.) William Shakespeare: King Lear

At some point in my life, I�d like to continue reading through The Great Books of the Western World. Ah, but time is always short.

Awaiting the radiance of the resurrection of our Lord,

John

I too read a lot - a few of these I've read - thanks for reminding that there is indeed good literature out there. I'll have to search another part of the library on my next trip .

After Dostoyevsky,Dickens, and probably then Solzhenitsyn.Dostoyevsky,through "The Brothers Karamazov", since this book led to my return to the faith of my ancestors.I recall that Fr.Seraphim Rose used to reccommend Dickens, saying that his writings would bring a soul to tears of repentance.

Charles Dickens. Barnaby Rudge and The Old Curiosity Shop are his best in my opinion, but I honestly love everything he's written.

George Orwell. 1984 and Coming Up For Air, and basically everything else.

James T Farrell. Studs Lonigan and the Danny O'Neill tetralogy. In my opinion the very best in American literature, but that might be because I grew up in practically the same Chicago South Side Irish Catholic world a half century later, but could still totally relate to everything Farrell wrote about.

John Steinbeck. The Grapes Of Wrath, In Dubious Battle and the Cannery Row series.

Mark Twain. Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court.

Oscar Wilde. That'll shock a few people on this forum.

Upton Sinclair. The Jungle

And that's about all for now

One of my favorite spiritual writers is the late Dom Hubert Von Zeller, an English Benedictine. He wrote such books as "We die Standing Up", We make hay while the sun shines". Very good writer with a bit of British humor.