Thursday, December 11, 2014

listomania

We love a book list here at Electric Halibut, as you'll know from previous posts on the subject, so here's a couple that have come to my attention lately that might be of interest.

Here's what Buzzfeed's user community thinks are the 51 most beautiful sentences in literature. As distinct from the numerous lists of best first lines and best last lines (as originally featured here) these can be from anywhere, so the whole thing is even more subjective than those other lists. Nonetheless there's some interest here, not least in noticing that sentences #1, #2, #23, #46 and #48 are from books featured on this blog.

Secondly, here's an interactive clickable cloud of "fiction that everyone should read" from Information Is Beautiful (as already featured on the blog sidebar). I note that I've read 42 of the probably 100 or so books featured. There is an equivalent non-fiction list as well, of which I've read considerably fewer.

3 comments:

The black rabbit said...

"Thrice she kissed it, thrice inclined her head, thrice she felt the delirium of acquiescence." is the most beautiful phrase ("the delirium of acquiescence") if not sentence, I've ever read in a piece of literature.
E.M. Forster. The Machine Stops. 1909.

"

electrichalibut said...

Well that all sounds like UTTER FILTH to me.

The black rabbit said...

Yeah. Beautiful filth.