Poll of the Day > What would you say is the most influential book of the 20th century?

(+) Yeah! (+)

There is so many of the most well known and influential books from the 1900s, what would you say is the biggest of them? Lord of the Rings? 1984? To Kill a Mockingbird? Catcher in the Rye?

I would probably have to go with Lord of the Rings since it not only created a genre it also had massive influence in music, film, and storytelling in general.

As a true global phenomena? I would include Harry Potter as a contender.

Nichtcrawler-X posted...

As a true global phenomena? I would include Harry Potter as a contender.

Was that in the 20th century? I always thought it was a 21st century thing, but I never read/watched it so maybe that's just the movies

1997.

I also remember the books being read for, uhm, are they called "reading competitions" in English?, while I was in primary school. I am trying to think of the proper word. We have actual words in Dutch to distinguish between reading to yourself and reading out loud (perhaps with pantomine and voices) for others, but I really cannot think of the proper word in English.

Muscles posted...

Catcher in the Rye

I hated that book immensely.

Nichtcrawler-X posted...

As a true global phenomena? I would include Harry Potter as a contender.

I would agree, although the series as a whole does cross into the 21st century and that is also probably when it really took off as a global phenomena.

Mein Kampf.

rjsilverthorn posted...

I hated that book immensely.

That's because you're obviously a phony.











Nah, just kidding. I hated it as well.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Mein Kampf.

I don't think the book itself was all that influential; the prick behind it was, and I don't think he would have been any less so had he been unpublished.

Anyways, tough call. Lord of the Rings basically codified every sci-fi trope in existence today, so it's pretty much the most influential work in terms of how it shaped our views of fiction. To Kill a Mockingbird is the other big contender in my eyes - it basically dragged racial attitudes in the American South out into the open, talking about a lot of stuff that wasn't openly discussed at the time.

But this is where we get into whether we're talking about influential "today" or influential at the time of its release. Because To Kill a Mockingbird was colossally influential in the first few decades after its release, but I honestly don't think it's nearly as impactful today, because a lot of books have since followed and done everything it was trying to do, but better and more comprehensively (some of its literary flaws - like the fact that the black characters are all tremendously flat and underdeveloped, which comes across as odd in a story with racial prejudice as one of its core themes). It's no longer a contemporary look at the South, making it more of a history piece. As well, the further away from the US you get geographically, the less impact that book has.

So, yeah, I'd say LotR if we're asking the question from a modern day perspective.

Possibly 1984 (Orwell), Man's Search for Meaning (Frankl) or The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays (Camus)

Probably Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, aka, the Little Red Book. There were literally billions of copies printed.

Fox in Socks

captpackrat posted...

Probably Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, aka, the Little Red Book. There were literally billions of copies printed.

But how many sold?

Muscles posted...

But how many sold?

Versus how many were just forcibly handed out to citizens in China.

The cat in the hat.

Muscles posted...

But how many sold?

Same as the bible

Asimov and Clancy like predicted the future, IDK if that's influence or what.
Harry Potter was pretty huge, i mean, look how quickly they were turned into movies.

storm front

1984

It's kind of impossible to say, you'd have to break up genres. Tolkien basically codified modern fantasy with The Lord of the Rings for example. Almost everything after is inspired by or a reaction to it in some way. When you think of fantasy elves, dwarves, etc, that's kind of the starting point.

DeathMagnetic80 posted...

It's kind of impossible to say, you'd have to break up genres. Tolkien basically codified modern fantasy with The Lord of the Rings for example. Almost everything after is inspired by or a reaction to it in some way. When you think of fantasy elves, dwarves, etc, that's kind of the starting point.

Tolkien also had a huge influence on other things, like music. Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, 2 of the biggest bands ever, had songs inspired by LotR, among others. And you can't downplay the impact he had on storytelling in general, not just in fantasy. He had an impact on other genres, and other mediums, as well. Pretty much all fiction post LotR has, at least subconsciously, been influenced by Tolkien.

Marie Kondo's tidying book

Muscles posted...

Tolkien also had a huge influence on other things, like music. Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, 2 of the biggest bands ever, had songs inspired by LotR, among others. And you can't downplay the impact he had on storytelling in general, not just in fantasy. He had an impact on other genres, and other mediums, as well. Pretty much all fiction post LotR has, at least subconsciously, been influenced by Tolkien.

Very true. He basically set the standard for world building in fiction.

1984 - because of how governments are changing, the rise in nationalism, autocrats, state run media... it's all in the book.
Isaac Asimov's library - The man who gave us the law's of robotics. What else can I say? we got robots and AI. And not many laws.