By O. Veliscu
Most of us are fond of reading, but if you are asked what book do you think is the best book of all time, you will hesitate and probably will nominate a few books. But what if you had to nominate just one title as the best book? What book might that be?
There are books for all ages and there are books for all states of mind and for every occasion. There are books that can make you cry or laugh and books that can challenge your value system. How we perceive a book as being “the best” partly depends on how that book has made an impact on us.
So, the question is: “What makes a book the best?” We can draw-up some guidelines if we take a look at the books that have been most-welcomed by the public and have had the largest number of sales.
The first best book is The Bible, which was the first book to be printed and is the best-selling book of all time. The Bible still features in all the major best-selling lists. This shows that religion is still present in today’s society and still has a great influence on our moral and social values. The book also has a great influence on the beliefs of the people who read it, since it is taken as a spiritual guide. So, for Christians at least, the best book is probably The Bible.
Another best book might be the Little Red Book or Quotations from Chairman Mao. This book has been the most-printed book of the 20th century. The book is a collection of quotations from Mao Zedong by the PLA Daily of People’s Liberation Army and which is signed by Lin Biao. The book is a collection of political and social ideas that have been used as moral guidelines, and implemented in a new political regime. This book represents a way to understand humans and a system of ideas, so it may be considered “the best book” from a political and sociological point of view, at least for some of the billions of people that live in the most populous place on earth, mainland China.
From a literary point of view, another best book might be Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities
. The novel was written in 1859. The story is set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. This is my choice for best book when it comes to literary fiction. The novel presents the plight of the French lower classes as a response to the political conduct of the aristocracy the years before the revolution, the brutal response against the former aristocrats during the revolution, as well as many social parallels of the two cities during this period. In the book, there are multiple characters that experience differently these changes, like Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton.
So, the best book might be decided on the number of book sales, influence, and the way the book is received by the reader, among other factors. But what do you think is the best book of all time?