Yes, these lists are just someone’s opinion… yes, these lists are often biased… yes, these lists are a dime a dozen… But it doesn’t mean they’re not fun. And the NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century list, that’s been revealed bit-by-bit this week has provided excellent bookish click-bait.
And yes, I got totally sucked in by the interactive list. I’ve read 26 and have 11 more in the TBR stack.
My thoughts on the no.1 pick? Pfft. And is Franzen cranky that he only made no.5?
But I was pleasantly surprised to see some books that I really enjoyed and that don’t always appear on lists like these: Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe (no.19); Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo (no.22); and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (no.35).
I also enjoyed the peek at the votes by some of the 500 authors who were asked to contribute to the list. So interesting. I think my shelves are most similar to those of Sarah Jessica Parker, Jami Attenberg, Nick Hornby, Megan Abbott, and Joshua Ferris.
So, were you seduced by that interactive list?
Of course it seduced me. Here I am meant to be writing a review of my latest Kiwi books, and I couldn’t resist. I was expecting not to see anything from Australian or Nz so I wasn’t disappointed, but instead rather startled to find that I’d read 24.
Thanks for sharing!
It was very much weighted toward American authors but I was surprised at how many books were about American history (fiction and nonfiction).
These lists are always so northern hemisphere centric (unsurprisingly) and I’m not sure I like fiction being mixed in with non-fiction, but still fun to see how many I’d read (just 20), how many I’d started and abandoned (at least a dozen) and how many are in my TBR (another dozen).
There’s quite a few that I’ve had for years, thinking “I should read that…” (usually prize-winners) but still haven’t read them – guess that’s telling enough! For example – Lincoln in the Bardo and Sing, Unburied, Sing.
Sing, Unburied Sing is one I abandoned. But everyone I know who has read it, loved it 🤷🏻♀️
These lists are always subjective though the two step methodology they used was an interesting variation on the standard one where people are just asked “name the best book or favourite book …” and then the answer is just what they can recall at the time.
What Line of Beauty is doing on this list baffles me. It’s one of the worst Booker Prize novels I’ve read
Speaking of which, it would be interesting to look at how many of these 100 books were winners of Booker Prize, Women’s Prize, National Book Awards etc.
I was SHOCKED that Hamnet didn’t get on this list, after I saw that two of the people who participated had it on their top 10 list!
I think that they surveyed over 500 people – maybe they were the only two who mentioned Hamnet! 😀 Seriously though, they’ve thrown the voting open now for the people’s choice, so get to it and vote for Hamnet.
Of course I had to play along! I read 15, but there are very few of them that I want to add to my TBR. I’m not sure who they asked to pick books
Apparently 500+ authors/ poets and journalists were surveyed. Given the bias toward American authors, I was surprised by how many I had read on the list.
I totally HATE these lists, and this one was no exception, but yes, it was fun to follow. I’ve got a blog post about it scheduled for Thursday.
I haven’t read that many books from the list, but don’t particularly agree with the selections.
Absolutely didn’t agree with their no.1!
I played along until the website wouldn’t let me go any further. At to 60 book mark I had read 11 (with another 13 waiting on my TBR). It was fun but then I got increasingly annoyed by being ‘locked out’ which made me more annoyed about the US-centric nature of the list.
I couldn’t access the NYT list but it’s on Goodreads now, so I can see what the 100 titles are but not their ranking. 52 read for me, 6 DNFs, and a good few on the TBR.
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