I’ve read 28 of Time magazine’s Best 100 books.
I love “Best of” lists. People complain about them all the time, but if you just don’t them too seriously they are a good source for reading/viewing suggestions. I had previously been using the Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels list from 2003. I made a Palm-sized version of it for my PDA so that whenever I was at the library and couldn’t think of anything to get, I’d have it handy. I ended up reading a lot of good books that way, ones I wouldn’t have otherwise considered.
Observations from the Time list:
- Two of the books — Possession and Snow Crash — I started but quit about a quarter of the way through because I found them irritating
- They included The Watchmen, a
comic bookgraphic novel that I’ve been trying to get Amy to read [Amy: see, it’s not just me who thinks it’s really good] - All the King’s Men is on there, which Amy has been trying to get me to read. Sounds like it’s time to strike a reading deal.
- There’s no Joseph Conrad or James Joyce?!
It looks like they also have a 100 Best Movies list, which I’ll have to post about another time.
Comments
I am not a "reader" like my husband is, but at least I've read 18 of those books. I guess I should still be ashamed. The two I couldn't get through because I found them "irritating" were "Mrs. Dalloway" and "A Passage to India".
Peter has read 23. "Brideshead Revisited" was his "irritating" one.
Posted by: Liana Ottaviano | November 1, 2005 9:49 PM
I've also read 28 of those books, including the annoying and loathsome "Possession" and "Snow Crash," which I somehow managed to finish because people I liked told me I HAD to read them.
"Light in August," "Call It Sleep," "The Berlin Stories," and "White Noise" I read for classes and HATED, because they were all BORING, PRETENTIOUS, AND FULL OF SHIT.
Where's "Grendel" by John Gardner? Where's "Pride and Prejudice"? Where's "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien? Where's a single work of literary nonfiction--the likes of "Black Boy" by Richard Wright? And if they're going to list children's books, are "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret" and "The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe" really better than "Alice in Wonderland"?
As someone with a PhD in English lit, I feel heartily qualified to say that for the most part, Time's Best 100 Books list sucks balls. I admit I love "Lolita" and Virginia Woolf and Tolkien. But overall I'd rather reread Chaucer in the original middle English than plow through the pile of crap Time recommends, and that's saying a lot.
Posted by: Holly | November 2, 2005 2:02 AM