The Curator: I'm involved with your book list

the NYT best books of the 21st century, our collective list obsession, ballot highlights, and other lists I'd like to see

I love a list. Lists get me fired up. It takes all my mental energy not to write you a love list every week. So when the NYT released part one of their “Best Books of the 21st Century” on Monday, along with the actual ballots of famous people, I swooned for this legit reason to give you another list.

As of today, all 100 Best Books have been released. You can scroll through the massive list, mark how many you've read or want to read, and be part of the conversation - YOU CAN COMPLETE YOUR OWN BALLOT (paying subscribers only though fat bummer). They really out Disneyed themselves on this one.

image courtesy of the New York Times

involve me with your list

Lists are shit starters. Remember when we were all collectively arguing about the Atlantic’s list of great American novels or the NYT best books since 2000 or Time Magazine’s 100 best mystery and thriller books of all time? These pubs clearly loooooove this format for the eyeballs and are trying to recreate that drama infinitely. But if it gets people talking about books, I’m cool with that. Although the comments on Substack are much more civilized than those of the general public (please go laugh at the peasants with Nick Hornby: A subjective list).

But deep down, these lists call to our lizard brains. What are we searching for in their pages? Validation? Discovery? It certainly can’t be collective agreement. Perhaps it’s a study in futility, codifying the most subjective of all things - art. I know for me, it helps temper the chaos and gives me a north star. While I may not agree with all choices (four are on my “I read it and didn’t get the hype” list), I have been encouraged to bring quite a few to the top of my TBR (shout out to reader Brian for originally recommending Roberto Bolano you are the true hero!).

What saved the experience from abject despair over the Susanna Clarke snub were the individual ballots, both from famous people and those I follow on Instagram. I die to see the personal on display - you may be able to argue with the NYTs list, but you would certainly never tell someone to their face they chose incorrectly (or would you🤨). The ballots humanize the whole experience, which we need more of.

Here’s my ballot - only four ended up on the final list! (I linked my Canva template in stories if you want to make your own @thebookcreep).

I’m - satisfied - with this list, but select titles were hopping mad I didn’t pick them (Bel Canto, Middlesex, Atonement, White Teeth) while others were looking at me neglectedly from the shelf (The Savage Detectives, Gilead, Kavalier & Clay).

So be it!

list highlights

As we all know, Stephen King put his own book on his list so there’s that.

Otherwise, his list is intriguing, a peek inside his twisted mind. Oryx and Crake just shot up my list after this, along with a few recent reader recs.

I also found a lot to like about Alma Katsu’s ballot - I feel like we could be good book friends maybe I should reach out…

Ann Napolitano might also get a call from me (to explain Oscar Wao).

Sidenote - she might be the winner with the most chosen look at that score!

The NYT let the authors reflect on one of their choices that didn’t get picked, which like SAME for all six of mine that didn’t get picked. Doesn’t this description just make you want to go out and read The Buddha in the Attic?

I also loved several Instagram friend ballots, which feels like more of the people. @booksonmysidetable was a favorite.

booksonmysidetable

A post shared by @booksonmysidetable

I won’t talk about the snubs because quite frankly there are too many and when people are nominating all FOUR books in a series (cough Scott Turow attorney at law), there just isn’t much room for Anthony Doerr, Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, Susanna Clarke, or Gillian Flynn (a desperate lack of thrillers, horror, and fantasy no?). It’s notable that you could have picked this entire list straight from the NYT Book Review’s Best Books Since 2000 list. I’m sensing some incest here…

other lists I’d like to see

I know these pubs are going to milk this trend to death, so let’s keep the lists going, baby! What else could we make a bunch of celebrities vote on? My suggestions on offer -

• The 100 best audiobooks of all time

• The 100 best book covers of all time

• The best completist authors of all time (like which authors are the best to read their entire canon, how do I word this?)

• The top 100 BookTok books that are actually trash

• The top 25 most dangerous books at the airport

Look I’m fired up again! The content is contenting.

lastly, the big question

Let’s wrap this up.

What’s on your ballot? What did you think of the list - snubs? What other lists would you like to see??

Make a ballot and tag me on Instagram or Notes (or not, but I will find it).

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FURTHER READING📚

• Another link to Nick Hornby’s a subjective list in case you missed it

• The New Yorker gives us a list of reasons why our brains love lists

• LitHub gets specific with why literature loves lists

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READING 📖→

• Other than the lists of what other people are reading? The Bee Sting. OH THE BEE STING. I knew I needed to wait for the perfect time for this perfect book that made it to my top ten book list without even fully finishing it so what. I had all these plans for light breezy summer reads and instead here I am two classics and a monster family drama deep. Love that for me.

• Finished The God of the Woods and GO READ THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW IMMEDIATELY. Even people who don’t normally read suspense are loving it. It is high quality writing, a unique plot that isn’t convoluted, and has feminist ideals without being preachy. Truly the book of the summer.

• On Will Trent book #4 Broken and my god this series storyline is SO much better than Grant County. If you need a good crime thriller to sink into, get on Will Trent ASAP.

This is truly my summer of excellent reads I can feel it.

WATCHING 📽️→

Midsommar. The next logical step in my A24 horror moviecation. Hereditary is easily one of the best horror films of all time, and although wildly different, Midsommar was almost as freaky in that same screeching fever dream-type way. Don't tell me that if you showed up to a remote village in Sweden and everyone looked like this, you wouldn’t turn and run.

BOOKS IN MY SHOPPING CART 🛒→

• All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker - second only to The God of the Woods in buzz rn.

• Geek Love by Katherine Dunn - an addition to the cult classics list (thanks for the rec

  Emily
  !!).

• Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney - I need to try another Rooney before the internet combusts over Intermezzo.

BOOK NEWS & RESTACKS 📰→

• One of the best articles I’ve read in recent memory - “The Irresolvable Tragedy of The Karen Read Case” by Jessica Winter at The New Yorker. It takes you places you didn’t see coming.

• As I mentioned in notes, Petya and I are on a similar wavelength this month, and our thoughts are reverberating in her Issue 70: Everything I read in June

• More lists: Penguin gives us a list of books set in the 1980s, which includes quite a few on the best of the century list (Cantoras and The Great Believers are my top).

AND CATS 🐈‍⬛→

Always on high alert for intruders.

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LET’S CHAT 👻→

Leave your top ten books of the 21st-century list in the comments, plz I need to know!

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In Case You Missed It 🖤

The dreadful beauty of East of Eden

The Curator: award-winning books I did not finish

The Curator: the book of the century

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See you around the bookshelf!