This is a wonderful post! Such a fun read, as always, with lots of honesty and humor. I went through the NYT list, but after reading you need to go through all the ballots.
Love your idea of a list of the best completest authors of all time—can call it the Desert Island writers. If you were stuck on a desert island and could have the complete works of only three writers, who would they be? Mine would be Dickens (15 novels), Colson Whitehead (nine novels) and my main man Roberto Bolano (13 novels, 5 short collections and several poetry collections.)
Also, what a kick it is for me to get a Curator mention for promoting Roberto! Reminds me to thank you for turning me onto Emily St. John Mandel.
Desert Island writers yes thats exactly it! So far mine I would go for are Jennifer Egan, David Mitchell, Jane Austen, and Toni Morrison, maybe even Ann Patchett. I have yet to read Colson Whitehead which is a HUGE travesty as well, but Bolano is up before him - glad you liked the shoutout it was heartfelt :)
So let’s say five writers, and I’m adding Coetzee and Banville. We’ve got a hell of a line-up so far. Among my many travesties, I’ve never read Jane Austin.
Completist canon: I love John Irving or Tracy Chevalier for such a thing. And possibly Toni Morrison and James Baldwin. For non-fiction with not a large canon yet, I’m going with Isabel Wilkerson. Love me some Erik Larson too.
I canceled my NYT subscription out of disgust at their anti-trans and essentially pro-Trump (by being so shifty with headlines) reporting. So I don’t think I can even access what you’re talking about here as far as ballots, and I’m definitely having FOMO, but like not enough to give those fuckers a dime of my money.
i can respect that! The Atlantic is getting like that with some of their opinion pieces too - its almost like keeping my enemies closer at this point.
Toni Morrison is on my aspirational completist canon for sure, as well as Jennifer Egan and David Mitchell and in theory I would LOVE to read all Murakami but I think my brain would explode before I could finish lol
Loved reading your take! I have many thoughts but to answer some of your questions: I would love to see a best series list, and also I wish that fiction and non-fiction were separate lists! Too confusing to me that they were all thrown together
a best series list is GENUIS. I went back and forth on separate lists for fiction and non-fiction - there is something intriguing about a non-fiction book that was SO good it beats out novels but it would be more cohesive and give space for more fiction authors that way
If you don't mind me asking, how exactly did you weigh nonfiction vs. fiction for the list? To me, at least, a novel vs. a history or a collection of essays is comparing two very different kinds of reading experiences.
well i dont read a lot of non fiction so it wasnt as difficult of a sophie's choice. I considered a couple memoirs but like you said its comparing such different types of art. I dont have a good answer for this one! But I do know that now i need to finish reading Patrick Radden Keefe...
Haha!!! I LOVE that Stephen King added his own book to his list. Literally lol'd when I saw that. I'm leery about best of lists when it comes to books because reading is so personal and I'm always wondering WHO made the list. I also don't trust many people when it comes to recommending books BUT they are useful for adding to my TBR list! This was fun because you could see what other people actually chose. I, of course, LOVE your recs and trust you implicitly.
I also agree with Martha completely. I feel much too ill informed to choose books for a "Best Of" list because THERE ARE SO MANY I HAVE NOT READ!
My argument would be that he has to be one of the most read authors of the century so far, someone with both a huge mainstream audience (an inescapable presence in airport bookstores, film and tv adaptations) and a truly devoted cult following of "constant readers." To use a cliche, he's remained a true household name.
I think part of the problem with authors like King (or Slaughter or Winslow or any of the genre fiction writers) is that as a whole their careers are insanely successful but is any one book so amazing as a standalone to be considered greatest? Who knows. Kings best for me is still pre-2000s. God love him though
I don’t know about the strongest case but my personal favs are The Dark Tower series and his short story collection, Night Shift. But then I could just keep adding bc I’m so partial. I have a deep emotional connection to his work because my family and I would bond over his books/movies when I was a child.
I felt simultaneously well read and like i failed when i got my score of 22/100 lol BUT i cant tell you how excited I am to read some of these now. You hear about them but to see someone chose it as a top 10, that lights a fire!
I *love* that Gone Girl is on your list!!!!!!! Damn I loved that novel. I struggled so hard to make my list because, dammit to hell, I love the 20th century and I rarely read beyond it. In fact, most of my favorite books are from the 19th century. Sigh. What I LOVE about your list write-up and Hornby's is that it's totally fine for me to treat these lists as fun opportunities to learn about books I've never read, rather than to feel stupid that I don't know 90% of the titles or self-righteous that I don't know 90% of the titles.
I'm VERY excited to read about 38 books, which I marked from the Times' list in my app, as well as the other dozen or so I've discovered via other people's lists.
My top ten, which took me forever to identify, includes Girlhood by Melissa Febos, Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon, Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar, and The First Bad Man by Miranda July. On Beauty by Zadie and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Grams are also on there somewhere.
But, my biggest takeaway is: I have much, much, much to read. Yay!!!
I need to read On Beauty!! I loved White Teeth. Also gone girl is such an important book - the cool girl speech actually changed me. Flynn is so underrated.
I love that we all read different things and can expose each other to new. That’s the best part of this list. And so many people I follow on Instagram have read 5 to none so it’s for sure a very specific slice of literary pie right.
I have yet to read a Sarah Winman but people absolutely rave - and i second that about Lily King! what a great ballot - not including Middlesex was very hard for me
Loved reading your thoughts. I was most disappointed that Chanel Miller’s Know My Name didn’t make the cut because in addition to being timely, it’s also beautifully, heartbreakingly written.
I started that one on audio and her narration kind of ruined it for me - I think I need to go back and read hard copy because I literally only hear amazing things.
I read Oryx and Crake as part of my MFA work! It's great, and does some cool things with perspective and time. The sequel, The Year of the Flood, is also great. The third one is meh. But it's a really well done apocolypse/climate fiction before climate fiction was even a thing book.
I nominated Station Eleven and Cloud Atlas as well!! love these two books so much! I have read Visit from the Goon Squad as well but didn’t think much about it. might need to do a reread to understand it better. And agree I’m shocked to find Susanna Clarke in there. Piranesi is genre-bending. That alone is reason enough to be in the list.
What I loved about Goon Squad was that it was messy and about rock n roll but also high quality. At the time in my life when I read it, I felt that was so hard to come by. I havent revisited it in a while - it also may suffer from having been innovative at the time but now just par for the course... I
I love the idea of a "best authors canon" list. Re NYT list I had to just keep reminding myself influential didn't necessarily mean favorite but also some of the authors polled seemed to miss that memo...it's confusing! Overall aside from wanting justice for Erdrich and Ta Nehisi Coates I'm ok with the list for what it is
they literally said they let the authors decide what "best" means so clearly some just went with what they liked lol WILD but also what makes the list so great. So many people are calling for justice for Erdrich, and i wonder if it was because the vote was split among so many of her well loved books!
Also should be said I made a ballot on IG and submitted to the NYT and kept waffling over a few. It's tough! I'd also love to see a "best 21st century genre fiction" or "most influential genre fiction" list
I’ve automatically saved this post to peruse with a cup of tea - there are so many intriguing titles here. Agree with you on the zingy nature of book lists!
This is a wonderful post! Such a fun read, as always, with lots of honesty and humor. I went through the NYT list, but after reading you need to go through all the ballots.
Love your idea of a list of the best completest authors of all time—can call it the Desert Island writers. If you were stuck on a desert island and could have the complete works of only three writers, who would they be? Mine would be Dickens (15 novels), Colson Whitehead (nine novels) and my main man Roberto Bolano (13 novels, 5 short collections and several poetry collections.)
Also, what a kick it is for me to get a Curator mention for promoting Roberto! Reminds me to thank you for turning me onto Emily St. John Mandel.
Desert Island writers yes thats exactly it! So far mine I would go for are Jennifer Egan, David Mitchell, Jane Austen, and Toni Morrison, maybe even Ann Patchett. I have yet to read Colson Whitehead which is a HUGE travesty as well, but Bolano is up before him - glad you liked the shoutout it was heartfelt :)
So let’s say five writers, and I’m adding Coetzee and Banville. We’ve got a hell of a line-up so far. Among my many travesties, I’ve never read Jane Austin.
i had the extreme privilege to take an entire course dedicated to Austin during undergrad
News flash! Station Eleven on Kindle is $1.99 right now. I’ve been waiting for this day 🤑
hell YES
Completist canon: I love John Irving or Tracy Chevalier for such a thing. And possibly Toni Morrison and James Baldwin. For non-fiction with not a large canon yet, I’m going with Isabel Wilkerson. Love me some Erik Larson too.
I canceled my NYT subscription out of disgust at their anti-trans and essentially pro-Trump (by being so shifty with headlines) reporting. So I don’t think I can even access what you’re talking about here as far as ballots, and I’m definitely having FOMO, but like not enough to give those fuckers a dime of my money.
i can respect that! The Atlantic is getting like that with some of their opinion pieces too - its almost like keeping my enemies closer at this point.
Toni Morrison is on my aspirational completist canon for sure, as well as Jennifer Egan and David Mitchell and in theory I would LOVE to read all Murakami but I think my brain would explode before I could finish lol
I never could get into Murakami 🤷🏼♀️
He’s a tough nut for sure!
Loved reading your take! I have many thoughts but to answer some of your questions: I would love to see a best series list, and also I wish that fiction and non-fiction were separate lists! Too confusing to me that they were all thrown together
a best series list is GENUIS. I went back and forth on separate lists for fiction and non-fiction - there is something intriguing about a non-fiction book that was SO good it beats out novels but it would be more cohesive and give space for more fiction authors that way
If you don't mind me asking, how exactly did you weigh nonfiction vs. fiction for the list? To me, at least, a novel vs. a history or a collection of essays is comparing two very different kinds of reading experiences.
well i dont read a lot of non fiction so it wasnt as difficult of a sophie's choice. I considered a couple memoirs but like you said its comparing such different types of art. I dont have a good answer for this one! But I do know that now i need to finish reading Patrick Radden Keefe...
Haha!!! I LOVE that Stephen King added his own book to his list. Literally lol'd when I saw that. I'm leery about best of lists when it comes to books because reading is so personal and I'm always wondering WHO made the list. I also don't trust many people when it comes to recommending books BUT they are useful for adding to my TBR list! This was fun because you could see what other people actually chose. I, of course, LOVE your recs and trust you implicitly.
I also agree with Martha completely. I feel much too ill informed to choose books for a "Best Of" list because THERE ARE SO MANY I HAVE NOT READ!
I'm not sure which particular book I would pick, but I think there's a non-ridiculous argument to be made for Stephen King's inclusion on this list.
I’m a HUGE King fan so I’m right there with you!!!
My argument would be that he has to be one of the most read authors of the century so far, someone with both a huge mainstream audience (an inescapable presence in airport bookstores, film and tv adaptations) and a truly devoted cult following of "constant readers." To use a cliche, he's remained a true household name.
I think part of the problem with authors like King (or Slaughter or Winslow or any of the genre fiction writers) is that as a whole their careers are insanely successful but is any one book so amazing as a standalone to be considered greatest? Who knows. Kings best for me is still pre-2000s. God love him though
The King book that might make the most sense for this list is On Writing.
Ok now I’m mad I didn’t think of that. I would like to amend my ballot now… that book changed my life
🎯🎯🎯 I completely concur!
Is there a particular 21st century book of his you think has the strongest case for the list, either a novel or short story collection?
I don’t know about the strongest case but my personal favs are The Dark Tower series and his short story collection, Night Shift. But then I could just keep adding bc I’m so partial. I have a deep emotional connection to his work because my family and I would bond over his books/movies when I was a child.
I felt simultaneously well read and like i failed when i got my score of 22/100 lol BUT i cant tell you how excited I am to read some of these now. You hear about them but to see someone chose it as a top 10, that lights a fire!
I *love* that Gone Girl is on your list!!!!!!! Damn I loved that novel. I struggled so hard to make my list because, dammit to hell, I love the 20th century and I rarely read beyond it. In fact, most of my favorite books are from the 19th century. Sigh. What I LOVE about your list write-up and Hornby's is that it's totally fine for me to treat these lists as fun opportunities to learn about books I've never read, rather than to feel stupid that I don't know 90% of the titles or self-righteous that I don't know 90% of the titles.
I'm VERY excited to read about 38 books, which I marked from the Times' list in my app, as well as the other dozen or so I've discovered via other people's lists.
My top ten, which took me forever to identify, includes Girlhood by Melissa Febos, Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon, Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar, and The First Bad Man by Miranda July. On Beauty by Zadie and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Grams are also on there somewhere.
But, my biggest takeaway is: I have much, much, much to read. Yay!!!
I need to read On Beauty!! I loved White Teeth. Also gone girl is such an important book - the cool girl speech actually changed me. Flynn is so underrated.
I love that we all read different things and can expose each other to new. That’s the best part of this list. And so many people I follow on Instagram have read 5 to none so it’s for sure a very specific slice of literary pie right.
Don’t know who Christine Dickerson is but I want to know now—I’ve read quite a few and some more are on my TBR
Ohh, I like the idea of a list of top completionist authors! A few I'd like to get through are Sarah Winman and Lily King.
Putting together a ballot was so difficult! But the ten I landed on were:
STILL LIFE by Sarah Winman
NOTHING TO SEE HERE by Kevin Wilson
SIGNS PRECEDING THE END OF THE WORLD by Yuri Herrera
WOLF HALL by Hillary Mantel
THE LITTLE DEVIL IN AMERICA by Hanif Abdurraqib
MY BRILLIANT FRIEND by Elena Ferrante
STATION ELEVEN by Emily St. John Mandel
MIDDLESEX by Jeffrey Eugenides
THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY by Michael Chabon
DEVIL IN THE GROVE by Gilbert King
I have yet to read a Sarah Winman but people absolutely rave - and i second that about Lily King! what a great ballot - not including Middlesex was very hard for me
Loved reading your thoughts. I was most disappointed that Chanel Miller’s Know My Name didn’t make the cut because in addition to being timely, it’s also beautifully, heartbreakingly written.
I started that one on audio and her narration kind of ruined it for me - I think I need to go back and read hard copy because I literally only hear amazing things.
As for completist authors, the name that immediately comes to mind is Jane Austen.
excellent choice, she would be one of mine too!!
I read Oryx and Crake as part of my MFA work! It's great, and does some cool things with perspective and time. The sequel, The Year of the Flood, is also great. The third one is meh. But it's a really well done apocolypse/climate fiction before climate fiction was even a thing book.
Atwood is a very prescient writer!! Shes sometimes this weird combo of stilted and dry yet you cant stop reading
I nominated Station Eleven and Cloud Atlas as well!! love these two books so much! I have read Visit from the Goon Squad as well but didn’t think much about it. might need to do a reread to understand it better. And agree I’m shocked to find Susanna Clarke in there. Piranesi is genre-bending. That alone is reason enough to be in the list.
Suanna Clarke was done dirty!
What I loved about Goon Squad was that it was messy and about rock n roll but also high quality. At the time in my life when I read it, I felt that was so hard to come by. I havent revisited it in a while - it also may suffer from having been innovative at the time but now just par for the course... I
I love the idea of a "best authors canon" list. Re NYT list I had to just keep reminding myself influential didn't necessarily mean favorite but also some of the authors polled seemed to miss that memo...it's confusing! Overall aside from wanting justice for Erdrich and Ta Nehisi Coates I'm ok with the list for what it is
they literally said they let the authors decide what "best" means so clearly some just went with what they liked lol WILD but also what makes the list so great. So many people are calling for justice for Erdrich, and i wonder if it was because the vote was split among so many of her well loved books!
Also should be said I made a ballot on IG and submitted to the NYT and kept waffling over a few. It's tough! I'd also love to see a "best 21st century genre fiction" or "most influential genre fiction" list
its incredibly hard - i had to just go with it and stick to it !!
I’ve automatically saved this post to peruse with a cup of tea - there are so many intriguing titles here. Agree with you on the zingy nature of book lists!
love that so much!!! a little relaxing moment to judge everyone's book choices
I'm salivating I love a list and when you make it a book list?????? I'm sold.
it just cant be beat!!!
Hahaha yes!!! I was waiting for your thoughts on this 🤣🤣 the writer ballots are definitely the best part!
i hope I delivered lol freaking stephen king haha