- Sad music * and Sancho shit and pissed while standing up because he couldn’t let Don Quixote out of his sight (on account of esoteric lore)
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Grief is a witch hag is the title I believe
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Yes! Thank you. I was able to find it
nyt’s 100 best books of the century
what do we think?
it’s a pretty “safe” list, but some undeniable classics on there. it’s funny to see jonathan franzen sandwiched between sebald and bolano in the top 10, but maybe that means my taste is not as clandestine as i’d like to think.
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It’s lists like this one that brings home the fact that I really don’t read contemporary books. I’ve read exactly 4 on that list.
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which ones? i’ve read 37 
reminder that we have the official insert credit best books of all time list here, now new and improved with the inclusion of @Hunter 's gold standards. if anyone still wants to contribute, i think it’s a cool resource and a much better way of exposing people to books than an amazon algorithm or something.
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I imagine a common reaction (which tbh is also mine) has been that it’s 2024
i think we’re probably good to just call it now
seems unwise, especially because the Elden ring dlc was released while the nyt was compiling this list, so we haven’t seen how novelists will be influenced by the lore-delivery technique of the dark souls series
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bold claim, the skibidi rizz generation is just getting started
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It’s one of those popularity contests so has all the problems endemic to that kind of list, one of which is too many books by the same author. 2x Roberto Bolaño, Denis Johnson, Edward P. Jones, Hilary Mantel, Alice Munro, and Zadie Smith; 3x Elena Ferrante, George Saunders, and Jesmyn Ward. If the list were an editorial work instead of a poll there would be a discussion to have over reasons to include or not more than one work by the same author, but given the methodology here it’s less meaningful. That’s 12 spots that could have gone to other authors (plus more taken up by books that shouldn’t be here).
It’s also got the Best Picture problem where because the list is of the best books instead of best fiction, nonfiction, comics, etc, you end up with a list with only two comics on it and it’s the two most obvious/popular choices you can imagine.
I don’t get Never Let Me Go.
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yeah you bring up comics and Fun Home made it, which is a perfectly good book, but then where are all the other graphic works from the last twenty years. But it’s just a popularity contest for the last 23.5 years of “books” so why get twisted
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agreed that it’s weird they made it best books when it’s just primarily fiction with a few that felt like add-ons.
at the end of the day it’s a new york times list, which means it’s not worth deep thought but also pretty indicative of the broader public literary opinion.
the individual picks of each voter are marginally more interesting because you get to see the total hacks they asked to vote, including the guy who submitted his own book (respect)
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i will never read this book in my life, but would love for someone here to read it and report on it. preferably yeso?
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as they always say. Never judge a book by it’s cover, it’s title, the name of the author, and the publisher’s description. Maybe it’s good you never know
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this is also a good piece to read if you’ve lost the will to live
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you’re trying to get a reaction out of me but all I can say is, maybe she’s a nice young lady and her book is good 
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for the record i was using the general “you,” though i can see the confusion.
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Yeah, I usually don’t read what ends upon these lists. (I go older or more genred.)
The ones I’ve read include
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- The New Jim Crow (Michelle Alexander, 2010)
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- Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi, 2003)
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- The Fifth Season (N.K. Jemisin, 2015)
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- The Years (Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison L. Strayer, 2018)
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- Fun Home (Alison Bechdel, 2006)
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- The Road (Cormac McCarthy, 2006)
In other words, my exposure to the list coincides with graphic novels, SF, or nonfiction. Only The Years doesn’t fit that; last year, when I realized I was reading so little post-2000 published stuff, I deliberately sought out a text by a Nobel prize recipient.
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damn the road was #13? come on nyt book section
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