My Favorite Reads: A Bunch of “Best of” Book Lists

For a while now, I have been maintaining a collection of “best of” book lists, which I wanted to share with you. These lists are divided chronologically and by broad genre, and are composed solely of books that I have read and given 4 or 5 stars. They are hosted at Lists of Best and updated as I read more.

Best pre-20th century literature – Includes poetry, drama, nonfiction and fiction.

Best of the 20th century:

Note: I separated literary fiction from speculative fiction because I think there was a real separation between genre writing and more mainstream writing during this time. While the genres of horror, science fiction and fantasy weren’t invented during this period, they were definitely robustly explored and defined. Also, this keeps the lists from getting way too long.

Best of the 21st century (thus far):

Note: I merged literary, or mainstream, fiction back with speculative fiction deliberately because I think that now the lines between genres are blurring. Clearly, Neil Gaiman and Stephen King are genre writers, but how would you classify Margaret Atwood, Michael Chabon, David Mitchell or Cormac McCarthy? Better to call it all just fiction, and read it all.

The best of the best – five-star books only.

Happy reading!

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Thanks for these great lists. It’s nice to see everything so organized. I’m not sure I agree with all the worthy books but what is literature if not a constant discussion of perceived merit? This gives a lot of good recommendations for the future (no pun intended). Now, to get reading…

Comment by Biblibio — November 2, 2009 #
Thank you for sharing your favorites. I love a good book list!

Comment by RD — November 4, 2009 #
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