📚 Reacting to the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century 🌟📖

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@cafeaulivre 4 ай бұрын

Which book would be on your number one spot? Did you agree with the choices made in this list? Let me know down below and we'll talk 21st century books some more!

@aiscahill 3 ай бұрын

I think I’ve mostly just learned to take these lists with a pinch of salt. I agree with some books, others I didn’t love, and loads of them I haven’t read (or haven’t even heard of) 😊

@13tuyuti 4 ай бұрын

It is a bit surprising to me that a reader of contemporary fiction somehow managed to not have heard about 2666. Its publication was probably the main literary event of the Spanish speaking world of this century. It got quite a bit of attention in the Dutch language press as well. Maybe this goes to show how large the literary world is. One man's main event is goes completely unnoticed by another man.

@cafeaulivre 4 ай бұрын

I have even been looking for it in local bookstores here and I havn’t even seen it so far.

@cv3183 3 ай бұрын

Mr Brilliant Friend is an absolutely wonderful novel.

@Christalesty 3 ай бұрын

I didn’t read anything from this top 10. A few of them do sound interesting though, like Wolf Hall & the Underground Railroad.

@cafeaulivre 3 ай бұрын

Those are both great books!

@cv3183 3 ай бұрын

Middlesex by Eugenides.

@studioalektik 3 ай бұрын

Of course you should read The Corrections

@cv3183 3 ай бұрын

Hmm? A wee bit pretentious I thought.

@AnonymousAnonposter 4 ай бұрын

2666 is the only book I've read in this top 10. I would say the New York Times list was less... worse than I expected.

@cafeaulivre 4 ай бұрын

And is it any good, because 2066 is a book I honestly never heard about before 🤔

@monicai.3034 4 ай бұрын

Indeed a distinct lack of books to read for pleasure, fun and relaxation. No Virginie Grimaldi which I discovered this year. She writes lovely books. No Fredrik Backman in this list.😶 About No 1, I'm not a friend of Elena Ferrante's books. Lets say because I trust my gut after reading so many reviews. But Hilary Mantel indeed is amazing. I adore historical fiction, I have Austerlitz in my library and I will acquire also Ishiguro's book, Never let me go. I loved Remainings of the day (also the movie with A Hopkins). Colson Whitehead is on my tbr for years. Hard to accept the terrible realities he describes but I'm sure he deserves all the respect. Sorry, I haven't read Corrections, but I've heard is a good one. Never heard of so many books from the entire list but I'm glad to discover new ones. Thank you for the recommendations!

@cafeaulivre 4 ай бұрын

Now you mention it: no Backman indeed!

@godzillasan1817 4 ай бұрын

The New York Times after this list did another one - Readers choice. Fredrik Backman was there at No 100 with The man called Ove

@cafeaulivre 4 ай бұрын

@godzillasan1817 100 feels low, but then again, there are so many great books I would include myself. I wouldn't know where to start ranking them all 😂

@hermanblinkhoven1856 4 ай бұрын

Meeting well read people is a pleasure provided all sides are clear about their limitations and prejudices. I confess that the USA media and academia landscape is perhaps not my main reference. Still I find the NYT list hard to understand - supposedly compiled from expert opinion - since it does not contain Richard Ford, no Karen Jay Fowler, not Pynchon's against the Day. And where is Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan? And how can the USA literary world deem that so little worthy of mention was written in Spanish, German, French. Can someone please open the windows of the USA? The following are, like the NYT list, all from 1Q-21stC. They deserve wider attention and I hope they are or will become available in English translations. I read them in the original language, with the exception of the last three which I read in German translation. Christoph Ransmayr - Cox, oder der Lauf der Zeit Robert Menasse - Die Hauptstadt Zsuzsa Bank - Der Schwimmer Michael Köhlmeier - Abendland Uwe Tellkamp - Der Turm Henri Le Tellier - L'anomalie Jean Echenoz - 14 Leila Slimani - Chanson douce Antonio Munoz Mollina - Como la sombra que se va Manuel Villas - Ordesa Tommy Wieringa - Joe Speedboat Annejet van der Zeyl - Sonny Boy Peter Terrin - De bewaker (The guard) Yves Petry - Virgin Marino Laszlo Krasnahorkai - Baron Wenckheim's homecoming Orhan Pamuk - Snow Orhan Pamuk - A strangeness in my mind

@VTimmoni 4 ай бұрын

The Illiad and the Odyssey will always be at the top of my list followed by Tolkien and Jacqueline Carey.

@cafeaulivre 4 ай бұрын

I agree, but they are hardly books of the 21st century 😉

@VTimmoni 4 ай бұрын

@cafeaulivre Fair. My top book of the 21st century would be Starless by Jacqueline Carey. I cannot recommend it enough.

@cafeaulivre 4 ай бұрын

@@VTimmoni What I never really got: is that book fantasy or scifi?

@VTimmoni 4 ай бұрын

@cafeaulivre Fantasy in a low to mid magic setting. The characters are interesting. The stakes are high. It will tear your heart out and you will thank it for the privilege.

@cafeaulivre 4 ай бұрын

Sold! 😉

@joelharris4399 4 ай бұрын

Subjectivity is a most human vice

@cafeaulivre 4 ай бұрын

Or virtue, since it shows us there is no one truth.

@robertschobesberger6300 4 ай бұрын

2666 is very good imho... not for the faint-hearted because it deals with the drug murders in mexico

@cafeaulivre 4 ай бұрын

And it’s fiction? Or more true crime?

@robertschobesberger6300 4 ай бұрын

@@cafeaulivre its pure fiction... and not a thriller... but bolano is imho a brilliant story teller (there are comparisons to gabriel garcia marquez)... one part of the book is a parody on guenther grass, a german author...

@tyghe_bright 4 ай бұрын

Really, I think this list is most shaped by the choice of contributors.

@cafeaulivre 4 ай бұрын

Oh, without a doubt. If you look at someone like George Saunders for example, who gets three books in the list. Now, he’s known to teach a lot at university, mentor aspiring writers, … and if you look at some of the ballots, it’s his former students that often vote for his books.

@SaveLockwoodNCo 4 ай бұрын

Lockwood and Co by Jonathan Stroud isnt on their list and it should be!!!

@cafeaulivre 4 ай бұрын

There are many books I would include actually 😋

@SaveLockwoodNCo 4 ай бұрын

@cafeaulivre Honesty same! Buy I do highly recommend Lockwood and Co by Jonathan Stroud. It's got Percy Jackson vibes but with ghosts and in London.

@shisharma 4 ай бұрын

I was so disappointed with this list, especially after seeing non fictions like I don't understand what they were smoking while making this list.

@cafeaulivre 4 ай бұрын

They didn't make the list actually, it's merely all the data they gathered from the 500 respondents compiled. It was of course their choice to allow both fiction and non-fiction, but I think the project was simply too large to be able to do it twice.