The Road is so great! That book single handedly sparked my love for reading. My girlfriend bought me The Road for my birthday last year. I finished it, and have read everyday since. Love it!
What an interesting thing you said about age and appreciation of different books. There are some books that I read as a teenager and in my early twenties that I will love all my life for the way they take me back to how I felt then. But I have reread some of those and sadly now it seems I have lost the route to the wonderland of those books. But on the positive note...i am now finding I am seeing more in books that I think I wouldn’t have appreciated so much when I was younger. So it is interesting how reading changes as you get older.
Ghachar Gharchar is one of my favorite books last year, it just took me an afternoon to finish it. Love the plot twist at the end, and something to ponder about...
the "best books" list is very subjective because from an anglo-saxon point of view there will be more books written in english than in other languages. If you ask a Frenchman he would put Michel Houellebecq as one of the best novelists of the 21st century, if you ask a spanish, Javier Marias or Roberto Bolaño. If you ask a man from Hungary he would say László Krasznahorkai and so on. The anglos tend to think there is no literature outside the UK, USA, CANADA or Australia. Maybe they know some germans or relevant writers from somewhere else but i usually see lists of only english speaking authors and that's very misleading.
Hi Eric! I always light up when I see you have posted a new video. It is like going to your favorite class in High School. Like I said before... I learn so much from you. A lot of times I live vicariously through you especially when you are going to book parties, author signings and readings etc. They don't have those here where I live in VA. Thanks again my friend!!
Thanks for the recommendations. Very much appreciated you're knowledge and appreciation for the art. And it comes across in your videos. Thanks again!!!
Oh interesting! I hadn’t seen this list, so thank you. I’ve only read a handful on the list (I’m particularly happy to see Wolf Hall, Never Let Me Go, some Zadie Smith and some Ali Smith on there), but there’s a ton that are on my shelves waiting for me to pick them up. I’m quite excited for a lot of them! I agree with you, though, that Don’t Call Us Dead should totally have made the list - what a wonderful collection.
Yes! So happy A Brief History of Seven Killings and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena made the list. Two of my favourite books. I still think about them and the characters years later.
THE ROAD is on my list of 10 MOST DEPRESSING BOOKS I have ever read, then expanded to 12, including A LITTLE LIFE.... Donna Tartt wrote a brilliant mystery in A SECRET LIFE but I found THE GOLDFINCH labored and overblown.
B.m Some of these books I loved and some I detested. All were depressing. The list now contains 14. I put an * by the ones I thought were well written and ** by ones I loved. THE ROAD. THE BELL JAR* ATLAS SHRUGGED. 1984** JUDE THE OBSCURE** THE BLUEST EYE** ON THE BEACH* LORD OF THE FLIES* GRAPES OF WRATH** NIGHT* LITTLE BEE. A LITTLE LIFE A FINE BALANCE** HEAVEN* LITTLE BEE was probably the very worst of all, with every imaginable trope conveying human barbarity written in salacious language, scenes of madness, rape and cannibalism, with no redeeming literary value.
@@annetteholman2999 thank you very much for replying. I will definitely look into A Fine Balance which I had never heard of, and of course Grapes of wrath is on my list. I won't read A Little Bee then! Thanks again
B.m. I loved A FINE BALANCE. It is a long novel set in India with many interesting and suffering characters. Please let me know if you read it. Have you read JUDE THE OBSCURE? It was my favorite of Hardy's novels, even though the saddest. JUDE yearns for so much and tries so hard but the education he longs for is denied him due to the cruelties of the class system in England. In India it's the caste system that paralyzes people.
Love this video! Love a good list, and it's very interesting hearing your thoughts on the books. To my shame I haven't read any of the books on the list. But many of them I have been wanting to read for ages.
DeWitt's novel The Last Samurai has nothing to do with the Tom Cruise film except that it shares the same title. It's a book about a child genius living in London who grows up to be an Encyclopedia Britannica door-to-door salesman, and it's brilliant. The title comes from Kurosawa's Seven Samurai which is repeatedly referenced. Enjoyed the video tho. X
I loved your take on this list. I always have a problem with Ali Smith, I think she is a better writer than just a clever writer, but she always chooses cleverness over just solid storytelling and for me it is because she doesn’t spend enough time with the plot and character development as she does on being ‘innovative ‘ that she loses me. Also, I think I really need to make a concerted effort to read Virginia Woolf’s oeuvre, I cherrypicked over the years and kind of have a spotty memory of it all (could be I’m just getting old too) so I can enjoy books that reference her better and because, you know, it’s Virginia Woolf : ). I liked your list that you added, lots to look forward to reading. Julia
Fascinating list and great video Eric. I've only read 12 but totally approve of Austerlitz, How to be Both and the Coetzee trilogy being on it and agree with the dissenting voice that Savage Detectives should also be there (not 2666). I would add Lincoln in the Bardo, Under the Skin, an Alice Munro collection (Runaway?) and some more non-English language writers such as Vargas Llosa's Feast of the Goat, Saramago's The Double, and something by Javier Marias and Juan Gabriel Vasquez. Still, my tbr has just grown by 88 books which is about 3 years of reading - oh no!
Yeah, I very nearly suggested Saunders and Munro should be added to the list as well. And there definitely ought to be a presence of more non-English language writers.
Thanks for the recommendations. I've only read 3 of those books. Gone Girl, Harry potter and the hate you give. Ut oh my TBR has just grown big time. 5 of them I have on my TBR shelf.
Great video, I loved hearing your thoughts and thanks for bringing the Vulture list to my attention. I disagree about Atonement, I think an absolute masterpiece (but ha ha I would be greedy and have Nutshell on the list too). Beautiful defence by Kakutani. What really resonated for me were the meta narrative and intertextual elements of the book. Fully agreed about A Brief History of Seven Killings, easily the best of the Bookers of the last 5 years or so I think. I agree The Master should be on the list as well. I think Édouard Louis’ The End of Eddy belongs on the list if the Greenwell is there. I’m surprised no one at all has mentioned David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas - that can be my guilty pleasure 😊
So many interesting books to think about !! Thank you for sharing this ❤️ I really want to read that Danez Smith poetry collection ... Need to pick it up.❤️ Xx
if it is so obvious, why are you commenting that it is so obvious? Turns out a lot of books published in English are also written in English. Who would have known.
But why get so passive aggressive? I'm just saying that perhaps the authors should have dedicated a paragraph to say that they do not set out on proposing a universal canon but its perspective is purely American. And for that matter, there is much more amazing translated literature published in English than this "canon" suggests.
i think one of the big problems is language, i try to watch french german and italian language videos and i just get tired, as for chinese i give up, so it's no wonder we end up with western stuff when we watch western videos. For instance, hungarian literature is a canon in itself but almost untranslated
The Goldfinch is brilliant like her other 2 books. She can write a book but she can't finish one. All her books end in very irregular but not the most interesting of ways!
The part of The Goldfinch which talks about those two guys in Las Vegas is absolutely brilliant. The part prior to it has flashes of brilliance, but not consistently great.
Eric, I'm really interested in your notion of 'Blueprint fiction'. I wonder if you'd consider doing a stand alone video talking about this with which books you would put forward as blueprints? Many thanks
Thanks Marc. It'd be fun to do that since it's only something I started thinking about as I was going through the list. And I'd be very interested to know what books you consider "blueprint fiction"
Brilliant, would love to see what you come up with. For me, I'll have to get my thinking cap on, because most of the truly radical fiction I think actually close the gap they have made behind them, so that to follow would only be to imitate, so that's why I'm intrigued to see what you come up with, it might really sharpen my thinking on this.
I've only read 12 on the list. I agree with you about White Tiger although I don't think I was hugely impressed right away. I'm also one of the few who didn't really like Oscar Wao. Very glad to see Wolf Hall and agree with you about The Master, I just grabbed a copy recently as I plan to reread it soon. This might be an arbitrary list but it's great to find out about some books I wasn't aware of.
I heard that the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lakso was on this list. If you have not read it please do. I believe that this book should be read by every woman everywhere... Henrietta has actually saved so many of our lives. Eric, let me know what you think. When I saw this list she was listed as #2 or #14 somewhere down there. But I did not see it listed on your printout. Thanks, Lee
I'm several hundred years behind in my reading, so I haven't read any of these yet. Think I own 29 or so. Hope I got them on sale. (Can't believe I've been misspelling and mispronouncing Kingsolver all these years.)
I have only read one of these and that's Autumn by Ali. I attempted Winter but if I try again I need to buy it or not borrow as many books from the library when I get that one.
Well, you beat me by two, and I'll bet that few people would go higher than you, Eric. To be honest, for such a book fan as me (I browse at least once a week in Waterstone's) some of these authors are completely unknown to me. I agreed with many of the dissenters, for example, how could the wonderful The Blind Assassin be overlooked? From your alternative list, I agree wholeheartedly about Don't Call Us Dead, Seasonal Quartet, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, The Lacuna (thank you Barbara Kingsolver for writing one of my favourite books, The Poisonwood Bible), and The Master. Half of a Yellow Sun is in my tbr pile, and In America is one of the few Sontag books that I haven't read. I agree about books that you read, then can't remember a thing about only a few years later. That being the case, are they REALLY worth a re-read, when time is so short, and there are classics still yelling out "Read me!"
It would probably be disappointing in a way if it were a list made up only of books we've read - I guess part of the joy of lists like this is discovering books we missed. Well, who can say if books are worth rereading or not? Like I talked about my experience of rereading Julian Barnes was great but I'm sure some other books I reread will just feel like a repetition. But, like you, I'm more inclined to look towards what I haven't read yet! :)
The White Tiger is one of my favourite novels, purely for the joyfully despicable main character. Loved it! Unfortunately for me, his next book, Between The Assassinations, wasn't a patch. I'm with you in Ian McEwan. I have never understood the high praise and always struggled to find his work anything other than dealthy dull
Hello Eric, Great video idea! You know what, I would be really interested in you reading the entire Harry Potter series for the first time and giving your opinion on them!
It looks like I've read 19 from the Vulture list. I do think they're presumptuous to call this list a "canon," however. For good or bad, canons grow out of what is taught over time, not voted on by panels. I've been thinking of putting together my own list of the best 21st century novels, year by year. There are so many I haven't read, though, I'm not sure my own list would be any less quirky than Vulture's. It's nevertheless a fun exercise to contemplate. And if it gets me to read some titles I might have missed otherwise, so much the better.
Yeah it is all just for fun I think. They included other books published in early 2000 so I felt like I could slip my own choices from 2000 in there too. :)
I only have a few of the books on the list. I have Middlesex, The Goldfinch, Wolf Hall. I think I might be a bit slow, because I can't always see it either, but I try.
@@EricKarlAnderson I would like to say I have but I'm just starting to explore more literary works. I'm a big genre reader particularly fantasy and for the the longest time I read mostly Young Adult. I did read Donna Tartt's other book The Secret History, so my goal is to read The Goldfinch.
Thank God someone else feels that _Never Let Me Go_ isn't that great. I thought I was the only one. Ian McEwan's best novel was _Enduring Love_ not _Atonement_
I hated The Secret History. I buddy read The Goldfinch with my son-in-law and we both had the same experience with the book. We loved the first 2/3 of the book and then felt that it faltered and sort of wandered off. A shame as I can't even remember the exact ending. I am not scoring very well on reading books on this list. I own several that I haven't read, but I can only claim to have read 11 books on the list. With a few exceptions, the list seems very ethnocentric.
I only read The Secret History many years after it was published and after hearing so many people describe it as their favourite novel it felt like a bit of a let down to me. I did enjoy it but think I would have liked it more if I read it during university.
I'm with you on The Goldfinch v The Secret History, Linda. I read TSH after TG, and even though the latter was reviled by some critics it held up better in spite of the flaws. TSH was very readable, but appeared to become more and more shallow, and therefore less interesting, as it progressed.
I read 23 (not that bad because not all of them were published in my country), and there are others (Zadie Smith, Phillip Roth, Colson Whitehead) that the novel i read it's not the one they selected. It's a very anglocentric list of books which was expected. I'm happy that A constellation of vital phenomena and Billy Lynn's long halftime walk are there, i loved those novels. On the other hand i never was a fan of Family life. And i know The last samurai is a cult novel, and it's weird and interesting and well written, but for me it's not even close to be the best novel of this century (i always have some fears when i read cult novels because the expectations are very high, i'm going to read Geek love this fall and i want to give the novel a fair chance)
I never read most of the list, but from the ones I did read, I don't think they've chosen the best books from the author. I don't think any Murakami fan considers 1Q84 his best book or even in his top 3. I also don't think Never Let Me Go is that great (it's not on the same level as Remains Of The Day)
I bet they'd probably agree that these more recent books aren't the authors' best, but they are only choosing from books published after 1999. So these more recent books might be more a gesture to particular authors.
that was fun and i'm psyched to see one of my all time favorite books that no one ever mentions is on the list.".the last report on the miracle at little no horse" on the list but sad not to see "brooklyn" by colm toibin or "lincoln in the bardo" by saunders.
You did well, I've read, counting quickly so might be off by one or two, only 22 of those. But I get what you're saying about the fact that in reading community, we would want to get more. Brilliant idea for the video, and re Tartt, I think Goldfinch is extremely overrated. Went through the list again, and yes, 22, and also there are some very surprising choices. I agree with people stating that its extremely Anglo-Saxon, but hey that's what NY time is. :)
Yep, even though they were striving for inclusivity it remained very Anglo-Saxon but still interesting as a talking point and tipped me off to some books I've not come across before. I wonder if my opinion of Goldfinch would change if I went back and really analyzed it, but I just enjoyed the experience of the story.
The Road is the funniest book ever. I used to read it aloud to my son when he was a kid because it is so over the top morbid and bleak. It’s like Beckett without the humor (or profundity). The movie was a bit disappointing because it made the book seem like a zombie flic.
High five on DNSWHN! Really think you will love Ghachar Ghochar- I sure did! Of the ones I haven’t yet read on the list, I’m most interested in the DeWitt. Have heard nothing but good things about it, and don’t think I had even heard of it until earlier this year. Speaking of Danez Smith, I heard him “read” (the verb seems too puny, really) a poem from his latest collection on the Guardian podcast the other night, which affected me the most deeply of any of his poetry. If you haven’t already had a listen, here’s the link and it starts at 15 minute 20 second mark: www.theguardian.com/books/series/books (I can’t seem to get a link to the specific episode, but it’s the 25 September 2018 one)
Some rainy afternoon I'm sure I'll hunker down with Ghachar Ghochar and devour it. Yes! I went to the Forward Prize award readings at the QE hall and saw Danez recite that live. There was a couple next to me who sat their looking fairly unimpressed throughout all the readings, but when Danez read this they started cheering! I love how that poem changes from whimsical and funny to incredibly heartfelt and moving.
I have seen the movie version of Atonement, but I have never read it. Because abookolive did a review on it I bought Middlesex. I have also bought Wolf Hall, The Goldfinch, and The Fifth Season. I haven't bought or read Fingersmith, but I have read one of the author's other books The Paying Guests, which I enjoyed very much. I have read His Dark Materials trilogy, but wasn't a fan. I have attempted Kelly Link's Get in Trouble, but couldn't follow it. The stories were too weird for me. Harry Potter is a series I grew up. I enjoyed 1Q84, but there was unnecessary stuff in it. I bought two Margaret Atwood books, but not the one on the list. I'm kind of interested in Red Clocks.
A link to the written list is already under the drop down box under the video but here it is: www.vulture.com/article/best-books-21st-century-so-far.html
No Michel Houellebecq books? The Elementary Particles and The Possibility of an Island are corollaries to Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood but go far beyond it in many ways.
There's nothing wrong with that - it means you have more books to look forward to! I'm certainly intrigued to get to the 75 I haven't read. And thank you!
A quick flick through list shows I've only read about 3? Alan Hollinghurst definitely. The Eleanor Ferrante books. But many more I've not read / never heard of.
much as i love Never Let Me Go, it's a weepy, of literary quality, whereas his late 90s fiction is proper serious literature. nlmg is his novel for people who don't like Ishiguro. M Thien's book is really annoying because it's rubbish about China, although it's a great description and book about depression, so it was a game of 2 halves for me (the 'about china' means both history and geography - a lot of vagueness, inaccuracy and outright impossible things, in my opinion). The Beatty is more original - there's a sudden flourishing of books told comically (a horse walks into a bar, less etc) but i've never, ever read a satire on black american life written in the many genres of american popular culture that's also funny. In fact i've never read a satire that was also funny, although people swear by michael hayn(?name wrote about fleet st etc). It wasn't the best book in the world ever, but it was original. As for Cusk, the one you mention is great when you're reading it, it's like the greatest set of personal jottings on the topic ever, but it so does not cohere into a book, and the other ones in the trilogy stink (so far - i had to dnf them). I did love the Short history 7 killings, but a lot for the research work. I'm going to devote another comment to the one book i did love.
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obiama, The Garden if Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng, The Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Naomi Munaveera, In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner, Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta, The Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Muhammed, The Mesault Investigation by Kemal Daoud... All these beautiful novels could find their way to new gen lists...
Reminds me of story a teacher told me, her student came to 5th grade and asked her what the Holly Bibble was about, I typed as he pronounced it, btw don’t have a clue what my answer would have been, and if she said Jesus Christ he may have thought her cursing, very sad story,
Odd how you call Franzen out for being a snob ... almost right after relegatin The Last Samurai to a footnote simply because you haven't read it, had never heard of it, and it was made into a film calling Tom Cruise. That's just ... wow.
I didn't mean to sound like I was dismissing The Last Samurai. In fact, I'm really interested in it now. I just haven't read it so can't have any opinion about it or the other books on the list I haven't read. But I hope to read DeWitt's novel and many of the others on the list that I haven't read yet. Are there any books on the list you haven't read that intrigue you?
The Road is so great! That book single handedly sparked my love for reading. My girlfriend bought me The Road for my birthday last year. I finished it, and have read everyday since. Love it!
I am constantly impressed by your ability to knowledgeably and insightfully discuss books and the culture that surrounds them.
Thank you!
"all bookworms love a list"
agreed.
amy
👍📚
What an interesting thing you said about age and appreciation of different books. There are some books that I read as a teenager and in my early twenties that I will love all my life for the way they take me back to how I felt then. But I have reread some of those and sadly now it seems I have lost the route to the wonderland of those books. But on the positive note...i am now finding I am seeing more in books that I think I wouldn’t have appreciated so much when I was younger. So it is interesting how reading changes as you get older.
Absolutely! I have a lot of books too that I'm hesitant to revisit now because the magic might be lost.
Never let me go....adored it; one of my favourites...
I was disappointed in NLMG after reading the praise it receives. Nowhere near as good as TROTD, imo
Ghachar Gharchar is one of my favorite books last year, it just took me an afternoon to finish it. Love the plot twist at the end, and something to ponder about...
I'm saving it for a rainy day when I can savour it all at once.
the "best books" list is very subjective because from an anglo-saxon point of view there will be more books written in english than in other languages. If you ask a Frenchman he would put Michel Houellebecq as one of the best novelists of the 21st century, if you ask a spanish, Javier Marias or Roberto Bolaño. If you ask a man from Hungary he would say László Krasznahorkai and so on. The anglos tend to think there is no literature outside the UK, USA, CANADA or Australia. Maybe they know some germans or relevant writers from somewhere else but i usually see lists of only english speaking authors and that's very misleading.
Hi Eric! I always light up when I see you have posted a new video. It is like going to your favorite class in High School. Like I said before... I learn so much from you. A lot of times I live vicariously through you especially when you are going to book parties, author signings and readings etc. They don't have those here where I live in VA. Thanks again my friend!!
You are so sweet. Thank you! I know I'm really lucky to live in a city that has a lively literary life and lots of events.
Thanks for the recommendations. Very much appreciated you're knowledge and appreciation for the art. And it comes across in your videos.
Thanks again!!!
You must take an afternoon and read Ghachar Ghochar in one sitting. My mouth was hanging open at the end! So good!
Yes, I'm saving it for a rainy day! Can't wait after your enthusiastic endorsement!
It truly slapped
Oh interesting! I hadn’t seen this list, so thank you. I’ve only read a handful on the list (I’m particularly happy to see Wolf Hall, Never Let Me Go, some Zadie Smith and some Ali Smith on there), but there’s a ton that are on my shelves waiting for me to pick them up. I’m quite excited for a lot of them! I agree with you, though, that Don’t Call Us Dead should totally have made the list - what a wonderful collection.
Thanks for making such an amazing video. Got lots to read from it! We need people like you on UA-cam.
Thanks!
I totally agree that Do Not Say We Have Nothing should be on this list and I have a strong feeling that it will be on future lists down the road.
oh my gosh, I just discovered you and am now going to have to catch up on all of your videos!!
Thank you! Welcome! 📚
No, there cannot be another list! I am still working on the other two lists, The Modern Library and Times!
Yes! So happy A Brief History of Seven Killings and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena made the list. Two of my favourite books. I still think about them and the characters years later.
Same!
THE ROAD is on my list of 10 MOST DEPRESSING BOOKS I have ever read, then expanded to 12, including A LITTLE LIFE.... Donna Tartt wrote a brilliant mystery in A SECRET LIFE but I found THE GOLDFINCH labored and overblown.
Could you tell us the other books on your list of saddest books?
B.m Some of these books I loved and some I detested. All were depressing. The list now contains 14. I put an * by the ones I thought were well written and ** by ones I loved.
THE ROAD. THE BELL JAR*
ATLAS SHRUGGED. 1984** JUDE THE OBSCURE** THE BLUEST EYE**
ON THE BEACH* LORD OF THE FLIES* GRAPES OF WRATH** NIGHT* LITTLE BEE. A LITTLE LIFE
A FINE BALANCE** HEAVEN*
LITTLE BEE was probably the very worst of all, with every imaginable trope conveying human barbarity written in salacious language, scenes of madness, rape and cannibalism, with no redeeming literary value.
@@annetteholman2999 thank you very much for replying. I will definitely look into A Fine Balance which I had never heard of, and of course Grapes of wrath is on my list. I won't read A Little Bee then! Thanks again
B.m. I loved A FINE BALANCE. It is a long novel set in India with many interesting and suffering characters. Please let me know if you read it. Have you read JUDE THE OBSCURE? It was my favorite of Hardy's novels, even though the saddest. JUDE yearns for so much and tries so hard but the education he longs for is denied him due to the cruelties of the class system in England. In India it's the caste system that paralyzes people.
@@annetteholman2999 no I only read Tess of the d'Urbervilles. I will look into Jude The Obscure, thank you!
Freedom and The Human Stain would top my list. The Last Samurai was wonderful. Hope you get a chance to give it a read. Thank you for this post.
I never read any of the books in the list but i am soooo interested to read quite a few to see how i like them.
The Last Samurai is not at all where the Tom Cruise movie came from. But it is f-ing brilliant . Loved it.
Ghachar Ghochar is such a simple and short story... It's amazing...
Ah, I've got to get to it soon!
Love this video! Love a good list, and it's very interesting hearing your thoughts on the books. To my shame I haven't read any of the books on the list. But many of them I have been wanting to read for ages.
Thank you! Hope you find some you enjoy.
This is such a good video. I’m so happy I found your channel! I’ll start with Ali Smith!
Great! Hope you enjoy reading Ali!
I agree I was surprised how basic The Outline was.
DeWitt's novel The Last Samurai has nothing to do with the Tom Cruise film except that it shares the same title. It's a book about a child genius living in London who grows up to be an Encyclopedia Britannica door-to-door salesman, and it's brilliant. The title comes from Kurosawa's Seven Samurai which is repeatedly referenced. Enjoyed the video tho. X
Yes, I forgot they weren't connected when I made the video. DeWitt's novel sounds so good - I'm looking forward to reading it!
I recently read The Road. Yes, very good.
I love seeing Claudia Rankine's work! So many of these titles I have seen and know of but there are so many I haven't even heard of before.
I loved your take on this list. I always have a problem with Ali Smith, I think she is a better writer than just a clever writer, but she always chooses cleverness over just solid storytelling and for me it is because she doesn’t spend enough time with the plot and character development as she does on being ‘innovative ‘ that she loses me. Also, I think I really need to make a concerted effort to read Virginia Woolf’s oeuvre, I cherrypicked over the years and kind of have a spotty memory of it all (could be I’m just getting old too) so I can enjoy books that reference her better and because, you know, it’s Virginia Woolf : ).
I liked your list that you added, lots to look forward to reading.
Julia
Revisiting Virginia Woolf is definitely worth it! I've been doing so this week as I'll be going to a couple events focused on Woolf this weekend.
Fascinating list and great video Eric. I've only read 12 but totally approve of Austerlitz, How to be Both and the Coetzee trilogy being on it and agree with the dissenting voice that Savage Detectives should also be there (not 2666). I would add Lincoln in the Bardo, Under the Skin, an Alice Munro collection (Runaway?) and some more non-English language writers such as Vargas Llosa's Feast of the Goat, Saramago's The Double, and something by Javier Marias and Juan Gabriel Vasquez. Still, my tbr has just grown by 88 books which is about 3 years of reading - oh no!
Yeah, I very nearly suggested Saunders and Munro should be added to the list as well. And there definitely ought to be a presence of more non-English language writers.
2666 is such a masterpiece . Its so brilliant and its my favorite book ever. Im glad its on the list
ditto
Thanks for the recommendations. I've only read 3 of those books. Gone Girl, Harry potter and the hate you give. Ut oh my TBR has just grown big time. 5 of them I have on my TBR shelf.
Great video, I loved hearing your thoughts and thanks for bringing the Vulture list to my attention. I disagree about Atonement, I think an absolute masterpiece (but ha ha I would be greedy and have Nutshell on the list too). Beautiful defence by Kakutani. What really resonated for me were the meta narrative and intertextual elements of the book. Fully agreed about A Brief History of Seven Killings, easily the best of the Bookers of the last 5 years or so I think. I agree The Master should be on the list as well. I think Édouard Louis’ The End of Eddy belongs on the list if the Greenwell is there. I’m surprised no one at all has mentioned David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas - that can be my guilty pleasure 😊
So many interesting books to think about !! Thank you for sharing this ❤️ I really want to read that Danez Smith poetry collection ... Need to pick it up.❤️ Xx
Thanks! Danez's collection is honestly so amazing and gripping. I hope you enjoy it.
Excellent video!! I love hearing your perspective on books.. AND, you are so right.. Booklovers love lists! 🙂
Thank you!
What about David Plante's Francoeur trilogy?
I didn't know any of these books existed to be honest so this was pretty interesting to see and hear so many new books
Great, glad you enjoyed it! 📚
It's obviously the Anglosaxon canon - incredible how few non-English books are mentioned...
if it is so obvious, why are you commenting that it is so obvious? Turns out a lot of books published in English are also written in English. Who would have known.
But why get so passive aggressive? I'm just saying that perhaps the authors should have dedicated a paragraph to say that they do not set out on proposing a universal canon but its perspective is purely American. And for that matter, there is much more amazing translated literature published in English than this "canon" suggests.
Yes! thank you for writing this as I meant to mention how the list is obviously very American (and UK) focused and it is a point that should be made.
@@karolinaiwanska3110 haha sorry if I came across as passive aggressive, I just thought that the statement was redundant xd
i think one of the big problems is language, i try to watch french german and italian language videos and i just get tired, as for chinese i give up, so it's no wonder we end up with western stuff when we watch western videos. For instance, hungarian literature is a canon in itself but almost untranslated
The Goldfinch is brilliant like her other 2 books. She can write a book but she can't finish one. All her books end in very irregular but not the most interesting of ways!
The part of The Goldfinch which talks about those two guys in Las Vegas is absolutely brilliant. The part prior to it has flashes of brilliance, but not consistently great.
Eric, I'm really interested in your notion of 'Blueprint fiction'. I wonder if you'd consider doing a stand alone video talking about this with which books you would put forward as blueprints? Many thanks
Thanks Marc. It'd be fun to do that since it's only something I started thinking about as I was going through the list. And I'd be very interested to know what books you consider "blueprint fiction"
Brilliant, would love to see what you come up with. For me, I'll have to get my thinking cap on, because most of the truly radical fiction I think actually close the gap they have made behind them, so that to follow would only be to imitate, so that's why I'm intrigued to see what you come up with, it might really sharpen my thinking on this.
I've only read 12 on the list. I agree with you about White Tiger although I don't think I was hugely impressed right away. I'm also one of the few who didn't really like Oscar Wao. Very glad to see Wolf Hall and agree with you about The Master, I just grabbed a copy recently as I plan to reread it soon. This might be an arbitrary list but it's great to find out about some books I wasn't aware of.
Yes, that's another big benefit of lists like this. There are several I never heard of but which I'm keen to read now.
I heard that the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lakso was on this list. If you have not read it please do. I believe that this book should be read by every woman everywhere... Henrietta has actually saved so many of our lives. Eric, let me know what you think. When I saw this list she was listed as #2 or #14 somewhere down there. But I did not see it listed on your printout. Thanks, Lee
Interesting list...I have read 20 of these and have around 3-4 on my “to read list”...would love to know how they picked the books...
I'm several hundred years behind in my reading, so I haven't read any of these yet. Think I own 29 or so. Hope I got them on sale. (Can't believe I've been misspelling and mispronouncing Kingsolver all these years.)
My book ”2100” will be in this list in under 10 years
I have only read one of these and that's Autumn by Ali. I attempted Winter but if I try again I need to buy it or not borrow as many books from the library when I get that one.
If I get time I hope to reread Autumn and Winter before Spring gets published. :)
Well, you beat me by two, and I'll bet that few people would go higher than you, Eric. To be honest, for such a book fan as me (I browse at least once a week in Waterstone's) some of these authors are completely unknown to me. I agreed with many of the dissenters, for example, how could the wonderful The Blind Assassin be overlooked?
From your alternative list, I agree wholeheartedly about Don't Call Us Dead, Seasonal Quartet, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, The Lacuna (thank you Barbara Kingsolver for writing one of my favourite books, The Poisonwood Bible), and The Master. Half of a Yellow Sun is in my tbr pile, and In America is one of the few Sontag books that I haven't read.
I agree about books that you read, then can't remember a thing about only a few years later. That being the case, are they REALLY worth a re-read, when time is so short, and there are classics still yelling out "Read me!"
It would probably be disappointing in a way if it were a list made up only of books we've read - I guess part of the joy of lists like this is discovering books we missed.
Well, who can say if books are worth rereading or not? Like I talked about my experience of rereading Julian Barnes was great but I'm sure some other books I reread will just feel like a repetition. But, like you, I'm more inclined to look towards what I haven't read yet! :)
The White Tiger is one of my favourite novels, purely for the joyfully despicable main character. Loved it! Unfortunately for me, his next book, Between The Assassinations, wasn't a patch. I'm with you in Ian McEwan. I have never understood the high praise and always struggled to find his work anything other than dealthy dull
Ah, I really should get to rereading White Tiger then.
I generally agree but was surprised by how much I liked Saturday, that ones a keeper for me anyway
Hello Eric,
Great video idea! You know what, I would be really interested in you reading the entire Harry Potter series for the first time and giving your opinion on them!
That would be a fun project!
It looks like I've read 19 from the Vulture list. I do think they're presumptuous to call this list a "canon," however. For good or bad, canons grow out of what is taught over time, not voted on by panels.
I've been thinking of putting together my own list of the best 21st century novels, year by year. There are so many I haven't read, though, I'm not sure my own list would be any less quirky than Vulture's. It's nevertheless a fun exercise to contemplate. And if it gets me to read some titles I might have missed otherwise, so much the better.
p.s. I think 2000 is officially the last year of the 20th-century, which might be why some of the ones you mentioned aren't on there?
Yeah it is all just for fun I think. They included other books published in early 2000 so I felt like I could slip my own choices from 2000 in there too. :)
I only have a few of the books on the list. I have Middlesex, The Goldfinch, Wolf Hall. I think I might be a bit slow, because I can't always see it either, but I try.
Have you read any of these and which is your favourite? I really ought to get to reading Middlesex.
@@EricKarlAnderson I would like to say I have but I'm just starting to explore more literary works. I'm a big genre reader particularly fantasy and for the the longest time I read mostly Young Adult. I did read Donna Tartt's other book The Secret History, so my goal is to read The Goldfinch.
Thank God someone else feels that _Never Let Me Go_ isn't that great. I thought I was the only one.
Ian McEwan's best novel was _Enduring Love_ not _Atonement_
Glad you feel the same way!
I hated The Secret History. I buddy read The Goldfinch with my son-in-law and we both had the same experience with the book. We loved the first 2/3 of the book and then felt that it faltered and sort of wandered off. A shame as I can't even remember the exact ending.
I am not scoring very well on reading books on this list. I own several that I haven't read, but I can only claim to have read 11 books on the list. With a few exceptions, the list seems very ethnocentric.
I only read The Secret History many years after it was published and after hearing so many people describe it as their favourite novel it felt like a bit of a let down to me. I did enjoy it but think I would have liked it more if I read it during university.
I'm with you on The Goldfinch v The Secret History, Linda. I read TSH after TG, and even though the latter was reviled by some critics it held up better in spite of the flaws. TSH was very readable, but appeared to become more and more shallow, and therefore less interesting, as it progressed.
I read 23 (not that bad because not all of them were published in my country), and there are others (Zadie Smith, Phillip Roth, Colson Whitehead) that the novel i read it's not the one they selected.
It's a very anglocentric list of books which was expected.
I'm happy that A constellation of vital phenomena and Billy Lynn's long halftime walk are there, i loved those novels. On the other hand i never was a fan of Family life.
And i know The last samurai is a cult novel, and it's weird and interesting and well written, but for me it's not even close to be the best novel of this century (i always have some fears when i read cult novels because the expectations are very high, i'm going to read Geek love this fall and i want to give the novel a fair chance)
I never read most of the list, but from the ones I did read, I don't think they've chosen the best books from the author. I don't think any Murakami fan considers 1Q84 his best book or even in his top 3. I also don't think Never Let Me Go is that great (it's not on the same level as Remains Of The Day)
I bet they'd probably agree that these more recent books aren't the authors' best, but they are only choosing from books published after 1999. So these more recent books might be more a gesture to particular authors.
that was fun and i'm psyched to see one of my all time favorite books that no one ever mentions is on the list.".the last report on the miracle at little no horse" on the list but sad not to see "brooklyn" by colm toibin or "lincoln in the bardo" by saunders.
I'd not read it either but it's on my tbr list now.
I agree that both Brooklyn and Lincoln in the Bardo probably belong on there too!
Oryx and Crake by Atwood changed my life
It is an excellent novel!
Pls suggest me a recent novel for project I get confused to choose
The Sellout is really in a league of its own. The Force is as hardboiled as it gets.
Me waiting for Percy Jackson 😔
I’m flabbergasted that A Little Life wasn’t on the list
That is surprising!
You did well, I've read, counting quickly so might be off by one or two, only 22 of those. But I get what you're saying about the fact that in reading community, we would want to get more. Brilliant idea for the video, and re Tartt, I think Goldfinch is extremely overrated.
Went through the list again, and yes, 22, and also there are some very surprising choices. I agree with people stating that its extremely Anglo-Saxon, but hey that's what NY time is. :)
Yep, even though they were striving for inclusivity it remained very Anglo-Saxon but still interesting as a talking point and tipped me off to some books I've not come across before.
I wonder if my opinion of Goldfinch would change if I went back and really analyzed it, but I just enjoyed the experience of the story.
The Road is the funniest book ever. I used to read it aloud to my son when he was a kid because it is so over the top morbid and bleak. It’s like Beckett without the humor (or profundity). The movie was a bit disappointing because it made the book seem like a zombie flic.
High five on DNSWHN! Really think you will love Ghachar Ghochar- I sure did!
Of the ones I haven’t yet read on the list, I’m most interested in the DeWitt. Have heard nothing but good things about it, and don’t think I had even heard of it until earlier this year.
Speaking of Danez Smith, I heard him “read” (the verb seems too puny, really) a poem from his latest collection on the Guardian podcast the other night, which affected me the most deeply of any of his poetry. If you haven’t already had a listen, here’s the link and it starts at 15 minute 20 second mark: www.theguardian.com/books/series/books (I can’t seem to get a link to the specific episode, but it’s the 25 September 2018 one)
Some rainy afternoon I'm sure I'll hunker down with Ghachar Ghochar and devour it.
Yes! I went to the Forward Prize award readings at the QE hall and saw Danez recite that live. There was a couple next to me who sat their looking fairly unimpressed throughout all the readings, but when Danez read this they started cheering! I love how that poem changes from whimsical and funny to incredibly heartfelt and moving.
I have seen the movie version of Atonement, but I have never read it. Because abookolive did a review on it I bought Middlesex. I have also bought Wolf Hall, The Goldfinch, and The Fifth Season. I haven't bought or read Fingersmith, but I have read one of the author's other books The Paying Guests, which I enjoyed very much. I have read His Dark Materials trilogy, but wasn't a fan. I have attempted Kelly Link's Get in Trouble, but couldn't follow it. The stories were too weird for me. Harry Potter is a series I grew up. I enjoyed 1Q84, but there was unnecessary stuff in it. I bought two Margaret Atwood books, but not the one on the list. I'm kind of interested in Red Clocks.
I really enjoyed the Paying Guests as well - I highly recommend you try Fingersmith.
The wizard of the crow is my favourite book!! It is historical magical realism I guess, really cool
Ah, good to know! I should push it up the TBR then.
Can we have a written list?
A link to the written list is already under the drop down box under the video but here it is: www.vulture.com/article/best-books-21st-century-so-far.html
No Michel Houellebecq books? The Elementary Particles and The Possibility of an Island are corollaries to Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood but go far beyond it in many ways.
I’ve only managed a miserable 5 of these novels! This is why I love watching you, as I can expand my reading a lot. Thank you!
There's nothing wrong with that - it means you have more books to look forward to! I'm certainly intrigued to get to the 75 I haven't read.
And thank you!
I may or may not have read exactly zero of them. ;)
i need a good novel then i have to write esay about it 😟
The noise of time by Julian Barnes is better in my opinion
A quick flick through list shows I've only read about 3? Alan Hollinghurst definitely. The Eleanor Ferrante books. But many more I've not read / never heard of.
It tipped me off to quite a few I wasn't aware of as well!
much as i love Never Let Me Go, it's a weepy, of literary quality, whereas his late 90s fiction is proper serious literature. nlmg is his novel for people who don't like Ishiguro. M Thien's book is really annoying because it's rubbish about China, although it's a great description and book about depression, so it was a game of 2 halves for me (the 'about china' means both history and geography - a lot of vagueness, inaccuracy and outright impossible things, in my opinion). The Beatty is more original - there's a sudden flourishing of books told comically (a horse walks into a bar, less etc) but i've never, ever read a satire on black american life written in the many genres of american popular culture that's also funny. In fact i've never read a satire that was also funny, although people swear by michael hayn(?name wrote about fleet st etc). It wasn't the best book in the world ever, but it was original. As for Cusk, the one you mention is great when you're reading it, it's like the greatest set of personal jottings on the topic ever, but it so does not cohere into a book, and the other ones in the trilogy stink (so far - i had to dnf them). I did love the Short history 7 killings, but a lot for the research work. I'm going to devote another comment to the one book i did love.
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obiama, The Garden if Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng, The Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Naomi Munaveera, In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner, Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta, The Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Muhammed, The Mesault Investigation by Kemal Daoud... All these beautiful novels could find their way to new gen lists...
You missed 11/22/63 by Stephen King!
Speed it up.
The Holy Bible is a decent novel, albeit bloody.
Reminds me of story a teacher told me, her student came to 5th grade and asked her what the Holly Bibble was about, I typed as he pronounced it, btw don’t have a clue what my answer would have been, and if she said Jesus Christ he may have thought her cursing, very sad story,
Odd how you call Franzen out for being a snob ... almost right after relegatin The Last Samurai to a footnote simply because you haven't read it, had never heard of it, and it was made into a film calling Tom Cruise. That's just ... wow.
I didn't mean to sound like I was dismissing The Last Samurai. In fact, I'm really interested in it now. I just haven't read it so can't have any opinion about it or the other books on the list I haven't read. But I hope to read DeWitt's novel and many of the others on the list that I haven't read yet. Are there any books on the list you haven't read that intrigue you?
the iraqi christ by hassan blasim is the only truly great book i have read this century written this century
Never Let Me Go - most overrated book of last 20yrs
100 books that fit the "narrative", I don't look at lefty lists