EW's Top 100 New Classics: Books

I pretty much had a pop culture orgasm when I saw this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly -- an issue devoted to the "New Classics" - the top 100 movies, TV shows, albums, books, theater (only the top 50 for that more limited field) and more - of the past 25 years.

As you can see by the title of this post... surprise, surprise... I am focusing on the book list.  Sight unseen, I predicted that I would be surprised if had read 25 of the 100... and sure enough, my initial count did come in with exactly 25 ... but after further review this morning, it looks like 28 of 100... a couple are a tad questionable, as I fully (re-)admit to short-term (or, in some cases, long-term) memory loss when it comes to books.

Of course, with any list of this nature there is much to agree and quibble with... and it appears that an author was only allowed one mention each...

Anyhow, I have been doing "best of" list for my reading lists for the past two years (2007 and 2006) - so it was nice to see there were several books that we agreed on: The Road (#1), The Glass Castle (#55), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (#72), Eat Pray Love (#78)... and a couple of more if you include my "honorable mentions" from last year... Love in the Time of Cholera (#17) and The Kite Runner (#67).

There are two books on the list that I really did NOT like at all. First up, is Beloved (#3), I really liked some of Toni Morrison's earlier works, but her later books have not done much for me... just a bit too "thick" for me.  I know she's good (great!), but chalk her up as one of those lofty authors I just don't get.  One book even made it on to my "worst list"... The Ruins (#87), which I though was a schlocky, and often laughable, "horror" novel... now would I have put Scott Smith's debut novel A Simple Plan on this list -- absolutely!

One glaring ommission from the list -- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides -- a Pulitzer Prize winner, an Oprah book pick, and seemingly and universally beloved by everyone that I have known to read it... hmmm!?!?

Also, there are two more books that are on my "to be read" pile of books... Interpreter of Maladies (#39) by Jhumpa Lahiri (Lahiri made my "best" list with The Namesake) and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (#53) by Michael Chabon (have owned this book for years!  but typical for me, I just bought and read another Chabon book - review pending).

For my fellow readers, would love to hear how many books you have read that made the list... and books that you are happy to see included and more especially your head-scratchers that made the list.  And while I won't make any promises, what books are you surprised I have not read... but should! 

The Top 50 are listed below (books that I have read in bold)... titles 51-100 can be found "after the jump"... here's a link to the EW book list and, once there, you can access all the other lists on the left-hand sidebar.

Entertainment Weekly's - The New Classics: 100 Best Reads from 1983-2008

1. The Road, Cormac McCarthy (2006)

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)

3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)

4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)

5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)

6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)

7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)

8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)

9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)

10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)

11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)

12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)

13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)

14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)

15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)

16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)

17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)

18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)

19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)

20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)

21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)

22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)

23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)

24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)

25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)

26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)

27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)

28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)

29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)

30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)

31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)

32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)

33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)

34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)

35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)

36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)

37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)

38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)

39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)  (#29 - read August 2008)

40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)

41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)

42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)

43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)

44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)

45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)

46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)

47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)

48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)

49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)

50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)

51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)

52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)

53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)

54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)

55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)

56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)

57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)

58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)

59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)

60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)

61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)

62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)

63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)

64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)

65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)

66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)

67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)

68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)

69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)

70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)

71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)

72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)

73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)

74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)

75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)

76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)

77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)

79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)

80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)

81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)

82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)

83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)

84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)

85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)

86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)

87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)

88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)

89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)

90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)

91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)

92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)

93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)

94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)

95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)

96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)

97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)

98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)

99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)

100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

Comments

[Gail]

I thought I'd been reading a lot lately, but I can only claim to have read 4 of them. I have read some really enjoyable books that didn't make the list, however,some by authors already on the list. Now I have some new titles to add to my must read list. I will check out the movie list. Maybe I'm doing better in that department.

[Scot]

Interesting. I've read 4 of the books on this list and yet, not enjoyed them as much as the books I've read that ARE NOT on the list. (with the possible exception of the Haddon book) While most of my friends do not read for pleasure, the ones that do and I will exchange our favorites as gifts - you read my favorite, I'll read yours. I've given away 8 or 9 copies of Servant Of The Bones. It's my favorite. I also recomend Kennedy's Profiles In Courage and Sagan's Shadows Of Our Forgotten Ancestors. I'm not surprised but rather dismayed that those books were not on the list.