Have You Read the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century?
I’ve been seeing a lot of discussion regarding the 100 Best books of the 21st Century list published by the New York Times recently.
At first glance, I found the list a bit odd. Mostly books published in English, certain authors appearing multiple times (Elena Ferrante), not a lot of genres (only one fantasy title), etc.
Then I read that they actually approached authors to create this list and this makes a little bit more sense now. For example, Stephen King’s ballot includes one of this own books – I think they should not have been able to nominate their own books here.
Without further ado, here are the 13 titles that I have actually read:
- My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
- Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
- Vegetarian by Han Kang
- Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
And the 10 titles that I’d like to read:
1. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
2. Gilead by Marylynne Robinson
3. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
4. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
5. Atonement by Ian McEwan
6. H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
7. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
8. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
9. The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
10. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
There’s a lot of titles on that list I’ve never heard of and I do not think I prefer older titles overall. I wish this list included reader’s opinion, maybe next time NYT?
What do you think of this list and how many books have you read from it?
Macedonian 
English