ILX BOOKS OF THE 00s: THE RESULTS! (or: Ismael compiles his reading list, 2010-2019)

Unless the 'I love the fantasy genre, lots, and I want it to stop sucking' thread team have block-voted & it's the 6th book in David WW Sheffield's Breast Elves of Cinnara sequence.

Yay! Was hoping this would come up soon.

Lunch has been et and we're ready to go. Couple of preliminaries before we start:

- I'm going for a top hundred and one, as there was a four-way points tie for 98th;
- everything which got only a single vote has been removed. A handful of top choices thus miss out. My original plan was to give those half-points, which would have put them all outside the top hundred anyway, but I decided to get honest and just kick them out. We can have a 'sadly missed' section for these in memorian near the end;
- I've turned out to busier this week than I'd hoped, so this might be slowish going. Do bear with me.

101. Nixonland - Rick Perlstein (2008)
(22points, two votes)

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_GZBskGaBQAY/Sb3jyy_T7PI/AAAAAAAADDw/4CVBeRlaLIg/s400/nixon.png

Take it away, President Keyes:
Not quite as great as his earlier book about the Goldwater campaign, since the Nixon years have been covered to death already, but it’s valuable as a catalog of that era’s GOP wretchedness.

This was supposed to be awesome! If there are 100 books of the decade better than this I've got a lot to read.

100. Suite Française - Irène Némirovsky (1942, translated 2004)
(22 points, two votes)

http://www.mrbsemporium.com/internetshop/images/uploads/suite_francaise.jpg

caloma:
I loved how this broke everything down to show how war affects everyone, often in the most mundane ways. In the first part a man starts to leave Paris only to return to his prized possessions because he cannot bear the thought of them being destroyed or stolen - whereupon he is killed by a car whilst crossing the street.

99. A Storm of Swords - George Martin (2000)
(22 points, two votes)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511811QMKFL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

disappointing pile of holiday reading:
... george r.r. martin, a storm of swords ...
they were all ok i guess

― thomp, Monday, January 4, 2010 1:22 AM (1 week ago)

I'm sorry I can't do any better than that quote, but I did try.

Haha. Oh, and you've put that as 99 - I'm guessing it's actually tied with the others, from the score.

There are loads of ties up until we reach the 50s, then the list thins out quite a bit. However, I specified a number of tiebreakers in the over-wordy version of the voting instructions, and if I apply them properly I think everyone will get an individual spot. A Storm of Swords beats Suite Française purely because it's first vote came in ballot #9 as opposed to ballot #13.

Ahh, okay.

man, if that's as high as george martin got then breast elves of cinnara is screwed

naw i put it as my #1

I didn't vote as I haven't read enough contemp lit to really justify doing it but am excited to see the results anyway, so yay Ismael for doing this.

also lol where u the other martin vote?

if i had blurbed the martin it wld read something like: this book is rad because it reminded fantasy writers that their epics should be more like cable tv shows and less like encyclopedias and also because of [spoiler] and [spoiler] and most jaw-droppingly rad of all [spoiler]

also this fat dude knows not to let his sentences get in the way of a good stabbing

xp yep, this is already enjoyable ismael, & i'm not even an ocd organisational poll-lover

Aw shucks, guys. I think I've read quite a lot and I've certainly built up an enormous library, but it's still pretty horrifying to see just how many of these are totally unknown to me. As a rule of thumb, if I can't come up with an unusual or amusing photo to illustrate a book, I need you to tell me more about it.

98. Veronica - Mary Gaitskill (2005)
(22 points, three votes)

http://media.newtimes.com/1939698.47.jpg

Just finished Veronica by Mary Gaitskill. 227 pages=just the right length as I think she was starting to lose some gas. Beautiful book, though. Some of the prose and the ideas and images contained within were way too dense for me to read more than a few pages at a time.
― Mr. Que (Mr.Que), Wednesday, August 2, 2006 12:49 AM (3 years ago)

Veronica is good. I missed my chance to get Mary Gaitskill's to sign my copy at the ALA conference. She seems sort of intimidating, though.
― youn (youn), Saturday, July 15, 2006 8:06 PM (3 years ago)

Mr. Que is right on here. _Veronica_ is a hard and kind of unsparing book -- I would certainly advise somebody new to Gaitskill to start with Two Girls, Fat and Thin (a fictionalized account of the death of Detroit and the circle around Ayn Rand in the 60s!) or Because She Wanted To. Try "The Girl on the Plane":

http://books.google.com/books?id=WcqlIYeRKBkC&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=%22the+girl+on+the+plane%22+gaitskill&source=bl&ots=yb1_vR0R7a&sig=Unsv6vz-adaVzh6QGNJb_oNLIY0&hl=en&ei=rEtPS_S7MojUMo602Y8J&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBoQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22the%20girl%20on%20the%20plane%22%20gaitskill&f=false

If you don't like this Gaitskill's probably not for you.

Going by Google Images, I'd say that youn's right on here too.

I talked to her after her reading and I too agree with youn.

I didn't vote as I haven't read enough contemp lit to really justify doing it but am excited to see the results anyway, so yay Ismael for doing this.

― Body Butter (a hoy hoy), 14 January 2010 16:24 (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^^^ and will be keeping my eye out for this as a future reading list.

yes i was the other martin vote. couldn't bring myself to go for erickson tho

if i had blurbed it it would probably be something like "by the end of this the third volume in his eightynine book series one of george r r martin's characters has spent like two thousand pages basically trying and failing to walk from one castle to another and yet in spite of this it is still totally exciting in some way i don't want to admit"

97. How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered The World - Francis Wheen
(23 points, three votes)

http://i46.tinypic.com/ioexhl.jpg

'How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World' by Francis Wheen is fantastic, just out in paperback and painfully timely.
― snotty moore, Friday, November 5, 2004 4:08 PM (5 years ago)

Anyone seeking an alternative to Pop Social Psychology could do worse than read How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World by Francis Wheen.
― Mike W (caek), Saturday, February 11, 2006 3:43 PM (3 years ago)

I don't think it's possible to do worse than reading Wheen's terrible book.
― James Ward (jamesmichaelward), Monday, February 13, 2006 10:14 AM (3 years ago)

96. On Green Dolphin Street - Sebastian Faulks (2004)
(24 points, two votes)

http://www.musicnotes.com/images/productimages/mtd/MN0041627.gif

Ismael Klata:
I couldn't believe how good this was. Totally convincing in following its protagonist around her love affair, almost as successful in painting the very attractive world that she moves in, and extremely skilful in implying dread - while never tipping over into horror, distaste, sentimentality or any of the other directions he might've aimed her in. I just felt that he showed a great empathy for the humanity of all his characters, and ultimately that's all I want him to do.

as a lover of pretentious bullshit continental "thought" (larf) this Francis Wheen jerk seems like a bit of a jerk. Am I wrong?

p.s. thanks Ismael this is awesome. I had read hardly anything on the nominations list so I abstained, but it'll provide a nice reading list for me too.

It made my longlist, but didn't get a vote from me because I couldn't remember very much about it. I did enjoy it though, but then pretentious blah blah impresses me less and less the more I get to know, so he was preaching to the choir here.

I recalled it as being mostly aimed at spin doctoring, evangelising and homeopathy, and the like - but I just flicked open my copy and landed on a whole chapter deconstructing Derrida. Maybe not your ideal reading, then.

Aptly enough, I have to go and shovel snow off my driveway now rather than expound further on crank philosophy and its demerits. When I get back in I'll try and get another couple up before calling it a night.

you'll be posting 102-? when all is said and done i presume? sorry i didn't vote btw, i think i read too many old books this past decade : /

think those are going to be sadly-missed or some sort of almost made it appendice

95. No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy (2005)
(25 points, three votes)

http://rgr-static1.tangentlabs.co.uk/images/ar/97803304/9780330440103/100/0/plain/no-country-for-old-men.jpg

fun and violent and pulpy
― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Tuesday, August 9, 2005 1:55 PM (4 years ago)

The novel I'm reading now, Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men, doesn't signal it at all, it's up to the reader to guess that it's speech. (The other annoying punctuation trait of this novel is leaving out the apostrophe in cant didnt wasnt etc., although leaving it in for it's...) Anyway, I'm on the whole enjoying the McCarthy novel, which is sort of Texas noir, but this mucking around with the speech annoys me. Why do writers do it?
― Revivalist (Revivalist), Tuesday, January 16, 2007 3:08 PM (2 years ago)

I'm almost through McCarthy's No Country For Old Men now, and I think it's pretty good. But this punctuation thing does annoy me. Not just his lack of quotation marks, but his leaving out apostrophes in a seemingly random way, and I can't be bothered to check but I get the impression that there is not a single comma in the entire novel. I don't think these eccentricities really add anything to the novel, they're just distractions.
I think I disagree with this, the lack of apostrophes was meant to enhance the impression of unpretentious, country-not-school-smart good ol boys talkin.
I would hate to hear Cormac McCarthy talk about politics and stuff but I sure do like his books.
― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, February 8, 2007 11:53 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

my impression is that he's really liberal actually?
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, February 9, 2007 12:30 AM (2 years ago)

I'll post the full lot eventually, yes. As a teaser, 210 books scored at least one vote. 87 scored only one vote, and 123 scored more than one. One book with only two votes has managed to make the top thirty!

hey I've read that one! It was alright!

Should've been higher in my view. One of those votes was mine.

Particularly in view of what's coming up next.

I'm thinking about (if I have time, anyway) trying out some of the more mainstream modern fiction that this list throws up. Would McCarthy be a good place to start? I'd be more likely to go with The Road than No Country, as I like me some depressing shit.

I can't get into McCarthy at all - I have tried All the Pretty Horses three times without success. I didn't get past page 5.

If you can't get into that McCarthy, try Tom. Remainder is incredible.

94. Experience - Martin Amis (2000)
(25 points, three votes)

http://www.bookforum.com/uploads/upload.000/id02299/article00.jpg

Parenthetic hound (woofwoofwoof) says:
Has a bit of a heart, or perhaps deliberately written to make him seem as though he has a bit of a heart. In any case, more engaging than the novels around it, mostly because of its cast - Kingsley above all (cf Koba the Dread - only bearable when Hitch or Kingsley turn up on the page, rather than all the tiring & histrionic "Six million dead. Think about it. Six. Million. Just words. Each one a life. Count to six million: one life for each number. Your life. Your wife. Your child. etc etc" rhetoric.).

and

The last time I gave a shit about him.
― Parenthetic hound (woofwoofwoof), Thursday, December 17, 2009 2:19 PM (4 weeks ago)

No Country really reads like a film treatment to me while The Road feels more complete in a way despite its almost fragmentary style. If you've not read any McCarthy I might recommend starting with an earlier work like Outer Dark or Child of God, but The Road might be okay too. In any case, Blood Meridian very much seems to be his masterpiece so if you want the full experience I cannot recommend that book highly enough.

Child of God is a really good intro to McCarthy. It's easy to read and creeeeeeeeepy in that special McCarthy way and includes his language quirks, so you get a good feel for his style. Blood Meridian is his best, but it's denser.

Experience was dead last for a long time, limping along on three points, and I was looking forward to opening the countdown with it as 'joint 348th' before Parenthetic hound ruined my fun. Amis just invites the cheap shot, and I say that liking a lot of his stuff - including Koba the Dread, which I even gave thought to nominating.

Anyway, that's enough from me for tonight. More tomorrow.

Random getting-in-drunk catch-up.

Thought No Country was some fun, but God that last chunk of babbling on about what was it the primal evil of the land etc. Confusingly blows all the tautness, intensity that he'd done so well. But absolutely seconding the Blood Meridian recs, that's an incredible novel.

Am anti the Wheen book. He's a terrific old-school journalist of the Private Eye species: sharp, funny, has a ridiculous memory/card index for gossip and form on public figures - ie if you were send'em back or embarrassed yourself with a fireman in 1973, he remembers. But Mumbo-Jumbo felt confused: what was he attacking - new ageism? critical theory? Diana-gush public sentimentality? These are all different things, with different histories. Why does he think all these start when Thatcher comes to power? And I'm really hazy on the 'Enlightenment values' he's all for - unsure there's a method you can cleanly extract from the intellectual history of early-mid c18th europe that gets you on the high ground he fancies. But I haven't read since it came out & don't have a copy here; can't confirm my remembered skepticsim.

Ismael, You are dead right that part of the joy of Amis is cheap shots. Sorry for ruining the fun on Experience.

Rennavate, I'm pretty sure that McCarthy (Tom) is going to turn up somewhere in the list. Hoping for aberrantly high.

Any predictions? I think US Male fiction for the win. Either the 40ish crowd or Roth, but I hope to be surprised.

I hope one of DFW's books makes the list. Oblivion in particular.

Taking Oblivion - his only eligible fiction? - as a potential winner. & Consider the Lobster likely to place strongly.

I dunno, I'm a big lover of DFW and I didn't place Oblivion.

93. Look To Windward - Iain M. Banks (2000)
(26 points, two votes)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514JUww60WL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

As I said above, I'm sure IMB is a bit kinky. Doesn't Look To Windward have a brief sentence about the main protagonist's surprised joy when his wife introduced him to bondage?
― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, November 15, 2006 4:12 PM (3 years ago)

A travesty and betrayal of the Culture imho.

I did not vote as the sci-fi books were the only ones I've read (and maybe a quick glance at some of the non-fiction entries which are largely piled unread around my flat), but I am glad to see this place.

xpost oh, why, out of interest? This is probably my favourite IMB of the ones I've read, but that's only a few.

The Culture is meant to be a starry-eyed utopia! An almost kinda sorta plausible techno-liberal-anarcho-communist paradise! A crazy ideal to strive for. But in LtW he tried to sow the seeds of doubt, of internal strife, unprinicipled power grabbers, neo-con responses to a terrorist threat. It went some way to justifiying those who saw the Culture as a parody of America and American foreign policy, which it never was.

Just finished Updike's "Terrorist" - absolutely fantastic book of the noughties as well!

I want to thank this thread for getting me to read The Fortress of Solitude (amazing!) and Cloud Atlas (amazing!).

Thank you.

i forgot cloud atlas was in here. i revived the thread about it the other day. i didn't have much to say about it, though.

Since this thread I have read By Night in Chile. Really enjoyed it a bunch, I love my South American dictator type literature I do! (although its not strictly dictator stuff)

I can't believe I didn't participate :(

I want to thank this thread for getting me to read The Fortress of Solitude (amazing!) and Cloud Atlas (amazing!).

Thank you.

Ha, that's weird, those are the very same books I read as a result of this thread! (finishing up cloud atlas this weekend)

if Alfred and i had voted then "Gilead" may well have gone top ten!

well, top 20 maybe.

s'ok i read it anyway, thanks to this thread and a couple of other recommendations. it's now in my all-time top 5.

I have it sitting on my bookshelf after seeing it in a charity shop - maybe this thread is what made my eye take it.

One thing I forgot to do was to gather up and post all the unused recommendations, whether for books that didn't make the cut - or, in a few cases, for ones that weren't even nominated but folks couldn't help gushing. I'll put them up over the weekend, seeing as we're revived anyway.

http://weminedeeper.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/einstein-on-bikes.jpg

Walter Isaacson - Einstein: His Life And Universe (2007)
JL - "Very well written"

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_y4P0WXe-JjM/SxRMvIxVvGI/AAAAAAAABOk/eARZG7-RrGU/s640/marcel_proust.jpg

Jean-Yves Tadie - Marcel Proust (2000)
JL - "Edmund White blurbed that this is the best biography of Proust, and he wrote one himself"

http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n24/n122123.jpg

Tibor Fischer - Under The Frog (2001)
JL - "Despite the author's name and the setting of the book, this is really an English comic novel. Plus it was published in 1993. If you want to read about Hungary, rather than an Englishman making jokes about the country of his ancestors, go with Krasznahorkai"

http://friendlyatheist.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/goodbook.jpg

David Plotz, Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous And Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word Of The Bible (2009)
RedRaymaker - "Beautifully written book by Plotz. He depicts the often horrific and mixed moral messages of the old testament whilst transmitting the fascinating history and culture of his Jewish ancestors. Witty and insightful"

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KSEEH8VCL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg

Yoram Dinstein - War, Aggression And Self-Defence (2003)
RedRaymaker - "A fascinating and very well written account of international law on the use of force. Interesting an useful examples of how the law has been applied in past conflicts"

http://www.cgminc.org/bookclub/reviews/images/CallMeByYourName.jpg

andre aciman - call me by your name (2007)
lamp - "i suppose because everyone hungers for representations of themselves, or because we all ache for lost love, or because i'd like to vacation in the italian riveria. but mostly because this is one of the most thoughtful and honest books about love, desire and loss i've ever read"

http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n25/n129399.jpg

Arthur Phillips - The Egyptologist (2004)
Johnny Crunch - "unreliable narrator technique reminded me of Pale Fire (ok fuck i go to amazon to remind myself of plot details and the captioned NYer review makes exactly that comparison, perhaps its p. obvious) and just the gradual way it unfolds was v. enjoyable/entertaining imo; plus i just like the 'found documents' technique see also 'House of Leaves'"

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MmkwP4kC8Kw/RzEdTje4LzI/AAAAAAAAABQ/M8Hcf_qDub8/s320/9780674026766.jpg

Charles Taylor - A Secular Age (2007)
o.nate - "Any writer who can get me to finish 870+ pages of heavy musings about religion, society, and philosophy must be doing something right. This book felt like an event, and it wasn't just the sheer heft of it. The bibliography itself could furnish the material for a few years of further reading. Taylor's primary virtues, besides his erudition and encyclopedic knowledge, are his gentle, open-minded style of argument and relentless precision, such that even those who don't agree with his conclusions will find plenty to stimulate them in how we arrived there"

http://www.thefictiondesk.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/fieldwork.jpg

Mischa Berlinski - Fieldwork: A Novel (2008)
o.nate - "An impressive debut novel that unfolds like a mystery and effortlessly jumps between generations and countries while telling the story of a remote Thai highland tribe and the missionary family that is trying to convert them"

http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper932/stills/4064055ec33fc-47-1.jpg

Walter Yetnikoff And David Ritz - Howling At The Moon (2004)
mizzell - "Walter Yetnikoff lived fast and hard, and I read this book fast and hard. The most fun I had reading a book this decade"

http://www.faber.co.uk/site-media/onix-images/thumbs/1871_jpg_280x450_q85.jpg

Nadeem Aslam - Maps For Lost Lovers (2004)
ledge - "This was a very tender, detailed, and heartbreaking look into life, loves, and tensions of an Indian community in the north of England. Not something would normally have chosen to read, I got it is a gift and it really expanded my horizons at the time."

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_hVOW2U7K4-M/SQ9YMDl7joI/AAAAAAAAjzM/5hDPqDIGNAw/s800/354ye5hgfnhgfvn.jpg

Alasdair Reynolds - Revelation Space (2000)
ledge - "A somewhat darker and tighter focussed Iain M Banks, Reynolds pushes my hard scifi techno space opera buttons to perfection"

http://buttercuppunch.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/thisisnotmandme1.jpg

Word Freak (Stefan Fastis, 2001)
clemenza - "A book that quite literally changed my life--I became an online Scrabble addict after reading it, an addiction that probably has been responsible for one car accident and one dead computer. I am, as they say, recovering"

http://blogs.citypages.com/pscholtes/images/Pauline%20Kael.jpg

Afterglow: A Last Conversation with Pauline Kael (Francis Davis, 2002)
clemenza - "I read a dismissal of this book from Greil Marcus somewhere--couldn't quite figure out what objections were"

http://www.mentalfloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/goldwater-water.jpg

Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (Rick Perlstein, 2001)
clemenza - "I read this against the backdrop of last year's election cycle; plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"

http://www.davecullen.com/img/columbine-cover.jpg

Columbine (Dave Cullen, 2009)
clemenza - "Gus Van Sant's Elephant goes deeper in its elliptical way, but Cullen is very meticulous about knocking down a variety of misconceptions"

http://www.mooreteachingtips.com/wp-content/uploads/prime-numbers.jpg

The Music of the Primes: Searching to Solve the Greatest Mystery in Mathematics (Marcus Du Sautoy, 2003)
clemenza - "I loved Simon Singh's Fermat's Enigma, too, which just missed the cut-off date. One's feelings about math may factor into how exciting you find prime numbers"

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/01/nyregion/01plaza_mask.jpg

Party of the Century: The Fabulous Story of Truman Capote and His Black and White Ball (Deborah Davis, 2006)
clemenza - "One of those crucial moments in understanding celebrity culture today. Most fascinating for me: the complete absence, in 1966, of pop stars from the guest list, especially Dylan, Jagger, and the Beatles. That clear line of demarcation would vanish in about five years"

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HAZCGETKL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
 
A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President (Jeffrey Toobin, 2000)
clemenza - "Toobin's O.J. book would probably top my list from the previous decade"

http://sportsmed.starwave.com/classic/2000/1027/photo/c_flood_i2.jpg

A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports (Brad Snyder, 2006)
clemenza - "Flood's story is heroic and sad: heroic for him, sad for Yastrzemski, Mays, Rose, and all the megastars circa 1970 who were MIA during his court proceedings"

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/04/040601.frank-300.jpg

What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (Thomas Frank, 2004)
clemenza: "There's something a little self-satisfied in the tone, but compelling logic nonetheless."

http://www.pdxjustice.org/images/Goldberg_26Apr2009_638x479.JPG

Michelle Goldberg (it's non-fiction) - The Means Of Reproduction
schulmp - "Journalistic dispatches from outside of the Western World on matters relating to reproductive rights; uneven birth rates in China, female genital mutilation in Egypt, etc.  Really mind-expanding, succinctly and sensitively written.  Enlightening in showing how multivalent the issues are"

http://www.blingdomofgod.com/entryimages/everyman_woodcut.gif

Philip Roth - Everyman
schulmp - "Maybe just my favourite expression of Roth doing all the things he does well in a very concise way.  Meditations on lying, psychological writing, a window into trades and practices"

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NoNdRHxwy5g/SkzJ-E2-_bI/AAAAAAAAB5g/dl0LbCEoqrE/s400/ployp3.jpg

David Mazzucchelli - Asterios Polyp (graphic novel)
schulmp - "meisterwerk from the guy who adapted auster's city of glass.  next-level graphic novel following meandering architect's metaphysical ponderances.  the most narratively-functional illustrations i ever saw.  one of zadie smith's ten-best-of-the-00s, i think, too"

Charles Taylor's A Secular Age is the best book written in the 2000s that I've read. If you can make it through it, you'll have a pretty good grasp of what's gone on in philosophy since 1600---and you'll have thought about how we in the West incorporate sex & violence into our moral lives. The basic question of the book is, "what does it mean to live in a secular age", meaning an age in which religious belief is a choice rather than a given. Taylor's a theist, and in particular a Catholic, so that informs his discussion---but this is a philosophical rather than a theological text, so there's very little discussion of scripture & quite a lot of discussion of literature. Taylor is one of the preeminent political philosophers alive today so the political dimensions of the text are remarkable as well. It's hard work reading this book, but not in the way that reading some hazy thinking French philosopher is---this is sharp & clear, but deep.

http://www.aidenoreilly.com/xtuf.jpg

John Gray - Straw Dogs (2002)
woof - "I get into a fight, politely, every time I stick up for this. I still don't care that it's shiftily argued - it's a blast! All those plain sentences piling up, saying ridiculously bleak things (followed by still gloomier punchlines) are a pleasure to read. The sketchiness of the arguments is also ok by me: I get a bit bored reading thoroughly worked out, constantly qualified hedging sentences (even if they're technically yknow right)"

http://www.screenhead.com/~screenhe/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/thomas-pynchon-simpsons.jpg

Thomas Pynchon - Inherent Vice (2009)
woof - "Pynchon in the 00s: two novels, which was a treat. Neither as good as Gravity's Rainbow or Mason & Dixon, but for me Pynchon >>>> all other living writers, so I'm not partic bothered. There's no-one else I get excited waiting for, buy on first day, will clear space to read. Actual opinions... I like this later Pynchon. I find the books hugely
sad: full of the possibilities of freedom & revolution, a belief in an alternative possible universe where state-corporate interests aren't sitting on everyone, and moments where the freedom is realised (I thought maybe Against The Day was so long because it's trying to call this universe into being, like it's some kind of cyclopedia creating an Anarchist Orbius Tertius), but then that's betrayed, it collapses or fades. The day takes over, the Sixties end.
I liked Inherent Vice more than Against The Day. It's shorter, neater and more fun to read. His style's looser than it used to be: in ATD that feels like slackness or flab in places; in IV there's a relaxed, or easygoing or yeah ok stoned air and the style suits that"

I really like these two recommendations of A Secular Age. It sounds fascinating and complicated, yet like it would be easy to read.

http://www.needtovent.com/reviews/Everything_is_Illuminated/Everything_is_Illuminated.jpg

Jonathan Safran Foer - Everything is Illuminated
Alex In Montreal - "Yes, half the book is a shtick, and Alex's voice eventually grates, but the twisting, interlocking and flexible fake history of Foer's family is like a delightful Jewish take on Marquez.  Of course, the film version totally ignored that portion in favour of the ESL-road-trip portion"

http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/graphics/jones_edward_p_the-known-world.jpg

Edward P Jones - The Known World (2003)
Moreno  - "Story of a black slave owner in a fictional county in Virginia is the best book about slavery I've ever read. Never manipulative or sentimental; good and bad folk no matter the race. The part where a slave sneaks away and masturbates in the woods gets at something about freedom that's stuck with me ever since"

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Laszlo Krasznahorkai - The Melancholy of Resistance (2000)
wmlynch - "Krasznahorkai's writing is dreamlike yet specific and terrifying, sort of like a Lynch film without the quirkiness (though not without humor). This is a book to get lost in, to feel trapped in, but also to want not to end; it is a labyrinth with a dead whale's eye at its center. This Hungarian's writing is reminiscent of Kafka and Schulz and Sebald and Bernhard even while remaining unmistakably his own"

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Roberto Calasso - Literature and the Gods (2001)
wmlynch - "Calasso's study of how myth is intertwined with and underpins modern literature is stunning for containing such brilliant ideas presented so brilliantly. Despite its weighty content, the book reads much like a novel (I believe he even considers most of his books to be novels) and leaves the impression of having confronted a great mind. This is part of a series in which he examines Indian myth (Ka), Greek myth (The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony), and the works of Kafka (K.), the latter two of which I also highly recommend"

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Joe Sacco - The Fixer
jabba hands - "looks even better [than Safe Area Gorazde] - beautiful cinematic artwork in that one, although the story's maybe not quite as compelling as the earlier books. all good though!"

... and that's them all I think. Belated thanks to those of you who stepped up.

Was this ever done for the whole of 20th century lit? Though not a participant, I am digging the 20th century poll results thread over on ILM and would be keen on a big one like that for the book nerds...

Would support, not likely to be organising myself any time soon though. There was an abortive 'all time' poll nominated for a few years back (and which only came to my attention midway through this one, but I don't think it ever got to voting stage.

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ftw

is that lemur wearing the madonna pointy bra?

no

He most certainly is...

Is the only book poll that was done on ILX? ILX needs to do more book polls oh so badly.

What do you have in mind? I sometimes toy with doing some kind of bestsellers/blockbusters/exciting/genre-thriller poll, but I've never really settled on what the parameters might be. Also, these things take a lot of work and I can't really tell in advance how busy I'm likely to be (hence slow pace of and big gap in the middle of this one), so have put the idea off for a while.

whoa, for some reason i thought Joan Didion was a folk singer. thanks for setting me straight Books of the 00s thread!

Is there a sci-fi poll of any kind? That would be cool

What do you have in mind? I sometimes toy with doing some kind of bestsellers/blockbusters/exciting/genre-thriller poll, but I've never really settled on what the parameters might be. Also, these things take a lot of work and I can't really tell in advance how busy I'm likely to be (hence slow pace of and big gap in the middle of this one), so have put the idea off for a while.

I didn't really have anything specific in the mind, but sci-fi and/or fantasy poll sounds intriguing. I wouldn't be able to vote because I haven't read any sci-fi other than early Vonnegut or any fantasy other than The Hobbit. I suppose that the last thing I need is another book poll to give me one more list of books to feel guilty about not getting around to reading. I would like to make the time to read close to three quarters of the books listed in this poll alone. It would probably help if I spent less tims online.

i wld be willing to organize a sff poll but realistically i dont think wed get very many votes

I think that's probably the issue with a lot of book polls. It's why the heavy hitters threads work well I think - attract people interested, not too many choices to dilute the discourse. Favourite/best private investigating detective might be a good one.

hmm, not book related but i've been toying with the idea of a favourite screen detective poll.

Not that dreck that was the Zen programme that's for sure. My word. Did anyone see that? The Dibdin books aren't amazing, but the early ones especially aren't at all bad. Especially Ratking. One of the things that gave them a certain degree of charm was the world weariness of the main character. Charm and world weariness were not characteristics that could be discerned in the TV programme.

I think an sf/f poll might do ok-ish for voters - it seems to be the home genre for a lot of posters. may need to encourage them to jump that 'oh i haven't read much' voting roadblock though.

Thought about it myself, but my schedule's mad till spring then unpredictable; also having a more active f/sf fan (I dip in and out) in charge wld make sense.

(oh we talked about Zen prog a little on that Michael Dibdin thread in ILB. To repeat self, I was distracted to madness by some of the characters having Italian accents)

Oh right, somehow missed that. Cheers. (and I meant 'aren't at all bad' rather than 'aren't all bad'). s/f one undoubtedly the way to go I think. My knowledge is decent but sketchy at best (and that goes for s/f as well ahem), so I'd definitely be looking forward to the results.

man the lynda barry thread being bumped makes me really regret not having Cruddy on my list.

How did we manage to poll 101 books without Wolf Hall even placing? If we were to rerun the thing now it'd stand a pretty good chance of winning the whole thing.

how long had it been out then? 6 months?

I still haven't read The Corrections.

People have decided to hate Franzen but I bet I'd still really like The Corrections if I read it again now.