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

oh sorry. 450 pages of 'oh hai im a gay and we just like pretty things', 25 pages of 'aids is bad yo' and 25 pages of 'lol im dancing with thatcher'

thats such a deeply ignorant reading of things it feels willful - if thats really what u took from the book and what it had 2 say abt gay life and modes of being then idk. like im not even sure where your getting the "we just like pretty things" thing from? also the move from i to we in your 'critique' is kinda troubling imo

like w/e if u didnt like the book its cool i totally get that it just feels like u read a totally different book

Middlesex? That surprises me.

Half the book The Virgin Suicides was, and twice the length.

OTM - TVS was incredible I thought - compressed, beautiful, strange atmosphere, compelling voice, prose showed real love for images, objects, recording (might have burnished it in my memory - a long time ago); Middlesex just felt likeable and readable. Possibly it's just the kind of family-social saga that I don't really like, and it's memorable enough but it did feel oddly constructed - the final third feels really hasty iirc, as though he's just trying to get the thing finished, or has been told to tie it up. It was good - clearly big natural gift, hoping he'll turn up with something brilliant again - but disappointing.

I was thinking about Nick A's question about those immigrant-family-social-sagas. I do get the feeling that this has become much more prevalent in the last decade, but it can't be a new thing because The Godfather is exactly that - and, much as I love it, I doubt it's the literary trailblazer.

I can't really think of that many others before the glut he mentioned, except American Pastoral in 1998 - maybe it was so good and fertile that it spawned a raft of subconscious imitators?

26. Homeland - Sam Lipsyte (2004)
(70 points, four votes, one first-placed vote)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511V7S4Y9FL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

eephus!:
I guess this is a slight book: but lots of people wrestle with the problem of how to write about the suburbs and high school without being condescending and stupid. It's a hard problem and Lipsyte solves it here, albeit in a way that probably applies only to this book.

Johnny Crunch:
i think ive described this before on ilx that its tone nearly reminds me of ilx zing culture, or something -- this is a fairly stupid thing for me to say but i guess i mean that the POV is an underachieving but smart misanthropic dude, but a dude who also has affection for the things he criticizes; idk it's also just witty and endlessly quotable

It was a gas, a quick read, not the work of empire-shattering genius they claim it is of course, but it certainly won't take much of your time, and what time it takes will not be wasted. I had lots of fun with it.
― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Thursday, March 17, 2005 1:50 AM (4 years ago)

i enjoyed it - didn't think it was a "great" book, but fun. as if Ignatius J. Reilly or Mickey Sabbath were writing letters to their high school class. sometimes crass, don't think i could recommend it to just anyone. but definitely enjoyable if you're into self-mockery and black humor.
― carolyn, Thursday, March 17, 2005 2:59 PM (4 years ago)

Well, I did finally read this. Finished it a few weeks ago. I thought that it was pretty funny, though perhaps a bit inconsequential. I think it lacked some psychological depth. The narrator makes everything into a joke, and while the jokes are often funny, they aren't particularly revealing.
― o. nate (onate), Monday, June 20, 2005 5:20 PM (4 years ago)

the more i read this thread the more i relaise that i've read nothing published this decade.

relaise- when arealisation makes you feel ill?

a few of what would have been on my ballot made it, but man y'all got some different-ass taste in books than me.

compare and contrast to the avg dissenting post on the movies poll^

readers are v genteel imo

haha well the big difference is that i've seen just about everything from the movie poll so far, whereas i've hardly read any of these, so i can't be all "you liked 'homeland'?? DIE A THOUSAND DEATHS."

we're only at 26 yet, hold that thought

well when my number one pick showed up at number ninety-eight, i do have to admit my first thought was "you fucking people."

for all i know this list is full of literary amelies.

veronica was a piece of shit imo

(not read veronica, but this thread needs some FIREWORKS)

Bear in mind that no.27 got this high on the basis of just two votes, so this isn't really turning out to be a consensus poll - chance missed there, a little targetted politicking and you could've had Veronica or Carra breaking the top twenty after all. You scum (will that do?).

Next up: our top graphic novel

top graphic novel - 'Black Hole'??

13/20 so far but ive not read the last 10 books

25. Safe Area Goražde - Joe Sacco (2000)
(72 points, three votes, one first-placed vote)

http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/crosscurrents/images/cc2001-03-29gor1.gif
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LVIFxAUgKVk/SnZx63Tqr8I/AAAAAAAAALI/VFMeVQqfxik/s400/sacco.gif
http://www.sadiethepilot.com/aaweb/blogpix5/safe_area_gorazde_l.jpg

Joe Sacco 'Safe Area Goradze/Palestine' and Comic Journalism

jabba hands:
weirdly the comic book format brings the story home in a way that i don't think either a straight-up prose account or a documentary film would have. makes it more humane somehow? i dunno. but anyway this manages to be funny and beautiful to look at even though it's obviously completely harrowing. i'm also a big fan of journalism which can express anger without having to spell everything out, and this does that really well. TWO THUMBS UP.

EZ Snappin:
I have a friend who went AWOL from the Croatian army during this war. He gave me the book but can't talk about the book nor what he went through before he ran. I think this was his way of trying to get me to understand the horror, which it surely did.

Have you read "Safe Area -- Gorazde" by Joe Sacco? My favourite comic- book (graphic novel, what have you) of the last few years. pretty harrowing stuff, but lovely stories.
― Alan Trewartha, Thursday, October 11, 2001 12:00 AM (8 years ago)

Heh, I didn't vote out of suspicion that what little I have read this decade is "literary Amelies" + non-fiction which wasn't particularly great as writing but fitted my interests + some SF nerd stuff that would have encouraged a few more Whineys to storm in

(plus I felt bad about how many more unread 00s books I have on my shelves than read ones, ahem)

And here's another one which I have (not actually bought but) totally been meaning to read for, oh, probably 7 years since that ILX thread linked, seeing as I first heard of Joe Sacco on here.

strongo you should read home land if you haven't--it's hilarious

i put Goražde at no.1 to make sure it got included. amazing book. Palestine and The Fixer are also v good and i can't wait to pick up his new one, Footnotes in Gaza.

I need to get Footnotes as well.

24. The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time - Mark Haddon (2003)
(74 points, five votes, one first-placed vote)

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/5369/dognightln1.png

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

On one hand it's a very breezy and often funny novel narrated by a teenage autistic/savant. On the other hand, it gets -- sort of cheesily, and yet sort of powerfully -- at all the fractures and devastations of a family trying to cope with him. It's odd: sometimes it seems almost naively straightforward about such things, and yet it still manages to hit quite a bit.
― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, July 11, 2003 4:13 PM (6 years ago)

I'm loving this book about 1/3 into it. It's a murder mystery written from the perspective of a 15-year old autistic boy. Very entertaining with some math and logic bits thrown in for flavor. All chapters must be prime numbers!
― Dale the Titled (cprek), Monday, August 18, 2003 2:42 PM (6 years ago)

It's a detective story told from the point of view of a teenage autistic boy. The voice is perfect, and the format appears to be a perfect analogue of a hard-boiled mystery. It is unfortunately one of those books that I put down just once in the middle, and when I picked it up again it wasn't as gripping, and I don't know whether it's because you need to get back inside the voice (a bigger jump than usual) or because the story takes a turn I didn't expect, or like. Probably a bit of both.
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, September 5, 2003 8:27 AM (6 years ago)

Yet another book that sits unread on my shelves.

I had much the same experience with Oscar Wao that Farrell had with Curious Incident. Read little over half in a single sitting and thought it was quite good; picked it up again two hours later, and didn't at all get along with it. Ended up returning it unfinished. After reading some of the posts here, I think I might give Díaz's other book a shot, as I guess I liked his writing, but didn't care much about what he was writing about.
Slightly worried that "Life of Pi" is on the way... (I blame that and "Vernon God Little" for me not daring to check out "The Line of Beauty")

life of pii was always gonna be on the way though

Life of Pi is a pile of shit.

should save the anger for when it makes top 10

oh there is plenty to go round.

I'll second that.

Home Land: Wow, of the books in my top 10 this is the one I thought was LEAST likely to place. I didn't really know other people had read it!

And now the fireworks can start because I will say here and now that The Curious Incident... is a steaming load. All the usual tiresome sentimentalization of mental illness and all the usual tiresome sentimentalization of higher math ALL WRAPPED UP IN ONE BOOK. It only takes 90 minutes to read, is about the best I can say for it.

All the usual tiresome sentimentalization of mental illness

Considering the author worked closely with Asperger/autistic people in years before writing the book, and the characterizations in the book seem genuine as a result, I'd argue this isn't the case.

As somebody who read the book, I'd argue it is.

i don't think the fact that he worked with mentally ill people doesn't mean he can't write a sentimental book

in other words, another vote for that book being a steaming load

Lord knows you can be tiresomely sentimental about stuff you know a lot about, is what I'm trying to say.

It only takes 90 minutes to read, is about the best I can say for it.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 11 February 2010 15:59 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Really? Cool, see you in 2 hours.

I think I was a bit too hard on Homeland in my quote listed above. It seems better in my memory now.

haha i had veronica @ #14 on my list but its strange to me that that would be someone's favorite book. its much more a book i admire than a book i love.

i remember liking the curious incident okay. i think it is p sentimental but im not sure being sharper or more clear-eyed about autism or his characters would have made it a better or more praiseworthy book.

i thought he meant dogville was his favourite film. maybe i lack reading skills ;_;

oh mb idk.

i do think we might have gotten more discussion if ppl had read each others selections - this list has been p useful for things to check out but we havent really argued too much. probably just want call ppl names tho

Lamp, btw, i bought that Andre Aciman book you recommended to me like 6 months ago on ILB. will let you know how i get on with it.

i do think we might have gotten more discussion if ppl had read each others selections

I mean, look, we might have gotten more discussion if people read books in general! Just look at the number of votes; max 1/10 as many people voted in this as, say, the 80s album poll. So of course less discussion. Lots of people have heard and can argue about 1000 records released in a decade; but there are very few people, certainly not me, who have strong opinions about 1000 or even 500 books published this decade, right?

Lots of people have heard and can argue about 1000 records released in a decade

Not quite! xp We got somewhere near half as many votes as the albums poll. It's probably more that to have a proper fight we'd need proper haterz - and mostly you don't bother reading books you hate or you give up pretty quickly, whereas with music there's plenty of stuff you can hate but can't really avoid.

It might change a bit when we get into the top twenty and things get a bit less niche - otherwise we'll all just have to step up with the invective. If only Amis had placed higher...

in the context that ilx is an extension of ilm i guess sure. (ha xpost) i know a bunch of ppl that havent heard near that many records or watched nearly that many movies. and it wasnt meant as a criticism really, just an observation (albiet a p obv one)

also i *think* about 30 ppl voted in this do 300 ppl really vote in ilm polls?

mostly you don't bother reading books you hate or you give up pretty quickly, whereas with music there's plenty of stuff you can hate but can't really avoid.

yeah, and also i don't have 3-5 minutes excerpts from the major books of the moment read to me at work throughout the day.

nothing really comparable to reading a book.

latest album poll = 100 ballots. (x-post)

(xposts)

Yeah, book-fite clusterfucks don't kick off often from what I see. I guess entry bar quite high for joining in (books aren't instantly available & take time to read); area too broad; so not much shared ground = smallish groups who can see that they don't have anything in common & are mutually polite - see the well-mannered discussions of 'why do you like these 'fantasy' novels?' upthread.

Needs compulsive poster with intransigent opinions.