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

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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"

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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."

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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"

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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"

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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"

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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"

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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"

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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"

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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"

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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"

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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"

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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."

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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"

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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"

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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.

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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)"

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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.

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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"

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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.