A (Short) List of (Long) Book Lists

It was during my adventures in arts blogging that I learned about the popularity of book lists in the blogosphere. Here's how they work: you read the lists, count the books you've read, and then decide whether you're entitled to feel superior to the next guy. I am, but only if the next guy is this guy. See how you do.

1. The all-the-rage-list-of-100-classics. I saw it first at Collected Miscellany. My score: 49 (all the short ones, plus War and Peace).

2. The Crescat Sententia Alternative 100. Does it only seem to contain more books that were made into movies? My score: 20 (all the long ones, except for the Harry Potter Series).

3. TPB's List: "Neenan's Canon." This list contains 120 books, many of them nonfiction. My score: 12 (embarrassing, I know, but all but two were read while soaking in the bathtub).

4. The Modern Library's List of "100 Best Novels." I'm a Modern Library sort of guy. My score: 41 (most, believe it or not, while waiting my turn at Supercuts).

5. The Burgess 99. This list was compiled by Anthony Burgess in the 1980s. My score: 19 (half while barbecuing for my family at holidays, half while mowing the lawn).

So there you have it. Now turn off the TV, light up the barbecue, and start reading!

UPDATE 5/3/04. Mutiny at Crescat concerning its booklist! Follow the link for the details. (Meanwhile, I'd like to say that I concur with Greg Goelzhauser about Gravity's Rainbow. My fondness for Pynchon has been expressed more than once on this blawg. I've read GR twice, by the way, but only counted it once on my "Burgess 99" score.)

Comments

[frm]

Did you count your Modern Library score against the official list or the one that puts L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth only behind two Ayn Rand novels as the best of the best?

[Abnu]

Another lawyer with way too much time on his hands, Thomas P. Cotrel, has put together a list of the 100 Worst Books of the 20th Century. Tom has partnered with Jeff Bezos, as a shill for Amazon, to squeeze fees out of book sales. Something for Evan to think about, don't you agree?

[Evan]

FRM: My count was based on the official list--the one in the left-hand column of the link. This fact was in one of my many early drafts of the post, but was later deleted during the intense line-editing phase of blog production, in which Andrea (my wife and law partner) participated. Later today, there will be a staff meeting to determine whether my line-editors have begun line-editing too closely. When they begin changing the meaning of the posts I've labored so long to write--well, it pisses me off even to think about it.

Abnu: Are you accusing me of having too much time on my hands? If so, it's only because I never sleep, except when I have an opportunity to hear former U.S. attorney general Griffin Bell speak to large audiences. Whenever that happens, I usually find myself dozing off just before he calls for the FBI to begin investigating someone.

[Dave]

Supercuts? I would definitely rethink that choice. Old-time barbers are the way to go. Long live the straight razor!

[Evan]

Dave: Class action lawyers like me learned long ago not to allow anyone to hold straight razors near our necks. You go right ahead, but I'm going to take a pass.