Monday 7 December 2009

the 50 Books of the Decade - Guardian list

The Guardian has a post up about the 50 books that best defined this decade. What were you reading over the last 10 years? Do you agree with their assessment of the books that defined our world before and after Sept 11? Do you have a favourite book you read over this past decade that isn't on this list?

It is a wide variety of books that they cover, from Harry Potter to The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, to Zadie Smith and Fingersmith. Please let me know. I am thinking this list over, because I don't agree with everything on it, but it's interesting and certainly lists many of the books that have turned up on our blogs over the past 2 years that I have been on here. I have read several, which I am thrilled and pleased about!

WhileI'm on topic, do you have a book that defines this decade for you? Or an author perhaps? Do you have your own list of books that defined these last 10 years? I'd be interested in what you have to say. I will be doing a post later next week on favourite books read this year. But I don't know that I have a favourite author of this decade. It's an interesting idea, that an author can catch the flavour of a decade, though I wonder if we are too close to the noughties to see which book has the greatest impact.

Litlove at the Reading Room has already begun the end of the year review for books, by posting her list of the Best Books of 2009, for her. Have you done your list? Please let me know, I'll add it to this post. So I suppose I'd better get my list ready for this year. And I'll think about the decade as well. It is that time of year, it's December!

Advent Virtual Tour - I apologize, but I got on late tonight to the computer and I'm falling asleep while I write this post. I will have to catch-up tomorrow, and I'm really disappointed that I can't do more tonight.



4 comments:

Kailana said...

I have actually read several of those 50 books, so they can't be too far off...

wordlily said...

I posted my top books of 2009 last week: http://wordlily.com/2009/12/04/my-best-2009-reads/

Susan said...

Kailana: did you like them? Any books you don't agree with as books of the decade?

wordlily: I'll link to yours, thanks!

Unknown said...

I'd award author of the decade to Haruki Murakami and book of the decade to Kafka on the Shore. I've just finished reading Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" and am about half-way through "Anansi Boys" so I could also vote for 2000-09 as the Gaiman decade, too.
It could also be the decade in which comic books/graphic novels/sequential art stepped out of the shadows of superhero stories and stood side by side with other respected and loved books of fiction and non-fiction. It could be the decade of Tom Phillips, who, over the past 30 years, has been, to paraphrase the author/artist, plundering, mining, and undermining the text of W.H. Mallock's "A Human Document" and transforming it into the book--in its several updated editions--"A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel".
I'm looking forward to the next decade, which starts with Connie Willis giving us not one but two books in the same year. I can't wait!