Comments on: Best of the Millennium? http://blog.vromans.com/best-of-the-millennium/ Independent Bookstore Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:02:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: erik http://blog.vromans.com/best-of-the-millennium/comment-page-1/#comment-8134 erik Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:21:58 +0000 http://blog.vromans.com/?p=1056#comment-8134 As we talked about on Facebook, these lists are designed to provoke a response, and I think this list does a fine job of both in terms of quality books and provocative choices. The readers' list you link to is closer to my own liking, as I'd argue that Kavalier & Clay and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell are not only literature but damn fun to read. More fun than a talking poo, anyway. Sometimes it helps to come first. I'm reminded that Rolling Stone named London Calling, which came out in early 1980, as the best album of the 1980s. I love that album, but I wonder whether it's more a culmination of the 1970s than a blueprint or example of the 1980s. The Corrections is a terrific book, but I wonder if has more to do with a certain kind of introspective, cranky family book popular in earlier decades than this one. As the decade has progressed it seems like there's been a desire to return to plot and adventure and other story elements that had seemed out of fashion for a while. (I think we've had enough to think about in real life the past 8 years has led to an increase in more escapist fiction.) Who knows? I'm just typing while my lunch is cooking. In any case we're all talking about good books so it's a net win as far as concerned. Go books! As we talked about on Facebook, these lists are designed to provoke a response, and I think this list does a fine job of both in terms of quality books and provocative choices. The readers’ list you link to is closer to my own liking, as I’d argue that Kavalier & Clay and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell are not only literature but damn fun to read. More fun than a talking poo, anyway.

Sometimes it helps to come first. I’m reminded that Rolling Stone named London Calling, which came out in early 1980, as the best album of the 1980s. I love that album, but I wonder whether it’s more a culmination of the 1970s than a blueprint or example of the 1980s.

The Corrections is a terrific book, but I wonder if has more to do with a certain kind of introspective, cranky family book popular in earlier decades than this one. As the decade has progressed it seems like there’s been a desire to return to plot and adventure and other story elements that had seemed out of fashion for a while. (I think we’ve had enough to think about in real life the past 8 years has led to an increase in more escapist fiction.)

Who knows? I’m just typing while my lunch is cooking. In any case we’re all talking about good books so it’s a net win as far as concerned. Go books!

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