.006 Let's talk about That List
What do the 100 best books say about literary culture and style?
Over the last week, the New York Times released a list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, gamifying the experience by releasing 20 books per day, starting with 100–80 on Monday, and ending with the top twenty books last Friday.
First of all, credit where credit is due — hats off to the strategists over at the NYT for coming up with this format because it generated a lot of discussion (e.g. traffic; e.g. ad rev). But that’s the article as content. What about the substance, the editorial of it all?
Lists like this are made all the time, by all sorts of people and publications, for every conceivable form of media. But as one critic pointed out, it was an interesting choice to release it in 2024 — not at the quarter century. Perhaps the NYT got wind that a competitor was planning such a list for next year and wanted to get ahead or perhaps they clocked the literary zeitgeist that is this summer. Who’s to know.
Others have glanced sideways at the “methodology” of the report. This is how the Times described their selection process:
As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.
We let them each define “best” in their own way. For some, this simply meant “favorite.” For others, it meant books that would endure for generations.
The only rules: Any book chosen had to be published in the United States, in English, on or after Jan. 1, 2000. (Yes, translations counted!)
Polling this rather odd number of people for their top ten books published since 1/1/2000 on the basis of…whatever they wanted…leaves some question marks around the reasoning. In any case, there we have it — the aggregate top 100 books of the first 24 and a half years of the 21st century, defined however this group wished.
Other than that, the list is willfully obscure about its exact methodology. How involved were the staff of the NYT Book Review? Were there other books that made it into the list purely by data but were omitted for any reason? We don’t know.
To try to understand it more, I took it upon myself to do a touch of data analysis, because I am a glutton for punishment.
Here is the distribution of books in the list by years published:
I anticipated seeing recency bias in the selection, but on the contrary, nothing was selected from the last two years (making this functionally a list covering the first 23 years of the century). 2015 was the most well-represented publication year on the list, with nine books, followed by 2018 with seven.
This shows me that books had to have been out at least a few years, given time to really sink into the selectors’ psyches, as opposed to more recent highlights in the cultural conversation.
Eighty-seven of the books on the list were originally published in English. Of the remaining 13 books, here is the distribution.
Here are the foreign languages represented on the list:
While it’s not surprising that only 13% of the list is translated literature, it is surprising that all three of those Italian novels are by Elena Ferrante, and two of the four Spanish books are by the late Chilean writer Robert Bolaño. I hope that in the next quarter century, more excellent global literature will be translated into English and find its way into American readers’ hands.
What does this list say about literary culture in the early 2000s?
This newsletter discusses books of course, but we’re more interested in literary style and culture and the scene. From that point of view, I started questioning what this list says, not about the Times or our current literary moment (again, the list functionally ends at 2022), but instead what it says about the literary culture of the early part of the century.
What I’ve come to is that many of these books had to be written for the current literature we have to flourish. In the early 2000s, many of these authors (Jonathan Franzen, Ann Patchett, Jennifer Egan, George Saunders) were the hit authors of their day.
In many respects, the books chosen reflect the reading culture of the first, middle, and latter portions of the period — 2000-2008; 2009-2016; 2017-2024. Each of these 8 year periods marks a distinct era in the US politically and culturally, so it does make sense that we can trace an evolving publishing and literary culture along similar lines.
The list also, of course, reflects the point of view of writers, publishers, booksellers, and of course the New York Times itself — in other words, all people/entities directly involved in the industry of producing books.
I’m curious to know what books from the list you’ve read, and which you feel were omitted.
Fortnight Ahead: July 15–28
Monday, July 15: Summer Meeting with Ada Calhoun, Dr. Naomi Extra, Maureen Callahan, Melissa Dahl, and Brianna Zimmerman. | 6 pm at 11th St. Bar, NY. Free.
Tuesday, July 16: Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett book club. | 7 pm at North Figueroa Book Store, LA. Free. RSVP.
Tuesday, July 16: Launch of The Fraud by Zadie Smith. | 7 pm at The Center for Fiction, BK. $25. Tickets.
Thursday, July 18: Launch of More, Please by Emma Spector, in conversation with Grace Byron. | 7 pm at Books Are Magic, BK. $10-$32. Tickets.
Thursday, July 18: New York Reviews Architecture Issue #41 Launch Party. | 7 pm at DSK (710 Fulton St.), BK. $25. Tickets.
Thursday, July 18: Meditations for Party Girls with Caitlin Dee, Sophia June, Jomé Rain, Nicky Josephine, Emily Danielle, and Toni Kochensparger, with a magical ritual by Sarah Potter. | 7 pm at KGB Bar, NY. Free.
Friday, July 19: Tense Presents: Beckett’s Sultry Summer Soirée, feat. August Lamm, Nico Walker, Zack Graham, Peter Vack, Guy Dess, Sophie Madeline Dess, and more. | 8 pm at The Locker Room (373 S. 1st St.), BK. $20. Tickets.
Tuesday, July 23: Death Cafe, a free-form space to talk about grief & death, hosted by Emily Yacina. | 6 pm at Heavy Manners Library (1200 N. Alvarado St), LA. Free.
Saturday, July 27: Dream Baby Press launches Mouthful by Matt Starr feat. Jemima Kirke, Brontez Purnell, Ivy Wolk, Molly Soda, Angela Trimbur, Jon Burgerman, Mackenzie Thomas, Park Slope Arsonist, Joan of Arca, and Kareem. | 7 pm at Church St. Boxing Gym (25 Park Place), NY. Sold Out. Waitlist available.
Palette Cleanser
I made a guest mix for MMARZ this week. Really enjoyed selecting these tracks.
data!! we don't deserve you