I love book lists. I enjoy looking through them so
much that I sometimes go looking for them online. I have also been known to
spend several hours poring through entire books dedicated to such lists. When I
see that a new major list is available, say from a source such as Amazon or The Guardian, I cannot but help getting excited at the prospect of
digging through it.
If any of my readers are not familiar with the
phenomena that I am talking about, I am referring to the catalogues of books
that are now all over the Internet. However, these lists are not new to our
digital age; some of my favorites go back decades, and such lists have been
produced for centuries. These catalogues of book titles sometimes purport to be
lifetime reading suggestions, lists of the greatest novels ever written, lists
of the greatest nonfiction books ever written, etc. There are also specialty lists,
such as the best history books ever written, the best books on the American
Revolution, the most influential philosophy books and the most essential New
England Books, to name just a few.
These lists are not without controversy. Folks often
criticize them. The compilers of these lists are often questioned for books
that they include, as well as for those that they do not. Often, the creators
of the lifetime reading lists are accused of constructing restrictive guides
that dictate what people should be reading. Harold Bloom’s famous Western Cannon has come under particular
scorn for this reason. His enormous compilation of suggested books has also
been criticized for not being inclusive enough in terms of race and gender. It
seems that some of Bloom’s critics may not have read his Cannon, as it is
surprisingly inclusive and includes a surprising number of women and ethnically
diverse authors such as Chinua Achebe, Zora Neale Hurston,
Najib Mahfuz and Mario Vargas Llosa, Aimé Césaire,
as well as many others.
My take on these lists is that if one does not take
them too seriously, they can be great fun for the bookish person. If one is
going to think about how we would have constructed them differently, it is best
to ponder this issue good-naturedly. Such lighthearted critique can also be
part of the fun. These compilations can also provide very useful information
pertaining to what books are out there waiting to be read.
I love to peruse such lists and count how many of the
tomes that I have read so far. Though such lists do give me ideas as to what I
should read in the future, as someone whose TBR cannot be concluded in a
lifetime, I am not sure if this last fact is a good thing. Lists like Bloom’s
Western Cannon and Clifton Fadiman’s reading plan are treasure troves of
interesting books that make my mouth water.
Ultimately, these catalogues of books are just the
opinions of others. As a bookish person, however, reading these opinions and thinking
about how my views are similar or different regarding these books is something
that I very much like to do.
I will continue to peruse new and old booklists. In
our digital age, they are not difficult to find. Neither is there any lack of
new lists being produced. In the end, if one does not take such lists too
seriously, they can provide many hours of stimulating and intellectual amusement.
Some of my favorite book lists are:
