I am starting to question this list. Yes, I’m only what (?), five books in but still as I’ve mentioned, ad nauseam, these last few books have been awfully similar to each other. The main characters, in my mind, have been completely interchangeable and none standout as amazing.
My questions about this list are WHO and WHY?
Who are the people behind this list? And Why did they choose these books?
There are answers out there – the best resources I can locate are here:
THE MODERN LIBRARY
At the Modern Library’s site there is both the Board Member’s List – the one I am working on, along with a number of other fellow bloggers and A Readers List – which I know some other bloggers are working on. And a list of "talking points",
Here, one can see the Members of the Board which is impressive. So that answers one of my questions the WHO.
But WHY? They say that the purpose behind the list is to get people talking about great books. Now this is true, but it still doesn’t answer why these books specifically were chosen or how they came to the decision about these particularly books. So another question – HOW? What criteria did they use, how long were books debated, did they vote, argue? Are there Transcripts?
Yes, my geekiness is showing because I would give anything to have been able to watch all those great authors sitting around debating books for this list. That would have been so cool. *sigh*
Meanwhile I’m left wanting. What I want is just a blurb, just a sentence about each of the books and why they decided they made it on the list. But I can’t discover that anywhere. If by chance, you reading this, know where I can find some information about this, please let me know.
Meanwhile people reading the books have to come up with their own criteria. Alli at Displaced English Major has created her own system for each of the books. (she is also is reading them in reverse order, same as me. Has expressed similar options on the books as me (especially the spoiler in Sheltering Sky, which you will experience if you click on the next link, btw), and posted a video of the Reading Rainbow Theme song, same as me. I’d say I think we’d make great friends and I’d like to meet her one day, but that sounds stalkerish and creepy.)
Anyhoo…
When reviewing the books she asks the following questions:
Is the book well written?
Is it groundbreaking in someway?
Is it an enjoyable read?
I have no intention of ripping off these questions, but they great questions and I keep them in mind as I read. The tricky thing is that though each book, in my opinion, can be a yes to at least one of the questions, not all of them are a yes to all three. So if the Board of Directors used similar criteria for the creation of the list, how do they justify all of them?
I don’t think there’s an answer out there and that’s okay. It’s got me thinking, it’s got a lot of people thinking and maybe that is the point of not explaining the why and how. The mystery makes people talk, read and be curious, and that’s kinda cool.
Footnote: So here’s my last question, again, remaining unanswered, is there a list of all the books that almost made the cut, but didn’t? Cuz, I really want to see that list too.
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