The blog of The Top Ten author J. Peder Zane.

Even More Books!
Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Although "The Top Ten's" 125 contributors named a total of 544 books, their picks didn't begin to exhaust our supply of great books. I learned this first hand when I realized that my picks 2-5 hadn't made any of the lists:

1. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
2. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
3. Hunger by Knut Hamsun
4. The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata
5. Nostromo by Joseph Conrad

A far broader indication of this vast universe of unselected genius is provided by the more than 200 readers who have posted their top ten lists on this website. They are brimming with worthwhile books awaiting discovery (and rediscovery). Today, Randy Overton reminds us of North by Frederick Busch and Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo; yesterday Kristen Marks spotlighted one of "Top Ten" contributor Lorrie Moore's great short story collections, "Birds of America" while Ling Wu celebrated these three gems: The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima, In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien and The Cement Garden by Ian McEwen.

I'm pretty sure O'Brien would be thrilled by that pick. I had the good fortune to share lunch with him last month, during which I asked him to inscribe a copy of The Things They Carried. My request evoked the same weary look that must cross Gregg Allman's face every time fan's demanded he play "Whipping Post." O'Brien said he appreciated the book's success but felt it overshadowed the rest of his work. Well, not according to Ling Wu!

Posted by J. Peder Zane at 4:27 PM  
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