The 100 Best Novels - Introduction

[Gill]

There are a few other articles about this also.
Including another by McCrum:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015...

And a response regarding the lack of female authors in this 100 novels:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015...

[Leslie]

Thanks for the links Gill. I especially like the one with all the books listed as I think I might make tackling this list one of my personal challenges for next year :)

I want to add a quote from the final article here, as it applies to the list as a whole.

"In conclusion, 100 Novels has deliberately excluded all kinds of translation, but there is one writer, as great as any listed here, who died in 2001, whose work deserves to be remembered. WG (“Max”) Sebald still towers over the global literary landscape with four inimitable titles: The Emigrants, Vertigo, The Rings of Saturn, Austerlitz. Sebald wrote in his native German, but his translated texts add up to a profound masterpiece of contemporary English. Ave atque vale."

[[deleted user]]

Thanks for the links, Gill

I really enjoyed reading this series. I haven't always agreed with what he has said but I think McCrum has in general explained his choice clearly and I have found the articles very interesting. I thought I would have known more of the recent novels but actually my knowledge is limited. I'm considering this as a challenge as well although I don't read 100 books in a year so it might be a 2 year challenge for me!

I have read 24 but of those there actually 4 DNF as I hated them so perhaps we don't have the same opinions on books...

[Leslie]

Heather wrote: " I'm considering this as a challenge as well although I don't read 100 books in a year so it might be a 2 year challenge for me!..."

Oh yes -- I could never read them all in one year, at least not with enjoyment. I have read 63 off them already but even 37 would be a formidable challenge. I was thinking more along the lines of "Read 10 or more books from the McCrum list"!

[[deleted user]]

Leslie wrote: "Heather wrote: " I'm considering this as a challenge as well although I don't read 100 books in a year so it might be a 2 year challenge for me!..."

Oh yes -- I could never read them all in one ye..."

Good plan! To be honest, looking at the list I'm not massively interested in reading some of them. Maybe it would be a good push to read something a bit different. There are some long reads there as well

[Leslie]

I agree that some of them do not appeal to me in the least (Portnoy's Complaint for example). I have the same issue with the Guardian's list of 1000 novels everyone should read. So far, my plan has been to leave those for last as I might lose interest in completing the list before I get to them :P

[Gill]

Leslie wrote: "Thanks for the links Gill. I especially like the one with all the books listed as I think I might make tackling this list one of my personal challenges for next year :)

I want to add a quote from..."

I'm so pleased that Sebald gets such a mention here. I think his works will be seen as masterpieces as the years go by.

[Kathryn]

There were some books on McCrum's list that I honestly had never heard of. I've already read about 30+ from the list but most of those remaining didn't pique my interest that much. We have to remember that lists like this one are highly subjective and shouldn't be taken as a mandate as to what one should read.

[Pink]

Gill wrote: "There are a few other articles about this also.
Including another by McCrum:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015...

And a res..."

Gill, just noticed you posted here, I commented and linked to this article on book number 100's thread.

I too have enjoyed this series and I liked finding out about McCrum's choices. It's always hard trying to compile such a list, so I'm glad to see how he struggled with his decisions too!

I'll miss this each week now.

[LauraT]

Lists are always easy to esclude something important - for each of us - and include something that has no sense. Probably that's a reason why I like all of them!!!

[Jenny]

Gill wrote: "I'm so pleased that Sebald gets such a mention here. I think his works will be seen as masterpieces as the years go by."

Agreed! Whole heartedly.

[Greg]

I've only read 37 of them, but I liked nearly all 37; so I'm thinking I'll like others on the list when I get around to them. I'd heard of most of them before, at least in passing, but there were a handful that were completely new to me.

[Leslie]

In case anyone wanted to tackle this list, you can keep track of your progress at the List Challenges website:

http://www.listchallenges.com/the-gua...

[Angela M]

Thanks ,Leslie . I love looking at these lists. I've read 28 and none of the rest are on my tbr. Maybe I ought to go back and look at it again !