A Couple of Interesting Book Lists

 I've come across a couple of interesting book lists recently.

The first is from the New York Times which has compiled a list of the 100 best books of the 21st century 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."

I took the time to scroll through the list and found three books that I've read (and a fourth that I tried but couldn't get into) and maybe another half dozen that I still might want to read. Out of the 100 books, I recognized maybe 20. Half a dozen or so were science fiction or fantasy. So I guess I'm really out of touch with the modern literary world (or they're out of touch with what people are reading these days).

A more interesting list was compiled by Esquire: The 75 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time. Out of that list, I've read about 35, and recognize most of the rest, though there are a surprising number of titles I've not heard of. (I say surprising considering that most of my reading is science fiction or fantasy and I read a lot of reviews). It's a reasonable list and would make a good start for anyone wanting to get more exposure to the field. I could quibble with some of the choices, but the only change I'd really like to see is replacing William Gibson's Neuromancer with The Peripheral, which I think is a much better book, if not as influential.