That 39 overlap is probably higher than it would have been if we hadn't seen the writer's list beforehand. Also, I only started tracking my reading on Goodreads in 2012, so I may have missed a few from early in the century.
I love these lists! Thanks Eric. I've read 4 of the top 5 and they are all deserving in my opinion. So happy to see Demon Copperhead at no. 1. I was also so so pleased to see A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin on the critics choice list, I read it recently and was so moved by Berlins auto-fiction stories. I think like Shuggie Bain and Demon Copperhead you really gain a more profound awareness of the devastation and heartbreak of living with addiction. Berlins writing style is so unique, sharp, compassionate, bold and funny, the stories all have such surprising and clever endings, I can't recommend highly enough. I want to read so many from both lists, this summer I plan to get to: The Underground Railroad, Olive Kitteridge and Middlesex.
I am so happy to see Just Kids, by Patti Smith, on this list. It is one of my very favorite books. It is a memoir with so many elements: life in New York City fifty years ago, amidst the beat, art, author scene. Most powerful, the love shared by Patti and Robert Mapplethorpe. It is a love story, but not for the faint of heart. Thank you for this inspiring video.
There was a great interview of Patti Smith recently by actress Julie Louis Dreyfus in her podcast 'Wiser Than Me' where they talk about the book and lots of things about Smith's life. I'd really recommend listening to it and it inspired me to get to reading it even more!
very much enjoyed Just KIds, though perhaps those less familiar with Max's Kansas City, the Chelsea Hotel and CBGBs would be less glued to it than I was. I can't say that Mapplethorpe's portrait was as great as his photos of her were, but that's just my opinion.
Pulled in 25 with another 30 or so on my shelf. Some of the books you sneered at like The Kite Runner and The Book Thief I thought were excellent. Once again a great video!
I've read 71 of this list of books! I own 5-6 more and will read them soon. I have to get to "The Bee Sting"! I LOVED "The Plot Against America" but noone else I know enjoyed it. Also loved "The Great World Spin" and my husband said it was like "eating glass".
My list: Atonement - Ian McEwan 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami Plot against America - Philip Roth 4- Paul Auster The Return - Hisham Matar The savage detectives - Roberto Bolano The testaments - Margaret Atwood Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel A Strangeness in my Mind - Orhan Pamuk No country for old men - Cormac McCarthy
Interesting list! I've read about 30-40% of the books. Some books on the list I loved, others I frankly hated but I just don't think I was the target audience and I can still understand why they're loved by many even though they didn't resonate with me.
GONE GIRL IS A GREAT BOOK, a lot better than the film, because the way is told in the book is the really interesting thing, it would be impossible to tell the story in the way it's told by Gillian Flynn
Read 25 from this list though 31 books of shelves to be read . I agree , people forget that the first decade hade some seriously good literature ( imho) that I've kept on my shelves , one was just great fun and had soooooo much hype. You'll recognise it in my forgotten favourites from 2000 -2010 . House of Leave - the scariest book i have ever read . The Eyre Affair. The secret life of bees. The lovely bones . Blind Assassin. Fingers its. Crimson Petal and the White. Curious incident of the dog inthe middle of the night . Inkheart. The Shadow of the Wind . Jonathan Strange and Mr Morrell,. Suite Francaise. The Thirteenth Tale. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Oryx and Crake and wait for it The Da Vinci Code 😅 As ever great video's Karl
I've read 33 books on this list and 28 on the critics' list. Some of these book I would never put on a best book of the 21st century list.😅 I use you to read Cutting for Stone and The Warmth of Other Suns. This list is full of the most popular books that have come out but not necessarily the best imo.
I've only read about 20 of these, and only about 30 or so are on my TBR (some, incl. Wolf Hall, v v soon). I'd be much more interested in an updated list from The Guardian. I believe they picked Wolf Hall as the #1 book the last time around. I’m disappointed that none of my picks were on the readers’ list or the critics’ list. I picked Sin by Forugh Farrokhzad (translated by Sholeh Wolpe), That Reminds Me by Derek Owusu, A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz, The Threshold by Iman Mersal, and Assembly by Natasha Brown.
6 for me; Ove one of my very favorites and 11/22/63 contains perhaps the best romance I've ever read (even though I don't dance). However, I do have 2 in the queue: Plot Against America and Year of Magical Thinking. Seems like a good list, as I've heard a lot of buzz about most of those. I do expect to read Eugenides' Marriage Plot but that didn't make this list. Thx - enjoyed!
61 books on this list compared with 65 from the critics’ list. I’m now working through the individual top tens of the critics and there are some amazing books mentioned that didn’t end up on either list, like A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Matrix, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Milkman.
Hello Eric 🙋♀️ Another interesting list of books 📚 It is such a shame you saw the film of “Where the Crawdads Sing” before reading the novel. I have read “A Thousand Splendid Suns” and “The Kite Runner.” They are powerful novels. You Should read them. I have read “ High Mountains of Portugal” and “Beatrice and Virgil” by Yann Martel, but I have yet to read “Life of Pi.” So many 📚 books...
On the initial list I’d only read 18. On the readers list it was 36. So twice as many. The Man Called Ove was made into film in Sweden and again in America. Great book. If a U.K. / Irish newspaper was to do a list, it would be very different.
So many great titles, some of them I've already read, others on my tbr pile. About 'The Dutch House' by Ann Patchett - it was a beautiful story but then I read 'Pearl' by Sean Hughes, longlisted for Booker and found it extremely disturbing how many things were similar or identical. The main plot of two siblings, house, mother and more, much more including such details as diabetes. It's hard to believe that it simply was a coincidence... no clue who wrote or published their book first but it was so strange!
11- 23-63 was excellent ! And Patti Smith and Anne Patchett and Isabel Wilkerson and Percival Everett and Ottessa Moshfegh and George Saunders and Elizabeth Strout and Colson Whitehead and Joan Didion and …
Wonderful undertaking. What kind of ”issues” did you have with Hamnet?😢 I loved this book...of course that’s meaningless...irrelevant😅 stilll a very successful novel in France !
No books were “put” on the list. People sent in their top 10s and the results were calculated based on the votes received. If there were no romance books it’s because no one votes for them.
Okay, now I REAAALLLY feel like the only person in the world who did NOT enjoy Demon Copperhead & Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow. ..... . Where are my people at?? Lol.
I’m quite disappointed by this list. Unfortunately, I find myself sneering at more than a few 😅. A Brief History of Human Kind and Where Crawdads Sing? Uff. This list definitely has a recency bias too. Still fun to see what people are calling the best.
I’ve been following along with The NY Times rollout of these lists - and it seems a lot of authors had placed ‘Gone Girl’ on their lists as well - it was a great book - and at the time it seemed pretty subversive, to have the first act told my two unreliable narrators. I say this in the nicest way possible, and not from anything other than observation and a little disappointment; but at times on the lists your chuckles came across as kind of judgmental at the “readers” choices. The readers chose a translated version of one of Olga Tokarczuk’s works, and had some other really substantial substitutions to the “critics” list. I would have liked to have seen more McCarthy on the list; if only ‘No Country For Old Men’ to contrast with ‘The Road’ ending on a quasi-hopeful note.
PLENTY of adults your age and older - myself included - are fans of the Harry Potter series, the books of which get much more adult as they go along. Please don't pass judgment on them or those who read them. Especially having only read the first one.
I wasn't passing judgement at all - it's great the Potter series inspired younger and older readers. I only said that having read the first book I personally didn't feel enthusiastic about continuing with the series even though I had heard the books become more complex as the series progressed. And I said for a lot of readers - especially readers 30 years and younger - the series was an important part of their reading life but I know many readers who I respect that are my age or older who also enjoyed them.
That 39 overlap is probably higher than it would have been if we hadn't seen the writer's list beforehand. Also, I only started tracking my reading on Goodreads in 2012, so I may have missed a few from early in the century.
Yes, that's an interesting point!
I like this list so much better. This is a wonderful list. Good to see the overlap too, that means us readers are not so far off.
I love these lists! Thanks Eric. I've read 4 of the top 5 and they are all deserving in my opinion. So happy to see Demon Copperhead at no. 1. I was also so so pleased to see A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin on the critics choice list, I read it recently and was so moved by Berlins auto-fiction stories. I think like Shuggie Bain and Demon Copperhead you really gain a more profound awareness of the devastation and heartbreak of living with addiction. Berlins writing style is so unique, sharp, compassionate, bold and funny, the stories all have such surprising and clever endings, I can't recommend highly enough. I want to read so many from both lists, this summer I plan to get to: The Underground Railroad, Olive Kitteridge and Middlesex.
I am so happy to see Just Kids, by Patti Smith, on this list. It is one of my very favorite books. It is a memoir with so many elements: life in New York City fifty years ago, amidst the beat, art, author scene. Most powerful, the love shared by Patti and Robert Mapplethorpe. It is a love story, but not for the faint of heart. Thank you for this inspiring video.
There was a great interview of Patti Smith recently by actress Julie Louis Dreyfus in her podcast 'Wiser Than Me' where they talk about the book and lots of things about Smith's life. I'd really recommend listening to it and it inspired me to get to reading it even more!
I can’t seem to find Patti Smith’s interview with Julia Louis Dreyfus on her podcast “Wiser Than Me.” Was it perhaps on a different forum?
I Got my copy signed by Patti herself….in person
very much enjoyed Just KIds, though perhaps those less familiar with Max's Kansas City, the Chelsea Hotel and CBGBs would be less glued to it than I was. I can't say that Mapplethorpe's portrait was as great as his photos of her were, but that's just my opinion.
@@joniheisenberg Nope, it's definitely there. It's on season 2 of 'Wiser Than Me' and was posted on May 1 this year.
This was a monumental undertaking in itself. Great job.
Thank you! 😊📚
Pulled in 25 with another 30 or so on my shelf. Some of the books you sneered at like The Kite Runner and The Book Thief I thought were excellent. Once again a great video!
Eric, you MUST listen to Remarkably Bright Creatures. The octopus narration by Michael Urie is just spectacular! You won't forget these characters.
Highly recommended
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
I think nonfiction should have its own list.
Yes, it probably should - if only to have more books to discuss and recommend!
The Lincoln Highway is just genius!!! Great video!
I’ve read many of them, but would switch the rankings of Demon Copperhead and A Gentleman in Moscow. Eric, that’s a must read!
Remarkably Bright Creatures is great!!! The Glass Castle is also a 5 star!!
I've read 71 of this list of books! I own 5-6 more and will read them soon. I have to get to "The Bee Sting"! I LOVED "The Plot Against America" but noone else I know enjoyed it. Also loved "The Great World Spin" and my husband said it was like "eating glass".
My list:
Atonement - Ian McEwan
1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
Plot against America - Philip Roth
4- Paul Auster
The Return - Hisham Matar
The savage detectives - Roberto Bolano
The testaments - Margaret Atwood
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
A Strangeness in my Mind - Orhan Pamuk
No country for old men - Cormac McCarthy
These are recommendations?
Interesting list! I've read about 30-40% of the books. Some books on the list I loved, others I frankly hated but I just don't think I was the target audience and I can still understand why they're loved by many even though they didn't resonate with me.
GONE GIRL IS A GREAT BOOK, a lot better than the film, because the way is told in the book is the really interesting thing, it would be impossible to tell the story in the way it's told by Gillian Flynn
I’ve read a few of these and had some on my tbr
Read 25 from this list though 31 books of shelves to be read . I agree , people forget that the first decade hade some seriously good literature ( imho) that I've kept on my shelves , one was just great fun and had soooooo much hype. You'll recognise it in my forgotten favourites from 2000 -2010 .
House of Leave - the scariest book i have ever read . The Eyre Affair. The secret life of bees. The lovely bones .
Blind Assassin. Fingers its. Crimson Petal and the White. Curious incident of the dog inthe middle of the night . Inkheart.
The Shadow of the Wind . Jonathan Strange and Mr Morrell,. Suite Francaise. The Thirteenth Tale. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Oryx and Crake and wait for it The Da Vinci Code 😅
As ever great video's Karl
Hi Eric I have read 27 of these and I have several on my TBR. I am reading Olive Kitteridge at the moment.
Fab!
I've read 33 books on this list and 28 on the critics' list. Some of these book I would never put on a best book of the 21st century list.😅 I use you to read Cutting for Stone and The Warmth of Other Suns. This list is full of the most popular books that have come out but not necessarily the best imo.
Suprised that I have read 70 of the books on this list.
Wow, impressive! 📚📚📚
I've only read about 20 of these, and only about 30 or so are on my TBR (some, incl. Wolf Hall, v v soon). I'd be much more interested in an updated list from The Guardian. I believe they picked Wolf Hall as the #1 book the last time around. I’m disappointed that none of my picks were on the readers’ list or the critics’ list. I picked Sin by Forugh Farrokhzad (translated by Sholeh Wolpe), That Reminds Me by Derek Owusu, A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz, The Threshold by Iman Mersal, and Assembly by Natasha Brown.
6 for me; Ove one of my very favorites and 11/22/63 contains perhaps the best romance I've ever read (even though I don't dance). However, I do have 2 in the queue: Plot Against America and Year of Magical Thinking. Seems like a good list, as I've heard a lot of buzz about most of those. I do expect to read Eugenides' Marriage Plot but that didn't make this list. Thx - enjoyed!
61 books on this list compared with 65 from the critics’ list. I’m now working through the individual top tens of the critics and there are some amazing books mentioned that didn’t end up on either list, like A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Matrix, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Milkman.
Hello Eric 🙋♀️ Another interesting list of books 📚 It is such a shame you saw the film of “Where the Crawdads Sing” before reading the novel. I have read “A Thousand Splendid Suns” and “The Kite Runner.” They are powerful novels. You Should read them. I have read “ High Mountains of Portugal” and “Beatrice and Virgil” by Yann Martel, but I have yet to read “Life of Pi.” So many 📚 books...
I had read 46 of these, so that was definitely better than the New York Times Critics List - only read 35 of them
Please, please read Elena Ferrante.
On the initial list I’d only read 18. On the readers list it was 36. So twice as many.
The Man Called Ove was made into film in Sweden and again in America. Great book.
If a U.K. / Irish newspaper was to do a list, it would be very different.
the last thing these novels are is 'powerful'. Conan the Barbarian is powerful!
Only read 18 of this list compared to 24 of the critics list - still no Ducks! And no Ali Smith😢
So many great titles, some of them I've already read, others on my tbr pile. About 'The Dutch House' by Ann Patchett - it was a beautiful story but then I read 'Pearl' by Sean Hughes, longlisted for Booker and found it extremely disturbing how many things were similar or identical. The main plot of two siblings, house, mother and more, much more including such details as diabetes. It's hard to believe that it simply was a coincidence... no clue who wrote or published their book first but it was so strange!
Interesting! I’ve not read Hughes’ book.
@@EricKarlAnderson It's not a bad literature and not too long, worth trying if you ever come across that.
11- 23-63 was excellent ! And Patti Smith and Anne Patchett and Isabel Wilkerson and Percival Everett and Ottessa Moshfegh and George Saunders and Elizabeth Strout and Colson Whitehead and Joan Didion and …
Wonderful undertaking. What kind of ”issues” did you have with Hamnet?😢 I loved this book...of course that’s meaningless...irrelevant😅 stilll a very successful novel in France !
I've read only 13 on the list and have 14 on my tbr.....
I’ve read 41 of these books and if I had to suggest just one that you haven’t read CLOUD CUCKOOLAND. I have read it twice and it has stuck with me.
I read 45 on the critics list and 67 on the reader's list
Hey Eric.
Could you please be adding timestamps in your videos?
It’s sad that no romance books were put on the list. There are several good ones that should have been included.
No books were “put” on the list. People sent in their top 10s and the results were calculated based on the votes received. If there were no romance books it’s because no one votes for them.
Okay, now I REAAALLLY feel like the only person in the world who did NOT enjoy Demon Copperhead & Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow. ..... . Where are my people at?? Lol.
I’m quite disappointed by this list. Unfortunately, I find myself sneering at more than a few 😅. A Brief History of Human Kind and Where Crawdads Sing? Uff. This list definitely has a recency bias too. Still fun to see what people are calling the best.
Such a tiktok gen list, but ok. It's a group of viewers list. I don't hate it, I just don't love it at all.
Elena Ferrante deserves the Nobel prize in literature… so long overdue
I’ve been following along with The NY Times rollout of these lists - and it seems a lot of authors had placed ‘Gone Girl’ on their lists as well - it was a great book - and at the time it seemed pretty subversive, to have the first act told my two unreliable narrators.
I say this in the nicest way possible, and not from anything other than observation and a little disappointment; but at times on the lists your chuckles came across as kind of judgmental at the “readers” choices. The readers chose a translated version of one of Olga Tokarczuk’s works, and had some other really substantial substitutions to the “critics” list.
I would have liked to have seen more McCarthy on the list; if only ‘No Country For Old Men’ to contrast with ‘The Road’ ending on a quasi-hopeful note.
PLENTY of adults your age and older - myself included - are fans of the Harry Potter series, the books of which get much more adult as they go along. Please don't pass judgment on them or those who read them. Especially having only read the first one.
I wasn't passing judgement at all - it's great the Potter series inspired younger and older readers. I only said that having read the first book I personally didn't feel enthusiastic about continuing with the series even though I had heard the books become more complex as the series progressed. And I said for a lot of readers - especially readers 30 years and younger - the series was an important part of their reading life but I know many readers who I respect that are my age or older who also enjoyed them.