Our List of Books That SHOULD Have Been on the NYT 100 Best Books Part 1: RGBIB 425
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- So we had to do it. These are just books we would have liked to see on that list-and we haven't noted where books on the list were ones we WANTED on the list or not. Confused? Don't be.
Here are the books we mentioned:
Thomas Pynchon's INHERENT VICE (2009) and BLEEDING EDGE (2013.) But come to think of it, AGAINST THE DAY (2006) is an even more ridiculous omission!
Thomas Disch's ABOUT THE SIZE OF IT (2007) and THE WALL OF AMERICA (2008)
Alison Lurie's TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES (2005)
Brian Evenson's IMMOBILITY (2012)
Julie Phillips's JAMES TIPTREE, JR.: THE DOUBLE LIFE OF ALICE SHELDON (2007)
Sanora Babb's WHOSE NAMES ARE UNKNOWN (2004)
Christopher Priest's THE SEPARATION (2002)
Joyce Carol Oates's NIGHT GAUNTS AND OTHER TALES OF SUSPENSE (2018)
Blake Bailey's A TRAGIC HONESTY: THE LIFE AND WORK OF RICHARD YATES (2003)
Sarah Bakewell's HOW TO LIVE: OR A LIFE OF MONTAIGNE (2010)
Now that you've pointed it out, crazy to have no Pynchon at all when he only got better with age (except for Crying of Lot 49, which I think has passages that reach Melvillean heights). And the complete absence of poetry is strange. Among the young farts, can imagine you liking anything by Elif Batuman, who I would also replace quite a few of the things on the Times list to make room for.
The lack of Pynchon was strange, I agree. I loved Bleeding Edge, and I still need to get around to Inherent Vice.
I agree! INHERENT VICE is great fun. s
A big salute to you for mentioning Tiptree and Disch! I love her collection, Her Smoke Rose Up Forever and his Camp Concentration.
Yeah they're both really good. s
Welcome back Mr. Bradfield! I don't know where I've been It's Chris in Osaka, one of your old-fart fans. . . . Glad to see some love for Alison Lurie.
Great to have you back in the tub, Osaka Chris!
@@Scottmbradfield Love the idea of some special group bathing for your 5000 subs. I recall sneaking into such an event a few years ago for some topic that escapes my addled Eisenhower-era-born brain
"Old farts are the best farts": sounds like your next t-shirt.
Just when i was making a dent in my tsundoku, you add another dozen books I'm going to have to order from the library....
We aim to keep you library bound, Excelsior! s
Don Winslow's The Power of the Dog is easily one of the best novels of the 21st century, as is Dennis Lehane's Mystic River. The fact that they are not on the list is pure genre snobbery.
Yeah I'll keep those in mind. Was DOG that movie of Jane Campion's? s
@@Scottmbradfield Same title, different book.
Read a bunch of Tiptree a while back. Please do a presentation on her, her genius is not appreciated!
I've been planning to... s
I'm intrigued by the fact that _The Atlantic Monthly_ put out a somewhat similar list four months ago, and while it got some notice in the media, it didn't get as much attention as this NYT list did.
The Atlantic's list was of the 100 greatest American novels in the last 100 years. NYT's list was simply the best 100 books of the 2000's. Could it be that the public is so myopic anymore that they don't care about a book if it's old?
NYT lists sort of go automatically viral... I never saw the Atlantic one... probably for the best!
I’ve never heard of How To Live… before, but I am intrigued, and it sounds like something I would really enjoy. Add another to the TBR pile, I’ll have to pick that up.
I enjoyed it a lot, quite moving in fact. So often these "classical" texts are treated too much like monuments and she gets at the man behind the essays really well. s
The Alice Sheldon book is simply sublime. 😢
I still can't get over Tiptree's posthumous obscurity, and the tragedy of her recent "cancellation."
I know it's such a weird story about the Tiptoe Award and all, can't quite get my head around it... s
Interesting suggestions. I'm unfamiliar with a majority of them but shall endeavour to read up on them.
I should add that Claudia Rankine's Citizen is an excellent book that collects poems, photographs, and experimental essays, so technically there was one poetry collection included on the list. I agree though that it's terrible that poetry was entirely sidelined (if not outright erased) by the NYT here, especially when there are so many vital and innovative contemporary poets.
Thanks, yeah, another tubber just mentioned there was some poetry in the Rankine book. But that makes it even weirder that they only did ONE book with SOME poetry... Take care, s
How to Live is really a wonderful book.
Against the Day? Hello?
Yeah I agree, I mentioned it in the description... I forgot it was 2006... s
Some interesting recommendations! Your enthusiasm for great writing is wonderful. However, your mistakes make us wonder how carefully your looked at the NY Times list. For example, @ 7:38 you state:"There was no poetry on the stupid New York Times list." But, Claudia Rankine's poetry is on the NY Times list at #34. Of course, even more poetry would be great. Also, it's not clear what you say at 3:34 - it seems you believe that Franzen and Cormac McCarthy are not on the list but Franzen is at #5 and Cormac McCarthy is at #13. At 9:56 you say that short story collections should have been on the list - and there are at least seven short story collections on it: Saunders, Munro, Berlin, and more. And a minor thing, but I appreciated your mention of Sanora Babb's writing - whose name you mistakenly render as "Sandra Babb" in your written summary of your video. I look forward to your next videos and hope your congestion clears up!
Is this The Department of Corrections? 😬
Thanks for catching the Babb mistake, Helmsley-I blame spell check! But it's now corrected. And the Rankine book is duly noted-but the fact the NYT only picked ONE book with SOME poetry in it is even weirder than none at all! As for the other corrections: I didn't say that Franzen and McCarthy weren't on the list, but only that we weren't mentioning my favorite books that WERE on it. And I never said there were no short story collections-but rather that there SHOULD have been some Trevor collection! Best from the bathtub! s
@@S242 apologies for coming off as a scold - I figured this audience wouldn't mind some friendly editorial feedback!
Loved the Tiptree bio. Fascinating. Her always challenging stories were among my favorite s-f of the 70s. Sad to say I lost track of her in subsequent years. Recently read Evenson's Collapse of Horses. Some of those stories gave me the willies, in particular one called The Dust (and I usually forget short stories five days later.) Now looking forward to Immobility. Thanks for posting a corrective list.
Yeah I like Tiptree, reminds me I should tell a "pointless adventure" about when I was asked about adapting one of her stories for film... s
I was at the bookstore tonight and picked a Vintage reprint of Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, Richard Yates.
Never read and Yates, looking forward to it.
@@garyrussell5373 one of my favorite all time bathtub books!
Lucky you! I might prefer Liars in Love, but that is an all time great book
@@drainel9707 Or just get the Collected Stories which has both books plus several uncollected stories that are really good...s
@@Scottmbradfield so true. Some of the uncollected stories are the best of them all. Have you heard about Yates' "lost" book? I contacted his daughter to try to get a copy
@@drainel9707 He was writing it when I went to interview him in Alabama in the early nineties, it was called (I think) ANSWERED PROMISES or something like that, and it was about his years in DC writing speeches for Bobby Kennedy. According to the Blake Bailey book, it wasn't food enough to publish, and largely unfinished...s
oh, so happy to see Bradfield's Best Bath Books of the Century.....AGREE 100% about Pynchon, especially Inherent Vice...and THANK YOU FOR TALKING ABOUT TOM'S collection, it is brilliant and I also loved it...and yes Evenson is a genius...i loved Altmann's Tongue , Immobility and Song for the Unraveling of the World & The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell.....and THANK YOU Captain for mentioned more poetry....you are the best...and btw, i just ordered he People Who Watched Her Pass By Columbus, Ohio because it is published by one brilliant indie press that also publishes one of my friends: Two Dollar Radio...and a gift is on its way....stay safe sB....bb
I love that collection of Tom's, and heard there was one more book of poetry to be published quite a long while ago... I need to ask around. s
@@Scottmbradfield yes...would love to read it....anyway, off to write...it is a writing weekend..looking forward to pt 2...and to People Who Watched Her Pass By...happy bathing, bb
The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini should have been included in my opinion. I have never forgotten either book, they both changed me and destroyed certain ignorances that I hesitate to admit I had.
I've yet to read inherent vice or any pynchon for that matter...is that a good starting place for him?
It's the one that's easiest to read.
That or maybe VINELAND. BLEEDING EDGE is great fun too. s