The 2008 Tournament of Books Candidates

One of my favorite literary traditions is almost back. Okay, tradition might be too strong a word, but this is a wonderful way I can learn about books from people that are far better read than I. In the past 10 years I gave up reading the New York Review of Books and its ilk (The expectation of being a pompous literary snob is a real turn off). Also around the time of The Corrections (which begrudgingly I admit I have yet to read...) I sort of made a habit of forgoing the hype of when a book is first published, as I was burned too many times with bad works that were praised as the second coming, and began waiting to read them till long after it was the thing to be "scene" reading. So I crave the fun that this competition brings to reading. It introduces many possible choices to read in the future and is such a nice counter balance to the sheer awfulness of that whole college basketball whatever that this mimics.

As per normal, I have only read one book from their list, The Remainder by Tom McCarthy. And I liked it quite fine, but if it goes like past years, it will be knocked out in the 1st round of the competition. But keep track of this and enjoy the way they find "the best" work of last year, as its purely irreverent, fun, and will lead you to some decent literary choices that you may or may not know about yet.

Top 50 Works of Fiction

Since this blog mainly exists to discuss media products, ones that I am often quite critical of, I am going to periodically leave lists of things that i really enjoy, to give as wide a spectrum of my tastes as possible to the reader. Today I start with works of fiction.

This is in no specific order and I am sure 3 weeks from now it would be quite different as well....

1. Random Acts of Senseless Violence
2. His Dark Materials
3. Play It As It Lays
4. The Great Gatsby
5. Cathedral
6. Post Office
7. Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye Blue Monday
8. Watchmen
9. The Portrait of a Lady
10. Snow Crash
11. The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles
12. The Grapes of Wrath
13. Underworld
14. The Fortress of Solitude
15. A Home at the End of the World
16. The Sandman
17. VALIS
18. Traplines
19. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
20. Invisible Man
21. The Lord of the Rings
22. The Middle Kingdom
23. Moby-Dick
24. To Kill a Mockingbird
25. The Invisibles
26. Invisible Monsters
27. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
28. Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp
29. Give Me Liberty
30. Skin
31. Native Son
32. Slapstick, or Lonesome No More!
33. The Dark Phoenix Saga
34. Jinx
35. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
36. V for Vendetta
37. The Beach
38. The Black Cauldron
39. The House on Mango Street
40. The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real
41. Maus: A Survivor's Tale
42. Amnesiascope
43. Moonshadow
44. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
45. Calvin and Hobbes
46. Skinny Legs and All
47. The Castle
48. Neuromancer
49. The Stranger
50. Blankets