The Best Books of ...

[rj]

> Digression In Praise of Best Book Digressions
> 
> It is true, there are morose, detracting, ill-bred
> individuals (none on this list thank Shakespeare), who
> pretend utterly to derelish these polite innovations. They
> complain that the habit of crowding 100 best of things on
> one plate, was at first introduced in compliance to a
> depraved and debauched appetite, as well as to a loony toon
> constitution. Sometimes they hit from down under the desk
> with a bomb to scare the steadiest of fingers ever put to
> keyboard

What is this stinking fishbait?

As long as we're all sure that when we say "best" we really mean to say
favourite (or, if aspiring to some sort of statistical credibility,
most-bought, or most-published, or most-read), and that when we say
"books" we're talking about novels, or fiction, then I promise not to be
morose or detracting about it. I will sadly remain, however, ill-bred. 

The good thing is being able to exchange personal recommendations, in
the spirit of which I'd offer Douglas Adams' *Hitchhiker's Guide*
trilogy in five parts as one of the most enjoyable reads I've had this
last quarter century.

best