Best books (fiction & non-fiction) of the 21st century?

[Mark Kohut]

 Joseph Tracy sez what I haven't said yet:
"I can't even rate books I really liked on a scale. I like them for very different reasons."
 
I am like some pre-industrial cultures I read about in M. Mead once. They count None, One, Many....
I judge Great. Good. Bad but I can't really rank either. When I try, the major "ranking' criterion is 
something like 'richness'. Which means size matters. (I still do not know how to judge whether 
Huck Finn could be the greater 19th Century American novel, as many great readers say,
 since Moby Dick exists.) 
 
So, great books of the 21st Century: Against the Day. My emotional involvement makes me judge it
so far ahead (of others I've read) that I am a joke judge beyond that book. Therefore an unreliable judge overall. 
 
Does anyone else jumping in here actually feel themselves unable to feel, to get, to enjoy many, many fictions 
because of Pynchon? Or Pynchon and Shakespeare for me? 
I'm serious here. Most others feel......superficial. Others which aren't, sez everyone,
often take a mental wrenching (like the head-turning in The Exorcist)---different from absorbed mental concentration---which I am often not strong enough 
for ----euphemism for not smart enough for in some sense....
 
I have been reading many older works, "classics" rather than the latest 'masterpiece' . Feeling I missed so many, so much
and read or 'looked at' contemporary works too much most of my adult years. 
 
Yes, the parts of Caro I read on Johnson---early years which must be from the last century and JFK's assassination and
his assumption of the Presidency are among the best of the 21st Century. 
 
 

From: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
To: P-list List <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Friday, December 13, 2013 11:25 PM
Subject: Re: Best books (fiction & non-fiction) of the 21st century?


Who decides?  I can't even rate books I really liked on a scale.  I like them for very different reasons. 
  Books  from  this century that affected my thinking most? no order 

Omnivore's Dilemna, Michael Pollan  ( plus his talks and articles from 2004-now)
Against the Day, T Pynchon
Mad Addam trilogy. Margaret Atwood
Eaarth, and Deep Economy, Bill McKibben
Murder City, Charles Bowden  affected me more than Bolano's 2666 but both powerful  in different ways
Timothy; or notes of an abject reptile, Verlyn Klinkenborg  ( demonstrates beautiful clear prose without a verb in every sentence.)
Science Set Free , Rupert Sheldrake
The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein
My name is Red, Orhan Pamuk
    Fun and good - Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman,  Jose Saramago,


On Dec 13, 2013, at 8:19 AM, James Kyllo wrote:

> 2666. The Kindly Ones, The Pale King, Europe Central, The Time of Our
> Singing, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
> 
>> So what are the best books of the 21st century, thus far?
> 
> 
> J
> 
> -- 
> http://www.last.fm/user/Auto_Da_Fe
> http://www.pop.nu/en/show_collection.asp?user=2412
> http://www.librarything.com/profile/Auto_Da_Fe
> http://www.thedetails.co.uk/
> http://www.songkick.com/users/Auto_Da_Fe
> http://big-game.tumblr.com/
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l 


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