Top Books of 2011: Lists Compared
Best book lists abound, but are they comparing apples to oranges?
Many top ten (or whatever number) book lists are a collaboration between several people, says Lev Grossman in Time. Often the lists are comparing apples and oranges. "There are apples-to-oranges problems: how do you compare the moody, seedy greatness of a Kate Atkinson novel with a cerebral wreck like David Foster Wallace’s posthumous The Pale King (which so far, to my surprise, I’ve seen on exactly zero top 10 lists)," said Grossman. In the end, these book lists at least give an idea of what's being read, and provide choices of what I might want to read. In that vein, Burke Patch presents a comparison of three 'top book' lists for 2011. The books listed by Fairfax County Public Library are based on the number of times the titels were …
Susan Larson
8:40 am on Sunday, January 1, 2012
Julie on Facebook said, "Room, Hunger Games series, The Help, and War Horse were my favorites this year." more ›