Best Books of 2008
It would take me until 2018 to get into all the books on the various “Best of 2008″ lists, but I just can’t help looking over all those lists anyway and inevitably adding more and more books to my own list of books to read. As we’ve seen, lists create plenty of unsolveable problems.
The New York Times Book Review has helpfully pared down its list of “The 10 Best Books of 2008,” narrowing it even further with five fiction and five non-fiction titles. That’s the way to do it — drop a clean, concise Top 10 list like Moses on Mt. Sinai and always leave the crowd asking for more.
If you’re really still asking for more, the New York Times is also glad to provide an exhaustive “100 Notable Books of 2008″ list with capsule reviews and links to longer write-ups for fiction and non-fiction titles.
Publisher’s Weekly weighs in with its even lengthier “Best Books of the Year” list, but they’ve at least helpfully narrowed it down to 13 different genres including Mystery, Religion, Poetry and three separate children’s genres.
Amazon.com goes all-out with its “Best Books of 2008″ section, which includes “Top 100″ lists from both editors and customers as well as 10 different genre lists. Their “Top 10 Best Book Covers” list is an especially fun one to judge for yourself.
NPR’s “Best Books of 2008″ webpage is packed with interesting content, including exerpts from books in over a dozen genres, audio stories and interviews with authors, and cool gift book recommendations.
Salon.com features a “Book Awards 2008″ section with a thoughful intoduction and 10 capsule reviews of their “most pleasurable” fiction and non-fiction titles.
Time magazine’s online “Top 10 Everything of 2008″ section features lists for fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books. It’s also a rabbit-hole of dozens of authoritative 2008 lists from which list-making, list-reading list-lovers may not emerge for several list-frenzied hours.
After glancing at all these “Best Books” lists and seeing the late Roberto Bolano’s novel 2666 high on almost every one of them, I’m still not sure I’m ready to tackle this 912 page monster that Time’s reviewer describes as “baffling, maddening, difficult, violent, obscene, over-indulgent, under-edited, and way too long” in a review that also calls it “the best novel of the year.”
