To list or Not to List…
Who started Book Lists, anyway? Was it a wayward Confucian monk during the Tang Dynasty who listed his favorite tangrams? Maybe a Greek playwright trying to make some cash on a side hustle? Some of that Quid Pro Quo stuff? Oh, no…wait…that had to be a Roman. Maybe Julius down at the scriptorium decided to make the good citizens of Rome aware of which parchment scrolls were selling. So, who gets to make up the list of Top Ten Books of the year? And what does that even mean? And why ten? Is it the Top Ten best-selling books, Top Ten most intriguing books, Top Ten how-to-make a box books, Top Ten genre-specific books?
Hopefully, many of you will have enlarged your own Top Ten lists over the years by adding to your lists. But when you add a book to your list, do you find that you must then remove one? I am sure when you were six-years-old, you had a favorite book you liked for your parents to read to you. And I am sure that over the years, your list of favorite books has grown. Like what might have been your top ten books to read (when you were ten or twelve) has now become like your top one hundred and twenty-seven books to read. Like movies, someone will indubitably ask, “What is your favorite movie?” That’s easy to answer if you have only ever seen one movie in your life, or if there is only one movie you ever watch. Seriously, when you start considering everything that goes into creating a movie: screenplay, actors, lighting, director, editors, mixers, sound, music, etc. There are many different categories in which a movie might be outstanding. Now take these categories and combine them with varying genres of film and Voila! You have a multidimensional problem. Trying to list literature in some meaningful manner, presents the same type of complex issues.
It is the sincere hope of this author that those who take the time to make these lists are book lovers: not just publishers or booksellers trying to dump some inventory or promote a specific writer. I would like to know that these list-makers have sincerely thought about why a book is in their Top Ten list and why we readers might wish to know. I do not get emotional reading the New York Time’s Top Ten Books of whatever year they were developed. I would much prefer a NYT list of Books to Read before you watch the movie, or maybe Books to Read instead of watching the movie. Top Ten books without a vampire. Top 500 books with a vampire. Top Poems to quote while changing a tire (or if you are affluent, Poems to recite while waiting on Triple-A to come and change your tire). I mean, you could get decidedly creative with your book lists. Ah, but creativity requires thinking, and sometimes thinking just plain hurts.
Well, ‘nuff said about lists…What I would like to know is, what was your favorite book of 2019 that did not make the NYT Top Ten list, and why was it your favorite? Please write me at charles@charlestempleton.com and let me know, we will start our own list! We will call it The Number One Books of 2019, and all submissions will be number one. Of course, you will ask, ‘Does the book have to be published in 2019?’ The simple answer is yes. We will attempt to construct other meaningful lists in the future. And please, if there is a list of books you would like to see developed, let me know...this could be fun!
Until Next Time,
I Remain,
Just another Zororastafarian looking to take the ‘super’ out of the superlative…
