A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini (2007)

This is a great list, though Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves is a glaring omission. At least short-list it.

The Handmaid’s Tale? (1985)

[...] 10 essential books from the last 25 years – Flavorwire [...]

I’d put Never Let Me Go on there. Not only is it great and critically acclaimed, but when I recently read it, sooo many people commented that they had read and loved it too, which rarely happens.

Only one of the top 10 is by a woman?! WTF?!

Here’s an alternative list of books equally (or more) critically acclaimed as the one above, although equally idisyncratic :
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Mary Karr, The Liars’ Club
Mary Gaitskill, Bad Behavior
Mary Morris, Nothing to Declare
Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking
Alice Munro, Hateship Loveship Courtship Marriage
Kate Walbert, A Short History of Women
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home
Patti Smith, Just Kids

P.S. Since someone else already mentioned A Handmaid’s Tale, I left that off.

She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb blew my mind. My Year of Magical Thinking and anything by Margaret Atwood should be on this list.

As an aside, while at Rutgers Junot Diaz and I were hall-mates in the creative writing section of a special interest dorm. “Brief & Wondrous Life…” was such a a treat to read because not just because the book is an extraordinary on its own, but there are kernels of stories I’d heard him tell, his personal voice was so clear…and there are definitely autobiographical incidents from that time period included. The book was a long time in the making, but well worth the wait.

arguably, one of the trademarks of contemporary fiction is the use of unconventional voices–stories by and about women, minorities, GLBT people. so why are 9/10 of these written by men, and 8/10 by WHITE men? any list of contemporary fiction that includes palahniuk, garland, and frey– but no atwood, munro, or morrison– is a joke.

bitches, please stop being chauvanistic. this isn’t a definitive list put out by a critically acclaimed novel reviewer. this is a list of books written by someone who obviously likes these books. who the hell cares if they’re men, women, white or black. STFU

Directly from the article: “Here’s a short list of books that have found a place in Generation X’s (and for that matter, Y’s and W’s, too) common culture; books that people know about, relate to, and converge around, all from the last 25 years.”

So who exactly are the people relating to these books? Whose “common culture” is it? That’s why it matters if the authors are men or women, white or black. Because this is not a list of the author’s favorite books- the author of the article has said he’s looking for books that define the contemporary experience. Unfortunately he’s done so in really narrow terms.

@not a bitch–the author of the piece is the one who is being chauvinistic by defining Gen X in such narrow terms. I’m a fan of most of the authors he mentioned (although I have yet to meet a female of any race who consider Fight Club essential reading). The point that I (and Beth and Meg, I think) want to make is that these books don’t represent an entire generation’s “common culture” or essential readings. This list suggests that white men speak to and for everyone and that only the very rare female writer and/or writer of color can do that. If this list was advertised as one individual’s “essential” reading list, I wouldn’t have felt the need to comment.

I love Fight Club, and am a Palahniuk fan, but re: Fight Club, this is one case where the movie is much better than the book, isn’t the author’s strongest work, and is hardly essential reading. “Lullaby” was much better.

Kudos for mentioning Ender’s Game and Memoirs of a Geisha though.

[...] Tea x Time List: 10 Essential Books from the Last 25 Years. [...]

There are so many good books on this list. Every time I meet someone else who’s even heard of Ender’s Game or The Road my mind gets blown. There are some books I would put on here too, but we can’t all have the same opinions!

Um… So now anytime somebody makes a list of great books they have to have an equal ratio of male authors to female? I don’t think so. Shove your overfeministic views up your liberal arse.

Does it bother anyone else that a list of great books has so many grammatical errors?

yes because fiction books are only written from the perspective of white men. i forgot all characters in novels are white men because they’re written by white men. my bad.

Oh, The Giver is AMAZING and I enjoyed the sequels as well.

If we’re gonna talk about Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close should be on that shortlist, too.

This list is pretty solid. Most of them are ones that I’ve read for sure. Personally, I’ve felt that the essential books for me have been non-fiction books like Sarah Vowell’s The Partly Cloudy Patriot or Tim Pond’s The Three Insights, particularly the latter because of how spiritually enriching it is versus just a grouping of words, which is what most airport books tend to be like.

The Alchemist isn’t on here, yet Fight Club was?

Oh, right.
There weren’t any hipsters with self made problems in the novel, nor was there a blockbuster Hollywood film made from it.

I’ll bet this Nancy that did the list hasn’t even read The Alchemist.

The trouble with lists like this is they always omit the 2 or 3 authors you really enjoy and you think everyone else should read.

So, I’ll share.
Arthur Nersesian (The Fuck Up, Dog Run, Chinese Takeout), JT Leroy (The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things), Gordon Dahlquist (The Glass books of the Dreameaters series).

I know it was already said but, no House of Leaves is unacceptable. I feel like I’m saving the world more when I tell someone to read it than recycling.

Awesome books! I’d add Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It’s extraordinary!

Donna Tartt – The Secret History (1992)

[...] essential books from the last 25 years. [...]

No Neil Gaiman? Are you joking?? Based on the purpose of this list, “a short list of books that have found a place in Generation X’s (and for that matter, Y’s and W’s, too) common culture; books that people know about, relate to, and converge around, all from the last 25 years,” this is a huge gap. There’s an entire subculture based around Gaiman’s books, from the Sandman series to American Gods, to Small Omens (with Terry Pratchett), to his YA work with The Graveyard Book and Coraline. There’s a reason Gaiman pretty much sweeps up all the awards every year he publishes a book.

Other suggestions:
Graphic novels: Alan Moore and/or Art Spiegelman (pioneers who pushed the boundaries of the visual narrative), Daniel Clowes and Alison Bechdel (captured the sardonic youth of Gen X/Y)

Fiction: Gregory Maguire (pushing the meta-fairy tales into the mainstream, and how can you deny the pervasiveness of Wicked?), Phillipa Gregory (made the Tudors sexy again), James Ellroy (brought back the voice of Raymond Chandler with ultraviolence that would have done well in A Clockwork Orange)

Non-Fiction: Freakonomics; The Tipping Point; Salt; Eats, Shoots and Leaves; Fast Food Nation

This list is not solid at all. You actually short listed Harry Potter? Why not books by Dan Brown or Twilight? (Sarcasm) The list should be called “Books hipsters love to hold”.

No Hunter S. Thompson ???
Fear and Loathing ?
The Rum Diary ?
Really ?

Beloved kicks the ass of any book on this list. ‘Nuff said.

Yes – Ellroy deserves a mention. And has everyone forgotten American Psycho?

Agree with House of Leaves as well…

Fight Club? No Pynchon? Oh- these are popular books- I get it. When you take quality out as a factor, the list makes complete sense

So many great books from the last 25 years. But I’d also feel compelled to add:

The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

How about books that are touchstones by/to women, too? Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. And as many above suggested, Beloved, Jhumpa Lahiri’s books. Really wouldn’t have been hard to make this list broader.

[...] 10 essential books from the last 25 years includes only one book written by a woman, White Teeth by Zadie Smith. [...]

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

House of Leaves (!)
The Secret History
Possession
Kusheil’s Dart
Tinkers (new, but deserves to be on this list)

And I have to say Harry Potter should be on the list, not for itself but for the radical change in YA lit that it affected.

It’s just a stupid list people! Everyone has their own favs. & even those will change 5 mins. after you get to the end of it. Lists are to make us think what is missing (in our opinion) and hopefully, learn of something new.

Thanks for the list, but fuck you for putting over 10 pages.

Someone needs to speak up for Dana Spiotta’s Eat The Document, Amis’ The Information and Kate Braverman’s The Wonders Of The West

“stupid lists” are one person’s (or editorial board’s) opinion, sure, but when billed as “essential” books of the last 25 years they propose to make a sweeping statement about representing the culture at large. this list seems pretty young-white-man to me and does a pretty poor job of reflecting the culture at large in my eyes. whenever you have that level of pretense, you’re pretty much bound to fail, granted, but i’m disappointed not to see more diversity, not just in gender and race, but in fundamental subject matter. young fucked-up male coming of age stories dominate.

Candy

I agree with most of this list. I would have put Harry Potter on the actual list because it is the epitome of character development, world creation, pacing, and every thing that makes a work of fiction great. It appeals to people across the board, it completely changed YA and children’s lit.
I was so glad that Ender’s Game was mentioned as well. That is a terrific book, and so many people love it enough to keep the ending a secret.
Same with Fight Club. Amazing book. Revolutionary. and @Andrea I consider it essential reading and I’m female…

Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead should certainly be there. And I’ll offer another vote for Never Let Me Go and The Handmaid’s Tale.

@Andrea. I’m a 20 year old female (race unimportant), I read Fight Club when I was 17 and it’s been on *my* top ten list ever since.

Personally, I couldn’t care less whether my favourite authors are men, women, black, white, arab, gay, asexual, atheist, christian, hindu- I really don’t see why any of these arbitrary differences matter. A book should be judged purely on its own merits. The colour/sex/religion/citizenship/religion/favourite food/ hairstyle/ weight/ whatever-else-you-use-to-classify-and-separate-humans-from-one-another of the author- it makes not a shred of difference to the quality and worth of a book. These books weren’t picked out because their authors were male, or because they were white, or because they were straight- they were picked because they were written within the last twenty years and they resonate with and are dear to many of us among the younger generations. Such a limited list could never be complete. 10 books from the last TWENTY-FIVE years? To define a generation? Firstly, that’s less than one book for every two years. And I bet I can find at least five new important brilliant books every year. Secondly, age is another one of these arbitrary qualities we’re always using to define one another. It’s impossible to say ‘Young people are like this’ and have it apply to everybody. Trying to define ‘a generation’- be it with politics, art, literature, music- is a futile task from the outset. There’s no need to get so uppity because you personally don’t feel represented by this list. It isn’t the list I would have picked out for myself either. Hopefully there’s something for everyone. If there isn’t, it’s to be expected. Common sense tells you that it won’t apply to everybody.

WHERE IS HARRY POTTER ON THIS LIST?

Franzen only shortlisted? No Bret Easton Ellis or Don DeLillo? Good list, but certainly a flawed one.

I’m not saying there should be a quota or anything, but this list is pretty much full of whiny, wannabe-edgy manpain. I sure hope that’s not what defines our generation.

@Nathan: I like how your solution for making this list less flawed is to add MORE of the exact same type of book to a list that is already seriously imbalanced.

YES!! i completely agree with bunny! every single word. fight club may not be palahniuk’s best but it is worth mentioning and not just because they made a movie of it. i will say that gaiman really should’ve made this list though. but i would like to thank everyone for sharing more of their faves. i’ve really been wanting new reading material and i can honestly (and bashfully) say that i’ve written down everyone’s books and author’s that should’ve been on the list. so thanks again :)

Looks like Oprah’s book club for privileged whiny white males.

flavorwire would be well advised to avoid all topics related to literature: the staff clearly has no expertise, training, or editorial skills in the field.

Infinite Jest owns my soul. I literally have not gone a day without thinking about it since I finished it this July. Such an amazing books, but such an amazing man.

As per someone above, it’s not the list I would have picked but it did the job of the things which was to gratify me (White Teeth, Eggers), intrigue me (Ender’s Game), remind me to seek something out (Infinite Jest) and compel me to comment with my own suggestions – Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and the Harry Potter series, both of which I would argue fulfill all the criteria (whereas Atwood, much as I dearly love her, doesn’t). Also, the wonderful Skippy Dies by Irish author Paul Murray (White Man alert!) deserves to be on a future list like this. Guess we’ll have to wait til Neil Jordan makes the movie.

Good list, and more importantly a very good and true initiative. Of course that ‘thing’ with books haven’t disappeared in our day and age, just look at the number of comments and excellent alternative suggestions in them.

My own comment on the list would be that Kavalier & Clay should be on it, and not shortlisted. And that, yes, the film was better. Fight Club the book got read because of David Fincher. Also, mentioning Gen X ithe plug, but not have the coiner of the phrase on the list? Seriously?

And the last thing would be Scott Card. If we’re going that far back and SF is on the table, clearly Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer’ is the choice since it changed the genre for ever. In the way that we suddendly had something more that post apocalyptic or space operas.

But many others above have had excellent suggestions.

And Ramona, ‘owns my soul’ is such a wonderful way to describe the way we can sometimes feel about books that have moved us. I’ve been edging towards that book for years but you’ve sold me! Thanks.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

One cannot argue over taste, of course, but those on the list I tried out were never interesting enough to finish. The Eggers’ book was not just dull but to me an indulgence. Overrated to a level that justifies a government warning. My favorites of the last decade are Seabiscuit and Rising Tide: The 1927 Mississippi Flood. Neither is a novel. Both tell stories so compelling and so well that I experienced what I would normally hope for in a novel but which novelists no longer seem to be interested in. A great read that improved my view of life permanently.

…agree with Handmaid’s Tale! At least as a runner-up.

Notably missing, for me: CLOUD ATLAS (David Mitchell) and SOUL MOUNTAIN (Gao Xingjian). both turn current ideas of The Novel on its head with remarkable skill and imagination.

Soon to become required reading, but too new to qualify for this list yet: Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes and Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. The former perfectly encapsulates how fallibly human the bureaucracy of war truly is. The latter illustrates the fine line between kindness and inhumanity and how easily a crisis escalates distrust to hate. Both have that critical (but rare) balance between art and story.

the Giver killed it, props for the honorable mention

You forgot “House of Leaves” by Danielewski…how dare you!
Also, what about “Imajica” by Barker, or “Hyperion Cantos” by Simmons?

Pretty weak – this list is more “popular and trendy” than “essential” or “thought-provoking,” though I’m not trashing ALL the books on it :-).

But seriously – only one book by a woman! Shameful!

What about Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, and, come on, what about The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood? Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro? What about Barbara Kingsolver? What about Thomas Pynchon? What about Jennifer Egan? What about Michael Chabon? And where’s Underworld by Don DeLillo? Or any of Michael Ondaatje’s beautiful books? (oh wait, he often writes complex, interesting, female main characters, which would disqualify him for this list, apparently). The History of Love by Nicole Krauss and Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer would definitely both have made my top list.

I agree that this list is incredibly weighted toward whiny white men, lacks many books that are touchstones for women of our generation, and in general demonstrates a lack of literary knowledge, or one that is limited only to books that would speak to privileged adolescent white males.

No Bret Easton Ellis!?

The Windup Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.

I believe there’s one tiny critical thing missing on this list’s title: these are obviously essential books FOR NORTHAMERICAN READERS from the last 25 years. There’s no global concept. Yes, SOME of these books might be important cultural references for people outside the US & Canada, but how about the rest of the world?
No Bolaño, Cortázar, Pahmuk, (thanks @Stephanie for mentioning Murakami), Houellebecq????

This list was obviously by and for people who can’t really see beyond their own bellybuttons.

Solid list but I’d add Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Mystic River by Dennis Lehane, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Memoirs of a Geisha & Libra by Don DeLillo.

OLD SCHOOL by Tobias Wolfe
THE WONDER BOYS by Chabon
ACTS OF FAITH by Phillip Caputo
POISONWOOD BIBLE by Kingsolver
INDECISION by Ben Kunkel
THE BLIND ASSASSIN by Atwood
RED MARS by Kim Stanley Robinson (farrrr better than Ender’s Game!)
GILEAD by Marilyn Robinson
anything by Alice Munro

Wow, I since such hostility in some of these comments, funny how much weight people hold in lists/dates/opinions, lotta flags being waved in this disscusion board, in my opinion waisted energy. Why let your emotion flow onto this trivial forum, why not begin writing your own books instead. I guess the internet’s perfect for anonymous opinions and colorful ranting though….its like one giant book combining all styles and genres, all illnesses/vendettas….authored by a race that as a whole cannot “see beyond (its) their bellybutton(s)” Each comment on here must have pleased each person when they posted it, flowering up their opinions with vivaldi like ornateness. DOesnt sound like any of the venom spitters actually have a desire for the advancement of the race, more like a desire to feel right/important and maybe needed, or at least be thought of as right/important. And now i will infect the column with my meaningless opinion, and allow someone else to feed off of it, for their own advancement (mental health), while the cycle keeps spinning all over the web of communication.

“Kingdom of Fear”
H.S.T
“Into the Wild”
Jon Krakauer
“Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television”
Jerry Mander
“Survival In Auschwitz”
Primo Levi
“The Grand Chessboard”
Zbigniew Brezezinski
“Midnight”
Dean Koontz
“The Diary of a Young Girl”
Annie Frank
“Stiff”
Mary Roach
“The Home Insulation Bible”
S. Blackwell Duncan

Just some books I enjoyed, no true definetive essentialness to them,just part of the infection….

I fully agree with Marianela here. Who cares whether the writers are white / black / asian / men / women but this list says a lot about who drafted it. Obviously, Flavorwire was not informed that people can read and write, even with some talent, beyond the English-speaking world. Whether you like him or not, Houellebecq has a strong and devoted following.

Just one suggestion, written in English to make it more acceptable: A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth.

Dull, predictable list. White males with added angst, just confirmation that in literature a story of and by a white man is still automatically valued over anything else.

If you really want a book that defined generation X then, regardless of literary quality, Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy is probably the book most generation Xers of my acquaintance have read. But that isn’t really the intent of this list, is it? It’s just scoring ‘cool points’ by listing a bunch of media-hyped writers. Are these books good? Yes. Are they representative of the best this generation has to offer? Categorically not.

Problem is, you’ve got this image of what generation X is, and it’s driven by the north american male literati. But generation X is global and diverse; it’s the first generation in history where non-male, non-white, non-able-bodied have demanded to be heard, demanded their own place. Generation X defines this new reality. Pointing out that you have failed to either see or acknowledge it isn’t whinging, it’s demonstrating that you’re talking out of your…

ORHAN PAMUK – Snow
TONI MORRISON – Beloved
DOUGLAS COUPLAND – Girlfriend In A Coma
JONATHAN LETHEM – Fortress Of Solitude
DAVID MITCHELL – Cloud Atlas
CHIMAMNDA NGOZIE ADICHIE – Half of a Yellow Sun
JOHN BANVILLE – The Sea

Agree original list quite US-centric although very interesting and agree with several (Zadie Smith is a Brit and White Teeth came third so approve of that!) Comments very useful for ideas on what to read next. I also use a cool little website called whatshouldIreadnext.com. Uses a simple algorithm to compare other users lists and suggest books you might like.

My favourite books written in last 25 years:
1) American Psycho – Brett Easton Ellis
2) God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
3) Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts
4) What a Carve Up – Jonathan Coe
5) Vernon God Little – DBC Pierre
6) No 1 Ladies Detective Agency – Alexander McCall Smith
8) His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
9) The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
10) The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night Time – Mark Haddon

[...] do love books and I do love the pop culture site, Flavourwire, so I was interested to see them curate a list of the decade’s “10 most essential [...]

@Whocares : Girlfriend in a Coma? REALLY? Of any Coupland, that one?

Y’all… it is a list of 10. Such lists are by definition limited. There will always be an 11th and 12th and 21st and 25th and … you get the point. Sometimes some books dont make the cut.
Can we just take this discussion to goodreads or twitter where it belongs?
Oh and have y’all heard of this dating site alikewise?

No Irvine Welsh ‘Trainspotting’?

This should be called “Men, Men, Men, Men: 9 books by guys + Zadie Smith as our token girl.” Seriously? No Toni Morrison? No Jhumpa Lahiri, Alice Munro, Lorrie Moore, …? Who put this list together? Have you guys even been alive for 25 years?

One, all you people claiming this list is for white men should be ashamed of yourselves- it is clear that the creators of this list were just looking for novels that speak to our era in original ways… Just check out the inclusion of the wondrous life of oscar wao. There are notable books that are not in here, Shantaram, ISHMAEL, Trainspotting, any Murakami book, to name a few. But, the addition of infinite jest is brilliant. Props to the creators and hate to the HATERS!!!

American Tabloid – James Ellroy
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Beloved – Tony Morrison
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Gilead – Marilynne Robinson
2666 – R. Bolaño

predictable, and predictably disappointing. what about pamuk? murakami? banville? carey? sebald? mccarthy writes boys’ own stories with mind-numbing detail about how to set wolf traps. that’s not great literature. why so heavily po-mo?

On Kindness – Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor
Pronoia: the Antidote for Paranoia – Rob Brezsney
The Unprofessionals: a Novel – Julie Hecht

The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien

Bloodchild: octavia butler
Handmaid’s tale
Anything by Robert Anton Wilson
TOM ROBBINS!!!!

Oops RAW wrote Illuminatus in the 70′s. Still he should be the exception. And right on about “Just Kids” by Patti Smith.

[...] curtesy of Shelf Awareness to the 10 Essential Books From the Last 25 Years.  The Guardian recently ran an article in which Rick Gekoski remarked on the disappearance of [...]

It’s just books, people. Everybody likes them; lists vary wildly, like music, movies, tv shows, artists. Interesting that everyone thinks his list is better than every other… The world goes round.

This would be my list, at least of the books I can recall right now –

Infinite Jest – Wallace (a no-brainer, maybe the best achievement of the time-frame in question, at least if it weren’t for. . . )
Mason & Dixon – Pynchon (you can’t touch this book)
High Lonesome – Oates (IMO Oates is at her best w/in her short stories)
The Rifles – Vollmann
Beloved – Morrison
Blood Meridian – McCarthy
White Noise – DeLillo
Underworld – DeLillo
Jimmy Corrigan – Ware
Oblivion – Wallace

[Gilead is still in my TBR pile, so I can't speak to that.]

Two books by Kent Nerburn are essential reading for anyone who feels an obligation to read great writing:
“Neither Wolf Nor Dog”
“The Wolf At Twilight”

2666-Robert Bolano
The Cave-Jose Saramago
Cryptonomicon- Neal Stephenson

[...] critic’s view of the “10 Essential Books from the Last 25 Years” can be found here. The comments to this link range from complaints to offering alternatives—creating such a list is [...]

[...] Nylig etterlyste Rick Gekoski i The Guardian nåtidens litterære kanon, og mener vi har tapt en felles leseagenda for sosiale medier. Flavorpill svarer med listen Ti viktige bøker fra de siste 25 årene. [...]

I will never give my money to a homophobe like Orson Scott Card.

I hate these kind of “Best” or “Essential” lists. Let’s face it, there are way more than 10 (more like 1000). Everyone has their personal favourites and there’s no point arguing about which ones deserve to be on the list because after all it’s pure opinion.

[...] Flavorwire suggests 10 essential books from the last 25 years. I was surprised by how many I had read, but couldn’t gauge how Alex Garland’s The Beach made the grade. Guess I’ll have to read it to find out! Trackback URL: http://restlessreader.com/wp-trackback.php?p=2538 [...]

WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE by Murakami. He had written many amazing, thought-provoking novels, this is his best. Made me think about it for years.

To all the haters-you’ve completely missed the point again.
Thanks to all those who have posted about books they love, I’m going to check them out at my leisure, and read them or leave them…
Two authors that really make reading for me are: Haruki Murakami and Vikram Chandra (particularly Red Earth and Pouring Rain)
Thanks to Flavorpill for starting a conversation..

[...] Som oppfølging har Flavorwire laget en liste over 10 bøker som samleses i dag. Jeg synes også det er rart å klage over at man ikke leser det samme – stort sett klages det jo over at alle leser likt. Jeg nevner gjerne Knausgård, og Jonathan Frantzen får mye oppmerksomhet både i USA og her. Men Gekoski etterlyser også særlig den felles sakprosakanonen. I Norge burde det knapt være noe problem, Snåsamannen har solgt over 150 000 eksemplarer, og nærmest alle leser historiske bøker om andre verdenskrig. Men det er vanskeligere å komme med internasjonale “must-reads”. Kanskje Ayn Rand er et forslag her, eller Judith Butlers Gender Trouble? Gekoski innrømmer selv at bøkene han nevner gjaldt på Ivy League-universitetene, og nok ikke for alle, og selv har jeg verken lest Rand eller Butler, men jeg vet hva det går ut på. [...]

anything by John Crowley

[...] week, we published a list of 10 essential books of the past 25 years. It was one of our most popular posts of all time, as well as one of our most contentious, racking [...]

Really. I’m supposed to click “next” TEN TIMES to get a list of ten books? That’s not the kind of content that merits that kind of attention. Sorry, guys. I’ll be avoiding flavorwire from now on.

With the rise of brilliant memoir and non-fiction writing in the last 25 years, it’s a shame that the only “memoir” you have is Frey’s mendacious book. What about The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr? She has touched more lives and illuminated humanity’s dark corners in a way that will go far beyond cheap scandal. Also, a shout out to Michael Pollan for The Omnivore’s Dilemma – it will change the way you think about food.

Rohinton Mistry’s ‘A Fine Balance’ for the way that it had me involved in the lives of its protagonists feeling their joy and their pain(!).

It’s a good list and too short – as many previous commentors have pointed out – but seems to have achieved what lists like this should: inspire discussion and debate. I for one will definitely be checking out some of the books recommended in the comments list. However, there really is no need for the vitriol. Leave that in the playground. Twats.

I feel slightly illiterate when looking at this list. Or is it that the list is slightly U.S. centric?
I’ll have to check out some of them.
Two books that are definitively missing from my personal list:

Michel Houellebecq – Atomised
Jostein Gaarder – Sophie’s World

I was trying to resist the urge to post, but it bugs me to no end that DeLillo’s White Noise doesn’t make a list like this. In truth, it’s probably not my favorite DeLillo novel — maybe not even second or third — but that book was amazingly prescient at describing our culture and its underlying dread. Came out in 1985 and it only got truer as the years went by.

[...] the list that put me over the edge last week was 10 essential books from the last 25 years and because commenter Travis insinuated that to include more women on that list would mean [...]

yes, it’s just ‘a short list of books that have found a place in Generation X’s (and for that matter, Y’s and W’s, too) common culture; books that people know about, relate to, and converge around, all from the last 25 years’. we know. but to the extent the list is accurate, it’s basically a tautology. if you could get the statistics, you could compile a list of the most popular books among the x-to-y cohort and you’d end up with more or less the same list. and if they’re already converging around them, lists like this just cause a spike in the noise about these books and the also-rans that are more or less just like them. call me a hater but i could not care less what anyone thinks about ‘fight club’ or ‘the beach’. i would rather read – maybe even discuss – terry pratchett: less pretense, more reading value.

as i type the most recent comment is about delillo’s ‘white noise’, which i personally found deadly dull. and i am very suspicious of anyone claiming to describe ‘our culture and its underlying dread’ – as if there were any actual content to a sweeping generalization like that. has this generation (or these alphabet generations) actually forgotten irony – which i would have thought would at least ‘problematize’ the urge to generalize about this or that cultural disposition/dispensation?

let’s all check back in with each in 20 years and see if anyone is still reading or converging around any of these books.

[...] Weekly article about romance authors making things a little PG with young adult books; and Flavorwire’s list of the 10 essential books from the last 25 [...]

Really? No one mentions anywhere Phillip Roth?
How about
American Pastoral – Roth
White Noise – DeLillo
Housekeeping -Marilynn Robinson
Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth – Chris Ware
How to be Alone – Franzen

Bret Easton Ellis’ Less Than Zero
Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho
and everyone keeps referring to Generation X but not to
Douglas Coupland’s Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
as well if this went past 25 years I’d put on
Leonard Cohen’s The Favourite Game

People definately dig lists. This much is clear. Love Ender’s Game. I’m definately going to read some of the ones on here that I haven’t. Except for the one written by a woman. Signed, “a whinely, priviledged, white male.”

The Gap Series: (four books) by Stephen R. Donaldson. Very much the opposite of his “The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant” books. Dark and gritty sci-fi.

this lust blatantly forgot Paris Hilton’s Autobiography which is probably the most important insight into modern life as there has been in the past 25 years. Tis k tis k to the writer of this list for such an oversight.

CAROL SHIELDS – THE STONE DIARIES
KAZUO ISHIGURO – ANYTHING BY THIS INCREDIBLE AUTHOR
KATE GRENVILLE – THE IDEA OF PERFECTION
ROHINTON MISTRY – A FINE BALANCE

YOUR LIST IS SURPRISINGLY NARROW .. I AM NOT INTO MAKING NEGATIVE COMMENTS BUT HAVE TO ADMIT MOST HERE ACTUALLY MAKE A VALID POINT.

The exact male-to-female ratio is not the point. If you were making a list of the 10 Most Important Classical Composers or the 10 Most Important Sports Announcers or the 10 Most Important Victorian Authors, having a list of all white men would be expected, since those are areas where women and people of color are few and far between.

But as meg pointed out (again, read the posts before you diss them), contemporary fiction is known for its diversity of genders, races, religions and sexual orientations. So choosing books from the past 25 years for 80% of the authors are White men is, at the very least, not very comprehensive. Just as it wouldn’t be comprehensive if 80% of the books were written in the last 5 years with only 20% of the list representing the previous 20.

The Oregon Files books by Clive Cussler

[...] I wrote about this book here. [...]

So what if the majority of the listed books aren’t written by women? If the list was tilted in favor of women, and a man pointed it out, he’d immediately be declared an ignorant sexist. This list is one person’s OPINION. Aren’t all genders and races allowed to have those?

P.S. – Just because you personally don’t know any women who like Fight Club, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It’s not a book for the masses by any means, but it has a message, and almost everyone at least knows what Fight Club is, even if they don’t grasp the message. That’s why it’s on this list.

[...] one of the authors in Flavorwire’s 10 Essential Books from the Last 25 Years is a woman. (See the end of this post for an alternative list of books by [...]

I think the point is that the actual content of the books chosen have “found a place in Generation X’s (and for that matter, Y’s and W’s, too) common culture; books that people know about, relate to, and converge around, all from the last 25 years.”

Not that the author themselves are. ~_~

[...] one of the authors in Flavorwire’s 10 Essential Books from the Last 25 Years is a woman. (See the end of this post for an alternative list of books by [...]

The people complaining that there aren’t enough women/minority/LGBT people on the list only help to perpetuate bigotry/racism by classifying the people on the list as anything more than people, we can only stop it if we stop classifying.