21st Century Literature discussion

I happened across this article on Literary Hub and thought it might be of interest -- https://lithub.com/a-century-of-readi.... As the article states, the author criteria is as follows:

Though the books on these lists need not be American in origin, I am looking for books that evoke some aspect of American life, actual or intellectual, in each decade—a global lens would require a much longer list. And of course, varied and complex as it is, there’s no list that could truly define American life over ten or any number of years, so I do not make any claim on exhaustiveness. I’ve simply selected books that, if read together, would give a fair picture of the landscape of literary culture for that decade—both as it was and as it is remembered. Finally, two process notes: I’ve limited myself to one book for author over the entire 12-part list, so you may see certain works skipped over in favor of others, even if both are important (for instance, I ignored Dubliners in the 1910s so I could include Ulysses in the 1920s), and in the case of translated work, I’ll be using the date of the English translation, for obvious reasons. Now that's a pretty subjective and broad category! The article's author does offer some rationale for choosing in connection with each book, although not necessarily related to what she said she was looking for.

Only the books in the 2000's and 2010's fall in our preview of 21st century literature, but I did look at the list of 10 books in all ten decades. I had heard of just about all the books and have read at least one noted in each decade.
2010's -- read 10 of 10
2000's -- read 10 of 10
1990's -- read 4 of 10
1980's -- read 4 of 10
1970's -- read 1 of 10
1960's -- read 5 of 10
1950's -- read 9 of 10
1940's -- read 5 of 10
1930's -- read 6 of 10
1920's -- read 3 of 10
1910's -- read 3 of 10

I guess I need to fill take a look at those 70's books and read at least two of them!

Interesting lists that we could all quibble with for hours. I joined this group because I want to read more contemporary literature after focusing on classics for quite a while, and my results for the last three decades certainly show I have some catching up to do.

2010's -- read 3 of 10
2000's -- read 3 of 10
1990's -- read 3 of 10
1980's -- read 5 of 10
1970's -- read 5 of 10
1960's -- read 5 of 10
1950's -- read 6 of 10
1940's -- read 7 of 10
1930's -- read 6 of 10
1920's -- read 6 of 10
1910's -- read 1 of 10
1900's -- read 7 of 10

I enjoyed the link as well--lots of fun. Just for fun, my list would be:

2010s--0 of 10 (so embarrassed, I put The Tenth of December into my ITBR [my IMMEDIATE to-be-read pile]) (+3)
2000s--3 0f 10 (whew! a little better) (+2)
1990s--5 of 10 (No Change)
1980s--5 of 10 (No Change)
1970s--3 of 10 (I thought I'd ace that one) (No Change)
1960s--4 of 10 (+1)
1950s--8 of 10 (No Change)
1940s--3 of 10 (+3)
1930s--3 of 10 (+3)
1920s--3 of 10 (+4)
1910s--2 of 10 (No Change)
1900s--3 of 10 (+1)

35%-- but I have a lot of these on my shelves. I thought the article writer did a pretty good job, though I know there are a few I'd reject in favor of something else. I didn't think there was anything too egregious though, at least not off the top of my head.

Don't forget the 1900s!:

https://lithub.com/a-century-of-readi...

Thanks Bryan for the 1900's link that I missed! I have definitely read 2 of the books and possibly 2 others, although I think more likely I just remember the movies based on the Helen Keller book and the Wizard of Oz!

I missed the 1900s too, so thanks, Bryan. I've updated my count. I ended up with 47.5% which isn't too bad. I look to improve my 1990s-now books in 2019.

Thanks for posting this, LindaJ^.

Let's see, it looks like I'm at:
2010s -- 6 of 10
2000s -- 6 of 10
1990s -- 5 of 10
1980s -- 5 of 10
1970s -- 5 of 10
1960s -- 5 of 10
1950s -- 7 of 10
1940s -- 2 of 10
1930s -- 8 of 10
1920s -- 4 of 10
1910s -- 0 of 10
1900s -- 2 of 10

my turn :)

2010's - 8/10
2000's - 9/10
1990's - 7/10
1980's - 8/10
1970's - 5/10
1960's - 3/10
1950's - 7/10
1940's - 5/10
1930's - 2/10
1920's - 1/10
1910's - 0/10
1900's - 3/10

I am way behind most of you here, but the American canon is not my area of expertise...
2010s - 5, 2000s - 6, 1990s - 3, 1980s - 3, 1970s - 2, 1960s - 1,
1950s - 4, 1940s - 1, 1930s - 3, 1920s - 2, 1910s - 0, 1900s - 0

This turned out to be a humbling, if not embarrassing, exercise:

2010s - 1/10
2000s - 2/10
1990s - 3/10
1980s - 1/10
1970s - 2/10
1960s - 1/10
1950s - 3/10
1940s - 2/10
1930s - 2/10
1920s - 1/10
1910s - 0/10

There were several on the lists that I started but never finished. I guess now I'll have to!

I have read a lot of the ones mentioned in the "see also" sections, but it still looks like I have some catching up to do.

I've read

2010s - 0/10
2000s - 3/10
1990s - 2/10
1980s - 2/10
1970s - 0/10
1960s - 4/10
1950s - 2/10
1940s - 2/10
1930s - 5/10
1920s - 2/10
1910s - 2/10

Going for a decade more than a century so I can show that I do actually read the earlier stuff.

2010s - 4/10
2000s - 7/10
1990s - 4/10
1980s - 4/10
1970s - 3/10
1960s - 4/10
1950s - 7/10
1940s - 7/10
1930s - 7/10
1920s - 6/10
1910s - 0/10
1900s - 4/10

57/120

Almost half. I'll take it.

I have to wonder why the author bothers to include non-fiction like The Joy of Cooking and the Joy of Sex but not much in the way of politics, history or the environment other than Desert Solitaire. Did I miss it or did she not include Silent Spring, a truly ground breaking work that changed the way we think about our world and helped to establish the EPA? While I love LOTR and yes, the books were published in the 50s, I don’t think most Americans discovered Tolkien until later - in the 50s he was still more or less of a British thing.

Maybe I missed it, it but didn’t see any Carlos Castaneda for 60s and 70s. Brautigan and Castaneda were huge at that time, Brautigan was huge not just not in the US but in Japan and Europe as well. (Wait, I take this back, I see Brautigan is mentioned in the “See Also” booklist) I remember Exodus as being a best seller, as were James Michener novels. In a way, these novels heralded the age of the blockbuster bestsellers. (Are they read today? Dunno.)

Just for fun, take a look at

http://www.booksofthecentury.com/
a compilation of bestsellers from Publisher’s weekly, main selections from the Book-of-the-Month Club (which included lots of heavy hitters) and critically acclaimed books. These are the books that Americans were buying and reading in the 20th century, many of them more or less forgotten today.

John Carey did something a bit similar when he wrote Pure Pleasure: A Guide to the Twentieth Century's Most Enjoyable Books a roundup of 20th century fiction by decade. But his choices were to my mind more interesting, coming from someone who spent his life reading and writing ( and beekeeping).

Interesting! It looks like these were notable, talked-about in the mainstream kind of books maybe? I'm sorely lacking, as I expected (and also as expected, this highlights that I particularly like books from the 1930s!). I'm trying to read more from the 2000's--that's why I'm here! Just not these I guess. :-)

2010s - 1/10
2000s - 1/10
1990s - 2/10
1980s - 3/10
1970s - 2/10
1960s - 2/10
1950s - 4/10
1940s - 6/10
1930s - 7/10
1920s - 3/10
1910s - 1/10
1900s - 5/10

After seeing some other add their totals up, I went back to see what a difference two years would make. Quite a bit--I went from a total of 42 to 59--just under half.

There's still several on the list I eventually plan to get to, but there's 20-25% I'll probably never read.

Janet wrote: "Just for fun, take a look at

http://www.booksofthecentury.com/
a compilation of bestsellers from Publisher’s weekly, main selections from the Book-of-the-Month Club (which included lots of heavy hitters) and critically acclaimed books. These are the books that Americans were buying and reading in the 20th century, many of them more or less forgotten today."

I've read many of the books in the critically acclaimed lists from Publishers' Weekly in the first half of the century but practically none of the best sellers. I never realized how popular Winston Churchill's books were!