The 20 best books of the decade

[Ruth]

I've read Fingersmith, No Country for Old Men, Never Let Me Go and The Lovely Bones. Fingersmith was excellent, but I preferred Affinity and The Night Watch by the same author.

 

No Country was a great read, but I thought The Road was better.

 

Enjoyed Never Let Me Go, but thought The Lovely Bones was massively over-rated. A real disappointment.

 

I have Dreams From My Father, White Teeth, Atonement and The Life of Pi on my to-be-read mountain. And The God Delusion is on my wishlist.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Ruth
spelling

[beef]

I have read only one from the list - The God Delusion, It was ok, don't think it would place on top 20 though.

[KarenMac]

I have read;

Atonement by Ian McEwan and enjoyed this book, as I have with McEwan

[chesilbeach]

I've only read two of the books on the list, but I have read other books by these authors:

 

Sarah Waters

Zadie Smith

Ian McEwan

Lynne Truss

Alan Bennett

Malcolm Gladwell

Kazuo Ishiguro (currently reading my first book by this author)

Khaled Hosseini

 

I'd probably read more by most of them as well, so it's interesting that while I haven't read what seems to have been their best work, I have recognized them for their other books.

[~Andrea~]

I've read Life of Pi and Shoots and Leaves, both of which I enjoyed. White teeth I got half way through and gave up on, I really disliked it. The others I haven't read.

[nursenblack]

I've read Atonement, The Lovely Bones, and The Corrections from the list. There should definitely be some others on the list. I'm surprised to see The Lovely Bones on this writer's list of best. What about Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides? or Water for Elephants? or The Road, like Ruth mentioned? Opinions are like....uhh...everybody has one.

[kelmaria]

I've only read the lovely bones out of that list and I liked it.

[Talisman]

I have read The God Delusion and A Thousand Splendid Suns - I haven't even heard of some of them - especially those on the first list !

[Brida]

Yay so happy to see Life of Pi mentioned I love that book!

 

And I plan to read Atonement and Never Let Me Go...sometime lol. They seem excellent.

[Ms Squiggles]

* hangs head in shame *

 

I haven't read any of the books on that list, although I do have a couple of them waiting to be read and there are a couple of others on the list which I would like to read at some point...

[Raven]

I've not read any of them, but I do own one of them.

[AbielleRose]

* hangs head in shame *

 

I haven't read any of the books on that list, although I do have a couple of them waiting to be read and there are a couple of others on the list which I would like to read at some point...

 

 

No shame in that at all Which ones are you wanting to read?

[willoyd]

Have read about half a dozen of the books, and if they are representative of the rest, then am not impressed with the list one little bit - certainly don't inspire me to read them. If they do define the past decade, then what a mediocre decade it's been. Certainly nowhere near the best books of the decade:

 

Suspicions of Mr Whicher.

Mediocre at best. Overextended book with little to grab one. Much better suited to an extended magazine article. There have been much better history books, including 'popular' history.

 

White Teeth

Gave up reading this one.

 

Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

Entertaining and diverting, and a best seller, but not exactly a great book. David Crystal is much better on the English language (amongst others).

 

The God Delusion

Even though I agree with much of what Dawkins says, he says it in a completely unnecessarily aggressive way. Found the book more hectoring than anything else. But I suppose if you've been at the forefront of having to deal with the creeping influence of creationism, you might get to sound somewhat exasperated at times.

 

The Lovely Bones

Hated this - way too sentimental. Didn't finish.

 

The Life of Pi.

Thoroughly enjoyed this. I wouldn't have put this in a top or even defining 20 personally, but can understand why it's there.

 

Short History of Everything.

Have dipped in and out, and what I've read has been reasonably interesting. One of a defining 20? Possibly, but there have been other science books that I've found far more rewarding.

Edited October 2, 2010 by willoyd

[A Dark Starry Night]

Very fascinating list, I've been meaning to pick up A short history of everything I keep hearing about that book, as for the rest I'm unfamilar with most of them,(Oh! the ever growing library of the world!!)but thanks more books to add to my list!

[Skírnir]

Well I have A Short History of Nearly Everything (in icelandic translation), the God Delusion and A Thousand Splendid Suns all on my shelf waiting to be read.

[Janet]

From 'trash' - now restored

[karen.d]

I have read 'Life of Pi' and 'The Lovely Bones'. Whilst enjoyed reading these books, I was a little disappointed with 'The Lovely Bones'. I didn't think it was as life changing as people were making it out to be at the time of its release. I also don't think that they could be considered some of the greatest books of the last decade.

 

'Atonement' and 'Never Let Me Go' are going on my 'To be Read' list!

[kushy]

My mother tongue is Telugu.Now I started reading English books.Looking for nice book.I liked the title Never Let Me Go.I wanted to read it.

 

Thank you all.

Keep     

[Argon9]

I only read Never Let Me Go. To be honest I don't think I will read the other ones any time soon, I'm a bit more of the adventure/action type and these seem all a bit .... slow. 

[theunknownleader]

I agree that some of those books are excellent Never Let Me Go, Life of Pi, Fingersmith and Lovely Bones And I've read Atonement, A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Lovely Bones from that list. Thanks for sharing such a good Informatic list.