The News & TeleGraff

I've been meaning for some time to write an update on my reading, or at least that reading that I'm not doing in the kitchen. After years of writing off the whole genre, I've actually been plowing through some really great fiction as of late, Graham Greene's "The Power and the Glory"—which was officially damned by the Vatican in 1953—Ann Patchett's "Bel Canto", and Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America." While the first two were decidedly beautiful and compelling stories (the Whisky Priest in the former and the hapless terrorists in the latter being among the more compelling characters I've come across in a while), the third I found highly disturbing in the sense that it both could have been true and could still become true (although the likely target is no longer the Jews so much as Muslims). All three get my unconditional recommendation.

Also, as the year winds down, the "best of 2003" lists are beginning to trickle out. The New York Times kicks it off this week with its list of "100 Notable Books of the Year," and the Washington Post provides its "Best of the Year."

An interesting distinction is that the Times' list only encompasses "notable" books, which are separate from next week's "best" books, while the Post skips right to the "best." Indeed, a quick scroll through the Times' list finds several books—I Am Charlotte Simmons and Life of Graham Greene Vol. III—that were widely panned by critics (and by my friends who have dared venture into them despite the reviews), so it's obvious that lasting quality isn't necessarily what the Times looks for in a "notable" book. Meanwhile, over at the Post's BookWorld's "Best" listings, both of the above books are absent.

All-in-all, I managed this year to make it through eight of both of the Post's BookWorld Raves, and of the Times' Notable Books (interestingly, slightly different books), which I think isn't all that bad given everything else I've been reading. My list only included one of the fiction tomes, "Plot Against America," but on the non-fiction side, I hit books ranging from Richard Clarke's "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror" to Edward Conlon's "Blue Blood" (which I nominated, and got selected as one of Powell.com's Daily Dose book picks) to the well-deserving 9/11 Report to David K. Shipler's illuminating "The Working Poor: Invisible in America."

Incidentally, if you're interested in lasting quality, you might want to click over to the Online Computer Library Center(OCLC), which recently compiled a list of the top 1000 titles owned by its member libraries, as it explains, the intellectual works that have been judged to be worth owning by the 'purchase vote' of libraries around the globe."

I'm not sure what I expected, but the top 10 books—which ranged from ones I expected (the Bible and Homer's Odyssey) to completely unexpected ones (Mother Goose)—is interesting enough even before you dive into the full list of 1000. Then the factoids are worth checking out too: Shakespeare got 40 entries and Stephen King zero; the highest work by a woman is "Wuthering Heights," by Emily Brontë at 29th, and the highest involving an animal is "Moby Dick" at 35 (!).

Anyway, personally, I think I might have to go back to some nonfiction for the next couple of weeks to lower the pile beside my bed. Next up for me? Burke Davis's Civil War classic "Sherman's March, " and Hendrik Hertzberg's "Politics," which I noted happily got a great review from the Times.

UPDATE: Here's the Economist's Best list. A different perspective brings a whole bunch of different books.