Whether the end of a decade, the start of a new year or just a Tuesday, reasons for creating "Top 10" lists never run short. One common topic for such lists is literature, often dramatically exemplified by lists like "100 Books to Read Before You Die." Although the motivation behind these lists change and content shifts over time, they generally feature works that make up the Western literary canon. Time Magazine's "ALL TIME 100 Novels," for example, includes familiar titles such as J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita," Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" and John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath."
These lists, however, present problems and provoke debate not only about who has the authority to decide what literary works make the cut, but also about what merits "literature" and how this notion is changing in a society where books are often put aside in favor of film adaptations and television. —Angelina Rotman
Bernhard Martin
Associate Professor of German
The idea of literary merit, the backbone upon which "best of" lists are built, is very much open to interpretation, according to Associate Professor of German Bernhard Martin.
"Any book can have a certain function, an impact on somebody's life with meanings attached to it," he said. "No list is completely wrong or completely off. Someone can get some aspect out of the meaning of life out of an illustrated novel."
While perpetuating a certain literary canon does make the creation of "best of" lists easier, the reasons behind these choices can be suspect.
"What is literature is definitely a question that is wide open," Martin said. "We're not sure how we should answer it, so publishing houses are coming up with it for us. They're extending the literary canon of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It makes life easier if you're not charged with the necessity of having to choose works yourself."
When forced to pick works for a list of his own, Martin stays true to his area of expertise, German literature.
"I would choose one of Thomas Mann's novels, probably ‘Doctor Faustus,'" he said. "Another I would put on is a medieval epic or romance because I think this is a part of literature that helps us to describe where we come from. Looking into our own past is almost like looking into a different culture. I probably would also put most of the religious texts on there, not as religious texts, but as [literature] that has shaped our culture more than any other text has."
Eliza Ziegler
Sophomore, economics and community health
For sophomore Eliza Ziegler, "best of" lists are based primarily on perception rather than merit.
"They're basing [their choices] off of [the] perceived prestige of the book and perceived difficulty and level of profoundness," she said. "I feel it's not really content-based judgment."
Today's readers, according to Ziegler, are exposed to a very small scope of literature, something that these lists perpetuate.
"Everyone grows up reading the same books," Ziegler said. "Even when I was trying to be rebellious, I read the same five books everyone else did — ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,' ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four,' ‘A Clockwork Orange,' etc. And I can guarantee you that any kid who was trying to be rebellious read those books when they were 15."
The works Ziegler would include on her list, in no particular order, include "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy, "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez and "Watership Down" by Richard Adams.
Marcie Hershman
Lecturer of English
"I hate these lists for confirming a status quo, but I like them for being something to push against and, if we're lucky, add to," Lecturer of English Marcie Hershman said.
What lacks in the "best of" lists is diversity in language, according to Hershman.
"It's very important to have books that have language that is strange, books I didn't enjoy reading, like [epic poem] ‘Beowulf'" she said. "It's written in a language that struggled out of incoherence. [Geoffrey] Chaucer is something I enjoyed and told me how language is always changing and evolving. The idea of change and language itself isn't stuck, so why should [book lists] be stuck?"
No matter who chooses them, Hershman said, the titles that appear over and over in these lists do so for a reason.
"Here's something I'll confide: Have I read all of [James Joyce's novel] ‘Ulysses'? No. Do I understand the idea of a writer using language in a way that is exciting and frustrating? Yes," she said. "It's really about making sure you don't learn only what you already know and already like. Sometimes we learn the most from people we just despise."
Jacob Passy
Sophomore, international relations
According to sophomore Jacob Passy, the reasoning behind any list of "best books" is simple.
"I think that people just have an obsession with lists," he said. "It's a way of organizing things, a way of being able to walk into Barnes & Noble and knowing what you need to buy. It's a way of being literary."
For Passy, there is an unnecessary emphasis on classic literature in these lists.
"I feel like they're very overarching," he said. "They're very focused on classic novels rather than contemporary novels, and while I think there is definitely a place for classic novels, all classic novels don't represent the books you should read before you die."
The biggest problem such lists face, Passy furthered, is the many works they neglect.
"It's like with anything top 100; you're overlooking a lot of places, books, etc.," he said. "There are lists that have repeats of the same author and yes, I can read five books by [Honoré de] Balzac or whomever, but that doesn't mean all five of those are his best work. There are some brilliant modern works that aren't featured and should be."
For his own list, Passy mostly stuck to more recent works.
"To preface this, some of the books I'm including are often put on these lists. I think I would include the ‘The Great Gatsby,' ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,' a book by Toni Morrison, I would probably say ‘Song of Solomon,' and ‘The Kite Runner,'" he said.
