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| Hearsay: |
The Top Ten–a book of top 10 lists by authors choosing their favourite books. It’s so crazy and incomprehensible it just might work.
Each individual top 10 list is like its own steeplechase through the international canon. Look at Michael Chabon’s. He heads it up with Jorge Luis Borges’s Labyrinths. (Nice: an undersung masterpiece by a writer’s writer.) He follows that up with by Pale Fire by Nabokov at #2. (Hm. Does he really think it’s better than Lolita? Really?) Then with number 3 he goes straight off the reservation: Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini. (What? By who?) The whole exercise is an orgy of intellectual second-guessing, which as we all know is infinitely more fun than the first round of guessing.
I suggest keeping it near the can or perhaps in the car to read at traffic lights. Red traffic lights. (Thanks, Peder)
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January 31st, 2007 at 12:30 pm
You think somebody should tell the Time reviewer that Labyrinths is just a ‘greatest hits’ collection culled from Borges’ other work? (Might explain why it’s not really ’sung’ so much.)
January 31st, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Hi,
My name is J. Peder Zane and I am editor of “The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books.” I want to invite you to post your own Top Ten list – and download a free literary screensaver – at my website, http://www.toptenbooks.net
February 1st, 2007 at 10:55 am
I teach Nabokov from time to time and agree with Chabon here. I find
“Pale Fire” deadly funny as well as brilliant. That’s why I prefer it
to “Lolita. “Lolita” is witty, but not funny. My favorite Nabokov,
however, is “Speak, Memory.” THE best example of autobiographical
literature of all time.
February 1st, 2007 at 11:00 am
That final sentence makes no sense. Still drinking coffee.
Read: THE best example of autobiographical literature.
BTW: I only used one exclamation point in my HP announcement.
I do think you’re missing something with the Potter. If
you ignore all the extras (toys, movies, rabid fans, marauding
adverbs), the fact remains that Rowling tells a good story. And,
once in a while, story is what you need.