125 Authors Choose the Greatest Works of Literature

The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books, edited by J. Peder Zane (Norton), features the responses of 125 leading American and British authors who were asked to name their choices for the 10 greatest works of literature of all time, in order of preference. Zane, the book review editor of the Raleigh News and Observer and a board member of the National Book Critics Circle, asked the writers to pick novels, story collections, plays, or poems from any time period by any author.

"I wanted to get a range of books that matter to people," Zane told BTW. "I didn't feel we could exclude plays -- one couldn't do a book about great literature and not include Shakespeare. And poetry -- how could Dante, Milton, or Homer be excluded?"

J. Peder Zane

To determine the rankings, each author's first-place pick earned 10 points, second-place picks earned 9, and so on. The book with the most total points is Number One on the Top 10 Works of Fiction. But Zane's goal was to create more than this one list. The Top Ten features a range of categories -- including Top 10 Works of the Twentieth Century, Top 10 Works by American Authors, Top 10 Mysteries and Thrillers, and One Hit Wonders -- 23 titles that appeared in the top spot of one author, but nowhere else on anyone's list. Zane has also included author rationalizations, edifications, and explanations, and descriptions of each of the chosen works -- 544 titles, almost, but not all, books.

"If you are a very ambitious reader and read a book a week, it would take 12 years to read them all," he noted.

Zane, also the author of Remarkable Reads (Norton), is aware of the potential the lists offer, as well as the pitfalls. "What's important is what lists do, what Oprah's Book Club does, what all of the year-end lists do," he explained. "They provide guidance. With the explosion of books, from 60,000 [published] annually 10 years ago to 180,000 today, we are awash with information -- the Internet, cable television with 200 channels. Choice can be a burden.

"Lists help us make choices amid the endless possibilities. And that's a positive thing. More is available now than ever before," he continued. "We look for people we trust and institutions we trust to provide guidance to help make choices."

Booksellers, he asserts, are prime sources of recommendations. "My hope is that [The Top Ten] becomes a reference guide of what books to read next," Zane said. "I hope that booksellers see the potential to bring attention to all of the backlist books that they have on their shelves."

As an example, Zane mentioned Silence by Shusaku Endo. "That book has long been sitting on the shelves," he said. "What impels someone to select it now and take it down? Why not have a little [shelf-talker] that says that Ha Jin considers this one of the 10 greatest books ever written. Or [another Ha Jin pick] Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala -- so many bookstores have that on their shelves. How do they bring attention to it?"

The Top Ten "is a way for writers to look at readers at eye-level," he added. "It gives writers a way to talk to readers about the pleasures of reading -- we can relate to them through an activity that we both love and share. We're not all writers, but we're all readers. Bookstores can do their own top 10 lists."

Zane's project has not been without criticism, however, even from authors whose opinions are included in the book. Annie Proulx, whose top 10 list includes Wheat That Springeth Green by J.F. Powers and The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, is quoted as having said, "I find this list of 10 books' project to be difficult, pointless, and wrong-headed.... Lists, unless grocery shopping lists, are truly a reductio ad absurdum."

But, noted Zane, "We are not creating a canon of books everyone must read. We've limited people to 10 books, and the result is 544 separate titles. That's quite the opposite of a canon. Here are 544 books, each of which is considered among the 10 greatest works of fiction ever written, by a leading writer. The real gist of the book isn't here are 10 books you should read -- it's here are 544 books you should read."

Another facet of the book, said Zane, is "what the choice says about the author. It's interesting to see which writers picked books considered to be classics and which writers were willing to pick more eccentric or personal picks. As the editor, it's not my place to start analyzing the writers but I hope readers do that."

The knowledge that author, filmmaker, and playwright Adriana Trigiani listed three screenplays by Preston Sturgis in the ninth position and the lyrics to When I Grow Too Old to Dream by Oscar Hammerstein as her 10th pick might shed some new light on her work. And Jennifer Weiner's choice of Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York by Gail Parent in fifth place gives readers something to ponder.

The erudite David Foster Wallace stowed Erica Jong's Fear of Flying in fifth place, alongside mass-market heavyweights like Tom Clancy, Ed McBain, and Thomas Harris.

Zane's hope is that "the lists will spark conversations and give readers a chance to rediscover books they have loved in the past, or ones they wish they had read. My goal was to bring attention to these great books and in doing so, get people more excited about great books." -- Nomi Schwartz