Such a great idea for a video. Demon copperhead is my fav on this list. I had a quick scroll through the nyt list but didn't click with many other than several which you mentioned and I'd already read so my tbr pile is safe for now! Personally not a fan of Ferrante. It would be great to compare lists between countries and see if there are any common books. Thanks for a great video 😊

'Never Let me go' is probably my favourite book ever, but only because I knew nothing about the plot before I read it. I loved 'My brilliant friend' and the rest of the series, but I listened to it on audio which might have made a difference. Loved hearing your thoughts on these.

I'd read 2! And am not planning to read any of the others on the list! I think you've done well to read that many, very impressed!

I’ve read 26 of the listed books and liked them all except for My Brilliant Friend. I was actually embarrassed to admit that I didn’t like it so gave book 2 a go…..only to discover that it was every bit as dull and DNFd it after 50 or so pages. From the list a personal favourite author is Jesmyn Ward.

First off, I keep saying it is TOO EARLY for a heat of the 21st century list. And best according to him and using what criteria? The only criteria I’ve found is that the book had to have been published in the U.S. on or after 2000. I’ve read 13 of the 100 and a few of the same that you’ve read. I did absolutely love Small Things Like These which would be my number one recommendation off the list. I also really enjoyed Pachinko, Americanah, and Station Eleven. And I definitely want to read The New Jim Crow and Persepolis. Great video! I love a good opinionated take on this list! 😅

morning Johanna - I love your content and videos as they feature books i have not read and a genre that I don't read - horror! Can I say that My Brilliant Friend is not good in English and it's amazing in Italian (original language) as it captures the culture better obviously - imagine Trainspotting being translated into mainstream English without all the Scottish Colloquillism. I loved The Sellout by Paul Beattty and I think it's a must read. he takes 5 years to write his books. anyway - off to check the list out finally - keep being brilliant as you shine.

The link to the NYT is pretty useless if you haven't paid a subscription. For those of you who haven't, here it is: 100. Denis Johnson: Tree of Smoke 99. Ali Smith: How to Be Both 98. Ann Patchett: Bel Canto 97. Jesmyn Ward: Men We Reaped 96. Saidiya Hartman: Wayward Lives Beautiful Experiments 95. Hilary Mantel: Bring Up the Bodies 94. Zadie Smith: On Beauty 93. Emily St. John Mandel: Station Eleven 92. Elena Ferrante: The Days of Abandonment 91. Philip Roth: The Human Stain 90. Viet Thanh Nguyen: The Sympathizer 89. Hisham Matar: The Return 88. Lydia Davis: The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis 87. Torrey Peters: Detransition, Baby 86. David W. Blight: Frederick Douglass 85. George Saunders: Pastoralia 84. Siddhartha Mukherjee: The Emperor of All Maladies 83. Benjamin Labatut: When We Cease to Understand the World 82. Fernanda Melchor: Hurricane Season 81. John Jeremiah Sullivan: Pulphead 80. Elena Ferrante: The Story of the Lost Child 79. Lucia Berlin: A Manual for Cleaning Women 78. Jon Fosse: Septology 77. Tayari Jones: An American Marriage 76. Gabrielle Zevin: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow 75. Mohsin Hamid: Exit West 74. Elizabeth Strout: Olive Kitteridge 73. Robert A. Caro: The Passage of Power 72. Svetlana Alexievitch: Secondhand Time 71. Tove Ditlevsen: The Copenhagen Trilogy 70. Edward P. Jones: All Aunt Hagar’s Children 69. Michelle Alexander: The New Jim Crow 68. Sigrid Nunez: The Friend 67. Andrew Solomon: Far from the Tree 66. Justin Torres: We the Animals 65. Philip Roth: The Plot Against America 64. Rebecca Makkai: The Great Believers 63. Mary Gaitskill: Veronica 62. Ben Lerner: 10:04 61. Barbara Kingsolver: Demon Copperhead 60. Kiese Laymon: Heavy 59. Jeffrey Eugenides: Middlesex 58. Hua Hsu: Stay True 57. Barbara Ehrenreich: Nickel and Dimed 56. Rachel Kushner: The Flame Throwers 55. Lawrence Wright: The Looming Tower 54. George Saunders: Tenth of December 53. Alice Munro: Runaway 52. Denis Johnson: Train Dreams 51. Kate Atkinson: Life After Life 50. Hernan Diaz: Trust 49. Han Kang: The Vegetarian 48. Marjane Satrapi: Perseopolis 47. Toni Morrison: A Mercy 46. Donna Tartt: The Goldfinch 45. Maggie Nelson: The Argonauts 44. N. K. Jemisin: The Fifth Season 43. Tony Judt: Postwar 42. Marlon James: A Brief History of Seven Killings 41. Claire Keegan: Small Things Like These 40. Helen Macdonald: H Is for Hawk 39. Jennifer Egan: A Visit from the Goon Squad 38. Roberto Bolano: The Savage Detectives 37. Annie Ernaux: The Years 36. Ta-Nehisi Coates: Between the World and Me 35. Alison Bechdel: Fun Home 34. Claudia Rankine: Citizen 33. Jesmyn Ward: Salvage the Bones 32. Alan Hollinghurst: The Line of Beauty 31. Zadie Smith: White Teeth 30. Jesmyn Ward: Sing, Unburied, Sing 29. Helen DeWitt: The Last Samurai 28. David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas 27. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Americanah 26. Ian McEwan: Atonement 25. Adrian Nicole LeBlanc: Random Family 24. Richard Powers: The Overstory 23. Alice Munro: Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage 22. Katherine Boo: Behind the Beautiful Forevers 21. Matthew Desmond: Evicted 20. Percival Everett: Erasure 19. Patrick Radden Keefe: Say Nothing 18. George Saunders: Lincoln in the Bardo 17. Paul Beatty: The Sellout 16. Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay 15. Min Jin Lee: Pachinko 14. Rachael Cusk: Outline 13. Cormac McCarthy: The Road 12. Joan Didion: The Year of Magical Thinking 11. Junot Diaz: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 10. Marilynne Robinson: Gilead 9. Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go 8. W. G. Sebald: Austerlitz 7. Colson Whitehead: The Underground Railroad 6. Roberto Bolano: 2666 5. Jonathan Franzen: The Corrections 4. Edward P. Jones: The Known World 3. Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall 2. Isabel Wilkerson: The Warmth of Other Suns 1. Elena Ferrante: My Brilliant Friend

I wish they’d made 2 lists instead of 1; one for fiction and one for nonfiction. Do you follow Greg of the “Supposedly Fun” channel? Yesterday, he posted a video you might enjoy. He talked about what made the list, what got left out, and a bit about the background of how the list was made.

Very interesting video. Out of the ones you read I’ve only read one , the Claire Keegan and really enjoyed it xx

So interesting to hear your thoughts on this! I’ve only read two books off the list 😳😂 The Year of Magical Thinking (didn’t like) and Tomorrow x3 (loved)! Several on my TBR though, especially Station Eleven, The Fifth Season, Americanah, Pachinko, My Brilliant Friend (even though you didn’t like it haha), Sing Unburied Sing, Bel Canto, and Demon Copperhead! I don’t usually pay attention to these kinds of lists and it feels like it’s a lot of literary fiction and nonfiction, which are two genres I don’t read a whole lot of. I wish there was more fantasy and just more accessible kinds of books for your average reader because it does feel a bit pretentious, haha. But an interesting conversation nonetheless!!

I read 9 but out of those 9 I only enjoyed Station Eleven. I don't think that list is for me :D

I do love reading these lists but I always remind myself not to take them as a reading challenge. I instinctively want to read them all but I am not really into literary fiction. And I do think this list is quite pretentious. I looked over it and I think the only books on here that i have read are Station 11 which was a DNF The Argonauts which I also DNF'ed (I felt like i was trapped in a public place with people who were having a domestic) The Human Stain (I finished it but only because it was for course. I didn't love it which was a shame because I liked the movie) Small Things Like These (absolutely loved. some people still deny what the church has done and continues to do) I have owned copies of ten or so other books on the list but have unhauled them before reading them. If I ever change my mind about reading any of them I will probably get them from the library first.

Books lists like this serve no purpose in my opinion. I ignore them!I read what I like and I don’t feel I am unintelligent or uninformed if I have t read any of the books on a list curated by a newspaper. We all read at different levels and different genres. I detest book snobbishness and find it condescending. I have not even looked at the list but will get back to you on how many I have read. I doubt there are many. I read for pure pleasure and life is too short to waste time on books I dont like or books that are deemed “the best” by a corporate entity. There are ages and stages of my reading life and it ebbs and flows like my life itself. I’ve been re reading my childhood favorites this year; does that make me a poor reader? I don’t care what others think. 😂 the key is to read. Period. One comment here said you are limited in your reading and I disagree and call that out as an example of book snobbishness and quite a presumptuous judgement on their part. Shame, that we feel we have to decide for others what constitutes a worthy read!

I 💯 agree with you regarding number 1 - I really didn’t like it at all, I have read 13 of list and have 25 of them on my shelves still to read 📚

Edit: so here is how the books were chosen: As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers - with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review. The list would be wildly different if it had been a public vote and the fact that there was “some help” from the staff of NYT invalidates this list for me. 503 people don’t get to chose the best of the 21st century imo😂😂😂😂

I have 2 on the list that I tried to read and dropped. And 4 on the list I actually want to read. 😅

Love your opinions but these lists serve no purpose. Like how you mix things up in your vlogs. Happy reading 😊

Hi Johanna. First off the bat I do not share your taste in reading but I enjoy your vlogs and personality. I feel that you are limited in your reading. If it wasn, t perhaps for your book club you wouldn't have ventured into reading books that weren't primarily focused on race, gender etc. As for your short analysis on My Brilliant Friend ,I feel you took it superficially. . The story is superficial..friendship. but there is so much more to a book. I read the book in italian ( actually the majority of the book was Neapolitan dialect) which even native Italians find difficult to comprehend. Although the wonderful translators are extreme skilled in their craft, there is always something " lost in translation ". It's not just the plot but the intonation rhythm phrasing and musicality and beauty of the language that makes this and all of the books of the Neapolitan quartet masterpieces.