So many books, so many years ... Compiling any list is an arbitrary, thankless task. Compiling a list of the 100 classic reads of the 20th century is more arbitrary and thankless than most. Why only 100 books? And that's just for starters ...
Inevitably, the choice involves compromise and my own selection has been conservative; it reflects the consensual view of the western literary canon rather than trying to reshape it – principally because there is less fun to be had in parodying writers few people are likely to have read. I also created my own rules: no author could appear more than once – partly to allow me to include as many different authors as possible and partly because repeating the stylistic mannerisms of a particular author could get, well, repetitive.
I also decided to divide the book into decades, with 10 books in each. This had a pleasing symmetry and offered a good way in both to what was considered important at the time and to tracking different literary traditions, from the late Victorians to the modernists, existentialists, social realists and postmodernists. But it also has its drawbacks: some decades – the 50s particularly – were far richer than others.
So there are omissions that must be every bit as glaring to you as they are to me. The book I most regret leaving out is The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. But for once the Digested Read is going democratic. You tell me which author and which book should have made the cut. And the one with the most votes will appear here some time very soon.
Please cast your votes in the comments section by the end of this Friday, October 15. A full list of the existing digested classics can be found here, and you can read them all in our digested classic archive.
