Sorry to disappoint, but there’s no such list in this article. Any list like that is a work of fiction in itself.
As a culture, we’re obsessed with being #1 or having nice, neatly ordered lists of The Best Movies Ever, or the best books, etc, but these are a fallacy. You can have a #1 football team winning the Superbowl, but you cannot have a #1 book (even though Amazon and the New York Times try), and the reason is that it’s not a competition. Literature is not a game to be won or lost. It’s art.
Usain Bolt holds the record as the fastest man in the 100M sprint in the Olympics. Who came second? Third? What was the difference in their times? Milliseconds? No one knows. No one cares. All we, as a culture, care about is #1, and that’s really shortsighted.
Who was the first person to climb Mt. Everest, the highest mountain in the world?
The history books will tell you it was Sir Edmund Hillary, but Sir Edmund Hillary himself will tell you no such lie. He often spoke of reaching the summit at the same time as his sherpa, Tenzing Norgay. They both risked their lives in the attempt. They both helped each other. They needed each other. They both summited at the same time.
Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?
Again, the history books will tell you it was Neil Armstrong, but both Neil and Buzz touched down in the Eagle lunar module at exactly the same time. Both of them risked their lives in the attempt, as did Michael Collins in orbit around the Moon. They all needed each other. Neil hated being called the first man on the Moon because he knew it was a lie. Oh, they say, but he was the first one to walk on the surface? Really? Was he? Did the soles of his feet ever actually touch the lunar dust? Whether it was the landing pads on the Eagle or the thick rubberized boots protecting their feet, neither man actually ever touched the surface.
But we’re obsessed with firsts. We’re obsessed with lists. And it is to our detriment. Whenever some blogger posts a list of their top ten science fiction novels (and I’m guilty, I’ve done this myself), I lament what is lost. There are always the usual suspects in these lists, H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert, etc., but what people forget is that there was a time when these works were unknown. Now, they crowd out other unknown works. Instead of encouraging people to read broadly and widely, readers are channeled into a narrow space we call The Classics and ignore anything that hasn’t been established for at least a decade or two.
What’s better? Sushi or steak? When you stop and think about it, the question itself is insulting. Ranking them is absurd.
I think of literature like ice cream. What’s your favorite flavor? It really doesn’t matter whether I agree with you or not because it is not a competition. No one flavor is better than another. We enjoy ice cream for what it is, regardless. Like books, ranking flavors is an exercise in futility. Today, I might enjoy mint. Tomorrow, caramel. Neither is right or wrong. Neither is better.
I hate the way books are rated on Amazon. I understand there’s a need to provide independent, objective insights to help other readers make up their minds about whether they might enjoy a novel, but the ranking system doesn’t cater for different tastes. Reviews are great, but even they are limited. In my experience, less than 2% of all readers leave a review, which means reviews do NOT represent the bulk of readers but rather the outliers (those who love or hate the book). It’s like reviewing ice cream. “Mint! It tastes like weeds in my garden. One star!” The subjective nature of one book to another makes comparisons largely meaningless. When I read reviews of my books, I learn far more about the reviewer than I do about the book itself!
I would love it if Amazon released objective stats about books rather than subjective ones. For example, Amazon tracks every page that is read in books within Kindle Unlimited. It would be fascinating if they published the average time people take to read a book, as that would tell you whether it’s compelling or only mildly interesting. Another fascinating statistic would be the drop-out rate. How many people read the entire book? How many get bored and move on to something else? Also, information such as “90% of those who read Hail Mary from cover to cover, also read XYZ from cover to cover.” Details like these would be far more useful than merely saying this book has 1000 reviews for an average of 4.2 stars while that one has 500 reviews for 4.3 stars, as that’s meaningless. There’s no context behind the stars.
I consider literature as art. It’s meaningless to compare the Mona Lisa to Monet’s Waterlilies or Picasso’s Sunflowers. They’re all stunning and wonderful and beautiful in their own right. Now, not every painting makes its way into a museum, so perhaps there is a degree of gatekeeping to narrow the field, and perhaps there are other, equally worthy paintings that never go on display, so there are no easy answers, but comparing them is futile.
Whatever you’re reading, I hope you’re enjoying it like an ice cream on a hot summer day 🙂
