The Best 25 Books Project
Didn’t see your favorite novel on the New York Times Best Books list? We didn’t either.
We were appalled that only two women made the list. And while Toni Morrison’s Beloved won top honors, she was the only person of color who made the cut.
Perhaps the NYT’s methodology was flawed. They asked 124 literary figures to vote for “the best work of American Fiction published in the last 25 years.” Only 37 of the judges, or 30%, were women. Or perhaps the racism and sexism of this list is simply representative of the types books and authors that receive publicity from their companies, or the racism and sexism of the canon.
To put our hypothesis to the test, albeit in a rather unscientific manner, we need the help of our readers. We’ve reviewed a bunch of these titles on our blog, so you know what WE think. Now it’s time for us to collect your opinions. Click here to VOTE NOW
The rules:
Over the last few months we compiled a Pool of excellent works of American fiction published since 1982.
* Anyone is eligible to vote, so long as she or he has read two or more books from our Pool, scout’s honor, of course. The more books you’ve read, the more votes you get, up to five:
2 pool books=1 vote
3 pool books=2 votes
4 pook books=3 votes
5 pool books=4 votes
6 or more pool books=5 votes
* All voting is write-in. You may vote for any book of your choosing, whether or not in appears in the Pool. You may vote multiple times for a single book, if you’ve read enough Pool books.
* Please do not take the poll more than once. It will mess with our numbers.
* Please DO give us your demographic info, it will help us to know how balanced the poll is, and we’ll know where to send your prize if you win the drawing to receive the top title. But we promise we won’t do anything else with it, like sell it or spam you.
* We will release the results in one of our next two issues.
Thanks for voting!