Drowned In Sound’s best books of the 21st century - RESULTS (post 261)!

Entertainment!
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@mods plz

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No thanks I’ve eaten

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Also you’re a big, big twat

6 Likes
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Can’t wait for xylo to rock up and have a cry about magic weasels or something

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Town 4 ever.

1 Like
261

Full List

Score Nominations
1 The Amber Spyglass Philip Pullman 174 13
2 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 157 9
3 Kafka on the Shore Haruki Murakami 121 9
4 Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides 101 8
5 Our Band Could Be Your Life Michael Azerrad 97 6
6 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 78 5
7 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt 75 6
8 The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet David Mitchell 69 5
9 The Sellout Paul Beatty 65 5
10 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 61 4
11 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 58 5
12 The Road Cormac McCarthy 57 5
13 Blankets Craig Thompson 52 3
14 The City and the City China Mieville 49 5
15 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Mark Haddon 29 3
16 The damned united David Peace 48 4
17 Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football David Winner 47 3
18 Look to Windward Iain M Banks 46 3
19 Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of The Dead Olga Tokarczuk 43 3
20 The Narrow Road to the Deep North Richard Flanagan 42 3
21 House of Leaves Mark Z Danielewski 41 3
22 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 39 2
23 The People’s Act of Love James Meek 38 3
= The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 38 3
25 The Martian Andy Weir 37 3
26 Just Kids Patti Smith 37 2
27 Any Human Heart William Boyd 36 3
28 A Fraction Of The Whole Steve Toltz 36 2
= Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 36 2
30 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Susanna Clarke 35 3
31 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 35 2
= Estates Lynsey Hanley 35 2
33 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 34 4
34 A Storm of Swords Chris Ware 34 3
35 Building Stories George RR Martin 34 2
36 Station Eleven Emily St. John Mandel 33 4
37 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 33 2
= Death And The Penguin Andrey Kurkov 33 2
39 Oryx & Crake Margaret Atwood 32 2
40 Perdido Street Station China Mieville 31 3
41 Three to See the King Magnus Mills 31 2
42 No Country for Old Men Cormac McCarthy 30 4
= The Plot Against America Philip Roth 30 4
44 White Teeth Zadie Smith 30 3
= The First Bad Man Miranda July 30 3
46 The Raw Shark Texts Steven Hall 30 2
= All My Puny Sorrows Mirian Towes 30 2
= 2666 Robert Bolaño 30 2
= A Closed and Common Orbit Becky Chambers 30 2
= Thief of Time Terry Pratchett 30 2
8 Likes
262

I need to read some books Jesus Christ

2 Likes
263

Will is the bearer of the knife. Now, accompanied by angels, his task is to deliver that powerful, dangerous weapon to Lord Asriel - by the command of his dying father.

Nah…you’re alright. I’ll give that a miss thanks.

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Excellent work!

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Nah, they’re mostly rubbish

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What part of that synopsis could possibly put you off?

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It’s good that nobody here reads Harry Potter, so that means there won’t be any need to tenuously link things that happen in real life to Harry Potter.

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6 of your 10 made it into the list though.

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Read 6, started and given up on another 5.

Might need to stop reading epic fantasy series that put me off reading for months afterwards.

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OH MAN! I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT [BOOK I LIKE] DIDN’T MAKE THE LIST YOU WANKERS!

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I’ve read 27 of these. Beat that, bookworms!

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273

Yes, 12% of the top 50 are good, sounds like a sensible hit rate

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Nominating 4 David Peace books was pushing your luck a bit :wink:

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haha, probably, he was just the first person that popped into my head as someone who operates in the same kind of milieu as Eugenides who I’ve liked stuff by. I tend to think of most (especially American) contemprorary hype fiction as middlebrow, fairly pedestrian saying enough that it gets a large number of critics on board but without actually featuring much actually challenging or interesting material! cynical and probably stupid and flattening certainly… Sally Rooney seems like the most recent example I can think of when it comes to this - but then again, I still haven’t yet read anything by her

anyway, I will actually read Middlesex now, entirely because of you!

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Only read four of these :grimacing: