The Top Ten: writers pick their favourite books Edited by J Peder Zane W W Norton, 352pp, £9.99 ISBN 0393328406
According to this entertaining survey of the great and the good of the literary world, the finest book ever written is Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, closely followed by Madame Bovary, War and Peace and Lolita. Two impressions that can be gleaned from this are, first, that the writers surveyed (including such luminaries as Norman Mailer and Julian Barnes) are a conservative bunch and, second, that Russians dominate writers' literary tastes. In fact, while the latter is at least partially borne out (both Dostoevsky and Chekhov make strong showings), this is a fascinating snapshot of wildly disparate interests.
Although the "top ten" format is inevitably constrictive, some writers contribute brief but compelling essays explaining their choices, adding context to what might otherwise seem a faintly arbitrary exercise. (And the occasional writer appears not to take things entirely seriously – Stephen King's potboiler The Stand, for instance, is more highly rated than The Tempest.)
Undeniably a fun book to dip in and out of, this may also be the perfect means of defending a specious literary position: "Well, it's David Foster Wallace's favourite book, so it must be good!"
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