What do top contemporary writers think is a good book? Journalist and editor
J. Peder Zane found the answer by asking one hundred twenty-five leading British and American authors to list ten of their favorite books. The responses were published in
The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books, a modestly-sized but content rich volume. In addition to the authors' lists,
The Top Ten offers a brief summary of each of the five-hundred forty-four titles mentioned by the authors and breaks down its findings into separate lists such as the top ten works of science fiction and fantasy and the top ten works of the twentieth century.
Expanding upon the 2007 book, Zane maintains
The Top Ten website which offers lists by prominent authors not participating in the first go round. Readers can also post their own list of favorites.
Authors contributing to the original book run alphabetically from
Lee K. Abbott to
Meg Wolitzer.
Annie Proulx noted -- "I find this list of ten books project to be difficult, pointless and wrong-headed" but she provided a list anyway, headed by
The Odyssey.
Barry Hannah's list included his own novel
Airships with a parenthetical "Why not?"
