"100 Books to Read in a Lifetime," according to Amazon
Looking for some good reads to last you through a long winter?
Look no further: You鈥檒l have a lifetime of winter reads with Amazon鈥檚 听鈥�.鈥�
These are the books Amazon鈥檚 editors think everyone should read, a list of essential reads 鈥� fiction and nonfiction 鈥� spanning 200 years of literature, from Jane Austen to Kate Atkinson. Other authors on the list include F. Scott Fitzgerald, David Sedaris, Salman Rushdie, J.D. Salinger, Michael Pollan, and Shel Silverstein. Titles range from classics like 鈥淭he Great Gatsby,鈥� 鈥淧ride and Prejudice,鈥� and George Orwell鈥檚 鈥�1984鈥� to more recent hits like the 鈥淗arry Potter,鈥� 鈥淗unger Games,鈥� and 鈥淟ord of the Rings鈥� series.
To put together the list, Amazon largely steered clear of its 鈥淏est Books of the Year鈥� lists, mathematical algorithms, and other formulaic indicators. Instead, it relied simply on months of debate and deliberation from its editorial team.
鈥淥ne of our tasks was to have books that don't feel like homework: 'eat your vegetables' books," Sara Nelson, editorial director of print and Kindle Books at Amazon, told . "There was nothing in there except 'I loved this book when I was 12 for this reason.' We lobbied each other.
鈥淲e tried to make sure that we had a pretty good balance of fiction and nonfiction," Nelson added. "In terms of the demographic of the writers, we never sat down and said 'We need more women' or 'We need more books from different cultural groups or countries.' But overall, when I eyeball that list, it seems to have a lot of variation.鈥�
According to Nelson, the most hotly debated book was Orwell鈥檚 鈥�1984.鈥�
By contrast, E.B. White鈥檚 鈥淐harlotte鈥檚 Web鈥� and 鈥淪eabiscuit鈥� author Laura Hillenbrand鈥檚 鈥淯nbroken,鈥� a nonfiction book about World War II, were unanimous picks for the 鈥�100 List.鈥�
That said, what鈥檚 interesting to note is what didn鈥檛 make the list, including classics like 鈥淟es Mis茅rables鈥� and 鈥淢oby Dick.鈥�
And now it鈥檚 our turn: Readers can vote for favorite selections and demand missing favorites be added to the list at . Amazon said it plans to compile a new list of Top 100 reader picks in coming weeks.
Find the full list at .
Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.
