How many books can you read in a week? A month? A year? I’m asking for a friend.

Actually, my friend is me. I’m on a mission to read every one of “The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century,” but at the rate I’m going, I’m afraid I’ll never accomplish my bucket list task before I actually kick said bucket. 

The esteemed list (of which I’ve read only 10) was compiled by The New York Times using input from over 500 hand-picked writers, editors, librarians, and other literary types. Here are the ones I’ve read: 

• The Story of the Lost Child (Elena Ferrante) 
• Station Eleven (Emily St. John Mandel) 
• Bel Canto (Ann Patchett) 
• An American Marriage (Tayari Jones) 
• Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout) 
• The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt) 
• Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders) … well, most of it, anyway 
• The Year of Magical Thinking (Joan Didion) 
• Gilead (Marilynne Robinson) 
• My Brilliant Friend (Elena Ferrante) 

(My review: I’m wild about the Ferrante, St. John Mandel, and Strout books, and I liked the others, except for Lincoln in the Bardo, which I just didn’t get.)

Yikes! With 90 more books to go, I’ll have to hustle like crazy. But luckily for me, The New York Times has just come up with another “100 Best Books” list, because the original list was pooh-poohed by some picky Times readers. After receiving numerous complaints, the publication succumbed to the pressure, polled their regular readers, and assembled a second collection of titles: the “Readers Pick Their 100 Best Books of the 21st Century” list. I like this list better.

In fact, I was happy to discover that I’ve read 16 books on this new list, including 9 from the old list, plus:

• All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr)
• Lessons in Chemistry (Bonnie Garmus)
• Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)
• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (Isabel Wilkerson)
• Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer) … skimmed parts of it
• Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens)
• The Dutch House (Ann Patchett)

(My review: I absolutely loved the books by Doerr, Garmus, and Flynn, appreciated and learned much from Wilkerson and Kimmerer, and thought the Patchett was pretty good. I was disappointed in Crawdads, however.)

I’m not all that fond of “best” lists. In fact, “best” is a word I don’t often use. For me, it’s difficult to select just one song, movie, or even friend as “the best,” and the same holds true for books. I’ve read several great ones, and others that were less than great but that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed nonetheless.

That said, I’ll take a recommended reading list any day of the week. In fact, I’ll take it all the way to my local library or indie bookstore. Book lists are helpful. But I’m sad that there are SO MANY great ones out there that didn’t make either one of the “Best Of” lists.

I’m thinking, off the top of my head, of this highly subjective list of my favorite 21st century books (and I’m sure I’ve left out many deserving ones):

• Where’d You Go Bernadette (Maria Semple)
• Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore (Robin Sloan)
• The Lacuna (Barbara Kingsolver)
• Less (Andrew Sean Greer)
• Bridge of Sighs (Richard Russo)
• The History of Love (Nicole Krauss)
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows)
• State of Wonder (Ann Patchett)
• How to Be an Antiracist (Ibram X. Kendi)
• Turtles All the Way Down (John Green)
• Unsheltered (Barbara Kingsolver)
• Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon (Malcolm Gladwell)
• The Farmer and the Clown (Marla Frazee)*
• A Wish in the Dark (Christina Soontornvat)**
• The List of Things that Will Not Change (Rebecca Stead)**

* Picture book with no words.

** Middle grade novels.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress toward my goal of reading 100 21st century books. Meanwhile, please leave me a comment about your favorite books, ones you’re currently reading, or anything else!

And be sure to check out the photos that I keep adding to my Photos page. I’ve neglected to blog about what I’ve been up to this summer, so I’m hoping that these pictures (and their captions) will catch you up.

Cover image: by Pham Trung Kien from Pixabay