As of this writing (on Tuesday), the New York Times has posted numbers 100-61 of their best books of the 21st century, 20 each day this week, as decided by 503 critics, writers, poets, and other book lovers. When I saw they were doing it, my first reaction was, I hope it’s a better list than the Time Magazine best books of the 20th century, which had only one book on it written by a woman, if I am recalling correctly. (I take that back. There were 20. However, the list I just looked at doesn’t seem to exactly be the one I remember, so maybe they revised it. And anyway, really, guys?) And two by Philip Roth, which, gag me with a spoon. (Bad news, because these new lists already have two by Philip Roth.) My other reaction was that 24 years into the 21st century was a bit early to be doing this.

Regardless, I thought I’d write a post about my reaction to the lists so far.

First of all, how many have I read? Not as many as I might have.

For books 100-91:

• Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
• how to be both by Ali Smith
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
• Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
• On Beauty by Zadie Smith

For 90-81: none

For 80-71:

• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

For 70-61:

• All Aunt Hagar’s Children by Edward P. Jones
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Obviously, I haven’t read enough of these to make any overarching comments. One thing is obvious. There are more books by women writers, 22 (if I counted them right) out of 40. So much better. And there are quite a few by minorities.

Of the ones that I read, I personally thought several were excellent but not all. In particular, I liked Bel Canto, Bring Up the Bodies, and Olive Kitteridge best. I liked how to be both, On Beauty, All Aunt Hagar’s Children, and Demon Copperhead well enough, A few others I felt indifferent to, but at least I didn’t actively dislike any of them.

But there is Philip Roth again, two of his books in the bottom 40 (admittedly, I haven’t read any of them, but I read several of his books and those were enough for me), the guy who writes the same book over and over again. There aren’t two books by any other authors listed twice in the list so far. Usually when I make my top 10 lists for the year, I have a rule that only one book per writer can be on the list. That makes for hard decisions, but I think it’s a good choice.

What about you? Take a look at the complete list at the link at top. Have you read any from the list so far? What do you think of the choices? I will be reporting back later this week once the rest of the list is published.