Top 100 Books: the last ten years

As you work on that list of the ten books you would most like to see included in an overall Top 100, you might like to take a glance at this December 2009 article in the Guardian which sought to define the top 50 books of the Noughties.
This isn't a collection of books the Guardian journalists think are the best. They are the books that they feel were the most significant. And it is a terrific reminder of a lot of novels and works of non-fiction that left a lasting mark. They range, therefore, from works by Christopher Hitchens and Zadie Smith to those of the glamour model, Jordan, who has admitted she never reads the books published with her name on.
Scanning the list I was struck by some of those included. Smith's White Teeth seemed revolutionary at the time, but now, I'm not so sure. Her follow ups have disappointed (come on, be honest).
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, is in there, as it well should be. But I didn't spot any Roth, unless I'm mistaken.
Lists are always subjective. That's the point of trying to crowdsource our Top 100. The more lists we get sent in, the more meaningful and interesting the final list will be. And then once it is eventually compiled we can all get down to the important bit, which is arguing over what has been left out.
So get thinking, share the idea, and get those lists coming in!

First words

What is the most memorable first chapter ever written?

For an author, those first few pages are crucial. Unknown authors in particular need to get them right because they are the hook to capture an agent, an editor, a deal and eventually enough readers to rocket them into the bestseller charts. Get those first pages right and a reader will stick with you through the next 100 pages or so. And by then, if they aren't in love with your story, characters and prose style then all is lost for you anyway.

I picked up Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones yesterday and took it off to read while my daughter took part in her weekly country dancing class. As she skipped around some wooden swords I found myself totally immersed in Sebold's story.

How did I not read this book before? I was being contrary, of course. I'd heard about it, there was a while there when you couldn't move without tripping over great stacks of these books at any and every bookshop. It was on everyone's reading list and recommends list from Richard and Judy out. So I stayed away from it, assuming it to be populist schmaltz.

But that first chapter has got me totally hooked. The girl's voice comes over so clearly. The situation is so stark and awful. And the description of the rape and the murder: well it really does make you gasp a little. But because the narrator is the girl, that she is talking from 'her heaven' (let's not go there this time), it isn't a horror yarn but something far more moving, intelligent and clever.

Thrillers do the first chapter thing very well. Silence of the Lambs & The Ring come to mind. But a good first few pages isn't just the product of the highly competitive modern commercial fiction market. Philip Roth, a literary writer, has the knack. Cormac McCarthy's first few pages in The Road. Anything by Dickens, who had the popular touch.

But some really successful books have terrible first chapters. How many people abandoned Harry Potter while reading that opening about owls and strange goings on?

It is World Book Day. You can tell because their website has already crashed due to huge amounts of traffic. This year's event includes a big book giveaway tomorrow night, which is a cute idea and will make for great marketing for the twenty odd, established writers who are involved.