When you look at lists of bestselling novels, and then at lists of what the “greatest novels” are, you don’t see as much overlap as you do in other media. It seems as though when it comes to those GOAT lists, people seem way more concerned with magnitude as works of literature as art, when in reality the kinds of books you’re taught in school won’t as often be the kinds of books people choose to buy and read. As much as reading is viewed as an “intellectual” hobby by society, I don’t think most readers are as concerned with that side of it, and often will even read stuff they know is trashy. Which is great! As long as people are reading, in a time when reading seems to be going away, it can only be a good thing. But that being said, having combed through some such lists, I’m wondering which books people consider to maximize both sides, being exciting and engaging reads while also being immensely powerful and well written as works of art. So for instance a Colleen Hoover novel may not be atop many people’s lists of contemporary masterpieces, but Ulysses won’t exactly be something people are addicted to and can’t stop themselves from devouring. What books hit that sweet spot between the two arenas in the best way?
I, Claudius
The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante:
-My Brilliant Friend
-The Story of a New Name
-Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
-The Story of the Lost ChildI tore through these like a man possessed. But they’re easily among the finest literature produced in Europe in the past decade.
Shogun - James Clavell. It is monstrously huge at around 1000 pages, but a real page turner.
I never read this book or watched the old Mifune miniseries bc it seemed to me (maybe erroneously, I don’t know) in the same vein as stuff like Lawrence of Arabia where it’s centered around some white dude becoming a folk hero or something in an ‘exotic’ place, but the new miniseries looks really good so I’m prob gonna watch that
For me, the best page turners are anything by, say, Agatha Christie, James Herriot, maybe Patrick O’Brian. Nothing too cerebral, but, as Arthur Conan Doyle said, a “rattling good yarn”, that makes you want to see what happens next.