31 January 2013

The Guardian 100 greatest non-fiction books


The Guardian came up with the 100 best nonfiction books in 2011.

 They introduced the list, thus: "After keen debate at the Guardian's books desk, this is our list of the very best factual writing ... "

Under the category "Travel" they included The Rings of Saturn by W. G Sebald. Which is really odd since the book is fiction. In several instances the novel is hardly factual at all.

6 comments:

  1. I also have some doubts about the factual nature of Also Sprach Zarathustra and In Praise of Folly. "Factual" is an odd descriptor, isn't it? Non-fiction is just a useful negation.

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    1. Maybe they wanted to be "adventurous" in their choices for "non-fiction". Even so, a disclaimer should have been included in their introduction of the list.

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  2. I remember reading that list back in 2011 and finding it very strange, some of the choices just made no sense to me. I was also not impressed by so many classics being on the list, considering so many of these books's facts have long been discredited.

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    1. Maybe a more appropriate category would have been Non-fiction-ish. Haha.

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  3. Some great books in that list, but like the 1001 books to read before you die, you could easily spend all day arguing over others selected.

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    1. Yes, of course. The 1001 books list could inspire up to 1001 objections.

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