25 Years of Bookselling

We recently asked all our booksellers to vote on their favourite books of the past twenty-five years, and the top hundred titles are, as you'd expect, are a very mixed bag indeed. With choices ranging from Frank McCourt to Steven Hawking, and Irvine Welsh to Joanne Harris, you'd think there would be something to suit all tastes - but when it comes to literary leanings, you most definitely can't please all of the people all of the time...

Do you have a favourite book that doesn't feature on the list, that you feel has been unfairly overlooked? If so we'd love to hear from you, and have your opinions on which books you think should really have made the top hundred, and which titles really didn't deserve to be on the list...

Buy the books

Is Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor, for example, worthy of a place in your top hundred?

Does Sophie Kinsella really merit a mention?

Let us know what you think right here...

Comments

[Greg]

I'm pleased that Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting was included in the top 100, as it is undoubtedly a work of enormous power, as well as a telling social document that changed the face of Scottish literature.

I don't think it's his best book though. Marabou Stork Nightmares, which was his second novel, has a linguistic dexterity and structural ingenuity that none of his other work, Trainspotting included, even gets close to.

And what about Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang? Certainly one of my favourite novels of all time - that surely merited a place in the top 100.

[Jono]

I was amazed The Corrections wasn't on there- one of the best reviewed, and best, American novels of the period. Also, no Philip Roth? Very odd.

[Annie]

I agree - The Corrections is a fantastic novel. However, another great 'American' novel is Middlesex, and worth every vote it gets. Anything to stop Harry Potter from being No. 1. Again.

[Kieron]

The list seems fairly strong. However the lack of non-fiction is disappointing to me. Personally - although somewhat niche titles such as Nicholas Negroponte's 'Being Digital' (1995) were ground breaking in terms of the web, as was the Cluetrain Manifesto. In the more mainstream non-fiction title's such as Schama's 'Rembrandt's Eyes', the pictures in 'Full Moon' from the Apollo missions (they had to invent a new black ink for the pictures of space) or even a Horrible Histories title :). In fact I'd be so bold as to say that non-fiction rather than fiction has been more innovative in the last 25 years than fiction.

[Tiffany Corsello]

What about Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go'? over 'The Remains of the Day'? Or Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road' over 'All the Pretty Horses'? No Kiran Desai?

[Jono]

Yeah, The Road is an incredible book, but I see guess it came out too recently, and not enough people had read it. Personally, I hated All the Pretty Horses.

The Cluetrain Manifesto. Kieron wins the 'wilfully obscure nomination' award.

[Tiffany Corsello]

I agree- Cormac McCarthy is great- and 'All the Pretty Horses' was his weakest book. I hated it too. I would like to see more female authors on this list- though I shouldn't complain too much- one of my all time favorite authors- Atwood has 3 books here- but why not 'Alias Grace'?- which is one of my absolute favorites. I agree with so many of the titles on this list- but really feel that some of the authors have better works than the ones chosen. It's also so great to see so many of the Young Adult/Sci-fi/Fantasy/Magic books listed- like 'Harry Potter' and 'Artemis Fowl' and 'Northern Lights'- so many other 'Lists' have ignored them- which is sad because they are so fun and fantastic. And it is strange that such giants as Roth and Delillo aren't on the list at all- they weigh in so heavily on many other lists- like on Amazon.

[Elaine]

I was looking for To Kill a Mockingbird - was nice to see some children's books on there though - made choosing a bit tricky!

[Kieron]

Hi Elaine, unfortunately 'To Kill a Mockingbird' was published in 1960 and this list is just books from 1982 onwards(when Waterstone's opened its first store). Gruffalo did make it though :)

Kieron

[Meg]

I love the Gruffalo but it's really hard to pick a picture book over a novel, they are two completely different things.

[Kieron]

Hi Meg

Ah well there we could question 'Watchmen' on the list as well - does that stand up against 'Stalingrad'?!

best

Kieron

[Jo]

Well my all time favourite book, Jean de Florette, by Marcel Pagnol (the English translation, not the original French), isn't on the list - which is a great shame. It's the most incredible book, wonderful characters bursting with life and passion.

But even without that this is an incredible list of titles. I've loved so many of them, so I found it really difficult to pick just one to vote for. I opted for Middlesex in the end - mainly because years after reading it I still think about the characters, and if I had to save just one book from this list this would probably be the one. If you haven't read it yet then you should - it's completely brilliant.

[Carly]

Yeah, i think the list is pretty good, but wish there had been more of a variety of books.

[Miriam]

I was just wondering why it is only Northern Lights and not the whole of His Dark Materials: the BBC Big Read had them all as one book as they have been published as such. To consider it as a book in its own right doesn't make much sense to me.
Also - I haven't read 'The Blind Assassin' - but I think that 'Oryx and Crake' is superior to 'Handmaid's Tale' or 'Cat's Eye'.
Lastly - 'The Colour of Magic' is certainly not the best Pratchett book. I can see the logic in choosing the first of the series (I assume this was a similar case to the Harry Potter choice) - and people will inevitably be considering the rest of the series if they choose it. But taking it at face value, and book by book, 'Night Watch' would have been a better choice I think.
The inevitable drawback of making lists like these is that far too large a percentage of the books are in the current bestseller lists: I'm sure many of them won't survive as classics...

[Helen]

I was disappointed to find that no books by Helen Dunmore were on the list - in particular, I would choose her book about the WW2 siege of Leningrad, 'The Siege'. She is an exceptionally gifted writer with a light, but convincing touch and a poetic expressive quality. But as she isn't on the list, I shall vote for Ishiguro's 'Remains of the Day', a book which can be enjoyed on many levels. (I don't agree that 'Never Let Me Go' would have been a better choice).

[Patricia Britton]

Toni Morrison's books are missing from the list. Sula, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon.

My favourite book of the last 25 years is Beloved.

[AM Dorrington]

Very disappointed that English Passengers by Matthew Kneale wasn't on the list. I would have voted for it as my no.1 choice. Otherwise I'm impressed with the list & found it difficult to pick just one.

[Harriet Powell]

Delighted to see Small Island, Poisonwood Bible and Love in the Time of Cholera three of my all time favourites but Da Vinci Code and Labyrinth - awful tosh. And why 2 Ian Banks and 3 Margaret Atwoods?? Where was Arthur and George and William Boyd (I nominate Any Human Heart). But mostly it was a fair list and covered a good range of different genres.

[Ian]

It's difficult to take any list of the "best" seriously that includes 'The Da Vinci Code'. Generally, it's too populist

It's disappointing that there aren't more SF/Fantasy books in there & most of those are not the best, though it's great to see 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell' there. 'Colour of Magic' may be very funny, but you won't find many Pratchett fans who regard it as his best - far better choose one of the Witches books.

Also great to see 'A Prayer for Owen Meany'.

[Lucy]

Delighted to see The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Carter Beats the Devil and So Many Ways to Begin – three books I love (always just a bit wary of people who don't love them too!).

Preferred both The Autograph Man and On Beauty to White Teeth.

The Corrections was an odd omission. Shadow of the Wind and Jonathan Strange odd inclusions.

I'd have liked to see Helen Dunmore there too – and Amelie Nothomb (or did they have to be written in English?).

Child in Time rather than Enduring Love?

There's been some great books this year that should make it into the 30 year list.

[Dave Chapman]

Good to see Neuromancer in there, though I must admit to being a bigger fan of his Bridge Trilogy. Also, very surprised (but happily surprised) to see Watchmen make it in there - the only graphic novel! Though, again, I'd have put Dark Knight Returns, Sin City, 300, or some other in there.

Dave (Waterstone's Norwich)

[Steve Grice]

Seems a reasonable list, though I am disappointed that Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson does not appear - this is the one book that I have read in the last few years that really took my breath away. Her writing seems to really sparkle on the page.

I would also put The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor high on the list. I thought that it was a fantasic, subtle, melancholy book.

But why, in Gods name is If nobody speaks of Remarkable Things on the list. This has to be one of the worst books ever written. I found it completely unreadable and deeply regretted wasting money on buying such tripe.

[Alison Muntz]

The author I was looking for in the list was William Dalrymple, and in particular his book From the Holy Mountain, which is a modern classic of travel writing:erudite, beautifully written, the author takes us on a journey from Greece through Asia Minor, the Mediterranean Middle East to Egypt. Covering one of history's most volatile areas Dalrymple gives a lesson in religious history and modern politics. One of the relatively view serious non fiction books which I could not put down. The prose is also something to be savoured.
The novel missing is Sebastian Barry's A Long Long Way; a novel whose language sings and which tells the story of a young Irish Everyman. For conveying the First World War as experienced by ordinary young men, for me, it beat both Birdsong and Regeneration hands down.

[Toni Dewhurst]

I was disappointed not to see a Carol Shields in the list - one of the very finest writers of the last 25 years. My personal vote from the shortlist would go to Disgrace - one of the best pieces of writing of the last 100 years, let alone 25.

[Helen Ashford]

I agree it is a great list - but I wonder who chooses them.

I selected The Historian, but it was a difficult choice.

Why no Amulya Malladi ( think The Mango Season is her best)? In fact I didn't spot any Indian fiction. (sorry - just seen A Suitable Boy)

Also Carole Cadwalldr's The Family Tree, which is a great book.

And THREE Margaret Atwood's. Please!!! What has she done to merit such special attention?

And in children's fiction, the best I have come across (after Pullman's His Dark Materials, of course) are "The Goose Girl" and "Enna Burning" by Shannon Hale.