The not-good-enough book list 2

Robert Crowther Jun 2026

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Comedy

Comedy is ‘not serious’, so can not be on these lists? The BBC, with it’s ‘favourite books’ remit, does better but it feels like much is missing. Some gets in,

The Douglas Adams and Joseph Heller get in as soon as readers vote. And someone nodded at P.G. Woodhouse.

But what about,

Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol

The premise is what people might call ‘sick’. And funny. About bad things. With characters you could never forget. That plot premise is one of the most original you’ll hear. Acknowledged in the oddest places by the oddest people. I can’t claim popularity in the 1840’s would stand up, but I can claim it sounds and runs special in translation. And still works no problem as narrative. You may be surprised how easy it is to read compared to work in that era from England. Anyway, it’s Gogol. Maybe I should look for a list of ‘authors not worth putting on lists’?

The Third Policeman Flann O’Brien

Funnier than ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce, and easier to read. And what about the discussion of the bicycle seats? I’ve heard many testimonies about how this book is either genius or bonkers, probably both. Ok, the other Flann O’Brien book is on the McCrum list. I’ve met people who would say this is their favourite book or, in the top few. Absence is not a mystery, it’s baffling. Maybe it’s because those who argue comedy can be profound are seen as populists?

The Education of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n Leo Rosten

Was published as ongoing stories, but threads are developed, such as Mr. Parkhill’s birthday. Love language—you’ll love this. Due to immigrant humour, people are gonna mutter ‘old‐fashioned’. In which case, we’ve all lost something. Could never reach a greatest list, but I put it to you, why not? Also exposes how cultures are missing from these lists, but I’ll not go into that here.

Porterhouse Blue Tom Sharpe

Or try ‘The Throwback’. This is clever, politically conservative writing. Tom Sharpe is a writer admired on grounds of style far beyond England. Of course, a chimney filled with gas‐inflated condoms is never gonna make a list of ‘greatest’ novels. Maybe his books get what they deserve?

Class War!

Some representation,

and a few more here and there.

Subsections missing, I call…

The House with the Green Shutters George Douglas Brown

Not ‘Anne of Green Gables’. About a cart operative called Gordy in small‐town Scotland, who rules the roost and is not good with it. A complex and convincing storyline, loaded with too‐real characters, and not‐dignified small drama. An old book I’ve hardly seen mentioned anywhere, but not deliberately obscure, someone has edited a Wikipedia page. I guess people would say this lacks ‘big’ themes, but it’s well‐made and clearly a rebuttal of other stories. It’s stayed with me.

The Lower Depths Maxim Gorky

A play (see Plays). Or maybe look at ‘Mother’, a book—not read it, and I don’t hold that against myself as the world is wide. ‘The Lower Depths’ is a trawl through the lives of the hopeless and their illusions. Converted and restaged in many countries. There’s a sense of representation on many of these lists, but it seems a selective representation. These works by Maxim Gorky must qualify as ‘most important’ because they were part of the movements that created the ideas. So do we conclude these lists are not about the ‘most important’? Or do we conclude ‘greatness’ is not all ‘most important’?

Esther Waters George Moore

You have to live this book. Live Esther’s life. Which is done with detail that, without big drama, grips throughout. Until you arrive at the unique ending, compromised knowingly, but showing why you would care. This was a school text for a long time, so I guess that might put people off. Or maybe realsim puts people off? Despite the fact the the list titles are often ‘greatest’?

The Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe

Character with no heros. A dowmbeat small incident that could go both ways. Not that no‐one covers themselves in glory. I can see the scope offers no threat averted or hope. A bestselling hit, a huge audience. Is something wrong with this book? Otherwise, why not a vote or two?

Plays

Not having a go at the lists above, but I’ve seen lists that put playscripts in. ‘Best of English’ or somesuch? So these are on lists,

Good call, but a little scrawny.

There’s a story missing here. The story of playwrites and playwriting. Steering clear of the Shakespeare pit,

I’ll be here all night.

Fictionalised historical

An intriguing but perhaps tense relationship… with a kind of book that does not present by literary merit, but offers coverage of historical society. Since Walter Scott, always has bestseller potential. For example, the BBC have,

Note how these all vanish from the Guardian lists.

kids

How?

I’m no killjoy. But compilers and organisers need to think. J.G. Ballard once suggested that the Warren Report on the assassination of J.F. Kennedy was the greatest work of fiction from the 20th Century—he has a better case than this.

Young

This is remarkable. An entire genre missing? To talk about Irish literature, as was complained about for the Guardian list, is one thing, but in another way….

Isn’t this odd? They’re from all ages, back pre‐first world war to present, aimed at poat‐toddler to early teenagers. They all get into the BBC’s list with it’s huge voting base and ‘favourite’ title. But none are in the Guardian list, with it’s professional and academic voting base and ‘Greatest’ title. Are they then not ‘literary’? Do they lack weight for ‘greatness’? Is it the list titles that cause this, or is something else going on here?

Oh, and I don’t see,

I Am David Anne Holm

A young boy is helped to run away from a camp, perhaps a prison, then makes his way through many places, meeting people, some who help him, and comes to understand what people intend for him, what he is escaping, and what he must do. I read this decades ago, and remember little detail. Yet the memory stayed with me, perhaps the first book I felt personally engaged in. Never a mention otherwise.

Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank

Diary of a girl who hid from the Nazis during World War Two. Believed autobiographical. Is autobiography disallowed from what are mainly fictional lists? Also, would people say this was a ‘favourite’ book? I have no doubt millions would say of this century it was a ‘key’ book.

Pornography

None present, unless you include,

Niether strictly pornographic.

But for example,

  • Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure John Cleland

  • Story Of O Anne Desclos

  • Valley of the Dolls Jacqueline Susann

  • Dice Man Luke Rhinehart

  • Fifty Shades of Grey E. L. James

    • Is it fair to say that when a reader gets pornography from a book, this does not make for their favourite book? But it should mean something—we are talking sales in the millions.

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