The not-good-enough book list 3

Robert Crowther Jun 2026

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Personal commitment

I recall from somewhere Fay Weldon saying, “If you want to know about an age, read the bestsellers”. So, these lists are far from the heart. The base lists barely cover,

Maybe others I don’t know. But no question underrepresented (along with ‘historical fictionalisation’ and ‘Class War!’). Do it’s readers expect the material is not good, but enjoy (‘100 books I enjoyed?’)? Do the multiple series cause vote dilution? Or do readers just not care? Sales by the million.

To get going, and only signs to the output,

This kind of thing has important categories, has sold more than anything else in the universe, and yet is not on lists?

Some titles,

A Woman of Substance Barbara Taylor Bradford

Story of a woman and the troubles she endures, the life she suffers, and the triumphs she achieves. It’s big, it’s driven, it’s kitsch. I tell you, try people and one will know—it may be the one book. It sold a lot. Probably launched the whole ‘women are great in retail’ genre (though ‘Mildred Pierce’ by James Cain, predates). Barbara Taylor Bradford wrote more, they sold too. Translated into any language on earth that can publish books. I must assume the readers are not the people who vote on, or assemble, these lists.

Riders Jilly Cooper

Showjumping in an (mostly) idyllic English countryside, aburst with swathes of relationship talk. Postcard scenery of houses and fields, braced with personal relationships… frequent mention of but not shown sex. Written in a loving gush, loaded with puns. This and many followups sold a million every release.

Am I arguing these lists would be better broken into smaller categories of books? Not really, especially given the limitations of available categories. Though that would likely give better results in this category.

Horror and Gothic

A few mentions,

Stephen King may be credited with reviving this category (from the dead?).

Still,

The Rats James Herbert

In which rats attack people, starting with the too‐available underclasses of London. James Herbert never made claims about how he wrote, and neither did anyone else. But he had urgency and ideas, because this is horror with purpose, and it scared people. They still have nightmares. It’s been translated worldwide. If I mention to anyone who has tried—to this day they will tell me.

Drug use

A few mentions,

About right for a cult category?

If only to show these categories fit badly,

Confessions of an English Opium‐Eater Thomas De Quincey

Despite it’s title, was in part intended as a serious survey of opium effects, including addiction. Despite a style that would currently be regarded as ornate and extended, the writing can draw in even the unpractised. Not to mention the descriptions of opium‐fueled dreams. An acknowledged influence on many artists—visual, musial, literary, you name it. Perhaps the autobiographical and essay factors rule it from the lists? But I can’t believe that, I believe it’s something to do with how and why these lists are put together.

A Scanner Darkly Philip K. Dick

Could easily be in a SciFi section, but here. May be hard to get into, because much of the book is stoned insight and conversation, listened to from a distance deliberate because more is to come. It’s easily Philip Dick’s most tightly constructed book, every rambly line delivers light, dark, amusement or panic, before the tape spins from the reel. Like it’s main characters, this book’s identity is unknown to itself—it’s a literary book, doomed to be known as stoned oddity. I suppose there can only ever be an understanding when…. too good to make a book list.

The wrong choices

Not my opinion only, though I admit that comes into it. So, all arguable. But I think these decisions show a factor in these lists is cultural celebrity rather than what we might call literary value. Without review, some defensible cases,

Murphy Samuel Beckett McCrum

Should be ‘The Trilogy’, Samuel Beckett

Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad

Should be ‘Nostromo’, Joseph Conrad

Lord of the Flies William Golding

Should be ‘The Spire’, Willam Golding (or arguably ‘The Inheritors’ or ‘Rites of Passage’)

And many more.

Literary breakouts

I’m talking outlandishly different, which sometimes strikes a chord. These made lists,

‘House of Leaves’ is an especially odd result, as it’s a long and dense book, very hard to read. It’s since disappeared from lists. As a book of the era, it’s placement raises a question of how these so‐called ‘greatest’ and intended‐as‐cannoical lists are time‐related.

What about?

Empire of the Sun J.G. Ballard

Story of how a small boy is caught up in the turmoil within the Far East during World War Two. He lives with his family in the city of Shanghai, is placed in a camp by the Japanese, is released to the bandit wastelands, meets his parents again and the family sails for England. Written in surreal word constructions and picture‐constructions without a shred of sentiment. Despite a much later release time, may have meant a lot to people as a vision of what happened in the East. Or perhaps being lost in violent confusion meant a lot at the time? Anyway, this book sold a remarkable number for a book that challenges the reader directly. Too tough to be a ‘favourite’?

Short Stories

Some lists allow play scripts. Some lists allow poems. For definitions, this is a dangerous road. Where are film scripts? Song lyrics? And where are short stories? Especially, as they are the closest form, short stories.

So, and I can only hint, Rudyard Kipling, Anton Chekhov, O. Henry, John Cheever, J. G. Ballard (in this category), all missing.

American literature

Seems good, yes?

All make one list or another.

But… for merit or love?

I could go on. I think what I’m saying is, as survey, this is scattershot selection. How do I interpolate this? Ignore the list titles and say, ‘most favourite given an English viewpoint’? Not that the list voters and compilers would admit to that, I’ll bet.

I could go further and claim cultural difference and perception. Nathaniel Hawthorne, not a good enough writer, ‘Moby Dick’ a better time than ‘Last of the Mohicans’? Yet England is close enough to America, no? These lists seem to be not one thing or another so, maybe, are intended as both?

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