List power
William Grimes writes in the New York Times book section about a book called 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Within a few sentences, he utters….
The book is British. Of course. The British love literary lists and the fights they provoke, so much so that they divide candidates for the Man Booker Prize into shortlist books and longlist books.
Grimes, who be nicknamed Grimo or Grimey in the UK, thinks Americans are above lists. Has he never looked at the sports pages of the US papers where there are endless lists of baseball statistics and lists of leaders in football rushing yardage. What would the New York Times book section be without its bestseller lists? Any form of written word media uses lists because they convey information at speed and cause debate. Lists are good. We make shopping lists, lists of things to do, lists of favourite songs, Christmas card lists, and lists of newspaper columnists to avoid. Nick Hornby wrote an entire book (High Fidelity) about a man who’d rather make a list than get his life sorted out. Grimes would, of course, point out Hornby is a list-obsessed Brit but the Americans were quick enough to turn High Fidelity into a movie and transport the whole storyline to Chicago.
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die does the trick since Grimes can’t resist debating the merits of books on the list…even though lists are beneath him. Long live lists.
