100 Books 100 Years

I have departed on the adventure of reading the best 100 novels of the past 100 years (give or take a few novels and years). Why would I do this? There are a number of reasons, the least of which is that these books can be found at my local library free of charge. Amongst the best is that I enjoy being a knowledgeable audience. I am not well-read enough to decide which books should qualify. Instead, I used the power of Google to find lists generated by the folks at the Modern Library, Radcliffe Publishing, and Time magazine. As I read I will be compiling my own ranking and posting it in the column on the right. I may even add a few not in any of the lists above. This type of reading is out of the ordinary for me. I really enjoy reading, but I am going to hit some novels on these lists that I would never have considered reading or read long ago and look upon poorly. The word "classic" is way overused. In other mediums I often find the "classics" highly annoying. You can't pay me enough to sit through an I Love Lucy episode or black and white cinematic melodrama. I am hoping the same can't be said for the books on these lists. As I proceed along I won't be shy about sharing my opinions (one of the privileges of having your own blog). I won't post on every novel I read, but I have the feeling that I will have plenty of material to comment on.