Bloggers are often told the people love lists. Blogs with titles like “Top 5 ways to clean your sink”, “Top 10 ways to dump your husband” or “Top 5 ways mystery writers kill characters” will bring readers flocking to the blog. Or so we are told.

I am not really sure this is absolutely true. Although, I would like to read the one about the mystery writers.    Sorry, I made that one up. Although I bet you can find the answer on google. 

Anyway, it seems we are all supposedly enamored with lists. I will admit that I am a sucker for a list of books. This morning I received an email from Amazon with a list of the new books for March. At the bottom of the page was a link to the “100 Books to Read in a Lifetime – a bucket list of books to create a well-read life, from the Amazon Book Editors”. There was also a link to the list of 100 books from the Goodreads voters.

(I assume that you are familiar with Goodreads. Goodreads (www.goodreads.com) is a book review site.  You sign up and can review books and list all the books you have read.)

Proving the blog pundits right, I had to see the list. I was happy with some of their choices and surprised by some. The books run across all genres; which is why Goodnight Moon and Kitchen Confidential can be on the same list. I thought that the list from the Amazon book editors was a much looser or more experimental list of books. The Goodreads list did not hold a lot of surprises and tended to be more conservative.  For example, the Amazon list included one of my all-time favorites, Valley of the Dolls. Now, while I really liked the book, I would not expect it to be on a top 100 list.  (I have not read it in many years and I wonder how it has stood up to the test of time.) 

I know, you want to see for yourself.  I don’t blame you.  Here is the link to the Amazon book editors list and here is the link to the Goodreads list.

Let me know what you think. I am not sure which list should be worked through first. What do you think?

Thanks for reading.