Bokklubben World Library published a list of the 100 best books ever written, curated using a survey of 100 authors.
I have been looking for a similar list of books by black authors, but the results have been disappointing. Is there a better list that I haven’t found?
Oprah Daily has a list of “25 Books by Black Authors You Should Read in Your Lifetime” compiled by 4 journalists I haven’t heard of. It’s an okay list, but it’s short. It omits a few great books (there’s nothing by Alex Haley, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zadie Smith, or Richard Wright), and it includes a few mediocre books.
New York Times Magazine published a list by Adam Bradley (literary critic with a Ph.D. in English) called “The New Black Canon”. The list consists entirely of deep cuts. I appreciate what he’s doing: bringing attention to important books that are lesser known. However, this list seems to be written for someone who has already finished reading the normal black canon; it’s not that helpful for someone who is still trying to figure out what that is.
Reader’s Digest has a list of recent books called “52 Best Books by Black Authors You’ll Want to Know About”. Much like the NY Times list, this is targeted toward people who have already read the classics.
Reedsy posted a list of “70 Must-Read Books by Black Authors in 2023”. It’s a good list, but I don’t know what Reedsy is, and I can’t figure out who writes their blog. I’m not likely to read a book just because it was recommended in an anonymous blog post from an internet publishing startup.
It would be cool if some journalist sent a survey to a bunch of prominent black writers and professors and compiled the results into a list.
by il_biciclista