Choosing the 100 Notable Books of 2010

From Paper Cuts
A Blog about Books
(a blog by The New York Times)

By THE EDITORS
Illustration by Joe Ciardiello

November 24, 2010, 3:49 pm

"Today, we published our 100 Notable Books of the Year online (they will appear in print on Dec. 5). The task of choosing them ­— or rather of excluding other superb books — grows harder each time. Consider it in terms of arithmetic: If we limited ourselves to a single work of fiction and nonfiction chosen from each of the issues published since Dec. 6, 2009, when the previous Notables list appeared, we would exceed our self-imposed limit.

Not that our decisions are determined arithmetically. On the contrary, we are guided by judgment, instinct and feel. The final result, for all its variety, implies a kind of logic, if not in our method, then in “the culture.” Not long ago the short story was presumed to be in extremis; our list includes nine short-story collections. When the Vietnam debacle ended 35 years ago, America entered a period of willed amnesia. But three novels on the list reimagine that war.

Patterns emerge from our nonfiction list too. It includes three biographies of baseball gods, contemporaries and rivals who together reinvented the game in the 1950s and ’60s. And we chose summings-up by songwriting prodigies who each redefined the term “popular music,” though in utterly dissimilar ways.

Readers will detect other patterns — and also errors of omission. We apologize for them, and stand ready to be scolded and corrected in the comments..."