Time Provokes Bookish Arguments

The “All-Time 100 Novels” is, so Time book critics Richard Lacayo and Lev Grossman (left) tell us, filled with the best English-language novels published since Henry Luce created the magazine back in 1923. As always, debate will follow, so here are some observations:

• It’s nice to see science-fiction so strongly represented, but Snow Crash isn’t nearly as good a Neal Stephenson novel as Cryptonomicon.
  
• Gone With the Wind but not Forever Amber?
  
• The multi-volume Lord of the Rings and A Dance to the Music of Time seem, I dunno, cheating somehow. But if you’re going to take that route, why not Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy? Or at least Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast novels?
  
• Watchmen is one of the most overhyped comic books ever published, and that’s saying something. If you’ve got to pick a comic book, there’s always The Adventures of Luther Arkwright or The Invisibles; if you simply must pick one by Alan Moore, V for Vendetta is much better than Watchmen.
  

Tell us what you think about the Time list; we’ll run your comments later this week.

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