A list of lists

‘Tis the season — of lists of the best in fiction, in non-fiction, in narrative… ‘Tis the season I both look forward to, and dread. Look forward to, because it is when I discover great reading material that somehow slipped below my personal radar; dread, because I end up buying books, and saving narratives to Kindle, and by the time I am done there is this tottering TBR pile, and while I am working my way through those more articles and more books are being written that needs to be read and before you know it another December is here…

You know what I mean?

So, what hopefully will become a regular feature begins here, with a compilation of lists of good reads. And it starts with something I love: book-length narrative non-fiction. In other words, reportage that become books as gripping as the best in fiction.

This list, by Dan Riley for GQ magazine, seeks to compile the 50 best books of literary journalism of the 21st century (thus far). I’ve read 23 of these books thus far, every single one of them brilliant.

The list is not without its problems. Chief among them is the rule limiting each author to just one book, which means that say an Isabel Wilkerson is represented here by Warmth of Other Suns, her outstanding narrative on the great race migration from the antebellum South, but there is no room in the list for her equally brilliant book Caste, which looks at how the world is divided into hierarchies, and how these arbitrary divisions shape our world and our lives.

Such gripes aside, though, this list is a keeper. And as we wind down to the end of 2021, I’ll keep adding other lists to this post as I come across them. Enjoy.

And if you come across a list you think should be included here, ping in comments, please.