Waterstone's Books Of The Decade

As some of you may already know, I was quite disillusioned with the top 20 books that defined the noughties, according to The Telegraph website. Yep, I know that was a list of books that defined the noughties, as opposed to being the best books of the decade, but, it still left a lot to be desired. While at Waterstones the other day (no book-buying, if I may add, ever so proudly), I picked up their leaflet Waterstone's Books Of The Decade 2000-2009. I was fully prepared to throw it at someone in angst, but, was pleasantly surprised, and hence, thought I'd share it with the rest of you.

Note: this list isn't in any order - just top fifty books. Nothing more. Nothing less.

  1. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher - Kate Summerscale {2008}
  2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz {2007}
  3. The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid {2007}
  4. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini {2007}
  5. Half Of A Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie {2006}
  6. Tenderness of Wolves - Stef Penney {2006}
  7. Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert {2006}
  8. The Secret - Rhonda Byrne {2006}
  9. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne {2006}
  10. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins {2006}
  11. A Short History Of Tractors in Ukraine - Marina Lewycka {2005}
  12. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro {2005}
  13. Arthur and George - Julian Barnes {2005}
  14. Untold Stories - Alan Bennett {2005}
  15. No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy {2005}
  16. The Secret River - Kate Grenville {2005}
  17. Freakanomics - Stephen Levitt {2005}
  18. *Runaway - Alice Munro {2004}
  19. Small Island - Andrea Levy {2004}
  20. Wolfbrother - Michelle Paver {2004}
  21. The Master - Colm Toibin {2004}
  22. Suite Française - Irene Nemirovsky {2004}
  23. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell {2004}
  24. *Dreams From My Father - Barack Obama {2004}
  25. We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver {2003}
  26. Inkheart - Cornelia Funke {2003}
  27. *The Bookseller Of Kabul - Asne Seierstad {2003}
  28. A Short History Of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson {2003}
  29. Eats, Shoots and Leaves - Lynne Truss {2003}
  30. *Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi {2003}
  31. *Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts {2003}
  32. Fingersmith - Sarah Waters {2002}
  33. *Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides {2002}
  34. The Crimson Petal And The White - Michael Faber {2002}
  35. If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things - Alice Munro {2002}
  36. Everything Is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer {2002}
  37. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold {2002}
  38. Atonement - Ian McEwan {2001}
  39. Noughts and Crosses - Malorie Blackman {2001}
  40. *Austerlitz - W.G. Sebald {2001}
  41. Carter Beats The Devil - Glen David Gold {2001}
  42. Life Of Pi - Yann Martel {2001}
  43. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen {2001}
  44. It's Not About The Bike - Lance Armstrong {2001}
  45. *True History Of The Kelly Gang - Peter Carey {2000}
  46. The Human Stain - Philip Roth {2000}
  47. The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell {2000}
  48. *Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon {2000}
  49. *The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood {2000}
  50. *White Teeth - Zadie Smith {2000}

So, I've only read seventeen of them, and have about ten of them on my TBR/wishlist (the ones preceded with an "*"). There's no Big Brother celebrity, no Ashley Cole, and no Twilight! Only 22 books overlap with the Telegraph's Top 100. Looks like, unfortunately, the books that defined the decade weren't actually the best books of the decade (guess there'll be no arguments there).

At least, after seeing the above list, my faith in the 2000s has been restored a little bit.