Spanish authors' top ten

[BlogSpy]

El Pais asked 100 Spanish authors for their top ten "libros que cambiaron su vida" ('life-changing books'), which is pretty interesting.

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[Eric]

This is the sort of meaningless list I'm always complaining about. A number of establishment critics list what are mostly "world classics". They make little attempt to introduce us to anything new, merely confirm what we already knew: that a number of writers throughout the world get put on lists saying they are the greatest of all time. The same authors keep appearing again and again.

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by Eric

This is the sort of meaningless list I'm always complaining about.

I don't think there's anything meaningless around this one, being a list of a hundred Spanish authors' ten favourites. Being authors on authors, it gives a picture of the influence of world literature on those currently writing in Spain today.

They make little attempt to introduce us to anything new, merely confirm what we already knew: that a number of writers throughout the world get put on lists saying they are the greatest of all time. The same authors keep appearing again and again.

When asked for their top ten books I think it less likely that a newbie writer will appear, because the new writer is likely to be going through an apprenticeship and not yet having the sphere of influence they one day may have.

[Eric]

My point is simple. Such lists endlessly re-inforce the (quite acceptable) piece of old hat that a number of world famous authors are good and have been read and enjoyed by many.

There are a few new names, usually from the Spanish-speaking world (and the odd Catalan one, such in Carmë Riera's list), which the El País readers (that paper is the Spanish Guardian) will know better than we do. Most of the readers took the questionnaire seriously, although there are always the jokers, like the bloke who said that the Paris Bleu guide and the London A-Z influenced him, and another one who seems to read nothing but Perec.

My objection to these sorts of lists is that it strengthens the idea that there is a kind of pléiade or canon of authors and books that you have to have read to be regarded as "knowing literature" or "being educated in literature". This leads to conformism and a lack of curiosity. The books mostly look to be perfectly admirable classics, but there is, for instance, a dearth of non-fiction. Only the Bible, Toynbee and a few others. That bias is, in itself, telling, because it says libros at the start, not specifying what sort of books.

If you only read the books pages of the British dailies, and never really stand on your own feet as regards looking for new authors, you would get a very similar list from 100 British readers, except that the list would be more introverted, taking less notice of translations.

It's not that there are no newbies, but that the same "oldbies" turn up, again and again.