Have you checked out the list of new classic books published by Entertainment Weekly? I found myself perusing over the list of “100 best reads from 1983 to 2008,” seeing which ones I have read, which ones I haven’t, as well as the choices I agreed with—and which ones I didn’t!

Though there’s a good handful that I haven’t read, there were plenty that I did read, and of those, some seemed very questionable choices to me. I’m constantly surprised, for example, by the number of people who loathe Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which I found to be one of the most moving, well-written works I’ve ever read in my life. Then again, I was the only person in my senior lit class who enjoyed Heart of Darkness…

At any rate, I think it completely deserves to be listed, and so do His Dark Materials, The Joy Luck Club, The Giver, The Lovely Bones, The Kite Runner, and many others.

Then we have The Goblet of Fire. Of the Harry Potter series, why pick The Goblet of Fire as the best of the brood? Surely Prisoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix, at least—if not the last two as well—were better? Fire was likely my least favorite of the series, and I fail to recognize why it would represent the series as the best pick. Any opinions out there?

There seem to be a plethora of books-made-into-film, as well: Mystic River, Beloved, Fast Food Nation, Watchmen, Cold Mountain, The Joy Luck Club, Love in the Time of Cholera, Atonement… I’m not discounting any of these as bad literature—in fact, of those I’ve read, I loved—but does this reflect good books to read or a list of works that people couldn’t come up with and simply stuck in good movies that were made from books to create it? Hmmm…

Then we move on to Joyce Carol Oates, likely my favorite author, and what work of hers is on the list? Black Water. Okay, while Black Water was an engaging read, I’d have to argue—vehemently—that it’s not Oates’s best. What about Beasts, Rape: A Love Story, or perhaps one of the most disturbing and affecting pieces of literature of all time, Zombie? I have friends who would argue that many of the longer novels, such as We Were the Mulvaneys or Missing Mom would qualify much more as well. And surely any of these beats Bridget Jones’s Diary! (Though it’s definitely an enjoyable book!)

Now I realize these are all simply the opinions of one little reader, but I’d also love to hear what everyone else thought about the list. There are a few I’m adding to my reading list to check out—will anyone else be doing the same based on it? Or do you think it’s a silly collection overall?