What are the best 5 books of the last 20 years, which people will continue reading for the next century ?

Question

I’ve seen lots of lists, but none of them is very specific for the “classics” of the last 10-20 years.

People continue reading Don Quixote, The Prince, The Divine Comedy or The Odyssey, after hundreds of years.

Will people continue reading your favourite books during the next century (or Millennium)?.

Any topic (Literature, Business, Science, History, Philosophy, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Children's, Self-Help, . . . . . .).

Thank you very much for your answers.

Answer 1

Night
The Kite Runner
The Bluest Eye
The Giver
Beloved

Answer 2

I have a few for you. People WILL keep reading these books - these are the next classics!
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nigthtime by Mark Haddon
Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Night by Elie Wiesel
The Giver by Lois Lowry

Answer 3

Great Question! A few of my favorites are: Cold Mountain, anything by John Irving, The Harry Potter series will definitely live on, Nobel Prize winning authors will continue to have their works studied. I loved Orhan Pamuk's "Snow".

But honestly, Cold Mountain is the only one I can come up with that falls into "classics" boundaries. Admittedly, I'm a fiction junkie.

Answer 4

Most of my favourites, or those which impressed me, were published before 1987.

Two that I thought of which I believe will be read as you say long past the middle of this century, are Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushie, and American Psycho, by Brett Easton Ellis.

I think Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being might have a chance, though I have to read it again before I bet even one draft beer on it.

Answer 5

eh... "the best" probably isn't a good phrase to use, for so many people have very different tastes. some books that i thought were interesting, and very well written are as follows:

Ender's Game- Orson Scott card
The Illuminati Trilogy- forgot the author

another good book that i can think of off the top of my head would be the art of war, by tun sze. but that was made hundreds upon hundreds of years ago.

Answer 6

Lord of the Rings trilogy & and The Hobbit by Tolkien.
The 7 habits of successful people by Steven Covey.
On food and cooking : the science and lore of the kitchen, by Harold McGee.
Gahndi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence.

Answer 7

I think that Linda Fairstein books will live on. Her books give lots of detail regarding different areas, i.e. Metropolitan Opera is the setting of one. Each book has a different area usually around N.Y. as that is where she is from.

Answer 8

I think Jean Auel's Earth's Children Series - especially the first two: "Clan of the Cave Bear" and "The Valley of Horses".

Answer 9

all of James Mitchner's, The Right Stuff, and the 9/11 Report.

Answer 10

You're right...lots of lists