Q: How do the points work?
A:
Each of the source lists is a "Top 100", which makes assigning points easy. A book in first place gets 100 points, and a book in last place gets 1 point. Put another way, each book gets points equal to 101 - rank, for each list appearance. For every award that a book recieves it gets an additional bonus of 50 points. Add it all up and that's the total points.
Q: Why haven't you included __________ list?
A:
There are plenty of "Best Books of Whatever" out there, and the 13 that are used here are by no means a complete collection. One or two lists were ignored just because they had more or less than 100 entries, which would have made the math of calculating points harder, or at least more subjective. Some lists are non-fiction (there's a little non-fiction mixed in here, but not much), and there are some great lists that unfortunately don't have any sort of ranking, so assigning points is problematic. That said, if you know of a list that you think should be included, I'd love to hear about it. See below for contact info.
Q: Why are these mostly older books?
A:
Most of the lists used here are themed around the best books of the 20th century. So there are only a few books represented here that were published after the year 2000, and because they don't appear on many lists they don't have many points, and have drifted to the bottom as a result. But if you go looking, there are a few more modern books to be found.
Q: What is the text associated with each book on the frontpage?
A:
It's the first few words of the book in question. Not enough to spoil anything, but hopefully enough to intrigue you.
Q: What's the point?
A:
I like classic books, and who doesn't like a good top 100 list? I certainly do. Plus, reading bad books is no fun.
Q: This site is the greatest thing since sliced bread! How can I support it?
A:
Buy a book! Click on any book from the front page, a specific list or a genre page and you should see links with prices on them. When you click on them and then buy that book (or any other book, for that matter), I get a small percentage. Alternatively, you can buy me a book (or something else), from my Amazon Wishlist.
Q: How can I contact you?
A:
You can reach me at admin [-at-] alistofbooks.com and I will try to get back to you in a reasonable amount of time.