Top Ten Tuesday- A Time Capsule

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This week The Broke and the Bookish ask us to determine the top ten books that were written in the past ten years that we still hope are being read in thirty years. I initially thought this would be easy, but then I got a little obsessed with checking publication dates, which became problematic. Once I started thinking of the assignment like a time capsule it got easier. And, once I started thinking this way I started imagining thirty years being way, way too far in the future- everyone was sitting around reading the books from my list in weird tinfoil suits while flying around on their jet packs (seriously, when the fuck are we getting jet packs?).

1. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer: I actually may think Everything is Illuminated is a better book, but I think the cultural significance regarding 9/11 is something we'll want people to remember in thirty years. 

2. Saturday by Ian McEwan: This seemingly simple story is a great representation of a book that takes place in one day, something that is hard to do. McEwan doesn't waste words- he's deliberate, measured, yet his writing still manages to possess a rhythmic quality. Something by McEwan should be read in the future, and this would be my vote.

3. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon: I hate the idea of calling him a modern day Marquez, but I guess in a sense he is. The people of the future should understand that the people of the early 2000s appreciated magical realism and whimsy.

4. The Selected Works of TS Spivet by Reif Larsen: Basically, I think everyone in the world for all of time should read this book. The end.

5. The Road by Cormac McCarthy: Everyone should be prepared for the apocalypse. Thirty years in the future is thirty years closer to the the destruction of life as we know it.

6. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell: The review I wrote after reading this said "One hundred years from now, college students around the country will be taking courses on David Mitchell..." If it's good enough for now, and good enough for the people one hundred years away (they better have jet packs then), then it's good enough for the people thirty years from now.

7. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman: This story is about the decline of the newspaper industry- I think it would be interesting for people thirty years in the future to analyze the continuation of the decline in conjunction with the text.

8. Salvation City by Sigrid Nunez: Another semi- apocalyptic book, this one focusing on it from a health perspective. You can never be too prepared.

9. A Harry Potter book by JK Rowling: I definitely have a soft spot for Harry, and I have to respect Rowling for what she has done for children's literature. I think the series is a major part of our culture and is deserving of being so.

10. Fifty Shades of... by EL James: Attached I'd write a note explaining that non-examples are important in the learning process. A warning of what bad literature can do to the masses...