Humiliating though it may be for a lit major, I don't think I've heard of a single of these "contemporary authors" the article surveyed.* But I liked the question they asked: what's your favorite book you haven't read? (Translation: what book have you most egregiously not read yet?) As a follow-up, what's a favorite or unusual book you have read?
Mmm....there are gazillions of books I really need to read. Top of my list presently, I'd probably put Brothers Karamazov and Treasure Island. The latter I need to read, because I've seen the Muppet version, the Disney Treasure Planet version, and even Treasure Planet in Farsi, and it's perfectly disgraceful to have missed the book itself. I actually own a copy of the book now; I got a lovely old hardback at the library used bookstore. I want to read Brothers K because Dr. Mitchell recommends it so highly. He was my academic advisor, after all.
My favorite random book must be M. M. Kaye's The Ordinary Princess. If I name my seventh daughter Amy, that's why.
*I think my favorite answer was the man who borrowed the first Harry Potter from one of his students about ten years ago and not only never finished it, he never gave it back, either! That's pretty bad.
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I thought the names Laura Lippman and J. D. McClatchy sounded vaguely familiar, but the only author I had any familiarity with was Margaret Atwood, the author of a vicious slander of Christianity called The Handmaid's Tale. I haven't read it, but the review I read was enough.
Frankly, I don't think these contemporary authors are likely too important. Most good authors don't get famous until late in life or after their death; if they're famous before that, they're really famous. So judging the quality of contemporary authors is always difficult, and Slate has a significantly different view on ultimate reality than you or I, so they'd judge differently anyway.
To get to the question, I need to read Tale of Two Cities and Moby Dick.
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