That Guardian list, and my best books

I wrote for my Substack (regular free newsletter, see top right of this page to sign up) about choosing the best books: and felt I should share it here too. I made my own list (not the full 100 you'll be glad to hear), and the picture above is a giveaway for what's at the top of it. This is my piece:The Guardian newspaper published a list last weekThe 100 best novels of all time | Fiction | The Guardianas chosen by polling authors, academics and others. If you read the Guardian or are on social media you couldn’t have missed this, as – and presumably this is the whole point – it has to be argued over at enormous length, with people getting very irate. How could you miss out MY favourites? Since it was done on votes the answer to that one is clear: No-one else likes them that much.I would file it away as ‘enjoyable distraction that means nothing’. I live my cultural life by the George Orwell remark: ‘you cannot prove to me that a work of art is good’. Or bad for that matter.But…