As compiled by "some dude" and "some retired English teacher." I dunno. I've learned to really hate these lists. I've attempted three Man Booker Prize books and I've fucking hated them. Stephen King argues in On Writing that narrative fiction is telepathy, the bridging of two minds across time and space. If that's so, I don't feel at all bad shitting all over pulitzer-winning books because that just means the telepathy failed. I also think there's way too much emphasis placed on early American literature. "Best American novels from 1791-1836" might as well be "Best South Dakotan novels from 1922-1945." It's not like there was a lot of competition.
I don't disagree with any of that. Posted, more or less, as a stimulus for conversation about favorite American novels after making that Gatsby post recently. Any of them listed jump out at you as particular favorites?
I've read and enjoyed all of those except for Connecticut Yankee and Neuromancer, which I have not read.
Neuromancer defined cyberpunk. It is probably one of my favorite novels of all time. That does not mean it is good. It just means it is a keenly refined flavor that I have an acquired taste for. Connecticut, meanwhile, is a Bing Crosby musical from 1949 that I was required to watch far too many times.
Read the other two books in the Sprawl trilogy. They're pretty damn good and the only character they have in common is Molly. Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling is a classic, albeit dated, but the whole genre is dated so that's okay. Mirrorshades is seminal. Hardwired isn't as good, but it sure is cyberpunk as fuck. Variation on a theme: The Difference Engine is Patient Zero of Steampunk and, in my opinion, the only book worth bothering with. I kinda feel like Paolo Bacigalupi picked up the torch where Gibson dropped it; Windup Girl is every bit as cyberpunk as The Sprawl, only the gadgets are biological, not cybernetic.