If Your "Best Of" List Doesn't Include Childhood Influences, You're Lying. Period. The End.

[rockinlibrarian]

In case you haven't seen it, the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly is devoted to "All-Time Greatest" lists. Sure, everyone's got all-time greatest lists, and such lists are always open to passionate debate and sometimes straight-up ire. But what I like about these particular lists-- I bought the hard copy, for reasons that may soon become clear

Comments

[elouise82]

I have to say, I hated Alice in Wonderland as a kid. Hated it. And I adored fantasy - the Oz books were some of the earliest I read, and I adored Lewis, Nesbit, Eager, Jacques, Tolkien ...

Alice is Wonderland felt pointless. And confusing. And creepy in spots, without ever having a reason to be creepy ... just reading certain scenes left me feeling weirded out without knowing why. So it would definitely never make a list of "Best Of ..." anything for me.

I love the idea of a "best of ..." list compiled by fans, not critics. Because, duh. Fans are what make the world go 'round.

[rockinlibrarian]

Ah, but it's mind-bogglingly clever and has contributed so many random things to language, pop culture, and non-pop culture! Like I said, matter of taste, but the influence is inarguable.

Fan lists are compiled all the time though-- People's Choice things, even stuff like Betsy Bird's polls (though that's arguably verging on experts rather than just fans). At least with critic's choices you get to hear about things that aren't famous instead of just Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and Twilight-- which helps you discover new things! It's just nice when, like in this case, the critics themselves are fannish and aren't going to be stuck up about it.

[sapphireone]

Thanks for sharing! I liked both your thoughts and the Buzzfeed article (must find a minute to look at the EW, too, but...) and am forwarding this article to our new teen librarian, who was interested.

Curiously enough, I also didn't like "Alice" as a child... but still listened to it on audio with my son, because we agreed that it was culturally important enough that he ought to, even if it doesn't really make sense as a story.

[rockinlibrarian]

See, though? "Culturally Important" totally counts.