The One Hundred

Waterstones have launched their buy one get one free promotion on 100 of the biggest books of the year (not in size, rather in success). I'm kind of ambivalent about this idea, because although Waterstones has been instrumental in increasing sales for many of these books (I'm thinking specifically of all the promotion it did for 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo') these books are now big enough to stand on their own two feet. Do books like 'Nation' really need extra publicity, what with the legions of fans who already follow the authors? It's quite likely people will be aware of them and will buy them as Christmas presents without Waterstones shining a further spotlight on them.

Wouldn't this promotion be much more wonderful if Waterstone's concentrated on pushing books that aren't already so visible to the public? Personally nothing kills my bookstore experience quite like seeing tables full of books I've already heard about from a thousand different sources and especially at Christmas I want something exciting and new to lift the intense depression caused by battling through shopping crowds (I always visit the bookstore last, so I only have to go to the bus and so can carry heavy books, seeing more books to explore would brighten up my whole shopping experience).

I really want to create an alternative to Waterstone's list, a list of 100 books that haven't received gigantic amounts of publicity ever, but are ultimately just as awesome as the big books. Would you like to help me make such a list (sure you would, book bloggers love a good list)? I'll pick the first 10 books to go on it and then you can add the next 10 in the comments, then I'll add your choices on to the list. If 10 people show up and comment we'll quickly have 100 books spotlighted here in a small way.

The only rules are:

Books can be published in any year
They must have received low levels of whatever kind of a publicity you deem important (reviews, ad campaigns, awards etc) - this is not exactly a scientific list with well defined criteria, let's say the book just hasn't gone stratospheric
Books can be in any genre and for any age level, they can even be neglected classics that have always flown under the radar
Books must be awesome to read

So we begin in no particular order:

'Spaceman Blues' - Brian Francis Slattery
'Chameleon' - Charles R Smith
'What they always tell us' - Martin Wilson
'Mistakes were made (but not by me)' - Carol Travis & Elliot Aronson
'Empress of the World' - Sarah Ryan
'Because I am Furniture' - Thalia Chaltas
'Captivity' - Debbie Lee Wesselmann
'The Little Lady Agency' - Hester Browne
'Facts for Visitors' - Srikanth Reddy
'Seige, A novel of the Eastern Front' - Russ Schneider
'August: Osage County' - Tracy Letts
'Amulet Vol 1' - Kazu Kibuishi
'Touch Magic' - Jane Yolen
'Not Becoming my Mother' - Ruth Reichl
'Crazy Beautiful' - Lauren Baratz-Logstead
'Standing up to the Madness' - Amy Goodman and David Goodman
'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' - Langston Hughes, illustrated by E.B. LewisTuck
'Finally Tuck Everlasting' - Natalie Babbit
'The Amazing "True" Story of a Teenager Single Mom' - Katherine Arnold
'The Winner of Sorrow' - Brian Lynch
'Excellent Women' - Barbara Pym
'Slaves of Solitude' - Patrick Hamilton
'Frost in May' - Antonia White
'The Gone-Away World' – Nick Harkaway
'Summerland' – Michael Chabon
'The Last Gentleman' – Walker Percy
'The Thief Lord' – Cornelia Funke
'Old Man's War' - John Scalzi
'The Magus' - John Fowles
'After' - Francine Prose
'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant' - Anne Tyler
'The Borrible Trilogy' - Michael de Larrabeiti
'The Thief' - Megan Whalen Turner
'The Old Wives' Tale' - Arnold Bennett
'Winter Wheat' - Mildred Walker
'Daddy Long Legs' - Jean Webster
'The Ginger Tree' - Oswald Wynn
'West with the Night' - Beryl Markham
'A Very Long Engagement' - Sebastien Japrisot
'Elizabeth and Her German Garden' Elizabeth Von Arnim
'Love in a Cold Climate' - Nancy Mitford
'Dogsbody' - Diana Wynne Jones
'The Golems of Gotham' – Thane Rosenbaum
'As for Me and my House' – Sinclair Ross
'Not Wanted on the Voyage' – Thomas Findley
' The Post-Office Girl' - Stefan Zweig
'Ghost Town' - Richard W. Jennings
'Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone' - Dene Low
'Eyes Like Stars' - Lisa Mantchev
Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood'Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood' - Benjamin Alire Saenz
'M+0 4Evr' - Tony Hegamin
'Trading Dreams at Midnight' - Diane Mckinney Whetstone
'Daughters of the Stone' - Dahlma Llanos - Figuera
'I Got Somebody in Stauton' - William Henry Lewis
'Carter Finally Gets It' - Brent Crawford
'Sweethearts of Rhythm' - Marilyn Nelson illus. by Jerry Pinkney
'In A Hotel Garden' - Gabriel Josipovici
'Of Hearts and Minds' - Rosy Thornton
'A Time of Gifts' - Patrick Leigh Fermor
'A Favourite of the Gods' - Sybille Bedford
'The Orchard' - Drusilla Modjeska
'Old Filth' - Jane Gardam
'The Beginning of Spring' - Penelope Fitzgerald
'Come Thou Tortoise' - Jessica Grant
'Smuggling Donkeys' - David Helwig
'Latitudes of Melt' - Joan Clark
'Remembering the bones' - Frances Itani
'Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie' - Alan Bradley
'The Manual of Detection' - Jedediah Berry
'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane' Kate DiCamillo
'The Ladies of Grace Adieu' - Susanna Clarke
'The Wood Wife' - Terri Windling
'Freaks' - Annette Curtis Klause
'The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives' - James P. Blaylock
'The Wizard Knight' - Gene Wolfe
'Bad Monkeys' - Matt Ruff
'Confessions of a Memory Eater' - Pagan Kennedy
'An Ungodly Child' - Rachel Green
'Wrath of the Lemming Men' - Toby Frost

(Current total 78)
(Italics mean someone has debated the title being on the list)

Feel free to disagree with others selections, make sure to contribute your own picks and please wait a few days for me to start linking up to where you can buy these brilliant books for Christmas!