This is my attempt to atone for the crimes I committed when, around 3 years ago, I published my first list with over 1,000 books on it. Frankly it's embarrassing to review it and so I decided to publish a pared down version.
This subset of books has less than a quarter of the original total of 1186 books. I've culled many works of dubious quality. Also I've purposely not carried over the most outrageously popular works. Hopefully you find this subset to be a more focused and satisfying collection.
NOTE: I've made ~30 last minute All-American substitutions so as not to overlap with James Nelson's recent challenge "Made in America: Novels and Short Stories". For the record, the overlaps were 4, 9, 11, 18, 23, 31, 52, 60, 62, 66, 78, 90, 91, 95, 96, 112, 133, 146, 149, 154, 178, 184, 185, 192, 195, 206, 223, 287, 292, 296 & 318 (referring to his list). Great minds think alike?
