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April 28, 2013 12:00 PM

Listeners nominate books as modern classics

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Penguin Classics — A book shelf of Penguin Classics Modern Editions.
Crossett Library Bennington College via Flickr

Somewhere between half a million and a million books will be published in the United States this year, but only a handful of those will ever be considered a classic.

"Every once in a while as I'm shelving new books, I think about what books will become new classics," bookseller Josie Leavitt writes on Publishers Weekly's ShelfTalker blog. "We all know not every new book that is published is great; in fact it seems like half the books I buy won't make it three seasons before they're declared out of print. But every now and again a book comes along and you just know it's going to be around forever."

Which current books do you think will endure? Listeners offered some of their favorites:

"American Gods," by Neil Gaiman.

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"The Road," by Cormac McCarthy.

"The Blind Assassin," by Margaret Atwood.

"My Name is Red," by Orhan Pamuk.

"Atonement," by Ian McEwan.

"The Inheritance of Loss," by Kiran Desai.

"The Known World," by Edward P. Jones.

"Netherland," by Joseph O'Neill.

"White Teeth," by Zadie Smith.

"Freedom," by Jonathan Franzen

"Home Land," by Sam Lipsyte.

"The Clan of the Cave Bear," by Jean M. Auel.

"Where'd You Go Bernadette?" by Maria Semple.

"Cloud Atlas," by David Mitchell.

"A Visit From the Goon Squad," by Jennifer Egan.

"Life," by Keith Richards.

"Decoded," by Jay Z.

"Cutting for Stone," by Abraham Verghese.

"Wolf Hall," by Hilary Mantel.

"Mason & Dixon," by Thomas Pynchon.

"Against the Day," also by Thomas Pynchon.

"Canada," by Richard Ford.

"A Game of Thrones," by George R. R. Martin.

"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," by Michael Chabon.

"Back to Blood," by Tom Wolfe.

Share your favorite modern classic in the comments.

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Penguin Classics — A book shelf of Penguin Classics Modern Editions.
Crossett Library Bennington College via Flickr