Visitors to BookExpo America explored the future — both long-term and immediate — of books. But the Hay Festival in Wales last week revisited the past when it was announced that George Orwell’s 1984 had been named the “definitive book of the 20th century.”
According to Guardian Unlimited Books, which conducted a national online survey, the choice indicates that “Paranoia, propaganda and a state of perpetual war are the defining characteristics of the last century.” The top 10 finalists included Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding.
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