10 best books?

Of the New York Times Book Review's list of the the 10 Best Books of 2007, I have read exactly none of them. Five of them, I don't expect to have read since they are non-fiction, but I'm amazed that not only have I not read any of the five fiction titles they chose, I haven't even heard of them. Granted, I have a pile of book reviews in the corner of my office that I haven't read yet because I've been pretty swamped with reading material which is a disincentive to prepare to obtain more reading material. Last year NYTBook Review chose a book I hated (The Emperor's Children) as one of its best so I'm not exactly holding my breath in the "fantastic-book-I-will-love-forever" department.

Anyone read any of them? Are they any good?

MAN GONE DOWN
By Michael Thomas. This first novel explores the fragmented personal histories behind four desperate days in a black writer’s life.

OUT STEALING HORSES
By Per Petterson. Translated by Anne Born. In this short yet spacious Norwegian novel, an Oslo professional hopes to cure his loneliness with a plunge into solitude.

THE SAVAGE DETECTIVES
By Roberto Bolaño. Translated by Natasha Wimmer. A craftily autobiographical novel about a band of literary guerrillas.

THEN WE CAME TO THE END
By Joshua Ferris. Layoff notices fly in Ferris’s acidly funny first novel, set in a white-collar office in the wake of the dot-com debacle.

TREE OF SMOKE
By Denis Johnson. The author of “Jesus’ Son” offers a soulful novel about the travails of a large cast of characters during the Vietnam War.