[Deepflow]

The problem is that the list is only supposed to be "top 100 novels", not "100 most important novels", not "100 most enjoyable novels" not "100 most influential novels" or any number of different criteria all of which would have produced different lists.

This leads to a list which has a hodge-podge of different styles and different kinds of books that people think are "top" (whatever that even means!). Your point about being able to think of exceptions to this sums it up well, it's true, you can find books in there with philosophical depth (probably, I've only read 14 of them remember, and nearly all of those are in the top 20), but you can find books in there that will be a paradigm example of pretty much any other genre you care to mention.

Which is why I took exception at you originally saying what you did and pushing them into a very narrow definition of your own choosing when they're actually all but entirely random and certainly extremely varied.