I have to say I am some what surprised that the award went to a musician like Dylan. Has a wall been breached here though? I'd suggest not. I've been working for a few years now on a long term project of of reading at least one work by every winner for the Nobel Prize for Literature since such awards begin in 1901. There have been in my opinion some very questionable choices made in the selection of people who received the award. Certainly at times much more so than Bob Dylan.

Here's a case in point. Because of an article on another subject I was justreminded of the winner for the year 1909, Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf. One of her most notable works, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (the book I read), was really just a children's story, and really not a very notable one. Just to put that into perspective some other living authors that could have been considered for the 1909 prize include Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens] and Leo Tolstoy.

My opinion based on the 60 Nobel winning authors I've managed to read at least one work by (generally choosing one that is considered one of the author's important words) is that the quality of winners in terms of literary merit has always been a mixed bag. So anyway Dylan is the 2016 prize winner. Makes it easy for me to cross his name off as read. I'll even listen to my Bringing It All Back Home CD this afternoon to confirm.

BTW my two favorite Dylan songs would be Subterranean Homesick Blues and Like a Rolling Stone.