There's a spreadsheet you can download here that lists the 1001 books you must read before you die. I, sadly, am only in the mid-thirties. There are several authors represented I have read another title by, but according to the list, I'm in trouble. I'm curious to know how many of these titles you bastards have read. My money is on Jay or Andrew for highest count.
13 comments:
70 / 6.99%
Like Dave, there are some authors whose books I have read, but are not on the list. Also, there are some authors who are conspicuously missing (Cormac McCarthy, Peter Matthiesson, Walker Percy, Carson McCullers, to name a few).
aaahhh thanks for the link to Arukiyomi, much appreciated. And to encourage you, I am, as you are, in my mid thirties and undaunted by the challenge of reading all 1001.
Thanks for the great spreadsheet!
122 / 12.19%. Big drop off pre-1900. Some odd choices; some odd omissions.
Good article about this list here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/books/23read.html?pagewanted=print
I'll have to wait till I get home, my network isn't being friendly to the spreadsheet. I'm a sucker for these kinds of lists. No McCarthy or Percy? I'm surprised.
Glad you stopped by, Mr. Arukiyomi, and thanks for the list!
155 / 15.48%
I don't put much stock in this list, though I was impressed with some of the inclusions. These "books" range from 20 page short stories to the daunting 7-volume Remembrance of Things Past, and huge omissions, of course.
I shouldn't have underestimated Lurker on the totals list!! I think if you read some of the background info on the list, its not meant to be an 'ultimate' list as much as one that traces the development of the novel. It has inspired me though! I went out and picked up a couple of Phillip Roth novels off the list today.
Hat tip to Mike.I don't know about you, but I felt neither any sense of accomplishment at checking the boxes, nor any real sense of loss from the unchecked boxes.the ones I checked seemed very random, and few, if any, were among my favorites, either overall, or of the books by authors on the list.I am intrigued by the thought of books to have read "before you die.".I could not say that any of my favorites fit that description.I tend to think of novels (and in a way the newspaper) as a way to meet people or get a glimpse into another mileu, so perhaps a more interesting question would be which, if any, characters in novels I would feel one would have missed out by not meeting.
Ignatius Reilly would be one. Although I probably would have been terribly annoyed by him. Mr. Pickwick, Pip, Owen Meany, Charles Darnay, Kavalier and Klay, Hercule Poirot......the list seems endless.
I bow to the literary superiority of Mssrs. Lurker and Andrew. My money was on Lurker the whole time; that dude reads!
Much to my intense shame, my total falls closer to Joe.
Leaving me somewhere between Billy Ray Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan's dad on the best-read list.
I felt just the same as you, Andrew, checking off Paul Auster and Don Delillo on a "before you die" list seemed ridiculous. The characters I'd particularly miss, Holden Caulfield, Billy Pilgrim, the Whiskey Priest, Nick Adams, Phillip Marlow, Ignatius, and hell yes, Kavalier and Klay.
The list does make more sense as a development of the novel, though, but it's heavily skewed towards modern fiction.
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