1001 Books to Read Before You Die

[lilac_jive]

I picked this book up at the library and made an excel spreadsheet of it (yes, I know, I have no life). While I have some quabbles with the books left out or included, it is still a pretty neat list.

I put it on Google docs, if someone could help me figure out how to link it on this thread (since .xls isn't supported on the forum) I can share it with everyone. I'd like to see how many everyone has read.

Also, for the Reader owners, I think about 250 of the 1001 books are available, but I didn't do the best job searching so I could be wrong.

[ficbot]

Click-able list of the free ones here:
http://manybooks.net/collections/

[mjh215]

The list is also available online at various sites already. http://www.listology.com/content_sho...id.22845/Books But some people might appreciate it in a nice spreadsheet, so thanks...

-MJ

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by mjh215

The list is also available online at various sites already. http://www.listology.com/content_sho...id.22845/Books But some people might appreciate it in a nice spreadsheet, so thanks...

-MJ

Yeah I saw that (of course, after I put it into spreadsheet) but I like the spreadsheet since I can mark if I've read it easily, and add notes like if its available on the Reader, or if I have a copy, or such and such.

Thanks for posting that though, so people can check out what's on the list.

[winspiration]

Having had a quick look through the whole list, I've definitely read 64, there were a few others that I can't remember whether I have read or not.

There are plenty more on there that I would like to read, so I've bookmarked it for future reference / inspiration. I don't think I'll be attempting the whole list though - not enough time and there are too many other books not included on the list that I'd like to read

[mjh215]

I enjoy looking around for reading lists myself. Strictly using them to give me ideas though. I make my own list, and use their lists to help point out omissions I might otherwise not have realized.

There are quite a few classics that I'll never read because the plot and characters have been so deeply ingrained in my memory from popular culture that the only reason I would have would be to compare the first hand account versus popular opinion. That has its own merits as well, but frankly if the title doesn't hold a great deal of significance I've got better reads to persue.

You may want to look at chopping that list up into a list of your own.* It has less bragging rights but more potential for personal satisfaction. I think a person that -only- reads 50 of those books, but comes away with some insight and enjoyment out of the texts is more accomplished then a person that plowed through all of them just to buy the "I read all 1001!" bumpersticker.

-MJ

*Not saying pick and chose books you'll like. But titles that you determine are important in whatever meaning you decide. Reading a book you know you won't like might at least give you more insight into those that do. Or at the very least validate your opinion to yourself even more

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by winspiration

Having had a quick look through the whole list, I've definitely read 64, there were a few others that I can't remember whether I have read or not.

There are plenty more on there that I would like to read, so I've bookmarked it for future reference / inspiration. I don't think I'll be attempting the whole list though - not enough time and there are too many other books not included on the list that I'd like to read

I wouldn't even attempt to read them all, but I feel like I should have read more than I have. I try to be a well-rounded reader and there are plenty on there that sound interesting.

I know I could never get through the whole list, because Tale of Two Cities is on there, and I couldn't get through even the first 50 pages

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

I put it on Google docs, if someone could help me figure out how to link it on this thread (since .xls isn't supported on the forum) I can share it with everyone.

One way to post it is to make a .zip file.

[winspiration]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

I know I could never get through the whole list, because Tale of Two Cities is on there, and I couldn't get through even the first 50 pages

Now that I read very recently, and enjoyed it too - I found the ending very moving.

I rarely abandon books once started, but Ulysses was one that I couldn't finish. ISTR struggling with Midnight's Children too, but I did manage to get to the end of that one.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

I had a glance down the list and was surprised to see I'd read quite a few. As much as I love the books, I would never have included the two Dirk Gently ones, for example!

Having said that, I actually cannot think of a single book I would put on a generic "must read" list. These days I back away quickly whilst starting to froth at the mouth if some-one tells me I must read something for the pleasure of it - LoTR really made me wary when people say that!

[mjh215]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

As much as I love the books, I would never have included the two Dirk Gently ones, for example!

They would have to go on my supplement list though.

-MJ

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

I had a glance down the list and was surprised to see I'd read quite a few. As much as I love the books, I would never have included the two Dirk Gently ones, for example!

Having said that, I actually cannot think of a single book I would put on a generic "must read" list. These days I back away quickly whilst starting to froth at the mouth if some-one tells me I must read something for the pleasure of it - LoTR really made me wary when people say that!

Did you at least like Dirk Gently? They're on my list since I loved Hitchiker so much.

[ficbot]

I've read about 70 from there, but some fwiw are not novels (i.e. they are short) and I was a lit major. I think I've read every Bronte and Conan Doyle, plus nearly every Atwood and Coetzee (had a prof who introduced me to him, then I read others on my own).

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Did you at least like Dirk Gently? They're on my list since I loved Hitchiker so much.

i loved dirk gently and the long dark tea-time of the soul. they are both hilarious and inventive, as is to be expected. and the long dark tea-time of the soul starts off with my favorite quotation about airports :

It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression "as pretty as an airport".

Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort. This ugliness arises because airports ane full of people who are tired, cross, and have just discovered that their luggage has landed in Murmansk (Murmansk airport is the only known exception to this otherwise infallible rule), and architects have on the whole tried to reflect this in their designs.

They have sought to highlight the tiredness and crossness motif with brutal shapes and nerve jangling colours, to make effortless the business of separating the traveller for ever from his or her luggage or loved ones, to confuse the traveller with arrows that appear to point at the windows, distant tie racks, or the current position of Ursa Minor in the night sky, and wherever possible to expose the plumbing on the grounds that it is functional, and conceal the location of the departure gates, presumably on the grounds that they are not.

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

i loved dirk gently and the long dark tea-time of the soul. they are both hilarious and inventive, as is to be expected. and the long dark tea-time of the soul starts off with my favorite quotation about airports :

Great quote! Man I love Adams. Glad to hear you liked them, I got worried for a second there.