1001 Books to Read Before You Die

[Daithi]

I liked wayspooled's idea about us coming up with our own top 1001 books list, and I decided to do something about it. This morning I bought a web name -- 1001books.com -- and I am now in the process of designing a website that will allow the site's visitors to collaboratively create our own list of 1001 books.

Here are my plans for creating the list --

1) I am breaking the list down into different categories (see below), and if there are open slots then visitors can add books to the category they feel is most appropriate.

2) Visitors can vote for their favorite three books in each category. Visitors can also vote for three books they believe should NOT be in the list/category. So books will get a ranking based on these votes.

3) If a category is full, then visitors can Replace titles where the book is in the bottom 10% of a category. When books are added to the list they will get enough points to start them at 33% (to give them a chance on the list).


Here are my plans once the list is created --

1) If the book is out of copyright, and an ebook exists at Mobileread, I'd like to provide a link so that the book can be download. (Can I get permission from somebody at Mobileread to do that? Maybe a link to Feedbooks too?)

2) If the book is out of copyright, and an ebook DOES NOT exist at Mobileread (nor Feedbooks?), I'd like to simply mention that fact. Hopefully, this will provide us with a list of books that we should probably work on converting.

3) If the book is in copyright, and an ebook exists at Amazon or Sony, I'd like to provide a link so that visitors can buy the book. (other stores besides Amazon and Sony?)

4) If the book is in copyright, and an ebook DOES NOT exist at Amazon nor Sony, I'd like to provide links so that visitors can request the book be made available. (I'll also keep watch on these titles and when they become available I can email the visitor to let them know -- if they want to provide their email address).


I'd like to incorporate books that are part of a series, but I don't want a single series to dominate any category. So authors should be limited to only one title when that title is part of a series, but then I'd provide a button you could click to list all the entries in the series (which you could then Download, Buy, or Request Publisher Make Available). However, only the initial title is counted as being part of the top 1001 books.


I also happen to like short stories and want to give them a chance on the list, but I'd also like to keep the list to 1001 books. So I was thinking I'd treat short stories in the following manner --

- if the authors work is not in copyright then I'd recommend counting the authors "Complete Short Stories" as one book.
- if an author that is out of copyright has a particularly well known book of short stories, or a set of short stories that are easily grouped, it can be added as one book (e.g. Dickens' Sketches by Boz, and Dickens' Christmas Stories).
- if the authors work is in copyright then an actual book title with short stories is needed.
- the book should be added to the appropriate category (e.g. Anton Chekhov goes in 19th Century Lit. and Edgar Allan Poe goes in Horror).



Here is how I plan to brake down the 1001 books into categories

Classic Lit. (pre-1800) 50
Shakespeare 43 (All)
Dickens 23 (All)
19th Century Lit. 75
Modern Lit. 175
Mystery 75
Science Fiction 75
Fantasy 75
Thriller 50
Horror 25
Romance 15
Western 15
Plays 15
Poetry 15
Children 50
Fiction Misc. 50
Non-Fic Classics (pre-1500) 25
Non-Fic Political 50
Non-Fic Philosophy 25
Non-Fic Religion 25
Non-Fic Misc. 50
---------------------------- ----
1001

So that's what I am planning, and I imagine it is going to take a couple months to get this done. Any thoughts? (Besides its too much work -- that's my problem.)

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by Daithi

I liked wayspooled's idea about us coming up with our own top 1001 books list, and I decided to do something about it. This morning I bought a web name -- 1001books.com -- and I am now in the process of designing a website that will allow the site's visitors to collaboratively create our own list of 1001 books.

Here are my plans for creating the list --

1) I am breaking the list down into different categories (see below), and if there are open slots then visitors can add books to the category they feel is most appropriate.

2) Visitors can vote for their favorite three books in each category. Visitors can also vote for three books they believe should NOT be in the list/category. So books will get a ranking based on these votes.

3) If a category is full, then visitors can Replace titles where the book is in the bottom 10% of a category. When books are added to the list they will get enough points to start them at 33% (to give them a chance on the list).


Here are my plans once the list is created --

1) If the book is out of copyright, and an ebook exists at Mobileread, I'd like to provide a link so that the book can be download. (Can I get permission from somebody at Mobileread to do that? Maybe a link to Feedbooks too?)

2) If the book is out of copyright, and an ebook DOES NOT exist at Mobileread (nor Feedbooks?), I'd like to simply mention that fact. Hopefully, this will provide us with a list of books that we should probably work on converting.

3) If the book is in copyright, and an ebook exists at Amazon or Sony, I'd like to provide a link so that visitors can buy the book. (other stores besides Amazon and Sony?)

4) If the book is in copyright, and an ebook DOES NOT exist at Amazon nor Sony, I'd like to provide links so that visitors can request the book be made available. (I'll also keep watch on these titles and when they become available I can email the visitor to let them know -- if they want to provide their email address).


I'd like to incorporate books that are part of a series, but I don't want a single series to dominate any category. So authors should be limited to only one title when that title is part of a series, but then I'd provide a button you could click to list all the entries in the series (which you could then Download, Buy, or Request Publisher Make Available). However, only the initial title is counted as being part of the top 1001 books.


I also happen to like short stories and want to give them a chance on the list, but I'd also like to keep the list to 1001 books. So I was thinking I'd treat short stories in the following manner --

- if the authors work is not in copyright then I'd recommend counting the authors "Complete Short Stories" as one book.
- if an author that is out of copyright has a particularly well known book of short stories, or a set of short stories that are easily grouped, it can be added as one book (e.g. Dickens' Sketches by Boz, and Dickens' Christmas Stories).
- if the authors work is in copyright then an actual book title with short stories is needed.
- the book should be added to the appropriate category (e.g. Anton Chekhov goes in 19th Century Lit. and Edgar Allan Poe goes in Horror).



Here is how I plan to brake down the 1001 books into categories

Classic Lit. (pre-1800) 50
Shakespeare 43 (All)
Dickens 23 (All)
19th Century Lit. 75
Modern Lit. 175
Mystery 75
Science Fiction 75
Fantasy 75
Thriller 50
Horror 25
Romance 15
Western 15
Plays 15
Poetry 15
Children 50
Fiction Misc. 50
Non-Fic Classics (pre-1500) 25
Non-Fic Political 50
Non-Fic Philosophy 25
Non-Fic Religion 25
Non-Fic Misc. 50
---------------------------- ----
1001

So that's what I am planning, and I imagine it is going to take a couple months to get this done. Any thoughts? (Besides its too much work -- that's my problem.)

All of Shakespeare and Dickens? Plus if you categorize it, I think you limit yourself.

I was going to work on the whole colloborative list thing, but I guess I won't now..

[Nate the great]

I don't know that I would include Shakespeare's plays on this list. They are meant to be performed, not read.

[mjh215]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I don't know that I would include Shakespeare's plays on this list. They are meant to be performed, not read.

And so it begins....

-MJ

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by mjh215

And so it begins....

-MJ

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I don't know that I would include Shakespeare's plays on this list. They are meant to be performed, not read.

I think that is why they aren't in the original book.

On the same note, it's like reading Latin texts in English. Partly because some of the translations are old, so the language is completely different (oh man, translating Petronius' "Cena Trimalchionis" and reading the Victorian translation, ha ha ha, that kind of book was NOT meant to be translated by those stuff Victorians), or just losing the sheer awesomeness of someone's skill in writing (Cicero, for example, is like trying to put Gertrude Stein in another language). I'm sure this goes for other languages (I want to learn Italian just so I can read Dante in the original language, I get the feeling it would be so much better).

Sorry for the derail..

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Daithi

...So that's what I am planning, and I imagine it is going to take a couple months to get this done. Any thoughts? (Besides its too much work -- that's my problem.)

Looks like it could be a fascinating project - I love perusing 'best of' lists, and will certainly add my two-penn'rth when it's up and running.

I'm curious to know why Dickens has his own category - is he a particular favourite? He's good, but you may get people wanting the same treatment for their pet authors (e.g. Austen, Trollope etc.).

[ErwinOtten]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

I'm curious to know why Dickens has his own category - is he a particular favourite? He's good, but you may get people wanting the same treatment for their pet authors (e.g. Austen, Trollope etc.).

Agreed. Why 19 categories and two writers? That's no way to start a list. Shakespeare and Dickens can go in one (ore more) of the 19 other categories.

But good luck with your project.

[Daithi]

I hear what you are saying about giving Shakespeare and Dickens their own categories, and I can't say that I am real happy about it either. When I created my own lists I had initially put my Shakespeare entries in the classics category (pre-1800 category) and Dickens in the 19th Century Lit category. Here was the problem -- half of my classics category was Shakespeare and a third of my 19th Century Lit category was Dickens. So I had a choice of seperating them out into their own categories or allowing them to completely dominate a category. I thought seperating them out was the lesser of two evils, but I'd like to hear your opinions.

I have also played with different categories. At one point I had a 'Dickens & Austen,' a 'Hemingway & Steinbeck,' and a 'Faulkner, Joyce, & Woolf' category. However, I ended up putting these authors back into the regular categories because I could live with an author taking up 4 or 5 slots in a category (ok, Austen took up 6). But in the case of Dickens and Shakespeare they were taking up a dozen or couple dozen slots each (even after eliminating some of their not so popular works). So that's why I put these two authors in their own categories.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Daithi

... Here was the problem -- half of my classics category was Shakespeare and a third of my 19th Century Lit category was Dickens.

Yep, it's like the old 'Desert Islands Disks' problem - guests were asked what book they'd take to a desert island. So many said 'The Bible' or 'Works of Shakespeare' it got boring, so they were pre-provided whether the guest wanted them or not.

Thinking about it a bit more, it would be interesting to take the complete output from an author like Dickens, and see how all their works would be ranked. I haven't seen that done before.

[astrodad]

I went through to see how many I had read, but it was taking too long to count. To solve this problem, I created a new column to count the number of times the word YES appeared in a the 'Read' Column using the following formula:

=COUNTIF(C2:C1001,"=YES") where column C is a column called 'Read?'

It's just a simple way to count the number I've read. I've since redacted your original list and started to add my own contents.

Thanks for the head start!

[pilotbob]

You could import this list into LibraryThing.com or Goodreads.com and tag/slice/dice sort it any which way you want.

BOb

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by jplumey

I went through to see how many I had read, but it was taking too long to count. To solve this problem, I created a new column to count the number of times the word YES appeared in a the 'Read' Column using the following formula:

=COUNTIF(C2:C1001,"=YES") where column C is a column called 'Read?'

It's just a simple way to count the number I've read. I've since redacted your original list and started to add my own contents.

Thanks for the head start!

Ahh thats how you do it. I forgot about the countif function.

I just sorted alphabetically backwards and counted from there.