[Daithi]

There are some things I could quible over -- like excluding Faulkner's Light In August but including Moses Go Down and The Hamlet. Or picking Iron Heel and Martin Eden for Jack London, but leaving off Call of the Wild , White Fang, and Seawolf.

However, the main problem I have with this list (and most lists of this type) is that they are very heavy on modern literature and exclude most of the things I'd rather read, like sci-fi, fantasy, thillers, mysteries, and westerns. For heavens sake, Salman Rushdie made the list 7 times, and they put Virginia Woolf on the list 9 times. I forced myself to read To the Lighthouse -- it was torture -- stream of consiousness is like listening to one of my Aunt Myrtle's drunken rambling stories, but instead of lasting a few minutes it goes on for weeks with no point in sight.

This list may also have an ideological leaning because I noticed that they excluded Ayn Rand. Even if you hate Ayn Rand, it is hard to deny that Atlas Shrugged belonged on this list. Then again, maybe they just screwed up, because they also excluded William Shakespeare, but included Don Quixote which was written around the same time. They don't have anybody really old, like Homer or Chaucer. Nor do they have any non-fiction.

However, my main gripe is that this list (and others like it) exclude all the genres I want to read. Sure, there are a couple titles in the Sci-fi/Mystery/Thriller/Etc. genres thrown in, but they're just tokens, and seem to appear on everyone's top books lists. Like Clarke's 2001, or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

So this list has four titles for Edna O'Brien (never heard of her) and not one title for Patrick O'Brian. It has four titles for E.M. Forster (no problem here) but not one for C.S. Forester (Horatio Hornblower series and The African Queen).

When they do mention a mystery/thriller/sci-fi title it is usually only one title. For example, Agatha Christie has one book on this list. At the very least she should have And Then There Were None (or your choice of alternate title), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot's first novel), The Murder on the Orient Express, and The Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple's first novel). Heinlein, Stephenson, and even Stephen King all only had one title each on this list. Even worse, here is a list of authors that didn't make this list at all

Sci-Fi
Ray Bradbury, Lois McMaster Bujold, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Orson Scott Card, Ursula K. Le Guin, Frank Herbert, Larry Niven, and Vernor Vinge.

Fantasy
Piers Anthony, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Terry Brooks, Edgar Rice Burroughs, David Eddings, Raymond E. Feist, Neil Gaiman, Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan, George R Martin, Richard Matheson, Anne McCaffrey, Terry Pratchett, J. K. Rowling, R. A. Salvatore, and Roger Zelazny.

Mystery
Patricia Cornwell, Janet Evanovich, Dick Francis, Sue Grafton, Tony Hillerman, P.D. James, Ross MacDonald, Daphne du Maurier (How can you not have Rebecca on the top 1000 list?), Ed McBain, Robert B. Parker, James Patterson, Mickey Spillane, Rex Stout, and Josephine Tey.

Thriller/Adventure
Dan Brown, John le Carré, Tom Clancy, Robin Cook, C.S. Forester, John Grisham, Robert Ludlum, Scott Turow, Patrick O'Brian, David Baldacci, Tess Gerritsen, Clive Cussler, and Douglas Preston.

Westerns
Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, Cormac McCarthy, Larry McMurtry, Charles Portis, Jack Schaefer, and Owen Wister (how can you not have The Virginian on a top 1000 list?). Also, they have Elmore Leonard on their list but not for Hombre - go figure.

Plus they have several short stories on the list, not novellas but short stories. Every one of Guy de Maupassant's titles is a short story, and so is every title listed for Edgar Allan Poe, and I don't even know if Johnathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" qualifies as a short story -- it's more of a satirical article. Now, I don't mind them listing short stories, but then why exclude Anton Chekhov or Raymond Carver. Why exclude famous short stories by authors they included in their list, like -- Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Hills Like White Elephants," and "A Clean Well Lighted Place." Or Faulkner's "A Rose For Emily." Or Asimov "Nightfall" and "The Last Question." Or "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut. Plus they are missing a couple of my favorite short stories -- "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "Occurance at Owl Creek" by Ambrose Bierce.

When it comes down to it, I agree with mjh215, who said lists like these are great as a source to build your own list. They help you find things you might have missed. Lists of books from Cliff Notes, Spark Notes, etc. are pretty good in this regard, as are lists from genre specific websites, and awards lists.