1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Hmm, 63. I had read hardly any from the top of the list.

So it looks like I was wrong about Waiting for Godot and Hamlet. I thought I was looking at an index of the listed books, but it seems it is an index of all books mentioned in the text. My bad. And I think this makes my count go down, which makes me sad. I'll read The Little Prince and The Island of Dr. Moureau real quick to make up for them.

Finished #92 2001: A Space Odyssey

I've read 51 of them. I thought that was quite impressive but then considering it's out of 1001, I guess not. That's not all the books I've ever read though, so I guess that's okay. Speaking of which, where's Chaucer?

Good question.

How do you guys have the patience to read a list with 1,001 things on it? I only got part way into the twentieth century before i realised i didn't give a fuck.

ha! Me, too! Reading the list hurt my eyes. If I took a reading challenge, I think I'd try to read the ALA's top ten most challenged books of the year. But I may be too picky of a reader to even do that. Though I'm sure the same books reappear on the list over and over.

I'm not saying it's not a cool, fun thing to try, this 1001 books deal, but I was already inwardly groaning at some of the the picks in the first part.

Oh, I like that idea.

This year I'm reading books that "find" me. Either books that people give/loan me because they think I'll like them, or books that I can find for a quarter or so in a thrift store. No new books, no seeking out of particular titles.

Right now I'm reading the book my brother got me for Christmas, which is The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing. I think it's on this 1,001 list, too.

The book is actually really cool. Much more appealing than just the list.

Finished #93: The World According to Garp, by John Irving.

I'm not sure I have the worlds to express how much I loved this book. One of the things that makes me love Irving is his unbiased views towards women's rights. I am by no means a political person, so I hate to label myself as a feminist, but I suppose I am one. If nothing else for my fervent belief in a woman's right to choose. Irving is quite candid about his belief that a woman should have the right to live her life and use her body as she pleases. He has no fear of independent women, as so many men do, nor does he fear homosexuals or transexuals. I love him for this.

I am keeping a journal where I right at least a little bit about each book, this one is going to put off my starting another book until I can get down all of my thoughts, which I'm sure will take more than a few pages.

NOTE: If you have any response to this post regarding Irving or the book please share it. If you have anything to say about abortion rights or sexual orientation and rights applicable to it, please take them elsewhere. I have no interest in seeing political or ethical debates in this thread.

I adored The World According to Garp, too. John Irving in general, I just love him! I love books about lives rather than a story within a life and when I read ...Garp I felt so cosy. Really fantastic first few chapters aswell, I'm rarely engaged with a novel so quickly.

I feel that you could make an interesting blog out of this.

I love that about him too. He's not preachy about it either, he just writes amazing stories and amazing characters.

I really look forward to what you think of OWEN MEANY.

Its something I've seriously considered. But I have never blogged and I don't know if anything I wrote would read well or anything like that. I dunno.

I just did a quick google search of "John Irving feminism" and I was surprised by what I found. I only had a few minutes to read because I'm late now, but I had to pot a few words. From the little bit I read it seems that Garp was received as being anti-feminist. I am baffled because I found it to be extremely empathetic to women's struggles. I can see the opinion that he is anti-extremist, and i can't argue with it. But I am anti-extremist as well. More on this later, but if anyone has any thoughts please share them.

I finished #95: David Copperfield

I also took the suggestion and started a blog. I just started it tonight and I am typing up the entries form my journal. There isn't much there and it probably isn't very interesting, but if you want to see it

hey all... I thought you'd be interested in a totally new version of the spreadsheet that accompanies the 1001 Books list.

It's a great way to track your progress through the list... should be right up your alley SribblingDes.

It's HERE if you're interested.

Thanks for the suggestion. Looks cool! Sadly I don't have Excel or Windows, so I don't see much point in downloading it.

I'm tracking mine with post-it flags

While i'm here...
Finishined:
#96: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
#97: The Postman Always Rings Twice by James A. Cain

I refuse to read them. Therefore, I shall be immortal. Muhahahahahaha Muhahahaha. Doh...or illiterate?

ah well, actually there might be. Try the Lite version, which is free, with whatever OS and program you're using. If that works, cool. If it does, email me at arukiyomi AT johnandsheena.co.uk and I'll happily send you a free copy of the Full edition so you can test it fully on whatever OS and with whatever program you're using. That way, I can then tell people it works or doesn't work with those. If you're up for that, try the Lite out and then email me.

Congrats on finishing two more. I've read both those in the last year and reviewed them HERE and HERE if you're interested.

I completely forgot about this thread. Its pretty sad how few I've gotten through this year, i'm going to have to step it up. I didn't get much reading done for a couple of months with the house and everything, and I read a lot of books that aren't on the list, but here's an update, if anyone cares

#98 The Shining by Stephen King
#99 The Stone Diaries by Carole Shields
#100 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#101 Unless by Carole Shields
#102 The Human Stain by Philip Roth
#103 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Auchebe
#104 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon
#105 The Island of Dr. Moreau by HG Wells
#106 Shame by Salman Rushdie
#107 God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut

This is shocking to me. The Canterbury Tales usually makes it on to these sorts of lists, and I think it's pretty great. They can't pull the 'the language is hard to understand' card if they're putting Irvine Welsh books on there, or even A Clockwork Orange. Once you get into the language, it's not really a problem.

I've read 99 of these suckers. I'm a little miffed I didn't crack 100 but I have at least 30 other books that are on the list that I haven't read yet. Guess I better get going.

I'm surprised. I only made it to 43 books on there. But out of the 1,000 of them, there's probably only 300 I would want to read. lotta stinkers on there.

I haven't updated this in a while, oops. I haven't been getting through them as quickly over the past few months.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
(those two didn't get numbers cause I had an extra two in there that weren't actually on the list after all)
#108 The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
#109 Hard Times by Charles Dickens
#110 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

890 to go!

At the rate I'm going its going to take me 31 more years. I really need to step it up.

I'd be scared shitless when I got down to just one book left to go that I would actually drop dead as soon as I finished it.

Would you hate me if I copied your idea of reading and writing them?

Absolutely not, I would take it as a compliment.

I skimmed it and I think I read one. Damn.

one? ONE? What are ya an idgit or something?

That shitty list doesn't have any of the Twilight Saga on it, although to be honest I didnt wanna read the title of 1001 books...

Howards End - E.M. Forster

Only cause it was my english book...

If I counted correctly, I've only read 21 of them, sadly. I guess I've spent too much time reading Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. But I must have at least 50 more of them already in my collection. Since I discovered this used book store, I buy books at a rate at which I could never hope to read them.

Shiiiit. I've only read 34 of them. But I think most people are right when they say there's a whole lotta stinkers in there. I wanna see this blog, Melody. Link a motherfucker.

I haven't written in it since the day I made it.

Boo!

I dunno, I might me lame. I've only read 14 of those. They also happened to be 14 of the best books I've ever read.

I have 7 more of them sitting on my shelf and have partialy read half of those, and have been meaning to get to finishing them and starting the others.

Many of the listed books I have never heard of before.

40, but I'd triple that number easily if I counted seeing the film versions.

Some of the books adapted to film I didn't even know were orginally books until I read this list!

The list has Lord of the Rings listed as one book, when it really is three that took something like 20 years to be written...

There were many authors listed that I have read, just not the particular book listed.

I'm at 105. I may take up this challenge as well.

I started reading Memoirs of a Geisha... you can say I was inspired by the list. I'm gonna attempt at reading the books on the list, at the very least the ones I have been wanting to read.

You're close to my count without even trying.

I take back all of the love I have ever professed for you, I smurfing hate you.

Instead of Hate, why not work together? See how many different books you guys have read. Maybe you can get up to 200 total and then split the workload and get to the 1,001 much faster! Teamwork!

*bump*

At the beginning of autumn I promised myself I'd reach 200 by the end of the year. I'm at 194 and reading the 195th. Probably not gonna make it, but I consider it pretty good.

I didn't know you were doing this. And beating me at my own challenge.

Granted I slacked like hell this year.

I've been doing it for years and I had this post in my "watched" list, but never posted cause I was too new back then. I may have read 25-30 this year, my summer list was mostly books from the list.
Long ago, before actively reading books from the list, I downloaded it and sorted the titles alphabetically, then printed the list. I have to admit I was at just below 100 before I even started, so years of reading have paid off. Keeping track of everything I've read in the past 8 years also helps a lot.