Jump to content

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die - challenge


frankie

Recommended Posts

OK I've read

 

1001. Aesop’s Fables – Aesopus

996. The Thousand and One Nights – Anonymous

992. Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

991. The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan

 

 

 

 

1700s

987. Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe

985. Moll Flanders – Daniel Defoe

983. Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift

976. Tom Jones – Henry Fielding

975. Fanny Hill – John Cleland

 

1800s

940. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

935. Rob Roy – Sir Walter Scott

931. Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

930. Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott

925. Last of the Mohicans – James Fenimore Cooper

922. The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo

918. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

917. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby – Charles Dickens

916. The Fall of the House of Usher – Edgar Allan Poe

913. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

911. The Pit and the Pendulum – Edgar Allan Poe

908. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

906. The Count of Monte-Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

896. Moby-Dick – Herman Melville

873. Les Misérables – Victor Hugo

868. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

867. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky

866. Journey to the Centre of the Earth – Jules Verne

861. The Idiot – Fyodor Dostoevsky

857. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

854. Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There – Lewis Carroll

835. Ben-Hur – Lew Wallace

831. Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson

825. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

823. King Solomon’s Mines – H. Rider Haggard

822. Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson

820. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson

819. She – H. Rider Haggard

809. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde

804. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

797. The Time Machine – H.G. Wells

796. The Island of Dr. Moreau – H.G. Wells

794. Dracula – Bram Stoker

791. The Invisible Man – H.G. Wells

790. The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells

 

1900s

 

785. Lord Jim – Joseph Conrad

781. The Hound of the Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

780. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

777. The Riddle of the Sands – Erskine Childers

773. Nostromo – Joseph Conrad

766. The Secret Agent – Joseph Conrad

747. Tarzan of the Apes – Edgar Rice Burroughs

743. The Thirty-Nine Steps – John Buchan

699. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

695. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – Agatha Christie

689. The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

667. All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque

664. Red Harvest – Dashiell Hammett

663. A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

660. The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett

652. The Thin Man – Dashiell Hammett

649. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

639. Thank You, Jeeves – P.G. Wodehouse

623. At the Mountains of Madness – H.P. Lovecraft

610. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien

599. The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler

564. Animal Farm – George Orwell

547. Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell

539. I, Robot – Isaac Asimov

535. The Third Man – Graham Greene

529. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

526. Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham

518. Casino Royale – Ian Fleming

511. The Long Goodbye – Raymond Chandler

496. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

495. The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith

494. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien

484. On the Road – Jack Kerouac

481. The Midwich Cuckoos – John Wyndham

470. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

451. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller

437. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

430. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John Le Carré

396. Chocky – John Wyndham

390. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick

389. 2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke

379. The Godfather – Mario Puzo

358. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S. Thompson

339. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – John Le Carré

301. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

295. Smiley’s People – John Le Carré

258. Neuromancer – William Gibson

249. Dictionary of the Khazars – Milorad Pavi?

247. Hawksmoor – Peter Ackroyd

227. Watchmen – Alan Moore & David Gibbons

219. The New York Trilogy – Paul Auster

218. The Bonfire of the Vanities – Tom Wolfe

210. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams

209. The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul – Douglas Adams

203. The Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie

200. Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco

 

Mmmm got some reading to do

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 347
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Janet, I was laughing out loud when I read your description of you least favorites: ugh! :lol: A very apt choice of wording! Seems a bit of a shame that The Mayor of Casterbridge wasn't chosen for the reading group last autumn, but I think Vanity Fair won and it's also on the list, I think.

 

<snip>

 

Kylie, do you remember when we were in one of the secondhand bookshops or at the book fair, and we started discussing about this book that has a boy and some kind of a bird on the cover, trying to remember the title of the book or alternatively, whether it was on the list? I think the book we talked about was A Kestrel for a Knave and it's on the list and it seems like Chrissy has read it. Had we found a copy of it, or why were we talking about it?

:giggle2: Hehe - ugh sums up my feelings very well! I picked up a book today (I forget what it was) and the 'blurb' started Just like J D Salinger... - that was the point I put it back on the shelf! :giggle:

 

I might get round to Vanity Fair at some point (I will try) but I'm rather put off by the number of pages. I *suppose* I can see that this is where a Kindle would come in handy! :lurker:

 

I forgot to add A Kestrel for a Knave to my 'to read' list - I bought it recently in a charity shop and it looks brand new.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:giggle2: Hehe - ugh sums up my feelings very well! I picked up a book today (I forget what it was) and the 'blurb' started Just like J D Salinger... - that was the point I put it back on the shelf! :giggle:

 

Haha, poor (unknown) book! :D

 

I might get round to Vanity Fair at some point (I will try) but I'm rather put off by the number of pages. I *suppose* I can see that this is where a Kindle would come in handy! :lurker:

 

I should get around to reading Vanity Fair as well, I was going to read it for the reading circle but then Australia happened and I was too busy. Kindle would be handy, but how else do you think we can get those nice clear arm muscles if not by holding large tombs of books :giggle:

 

 

I finished it today. That takes my list up to the rather paltry sum of 43/1001 books read! :giggle2:

 

Great progress!

 

I also did a little dent on mine, I got Madame Bovary now crossed off the list and I bought Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, because of the list.

Edited by frankie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. :) And you've read 81 now, Frankie? That's very impressive. :)

 

Thanks Janet, although 81 seems very little to me :) Still long ways to go!

I've now read The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman -> 82.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Some more progress with the challenge, I've read Watchmen by Alan Moore & David Gibbons since my last post, and I've also acquired copies of The Maltese Falcon and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Books read ....

 

987. Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe

959. Evelina - Fanny Burney

940. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

938. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

937. Mansfield Park – Jane Austen

936. Emma – Jane Austen

933. Persuasion – Jane Austen

932. Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen

916. The Fall of the House of Usher – Edgar Allan Poe

913. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

910. Martin Chuzzlewit – Charles Dickens

909. The Purloined Letter – Edgar Allan Poe

905. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

904. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë

903. Agnes Grey – Anne Brontë

902. Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë

900. Mary Barton – Elizabeth Gaskell

898. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

896. Moby-Dick – Herman Melville

892. Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell

891. Villette – Charlotte Brontë

890. Bleak House – Charles Dickens

887. North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell

886. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert (boo hiss!!)

876. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

871. Notes from the Underground – Fyodor Dostoevsky

869. Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens

868. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

867. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky

865. The Last Chronicle of Barset – Anthony Trollope

863. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

854. Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There – Lewis Carroll

853. Middlemarch – George Eliot

846. Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

840. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

821. The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy

808. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

805. News from Nowhere – William Morris

804. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

803. Diary of a Nobody – George & Weedon Grossmith

650. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

619. Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell

610. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien

603. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier

601. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day – Winifred Watson

566. The Pursuit of Love – Nancy Mitford

564. Animal Farm – George Orwell

563. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

547. Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell

542. Love in a Cold Climate – Nancy Mitford

529. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

521. The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

494. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien

484. On the Road – Jack Kerouac

478. The Bell - Iris Murdoch

467. Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote

465. Memento Mori – Muriel Spark

459. Cider With Rosie – Laurie Lee

456. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

451. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller

446. A Severed Head – Iris Murdoch

431. The Girls of Slender Means – Muriel Spark

399. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez

352. The Summer Book – Tove Jansson

305. The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch

272. The Color Purple – Alice Walker

236. Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez

222. Beloved – Toni Morrison

196. A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving

172. Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord – Louis de Bernieres

147. The Secret History – Donna Tartt

143. The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides

133. The Shipping News – E. Annie Proulx

120. Mr Vertigo - Paul Auster

112. The Information – Martin Amis

92. The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy

86. The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver

54. White Teeth – Zadie Smith

52. The Devil and Miss Prym – Paulo Coelho

49. Life of Pi – Yann Martel

38. Gabriel's Gift - Hanif Kureishi

33. Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides

28. Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami

26. Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer

19. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon

15. The Colour – Rose Tremain

13. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

9. The Master – Colm Tóibín

6. The Sea – John Banville

3. On Beauty – Zadie Smith

1. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

 

That makes 91 so far (though I do object to calling 'Lord of the Rings' one book even though it was Tolkien's intention ... it felt like three books to me!!)

 

These are the one's sitting on my shelf.

 

911. The Pit and the Pendulum – Edgar Allan Poe

883. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

862. The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins

825. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain

794. Dracula – Bram Stoker

790. The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells

698. Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

686. To The Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf

656. Cakes and Ale – W. Somerset Maugham

643. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas – Gertrude Stein

639. Thank You, Jeeves – P.G. Wodehouse

605. Brighton Rock – Graham Greene

596. Goodbye to Berlin – Christopher Isherwood

474. Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris – Paul Gallico

457. Rabbit, Run – John Updike

450. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark

430. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John Le Carré

375. Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

367. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou

348. The Black Prince – Iris Murdoch

332. Humboldt’s Gift – Saul Bellow

324. Autumn of the Patriarch – Gabriel García Márquez

310. The Passion of New Eve – Angela Carter

293. The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco

275. Schindler’s Ark – Thomas Keneally

237. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson

228. The Old Devils – Kingsley Amis

205. Oscar and Lucinda – Peter Carey

183. Possession – A.S. Byatt

170. Regeneration – Pat Barker

165. Wild Swans – Jung Chang

157. Miss Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Peter Høeg

140. What a Carve Up! – Jonathan Coe

134. Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh

129. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres

117. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

116. The Reader – Bernhard Schlink

105. The Ghost Road – Pat Barker

93. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

89. The Hours – Michael Cunningham

63. The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood

24. Fingersmith – Sarah Waters

18. What I Loved – Siri Hustvedt

Edited by poppyshake
Link to comment
Share on other sites

How did you like Silas Marner, Janet? I've got it on my TBR, I bought it mostly because it's a classic and it's on the list. Can't remember what the book is about, though :blush: And haven't been very tempted to give it a go yet.

 

Edit: Ah, I've just noticed you've started a thread about the novel, will now go and read your review :)

Edited by frankie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does anyone know if there is a spreadsheet for the new edition of 1001 Books? I noticed from Kylie's recent haul of books that there are some on it which aren't on my version.

 

ETA: Or just a list of the new/extra titles will do. :)

Edited by Janet
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be happy to send you a copy of the spreadsheet I have. It's rather fancy and very nicely set up (not by me though!) It has all 3 versions of the list, separate and combined, plus other nifty features. You can PM me your email address if you like and I can send it to you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Habeebi, there is a book called 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Peter Boxall. It has been compiled by a group of people and contains short summaries of the books. It originally came out in 2006, but a revised edition came out in 2008 with a couple of hundred changes, and then another edition came out in 2010 with only about a dozen changes.

 

Frankie has kindly posted a complete list of the books on the first page of this thread.

 

I'd love to see which books you've read. :) Of course, you don't have to participate in the challenge if you don't want to. I have no intention of reading all 1001 books, but I *love* lists and I like crossing things off so I'm playing along for a while. If you're stuck for something to read, you could always use this list (or any of the other lists floating around the internet) to perhaps find your next read. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be happy to send you a copy of the spreadsheet I have. It's rather fancy and very nicely set up (not by me though!) It has all 3 versions of the list, separate and combined, plus other nifty features. You can PM me your email address if you like and I can send it to you.

Bless you, Kylie - you're a star. :friends3: A PM is wending its way to you! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm happy to announce that I acquired 4 more books on this list for myself yesterday when I was bookshopping:

960. The Sorrows of Young Werther - J. W. von Goethe

689. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

526. The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

484. On the Road - Jack Kerouac

 

I'm so pleased! I've wanted a copy of The Sorrows of Young Werther for ages, I think it'll be a great read. And the copy I found was rather cheap, and absolutely gorgeous! I can't get over it :D I'm also really happy about finding The Day of the Triffids, in English I might add. The Kerouac book was a find as well but it's in Finnish so I'm not totally satisfied. I think I'll read it anyways and if I like it, I'll buy myself a nice English copy and pass the Finnish one on to someone else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh my word - this is amazing!!

 

Mind you, it's a bit scary knowing I will die before I finish it unless I up my rate substantially! :P

 

I love the new features. Thank you so much, Kylie. :hug:

 

I really enjoyed The Day of the Triffids, Frankie - I hope you do. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mind you, it's a bit scary knowing I will die before I finish it unless I up my rate substantially! :P

 

Well in that case you can always ask for your money back! Well, if you've bought a book version, that is. And of course, if you de-die somehow. In which case you can continue with the challenge. Hm, I don't think this helped.

:giggle:

 

Thanks Janet, I think I will enjoy The Day of the Triffids, I knew nothing about the novel beforehand but read the blurb at the shop and really liked the sound of it :)

Edited by frankie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well in that case you can always ask for your money back! Well, if you've bought a book version, that is. And of course, if you de-die somehow. In which case you can continue with the challenge. Hm, I don't think this helped.

:giggle2: I do have the book! If I de-die I'll be sure to ask for a refund!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...