1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition (1001 Before You Die)

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78  ·  rating details  ·  1,288 ratings  ·  215 reviews
A newly revised and updated guide to the world’s best literature—all at your fingertips. For discerning bibliophiles and readers who enjoy unforgettable classic literature, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die is a trove of reviews covering a century of memorable writing. Each work of literature featured here is a seminal work key to understanding and appreciating the w...more
Hardcover, 1006 pages
Published March 23rd 2010 by Universe (first published 2006)
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Ellen
Edited 8-11-2010 to add Comment no. 4 (below) in response to Paul's follow-up question.

First of all, don't tell me what I "must" do before I die.

Just fuck off.

At Paul's behest, I'm writing my reactions to this list (not really the book, but give me a break - the book is just a bunch of pretty pictures and blurbs defending their idiotic choices). What's important is this shit-for-brains list.

Comment no. 1:


First, they need a subtitle for “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.” I’m thinking “I...more
Paul
Feb 04, 2012 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: people needing something to step on to reach the top shelf in the kitchen
Shelves: litcrit
Has anyone thought of this already? Surely they have....

I wonder if it would be possible here on Goodreads to have a page listing all the 1001 books and - here's the thing - links to our own reviews of them (maybe with a limit in the case of famous books with a zillion reviews). It would be an interesting resource and would encourage people to review those which haven't got any reviews at all - say, for instance, The Taebek Mountains by Jo Jung-rae or Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. It...more
Paul
Further note, for Ben and anyone else interested in what they've added - here are 20 recent titles they've added to give you an idea. I'm sure a comprehensive list will pop up somewhere soon.

Professor Martens' Departure : Jaan Kross
The Young man : Botho Strauss
Love Medicine : Louise Erdrich
Half of Man is Woman : Zhang Xianling
Black Box : Amos Oz
The First garden : Anne Hebert
The Last World : ChristophRansmayr
Obabakoak : Bernardo Atxaga
Inland : Gerald Murnane
The daughter : Pavlov Matesis
Memoirs of...more
Apurva
First of all, it should have been titled 1001 Novels You must read..
Not Books. Because Origin of Species, The Bible, The Koran, The Rigveda and The Odessy and The Iliad were/are also apparently in the form of Books. And so is the great bathroom book. But not according to this *book*.
I learnt from this *book* that women's reading market is doing good. Lots of women read books.There were many women writers in the past centuries that were amazing and some of them were even better than Tolstoy. For...more
Inder
I joined the 1001 Books group here on Goodreads, thinking, "What a great way to get exposed to a ton of books!" so I thought I better take a look at the actual list.

Pros: Little descriptions of a lot of classic books. Lots of books described here that I have never heard of, and that I might not have known about otherwise. In fact, I may discover some new favorites through this list. Also, it appeals to my 12-year-old self, who loved to write lists of books I wanted to read. Overall, inspiring, i...more
Lara
Of course I didn't read this front to back...it's a reference book, and a wonderful one at that. Besides, there are plot spoilers! The artwork from first and rare editions and photographs of authors are especially nice. This belongs on every bibliophile's shelf.

My three complaints:

1. The awful cover, which looks like a cross between a New Age pamphlet and a college text book. Why?

2. It seems as though every work by some authors is included, so that it could almost be condensed into "500 Author...more
Jeanette
May 19, 2008
After reading or attempting to read a fairly large number of books listed in this book, I have come back and removed two of the stars I originally gave it. Many of the books are terrible, and many of the ones that aren't terrible are not "must reads".
Below is my original review from before I'd tried some of the suggested books.

_____________________________________________________________

March 16, 2008

I can't believe I read the WHOLE thing! I have it from the library, so I wanted to g...more
Skylar Burris
Sep 10, 2008 Skylar Burris rated it 2 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Modern book nuts
It's always fun to read some random academic's random list of the books one supposedly should read. It either bestows a sense of satisfaction in seeing one's tastes validated or inspires a pleasing self-righteous indignation at seeing certain books excluded; usually it does a little of both. "1,000 Books You Must Read Before You Die" includes contributions by over one hundred international critics, and, in addition to serving as an amusement, it also serves as a handy reference with summaries of...more
Nicole
3-3.5 stars. A great place to harvest fodder for your to-read list. The listings are organized by century of publication (the pre-1700s, 1700s, and 1800s sections are pretty skimpy compared to the 1900s). Each listing is accompanied by a synopsis and pretty pictures. 1001 Books introduced me to some authors and titles that I might not have stumbled upon on my own. It would have received more stars, too, if it presented a more balanced list. I just find it hard to believe that I "must read" TEN I...more
Chelsea
It's pretty, but... A list of the titles is more than sufficient for me. I got the impression that the titles were selected less because the author likes them and more because they're historically significant books. Which, believe me, is not a bad thing, and good tends to go hand in hand with significant. However, they're going to be the same titles you'd see on any other Must Read list, but compiled in one expensive book. I much preferred Nancy Pearl's Book Lust titles. Her suggestions are much...more
Jennifer (JC-S)
Aug 19, 2007 Jennifer (JC-S) rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: those who like lists of books
Shelves: owned
I bought this book in March next year, despite the 'must' in the title. I confess that I have an inherent mistrust of books that exhort, rather than invite, me to do things.

Other people's lists are always interesting. Here is a link to the review I just posted on Amazon.com:

http://tinyurl.com/2zp4x5
angrykitty
ok, first off, i'm including this in the classics smarty-pants category since almost every single book in here is a classics smarty pants book.

i was surprised at how many of the 1001 books i'd actaully read....unfortunately, when i counted all my read books, it really wasn't all that impressive considering there's 1001 books.

my biggest problem with the books included here, is the fact that they seem to really like certain authors, and then multiple books by said author is then included. for ex...more
Judith
How can anyone possibly rate a book like this ? What I find so interesting about this book is its existence and what that says about current trends.
A. We are compulsive list-makers and we love to check off the boxes of places we've been, sights we've seen, food we've tasted, etc., etc., etc.
B. As baby-boomers face their end of days they (we) become more fanatic about our "bucket lists" and whether we will ever get to read all the books we "should". Personally my 'to read' book list is always d...more
Iceman
Segundo o prefácio à Edição portuguesa, editada pela Lisma, este livro tem como intenção proporcionar aos fãs do género Romance um conjunto, neste caso 1001, de livros considerados como imprescindíveis, aqueles que eventualmente sejam de leitura obrigatória para os amantes deste género literário.

Esta Edição Internacional foi conseguida através de uma união entre várias editoras de todo o mundo que, por sua vez, reuniram várias centenas de colaboradores (escritores, críticos, jornalistas, etc) ch...more
Lara
TIL that I am not nearly as well-read as I thought I was. There are hundreds of books on this list that I'm seeing for the first time. I also learned that even though I've already read Ulysses, it's not good enough, because I also have to put myself through the torture of Gravity's Rainbow and A La Recherche de Temps Perdu before I die. No thank you, I would rather just die. Also,'epistolary' and 'bidungsroman' look like innocent words, but if you read them enough times in a row, they can elicit...more
Jennifer Leigh
If you want a compact (well, 900+ page book) list of the books that many people consider to be "classic literature," then sure! Check this book out. It gives a general synopsis of 1001 "classic literature novels" that "you MUST read before you die". For that, it is useful. But it is not even close to being complete.

Surprisingly, the editor has organized the books by century, which I found encouraging, because at least I know they appreciate older literature for its value and influence over the f...more
Michael Scott
1001 Books is a dictionary of books, of novels, to be more precise. In between carefully typeset text and colorful images, on laminated pages carefully printed in China, you get a glimpse at over 1,000 years of storytelling (with few exceptions, novels). It's a longer Book Lust written by academics, a collector's dread and craving.

I liked many of the titles inside; heh, I've read many of them and I'm not the poorer for that. (Although, literally, I am.) I loved reading about some of my all-time...more
Bill
I read this book over the course of several months. It's a collection of 300 word articles on 1001 different books, so it's not the type of book you necessarily read from start to finish. I began with the section on books published in the 2000s, then moved to the 1900s, then to the 1800s, etc.

I decided to read this book because the list included many by Paul Auster, who is my favorite living American novelist. I thought I'd get some ideas for books to try, and that is definitely the strength of...more
Sveva Caputo
Peter Boxall nella prefazione asserisce che non è possibile stilare un elenco di romanzi imperdibili data la vastità del campo che si è accinto ad elencare, oltre al fatto che molti vanno a gusto personale e quindi ciò che per uno è eccelso per un altro è solo spazzatura.
Boxall afferma che lo scopo di questa raccolta era di far parlare di sè, di rendere il lettore critico verso la lista proposta, di accendere dibattiti sul perchè dell'esclusione di questo o di quell'altro volume e via discorren...more
Jessi
I'm not sure where I learned about this book but I'm pretty sure it was from some magazine. When it comes to books that "everybody" must read, I'm strictly on the "I don't believe it" side. But I read the books anyway, trolling for things that I might have missed. Also, I wanted to see how many of these "Must Read" books I had read. The answer is 55. If you added in all of the classics that I had started but hadn't finished, the number would probably be closer to 70. Life is just too damn short...more
Spoonbridge
Another of the “1001 things to do/read/whatever before you shuffle off this mortal coil” books (that I’ve taken a strange interest in lately, but then again, I do crave a good list), “1001 Books to Read Before You Die” is definitely one that should be right up my alley.
Other reviewers have certainly done a good job highlighting and debating the strengths and weaknesses of this rather arbitrary list of 1001 essential books of global literature, with the editors many biases and boneheaded decisio...more
Diana
This is a reference book on, as the title suggests, 1001 very important books. I have to admit, I was skeptical about this book. My first thought was, roughly, "Why should I pay for a book that's just a big list of better books?"

Well, thanks to the Orange County public library system, I don't have to pay for it. So now I have it (for three weeks, anyway), and I'm actually enjoying it a lot.

It's very browsable — it's easy to flip through and skim, and somehow it doesn't feel overwhelming. Each pa...more
Susan
I bought this book just before Christmas and have taken the last month or so to really study it. My copy is the "Revised and Updated" version published in 2010, and one positive change I've noted it thatthey added Jane Austen back to the lists (she was completely removed in the last edition, can you imagine?! Not a single Austen title in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die?! What exactly did make those lists?) But I digress...

The list of books contained in this guide has been compiled by...more
Pam
How can you resist the title? It is a beautifully produced volume and fun to dip in and out of. It has a Brit slant to the choices & you will feel better about the total number on the list you've read only if you were a lit major. Seriously. But you can read the summaries and appear to be well-read OR bite the bullet & add them to your "to-read" shelf.
jacky
I love lists, especailly top lists, so this book was right up my alley. In general, I loved reading all the titles. It was fun to see books I've read and to see books I've always wanted to read. I wound up reading some of the mini-essays. Most of them were on the books that are my favorites, but others were about books I'd never heard of or famous titles I knew, but nothing else. I'd love to read more of this and hope someday to own it. It would make a great class room library book, especially f...more
Mark
I just love a book that can be used as an attractive book end; and when not used as such allows me to surreptitiously dip my toe amongst its reading proposals.

The fun doesn’t end there; “What no - Whatever book I adore” or “What, that junk, you’ve got to be kidding” and I laugh to myself as I image most everyone else having a similar internalised tennis match.

I find the quality of the entries variable, the length perfect to tempt and the associated pictures charming and the overall quality of t...more
Elizabeth
Aug 07, 2009 Elizabeth marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
A less canon-centered selection than I expected. The reviews are by a Plus lots of great author photos, stills from film adaptations and original cover art. Great bedtime browsing and I have seen it remaindered at many a bookstore. This will technically be on my "currently reading shelve" forever.
Tracy
Dec 04, 2008 Tracy rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: people who don't know what to read and would like to
Recommended to Tracy by: those people who made 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Well, not only if is this a great imagined coffee-table book, but it's also a great guide book of a list of books that you may or may not want to read in your lifetime. I went through the book with different color Post-it note tabs, marking what I had read with one color, and what I would like to read with another. I think there was a third for those ones that I started but I had no desire to finish. Certainly, I did not want to read ALL of the books, but I did buy some, such as The Mysteries of...more
Faith-Anne
This book is a perfect combination of favorite books and books you've never even heard of. I was so surprised to find some of my own obscure personal favorites on the list. This is a lovely book to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon flipping through.
Mel
This is a good book to flick through and get some recommended reading, otherwise I'd say it's not that great and works best as a book end or door stop.

I'm surprised by the number of books that have been omitted from this list - the most notable exclusion being anything by Shakespeare. It seems their definition of 'book' is 'novel'. Some pages would have been saved, too, had they just advised to read everything by Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood and a few others. There are also some questionable ent...more
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