A list of the greatest lists

The wonderful Simon Armitage is currently the Professor of Poetry at Oxford University, and as a result gives termly lectures. His most recent was entitled "On lists", which got me thinking about some of the greatest lists in literature. So I've compiled a list of them:


1. "To-do list" by Simon Armitage
I'll start with Armitage himself, as the inspiration behind this blog post, whose "To-do list" starts with "Sharpen all pencils." and ends with "Disintegrate." You can read it in full here: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/201....

2. Ulysses by James Joyce
One of my favourite lists from Ulysses is of "Irish heroes and heroines of antiquity", which includes "The Man that Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo", "Adam and Eve", "Ludwig Beethoven", and "the Queen of Sheba".

3. The catalogue of ships in The Iliad, Homer
The one which set the trend: "As for the rank and file that came to Ilium, I could not name or even count them, not if I had ten tongues, ten mouths, a voice that could not tire, a heart of bronze, unless you Muses of Olympus, Daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus, would serve me as remembrancers."

4. 31 Treats and a Marriage by Lynn Farley-Rose
This book is centred around a bucket list of sorts, which Lynn originally creates to treat herself as she approaches her 60th birthday, with her husband in remission from cancer. However, as her marriage, and with it her life, begins to fall apart, this list becomes more of a lifeline.

5. "Street yarn" by Walt Whitman
Many of Whitman's poems are in the form of lists, but one of my favourites is "Street yarn": http://whitmanarchive.org/published/p...
"Come and walk in New York streets, or sit in a restaurant; we will detect some people for you by their uniforms."


What are some of your favourite lists in literature?