Some statistical analysis of 1001 list books

[George P.]

Bill wrote: "George wrote: "Grande Sertão: Veredas Rosa = The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimaraes Rosa. There was a limited printing of an English translation of this evidently, bu..."

Thanks for the info Bill. The older English translation was by Harriet de Onis, and published in 1963 by Knopf. Interesting that they have commissioned a new translation rather than reprinting.
Those with access to a university library may find the old English translation there- the one I have access to only has it in Portuguese. They have a few English translations of his short story collections including Sagarana (also translated by de Onis for Knopf), so I may read that in the meantime.

[Radiantflux]

I think the basic problem with these sorts of lists—and the rating system in Goodreads in general—is that people are not independent in their sampling of books. So people who like crime novels are more likely to read and to like The Godfather and people who like romances are more likely to read and to like Pride and Prejudice than visa versa. So it's impossible to get an independent ranking of all books, as these sorts of lists assume that everyone is judging a book by the independent criteria (that's why one book can be ranked higher than another).

I find Goodreads ratings most useful when I am looking at ratings of people whose taste in books are similar to mine. In the case of 1001 Books lists I am trusting the judgement of the editor and contributors, independent of the GR ratings, then selecting books from the list based on some sort of judgement from prior experience of what I like and how must I want to get outside my comfort zone.

[George P.]

Radiantflux wrote: "I think the basic problem with these sorts of lists—and the rating system in Goodreads in general—is that people are not independent in their sampling of books. So people who like crime novels are ..."

Good comments. I realized that the influence of self-selecting books to read is evident when readers read a novelist's best-known novel, like it a lot, and go on to read other novels by the writer, which they often/usually like as well. So a writer's lesser-read books often have nearly as high and sometimes higher average ratings than their best-known critically-acclaimed one. I think this is particularly so when the novels are rather long ones, which discourages readers who weren't that enamored with the first one they read.

[Sean]

I have been looking at this a lot lately and just wanted to say thank you for all the time you put into it.

[J_BlueFlower]

:-)

It was fun to do.

[Sean]

I just now realized that this list does not include the 2018 additions. Is it easy enough to put up the Wilson score for these books?

The Goldfinch
Americanah
The Flamethrowers
A girl is a Half-Formed Thing
H is for Hawk
The story of the Lost Child
10:04
H(A)PPY
Winter (Ali Smith)
The Circle

Thanks

[J_BlueFlower]

Sean wrote: "I just now realized that this list does not include the 2018 additions. Is it easy enough to put up the Wilson score for these books?

The Goldfinch
Americanah
The Flamethrowers
A girl is a Half-Fo..."

I can do that. The best thing is to run the full analysis again since the score for all the other books will also have changed a little bit. That probably takes me about an hour. I can do that - specially if you can live with the mistreatment of special characters.

In what form do you want the results? Copy-past the full new list in a separate tread? Any special markers on special books (less than x pages)? Do you want the raw Wilson score or the one corrected for page number bias (I think the second one is the most interesting). I will run the analysis in beginning of October. I am a bit too busy the rest of the month.

[Sean]

I am in no hurry. Take your time. I appreciate the time you put into it.

I just like the raw numbers. Pasted as a new post here or in a new thread. The other lists are very interesting and fun to look at for sure. But less needed at least for me.

I don't mind all the noise created by the special characters. I have been able to figure them all out... except this one...

Под игото Вазов, Иван 3.991351

But process of elimination was my plan...

Thanks again!

[Ann A]

J_BlueFlower wrote: "Sean wrote: "I just now realized that this list does not include the 2018 additions. Is it easy enough to put up the Wilson score for these books?

The Goldfinch
Americanah
The Flamethrowers
A girl..."

Thank you, J_BlueFlower! I love looking at this list.

[J_BlueFlower]

Here we are:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[J_BlueFlower]

The top 101 books sorted in Wilson order BUT ajusted for number of pages bias is:

1 A Ballad for Georg Henig Paskov, Viktor 4.579645 120 <--
2 Ficciones Borges, Jorge Luis 4.434951 174 <--
3 Derviš i smrt Selimovi, Meša 4.502225 423
4 Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings Borges, Jorge Luis 4.440597 256
5 Grande Sertão: Veredas Guimarães Rosa, João 4.484235 624
6 The Drowned and the Saved Levi, Primo 4.341708 170 <--
7 The Book of Disquiet Pessoa, Fernando 4.446704 544
8 The Little Prince Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de 4.296805 93 <--
9 Martin Eden London, Jack 4.397565 480
10 Chess Story Zweig, Stefan 4.274988 104 <--
11 Survival in Auschwitz Levi, Primo 4.292882 187 <--
12 The Story of the Lost Child (The Neapolitan Novels, #4) Ferrante, Elena 4.376862 480
13 Watchmen Moore, Alan * 4.355120 416
14 The Godfather Puzo, Mario 4.364040 448
15 Schindler's List Keneally, Thomas 4.340714 429
16 The Bridge on the Drina Andri, Ivo 4.299292 314
17 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #3) Doyle, Arthur Conan 4.302714 339
18 The Master and Margarita Bulgakov, Mikhail 4.292472 335
19 Dom Casmurro de Assis, Machado 4.242158 176 <--
20 A Fine Balance Mistry, Rohinton 4.350336 603
21 To Kill a Mockingbird (To Kill a Mockingbird, #1) Lee, Harper 4.268274 324
22 Half of a Yellow Sun Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi 4.298181 433
23 The Player of Games (Culture, #2) Banks, Iain M. 4.254874 293
24 Giovanni’s Room Baldwin, James 4.213209 159 <--
25 Pride and Prejudice Austen, Jane 4.247843 279
26 Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas de Assis, Machado 4.209471 165 <--
27 The Hobbit or There and Back Again Tolkien, J.R.R. 4.267840 366
28 Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories O'Connor, Flannery 4.232499 269
29 Americanah Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi 4.292502 477
30 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1) Adams, Douglas 4.216829 216
31 Promise at Dawn Gary, Romain 4.247340 348
32 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4) Christie, Agatha 4.229774 288
33 Legend (The Drenai Saga, #1) Gemmell, David 4.237499 345
34 The Rings of Saturn Sebald, W.G. 4.221826 296
35 The Lord of the Rings (The Lord of the Rings, #1-3) Tolkien, J.R.R. 4.485821 1216
36 On the Edge of Reason Krleža, Miroslav 4.184380 182 <--
37 Thank You, Jeeves (Jeeves, #5) Wodehouse, P.G. 4.208165 263
38 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1) Angelou, Maya 4.214007 289
39 The Pit and the Pendulum Poe, Edgar Allan 4.144074 56 <--
40 Dispatches Herr, Michael 4.200026 260
41 Smiley's People le Carré, John 4.239222 397
42 Memoirs of Hadrian Yourcenar, Marguerite 4.221509 347
43 I, Robot (Robot, #0.1) Asimov, Isaac 4.182700 224
44 On the Heights of Despair Cioran, Emil M. 4.150692 128 <--
45 Alamut Bartol, Vladimir 4.259544 510
46 The Color Purple Walker, Alice 4.194722 295
47 Buddha's Little Finger Pelevin, Victor 4.204127 352
48 Extinction Bernhard, Thomas 4.197538 335
49 Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead Dostoyevsky, Fyodor 4.166325 233
50 El Llano en llamas Rulfo, Juan 4.155848 210
51 Correction Bernhard, Thomas 4.167621 253
52 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Kesey, Ken 4.185243 325
53 The Long Goodbye (Philip Marlowe, #6) Chandler, Raymond 4.198818 379
54 The Feast of the Goat Vargas Llosa, Mario 4.225383 475
55 Rebecca du Maurier, Daphne 4.214336 441
56 Invisible Cities Calvino, Italo 4.133602 165 <--
57 The Dispossessed (Hainish Cycle #6) Le Guin, Ursula K. 4.196659 387
58 Foundation (Foundation #1) Asimov, Isaac 4.153909 244
59 The Brothers Karamazov Dostoyevsky, Fyodor 4.312709 796
60 The House of the Spirits Allende, Isabel * 4.211217 448
61 The Tartar Steppe Buzzati, Dino 4.137375 198 <--
62 Murder Must Advertise (Lord Peter Wimsey, #10) Sayers, Dorothy L. 4.182443 356
63 The Razor's Edge Maugham, W. Somerset 4.169910 314
64 Journey to the End of the Night Céline, Louis-Ferdinand 4.208588 453
65 The Yellow Wall-Paper Gilman, Charlotte Perkins 4.095728 64 <--
66 Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China Chang, Jung 4.237546 562
67 Cat's Cradle Vonnegut, Kurt 4.163478 306
68 Our Ancestors: The Cloven Viscount, The Baron in the Trees, The Non-Existent Knight Calvino, Italo 4.187416 393
69 1984 Orwell, George 4.167771 328
70 Amok and Other Stories Zweig, Stefan 4.110248 144 <--
71 If Not Now, When? Levi, Primo 4.164705 331
72 Pippi Longstocking Lindgren, Astrid 4.110322 160 <--
73 Persuasion Austen, Jane 4.134622 249
74 Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West McCarthy, Cormac 4.158158 337
75 War with the Newts apek, Karel 4.129342 241
76 The Daughter Matesis, Pavlos 4.116313 214
77 El Laberinto De La Soledad Paz, Octavio 4.111197 191 <--
78 The Street of Crocodiles Schulz, Bruno 4.100975 160 <--
79 The Emigrants Sebald, W.G. 4.123410 237
80 The Things They Carried O'Brien, Tim 4.122212 246
81 2001: A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #1) Clarke, Arthur C. 4.132252 297
82 Farewell, My Lovely (Philip Marlowe, #2) Chandler, Raymond 4.127466 292
83 Pale Fire Nabokov, Vladimir 4.130614 315
84 Reasons to Live Hempel, Amy 4.075022 129 <--
85 A Prayer for Owen Meany Irving, John * 4.223181 637
86 Demons Dostoyevsky, Fyodor 4.250636 733
87 A Hero of Our Time Lermontov, Mikhail 4.091653 185 <--
88 The Remains of the Day Ishiguro, Kazuo 4.111004 258
89 Steppenwolf Hesse, Hermann 4.109096 256
90 S.: A Novel About the Balkans Drakuli, Slavenka 4.091370 201
91 Sostiene Pereira Tabucchi, Antonio 4.085854 182 <--
92 The Death of Ivan Ilych Tolstoy, Leo 4.055917 86 <--
93 The Passion Winterson, Jeanette 4.080837 176 <--
94 The Waves Woolf, Virginia 4.115732 297
95 The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes, #5) Doyle, Arthur Conan 4.101935 256
96 Pastoralia Saunders, George 4.080473 188 <--
97 The Rebel Camus, Albert 4.113388 320
98 Maldoror Lautréamont, Comte de 4.119675 342
99 Before Night Falls Arenas, Reinaldo 4.110977 317
100 This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen Borowski, Tadeusz 4.070585 180 <--
101 A Town Like Alice Shute, Nevil 4.122572 359

[J_BlueFlower]

All books with 200 or less pages are marked with a <--

My list had 1317 books total including the 2018 edition. Sounds about right? I hope I am not missing too many.

I fixed the rather brutal handling of special characters. At least some of them. I noticed "Под игото" by Vazov, Ivan in my data. Maybe that still looks funny.

[Sean]

To awesome of you to do this. Thank you!

I think the official number is 1315. I have 1316 on my list because mine includes Rameau's Nephew / D'Alembert's Dream and Rameau's Nephew (stand alone). My theory is that one of Boxall's edition had the two-novel version then a later edition had the stand alone version and when the list got combined the listmaker added it rather than substituted it. But I can't find any proof of this. The only version I have access to right now is the original 2006 version and it contains the stand alone version.

Ahhhh... I think you have solved the one piece that I was missing. on your original list, Под игото came out as "Под игото Вазов, Иван" and I was baffled. But now that mystery is solved.

Thanks again this is wonderful.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I feel smarter just for having read this thread. Thank you to those who did all the heavy lifting!