How many of the world library books have you read?

[Laura]

Only 3

[David]

so far 66, roughly. memories of berlin alexanderplatz and mann ohne eigenschaften are a bit blurry, go to reread them again to make it count really

[Laura]

David wrote: "so far 66, roughly. memories of berlin alexanderplatz and mann ohne eigenschaften are a bit blurry, go to reread them again to make it count really"

Well done! Do you think you'll read all 100?

[Steve]

wheres the list?

[Laura]

Steve wrote: "wheres the list?"
Here's the list: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002...

[Steve]

muchas gracias!

[David]

Laura wrote: "David wrote: "so far 66, roughly. memories of berlin alexanderplatz and mann ohne eigenschaften are a bit blurry, go to reread them again to make it count really"

Well done! Do you think you'll re..."

sure do, but with some it is hard to find a complete version thats well translated

[David]

Laura wrote: "David wrote: "so far 66, roughly. memories of berlin alexanderplatz and mann ohne eigenschaften are a bit blurry, go to reread them again to make it count really"

Well done! Do you think you'll re..."

sure do, but with some it is hard to find a complete version thats well translated

[Deanne]

71 mainly due to reading the 1001 list.

[Laura]

Deanne wrote: "71 mainly due to reading the 1001 list."

That's pretty impressive! Do you think you'll tackle all 100?

[Deanne]

Don't know, still trying to finish the 1001 list.

[Rob]

14. Within the past year, I've read Middlemarch, Invisible Man, Ulysses, Old Man and the Sea and Lolita.

I read the Faulkner books and Sons and Lovers about 2 years ago.

The rest of the 14 I read in college--twenty years ago. I might get around to re-reading some.

[J_BlueFlower]

According to https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...

I have read 23 of the top 100 books and 24 are on my to-read shelf.

I am currently reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

[josearcadiobuendia]

67 read. Not that I feel enthusiastic about reading any of the remaining books. I look forward, however, to re-read several books i´ve almost forgotten like Moby Dick or Independent people.

[J_BlueFlower]

Now: You've read 27 of these books and 22 are on your to-read shelf.

josearcadiobuendia: What books are you planning not to read?

[Lesserknowngems]

Hi. Would people in this group be interested in having group reads of the books on this list? We could pick 10 books based on nominations, vote, have 1 month to read it while we talk about what we like and don't like and by that motivate one another to read more of these books.

[J_BlueFlower]

Sounds good. Maybe the group would see some more discussion in general then.

Here are my top want-to-read in prioritised order:

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
King Lear by William Shakespeare
Faust: First Part by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Othello by William Shakespeare
Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Jacques the Fatalist by Denis Diderot
Blindness by José Saramago

Maybe the first book should be a small one? Hoping that it could get more people to join. Shakespeare maybe?

[Lesserknowngems]

J_BlueFlower wrote: "Sounds good. Maybe the group would see some more discussion in general then.

Here are my top want-to-read in prioritised order:

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The Brothers Karamazo..."

I get your argument. As I've read both, either works for me (Can never turn down Shakespeare). Why don't you make a poll (or I could do it, if you would prefer) with that list and the members can vote for it. We should maybe let it run a while (4 weeks?) to give people time to find back to the group. I think giving people a chance to vote might make them more active (and therefore more eager), or would you prefere to just choose one here and now and by the group read build up momentum for the next read?

[J_BlueFlower]

I prefer a poll. That way we have time to spread the word in related groups. I hang around in the Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/970
A lot of the World Library books are on that list too.

Is it possible to make poll where you can vote for more than one book – three maybe?

Here is my complete want-to-read list: Those with a * are on the 1001-list as well. If we want to invite people there to participate they would be good starters. Maybe The Castle by Franz Kafka. With 316 pages it is short compared to most books on the list.

* Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
* The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
King Lear by William Shakespeare
Faust: First Part by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
* Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
* The Castle by Franz Kafka
* Middlemarch by George Eliot
* Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
* Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Othello by William Shakespeare
The Book of Job by Anonymous
Romancero gitano by Federico García Lorca
* The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
* The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
* Grande Sertão: Veredas (The Devil to Pay in the Backlands) by João Guimarães Rosa
Independent People by Halldór Laxness
* Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett
* Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
* Jacques the Fatalist by Denis Diderot
* Blindness by José Saramago
* The Tin Drum by Günter Grass
The Complete Essays by Michel de Montaigne
* Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

[Lesserknowngems]

We can't have a poll with multiple choices (so many people are angry about that by the way), but we can have a two polls. One with all 16 books that overlap on your list, then one with 4-8 of the most populare books. I can create the polls, then you can promote them at 1001 etc.

We could have the first poll run for 3 weeks, then the second could run for 2. That would put the end of the poll at around 14th of April, which means we could start the group read at around 15/16th of April.

We could then move over to a nomination/seconded with a poll over the books that get nominated to have to have two polls. Does that sound like a plan?

[J_BlueFlower]

Yes. Sounds good.

[Lesserknowngems]

The poll is created. Just press on the poll button in the side bar. Hopefully people will think this is interesting.

[Christopher]

Hello. Thanks for the invite.

I will try to get Middlemarch and join in the discussion. I have read it before, and it is not beloved by me, but I am not surprised to see it on this or any other list.

Doing a quick self-survey, I have read 33 of the 100. I didn't count how many I want to read, but I did see a few that I started and didn't finish, like Pere Goriot and The Red and the Black.
(in fact, I have read both of these, but so long ago that they 'don't count.')

[Tonia]

Hi! New to the group and I've rather pathetically only read 6 on the list... shocking!

I will be joining the group read of Middlemarch. I have been meaning to make a start on it for a while and as I will be finishing a chunky read from another group in the next day or so I will have some spare time for this.

[J_BlueFlower]

No problem. I know the problem of too many group reads. I have changed the discussion tread's heading to no spoilers. So you can read if when you start – if you wish. I will stick around and follow the discussion when I am done reading.

I am in general hanging around here. The “World Library Top 100 Books” list seem to me to be the “best” list. One that I would like to make an effort reading a lot from. The 1001-books is too large and has too many books on it not related to literary quality. The Guardian list has the well known and entertaining books, but lacks depth – at least relative to 1001-books and this list. BBC-100 is the same story.

[J_BlueFlower]

Tonia, which ones have you read?

[J_BlueFlower]

Complete list is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...

[Tonia]

I agree, this is a good list with a nice range of authors and themes. Many of the lists are too heavily populated with multiples by the same authors - usually it's all Dickens, The Brontes, Austen and Shakespeare. Whilst they all have qualities, there are a lot of writers overlooked by "Best Ever" lists because these few take all the top spots.

Of this list, I have read:

The Odyssey
The Stranger
Othello
The Old Man and the Sea
Dead Souls
Gulliver's Travels

And am almost finished reading Lolita with the group "Catching up with the Classics" (I read it before about 25yrs ago, but was a completely different person then!)

I did recently read my biggest chunk yet of Moby Dick but think I have put it down for the last time. There are only so many times you can try to read the same book before enough is enough!