How many of the LIST books have you read?

[Kirsten]

How many of the list books have you read? Do you have a goal of how many you want to read each year?

I am at a total read of 35.

[Leslie]

I have been setting a goal of reading at least 25 titles new to me from the list for the past several years. Last year I managed to get to 67 of them - it was a great reading year! I have finished 21 so far this year.

Overall, I have read ~442 of the 1000.

[Darren]

LOL! I was counting this up literally yesterday, so Thanks for asking Kirsten!

I have been basing my reading around the list since late 2014, and a quick look at my spreadsheet shows:
2014: 7
2015: 50
2016: 71
2017: 31 so far
so 159 total atm

I read some other books though, e.g. in 2016 I read 100 in total, so about 70% of my reading is G1000
I think this may come down a bit in future years as:
a) I start to re-read more books
b) I start to read more books by authors I've discovered/liked off the list, but which individual books aren't actually G1000
I have another 350 already shelved on Goodreads, so would still hope to cross off at least 40-50/year for at least the next 10 years!

[Dennis]

279, but their method of counting is wonky. All the Chronicles of Narnia count as one selection?!

[Leslie]

@Dennis - I do so agree! All of Terry Pratchett's DiscWorld is a single entry but the 12 volume Dance to the Music in Time is not only one entry but 3 of the 12 volumes are separately listed!

My yearly totals are less than they sound like in that several books I read might constitute only a single list entry.

[Christopher]

I went to the list challenge checklist, which keeps score for you, and got 128 read (over a lifetime.. I don't think I could pass a ten-question multiple choice quiz on some of them.. SILAS MARNER e.g.)

I think last time I went down the list and checked off "want to read" and got 137.

So, I have disregarded 75 % of the list, and still it is one of the best I've seen (namely, for including personal favorites...)

[Kirsten]

I really agree about discovering new authors. For me it is Iris Murdoch. I have loved reading every book of hers we choose. (Even if I can never explain WHY I like them.)

[Darren]

I have a "guardian-1000" shelf with currently 512 titles on it. There are some on the list that I know I will never read, but even then I might end up shelving all 1000 and creating a "never-going-to-read" shelf!

Kirsten - Iris Murdoch is one of the authors I'll be reading more by too (The Bell will be next)
other authors I'm now a fan of include: Conrad, Kafka, Hemingway, Woolf, Roddy Doyle, Will Self, Paul Auster, Forster, Martin Amis and especially Magnus Mills.


Cphe - in what way "strange"?

[Christopher]

Cphe - in what way "strange"?

I'd like to hear Cphe's answer, but I can think of a few things:

1. A real mix of highbrow and lowbrow, of the 'critically acclaimed' and the 'runaway bestseller,' so that THE GODFATHER and RED HARVEST rub shoulders with HERZOG and TO THE LIGHTHOUSE.. not that these aren't all worthwhile.

2. Compiled from a bunch of shorter lists, so that SF classics get moved up to a lifetime list-- THE STARS MY DESTINATION...
(if that's the one I'm thinking of)

3. Likewise, and maybe this is a restatement of 1., quite the mix of moldy oldie and bendy trendy- ROXANA by Defoe and ATONEMENT or what have you from this century.

Yes, the list might be characterized as slightly schizophrenic. Nttawwt.

[Kathy]

87 for me. Many more wonderful books to go!

[Darren]

oooh... in breaking news I am now up to 199
stay tuned to find out which will be my 200th... ;o)

[[deleted user]]

At a total read of 39. Thought I'd not get past 15. Hoping to increase my score bit by bit with this group and will be ticking off 4 by November & December - horse's mouth, blind Assassin, 100YOS & TGOST (a humble total of 43 by 2017).

Having scanned through the entire list I came across some very interesting titles and some that I would not read because they looked intense.

Congratulations to all of you with jaw dropping, gob smacking scores!

[Darren]

for the record, 200th was Patrick White's Voss (which I thoroughly enjoyed) and since then I've read another four, so
total is now 204...

[Leslie]

Congrats on making such good progress Darren!

I have found Voss hard to locate, even with interlibrary loan. Now I am motivated to try again :)

Next year, I hope to break the 50% mark on the list. I currently have 471 finished so only a goal of 29 new-to-me by Dec. 2018 should be doable.

[Phil]

using the checkbox list, it seems I've read 213 of them, but many were a long time ago and not much remembered.

[Renee]

I just went through the checklist and it's worse than I thought. Only 65 read from the list. I'll have to remedy that, and try to get to more of them. There are a few on the list though that I'll probably not read, just because they don't really interest me, but you never know once you start.

[Fay]

I've read 151 but I'm with you on the weird numbering for some of them.

Just FYI I totally have a spreadsheet with the books on if anyone wants it to mark things off......I did it straight from the Guardian list when I realised some on the Checklist were wrong (A Series of Unfortunate Events and the wrong version of Black and Blue are a couple I remember....)

[Fay]

Leslie wrote: "Congrats on making such good progress Darren!

I have found Voss hard to locate, even with interlibrary loan. Now I am motivated to try again :)

Next year, I hope to break the 50% ma..."


Super Impressive - I'm in awe!

[Pink]

First time I've counted and I'm at 165. I could make an ambitious target of 200 by the end of the year, but I suspect it will take longer than that!

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog]

Apologies if this is a protocol violation. Should a moderator say so I will voluntarily pull this.

I am gathering anyone interested in The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk / Palace of Desire / Sugar Street over at:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Palace Walk, trilogy book one is on the list and the author is a Nobel Prize winner. I had mentioned this a while back and there was interest.
Tentative start date in Monday April 23.

[Leslie]

Phrodrick wrote: "Apologies if this is a protocol violation. Should a moderator say so I will voluntarily pull this.

I am gathering anyone interested in [book:The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk / Palace of Desire / Sug..."

I have read the first 2 books of the trilogy already -- loved the first one!

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog]

No love for book two, A warning perhaps.

Please join and comment when as as you may,

[Darren]

I am up to 245 now
so heading for the big 250! :oD

since my 200th last November I have added a few to my Favourites shelf that I don't think I'd've discovered without the G1000 list:
Angel - Taylor, Elizabeth
Tom Jones - Fielding, Henry
Darkmans - Barker, Nicola
Arturo's Island - Morante, Elsa
The Slaves Of Solitude - Hamilton, Patrick
The Horse's Mouth - Cary, Joyce

[Fay]

@Darren go you - 250 isn’t far off! I haven’t read any of the ones you’ve added to your favourites list but I’ve bumped a couple of those up to try soon. Keep going :-)

[Darren]

5 more during May:
Picture of Dorian Gray - 4 Stars
Uncle Tom's Cabin - 4 Stars
Light (M. John Harrison) - 4 Stars
To Kill a Mockingbird - 3 Stars
and 250th G1000 finished... (drum roll...)
The Rings Of Saturn (W. G. Sebald) - 4 Stars

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

I use this to keep track:

https://www.listchallenges.com/guardi...

According to that, I've read 195. I'm in the middle of Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz and Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, though I won't be done with them for a bit. I don't read exclusively from the list, but I don't think it's a stretch to think I'd make it to 210 by the end of the year.

[Jackie]

Thanks for posting this list, it helps. I am at 194 so far!

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

As Fay said @#20 above, the checklist isn't 100% accurate, but it's close enough for me. The chances of me finishing the list are remote, to say the least, both in terms of time and interest. But I do admit to a childish kind of pleasure when I go check a book off the list, and see my totals and my rank improve.

[Darren]

to keep track, I use my own spreadsheet,
and there are also Goodreads Listopia lists:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
the "Entire List" only has 700-something on it (so I don't bother with that one), but the seven sub-category lists are all pretty accurate

[Fay]

Congratulations Darren and Jackie. I’m with Bryan about those little checkboxes. Because I know it isn’t 100% accurate I tend to wait until I have a few to check off and it gives me immense satisfaction! I like my spreadsheet because then I can sort it by topic, or author, or title (and I have added little checkboxes to it too!)......it’s the little things in life that please me! I read a few in May:
Kindred
Middlemarch
Cats Eye
Zeno’s Conscience
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Scoop
The Two Towers

[Fay]

Oh and I read Voss and Enduring Love in May. It puts me at 168 little ticks!

[Darren]

8 more in June:
The Blackwater Lightship - 3.5 close to 4 stars
Lonesome Dove - 4 stars
Castle Rackrent - 2.5 stars
A Room With A View - 4.5 close to 5 stars
Extinction - 4.5 close to 5 stars
Zorba The Greek - DNF
The Good Soldier Svejk - 4.5 close to 5 stars
North And South - 3.5 stars
making 258 and counting...

[Fay]

Yay Darren!!!
I managed:
Return of the King
Brave New World
The Color Purple
Money
The Island of Dr Moreau
Headlong Hall
Zorba the Greek
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

which puts me at 176 :-)

[Leslie]

In June I read

Kindred, 4*
Germinal, 4*
The Group, 4.5*
and from the DiscWorld series, Interesting Times, 4*

and I reread via audiobook:
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, 4.5*
Emma, 4*

That brings me up to 496, I believe...

[Fay]

Leslie wrote: "In June I read

Kindred, 4*
Germinal, 4*
The Group, 4.5*
and from the DiscWorld series, Interesting Times, 4*

and I reread via audiobook:
[boo..."

Whoop whoop!! Go you!! 4 more until halfway through!

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Just finished Lucky Jim. That gives me 200 on the nose.

[Fay]

@Bryan - well done 👍

[Fay]

This month I read:

The Pickwick Papers
Goldfinger
Burmese Days
The Talented Mr Ripley
Silence
Get Shorty
Cider with Rosie
The Forever War
Lord Jim
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Double Indemnity
The New York Trilogy
Billy Liar


Discworld:
Wyrd Sisters
Pyramids

So I’m at 190 little checks off the list 😊

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Fay wrote: "@Bryan - well done 👍"

Thank you, Fay. I think you will pass me up before the end of the year. Maybe before the end of summer :-)

[[deleted user]]

I also use the Listchallenges.com to keep track, so far I have read 149. The most recent was Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - I found it very enjoyable.

[Darren]

9 more in July and so far in August:

Andromeda Strain, The - 3.5 Stars
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - 3.5 Stars
Things They Carried, The - 4.5 Stars
Disgrace - 4 Stars
Barchester Towers - 4 Stars
Silence - 3.5 Stars
Oblomov - DNF
What a Carve Up! - 3 Stars
Catcher In The Rye - 4 Stars

making 267 and counting...

[Fay]

So I normally do this at the end of the month but today I reached 200!!! Yay! You must all hold some kind of celebration on my behalf and treat yourself to something special :-)

Since I last posted I have read:
Discworld - Eric

The Grapes of Wrath
The Kite Runner
My Antonia
The House of Mirth
Weaveworld
Gorky Park
Slaughter-House Five
The Time Machine
Foundation

Foundation was 200.............

[Jackie]

Marvellous!

[Darren]

Well Done Fay!
the rate you're going you will soon catch me up! although I'll probably reach 300 before you, I'm sure you'll get to 400 first...

meanwhile we are all agog to know if Leslie has reached The Big 500...?

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Congratulations Fay!

[Fay]

Why thank you :) I think I will slow down again over winter which was why I was so excited 😆

I’m totally rooting for Leslie to hit the 1000 so we can all be like “we know the only person in the world who’s read all 1000 in the Guardian best novels list (including ALL the Discworlds)!

[Leslie]

Darren wrote: "Well Done Fay!
the rate you're going you will soon catch me up! although I'll probably reach 300 before you, I'm sure you'll get to 400 first...

meanwhile we are all agog to know if Leslie has reached The Big 500...?..."

LOL - I think that I have, if my counting isn't off. Since my last posting here (at 496), I have read:

Zorba the Greek (7/11)
A Confederacy of Dunces (8/16)
Gorky Park (8/20)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (8/27)
Tourist Season (8/28)

plus 2 more Discworld books:
Maskerade (7/28)
The Last Continent (8/23)

And I did a lot of rereading via audiobook in July:
·The Hobbit (7/10)
·Blott on the Landscape (7/16) (relisten to the audiobook)
·Scaramouche (7/18)
·The Sword in the Stone (7/23)
·Treasure Island (7/27)

So I believe that I am now at 501 total :)

[Fay]

Yay Leslie!!!!

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Congratulations, Leslie!

[Leslie]

So, here are the new-to-me list books I have read in the past month:

The Guns of Navarone (8/31)
The Road (9/8)
Death of the Heart (9/9)
England, Their England (9/17)
The Bell Jar (9/22)
Epitaph for a Spy (9/24)

Which ones have you guys been reading recently?