So do you have a plan to help actually finish the list?

[Lulu]

Does anyone have a plan? Read two/month, start from #1 and go to #1001, or just pick them out at will?

[Bibliosaurus]

I am planning on reading the ones I already have but never read, about 20 or so. Then I think I will just meander down the list according to which one I find next at the bookstore.

[Yelena]

I've started from the present and am working my way back (this is probably not a great idea since, thus far, I've found a lot of the recent books to be little more than average, and far from essential). I skip what I've read and keep going.

As for a timetable, I'm getting through 1-2 a week and occasionally inserting a non list read (still only half way through the French book on my currently reading list and I'll need to devote a lot more time to finishing it than any on this lsit), but I'm thrilled to have a list to read through as opposed to my recent endeavors to find new things to read which have amounted to little more than selecting books based on their covers!

[Lulu]

Oooo...yeah, but Yelena - I totally get that cover thing! I was just thinking about that last night at B&N, and as I skipped over books because I didn't like the look of the cover, I thought - "So....I'm choosing to not even read the cover flap, and I'm now letting the cover artist dictate my choices...really not a good idea, Lulu."

[Barbara]

Yelena,
I know you recently mentioned you did not care for Slow Man. I am reading it now and if I may say so, very SLOWLY. I am not getting into it as some of his other books. Does it get better?
I do wonder how some of these qualify for the list because I don't think this one does. Either that or I'm missing whatever points are being made.

[Yelena]

Barbara,
I too thought that the slowness of the book was relevant, but I didn't think the point was made well. It doesn't really get better, sad to say. I'm about to get in bed and read the last 20 or so pages of The Red Queen simply so I don't have to read it anymore tomorrow on my way to work.

The following book, Cloud Atlas, did get a thumbs up from a guy at work who doesn't have his head up his ... so I can say I am looking forward to my next list book.

But overall, I agree that of the eight books I have thus far read no the list, I have only really liked two, and of those two, I'm not sure I could honestly say either would garner a palce on my personal books to read before you die list (I hesitate on the Markson book a little as I really loved reading it, but I'm a bit of a geek that way and the book truly appealed to that geekiness).

Yet I have hope!

[Barbara]

Yelena,
Thanks for your response.
I've decided to move on. I long ago decided there is not enough time for me to try and read a book I'm not enjoying when there are so many I know I could be. So I'm moving on to A Pale View of Hills (Ishiguro).

[Mark]

Hi, There is no way I can read the ones I haven't read in order. For one thing, I can't stand most of Ishiguro's stuff (except for Remains of the Day), so I'm skipping the rest of his (although it's fine with me if others love his stuff!). For another thing, I can only read a book if I can read the first couple of pages and be interested in it. Otherwise, I'll put it down and maybe try it another time or maybe never. I definitely won't read a book because I feel like I must -- that's something I hated while in the compulsory education system, and now that I'm free of it lo these many years, I don't want to have that feeling again! It is an intriguing list, though, and I continue to find books on it that I'm reading or plan to read.

[Jessica]

My current plan is to poke around and read what looks most interesting. I don't expect I'll actually finish the list ever -- there is too much that's interesting to read in the world that isn't on it, and only so many hours in the day -- but it's fun to have it as a goal and a reference.

[Kim]

I went through the list and selected 25 of the books as a goal to read during the next year... or maybe the next two years.

[Cecilie]

i really want to finish this list! im just 18 years and think that i can finish it. read 49 books, and thinks that is pretty good thinking of my age. I have started with some of the older books now so i hope i will be done with the books that is from before 1700s around the summer.

To finish this list is actually something i want to do before i die!

[Kim]

I think this is one of my random life goals, that would be neat to finish...but I wouldn't go all out to do so. I'm working on my 51st book...so i've got a ways to go... =)

[Lizz]

So I think I can do this if I really make it a goal. I am a pretty fast reader--just naturally, not by rushing--and have already read a good amount considering my age, if I do say so myself. I'm 16 and I've read 40 of them. Do you think I can do it? Also, I'm thinking about how best to approach this. I have discovered, to my absolute surprise and delight, that I really like James Joyce, so that will make Ulysses more approachable haha. My current plan is to go after the ones by authors I already like first, then go into some of the more remote books. Yea or nay from the crowd?

[Lizz]

Also, I'm really surprised the Divine Comedy didn't make the list. It's referenced so often!

[Lulu]

Definitely yea - read the 'want-to's' before the 'shoulds' - life is short and if I pass on into the big library in the sky before I finish the list, I don't want to have missed out on the titles/authors that I enjoy.

[Michelle]

Good news about the big library in the sky, Lulu, is that they'll have only books you want to read there, or you can choose to finish the list during your time in eternity.

:)

[Christine Whitney]

I took the 1001 Book List and compiled it with 5 other Top Books To Read Lists (I think they were all about 100 top books or 200 top books, so they were shorter lists.) I came up with a list of 164 books that were on the 1001 book list and at least one other list. I am reading the books first that were mentioned on all the other lists.
Here are the books that were on all 5 lists plus 1001 books to read (which equals 6):
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess 6
Animal Farm - George Orwell 6
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 6
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller 6
Lolita, - Vladimir Nabokov 6
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut 6
The Catcher In The Rye - J.D. Salinger 6
The Great Gatsby, - F. Scott Fitzgerald 6
I will then read the books mentioned on 4 other lists plus 1001... and so on
I just decided I wanted the cream of the cream, and this was the best way I thought to figure it out.

[Christine Whitney]

Here is the rest if anyone cares/ wants to see it....
A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man - James Joyce 5
A Room With A View - E.M. Forster 5
Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 5
Heart Of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 5
Invisible Man, - Ralph Ellison 5
Lord Of The Flies - William Golding 5
On The Road, - Jack Kerouac 5
Pale Fire, - Vladimir Nabokov 5
The Grapes Of Wrath - John Steinbeck 5
The Secret History - Donna Tartt 5
The Sound And The Fury, - William Faulkner 5
The Sun Also Rises, - Ernest Hemingway 5
To Kill A Mockingbird- Harper Lee 5
Under The Volcano, - Malcolm Lowry 5
A Dance To The Music Of Time - Anthony Powell 4
A Farewell To Arms - Ernest Hemingway 4
A Handful Of Dust - Evelyn Waugh 4
A Passage To India - E.M. Forster 4
A Prayer For Owen Meany - John Irving 4
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 4
Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon 4
Loving - Henry Green 4
Naked Lunch - William Burroughs 4
Native Son, - Richard Wright 4
Ragtime, - E. L. Doctorow 4
Stranger In A Strange Land - Robert Heinlein 4
The Adventures Of Augie March, - Saul Bellow 4
The Golden Bowl - Henry James 4
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood 4
The Heart Of The Matter, - Graham Greene 4
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams 4
The Lord Of The Rings - - J.R.R. Tolkien 4
The Magus, - John Fowles 4
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, - Muriel Spark 4
To The Lighthouse, - Virginia Woolf 4
Tropic Of Cancer, - Henry Miller 4
Ulysses, - James Joyce 4
Under The Net, - Iris Murdoch 4
Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys 4
A Bend In The River - V.S. Naipaul 3
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 3
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 3
At Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O’Brien 3
Atonement - Ian McEwen 3
Crime And Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky 3
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 3
Finnegans Wake - James Joyce 3
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 3
Howards End - E.M. Forster 3
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 3
Kim - Rudyard Kipling 3
Les Misérables (Signet Classics) - Victor Hugo 3
Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad 3
Main Street - Sinclair Lewis 3
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie 3
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf 3
Neuromancer - William Gibson 3
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro 3
Of Mice And Men - Jon Steinbeck 3
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey 3
One Hundred Years Of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 3
Parade's End - Ford Madox Ford 3
Portnoy's Complaint - Philip Roth 3
Possession - A.S. Byatt 3
Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen 3
Sister Carrie - Theodore Dreiser 3
Sons And Lovers, - D. H. Lawrence 3
Tender Is The Night, - F. Scott Fitzgerald 3
The Age Of Innocence, - Edith Wharton 3
The Ambassadors - Henry James 3
The French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles 3
The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford 3
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien 3
The House Of Mirth - Edith Wharton 3
The Maltese Falcon, - Dashiell Hammett 3
The Old Wives' Tale - Arnold Bennett 3
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver 3
The Postman Always Rings Twice, - James M. Cain 3
The Rainbow, - D. H. Lawrence 3
The Recognitions- William Gaddis 3
The Wings Of The Dove, - Henry James 3
The World According To Garp - John Irving 3
U.S.A. - (Trilogy), John Dos Passos 3
Women In Love - D.H. Lawrence 3
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry 2
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth 2
A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 2
A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute 2
Absalom, Absalom! - William Faulkner 2
Ada - Vladimir Nabokov 2
All Quiet On The Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque 2
American Pastoral - Philip Roth 2
Anne Of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery 2
At The Mountains Of Madness - H.P. Lovecraft 2
Beloved - Toni Morrison 2
Bleak House - Charles Dickens 2
Call It Sleep - Henry Roth 2
Cry, The Beloved Country - Alan Paton 2
Death In Venice - Thomas Mann 2
Emma - Jane Austen 2
Everything Is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer 2
Fingersmith - Sarah Waters 2
Finnegans Wake - James Joyce 2
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift 2
Herzog - Saul Bellow 2
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov 2
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace 2
Interview With The Vampire - Anne Rice 2
Life Of Pi - Yann Martel 2
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott 2
Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel García Márquez 2
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis 2
Memoirs Of A Geisha - Arthur Golden 2
Middlemarch - George Eliot 2
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides 2
Moby-Dick - Herman Melville 2
Money: A Suicide Note - Martin Amis 2
Nostromo - Joseph Conrad 2
Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham 2
Perfume - Patrick Suskind 2
Persuasion - Jane Austen 2
Rabbit, Run- John Updike 2
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier 2
Red Harvest - Dashiell Hammett 2
Saturday - Ian McEwen 2
Scoop - Evelyn Waugh 2
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse 2
Sometimes A Great Notion - Ken Kesey 2
The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain 2
The Alexandria Quartet, - Lawrence Durrell 2
The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler 2
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood 2
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen 2
The Crying Of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon 2
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time - Mark Haddon 2
The God Of Small Things - Arundhati Roy 2
The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing 2
The Hours - Michael Cunningham 2
The Little Prince- Antoine De Saint-Exupery 2
The Name Of The Rose - Umberto Eco 2
The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde 2
The Power And The Glory - Graham Greene 2
The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie 2
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold - John Le Carré 2
The Things They Carried - Tim O'brien 2
The Trial - Franz Kafka 2
The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides 2
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston 2
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe 2
Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson 2
V. - Thomas Pynchon 2
White Noise - Don Delillo 2
White Teeth - Zadie Smith 2
Winnie The Pooh A.A. Milne 2
Wise Blood - Flannery O’Connor 2

[Dottie]

You don't happen to have the list of those lists which you used -- or do you? I know -- that's even worse than just 1001 Books plus isn't it. But I'm curious. I actually thought of doing what you've done but hadn't worked on it -- AND I thank you for the list even if you can't tell me which oists you used for the composite.

[Christine Whitney]

I knew I should have kept track. I did a google search and then came up with about 10 lists, then pared it down to 5 that I thought seemed to come from the most reasonable sources/ voter pool
From what I can remember:
I know three of them were by Time Magazine, Random House, and The New York Times, but I can't remember what the other two were. Sorry, but I did the list a month ago.

I do think one of the lists was a "Modern Book list" so that would affect/ skew the results a bit too (by one point for some of the books)

I thought about not posting the list since I did not keep track of my sources. I hope people don't mind too much!

[Dottie]

No matter, as I said -- it is still great to have a compilation to utilize alongside the book -- and in a quick run through -- I think those books I've read are accounted for very handily in the compilation -- somehow that makes me feel good -- why? I'm a book freak in a far deeper way than I knew? My daughter who gifted me this book obviously knew!

[Robert]

Well, now I feel a little better about my literary shortcomings, having read a third of this revised list. I'm surprised that "Ulysses" didn't make all 6 lists and that "Moby-Dick" wasn't a bit higher - and of course there are one or two things on there that, in my opinion, can be skipped altogether - but thank you, Christy, for providing this. It's an interesting way of putting the "1001" list in perspective...

[Christine Whitney]

Yeah, I just felt the 1001 list seemed a little daunting... (I could get hit by a bus... what should I read first... sort of thoughts ran through my head)

The smaller list of 164 was cheerier for me as a place to start. Like you Robert, I also had read a larger percentage of the shorter list.

(The reason I think I had read a greater percentage of the shorter list is because one of the lists I used was a "modern book" list, and because, I believe, another of the lists was a "reader selected" favorite books of all time list.... which is less likely to include older or more obscure but excellent books.)

[Zoe]

I'm picking them out at will. Don't want to turn this into torture, or some sort of inflicted academia. I put in enough time, in structured study. Just me. Y'all do what you will, as that is the "whole of the law", isn't it? :)

[Arukiyomi]

"the whole of the law" - what does that mean?

[Zoe]

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?n...

Google is the best, isn't it?

[Elizabeth]

Wow! I just found this group and I love this challenge, to read all of these books before I die. Plus, I think that this list would make make a very accomplished library. My plan is to have this list printed out and in a folder or binder that I can look through and make a review for each one. I am thrilled to be in this group. If anyone wants to tell me how there journey through reading these books is going, don't hesitate to message me. I would love to have some friends to support through this experience!
-Elizabeth

[Jason]

No plan at the moment. In graduate school. But, am finding myself still reading a number of new titles from the list as those titles appear on syllabi - have read, in grad classes, The New York Trilogy, some Dickens, The Remains of the Day, a couple of others that I'd never read before. Am currently reading The Master and Margarita for the first time in my book club. Again, not because it was on the 1001 list, but because my friend whose turn it was to select selected it. I think I'm closing in on finishing 100 titles from the list, and will chip away it over my life, I think (although may never get there as I honestly can't imagine myself ever reading another Murakami) - and am nursing some measure of disdain for the list and its exclusion of Stegner's Angle of Repose and Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter...

[Natalie]

I am new to the list as well. I'm pretty psyched about seeing what all I have read and what I want to read next. I have NO book budget left for the next few weeks (I am a homeschooler and spend way to much on books as it is) so I'm going to start by reading the ones that are available on ArcaMax for free. I'm pretty sure there will be quite a few, especially the older ones. Right now, I am in the middle of The Poisonwood Bible which I had serendipitously just checked out of the library when I found this group8o) I love Barbara Kingsolver and I love history so this book is a good fit for me. I really hadn't read much about that particular era of African history.

[Marts]

Well, what I have decided is since i like classics i'll read as many as are available from the 1800s, 1700s and early 1900s then I'll tackle the others. Also with the classics what you don't find in the store you can download as an e-book!

[Paul]

In my review of 1001 Books I said : If you had the time and money to read every one at a rate of one per week, you'd need 19 and a quarter years, so you better get going. But seriously, you aren't going to do that. The pre-1700 section, in particular, is strictly for students of literature - I stick my neck out and say that very few will be reading "Euphues : The Anatomy of Wit" by John Lyly or "Aithiopika" by Heliodorus for fun. And then the dogged reader will be coming up against the rarely-scaled Everests of literature such as Dorothy Richardson's "Pilgrimage" (13 vols, thousands of pages) or Proust (likewise) or "Infinite Jest" (one volume, 1100 pages). Each of which are going to take you 6 months solid. "
Was I right?

[Rebecca]

I own a bunch of books on the list, but haven't read them (I know...I know). So those are the next in line (i've italicized them in my Word copy of the list). Once I'm done with those, I'll start working on the ones I've heard of, but haven't read...or that come recommended by friends. I don't anticipate getting through the list because it would mean missing out on all the tremendous literature coming out now!

[Nicole]

Thank you Christy for sharing your abbreviated list. That looks like a good way to start.

I'm think of just randomly selecting books from the list and finding them at the library. No real plan. Plus, the realities of reading what I truly enjoy will slow down the accomplishment of this list.

[Charity]

Words to live by when attempting 'The List':

Henry Miller once said...

'A man should begin with his own times. He should become acquainted first of all with the world in which he is living and participating. He should not be afraid of reading too much or too little. He should take his reading as he does his food or his exercise. The good reader will gravitate to the good books. He will discover from his contemporaries what is inspiring or fecundating, or merely enjoyable, in past literature. He should have the pleasure of making these discoveries on his own, in his own way. What has worth, charm, beauty, wisdom, cannot be lost or forgotten. But things can lose all value, all charm and appeal, if one is dragged to them by the scalp.'

[Stewart]

I came up with my plan two days ago. I decided to announce on my blog that I was going to review all 1,001 titles - now I have to, in order to save face.

[Barbara]

Thank you Charity for Hery Miller's quote.
I will copy it and keep it in my book journal.

[Charity]

No problem, Barbara. When I first came across this list, it reminded me instantly of Miller's quote and I knew that was exactly how I must approach it or be doomed to abandon it. :-)

[Adam]

I figure if I read an average of 2 per month I will be done by the time I'm 100!

I plan on reading the ones that sound most interesting first, then moving to the shortest ones, and last the long uninteresting ones in my golden years. Yipee!

[Kecia]

I have printed the list and highlighted the ones I have read. 102 to date. Only 899 to go!

My goal for 2008 and 2009 is to read all the books on Time's 100 Best list that I have not read yet. I'm currently on #31. Most of Time's list is on this list too. I'm also tagging the books I own but haven't read yet.

By 2010, I'll have to come up with a new plan. But for now Time's 100 is lot more manageable than shooting for all 1001.

[Nasim]

hi my dear friend
i have just read became a member at this site and im enjoying it,it is fantastic,you know,if we ( the member of this group)could be in touch and have a certain plan for start to read of book and discuss about it,I do not know whether the rest agree or not,but i'll be grateful if you answer me and give me your idea.
it is my email address available :
sabetpourn@yahoo.com
yours faithfully

[Nasim]

Would you please tell me how i can start this list ? coz,you know,it is absolutely hard to find a book which is interesting for you and make you eager,could you possibly give me the name of some books from the list above which are more brilliant than the others?

[Nasim]

could you find any usefull one?i mean which is your favorite?woul you please tell me the name?
tnx

[Dottie]

Thank you for the Miller quote -- I'd seen that before but find it particularly apt regarding this book and this list. I'm with you on the approach must be that or the end result will be failure overall. Okay -- 'nuff on that.

And -- note to Paul -- I'd far rather have read the six volumes of Proust than some chosen half dozen others on the list though -- just one Proust reader's opinion. Finished it -- love it- will always promote reading it. What an experience. Especially good reading with a core group who are willing to put in the time and allow for interruptions and discuss it as they read.

[Dottie]

Bumping this thread up so those -- STACY, STEWART and YORKSHIRESUE and anyone else who hasn't seen this discussion of varied approaches to the list and who were asking how to start out could explore it for options.

Good luck -- happy reading.

[YorkshireSue]

Thanks, Dottie, appreciate that. I also like the merging of lists which has gone on here and thanks to whoever did that (sorry I can't remember offhand). That would certainly be interesting to choose books off all lists etc. Right now I'm reading Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, inspired by the movie, The Hours, then I plan to read The Hours by Michael Cunningham so I'm good for a little while. I absolutely love Kes:A Kestrel for a Knave. Have many other people read that? I first read it many many many moons ago but find it totally haunting. I'd recommend that or To Kill A Mockingbird, Little Women or The Little Prince as ease-in books to start with (from the embarassingly little number I've already read!).

[Kate]

Hi gang - you all have some great ways to approach this. What I did when I first heard about the list was download and start crossing books I'd already read (although I am re-reading books that I didn't appreciate when I was younger, just in case I missed something). Then I marked all the books that I hadn't read but which I own. I read about 1 to 2 of these per month, mixed in lighter books. Then, and I hesitate to confess this, I borrowed a bunch of books on CD from my local library and put them on my iPod. I have a long, alone in the car commute every day and I'm over NPR, so I figured I could listen to books. The thing about listening vs. reading is that you have to pay much more attention, so I'm getting a lot out of them. Once that's all done, I'll have to start with another plan.

[Nicole]

Kell, where did you find that spreadsheet? That sounds like something I would enjoy using.

[Nola]

I have already read 51 of the books on the list; I just stumbled in here yesterday while looking for discussions on my current read, Pride & Prejudice. But some of those 51 I read in high school and plan to re-read now that I, you know, have a brain. ;)

Since I'm homeschooling my kids via the classics, I will be hitting the majority of the older books first, with some of the newer dropped in periodically, as well.

But I am completely unclear how "Interview With a Vampire" made the list. Ugh, I hated that book.

SG

[Henrik]

Nola, why did you hate Interview With a Vampire? But even so, the 1001 books list contains a lot of variety, in style, contents... Everything. And the list is not about "1001 books that everyone will like", but about books and stories that have had some impact one way or the other, if I am not mistaken.

Anyway, I really am curious about Interview, Nola. It's one of those books that really have people divided, it seems. Either-or.

Personally, I liked it quite some. (Read it years ago.)

[tomlinton]

re: 1000 list as a goal and reference
I think this is rational
I still can't force my way
through a book
I have no interest in
I loved Catch-22 when I was sixteen
but at sixty it is an old joke
:>)