Well, I haven't posted on this thread for a while. Been busy reading the list... and making the the iPhone app to help you track progress with the list:
itunes.apple.com/lv/app/1001-books/id50 ... 1&mt=8

should be available for Android etc in a couple of months.

To get the latest updates on the app, you can "Like" our Facebook page:
facebook.com/pages/1001-Books-App/28924 ... 2394463476

Seems like a pretty arbitrary list, at least for a lot of them.

I thought about trying to go through "the classics" at some point, but then I figure I don't want to feel obligated to read books that I'm really not that interested in.

not arbitrary at all actually. In the intro to the book, Boxall clearly spells out that the purpose of the list is to chart the development of the artform of the novel worldwide. Each novel has a place in that development which each book description elaborates on.

bleachededen wrote:Since I have no life, am incredibly curious, and am obsessive-compulsive/anal retentive, I decided to go through the entire list and pick out which books I have read, plan to read, or have not read but seen as a movie or musical. The results are as follows:

Bleachededen's list is so much more manageable than the originial 1001! I have read many of the books on the abbreviated list, also. I am a teacher, and we use many of these books in our English class, including "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", which we are reading right now.

The 1001 title list is just way too long. However, I think that any list is good to provide recommendations. I used to read more booklists, but don't have time any more especially one as long as this one.

Coralie

130 for me from the original 2006 list, but it's still pretty laughable in some of its inclusions. The argument that each work has some seminal weight behind it just doesn't hold water, especially with the way it blatantly loots vast sections of some oeuvres just for the sake of making up numbers.

would you care to elaborate on your last comment there Mitya... from the 2010 edition...? It fascinates me how rabidly critical people get about this list, it really does.