Do you… read?
Here’s a file of 1001 books that you should read before you die.
of the 1001, I have read* 23.
*I define this as also remember. Example: I “read” Heart of Darkness. But I don’t remember it at all.
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I’ve read 23 1/3(only read the first of the Lord of the Rings trilogy), all but five of which were written in the 19th century. I guess I prefer older books. I have to read 17 books per year to finish that list, but there are several on there that I would never read.
And Silas Marner is sitting on my bookshelf, just waiting to be read.
My copy of Silas Marner is actually 100 years old, but it’s got writing in the margins. I don’t get people who write in books, especially classics. ?????
What are some of the books that you would never read?
Perhaps it is precisely these books that you should consider reading first.
“The Island of Dr. Moreau”, for one. I know the story and have no interest.
I’ve seen movies based on many of them, and I suppose they’ve spoiled me for the stories.
I’ve started Silas Marner already. I’m going to see how many of these books I can read this year.
I have read and remember 32 of those books, and there were at least 10 other books that I know i’ve read, i just dont remember them.
I hardly read and have read 20 of those books. Of the 20 I read, I would only say 11 of them were awesome and am glad I read them before I died. The other 9 I be happier if they just burned them at 451 degrees (These are basically all the “chick” books from the 18th century, I’m talking about YOU Wuthering Heights!!)
(Prayer for Owen Meany, read it, its awesome)
God I hated that book too. Did you have the misfortune of reading Ethan Frome? That is at the top of my books I wish I had never read list.
Ugh. I read Ethan Frome.
Hours and hours of pure misery.
We should start a “1001 books you should never read” list.
I’ve got a couple for that list:
The House of the Seven Gables - Hawthorne(need I say more?)
Some Survive - by James Preston Girard(hours in the hospital were made worse by reading this book)
Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (This was actually painful to read.)
I wonder what the venn diagram of a “1001 books you should never read” list and this “1001 books to read” list would look like
Internet note to self, stay away from Ethan Frome…got it.
btw im really disappointed no one caught the 451 reference…I felt so awesomely clever throwing that in there that I knew someone just as awesome and clever would remark on it
Of the books I’ve read, 55 show up on the list that I can discuss in detail. However, I question the validity of this list, as many of the books on, say, the New York Times most read books, don’t show up (that list is one that I would consider paying attention to).
Also, I don’t feel like I would have missed anything by not reading some of those on my list, such as The Scarlet Letter.
I’ve read 65 books on this list, but about 15 of them I don’t really remember in detail. About 20 of them I read back in high school/college as part of a class (yes I actually read the assigned reading, I’m a nerd).
I also have some “I wish I didn’t read this” books…like Walden. Ugh.
28 read, which is better than I thought I’d do (considering how I read a lot of SF, which is rarely well represented in such lists. Some of the selections really confused me, but I’ll say that it was fairly complete, and had a lot of intriguing titles.
Both of the Dirk Gently books? Really? Really didn’t think they were good compared to Hitch Hiker’s Guide.
1000 books and only one Iain M Banks novel? They did have 3 of his non-SF books though so that’s OK I guess. And no Pratchett! A travesty!
In all I’ve read about 10 (might have missed a couple; I was scanned pretty quick), and seen the film/TV adaptation for a further 12 or so.
I was kind of surprised by the number of books on the list that have been adapted to film. Makes you wonder if all the good books are chosen to be adapted, or certain books are chosen and then generally accepted as “good”…
I counted about 15-20 I’ve read either through or mostly, though I’d say I remember about zero of them, with the exception of a couple I’ve seen movie versions of which stick better in my memory.
Of those, 2 were on my own time (The Stranger by Camus and 1984 by Orwell), which were both in college. Actually freshman and senior year, respectively.
I like of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, maybe another or two - the rest are mostly garbage.
Books one should NEVER read - I reccomend The Republic (Plato) - I didn’t see it on this list which is surprising, but somebody needs to go back in time to shove that guy.
Thanks for the link to Arukiyomi’s blog!
Hardly any non-fiction. Night by Elie Wiesel anyone!