Baby Got Books

1001 Books

Jessa Crispin talks about the book, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die at the Book Standard. That’s a lot of books. She’s read 96. I’ve read 86. Read the list here (Jessa recommends the book, too). Counting the books that you’ve actually read (all the way through) is this week’s meme. In lieu of work today, download my handy spreadsheet here and get cracking. If you follow the brief directions at the top, your score will automatically be calculated at the bottom (if this actually works, I’ll be stunned). Post your results in the comments section. No score is too depressing.

Books | Tim | October 20, 2006 7:07 am

By Herman Glimscher, October 20, 2006 @ 11:09 am

I have set the bar where most others should be able to surpass me. I got a 41. there were a bunch that I’ve been meaning to read, though.
By DJ Cayenne, October 20, 2006 @ 11:56 am

I was doing great over the last few decades, but things went south in a hurry after that. It is a good way to get a feel for the areas/time frames where you might be lacking.
By Nitro, October 20, 2006 @ 3:04 pm

So I will gloat with my score of 134. Anyone who took AP English or any lit classes in college would have a much easier time especially pre-1900. Also – the list was author repetitive which was helpful in scoring. If you like John Updike or went through that phase in your life – then you would read all the Rabbit books and get 3 points instead of 1. Same goes for Jane Austen, Phillip Roth, etc. etc. I knew I should have been a librarian.
By sallyrogers, October 20, 2006 @ 4:41 pm

Just completed the sheet at 186. An English degree didn’t hurt me none. As Nicole said, it helped greatly in the pre-1900 sections. And Philip Roth, Ishiguro, Irving, Coetzee and Iris Murdoch helped me out quite a bit!
By DJ Cayenne, October 20, 2006 @ 5:11 pm

The ladies are outshining the fellas rather handily. Ouch. I took several lit classes in college and they helped with Heller and Pynchon and Faulkner, etc. I just didn’t take any that had me reading pre-1900 stuff very much. Oh, well.
By Nick Smith, October 21, 2006 @ 3:59 pm

I clock in at 34. About one foor every year of life. I did pretty well 1800 to about 1920, then the wheels came off. When I was a kid up untill about five years ago, I read little fiction and I’m just ctching up so I don’t feel too bad.
If I count the ones I own but haven’t read or the ones I set aside because life’s too short, I do much better. But I don’t count them. Sucks for me.
By Dr J, October 22, 2006 @ 3:52 pm

I clocked in at 89.
I’ll be interested to see how I do on the list of 1,001 non-make-believe (i.e., non-fiction)books.
By DJ Cayenne, October 22, 2006 @ 9:36 pm

Dr J:

I couldn’t find a non-fiction list for ya in the “before you die” ouevre, hot shot. There are “1001 albums” and “1001 movies” books out there though. That’s at least two weeks of Friday meme-ing.
By Shaft, October 23, 2006 @ 12:38 pm

13. 13 lousy books. And that’s counting “Far From the Madding Crowd”, which I believe I was assigned to read in 11th grade and which I wrote a book report on, but which I doubt I actually read.

On the bright side, though, one of my 13 was “The Fan Man”, which I didn’t know anyone else had even heard of, let alone that it would be considered mandatory reading.

And I noticed “Brighton Rock” on the list, which I haven’t read, but which Chi-Mo, from “King Dork” proclaims to be the best book ever.
By DJ Cayenne, October 23, 2006 @ 12:51 pm

Shaft: Wow. I’ll trot out the 1001 Albums this Friday, and I expect that you will crush the competition.
By Shaft, October 24, 2006 @ 9:28 am

Thanks, Mr. DJ. I don’t think I’ll fare very well on the pre-1700’s albums, but the stuff after that I should do pretty well on.
By beedlebaum, October 24, 2006 @ 1:53 pm

Unbelievable…222. I counted “In Search of Lost Time” even though I only read “Swann’s Way” but I didn’t include “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” although I’ve read a few of the stories.

That’s with no college degree.

It seems as though this is supposed to be a fiction list–but why is “Walden” included then??
By DJ Cayenne, October 24, 2006 @ 6:01 pm

beedle: Holy crap. Go, man, go. I think that Walden gets lumped in as an example of “pastoral” literature, even though it’s not fiction. Or else I’m just making that up.
By ragdoll, November 6, 2006 @ 11:59 am

Few – I’ve read 113, which I think is respectable, clocking in at about 10%. But it sure is scary that the few authors I obsessed over (Morrison, Coetzee, D.H. Lawrence and Atwood) have multiple books on the list. That’s what saved my ass.
By Alice, November 7, 2006 @ 12:39 pm

96 – not too bad, but I thought I’d do better. I need to get reading!
By Heather, November 7, 2006 @ 8:54 pm

I’d chalk up my 293 to too much time in school, too much time in libraries, and too much time in used bookstores.
By DJ Cayenne, November 7, 2006 @ 9:11 pm

Ring the bell, Johnny. I think we have a winner. Heather, you’ve blown a group of book nerds completely out of the water. Hats off.
By Elisabeth Stewart, November 8, 2006 @ 3:34 pm

Final score – 151. Considering the amount of reading I do, I was shocked. (Hmmm. Am I not reading “good” literature? I thought I was.) Thank God for the Russian literature course I took in university. That really helped.
By .H, November 9, 2006 @ 6:52 pm

I’m at a sad 49. We all did this at work and have decided to start a book club to catch up. First up on the list is Persuasion by Jane Austen.
By ragdoll, November 29, 2006 @ 2:24 pm

Just want to let you know that your handy spreadsheet is spreading like wildfire (in lieu of work exactly) and we’re all using it a) to keep track of our books and b) to pick ones that we’re all going to read in the hopes of finally getting beyond 10%.
By DJ Cayenne, November 29, 2006 @ 2:58 pm

Work is over-rated anyway. I’m glad to hear that the spreadsheet is being put to good use.
By john smith, March 6, 2007 @ 1:55 pm

I think this “1001 books…” thing is rubbish. It has a lot of good books but why does it have so many from the most recent years and so little from the more older times? History has seen many good books that aren’t on this list and that are much better than some of the ones on. You start to wonder if humanity isn’t forgetting it’s origins.
By Jalaj P. Jha, July 17, 2007 @ 7:41 am

I stopped counting after I found that none of that written by william shakespeare is included in the list. Above 1001 I recommend “The Guide” written by R K Narayan.
By ellelit, August 17, 2007 @ 8:39 pm

wow… honors with distinction in english and creative writing and i got 28? what the hell were they teaching me? (my focus was canadian lit, which didn’t get represented other than atwood and ondaaje) woopie.
By Laura, September 10, 2007 @ 8:09 pm

Thank you for making the spreadsheet.

A lot of my favorite authors – Irving, Atwood, Oates, Roth, Wolfe are represented several times in the list. Those and the others that I have read have all been very good.

Although I don’t know if I will read all 1001, I will keep this list and chose books off of it occassionally.