It’s my experience that bookish folk tend to be list-makers. Not all, Bookman is definitely not a list-maker in spite of my twenty-three year effort to convert him, but most are. We are driven to it really. We quickly learn that there is no way we can afford to buy all the books we want to read, at least not all at once, so we start making a list. Before you can say Jack Robinson, the list is a mile long and continuing to grow at an exponential rate. Thank goodness for computers and their large storage capacities! It can get really depressing but bookish folk, thankfully, also tend to be rather optimistic. Or maybe it’s just denial. Either way, we keep adding to the list knowing, deep inside, there is no way we will ever be able to read half the books even if we never added another title to it.
Besides making our own lists, there are few things we like more than to read the lists of others. We like to compare, don’t we? You mean, you’ve never read that book? Oh, you have to move it to the top of your list! Or just as likely, that book is on my list too!
Then there are the best of lists. Best novels of the twentieth century. 1001 books to read before you kick the bucket. Neglected books that deserve more attention. Best books in translation. It goes on and on. We get our pencils, we compare, we check off ones we have read and we perpetually come up short. No matter how well read we are there will always be at the very least a few books on the list we have not read. We might go read those few of the best classic scifi books or mysteries or fill in the blank and then the next list comes out and there are different books on it and *gasp* more we have not read! It’s enough to make you completely understand how Sisyphus felt pushing that rock up the hill every gosh darn day.
Well, sharpen your pencil, get your tissues to dry the tears, your aspirin to dull the headache, and the smelling salts to keep you from fainting, because now there is a meta-list of the ten best top 100 book lists. Oh yes, it hurts us Precious, but bookish folk are also gluttons for punishment. Someone could do a dissertation or scholarly article on the masochism of avid readers. Could probably even get a grant for a major study. The line to volunteer to be a subject in that study starts here.
There does come a time when these lists become more threatening than life enhancing! I do remember some books that provided me with hours of masochistic pleasure and the thrill of finding and reading an obscure title..now I really have an entry into Albanian literature!
Whatever you made of his arguments that list at the back of Bloom’s Western Canon was a pretty impressive (and surprisingly unstuffy) reading list. Also.. an incredible one man guide to 20th century world literature by Martin Seymour Smith which was incredibly passionate and exciting to read but I could never believe that he had read EVERYTHING! Nice to know that Seymour Smith had written a Bluffer’s Guide to Literature! Thinking of all this I think that Bookman has got it right and that lists (and TBR checklists) may well get in the way of the pleasure of reading.
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Ian, when lists become threatening that’s when I tend to “accidentally” lose them. Sometimes I feel guilty about that since I know there were some really good books on the list, but I figure the exceptional ones will come to my attention again and make back on a new list. At least that’s how I comfort myself! Bloom can be surprising sometimes, can’t he? I remember looking at that list back in the day and since I don’t own the book I have conveniently forgotten about it. I’ve not read Seymour Smith but I should think that most people who make long lists of books we should read haven’t read all of them themselves. Bloom, maybe, but not everyone else. It’s impossible. So there is some comfort there. Yes, Bookman might be onto something but I can never admit he might be right. I’d never be able to live it down!
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Oh lists, what would I do without you – my life simply wouldn’t function. And lists of books? So long that I’m surprised there is any space left on my hard drive. Dare I explore another one? How can I not?
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Alex, I know, right? A list quickly clarifies and sets things in order, allows one to have a plan of attack. Or, if it’s a grocery list, it keeps me from having a cupboard full of pasta sauce and no pasta. Careful, there be dragons on that list of lists! 🙂
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I love book lists! And what could be better than that? Lists of book lists. I’m still working my way through them, but so far I think the 100 Favorite Books of Librarians is my favorite since it is the one that contains the most titles I’ve read. And because Cold Sassy Tree is on the list – a novel I think is often overlooked. Olive Ann Burns was from Georgia and the book was recommended to me by one of the helpful people who works at E. Shavers Booksellers – a little independent bookstore in Savannah that should be on every touring agenda. Burns died before finishing her second novel. I felt a real and personal loss. Now, back to the lists. Happily I own many of the titles that pop up several times. If only I could afford the time to read them all. Query: Are there books in heaven?
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Grad, It’s a good set of lists, isn’t it? I like that they aren’t all the same. I’ve not read Cold Sassy Tree but I understand how it feels to have a favorite author dies suddenly. It does feel like a personal loss. As to whether there are books in heaven, it wouldn’t be heaven if there weren’t 🙂
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Heh, I see this post is sponsored by the Devil! 😉 It’s a good list of lists; I was particularly interested in the 100 top creative non-fiction titles, though I think I could make up a pretty good list on that topic myself. Maybe I will one of these days, mwah ha haaaa!
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Litlove, yes, I should have put a little sponsorship note at the top of the post 😉 I thought the nonfiction list an interesting mix of title, some of them I would not consider to fall under the rubric of “creative nonfiction” but I won’t quibble. I bet you could put together a pretty good list on the topic. I’m sure the Devil would be happy to sponsor such a post on your blog 🙂
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Guilty as charged! The only lists I don’t like are the ones that have the word MUST in the title. You know – 50 Must read books kind of thing. It feels like an order rather than an enticement.
Just looked at some of the lists via that Book Riot post, hoping to find some ideas for my world lit challenge. There are a smattering of fiction from outside the traditional western hemisphere but not that much. Shame
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BookerTalk, “must” lists are a turn off aren’t they. I always want to say, yeah, who are you to tell me what I have to read? The world lit list is rather disappointing, I agree.
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Exactly the riposte that goes through my head Stefanie
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I adore *reading* book lists but I don’t keep them myself (I know, I know). I have about a half-million lists with two or three items on it but then I forget I have the list and I abandon it. Now that I’m blogging so much less, it’s all I can do to keep track of the books I’ve read, let alone the ones I want to read! Oh well. however, I obsessively save lists that OTHER PEOPLE have made and use them from time to time to choose books. It’s recycling/reuse, right?
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wherethereisjoy, I like your use of other people’s lists! Saves time and effort. Very efficient of you 🙂 To-do lists are a whole other ball of wax. I love to make those too, they are so very useful to keep one on track.
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However, reading others’ comments, I realize that I make huge to-do lists (which I dutifully check off) at work and at home, and I also am very obsessive about grocery lists (there is always one on the fridge and as staples run out, it gets listed… how else can one function!?)
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I used to make book-related lists all of the time – all through graduate school – and then at some point it ended up created some anxiety in me..like, I WILL NEVER READ ALL THE BOOKS! and I had to take a step back and evaluate if I should keep doing it. I eventually stopped making book lists but I do occasionally “pin” a book I want to make sure I remember to read. Very occasionally – things can become compulsions with me very quickly!
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everythinginbetween, lists should not create anxiety, though I do get a pang now and then knowing I will only ever get to a fraction of the books on my lists. But anxious, I think you did the right thing.
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I am definitely a list-keeper. A list of lists though, that’s just rich. I wonder how many titles actually occur on more than one of those book lists included? Those the are the books you really ought to read!
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Jeane, there are crossover titles on the lists to be sure but I had not thought to track how many. I wonder if there is a book that makes it onto all or almost all the lists?
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Sob! Sob! And here I wa struggling with the BCC Big Read – 100 best novels!
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cirtnecce, a virtual tissue for your tears. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother looking at these lists and I determine I will stop immediately. Yet my resolve lasts only as long as it takes the next list to appear. Sigh.
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I agree that most bookish-type people are given to lists. I have a Books To Buy list and a Books Already Read list that I’ve kept for about 30 years now. It just seems to me important to be able to look back at times and find out WHEN I read a certain book, in relation to what else was [and is] going on in my life at the time, etc.
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Cipriano, oh those books read lists! I have one too and I love it. I wish I had begun keeping one when I was a kid but I didn’t start mine until after college. It is so fun to look back at it. Some books are still vivid memories and others I have no recollection of.
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I have a book list….in fact, a whole journal is devoted to books I want! lol within which, I try to keep track of mystery series, fantasy series, poets and poetry books to find, etc. Then there is my Amazon list, which is huge – pictures of books to drool over! then when I’m in the bookstores, I make lists of what catches my eye…..oh, I love making book lists!! and I will never read them all, but it does give me something to strive for. I loved your post, Stefanie! It’s fun to know so many of us are in the same mind of To be Read lists 🙂
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Susan, I tried a list journal once but it got so messy and unorganized and I had so many duplicates that I gave up on it. I kept an Excel list for a while which was easy to sort and remove duplicates and books I read but then I started using the list feature in WorldCat and that’s where I am right now. I can access the lists on my ipad when I’m out book shopping. Of course that requires I remember I bring my ipad with me which I seem to manage to forget almost every time!
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