(no subject)

[owlectomy]

I score an unrespectable 31 on 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, mostly classic fantasy and science fiction, books they make you read in school, and Haruki Murakami, who is overrepresented on the list. (Sputnik Sweetheart had a single chilling and very effective scene, and isn't bad overall, but it's clearly one of his more minor works; to choose that over, say, The Tale of Genji, is inexplicable).

Clearly it will be a while before I can die.

OTOH, death might be a preferable alternative to reading Finnegan's Wake.

Comments

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Or Wild Swans over A Dream of Red Chambers. I got to 160 but lots of those were half-reads (no I haven't read all of the Arabian Nights) and most were due to hanging out with English majors in uni, belonging to a book club after uni, and an early passion for Iris Murdoch and Kazuo Ishiguro, both also over-represented.

Marshall the English major

[(Anonymous)]

Meh... I got 49 and I've been at it longer than you have. I wouldn't worry about it, as the list is highly suspect:

• Many things on there aren't really books, but stories that appear in larger volumes.
  
  
• Note the absence of The Canterbury Tales, anything by Shakespeare, or The Iliad.
  
  
• What would Sons and Lovers be doing on the list, other than as some sort of hazing ritual? :-p