Christmas was kind to the Worm: a few new books to devour and feast upon. One particular book caused a breathless flick of the fingers: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Now, normally, the Worm cares not a jot for such lists. However, it is always intriguing to see the shape in which one’s book-reading journey has taken, and how this journey compares with the selection of self-professed professionals.
There have been a few editions of this particular series of
books. The Worm’s copy is an international edition; as such, it attempts to
move away from the Anglo-American duopoly on fiction. It is split into four
sections: Pre-1800, 1800s, 1900s, and the recent 2000s. The usual suspects are
to be found (Dickens, Greene, Rousseau feature heavily), but there are a few
raised eyebrows and fresh titbits that kept the Worm entertained as he tallied
up his own score.
So, 1001 books. The Worm admits now that he has a long way
to go. Sixty-four is his own total. Just over 6% of the reads available. O, the
shame. O, the humiliation.
The Worm has yet to reach the number of 250 reviews; this in
around four-and-a-half years of reading and reviewing… ever since that fateful
day when he decided to set up a blog back in the summer of 2009. At this rate –
and if the Worm was to be highly selective and stick to the 1001 list – it would
take the Worm another four years to reach the magic number.
Of course, this is not going to happen. The Worm hopes to
increase the sixty-four number over the course of the coming years, but he also
has his eyes on a different, more manageable list: the BBC’s Top 100 Reads. Devised
back in 2003, it attempted to seek out the nation’s best-loved books; it
brought together an interesting and seductive list. Despite the inclusion of a
criminally high number of Harry Potter books, it also includes an engaging
road-map of possible future reads. The Worm’s own number stands at a rather
modest nineteen. However, 19% surely trumps 6%, whilst allowing the Worm to
achieve this target in the space of a year’s serious reading (even allowing for
Harry Potter’s banal adventures).
Whilst pondering these lists, the Worm decided to devise his
very own list: Books To Read Before One Snuffs It. This has been selected from the
reviews over the past four-and-a-half years. Included are every 5 nodder, as
well as a few note-worthy and thought-provoking 4 nod reviews. And, so here it
is (in order of review):
Season I (2009-10):
Simon Schama – The American Future (2008)Thomas Paine – The Rights of Man (1792)
Richard Dawkins – The Selfish Gene (1976)
Joseph Conrad – Lord Jim (1900)
Tacitus – The Annals of Imperial
Emily Bronte –
William Shakespeare – Macbeth (1606)
Season II (2010-11):
J.D. Salinger – The Catcher in the Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels – The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Thomas Paine – Common Sense (1776)
William Faulkner – The Sound and the Fury (1929)
Tony Judt – Postwar (2005)
Wilfred Owen – Poems (1920)
Season III (2011-12):
William Golding – Lord of the Flies (1954)
Fyodor Dostoyesvky – Notes from Underground (1864)
Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons – Watchmen (1987)
Primo Levi – The Drowned and the Saved (1986)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Love in the Time of Cholera (1985)
John Hanson Mitchell – Ceremonial Time (1984)
Season IV (2012-13):
T.S. Eliot – Selected Poems (1954)William Shakespeare – Richard III (1591)
Oscar Wilde – The Importance of Being Earnest (1898)
Mikhail Lermontov – A Hero of Our Time (1841)
BBC's 100 Books
