1000 Novels You Must Read

IdleRich

IdleRich
Anyone been following this series in the Guardian? I've picked up a few of the issues during the week and glanced through them. I know these things are cynical and repetitive but I have to admit that I'm quite a sucker for them. This has been divided by genres which makes it different from the last few I've seen - though to be honest most of what I tend to read doesn't necessarily fit neatly into any particular genre and on top of that I find the genres they've selected a little uninspiring. Luckily they've played fast and loose with the sections and just crow-barred in what they want wherever it fits best - which makes the whole genre thing kind of redundant in my view - so I don't imagine that anything has been missed out because it's not a war/love/crime/etc story.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/1000novels

I'm sure I will pick up a few tips from this although so far I haven't particularly been moved by many of the descriptions, maybe it's the smallness of the space that each book is allotted but in most cases there is nothing more there than a few cliches you've heard before. Maybe 1000 is just too many for them to treat in any reasonable depth... but 100 is too few to get in any variety so I don't know what they should do.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
I only buy the paper on sundays usuaally, and luckily it coincided with the crime section but it's sorta sitting there unloved and unread at the mo.

There's a problem with these things in that they're effectively done by committee, which takes away much of the randomness you'd get from an individual choice. But then they're not ordered, so there's little sense of competition, something to argue or get worked up about. They kinda work as buyer's guides for the casually interested, i guess.

I hear they're doinng a few of these things, including a music one which will no doubt get much love from dissensus.;)
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
But didn't they do a music one and a film one a few months ago? I guess it's kind of like a theatre company putting on The Importance of Being Earnest when they need to raise takings.

"They kinda work as buyer's guides for the casually interested, i guess."
That's how I was planning to use it, I was just a little disappointed that the descriptions of the books I hadn't read were too far on the prosaic side. Or maybe it's just a Guardianista kind of list - I noticed a lot of Booker winners and nominees in there and I agree with those who have said that selections for that have become far too safe over the last few years. On the other hand there were quite a few books that have been selected by the dissensus book club as well (not Cyclonopedia though strangely enough) so I don't know what that says about the selectorate for that.
 

mos dan

fact music
i've been mostly ignoring these myself, until i foudn out the other day that my mate has been editing them hehe. will have to go and check them out now.. are they really doing a music one too? christ.
 

jenks

thread death
I am a total sucker for these kind of things and have been keeping a tally of how many I have read. I know it is shabby behaviour for a grown man:eek:
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"I am a total sucker for these kind of things and have been keeping a tally of how many I have read"
I have to fight the urge to do that. Made easier in this case when I realised it wasn't that many. Somehow a list that seemed to tally very badly with the kind of stuff I like.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
''2000 poems you MUST annotate and leave on my desk before you succumb to a terminal disease and DIE.''

Surely these lists exist mainly for lazy bastards like me who don't actually read that many books to have on our shelves instead of the books it recommends us to read (which we're too lazy to read)?
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
They've only gone and included Harry Bloody Potter...OK, I have to admit I largely enjoyed these books, but I refuse to believe there aren't 1,000 better or more important books, written in or translated into English, in all of history, ever. I mean, come on.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
''2000 poems you MUST annotate and leave on my desk before you succumb to a terminal disease and DIE.''

Surely these lists exist mainly for lazy bastards like me who don't actually read that many books to have on our shelves instead of the books it recommends us to read (which we're too lazy to read)?

Well yeah, exactly. They should really be called 1000 books you should know about to avoid social embarrassment with your better read acquaintances.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
They've only gone and included Harry Bloody Potter...OK, I have to admit I largely enjoyed these books, but I refuse to believe there aren't 1,000 better or more important books, written in or translated into English, in all of history, ever. I mean, come on.

More important how? They've supposedly got millions of kids reading novels and provided a useful source of exercise for commuters who carry the hardback on the train with them.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Surely these lists exist mainly for lazy bastards like me who don't actually read that many books to have on our shelves instead of the books it recommends us to read (which we're too lazy to read)?"
I've got to admit that the likelihood of me ever reading Clarissa is pretty fucking small.

"More important how? They've supposedly got millions of kids reading novels and provided a useful source of exercise for commuters who carry the hardback on the train with them."
And more important still they pay my wages.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
More important how? They've supposedly got millions of kids reading novels and provided a useful source of exercise for commuters who carry the hardback on the train with them.

I was about to say "But so has Terry Pratchett, and he's loads better" but then I searched for his name on the list and found they've included the entire Discworld series, so I guess I'll shut up now.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
And more important still they pay my wages.

You must love Tom Clancy and Jackie Collins, then.

Edit: or are they the kind of authors people only buy in WH Smiths at airports and train stations, rather than actual bookshops?
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"272 - I dunno if I feel good or bad about that number"
I reckon that's pretty good going although it gives the lie to "must read".

"You must love Tom Clancy and Jackie Collins, then.
Edit: or are they the kind of authors people only buy in WH Smiths at airports and train stations, rather than actual bookshops?"
Yeah they are but so is Harry Potter really because Tescos can sell it half the price that anyone else can afford.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
I was about to say "But so has Terry Pratchett, and he's loads better" but then I searched for his name on the list and found they've included the entire Discworld series, so I guess I'll shut up now.

My Dad loves Terry Pratchett, but he's strangely reluctant to admit it. Whenever he reads one, he talks about how many books he's sold, and how he's trying to work out how, as if he's gonna write one himself. The truth is he just loves goblins and shit.

He tried reading me the Hobbit as a bedtime story when I was a kid, but I made him stop. I think that's why I read books so much younger than either of my brothers - a form of self-defence.
 

Sick Boy

All about pride and egos
They really should have named this article "1000 Novels You'll Never Read Because We're Going To Ruin The Endings For You".
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
The sci fi / fantasy section was quite interesting for once again showing the way that comparatively pulpy sci fi has a decent intellectual cachet to it but comparatively pulpy fantasy is absolutely beyond the pale - there was almost none of the fantasy that you'd expect a paid up 'fantasy fan' to be interested in, only literary stuff with fantastic elements.

No Lord Dunsany either, which is pretty significant fail.

These things are always best for a bit of a laugh / vague interest / argument though - I find it hard to believe that any of the committees of people who compile them actually think they've come up with the definitive list of 1000 greatest books ever that everyone should read or be essentially illiterate, and it's always a bit silly how people start frothing at the mouth as if that was the point of the exercise. You might find some interesting books through the list, you might find some interesting books through people complaining that there isn't enough eastern european magic realism on the list, and it's probably more interesting on a train journey than an interview with Charlie Higson or something...
 
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