1001 Books you Must Read

Posted by Sandy Mitchell May 29, 2008

"1001 Books you Must Read Before you Die," was just released in the United States. This 900+ tome starts in the 16th century and continues up to 2005, with the bulk of the books from the 19th and 20th centuries. Boxall enlisted the aid of more than 100 international book critics to choose the titles and the result is an eclectic collection of books. Each entry is accompanied by a brief summary and review and the book is illustrated with marvelous photographs of original book covers, authors portraits and even photos of original, annotated manuscripts.

Mysteries are not extremely well-represented and the book favors British authors. Still some of my favorities, such as Daphne DuMaurier's "Rebecca," LeCarre's "Spy who Came in from the Cold" and "Smiley's People," and Agatha Christie's "Murder of Roger Ackroyd" (the only novel of hers listed), are included.

I expected this book to be a stuffy, academic excercise in literary one-upmanship ("I've read more novels than you have"), but was pleasantly surprised to find it a celebration of fiction throughout the centuries. This book would make a great gift for any book lover (of any fiction genre).

...by the way, my number was 294; what's yours?