Jessa at Bookslut liked 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die enough that she talked to the editor, Peter Boxall.
You can read the list here. Organized by century, it's still very top heavy with books from the 1990's and 2000's -- books which may not survive the next ten years, let alone 100 years.
Once you get past the 1990's, the list is fairly representative of most college lit classes, though I would argue that the list disproportionately favors novels written in English.
Here is a segment of the list that covers part of my career as a bookseller:
I've read about 70% of those books. Several of them will survive the test of time, but most won't. Still, if one wanted an idea of what to read to be well-read in fiction, this list would be a good start.
- A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
- The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields
- The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides
- The House of Doctor Dee – Peter Ackroyd
- The Robber Bride – Margaret Atwood
- The Emigrants – W.G. Sebald
- The Secret History – Donna Tartt
- Life is a Caravanserai – Emine Özdamar
- The Discovery of Heaven – Harry Mulisch
- A Heart So White – Javier Marias
- Possessing the Secret of Joy – Alice Walker
- Indigo – Marina Warner
- The Crow Road – Iain Banks
- Written on the Body – Jeanette Winterson
- Jazz – Toni Morrison
- The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
- Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Peter Høeg
- The Butcher Boy – Patrick McCabe
- Black Water – Joyce Carol Oates
- The Heather Blazing – Colm Tóibín
- Asphodel – H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
- Black Dogs – Ian McEwan
- Hideous Kinky – Esther Freud
- Arcadia – Jim Crace
- Wild Swans – Jung Chang
- American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
- Time’s Arrow – Martin Amis
- Mao II – Don DeLillo
- Typical – Padgett Powell
- Regeneration – Pat Barker
What do you all think of this list?
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