booklit

Happy New Year!

I’m going to try something a little different with booklit in 2008, as I’m aware that depending on the book I’m reading, a considerable number of days can pass with little-to-no activity. That, and I feel I could add more than just reviews to the blogosphere. So, with that in mind, I’m going to do something I don’t tend to do: a reading challenge.

I was browsing the internet recently, looking for literary lists. Of those that I found the one that intrigued most was one called 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. It’s a compilation of all the titles mentioned in a book titled, would you believe, 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die - although in the book there’s three hundred word summaries of the books in question so that, should you not be inspired to read through all 1,001, you’ll at least feel as if you’ve read them.

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Looking over the list, as a bibliophile, it’s certainly debatable as to whether some of these books you must read before you die. I’ve read The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon, for example, and wouldn’t consider it sane to include it if the list extended to a million books. I’ve not read Ardel O’Hanlon’s The Talk Of The Town, so I may be being biased against it, but, perhaps, like most Irish it seems, he has that lyrical, literary streak that justifies it being there. Still, at least there’s no Harry Potter to wade through.

The other thing that I notice from looking at the list is that, while it’s understandable that the bulk of the books listed are from the 20th Century, there are a few authors who are perhaps represented too much. Step forward Paul Auster, J.M. Coetzee, and Ian McEwan. I can’t help thinking that at least one of their books could have been replaced by something by Richard Yates. Say, Revolutionary Road.

Of the list I reckon I’ve read just over fifty off them, although I’ve reviewed little of these. Sitting on my shelves there are about 150 of them. What I’ve decided is that, as a personal reading challenge, I’m going to try and get a review on booklit of each of these books. Of course, I’m not going to set a time limit or any such deadline as, despite the variety on offer, it would be boring to become slave to a reading list. I’ve added a page to the right sidebar linking to the complete list on booklit and as I read the books from the list and review it, I’ll put a link to it. That should at least take the site through to 2068.

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