Reading is Fundamental

I stumbled upon this list in a NY Times article. It references a British book that sports a 1001 book list "handpicked by a team of international critics and literary luminaries."

The Times writer had read 300+ of the 1001 books. Well hello Mr. Fancy Pants. I did a rough pass at the list and came up with 59. Which means that while I might be a book snob, I'm not a very well read one.

Looking at the first 10 on the list (which is in reverse chronological order) we have:

1. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
2. Saturday – Ian McEwan
3. On Beauty – Zadie Smith
4. Slow Man – J.M. Coetzee
5. Adjunct: An Undigest – Peter Manson
6. The Sea – John Banville
7. The Red Queen – Margaret Drabble
8. The Plot Against America – Philip Roth
9. The Master – Colm Tóibín
10. Vanishing Point – David Markson

I've read Never Let Me Go and The Plot Against America, and I've read a book by McEwan (the same one everyone else has read) but I haven't read Saturday. And I've never actually heard of Banville, Drabble, Tóibín or Markson. Ah well. Maybe I'll get around to one or two of the 1001 during my last several months in Afghanistan.