The 1001 Progress Index

The 1001 Progress Index

The progress index is now available as a wiki page HERE

You can update your own progress by clicking the Edit button on the top right of this page. This page uses MediaWiki markup for formatting. Visit the WikiThing help pages to find out more about this. Please only edit your own information. If you overtake someone on the list, simply cut and paste your line above any users you have overtaken. Leave the # at the start of the line and the list will auto-number.

While you are responsible for maintaining your own information, please note that this page is moderated by Arukiyomi and JonnySaunders who reserve the right to overrule any edits as necessary.

Useful Stuff

Arukiyomi's 1001 Book Spreadsheet
Arukiyomi's 1001 Book App
StevenTX's 1001 Book Finding Aid
How to do cool stuff in your thread (Taken from the 75 challenge group)

Welcome to the 1001 Progress Index!

Here you will find the current progress of all the active threads here on the '1001 books to read before you die' group along with a link to each thread and the date the thread was last updated.

If you would like your thread to be included in the index all you have to do is ask! Just post on this thread, or send me a private message and I will update it as soon as I can.

If a thread is inactive for over a year it will be removed from the list, but I can always re-instate it if it gets picked up again.

Please share your suggestions for any ways to make this better, or more useful!

I feel like this thread needs a photo or two...any suggestions?

Good idea Jonny. Happy to have my thread added too.

This is cool! I hope that more people ask to be included here. I like having the links and the "last updated", too.
for photos, you could somehow use our profile images if we have them, although mine is just a book illustration...

Very cool! Please add me.

Thanks for setting this up.

Ah, here it is already - I had just posted on the thread suggesting it. I'd love to be added!

Me too!

Everyone should be added now who has requested so far...you might want to double check your entry and let me know if there is anything wrong with it.

Thanks for the nice comments and support! We now officially have a top 10! There must be someone out there that can knock me out of the top 10?

I'd love to be added!

Add me too. Here's my thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/55705

I've completed 196.

Add me, too, please! What a great idea!

Ok, I just made a thread and here is is:

Jen's thread

I've read 300 from the original list and 331 from the combined list. Pick whichever you like for the index thingy.

Oooh, I like the looks of this! I've been toying with the idea of a thread for my 1001 books, and now I really think I must start one. I'll update when I've gotten around to it : )

Please add mine I have read 137

http://www.librarything.com/topic/148049

Oh look! Here's the index! In my version of the challenge I'm at 100--40 from Boxall's books and the rest from 1001 Childrens Books to Read Before You Grow Up.

My thread is here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/88303

At 155 books, I update somewhat irregularly as most of the books I have been reading are not from 1001 list...
http://www.librarything.com/topic/74649

THANKS for setting this up!! Now I must update my thread ... :-)

I have stalled at 192 but do plan to try for 200 by year end.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/93054

It's really interesting to see where we all are in the journey. I take note of the number when I visit threads, but it's not the same as seeing them all together!

Everything should be up to date now, so if anyone spots any mistakes on my part give me a shout!

An unexpected bonus of doing this is that it makes me keep on top of reading everyone's threads so I don't miss any reviews and recommendations!

We just need one more to make it a nice round 20...there must be someone out there...?

Please add me to the list too! Thank you so much for setting this up. The Useful Stuff section is very helpful.
My thread is
http://www.librarything.com/topic/155060

My thread is up and running (well, touchstones still need to be worked on). You can find it here,
http://www.librarything.com/topic/160192#4328484

Thanks!

Congratulations to Deern for being the latest inductee into the "300 Club!"

Thank you! And what a cute pic!
Now off to get to 334 soon... :-)

I keep mulling over an idea of creating some kind of milestone "groups" as a bit of a fun, and for something to aim for but I can't settle on anything.

I was thinking something like anyone who had read between 0 and 100 would be "The Bright Young Things" and anyone who had read over 300 would the "The Spartans." These are just a couple of examples that spring to mind, but there could be more milestones and different names for any of them.

Just a thought really, does anyone have any comments/ideas or is it better to keep it as a nice neat list?

Personally I think separate stuff would be a little redundant, but if you wanted you could sort the list here into those divisions?

I love the idea Jonny in fact I love this concept you put together of the process index thing. In fact Im thinking about on of my categories on my 2014 challanges is looking through peoples books and look for the books that seems like everyone has read but for some reason I havent for example One Flow Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

#27 - That was my thinking, just basically split up the list above with separate headings. It would make it look a bit more broken up and not quite as neat though. There would be a sense of "moving up" into the next group when you reached a particular mile stone.

Definitely no point to it at all, just a bit of fun/silliness!

Ah, yeah, contained in this page I think it'd be fine, I agree, a bit of fun! :))

But since most of us in this group has this ovsession with this list and marking titles off even if it is a book of 50 pages makes us all a bit quacky dont you think???

Thanks for this Jonny - excellent :) We are a little list obsessed aren't we all...

*potters off to update her thread*

Wow, three pairs of people currently with an identical number of books read!

It reminds me of the old counter-intuitive question about the chances of having 2 people sharing a birthday!

And I think we might have a fourth pair! If you look at my thread, I'm now at 209, just like amerynth.

So you have! It looks like I didn't save some changes as a couple of threads updated around the 23rd weren't up to date here.

All should be up to date now!

You could add me, too, I just made my thread the other day, here. :)

Consider it done. Welcome to the index!

I feel a little guilty about updating my thread to remove one of the ties... it's kind of neat to see so many up there!

LOL! My tie won't stay very long - Deern will out pace me very quickly :) I do have several more 1,001 on the go but they are all moving rather slowly.

I finished #302 last night (didn't update my thread yet, wont't do so before November 1st), but all the other 1,001s I am reading are moving slowly as well. Bekka, I guess we'll keep making ties for a while. :-)
2013 has been an exceptional year, and so many great books!!

#39, no need to feel guilty ;-) For me, this thread is just a great way to cheer each other on.

Dont look at it as feeling guilty when you are neck to neck with someone it just called friendly motivation at this all ;)

Okay, I made a strategic error in my 1001 thread. I started my numbering from the total number of books I had read on the combined list, but wanted to concentrate my thread on the 2008 List (the edition I own) and subsequently only included 2008 books in my thread. Unfortunately, that meant my thread could not be matched up with anything else -- not arukiyomi's spreadsheet, not my 1001 tag, nothing.

After three days of adding 2006 books to my library and comparing spreadsheets to my tags and my thread, I have finally gotten everything reconciled & my thread renumbered. Yay.

Now I can get back to reading!

(See what wonderfully obsessive behavior this super-cool index is creating!?)

It's getting tight at the top now! Can ELiz knock Steven off the top before the end of year?

Speaking of obsessive behaviour that this index is creating I keep having this horrible idea that it would be interesting to see a "combined" total of everyone on the index...i.e. the total number of books from the list read by at least 1 member.

I think that might be pushing things a bit too far though! Maybe one day when I have a serious need for procrastination...

It would be interesting, though! If you have a spreadsheet for it you could just open a clean version and tick them off that way, and have it sorted either by title or author so they'd be easily found. Shouldn't take too long. But I'm not volunteering myself for it! hahaha

That sounds like a good plan. Knowing myself, as I do, once I get an idea like this in my head there is a strong chance I'll end of doing it...even if it serves no purpose!

lol I understand that very well. :P

#46-49, this group used to have a 1001 'I've read that' chain game. The last thread was here

#46 - I thought I posted here last night (now the question is: where DID I post it?), but... ELiz_M's correction will simply mean that she passes me in a matter of hours rather than days.

Jonny, as long as you're doing a composite spreadsheet, instead of just ticking them off you could tally the number of people who have read each work so we know which works are the most-read. (Not so much to get you to do more work as to save you from a "why didn't I do it that way in the first place" moment)

StevenTX, you read my mind! That's exactly what I've started doing. It would be an interesting way to look at things like most popular books and authors etc.

I've just added all of your reads to my own list to see how onerous a task this would be and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be, so this is definitely something I will be able to do in the next couple of weeks.

I'm surprised to see that of my 98 books, I've read 25 that you haven't so we're already up to 582 as a group!

>52 JonnySaunders: What a great idea! Thanks for taking on the work - I'll be interested to see the results!

And I like the "I've read that" chain game idea, Paruline!

Ha so that means that Im not insane because I kinda all ready do that but just to embarrassed to say anything.

What a great idea Jonny. I wish I would have thought of that! I'm looking forward to the results!

...and if our most-read book turns out to be The Story of O?

ETA: The Group Zeitgeist page shows that our most widely held work is To Kill a Mockingbird, which isn't even on the list.
Number 2 is The Great Gatsby, followed by The Catcher in the Rye and Pride and Prejudice.

I would love to see the stats on which is the most-read book etc. -- I'd be fascinated!
And speaking of the competition for first, I see that there is also quite a group of people right behind me competing for third. I think I will read a few short books after I finish Oblomov.

I miss the chain game! Especially now that I have read more of the books.

Pst, you were right before. I've read 40 from Boxall.

So it goes Boxall (40) + Childrens (72) - Overlap (12) = Total (100)

I'm happy to be sitting in an uncluttered part of the table - 44 away from the next person ahead, and 47 ahead of the person behind. No pressure from either end!

#58 - So I was! Got myself in a muddle again.

You can add me too Jonny! Thanks!

>57 annamorphic: Haha...I was just about to dust off the 'short book' list to see how I could cross a few more off quickly.

I'm looking forward to seeing the combined list results too : )

great idea Johnny... sorry to knock annamorphic off the podium, but could you insert me at 3rd place with 384 finished off the combined lists? Ta

> 63 Alicia can you please take a break or read a very long one to let me pass by you now that we share the 6th place :-)?
I had hoped to enter the illustrous top 5, but thanks toArukiyomi, who's jumping in on 3, this remains an illusion!

>65 Simone2: Nice work on tying! From the rate you read, you'll be moving into 5th place in no time ; ) And I'm working on two 500+ pagers right now...wish there was more Poe on the list.

Looks like my time in the top three is over! but I am happy to be in the top five -- for a while, at least.

Congratulations to @Nikelini for the recent double ton!

Don't forget to celebrate reaching the century mark yourself, JohnnySaunders!

Thanks, Johnny, and congrats back at ya!

Well, I've finally finished my project of trying to collate the progress of all the members of the index. It was slightly more difficult than I'd hoped since different people have tracked their progress in different ways, and there were a couple of examples where I couldn't figure out all of the books read by certain members. So there are almost definitely a mistake or two!

I've got a bucket load of information now to share, but I thought it might be more fun to drip feed it!

First up, the question on everyone's lips...how many list books have we read as a group?

Drum roll please....

1092 books from the combined list, by 649 different authors, have been read by at least 1 member of the index! So congratulations to us all!

There is 1 single book which has been read by more members of the index than any other. Let's see if anyone can guess what it is...any offers?

There is 1 single book which has been read by more members of the index than any other. Let's see if anyone can guess what it is...any offers?

My guess is Nineteen Eighty-four. There used to be a thing on each group's homepage that showed the most common books members had in their library, and at the time, that was the #1 book for this group. That doesn't mean everyone who had it in their library had actually read it though.

Nineteen Eighty-Four is a good guess but believe it or not it is actually the joint 8th most popular book (tied with 12 others!)

Our number 1 book has been read by 3 more people than Orwell's dystopian nightmare.

Either To Kill a Mockingbird or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

I haven't read Nineteen Eighty Four yet so will be dragging that one down the list. I would guess the top book would be one that people count from school days so maybe To Kill a Mockingbird.

My guess would be one of the really short Poe one. Either the Purloined letter, The fall of the House of Usher, or The pit and the Pendulum. After all, they're so easy to cross off the list!

I'm going to guess The Great Gatsby as our most read book.

How about Animal Farm?

Hm... we are an international group, so it could be something that's also widely famous and maybe part of the school syllabus outside the US and the UK. Animal Farm is a good guess, but maybe also the big romances like Pride and Prejudice where people see the movie and then read the book.

I would have guessed Nineteen Eighty-Four, but since that isn't it, I'll guess The Hobbit.

My guess is The Great Gatsby

All great guesses here. Animal Farm and To Kill a Mockingbird are both among those tied for third. Pride and Prejudice, The Hobbit and 2 of the Poe short stories are also tied with Nineteen Eighty-Four

To put you out of your misery though, we have a winner! Kudos to annamorphic for correctly identifying The Great Gatsby! Only 2 people on the Index haven't read this one. One of those is Arukiyomi who hasn't listed all of his read books, so I suspect he might have read it?

There were some definite patterns in the popular books that have already been predicted. Short books featured, so the Poe stories and the Yellow Wallpaper are high up there. Recent group reads also featured highly, so Slaughterhouse-five, for example, was up there in joint 3rd. As Deern rightly predicted, books on the school syllabus seemed to make up the bulk of them, that is if I'm right in thinking that The Great Gatsby is widely read in American high school? The big one that hasn't been mentioned, which was on it's own in second was Lord of the Flies which is certainly a regular school read in the UK.

Here are the top 20 most popular books (remember this is limited to only those included on the index)

The Great Gatsby - 23
Lord of the Flies - 22
Dracula - 21
Animal Farm - 21
The Catcher in the Rye - 21
To Kill a Mockingbird - 21
Slaughterhouse-five - 21
Pride and Prejudice - 20
Frankenstein - 20
The Fall of the House of Usher - 20
The Pit and the Pendulum - 20
Little Women - 20
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - 20
The Picture of Dorian Gray - 20
Heart of Darkness - 20
Of Mice and Men - 20
The Hobbit - 20
Nineteen Eighty-Four - 20
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - 20
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - 20

Next question! Who do you think is the most popular author?

This is a slightly difficult one to quantify since some authors obviously have more entries than others. Even looking at the average number of reads per book doesn't tell you much, since authors like Harper Lee and Bram Stoker come out on top, with 1 very popular book.

However, taking both measures together in a crude way is interesting and show a pretty clear top three. Any ideas?

Interesting stuff Jonny. I read Lord of the Flies at school (in Scotland) but assumed it was too British for a wider international school audience - maybe not.

Authors - Jane Austen and Charles Dickens must be there or thereabouts.

Austen, Orwell, Dickens in that order?

From the top 20, I notice I am still missing three (Dracula, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Fall of the House of Usher).
But I am quite curious of the list of books nobody has yet read, or amount of books read only by one person...

Very interesting. I haven't read Frankenstein (yet, it's on my shelves), Little Women (eventually I'll try it, but I don't think it's quite my taste), or Curious Incident (really want to, just haven't encountered it yet). Also, I read Slaughterhouse completely unrelated to the group, the Poe stories because I've been a fan since childhood, haven't read them recently, and Yellow Wallpaper simply happened to be in the Oxford collection of Gothic short stories that I read because I'm interested in Gothic literature. So not all of us read things for the "obvious" reasons. ;)

Also, yup, Gatsby is a common high school read. I wouldn't have thought of Lord of the Flies because I despise it and try not to think of it, hahaha, but yeah it's also common in school, though it was never in any of my particular classes so I read it on my own after graduating.

Using my dubious calculation method you've already cracked the top 2.

The obvious "Winner" was Jane Austen who despite having "only" 6 books on the list has more individual reads than any other, with 93. So an average of 15.5 readers per book, which is pretty good!

A close second was the obvious, Charles Dickens, with 92 total reads. But since he has 10 on the list this is only an average of 9.2 reads per book.

Third place hasn't been mentioned yet...

Orwell was pretty high up there with 47 total reads at an average of 9.4 per book.

A couple of interesting ones - john Steinbeck, H. G. Wells and Rovert Louis Stephenson have fewer books on the list, but a respectable 14.3, 11.2 and 12.3 reads per book respectively. On the flip side you have J. M. Coetzee and Virginia Woolf each with 9+ on the list, but an average reads per book of 5.6 for Woolf and a measly 4.8 for Coetzee.

More stuff to come soon (can you tell my day job is a data manager?!)

hdcclassic you're wish is my command! There are 213 books that (by my calculations) haven't been read by anyone. I will post up the full list at some point later.

The more interesting one, in my book, is what I like to call a "LibraryWhack." That is, as you say, a book read by only 1 member. There are 227 in total with only the lowest 5 totals (so from me downwards!) don't have any. Everyone else has at least 1. I'm happy to share you LibraryWhack's with you if you want to know them!

As you might expect our 2 front runners, StevenTX and ELiz_M have the most whacks, with 41 and 37 respectively. However there has to be an honorable mention to Simone2 who despite being further down the list has a commendable 28 LibrayWhacks.

hdcclassic yours are also worth mentioning, since of your 155, 7 are whacks!

As we get into the detail of this, the margin for errors start to creep in at an alarming rate, so bare with me! Some of those LibraryWhacks might be mistakes (Arukiyomi's missing books might Kibosh some of them!)

More people ought to give Coetzee a read!! I've just read one of his so far and found it fabulous, he's a wonderful writer.

Hmm, Poe? Tolstoy? Doyle? Forster? Hemingway? lol just trying to think who has multiple titles and are popular classics to read.

Poe is up there of course, with a staggering average of 18.7 reads per "book" but ordering by totals and factoring in the average, there is still one author higher! Doyle gets stung by this approach as he has a hefty 15 reads per book, but with only 2 books on the list he slips down.

Tolstoy and Forster are riding high also with an identical average of 10.8 reads per book. Hemingway is sightly off the pace with 9 reads per book.

Just to throw another couple of names into the ring Ian McEwan & Edith Wharton and are rubbing shoulders with the big boys with high totals (67 & 53) but their averages are modest at 8.4 & 8.8.

This is so fascinating! I would have loved to make those lists, except that me and Excell aren't great friends.... how much you know now Jonny!
I am also really anxious to know the list of books that haven't been read by anyone and of course, the list of LibraryWhacks.
Thanks for mentioning my list of Whacks. Maybe I have read so many Whacks because I am from Holland. I am certainly not sure, but my guess is that we have a lot of European literature translated here because we don't have that many authors ourselves as you do in the UK or the US?

And last but not least, I love your questions!! Give us more!

I'm not really surprised by the top-read books or authors, but like everyone else, I'm super curious about the unread ones!

>92 ursula: There aren't any strict rules regarding titles, "required reading" is dictated at most by the school district, more likely just the school itself, and even more commonly simply by the English/lit department/teacher(s). There are a number of classics that are just held in that regard and therefore have a sort of "consensus" on including them. I can tell you, I actually wound up reading very few of those titles in school. I was in "regular" English/lit my first year, as my parents weren't sure how I'd fare in the honors class (I tend to not be all that motivated by schoolwork :P but always excel in lit so I imagine I'd have done fine), and then I did take the honors level soph year since I aced both semesters frosh, but the only really prominent titles we read in that were Gatsby and Cuckoo's Nest. I read another couple in my elective Early American Lit class sr year (Scarlet Letter, Twain), but still not any of several titles that I know some of my friends had been assigned in their classes. Never Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye, Great Expectations...

Jonny, since you offer, I would like to know my LibraryWhacks! If you can share them, I would really like that!

Hmm, would have guessed that Orwell would have been higher with those couple of really popular books and couple others with five to ten readers but apparently they are quite unpopular.

Hmm, what other giants are there...Dostoevsky? Dumas? James?

I think I can guess couple of my Whacks or at least they are books rarely mentioned like The Manila Rope or Moon and the Bonfires but it would be nice to know which ones I need to push more forward (or warn against) :)

Yes, knowing those Whacks would be fabulous! I guess some are mine as well, there are some horrible German classics on the 2008 list and I try to read them all.

More giants? Hm.. McEwan was mentioned already and he had so many books on the original list. Someone else whose books aren't seen as "difficult", so it's more likely everyone has read at least two... Graham Greene, E.M. Forster, Ishiguro... and didn't Margaret Atwood have more than the 3 on the original list?

Deern you sneaked in there in the final breath with the answer!

Margaret Atwood has 6 books on the combined list. With a total of 79 reads for the whole group this is an average read per book of 13.2. So she gets my nominal bronze medal!

Full list of LibraryWhacks to follow shortly!

1001 Index LibraryWhacks (TM)

This is where all the errors will start coming out when people pipe up and tell me that they've read some of these as well as another!

StevenTX - 41
The Water Margin - Shi Nai'an & Luó Guànzhong
Monkey: A Journey to the West - Wú Chéng'en
Thomas of Reading - Thomas Deloney
A Dream of Red Mansions - Cao Xueqin
The Betrothed - Alessandro Manzoni
Maldoror - Comte de Lautréaumont
Martín Fierro - José Hernández
Down There - Joris-Karl Huysmans
Fruits of the Earth - André Gide
Tarr - Wyndham Lewis
Nadja - André Breton
Berlin Alexanderplatz - Alfred Döblin
Monica - Saunders Lewis
The Return of Philip Latinowicz - Miroslav Krleza
The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil
Man's Fate - André Malraux
The Street of Crocodiles - Bruno Schulz
On the Heights of Despair - Emil Cioran
The Death of Virgil - Hermann Broch
Death Sentence - Maurice Blanchot
The Abbot C - Georges Bataille
The Rebel - Albert Camus
The Unnamable - Samuel Beckett
A Day in Spring - Ciril Kosmac
Death in Rome - Wolfgang Koeppen
The Recognitions - William Gaddis
The Tree of Man - Patrick White
The Time of the Hero - Mario Vargas Llosa
Come Back, Dr. Caligari - Donald Bartholme
The Ravishing of Lol V. Stein - Marguerite Duras
Pricksongs and Descants - Robert Coover
Rabbit Redux - John Updike
Humboldt's Gift - Saul Bellow
The Passion of New Eve - Angela Carter
Memory of Fire - Eduardo Galeano
Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter
Matigari - Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
Sabbath's Theater - Philip Roth
The Rings of Saturn - W.G. Sebald
Everything You Need - A.L. Kennedy
Vanishing Point - David Markson

ELiz_M - 37
Green Henry - Gottfried Keller
Pharaoh - Boleslaw Prus
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas - Gertrude Stein
Untouchable - Mulk Raj Anand
Kingdom of This World - Alejo Carpentier
The Labyrinth of Solitude - Octavio Paz
Deep Rivers - José María Arguedas
The Death of Artemio Cruz - Carlos Fuentes
Three Trapped Tigers - Guillermo Cabrera Infante
Miramar - Naguib Mahfouz
Blind Man With a Pistol - Chester Hines
Moscow Stations - Venedikt Yerofeev
The Twilight Years - Sawako Ariyoshi
Willard and His Bowling Trophies - Richard Brautigan
The Commandant - Jessica Anderson
Cutter and Bone - Newton Thornburg
Dispatches - Michael Herr
Clear Light of Day - Anita Desai
Fools of Fortune - William Trevor
Dictionary of the Khazars - Milorad Pavi?
Annie John - Jamaica Kincaid
The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenma - Andrzej Szczypiorski
Nervous Conditions - Tsitsi Dangarembga
The Melancholy of Resistance - László Krasznahorkai
Inland - Gerald Murnane
Like Life - Lorrie Moore
Arcadia - Jim Crace
The Holder of the World - Bharati Mukherjee
Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light - Ivan Klima
Our Lady of the Assassins - Fernando Vallejo
The End of the Story - Lydia Davis
Santa Evita - Tomás Martínez
The Talk of the Town - Ardal O'Hanlon
Drop City - T. Coraghessan Boyle
Cost - Roxana Robinson
Cain - Jose Saramago
The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach

Simone2 - 28
Eline Vere - Louis Couperus
The Time of Indifference - Alberto Moravia
The Hive - Camilo José Cela
I'm Not Stiller - Max Frisch
The Deadbeats - Ward Ruyslinck
The Birds - Tarjei Vesaas
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - Alan Sillitoe
The Shipyard - Juan Carlos Onetti
Back to Oegstgeest - Jan Wolkers
The Joke - Milan Kundera
The Case Worker - György Konrád
The Left-Handed Woman - Peter Handke
The Back Room - Carmen Martín Gaite
The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi
Black Box - Amos Oz
The Swimming-Pool Library - Alan Hollinghurst
Gimmick! - Joost Zwagerman
The Laws - Connie Palman
The Moor's Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie
Forever a Stranger - Hella Haasse
Margot and the Angels - Kristien Hemmerechts
The Heretic - Miguel Deliber
As If I Am Not There - Slavenka Drakuli?
The Heart of Redness - Zakes Mda
Dead Air - Iain Banks
The Book of Illusions - Paul Auster
The Book about Blanche and Marie - Per Olov Enquist
The Blind Side of the Heart - Julia Franck

Deern - 18
The Adventurous Simplicissimus - Hans von Grimmelshausen
Anton Reiser - Karl Philipp Moritz
Hyperion - Friedrich Hölderlin
Henry of Ofterdingen - Novalis
Elective Affinities - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Life of a Good-for-Nothing - Joseph von Eichendorff
Indian Summer - Adalbert Stifter
La Bête Humaine - Émile Zola
The Child of Pleasure - Gabriele D'Annunzio
As a Man Grows Older - Italo Svevo
The Stechlin - Theodore Fontane
Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem - Emilio Salgari
Memoirs of my Nervous Illness - Daniel P. Schreber
Professor Unrat - Heinrich Mann
Joseph and His Brothers - Thomas Mann
Homo Faber - Max Frisch
The Quest for Christa T. - Christa Wolf
Old Masters - Thomas Bernhard

aliciamay - 16
Love in Excess - Eliza Haywood
Amelia - Henry Fielding
Cecilia - Fanny Burney
Ormond - Maria Edgeworth
Martin Chuzzlewit - Charles Dickens
The Blithedale Romance - Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Marble Faun - Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Hand of Ethelberta - Thomas Hardy
The Woodlanders - Thomas Hardy
Mother - Maxim Gorky
Rosshalde - Herman Hesse
The Victim - Saul Bellow
Things - Georges Perec
A Man Asleep - Georges Perec
Grimus - Salman Rushdie
The Dead Father - Donald Barthelme

Arukiyomi - 10
Marks of Identity - Juan Goytisolo
The Nice and the Good - Iris Murdoch
The First Circle - Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
Days of the Dolphin - Robert Merle
The Singapore Grip - J.G. Farrell
A Dry White Season - André Brink
The Music of Chance - Paul Auster
The Information - Martin Amis
American Pastoral - Philip Roth
Glamorama - Bret Easton Ellis

puckers - 10
He Knew He Was Right - Anthony Trollope
The Red Room - August Strindberg
Hadrian the Seventh - Frederick Rolfe
A Scots Quair (Sunset Song) - Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain
Time's Arrow - Martin Amis
Complicity - Iain Banks
A Light Comedy - Eduardo Mendoza
The Successor - Ismail Kadare
Kieron Smith, Boy - James Kelman

annamorphic - 9
The Charwoman's Daughter - James Stephens
The House in Paris - Elizabeth Bowen
The Poor Mouth - Flann O'Brien
The Garden Where the Brass Band Played - Simon Vestdijk
The Green Man - Kingsley Amis
Troubles - J.G. Farrell
The House with the Blind Glass Windows - Herbjørg Wassmo
The Parable of the Blind - Gert Hofmann
Schooling - Heather McGowan

amaryann21 - 8
Shikasta - Doris Lessing
Marya - Joyce Carol Oates
Billy Bathgate - E.L. Doctorow
Morvern Callar - Alan Warner
Great Apes - Will Self
Cocaine Nights - J.G. Ballard
The Romantics - Pankaj Mishra
Pastoralia - George Saunders

amerynth - 8
Eclipse of the Crescent Moon - Géza Gárdonyi
The Forest of the Hanged - Liviu Rebreanu
The Floating Opera - John Barth
The Bitter Glass - Eilís Dillon
The End of the Road - John Barth
Dark as the Grave Wherein My Friend is Laid - Malcolm Lowry
The Folding Star - Alan Hollinghurst
Celestial Harmonies - Péter Esterházy

joeinma - 8
Tropic of Capricorn - Henry Miller
Conversations in Sicily - Elio Vittorini
Absolute Beginners - Colin MacInnes
V. - Thomas Pynchon
City Primeval - Elmore Leonard
Money to Burn - Ricardo Piglia
Nineteen Seventy Seven - David Peace
An Obedient Father - Akhil Sharma

hdclassic - 7
The Temptation of Saint Anthony - Gustave Flaubert
Platero and I - Juan Ramón Jiménez
Vipers' Tangle - François Mauriac
The Manila Rope - Veijo Meri
Billiards at Half-Past Nine - Heinrich Böll
The Driver's Seat - Muriel Spark
The Ogre - Michael Tournier

BekkaJo - 6
Born in Exile - George Gissing
Cane - Jean Toomer
Burmese Days - George Orwell
The Diary of Jane Somers - Doris Lessing
Legend - David Gemmell
The Player of Games - Iain M. Banks

paruline - 6
Reveries of a Solitary Walker - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Claudine's House - Colette
The Dark Child - Camara Laye
The Roots of Heaven - Romain Gary
Manon des Sources - Marcel Pagnol
The First Garden - Anne Hébert

jfetting - 5
Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. - Somerville and Ross
Living - Henry Green
Go Down, Moses - William Faulkner
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis - José Saramago
The Book of Evidence - John Banville

Nickelini - 3
Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick - Peter Handke
The Beautiful Room is Empty - Edmund White
Adjunct: An Undigest - Peter Manson

ursula - 3
The Glass Key - Dashiell Hammett
Sometimes a Great Notion - Ken Kesey
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe

japaul22 - 2
Mason & Dixon - Thomas Pynchon
There but for the - Ali Smith

ALWINN - 1
How the Dead Live - Will Self

bucketyell - 1
Cause for Alarm - Eric Ambler

Ahhh Atwood, she slipped my mind. I approve. hahaha.

Thanks so much for all of this! It's so interesting!

I am now obsessing about the idea of this group finishing the combined list. We only have 200 and some to go! Once we have the list of unread books, would anyone be interested in having a thread to try to have each book read by at least one of us? I know some are hard to find in English, but we do have an international group here. I'd be happy to monitor the thread once we have the list if there's interest.

Ah I have The Book of Illusions, I just haven't gotten to it yet! I think that's the only one actually in my possession from the Whacks. Journey to the West has been high on my list of -want to read- for a bunch of years but I've still not gotten a copy.

The Whack lists are fascinating--most on my list aren't surprising, but there are some I would never have expected.

How about if each of us with a Whack lists names the one book on that list we would most highly recommend to others?

My recommendation is: The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni. I've read it twice. It's a wonderful work of historical fiction set in northern Italy in 1628 that includes romance, action, and an historically accurate depiction of an outbreak of plague in Milan.

would anyone be interested in having a thread to try to have each book read by at least one of us?

Definitely. I'm eager to see the list and start targeting those books.

Now this is going to really give the accuracy of my spreadsheet a going over! If you spot any on this list that you have already read let me know. I may have made errors with the publication years so give me a shout if you spot any of those.

Enjoy!

1001 Un-read books - 213 in total

Tirant lo Blanc - Joanot Martorell - 1490
La Celestina - Fernando de Rojas - 1499
Amadis of Gaul - Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo - 1508
The Travels of Persiles and Sigismunda - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra - 1617
The Conquest of New Spain - Bernal Díaz del Castillo - 1632
The Monastery - Sir Walter Scott - 1820
The Albigenses - Charles Robert Maturin - 1824
The Lion of Flanders - Hendrick Conscience - 1838
Camera Obscura - Hildebrand - 1839
Facundo - Domingo Faustino Sarmiento - 1845
Castle Richmond - Anthony Trollope - 1860
King Lear of the Steppes - Ivan Turgenev - 1870
Pepita Jimenéz - Juan Valera - 1874
The Crime of Father Amado - José Maria Eça de Queirós - 1876
Virgin Soil - Ivan Turgenev - 1877
Bouvard and Pécuchet - Gustave Flaubert - 1881
The Regent's Wife - Clarín Leopoldo Alas - 1884
Marius the Epicurean - Walter Pater - 1885
The Quest - Frederik van Eeden - 1885
The Manors of Ulloa - Emilia Pardo Bazán - 1886
The People of Hemsö - August Strindberg - 1887
Under the Yoke - Ivan Vazov - 1888
By the Open Sea - August Strindberg - 1890
Thaïs - Anatole France - 1890
The Real Charlotte - Somerville and Ross - 1894
The Viceroys - Federico De Roberto - 1894
Compassion - Benito Pérez Galdós - 1897
Dom Casmurro - Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis - 1899
Solitude - Víctor Català - 1905
Three Lives - Gertrude Stein - 1909
Martin Eden - Jack London - 1909
Impressions of Africa - Raymond Roussel - 1910
Locus Solus - Raymond Roussel - 1914
Pallieter - Felix Timmermans - 1916
The Shadow Line - Joseph Conrad - 1917
Life of Christ - Giovanni Papini - 1921
The Last Days of Humanity - Karl Kraus - 1922
Aaron's Rod - D.H. Lawrence - 1922
The Green Hat - Michael Arlen - 1924
The Making of Americans - Gertrude Stein - 1925
The Counterfeiters - André Gide - 1925
The Artamonov Business - Maxim Gorky - 1925
The New World - Heruy Wäldä-Sellassé - 1925
Chaka the Zulu - Thomas Mofolo - 1925
The Plumed Serpent - D.H. Lawrence - 1926
Under Satan's Sun - Geroges Bernanos - 1926
Alberta and Jacob - Cora Sandel - 1926
The Case of Sergeant Grischa - Arnold Zweig - 1927
The Childermass - Wyndham Lewis - 1928
Hebdomeros - Giorgio de Chirico - 1929
Harriet Hume - Rebecca West - 1929
Retreat Without Song - Shahan Shahnoor - 1929
I Thought of Daisy - Edmund Wilson - 1929
The Apes of God - Wyndham Lewis - 1930
Her Privates We - Frederic Manning - 1930
Insatiability - Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz - 1930
To the North - Elizabeth Bowen - 1932
The Forbidden Realm - J. J. Slauerhoff - 1932
A Day Off - Storm Jameson - 1933
The Bells of Basel - Louis Aragon - 1934
Summer Will Show - Sylvia Townsend Warner - 1936
Eyeless in Gaza - Aldous Huxley - 1936
The Thinking Reed - Rebecca West - 1936
Wild Harbour - Ian MacPherson - 1936
In Parenthesis - David Jones - 1937
The Revenge for Love - Wyndham Lewis - 1937
After the Death of Don Juan - Sylvia Townsend Warner - 1938
Alamut - Vladimir Bartol - 1938
On the Edge of Reason - Miroslav Krleza - 1938
The Hamlet - William Faulkner - 1940
Hangover Square - Patrick Hamilton - 1941
Between the Acts - Virginia Woolf - 1941
Broad and Alien is the World - Ciro Alegría - 1941
The Harvesters - Cesare Pavese - 1941
Caught - Henry Green - 1943
Transit - Anna Seghers - 1944
Arcanum 17 - André Breton - 1945
Bosnian Chronicle - Ivo Andric - 1945
Andrea - Carmen Laforet - 1945
Back - Henry Green - 1946
House in the Uplands - Erskine Caldwell - 1946
Froth on the Daydream - Boris Vian - 1947
All About H. Hatterr - G.V. Desani - 1948
Disobedience - Alberto Moravia - 1948
Journey to the Alcarria - Camilo José Cela - 1948
Ashes and Diamonds - Jerzy Andrzejewski - 1948
The Case of Comrade Tulayev - Victor Serge - 1949
The Guiltless - Hermann Broch - 1950
The Opposing Shore - Julien Gracq - 1951
Watt - Samuel Beckett - 1953
The Hothouse - Wolfgang Koeppen - 1953
Self Condemned - Wyndham Lewis - 1954
A Ghost at Noon - Alberto Moravia - 1954
The Unknown Soldier - Väinö Linna - 1954
A World of Love - Elizabeth Bowen - 1955
The Trusting and the Maimed - James Plunkett - 1955
The Ragazzi - Pier Paulo Pasolini - 1955
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands - João Guimarães Rosa - 1956
The Glass Bees - Ernst Jünger - 1957
Our Ancestors - Italo Calvino - 1959
Billy Liar - Keith Waterhouse - 1959
Down Second Avenue - Ezekiel Mphahlele - 1959
Promise at Dawn - Romain Gary - 1960
The Magician of Lublin - Isaac Bashevis Singer - 1960
Halftime - Martin Walser - 1960
Bebo's Girl - Carlo Cassola - 1960
How It Is - Samuel Beckett - 1961
Memoirs of a Peasant Boy - Xosé Neira Vilas - 1961
Girl With Green Eyes - Edna O'Brien - 1962
Time of Silence - Luis Martín-Santos - 1962
Inside Mr. Enderby - Anthony Burgess - 1963
The Third Wedding - Costas Taktsis - 1963
Dog Years - Günter Grass - 1963
The Passion According to G.H. - Clarice Lispector - 1964
Albert Angelo - B.S. Johnson - 1964
Garden, Ashes - Danilo Kis - 1965
The Birds Fall Down - Rebecca West - 1966
Trawl - B.S. Johnson - 1966
Death and the Dervish - Mesa Selimovic - 1966
Pilgrimage - Dorothy Richardson - 1967
No Laughing Matter - Angus Wilson - 1967
Z - Vassilis Vassilikos - 1967
The Manor - Isaac Bashevis Singer - 1967
Belle du Seigneur - Albert Cohen - 1968
The Cathedral - Oles Honchar - 1968
Tent of Miracles - Jorge Amado - 1969
Ada - Vladimir Nabokov - 1969
Jacob the Liar - Jurek Becker - 1969
Heartbreak Tango - Manuel Puig - 1969
Here's to You, Jesusa! - Elena Poniatowska - 1969
Mercier et Camier - Samuel Beckett - 1970
Jahrestage - Uwe Johnson - 1970
A World for Julius - Alfredo Bryce Echenique - 1970
The Wild Boys - William Burroughs - 1971
Cataract - Mykhaylo Osadchyl - 1971
G - John Berger - 1972
The Honorary Consul - Graham Greene - 1973
The Port - Antun Soljan - 1974
W, or the Memory of Childhood - Georges Perec - 1975
Amateurs - Donald Barthelme - 1976
Blaming - Elizabeth Taylor - 1976
The Public Burning - Robert Coover - 1977
The Engineer of the Human Soul - Josef Skvorecky - 1977
Yes - Thomas Bernhard - 1978
The Safety Net - Heinrich Böll - 1979
Fool's Gold - Maro Douka - 1979
Southern Seas - Manuel Vásquez Montalbán - 1979
Smell of Sadness - Alfred Kossmann - 1980
Lanark: A Life in Four Books - Alasdair Gray - 1981
Couples, Passerby - Botho Strauss - 1981
Concrete - Thomas Bernhard - 1982
The Names - Don DeLillo - 1982
The Book of Disquiet - Fernando Pessoa - 1982
Worstward Ho - Samuel Beckett - 1983
The Christmas Oratorio - Göran Tunström - 1983
Fado Alexandrino - António Lobo Antunes - 1983
The Bus Conductor Hines - James Kelman - 1984
Professor Martens' Departure - Jaan Kross - 1984
Larva: Midsummer Night's Babel - Julián Ríos - 1984
The Young Man - Botho Strauss - 1984
A Maggot - John Fowles - 1985
Anagrams - Lorrie Moore - 1986
Extinction - Thomas Bernhard - 1986
Ancestral Voices - Etienne van Heerden - 1986
The Afternoon of a Writer - Peter Handke - 1987
Cigarettes - Harry Mathews - 1987
World's End - T. Coraghessan Boyle - 1987
Enigma of Arrival - V.S. Naipaul - 1987
The Taebek Mountains - Jo Jung-rae - 1987
Ballad for Georg Henig - Viktor Pasokov - 1987
All Souls - Javier Marías - 1987
The Last World - Christoph Ransmayr - 1988
A Disaffection - James Kelman - 1989
Obabakoak - Bernardo Atzaga - 1989
The Great Indian Novel - Shashi Tharoor - 1989
Vineland - Thomas Pynchon - 1990
Vertigo - W.G. Sebald - 1990
Stone Junction - Jim Dodge - 1990
The Midnight Examiner - William Kotzwinkle - 1990
The Shadow Lines - Amitav Ghosh - 1990
The Daughter - Pavlos Matesis - 1990
Typical - Padgett Powell - 1991
Downriver - Iain Sinclair - 1991
Astradeni - Eugenia Fakinou - 1991
Life is a Caravanserai - Emine Özdamar - 1992
A Heart So White - Javier Marias - 1992
Asphodel - H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) - 1992
The Triple Mirror of the Self - Zulfikar Ghose - 1992
Disappearance - David Dabydeen - 1993
Looking for the Possible Dance - A.L. Kennedy - 1993
Operation Shylock - Philip Roth - 1993
The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll - Álvaro Mutis - 1993
Land - Park Kyong-ni - 1994
City Sister Silver - Jàchym Topol - 1994
Love's Work - Gillian Rose - 1995
The Clay Machine-Gun - Victor Pelevin - 1996
Democracy - Joan Didion - 1996
Dirty Havana Trilogy - Pedro Juan Gutiérrez - 1998
Pavel's Letters - Monika Moron - 1999
Small Remedies - Shashi Deshpande - 2000
Bartleby and Co - Enrique Vila-Matas - 2000
That They May Face the Rising Sun - John McGahern - 2001
Gabriel's Gift - Hanif Kureishi - 2001
At Swim, Two Boys - Jamie O'Neill - 2001
London Orbital - Iain Sinclair - 2002
Your Face Tomorrow - Javier Marías - 2002
Thursbitch - Alan Garner - 2003
Islands - Dan Sleigh - 2003
Lady Number Thirteen - José Carlos Somoza - 2003
Dining on Stones - Iain Sinclair - 2004
Slow Man - J.M. Coetzee - 2005
The Kindly Ones - Jonathan Littell - 2006
A Gate at the Stairs - Lorrie Moore - 2009

I've had The Betrothed on my shelf for 4 years now, time to take it off.

I hated most of my Whacks or at least am aware they are probably even harder to read in translation. Simplicissimus is a great book in a way, but I wouldn't openly recommend it.

But there's one work among mine I rated with 5 stars and that's Joseph And His Brothers by Thomas Mann. It's a 1,800 pages monster, but it's divided into 4 separately published books. It describes the life of the biblical Joseph and his ancestors. This sounds boring - and I admit it has some lengths - but it also an incredibly rich and inspired work. Extra impressive is that Mann managed to get the first two parts published during the Nazi regime.
But don't make it your first Thomas Mann! It's less dry than Doctor Faustus and less philosophical than The Magic Mountain, but you should better have had some training with The Buddenbrooks to get used to his style. And: don't worry if you feel like skipping the very difficult 50 pages intruduction. You'll understand the story very well without it.

If you feel more like reading some easy trashy classic, go for Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem.

#103: haven't read any of those but hope to finish one and have some of the others on my shelf. Now they all get a higher priority!

THANK YOU so much Johnny for investing all this work!!!

The eagle eyed amongst you may have already noticed the only Booker Prize winner that hasn't been read by anyone:

G. by John Berger, winner of the 1972 Booker prize has (according to my dodgy sums) not been read by anyone on the Index.

Please correct me if I'm wrong!

Next random fact of the day...the group have read all 47 books published in the 1700s,the only time region to be 100% complete.

I read Lord of the Flies at school (in Scotland) but assumed it was too British for a wider international school audience - maybe not.

I read Lord of the Flies at school here in Canada--it was commonly assigned back then, and still is as a friend of mine assigned it for her grade 10 English classes until just a few years ago. I also had to read it at university.

I've read everything on the top 20 list except Slaughter House Five, which I suppose I might get to one day, and Little Women, which I'm fairly positive I will never ever read.

I have several of the unread books in my TBR pile, so I guess I know what to read next!

My whacks are:

Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick - Peter Handke - I didn't exactly enjoy this, but it was worth reading, and it's stuck with me over the years. I mildly recommend it. After all, how much Austrian literature do you get a chance to read?

The Beautiful Room is Empty - Edmund White - This was a book with subject matter that didn't interest me, but was so well written that I thought it was terrific. Don't read if you're squeamish about gay sex scenes, but otherwise highly recommended

Adjunct: An Undigest - Peter Manson - I'm surprised I'm the only one who has read this, as a few years ago there was a photocopy being mailed around this group. I guess those people have all gone away? Anyway, it's hard to get, but my university library had it. A very unusual book, but once you figure out what the author is doing, it's a lot of fun.

Given my location in general, and that the library named for him is little more than a hop skip & jump away from me, I am going to have to take it upon myself to add one more title slightly belatedly to my birthday purchases, and acquire Hendrik Conscience's The Lion of Flanders. (I do really wish it was cheaper though. Shhhh we won't tell my husband about that!)

> 98 What a great list! And what a lot of books we've still waiting for us! As for the books I have read and you didn't: I can recommend some of them which definitely don't deserve to be a Whack!

> 100 I'd like that, count me in too!

> 103 Wow. So many. I don't see any errors Jonny, you are a pro!

I love this thread :) It makes me really happy to know that know that I am not the only list obsessed bibliophile around.

#103 New Favourite list... I have Bouvard and Pécuchet - Gustave Flaubert lined up for next year after having read the very excellent Flaubert's Parrot this year. Also Fowles A Maggot since I think a Fowles a year is a good thing.

I thnk my Whacks show that I work off the combo list (and my commetns are);
Born in Exile - George Gissing - mehhhh but okay
Cane - Jean Toomer - urghhh
Burmese Days - George Orwell - really, no-one else? You lucky people
The Diary of Jane Somers - Doris Lessing - this is awesome and it is a travesty that it was taken off the 2008 list. Very very good. Cannot recommend it enough - it is one of my top ten ever reads.
Legend - David Gemmell - fantasy...nuff said for most people I find!
The Player of Games - Iain M. Banks - sci-fi. Rather good I thought.

This is amazing! Maybe I finally have the motivation to start my own thread, so Jonny can mine my data too! Wow!

I've read The Passion of New Eve, which is listed as a Whack.

And I was halfway through Billiards at Half-Past Nine when I got distracted and put it down, but that one doesn't count for me just yet. ;)

I've started a group challenge for anyone who wants to try to complete the lists together. I'll try to keep up to date here with any additions or subtractions to what JonnySaunders has posted.

Here's a link if you're interested.
http://www.librarything.com/topic/161186

Of my "whacks" both Troubles by J.G. Farrell and The Parable of the Blind by Gert Hofmann were absolutely wonderful. I'm surprised that nobody else has read Troubles; didn't in win that strange "missing Booker" not long ago? And Parable of the Blind is one of the books I have most often recommended to friends, although in part that is because many of my friends are art historians who like Pieter Bruegel.

A fascinating thread Jonny - thank you for all that effort. In terms of my Whacks, I rated them as follows:

He Knew He Was Right - Anthony Trollope 3/5 (nicely written, but long)
The Red Room - August Strindberg 2.5/5 (satire on Swedish society in 19th century)
Hadrian the Seventh - Frederick Rolfe 2/5 (odd book about failed cleric who becomes Pope)
A Scots Quair (Sunset Song) - Lewis Grassic Gibbon 3/5 (school read - barely remember it)
Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain 3/5 (a long autobiography)
Time's Arrow - Martin Amis 4/5
Complicity - Iain Banks 4/5 (Scottish serial killer)
A Light Comedy - Eduardo Mendoza 3.5/5 (light and entertaining murder investigation)
The Successor - Ismail Kadare 3/5 (short and readable book about political paranoia)
Kieron Smith, Boy - James Kelman 2.5/5 (ramblings of a 12 year old Scottish boy)

Of these Times Arrow is the most original. It deals with some graphic Holocaust material so is disturbing, but (minor spoiler but obvious from very early on in the book) the whole book is written with time running backwards so that the victims are restored as you read the story. It is certainly the one here that has stayed with me.

Yes thank you so much JonnySaunders you have just solved my problem for a category for my 2014 challange.

Well, I only have two Whacks (I'm surprised I had any!) but of the two, I'd recommend Mason and Dixon, especially for anyone that has a good knowledge of American revolution history. I hated Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, but maybe due to the subject matter, I actually enjoyed Mason and Dixon. It is a time committed though - long plus dense writing.

I am very surprised also that I had any Whacks at all. But for the record I hated How the Dead Live by Will Self.

Fascinating stuff here. Thanks Jonny!

I can't recommend most of my whacks, but I really liked The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy (it might have only been on the 2006 list though) and Mother was pretty good too.

Now I'm off to the thread of the unreads. I have 4 on my bookshelf, so I plan to read those sooner rather than later.

LOL - I'll admit to being rather proud of having some whacks ;)

Jonny, you can tell we all love this! My thanks too.

Oh, somehow I had managed to miss Our Ancestors by Italo Calvino from my list (possibly because it's an omnibus edition of three books and I have marked those three books individually), I have read that too.

The unread list has couple of other entries I have been meaning to read for quite a while (Ada by Nabokov, Safety Net by Böll) and some which do interest me...I'll have to hit those.

All my whacks (including that Our Ancestors) range from pretty good to great.
Böll and Spark have done better books than Billiards and Driver's Seat but I am a fan of both writers, Manila Rope is one of my favorite books of all time but I am really surprised I am the only one who has read The Ogre by Michel Tournier. A really powerful book which imposes a mythological tale of Erlkönig (King of the Elves) on a German school during World War II and a gentle man who is working there...

The whack list also reminded me of a number of books I should get around to reading, like Glass Key and some Angela Carter. And I've been wanting to read that Bethrothed for quite a while (and have actually read two comic versions of it, one starring Donald Duck and one starring Mickey Mouse...)

As far as my three Whacks go ... The Glass Key was okay. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test was something I read 25 years ago when I was in college, but I liked it then. Sometimes a Great Notion was one of the best reading experiences I've had in a number of years. I really loved it.

Of my whacks, I enjoyed The Forest of the Hanged and Eclipse of the Crescent Moon the most.

Took me forever to find an affordable copy of The Forest of the Hanged.... I think I had it on my Abe want list for two years before I got my hands on a copy that didn't cost an arm and a leg. It's the story of Romanian man who finds himself on the wrong side of the Romanian front during World War I.

Eclipse of the Crescent Moon is a sort of fictional account of an episode of Hungarian history... written in the style of a folk tale. I don't think it will appeal to everyone, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm afraid there is one less whack -- I have also read Claudine's House and found it delightful. More of you should read it!

I can't recommend just one whack, ummm my five favorites might be:
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas - Gertrude Stein: It was not at all as difficult as reputed (unless there was a lot of deep meaning below the surface and symbolism which I missed). I had fun with the gossipy tidbits about the various members of the lost generation.

Kingdom of This World - Alejo Carpentier: I recently reviewed this in my thread. It's very atmospheric and dreamy.

Dictionary of the Khazars - Milorad Pavić: I generally love non-linear novels and this one I had a lot of fun with! It is composed of "dictionary" entires that can supposedly be read in any order; it's like a choose your own adventure book for grown-ups.

The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman - Andrzej Szczypiorski: Also read & reviewed this in my thread recently. Again, I loved the non-linear structure with a chapter that focuses on an incident in one character's life, but telescopes to show his/her future as well.

Nervous Conditions - Tsitsi Dangarembga: I read this a while back, but thought it was a wonderful story -- a young girl in Africa who with pluck and determination makes something of herself.

About my Whacks: some of them don't deserve to be one!

Please save from the Whack-status:

Eline Vere. Highly recommended! Such a beautiful story, a Dutch version of Jane Austen or Edith Wharton
The Time of Indifference. Cynical, very cynical
I'm Not Stiller. A strange book, not my favourite, but certainly worth reading
The Deadbeats. A story about laziness and lack of dreams. Beautiful short reading
The Birds - Tarjei Vesaas. One of my favourites this year.
The Case Worker. I have read this one a long time ago, but Konrad is a very good writer.
The Drowned and the Saved Essays about WWII, yes we all have read so much about it, but this is Primo Levi!
Black Box I can't believe no one read this! Amos Oz is one of my favourite Israelian authors
The Swimming-Pool Library Not my favourite Hollinghurst, but still, is is Hollinghurst and he writes so well. This one is again about the gay culture in England a couple of decennia ago.
Gimmick! About Amsterdam and partying in the 80s. Kind of my roots...
De Wetten The Laws, is another Dutch novel. Palmen describes her different lovers and when I read it I copied whole passages of this book. So recognizable - although I was much younger then.
Dead Air My favourite Banks so far, about 9/11

Of my other Whacks I am not sure enough to recommend them to you. Because I don't remember them too well, because I didn't like them much or because I think there are better books you should read first.

#125, Please save from the Whack-status LOL!

Of my remaining Whacks (although you all should read the charming Claudine's house), I would mostly recommend:

- The dark child a semi-autobiographical novel of gentle humour about growing up in West Africa.
- Manon des sources. I'm actually surprised to be the only one to have read this. Pagnol is very well known in France and his texts are part of the curriculum. But as it is part of a series, you should really read Jean de Florette first.

>125 Simone2: Hmmm, I own Eline Vere (it looks big) and Black Box....

This is awesome! I'd like to get in on the fun.

Jonny, could you please add my thread to the progress index? http://www.librarything.com/topic/137137

You'll see in my thread that I have read the following from the list of 'books read by no one':

G. (that's all the Bookers down!)
Aaron's Rod
Ada
The Afternoon of a Writer
The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll

Halfway through After the Death of Don Juan as well :)

The Swimming Pool Library is on my shelf. I will de-whack it for you, Simone2

Of my whacks, I can only recommend Great Apes and The Romantics. The others, if I have not blocked them from my memory, weren't worth the time. Especially Marya *shudder*.

amazing thread I've only just discovered when I found the phrase " (Arukiyomi's missing books might Kibosh some of them!)" - what books have I got missing? I'm intrigued.

also, I've read The Book of Evidence and Dispatches which gets rid of a couple of whacks

Of my whacks, here's what I'd very much recommend
Marks of Identity - Juan Goytisolo
The First Circle - Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
A Dry White Season - André Brink

and those in between:
The Nice and the Good - Iris Murdoch
The Singapore Grip - J.G. Farrell
The Music of Chance - Paul Auster

and you're probably better off dying before reading these:
Day of the Dolphin - Robert Merle
The Information - Martin Amis
American Pastoral - Philip Roth
Glamorama - Bret Easton Ellis

I've had a very busy week with various work, house buying and family commitments so I've slipped a bit behind with this stuff, but will hopefully do a full update tomorrow.

Arukiyomi - I'm pretty sure when I came to copy your list from your thread into my spreadsheet my count was lower than yours, and I think your first post says something about now posting up your full list. I may have made a mistake though!

Alternatively, have you got all your 1001 read books added to your LibraryThing library? If you have I can get them all from there, as I did with Eliz_M

Hi, guys! I just started college this last September so my reading has slowed wayyyyyy down (in fact, I'm still working on the September group read!) but I'm still an active participant, and I'm sure to get at least a few books knocked out over the coming holiday.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/157126

hey Jonny... how much lower was it? I can't guarantee that all my 1001 read books are on LT, no.

I was wondering why I had so few whacks relative to the number of books I have read, and I realize it's because since joining this group, I have chosen my reading based on other peoples' reviews! Most of my whacks are things I'd read earlier; in fact, I think that not a single one of them is a book I've reviewed on my thread. What a shocking lack of imagination and independence this shows. Although it has also meant that I read many books that I actually enjoy...

#134 From what I could glean from your thread I have your total at 305, obviously way short on your actual total!

If you can get me just a plain list of all the book titles you've read (copied directly from your spreadsheet, for example,) I can quickly update my lists. Maybe as a private message on LT?

A belated congratulations to amaryann21 for cracking the 200 mark!

Thank you! Finally hit one of my goals for the year!

that's cos I've only listed the books I've reviewed. YOu'll have to take my word for my actual total. I simply don't have time right now to give you a full list.

Apologies for slow updating at the moment...I knew moving house was stressful but didn't realise just how much TIME it would take up!

I'm now up to date with those currently on the list. Just a quick reminder for anyone lurking that I will only include you if you ask! CayenneEllis do you want to be added? It wasn't clear from your post and I don't want to upset anyone! Just give me a nod and I'll add you on.

As an early christmas preset here's another list. Have you ever wondered who prefers the oldies? Or who is a fan of the modern stuff? Well, wonder no longer, here is the index re-sorted by the average year of publication of all books read so far! As a reference point, the average published year for the whole combined list is 1928

aliciamay - 1863
PolymathicMonkey - 1885
Anoplophora - 1892
Gerrysbookshelf - 1895
StevenTX - 1896
amerynth - 1901
joeinma - 1901
JonnySaunders - 1903
BekkaJo - 1903
ALWINN - 1907
QuartInSession - 1910
Arukiyomi - 1913
annamorphic - 1913
hdclassic - 1913
paruline - 1915
Kiwiflowa - 1916
fundevogel - 1916
jfetting - 1919
Deern - 1919
puckers - 1924
japaul22 - 1924
CayenneEllis - 1924
Eliz_M - 1927
bucketyell - 1932
Nickelini - 1939
ursula - 1942
watson0717 - 1948
Simone2 - 1955
amaryann21 - 1959

Fascinating! Who would have thought there would be almost a century's difference between the top and bottom averages. But what's most revealing is that all but five of us are reading older than the list average of 1928.

What's to be next? Average length of books read? Ratio of male to female authors?

Thanks again for doing all of this.

Interesting! As my reading has been mostly haphazard (driven by "oh! I think this is on the list!" when I pick up a book), I'm not that surprised that I skew more toward the later books. I'm sure my average will come down when I finally get around to reading the ones I've got on the Kindle from Project Gutenberg.

How come the avg year list has 22 names on it but the progress list has 26?

my reading is driven by availability as I travel the globe. Thus, classics tend to predominate. It's impossible for me to pop out and pick up most modern paperbacks so I've had little choice but to go with what I can find for free online. Now I do have a smartphone and a tablet and a decent net connection that might change. But my TBR list is cram full of classics clamouring for attention.

That's fun. I'm surprised I'm one of the few who comes out on the "modern" side of the list since I'm not one to read "new" books, but then that's not what this is showing, is it. I think I went that direction because I've read all of the many the McEwans and Atwoods on the list, and maybe because I look for women authors. Interesting!

Hmmm....I wonder what would happen to my average year if I read just one of the really old books.....

#146, yes, I guess your average can get skewed pretty quickly if you've read Ovid or a few of the really old ones. Mmmmm.... maybe a better measure would be the median year of publication rather than the mean.

#147, just wanted to add that I think it's great that Jonny gives us access to all those statistics and I didn't mean that he should calculate the median for all of our threads.

Thanks Jonny!

Can I please be added to the progress index? New year coming up is time for new resolutions. I want to read more 1001 books, hopefully every other/second book I read will be from the list.

140 - I'm sorry, JonnySaunders, yes, please add me! I usually visit LT on my smartphone, and the little screen has me rarely reviewing my posts for typos and whether or not I actually made any sense! =P

I love the lists, too - I'm always a little jealous that I'm not the one sitting around and number crunching.

Please add me too?

I have read 148 books so far, my thread is here-
http://www.librarything.com/topic/155943

#141. I keep a spreadsheet of the number of pages of each book on the List. I complied this mainly from Amazon and then update it as I buy each book (Amazon is quite inaccurate for some books). The average page length of books on the List is 352 (excluding Taebeck Mountains which is unavailable but likely very long). These range from 24 pages for The Purloined Letter, A Modest Proposal and The Kreutzer Sonata through to 4211 for Remembrance of Things Past. By concentrating on the longer books this year I'm averaging 380 pages for my 272 books read. (For paruline's benefit the median is 280 pages!)

Ooh, nice statistics.
But I would guess that people who jump into a challenge like 1001 would have a general preference for the older books, so most of us being on older side of the average is kinda understandable.

I also wonder what kind of distribution on years people have, I suspect mine is pretty narrow (I have read few of the oldest or newest books and indeed tend to prefer first half of 20th century in my reading) while others are all over the list...
Aliciamay's average year 1863 is still pretty amazing :)

#140 Thanks Jonny - this is great! I do love stats so much :) I'm not surprised where I land - I really need to read more of the modern books.

Oops, classic excel error on my part...I had a few hidden columns when I was last updating it, so didn't copy everyone's average dates.

I'm going to do some updating now to include the new requests so should be able to update the whole list later today.

I'd actually been thinking about using the median average after I'd posted, so I will include that with the update.

Total pages is one that I keep meaning to do, but my spreadsheet is not 100% complete. I've been doing the same as Puckers and putting rough numbers and then updating each one as I read it. I'll make a push to get that finished soon.

Male vs Female would be interesting! Although I don't have that info in my spreadsheets...so that could take a while!

#155 - I have a spreadsheet with male/female/anonymous info as well as language and nationality. It has page length as well, but not for all books and based just on the editions I own. If you want to give me your email address in a private message, I will email it to you.

>156 StevenTX: Me too?? One can never have too much info in a spreadsheet! :D

Right, the index has been updated to include our 3 newbies (welcome!) and I have updated the combined spreadsheet.

I've updated my post with the full list of Mean average published date. And below is the same idea but using the median average. Again, for comparison the median for the whole list is 1958

Gerrysbookshelf - 1898
aliciamay - 1902
fundevogel - 1933
BekkaJo - 1934
ALWINN - 1936
Anoplophora - 1937
jfetting - 1937
Deern - 1937
japaul22 - 1937
StevenTX - 1939
annamorphic - 1940
PolymathicMonkey - 1942
CayenneEllis - 1942
JonnySaunders - 1945
Arukiyomi - 1947
amerynth - 1949
Kiwiflowa - 1949
hdclassic - 1950
paruline - 1951
puckers - 1955
Nickelini - 1955
joeinma - 1957
bucketyell - 1957
ursula - 1960
Eliz_M - 1961
QuartInSession - 1962
watson0717 - 1968
Simone2 - 1977
amaryann21 - 1982

StevenTX you are a very generous man! I will drop you a private message now.

#158 Wow - this is fascinating! I guess I've got to start reading some of the modern novels!
Thank you so much Jonny for all the work you put into this. Hm.....now I have to revise my 2014 reading plans!

I am in book/list nerd heaven with all of this data! Thank you!

Both the 1001 Books App and 1001 Books Spreadsheet have page numbers for anyone who is desirous of them.
See http://johnandsheena.co.uk/books/?page_id=4230 for the former and iTunes for the latter.

The stats geek in me thinks you are wonderful :)

Yes love all of this Johnny.

Wow! I had no idea I was so modern-heavy! Fascinating! Thanks, Johnny!

Thanks all, as I've just said to Steven in an email, it's nice to have an outlet for my obession with lists/spreadsheets/data that seems to be appreciated by more than just me!

I'd also like to add my appreciation of Arukiyomi's app. I love it, it's great as a quick reference when out and about in book shops etc. As he says you can also get a quick check on the length of books and what is also quite cool is link straight through from the app to a place to purchase the books (including Boxhall's itself)

A feature I also personally love is the ability to add your own cover photo. Something about this makes me really happy!

Jonny, I am joining this fine group in 2014 and just put the list of books I've read on my thread here. Please add me to your database.

Figuring out the "total pages" of books on the list, as many of you will already be aware, is a very fuzzy science! Different editions, publishers, page sizes, font sizes, kindle editions, etc etc mean that it is impossible to come up with a definitive total number of pages. I've collected the number of pages from various sources, including the actual page numbers of the books that I've read, wikipedia entries, amazon product pages and finally from the generous help of StevenTX who sent me through his own numbers. So these numbers are rough estimates at best.

After the discussion about the average published year, I was also unsure about whether to use the mean or the median average for pages read. I thought that the existence of the 'tiny' books such as the Poe short stories, that lots of people had read would mean that the mean averages would be unfairly reduced so decided to use the median. However, the median averages were, on the whole, much lower than the means so I've used the more appealing "average number of pages per book"

So, with all that in mind, as a belated Christmas gift for the group here are the average number of pages per book for those in the index:

Once again as a point of reference the average number of pages per book for the whole list is 345 (according to my list!)

japaul22 - 406
ALWINN - 401
Gerrysbookshelf - 397
QuartInSession - 387
puckers - 382
jfetting - 375
StevenTX - 372
joeinma - 368
JonnySaunders - 363
mamzel - 360
annamorphic - 359
Arukiyomi - 358
Deern - 358
aliciamay - 357
amerynth - 357
Kiwiflowa - 357
PolymathicMonkey - 349
ursula - 342
watson0717 - 333
Eliz_M - 325
amaryann21 - 324
Simone2 - 322
BekkaJo - 319
paruline - 315
Nickelini - 311
CayenneEllis - 299
bucketyell - 296
Anoplophora - 290
fundevogel - 286
hdclassic - 266

Haha, I really do read all the short ones! Thanks for putting this together, it is an excellent Christmas present.

Yes, a book from 1940 with 359 pages sounds like my perfect read! ; -)

Ha! I guess I'm the winner (or loser, depending on how you look at it). I do love long books and I almost never choose to read short stories.

But I'll have to find some of these shorter books to up my numbers more quickly! ;-)

Such a nice present again! Very recognizable indeed. Thank you again!!

Ha, I admit that when the page count goes above 300 I start to wonder if I really want to read it after all...I like my books sharp and polished and seldom care about immersion...
But a 266-page book from 1950 does sound like something I'd read :)

Thank you! I think this shows a bit too clearly how I've been trying to read the shorter ones early on!

1934, just over 300 pages? Yup, sounds about right.

I'm now thinking that I really really need to read some longer books though! It'll be interesting to see the changes over the year in this as we all try madly to skew our figures ;)

According to this, my best book is 1955 and 311 pages. Hmmm . . . not very close actually. Although I love some very long books, my ideal is a short book--from175 to 250 pages is best--and usually ones much older or much newer than 1955.

Wow quite respectable really. I thought I had been reading short books - I guess there are more out there! (It also helps to have read W&P and Lord of the Rings to balance the numbers lol.

Just realized that my first planned read for 2014 is Bleak House which at about 1000 pages is not going to help my average!

I prefer my books at least 300 pages, and definitely don't shirk at 500+. The shorter ones I've read are merely chance. I like them to be more substantial and keep me hooked in that "world" for a while, really feel like I get to know it and the characters and all that. Usually that's not how it works out when they're 200 pages or less, it just goes by too quick, before it's even really started.

Pfft, short doesn't always mean quick. Turn of the Screw might short but it was an agonizing read for me.

#180 - . . . or Heart of Darkness. Longest 67 pages of my life, even longer the second time I had to read it.

And Invisible Cities by Calvino. I spent a lot of time on that short book and still am not sure I really got it, though I did love the writing and the idea.

I think the hardest short one for me to get through was Mrs. Dalloway. I made the mistake of reading both Mrs. Dalloway and Heart of Darkness on the same day.

The Trial was also hard because I read it as an ebook and Kafka doesn't like new paragraphs for some reason. Many pages were just a giant block of text.

When students look aghast at a book with more than 300 pages I share with them that as a teen I preferred the longer book because I was too lazy to look for new books. Michener wasn't on the list but he was one of my favorites in high school.

I used to prefer to buy longer books under the theory that I was getting more for my money. Now I'm delighted when I see that a recommended work is short, because it means I can read that many more books before I die.

I expected to see myself more on the longer end of the scale because I've read most of the monster works on the list, but I guess they were balanced out by those Poe short stories and other short pieces I've read.

Thanks again, Jonny, for doing these calculations.

I do like chunkster books - always have as when I was a teen historical fiction was my favourite genre followed by fantasy and they seemed to always be big heavy tomes. I loved disappearing into a big book. Alas now I have to work etc and chunksters aren't the best. I still gravitate to them when I buy books but actually cracking them open and reading them doesn't happen.

When I was a young teen the concept that there was a relationship between the size of a book and how long it took to read never occurred to me. I'd reread long series or 700 page books over and over again without a thought for the time, and without thinking about all the other books I could have finished.

I also buy large books because I feel I'm getting more for my money, I just tend not to read them. Going through my library though, I see I do read relatively long genre fiction novels if I get them as ebooks and don't realize how long they are.

#184. I'm with you Mamzel. I love James Michener. Too bad his books aren't on the list - my total would be a whole lot higher! Huge historical fiction novels have always been my favorite. I'm not surprised my average number of pages is high. In my case the stats don't lie. Give me an old big book and a cup of tea and I'm a happy camper!
Thanks again Jonny!

Interesting to see that ALWINN, who I'm just above on the progress list, has an average book length of 60 pages more than mine ... this could explain how I'm (barely) ahead. :)

great great stats Jonny... and BTW Stephen, because of all the variations among page numbers of different editions, I went with whatever goodreads said and rounded it to the nearest 50. So, far, I've noticed that it is pretty accurate and, with some being over and some under, it all averages out for the purposes of Jonny's obsession!

>190 arukiyomi: How did you pick which edition to use?

When I was in high school we had to hand in, on the first day of school, a list of all the books we had read over the summer. As an inveterate show-off, this assignment provided me with a powerful incentive to read SHORT books. I had such a long list every summer! All the shorter works of Hemingway and Orwell and even obscure gems like Omoo and Typee by Herman Melville. I read all the plays of George Bernard Shaw because they were... short! The fact that I now have a decent average length among the 1001 books must indicate that I have read many long books since high school.

>191 .Monkey.: I didn't. I just went with whatever goodreads had listed. When I could find it there, I searched google books or, very rarely, shelfari. I make no claim for accuracy. The figures are estimates and, because all of them are estimates, they achieve their purpose which is to give the lister a guide as two the length of the titles relative to each other for sorting and for choosing titles to read.

>193 arukiyomi: But GR has editions level, there's multiple editions with different numbers of pages, so there's no "goodreads has listed," they have listed a whole lot of different ones.

Actually a bit of coincidence here, the next fiction I'll start reading is a 1001 book and my copy has exactly...266 pages. It's from 1954 though so Moravia missed my average by four years :)

I hope this business of page length doesn't become a sore spot with anyone. The spreadsheet I sent Jonny was primarily for the purpose of classifying authors by gender and nationality and books by language. It also had the page length of most--but not all--of the works on the list. This was entirely based on the editions I own, since I created it for my personal use. I'm not claiming it is more--or less--accurate or representative than any other set of numbers. The variations probably average out anyway, and this is, after all, just for fun.

Not a sore spot with me. More the opposite really, I'm well aware that editions vary widely in their pagination, which is kind of my "point" really, that plucking a random page count from one particular edition on GR is, well, random. ;)

#196. I agree. I developed my page count spreadsheet independently and I ended up with an average of 352 against the JonnySaunders/StevenTX average of 345. The main aim for me was to identify the "long" books so I could target them in my buying/reading - some of these proved shorter than I'd originally listed (Bleak House for example was on my spreadsheet at 1100 pages but my edition was 900), whereas others were longer (Clarissa for example I had listed at 1550 pages but the version I read was a mind-numbing 2480 pages!). In both cases they still proved to be long books, which was what I'd used the spreadsheet to highlight.

Whichever editions of each book you end up reading, you will still end up having to read around 450,000 pages to complete the List!

yeah Polymathic... what exactly IS your point? We all know the limitations. Those of us who have contributed to the community are working with them. Grind the axe elsewhere...

for the record, the official app and spreadsheet have the average at 346.

Very neat! I guess the fact that I have a relatively high average number of pages read shouldn't come as a surprise to me - I'm always getting horrified looks from co-workers when they come into my office and see the latest behemoth sitting on the corner of my desk. Also, friends who ask me to recommend books normally qualify their requests with, "Not one that's a million pages though". :P

It's been several years since I joined this group and my original thread (if I started one) is lost in the mists of time.

I read from a combination of all three editions, but last year really fell off the wagon. I have a total of 88 books read.

Here is my new thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/163173

Hi Johnny, add me too please: Currently 197/1305.

My thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/163260

Inspiration to read a few more in 2014.

Hi Jonny,

Love this thread. Please add me - I'm hoping I will be inspired by your index in 2014 and increase my list from a lowly 11 to something a bit more reasonable!! I'm here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/149082

Elaine.

Yay, more people for the index!

I've made a list of all the 1001 books I've read so far and will update this regularly as I read new ones. You can find my thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/121352
I have added the 16 books from other versions of the 1001-list, but separated them from the others. I have read a total of 89 or 105 books, i.e.
- my edition: 89/1001
- all editions: 105/1313(?)

Happy New Year to all!

I've been away over New Year so had some catching up to do. However the first update of the new year is now complete so everything should now be up to date.

I notice a few new threads popping up for the new year (resolutions?) so just a quick reminder that I will include anyone in the index who asks to be included (just like Joey above!) so don't be shy, just pop a post up here, or send me a private message saying that you want to be added.

You'll also be pleased to know I've got plenty more lists and statistics to share in the new year, although you all read so fast they very quickly go out of date!

THE NERDS IN ALL OF US WANTS TO SAY THANK YOU JONNY FOR ALL YOUR LIST AND STATS THEY ARE AMAZING....

More lists! More statistics! Happiness and joy!

(and based on the stuff I am reading or planning to read in near future, I suspect my average page count will be going even lower...)

I'd like to join in, if I may. This seems like a fun project. A great way to get us thinking about the books.

Here is the link to my thread:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/74254

Thanks for adding me!

I am considering changing my personal counting system from regarding only the 2008 list to the overall list. I understand that's what most people here are doing and it would "un-complicate" things.

For example I just started reading Cecilia which is long enough that I'd like to see it counted, but it's only on the 2006 list. I'd also like to participate in all of the GRs without checking first if the book is countable for me. The same goes for the list of unreads.
On the other hand there are some 2008 books which I am sure I'll never touch. With the combined list, a total of 1,001 might be doable. Just with the 2008 list, I'd never get there.

I won't make a big jump forward here, my combined total must be somewhere in the low 340s. I would miss the 333/4 milestones though. :(

Deern - for years I stuck with the 2006 list because that's the book I owned and at the time it made sense. About 18 months ago, I realized it had become more work to do that, and I just started following all the lists. I never plan on reading 1001 of any combination of them, so what did it matter anyway? Also, I bought the app for my iPhone (which is rather a wonderful thing), so it really became easier to just follow all of them. I don't think you'll regret your change of strategy.

I am targeting the 2006 list, so I keep track of both for my own reference. The overall total is what is used for the progress index.

Deern, that is pretty much my philosophy too. I have read the most books from the 2006 list but there are some fabulous ones on the 2008. So I have the 2006 edition, I use the 2008 spreadsheet, and I also get ideas from whatever people review here.

and as we expect changes every 2 years anyway, reading from all the editions allows you to flex as more interesting books are added and others fall away into oblivion... my approach is: hey, I might not read ALL the books. But I've got a good chance of reading 1001 and even if I don't hit that target, I read some amazing books along the way and got to hang out for the rest of my life with you guys. Great.

Agreed Arukiyomi :) I'm aiming and will more than likely never hit but I've read so so many books I would not have touched. And only hit about 10 stinkers (IMO purely) so that's a pretty good ratio of the 305 I've read.

a little heads up to everyone... I hear on the grapevine that a 2014 new edition is unlikely.

WHAT No new edition for 2014!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well maybe they will hit us real good in 2016 MAYBE.

Im not sure which edition I own but its just easier to follow the speadsheet then drag out the book all the time. And yeah for someone that can only read and speak english I dont think it is even possible to finish the whole list since there are a few titles on the list that is not translated into english right??? But Im with everyone else I am having fun and I get the company of all you wonderful people.

Oh no! I was looking forward to their realization that Wolf Hall should be on the list.

Thanks all for your feedback! I think I'll wait till I got to 333/334 on the 2008 list - this is just too good a milestone to miss, much more important than 350 imo - and then I'll do the big update.

350 is VERY important (am at 349 ; -))

Thank you for the info about the new edition. It's good to know as just last week my cat knocked a glass of water over and sitting on the table was my 1001 book. The bottom pages got soaked and it's amazing how only a little bit of water can destroy a book, not only the pages but the binding too. I consoled myself with the idea that a new version was coming out so I would wait until then to replace it!

I finally moved house on Monday so only have internet at work and have no time for reading (or anything other than moving boxes and building furniture for that matter!) However, I'll do my best to stay on top of the index, but apologies if things move a bit slower in the coming weeks.

My tongue in cheek question for the day is; what's wrong with Martin Chuzzlewit?

Only aliciamay has read it, compared with 28 of us who have read A Christmas Carol

Here, for your interest, is the popularity list for Dickens' 10 works on the list:

A Christmas Carol - 28
A Tale of Two Cities - 16
Oliver Twist - 14
Great Expectations - 14
David Copperfield - 13
Bleak House - 12
Hard Times - 9
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby - 5
Our Mutual Friend - 3
Martin Chuzzlewit - 1

Interesting. I picked up Oliver Twist last year? and it's on my list for this year. Most of Dickens' titles I'm familiar with, but I have to admit I'd never heard of Martin Chuzzlewit before hanging around on LT. Maybe that's something to do with it?

Yes, very interesting. Martin Chuzzlewit is one of those odd picks by the 1001 Books editors. If you look on Dickens's author page here it's well down the list both in number of copies owned and reviews posted.

I assume its brevity is what won A Christmas Carol top spot. I wonder which of the others is high on the list simply because they were mandatory reading at some point in our schooling? (In my case it was Great Expectations and Oliver Twist.)

Im not sure but I have it on my kindle so I may read that one next and I will let you know.
But loving Bleak House too bad Im not finding much time to read right now. I had ANOTHER grandbaby born the other night sooooooooooooooooo.

A Tale of Two Cities was school reading for me; we only read a selection of Great Expectations (just enough to turn me off of it). Martin Chuzzlewit is one I probably won't be reading -- I am focusing on the 2008 list & I believe MC was dropped in 2008.

ETA: >223 JonnySaunders: Yay on finishing the move! Organizing a new place is the best part of moving.

Congratulations on the new grandbaby ALWINN!

Thank you number 5 for me!!

Martin Chuzzlewit? It's got to be the name! I read A Christmas Carol, Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield in school.

I'm also reading Bleak House right now. There's a group read going on in the 2014 category challenge.

I'm a culprit too - I've read the top 7 of those but have the last three to go. Will trya dn get to one this year - after all a Dickens a year is a good rule of thumb :)

And my congrats too Alwinn!

I read A Christmas Carol sometime as a child, and then Hard Times was assigned reading in a college history course. Aside from that, I've put my fingers in my ears and said "lalala" I can't hear you when Dickens comes up on this list. One day I'm going to have to read some, but today is not that day.

Next time you update, could you add me to the stats, too Post 201--but I guess I didn't specifically ask to be added.

I have read only A Christmas Carol - I read it this last Christmas, and have never had to read any others in high school. A Christmas Carol proved that Dickens was not nearly as scary as I thought, and I think I'll be reading another soon. Maybe I'll start with Martin Chuzzlewit!

No Dickens in school, only as a hobby, so I have read A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations and liked the formed but not so much the latter. I have been thinking of trying A Tale of Two Cities at some point.

The only Dickens we were assigned in school was A Tale of Two Cities.

Like StevenTX, I had Oliver Twist and Great Expectations in school. I liked them both and am not sure why it took me so long to read more Dickens. But at least it means that I have a bunch of 1001ers to look forward to.

I never read any Dickens in school. I started with A Christmas Carol and when I started Great Expectations, some of my friends expressed their condolences... but I really liked it! I just finished A Tale of Two Cities and it was hard going for the first 150ish pages, but after that, I enjoyed it immensely.

Love me some Dickens, but in my opinion Martin Chuzzlewit is the weakest one I've read (I only have Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend remaining from the list). And it is LONG. Sorry I can't offer a ringing endorsement for reading it.

#233 Welcome streamsong! Apologies, I must have missed your post first time round, but you are now safely added.

You might be interested to know that so far your average book is a 359 page tome written in 1950.

And me too, Johnny. Post 202.

Bah, it looks like I had a minor black out around the post 200 - 205 dynasty!

Welcome also to merry10!

merry10, your ideal read (based on your list reading!) appears to be a novel published in 1909, clocking in at 356 pages.

#242 Many thanks, Johnny! That's some nifty calculating program you have there.

Hi Jonny, I'd love to find out what my average is :-)

Happy to oblige JustJoey!

Your average book is a tidy 363 pages and published in 1937 which almost exactly descries The Hobbit if you were interested!

I posted baby pic on my profile page I would do it on my thread but anyways its over there if anyone wants to see the cute little guy.

Thanks so much JonnySaunders! The stats are really interesting and I'm blown away that you added them specially instead of just waiting for the next update. I'll be starting my first for the year this weekend - Mrs. Dalloway for the RL book club.

Thank you, Jonny!! I don't know how you do this, but I'm a list-geek, so I love this information. I read The Hobbit long before the Tolkien-hype and I loved it. I picked it up from my brother's library when I was facing a long journey by train and I still cannot ride a train without thinking of that book. There are worse books to remember, though.

# 247 - I'm reading and enjoying Mrs Dalloway right now (almost finished).

Please add me as well. http://www.librarything.com/topic/32071

Bit slow during the last two years, hopefully this year I will be able to add a few :-)

Apologies for the long delay in updating...as I'm sure I've mentioned about 100 time I'm in the process of moving house, which is fun for stressful/time consuming!

All up to date now, although I haven't had a chance to add you plekter...I will do it first thing tomorrow!

No apology needed! I can certainly sympathize with what you're going through. We're getting ready for the interior of the house to be painted, so thousands of books have to go out to the garage (and a few hundred painfully selected to go to the used book store). I'm not getting much reading done, so the next sound you hear will the the roar as ELiz_M passes by me to the top of the list.

My we are such a friendly bunch!!!

One of my least favourite things to do is paint walls...especially when you have to move everything first. I also take great pain from culling my book collection which until we moved out of our flat has been a regular occurance. So my deepest sympathies go out to you Steven!

plekter consider yourself well and truly added to the index. Welcome!

If you're interseted in such things your current "average" book is 335 pages long and was published somewhere in the middle of 1964. This is a pretty accurate description of Herzog by former Nobel laureate Saul Bellow.

You might also like to know that while you are currently providing a solid foundation for the Index, if I were to re-order it based on the obscurity of books read (i.e. the average number of other members who have also read the books you have) you would be up there in 11th place.

250 - I sympathesize. I just moved as well and am finally at the point where my books have been unpacked. I can honestly say that I never want to do that again. Good luck with your move!

I am so with you in the past year I have had to pack and unpack my own personal library 3 times and its not fun. Its been almost 2 months and I still dont have everything where I want it to be. So good luck Johnny....

I don't agree. I love playing with my books. Without moving houses I sometimes empty all my bookshelves just to put them in again....

#256 - Me too! I am a collector (read: hoarder) at heart, and I love just touching my books.

Well yes when you get a new bookcase or find a new fav that has to be displayed loud and proud on the top shelf so everything needs to be moved. But putting all the books in boxes and have the movers ask you in a nerve tone about 10 times durning the day GOOD GOD WHAT IS IN THESE TUBS DEAD BODIES OR SOMETHING???? And then have to laugh when you peep around the corner and they are actually looking into a couple to make sure that they are actually books.

Of course! That's something different!

The movers did pop an eyebrow or two when they saw the 100+ boxes of books piled all innocently in the corner. But they kept their mouths shut and moved then gently and nicely for me. Now I just need more bookcases so they can all find homes and not stay strewn across the floor.

The movers came to my 2nd-floor apartment in Arlington MA. I opened the door. Before even greeting me, one turned to the other and said, "See? I told you. It's the lady with all the damned books!"
I had become notorious.
That was 20 years ago, and things have gotten worse since then. And art history books -- they are seriously heavy.

The last time I moved was also the first time I hired movers. They showed up and saw the pile of stuff in the center of my studio apartment, that could all have fit inside a 4x4 storage unit and were quite surprised at how easy the job was going to be. Then they discovered that over half of the boxes were full of books...

How's the move going, Jonny? Hope all is well!

Hi Jonny, I've just created a thread and would love to be added to the index!
http://www.librarything.com/topic/170619

Cheers!

Please excuse my recent radio silence! Not only has the house move been ticking along nicely and keeping my very busy making lots of mess in our kitchen, I can now happily announce that my wife is expecting our first child! So I can only imagine that my reading time will diminish even further! I will have to get lots in before the big day (some time in September)

Anyway, I have now finally done an update so everything should be preset and correct. I also see I missed a few things while I was gone so...

CONGRATUALTIONS to @bucketyell on reaching the big 200

CONGRATUALTIONS to Gerrysbookshelf for joining the centurion club

And finally WELCOME to sabrinahughes, our newest inductee. Sabrina, as is becoming custom, I feel the need to tell you that your average book is currently one written in 1961 and clocking in at around 334 pages. This doesn't match anything exactly, but the closest you might find is the slightly shorter Faces in the Water by Kiwi author Janet Frame.

And a massive congratulations to you! And yes... reading will reduce. Considerably. But who cares! Congratulations again.

Congrats on the soon-to-be little one, Jonny!

Many congratulations to the achievers and Jonny!

Jonny, lucky for you there's 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up conveniently sorted by age: http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/1001+Children%27s+Books+You+Must+Read+Befo...

Congratulations and good luck Jonny. Our second child is due in 7 days and I'm racing to complete Infinite Jest before then as I expect my reading time to morph in to sleeping time thereafter!

Congratulations to both Jonny and Puckers as well as those who have passed milestones!

Congratulations to both of you! Yes, it's all about sleeping for a while :-).

Lots of good news around here!

#269 So soon! Hope all goes well :)

Ah Yes Congratulation both Jonny and Puckers on your little bundle of Joys and they are indeed joys.

Remember that it's never too early to start on 1001, so how about some Taebak Mountain for bedtime reading...(and congrats)

Congrats to both Jonny and Puckers! Just in case everyone is scaring you about reading time, I still manage an average of three 1001 books per month with three young kids. So all hope is not lost!

Take a million pictures, they grow so fast!

Thank you for all your good wishes. Sophie Jean arrived safely this evening. Mummy and Sophie both doing well. Daddy about to join the Group Read of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

>277 puckers: Congratulations!

Congrats puckers!

Aw congrats! :)

Looks like you finished Infinite Jest just in time! Congratulations!

AWWWWWWWWWWW love the name Sophie congrats on the little one enjoy!!!

Congratulations! I love the name Sophie too!

Congratulations Puckers! Good luck with newborn + Hunchback...

Awesome news - congrats!

Big congratualtions puckers! Great news!

I've been listening to baby's heartbeat today, very exciting! With that done though I've now updated the index with a few changes....things getting very interesting at the top! StevenTXs re-reads have allowed Eliz_M to draw level!

Thank you all again. Home now, and reading "Progress" at a crawl.

Apologies for recent delays in updating...life and work and seem to getting very busy recently!

While I was away I see that Eliz_M has quietly deposed StevenTX (after a long reign at the top) in a bloodless coup to take her place on the throne at the top of the pile! Congratulations!

Hi Jonny,

Please would you add me? I will lurk at the bottom of the list with my lowly 12! I'm here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/149082

Elaine

Welcome Elainedav, consider yourself added!

You may want to know that at this early stage your "average" read from the list is one written in 1988 with 358 pages. If you enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale then you might be interested to know that this is a pretty accurate description of Cat's Eye by Atwood.

Thanks for adding me Jonny. Love your stats and random facts. 1988 is the year I got married, so that is a good year for my average. I see I am 37 (out of 37) in the progress list - that might motivate me to read a few and see if I can push my way up the list a bit!

The beauty of being low down on the index is to think of how many amazing books you've still got to look forward to!

I've been a bit slack with updates recently so a belated congratulations to puckers for become the latest member of the 300 club!

And another congratulations to Deern for joining the upper echelons of reaching a third of the way through!

I see arukiyomi is also primed to hit the heady height of planet 400.

Sign me up!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/173926

Thanks for the congratulations! As I posted some time last year I'll now soon update my thread and add all the read ones from different editions. As I always concentrated on the 2008 list, this won't mean a big step forward, maybe +25 or so. But it means much more relaxed list-reading for the future.

thanks Jonny... just so happens that I'm about to sit down with a cuppa and knock off the last 30 pages of Fear of Flying which will bring up my 400... sweeeeeet!

Welcome Korrick! You have now be added.

If you were wondering what the average of your 200+ reads looks like try having a look at Excellent Women by Barbara Pym which is pretty close to your average 369 page book written in 1952.

A very belated congratulation to arukiyomi for hitting the mightily impressive 400 mark.

I see Eliz_M may also already be the first among us to make it to 600, so not far off being half way through the complete list now!

Gulp. I'm about to lose my lovely 10th place to Puckers. I'm just not reading fast enough!

Ha! No pressure :)

I joined up this morning—I was looking for a group of people reading interesting stuff. My total so far is 277.
My thread is here

Welcome, Ipsoivan -- you just bumped me down a spot. ;-) (I'm reading 1001s at a very slow pace these days, so I'm certain to drop a few more positions this year).

*Snarf* I might be safe for a while once Puckers shoots past me, but I really don't see myself hitting 400 anytime soon. I suspect I may have read too many of the short ones early on ;)

Sorry about that BekkaJo. 11th place is quite pleasant though - I should know as I've been there for the best part of the year!

>302 Nickelini: Thanks for the welcome, and sorry about that bump. Actually, I'm not much of a contender for now, as I am struggling with long books for my TBR Challenge, so it's all going very slowly this year.

Also, my current showing represents a long life of Brit-fic fandom--I'm guessing about 53 years of devotion-- it's not as if I'm going to finish anytime soon.

ETA: I had to redo my list and realized I'd actually read 277.

Apologies to for my recent update hiatus. I've been so busy that for the first time in almost 2 years I didn't finish a single book in July! Updating the progress index also hasn't been helped by my work's internet filters finally auto-blocking library thing!

Everything is updated now, but I think I'm going to have to finally throw in the towel with updating my master spreadsheet which tracked everyone's specific books read...it had a good run!

ipsoivan - welcome! Consider yourself added...I got a bit confused about what your total should be...but I went with 174 for the moment, but please do let me know if you would prefer to use 277.

Finally, I see I missed Simone2 reaching 400 and Eliz_M reaching 600 in my absence. Belated congratulations to both.

Woo hoo!!! I'm no longer bottom of the list :-)

>306 JonnySaunders: I know, I know. I confuse myself when I reread those posts. I am at 176, to be 177 by the end of today when I finish The Summer Book.

Jonny... thank you SO much for the work you've put in on this. It's efforts like this that make reading the list truly a community experience and heightens my enjoyment of it. I know firsthand how focussing on stats for the list can make your reading total take a hit. I don't think I'll ever get back to 100 books a year like I used to!

Congratulations to Streamsong for being become the latest recruit in the centurions!

Thank you, Jonny for the congratulations and keeping track of everyone. I'll just keep toddling along.

Hi Jonny; I'd like to be added to your list if I may?

Jonny I am so glad you created/maintain this thread. I accidentally ignored someone's thread and if this index with links didn't exist I never would have figured out how find the missing thread in order to stop ignoring it!

Just adding my thanks Jonny :)

I just placed my thread up with my little, bitty list and would like to be included here, please :)

Oh, I'm on this list! Streamsong I've got my eyes on you!

I've found the progress index & gosh, I'm impressed with the numbers. I'm starting my campaign at 116. Here's my thread:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/180312

A belated welcome to M1nks, @RachelLeah and klarusu

All added and updated!

Thanks Jonny :)

Thank you!

Thank you Jonny, this is a very nice thing to do :-)

Don't know how I missed this thread until now. I'd like to be included in the totals - my list is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/154334

Question regarding this thread. Is this list for a single 1001 list (whichever one you happen to be using) or for the Combined? Mine are pretty similar at the moment but I'm about 18 more in the Combined and it will slowly increase because with the GoodReads Seasonal Challenge I'm reading whichever books fit. I give preference to the 2012 1001 list but I'll still read anything that I can slot in.

I believe/hope that it is for the combined; otherwise I'm up there in the 390s under false pretences.

I keep track of both my specific list and my combined total - Jonny has been taking my combined number.

My total is from the combined list. I assumed it's whatever we chose it to be.

Many do this with combined, some with specific edition. You get to choose how you want to report your readings.

Right Ho! I'll go with the general consensus so far and take the Combined List please Jonny.

Is this still a feature that is happening?

I certainly hope so! I think Jonny is busy with his newborn baby! He probably has no time to read at the moment...!

Apologies to all for my radio silence! Simone2 called it...the birth of my daughter at the end of September put a halt on most things that weren't changing nappies or not getting any sleep!

Everything should now be up to date, but please shout up if I have made any mistakes or missed anyhting. Things are closer to normality now so I should be able to update more regularly.

I see congratulations are in order for annamorphic hitting 400 and japaul22 for reaching 200. Welcome also to sjmccreary the latest addition!

Thanks Jonny :-) Now, back to bubs!

P.S. You're the next above me on the list and seeing as you've got a new family edition...

Eat my dust! ;-)

(Not that I'm competitive in the least...)

>331 JonnySaunders: Congratulations on the new arrival! I guess you'll be starting her on the 1001 Books List instead of picture books ... nothing like starting them young ;-)

Hi Jonny. Congratulations! Based on my experience things never get back to the old "normal" once you've got children. Hopefully you'll get some reading time in the new "normal".

Congratulations Jonny! Enjoy being a father, don't worry about us :-)

Now you can focus on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Grow Up :-)

Hello Mr. JonnySaunders,

I have taken upon myself the project to read all 1,001 books, starting with the 2006 edition, and I would love to be included in the index. Can you please advise on how that's done? Do I have to start my own thread that you link from to chart the progress?

>338 MartinBodek: - start your own thread to track what you read and Jonny will take care of the rest ('cus he is awesome like that!) You can provide a link here to help him out though :)

Congrats Jonny!

I'd like to be added to the next update.

Here's where you can find me:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/183326

Hi Marleen, and welcome. I would add a book count to your thread as I'm sure Jonny won't have time to add up your totals manually between feeds and nappy changes!

Oh thank you Mr. Bucketyell! I will do exactly that!

Hello Jonny,

First of all, my congratulations to you and your family.

Secondly, it's an honor to be included in this group of readers. This is my new thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/183455

I would love to be included in your Progress Index. Thank you kindly.

Thanks for all the congratulations!

>334 klarusu: klarusu I'll post a picture on my thread soon which might suggest your guess is correct!

A few welcomes to do today!

Welcome to Marleen_Cloutier
Welcome to tmrudzitis
Welcome to Martinbodek who is the first person that I have seen to be starting from the very beginning and going chronologically!

Thank you for the welcome! Like the male baby in the Free to Be You and Me sketch, I'm just so excited to be here!

A couple of years ago, I was reading a blog by someone who attempted to read all 1001 books chronologically. Unfortunately, he stopped posting at Rousseau.

>344 JonnySaunders:, this is a very bold question but is there any chance you are going to update the average year of publication and pages each of us has read...?
Last year's numbers made me read a lot of old and fat books :-) so I wonder if my average has improved!

Hi Simone,

I had to stop updating my big spreadsheet when life got in the way so I haven't got the new numbers immediately to hand.

However, it might be a nice way to end the year with a bit of a stats update and I have some time off work so I'm sure I can do a bulk update and see where we stand.

I wanted to churn out a load of other stats based on some extra info that StevenTX sent me, but never got round to it so perhaps I could do that as well while I'm at it! I might also transfer the index to a new thread as I see we're approaching 400 posts in this one!

I'll hopefully get on it in the next few days and let you know.

You're amazing. I certainly can understand when you prefer to spend your time off work with your little daughter!

I'd like to be added. My thread is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/178434

A belated welcome to Pigletto

All up to date now and ready to go for 2015

I'm still slowly working on an updated stats review but it might be a while yet!

Congratulations to aliciamay for joining that elite group (now up to 7) of reading 400 books! Hats off.

I also notice that I took my eye off the ball and missed StevenTX hit the heady heights of 600 books. Congratulations..almost half way there!

Wow! Well done guys!

Congratulations to ursula for reaching 200! Apparently Jensen Burron heard the news and has taken time out of his preparations for the Chinese Grand Prix to celebrate the news!

Aw, how sweet, thanks! It's nice he's heard of me even if I've never heard of him. ;)

prob cos he's called Jensen Button! ;-)

Nope, makes no difference to me whatsoever.

Me neither Ursula :-)

Ah, look at how close that r is to the t on the keyboard! One day I will learn to proof read my posts.

Believe it or not that was the best photo I could find when googling '200 cake'

And Button is a Formule I racer, for anyone who is interested :)

>359 JonnySaunders: I believe it! Not too many occasions for a cake like that, I imagine. Maybe for a tv show reaching that many episodes, but there aren't too many of those either.

Task for the weekend... bake 200 cake ;) And a 300, a 400, a 500, a 600 and holy moley - just realised Eliz is heading for 700! Wow!

Scratch baking, will be reading. A lot.

Congratulations to ELiz_M on reaching 653! That's the halfway mark to 1305, the number of books on the combined list.

I missed that. Eliz_M - is your glass half full or half empty?

Or should you say 'is your shelf half empty or half full?'

>363 StevenTX: Thank you! It's nice to know people are following along!

>365 Yells: The shelves are definitely overflowing. There is a fabulous used bookstore in Manhattan in which I treasure-hunt for books during each of their monthly 30% off sales. Needless to say, I buy books faster than I can read them. And thanks to LT's new(ish) advanced search, I can confirm that I own 141 unread 1001-books.

Congratulations Eliz!

This is the best Google could do with 'Half Way Cake'



Any particular highlights from the first half?

And also which ones to avoid?

I like the halfway cake!

The idea of being halfway through the list is almost inconceivable to me - well done!

Congrats on 1/2 way, Eliz! That's an impressive feat!

~Blush~ Thank you everyone!

A very belated congratulations to Puckers for joining the 'magnificent seven' who have read more than 400!

In typical Puckers fashion another 4 have been ticked off the list before I even had time to update the index!

500 by the end of the year?

And a much more timely congratulations to @bucketyell for reaching the 300 mark!

Thanks Jonny. Quite a few non-List books on the horizon so 500 will have to wait until well in to 2016 - plenty more to read yet!

Very sorry for the lack of updates for a while...real life is not allowing for much recreation!

Everything should be back up to date now.

I hate to point this out, since he is about to knock me out of the top 5, but you have not updated Arukiyomi who is at 437 now!

Welcome back Jonny, and thanks for the update.

Thanks Jonny, hope real life will allow you some time to read soon!

Hi Jonny, Can I get in on this? I posted my complete list a little while ago and then added #225 last week.

I'm actually at 439 but have only blogged 437!

How silly of me, I think I got carried away reading your blog Arukiyomi and forget to actually update your progress! All sorted now.

Welcome gypsysmom slotting comfortably into the top 20!

Now time to update my own thread!

Welcome gypsysmom slotting comfortably into the top 20!

I know! She knocked me out of it!

Never mind, I haven't updated for a few books so I'm confident I'll be back in with the next update :-)

>382 M1nks: Wow, I didn't realize this was so competitive (LOL). I'm just delighted to be in such august company.

:-) It isn't. But it is nice to have a target which is closer than 1300+

>381 JonnySaunders: Hello Jonny! How big is the little one now? Surely still young enough for you to continue reading 1001 books out-loud to lull to sleep?

Hi Jonny

If you have time, I'd love to be added to the big list. I'm currently on 175.

My thread is: https://www.librarything.com/topic/191191

Thanks.

I'm out of the basement! Woohoo!

The little one is growing fast thanks! Rapidly approaching her first birthday at the end of September! I still read her the odd snippet from a 1001 book but I thought I'd draw the line with Naked Lunch! Sadly ancient greek literature didn't seem a great cure for teething either.

Welcome Cliff-Rhu-Rhubarb to the index. I see you'll be keeping my on my toes slotting in around the same place!

Thanks for that, JS.

I am going to attempt to overhaul you by avoiding anything over 250 pages.

I see you're in Bristol - not a million miles from me.

Ha, you'll be glad to hear that I'm currently reading Gone with the Wind, The thousand and one nights and have Magic Mountain, Infinite Jest and Against the Day lined up next....nothing much below 1000 pages! So I'll give you a wave as you fly past me!

Are you a resident of the lovely South West? I moved here to study and have never left...very nice part of the country!

Excellent news.

Also, I've pm'ed you.

As always, thanks for the update.

what a great thread! I'd love to be added to the next update https://www.librarything.com/topic/200208

Welcome Jan_1 ! Bringing us up to a nice round 50. And by the looks of your reading pace you'll be shooting up the index in no time.

Also congratualtions to Deern for joing the exclusive 400 club. Google did well on this one:

>394 JonnySaunders: Oh - a golden 400 for me, thank you! Can't believe I made it there. Now I want the 500! :))

don't we all my friend (well all but 3 of us)

Impressive to see some of the numbers members have hit! I'd love it if you could add me when you do the next update: http://www.librarything.com/topic/207128

After a real lull in 2015, I've managed to update my thread with a couple and I've finally got to 120! Hopefully, 2016 will be more fruitful...

Happy new year to all!

Apologies for the slow updating towards the end of 2015, life got very busy.

Everything should now be up to date and correct up until the end of 2015. Happy reading in 2016!

Congratulations Eliz_M for reaching 700! That's amazing!

Cricky yes! Eliz_M you should have been blowing your trumpet loudly :-)

I did read on your thread though that the thought of how many you still have left to read is somewhat sobering...

Hi Johnny,
I'm pretty close to 100 now, so I think it would be great to be added to the list!
Here's a link to my new thread:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/218373

>400 paruline:, >401 M1nks: Thanks! :-)

Very sorry for the long delay in updates! Life has got very busy over the last couple of months and I've barely had time to do any reading, let alone LibrayThing...ing.

Everything should be up to date now though. A belated congratulations to amaryann21 and hdcanis for reaching 300 and 200 respectively!

>404 JonnySaunders: Thanks Jonny for the update! Just wanted to request that the next time you are updating that you correct the first post - I'm currently #42, and it says @LiaMorr instead of LisaMorr.

Many thanks for doing this when you are able to spare the time.

Wonderful! Thank you so much for your hard work!

>404 JonnySaunders: I don't think you have anything to apologize for -- thanks for doing what you do, when you get around to doing it. It's all good.

Indeed, what Nickelini said. I don't know how you manage to keep track of all us, but I'm certainly grateful you do.

Thank you for the acknowledgment, sir!

Thank you for the update Jonny! I'm delighted to now be TWO floors out of the basement! Ooh!

I think you gave my last update to Elainedav.

Hey Jonny, it looks like I am making some progress on the list so would love to be added. Thanks.

Welcome to the index @kale.dyer!

And a very belated congratulations to amerynth for joining the 300 club! And what a way to do it, with the longest book on the list! Fancy having a go at summarising it now?

Summarise Proust

Thank you for updating, JonnySaunders! Every time you do so, it appears I further remove myself from the cellar. I'm now 4th from the bottom! I have a ways to go for the next rung, so I'll get cracking, and I hope I vault again before the next time you update.

Thanks JonnySaunders!

Hi Johnny - I would very much like to be part of your list, if you decide to update it again. Thanks.

Eek, over 3 months without an update..an all time low! The only excuse is a very busy job and a very energetic 2 year old!

Everything should be up to date now, let me know if you see any mistakes.

And a belated welcome to our newest addition Henrik_Madsen

>417 JonnySaunders: It's fine ... my only thought was That baby is 2!?!?!

Time certainly does fly.

Hi Jonny. Welcome back and thanks for the update.

>417 JonnySaunders: Work does have a nasty tendency to get in the way of your hobbies... And thanks for adding me.

>417 JonnySaunders: That's life. Don't worry about us. We love what you do, when you have time to do it.

Hi Jonny, thank you for updating once again. And once again, following another of your updates, I find myself 1 slot further removed from the basement where I started. I'll race you to find myself yet further removed by the time you have an opportunity to update again. I only have to read 4 books to get there. it's on.

>422 MartinBodek:
Martin, you and I think along similar lines. I need to read x5 to jump two places! Need to get on that.

Jonny, progress index is great. Doesn't matter if the updates are as and when you have time.

Love it too :) Also made me realise I hadn't updated my 1001 thread in WAY too long! And that I desperately need to read more 1001ers this year :/

>2 JonnySaunders: Hi! I have just created my thread. May I please be added to the progress index?
https://www.librarything.com/topic/233026

324 books read

while you're at it mate... I have a part three to my reviews:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/220514

which are now up to 483

Hello all! It's been too long.

With the help and encouragement of Arukiyomi (big thanks!) we have now moved the progress index to it's own Wiki page here.

The beauty of this is that anyone can edit it so anyone on the list should update their own progress if they want to be included. We will most likely periodically remove anyone who hasn't updated it for more than a year.

Now time to update my own thread I think!

>427 JonnySaunders: What a brilliant idea. Thanks, Arukiyomi & Jonny!!!!

>427 JonnySaunders: - Thanks, Arukiyomi & Jonny for all your work!

Brilliant idea - thanks for setting it up!

Sad face about the people removed - the only people I ever pass are the inactive ones! :-)

Great progress in the Progress Index! Thank you for all your work!

Sad face about the people removed - the only people I ever pass are the inactive ones! :-)

Hah :-)

one good reason to leave them in there!

>430 streamsong: Sad face about the people removed - the only people I ever pass are the inactive ones! :-)

Don't despair. I once moved through the 10001 at a healthy trot, but for the past several years it's been more the pace of a sloth waking up from an afternoon nap. I expect next year might be even slower. I will remain "active", but won't be competing with anyone.

Yeah, the only person I "compete" with is myself lol, the index is just for a bit of fun.

Methinks we forget the title... we're all actually competing with our individual life expectancies ...

Oh man! I was hoping to climb yet another slot when the next update came in! I fell back to the bottom! No worries, though. I'll just have to keep climbing. Looks like I'll be in the basement for another year or so. Hopefully people will join in with less than me, and I'll feel like I'm getting somewhere. Momentum will now be slow, but a better reflection on the real pace of reading.

Anyway, stream of consciousness. Thank you to the moderators for handling all this.

2nd to last place, here I come! Sooner or later!

>430 streamsong: I think some missed the joke ....

>436 arukiyomi: we're all actually competing with our individual life expectancies

Nope, not me. I'm reading for pure enjoyment and to expand my horizons a bit, but don't see myself ever reading all 1302.

Perhaps I need to bake cookies and hand them out as people go swooping by me.

>437 MartinBodek: - I feel your pain. :-)

>427 JonnySaunders: That looks great. Now all I have to do is remember to update it!

>427 JonnySaunders: Okay, I've updated my info, but I don't know if I'll ever find the Wiki page again.

>438 streamsong: Perhaps I need to bake cookies and hand them out as people go swooping by me.

That's a lovely idea. I've dropped from 15th to 21st, so I'll take your example. I'll hand out liquid refreshments to those passing my thread -- coffee, tea, lemonade, sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, a variety of beers, ice water available to all those who pass me.

I want to give a heartfelt congrats! to arukiyomi for reaching 500 books read off the list.

>440 Nickelini: I added the link to my "notes" section on my homepage, because otherwise I wouldn't find the wiki page either. I wish I could star a post rather than the whole thread.

You can favorite a post, by clicking "More" and then "add to favorites". Then you can find it again on the Talk sidebar under "More options".

>438 streamsong: Nope, not me. I'm reading for pure enjoyment

er... can we completely remove you from a progress tracker you requested a place on then and add you at #1 on a new enjoyment tracker?

>443 ursula: Now that's a helpful tip. Thanks!

Could we add a link to the wiki on the group home page/intro section?

>444 arukiyomi: If my style of reading is not welcome here, feel free to delete me from the wiki.

Enjoying keeping track of numbers of books I have read, is not the same as having a goal of getting them all read in my lifetime.

I believe there are several styles of reading in this group.

Of course there are!

I think I may have missed my cookie streamsong. Can you mail it to me?

>447 streamsong: Oh, for sure. I've been in this group since 2008 and I've never hidden the fact that I expect to top out on the 1001 somewhere around a 500 books. You can come hang out with me if you want.

Me too. My current goal is to read 500 of the books off the list by the time I'm 50 and then see if there are any left I'm still interested in reading. There are too many fabulous non-list books for me to commit to reading ALL of these.

>447 streamsong: LOL! several styles of humour too

I hit 50! Yay! Do I get a snazzy graphic or something?

Considering what you have read to get to 50, I think you deserve more than a snazzy graphic. But from me, you will have to settle for a hearty congrats.

I'll take it! Thank you!

>452 MartinBodek: Here you go, congrats!

>455 ELiz_M: Woohoo! Thank you!

>456 MartinBodek: Congrats! You earned that one the hard way!

And congrats to Yells for hitting 400!

>457 streamsong: Thank you! All downhill from here, I hopee?

And congrats Yells! Give me 16 years to catch up with you.

It might take me 16 years to read the 50 oldies that you have read so we might just finish together.

I just updated my reading on the wiki (first time since December!) and noticed there are a lot of us who haven't done it in a while. I thought I'd bump this up as a reminder for those who are interested.

I updated my totals a couple of months ago but somehow the table reverted to December. I'll update again soon.

If you look at the history portion of the wiki, it looks like there was a problem with an update on April 6th when a lot of data was deleted. I think if we 'undo' that update, it will solve the problem, but I'm not 100% sure, so I'll leave to an admin to decide how to proceed.

I have to admit I haven't had much to update. *sigh* But thanks for the reminder, I'll have a look and see where I stand!

Updated too, even though I didn't have much to update (I've been reading plenty, and many books I'd consider worthy, which just don't happen to be 1001 Books)

Updated now - my edit hadn't saved. Saying that I'm another on a bit of a lull - hopefully pulling through the book funk!

I have updated, my last update had disappeared as well.

Me too!

Just updated, and yes I think I was in the same boat. Hopefully this doesn't happen again :-) Although if it breaks again after my update it was probably me who broke it in the first place...

I'm out of the basement! Woohoo! It took me over two years!

This wiki is driving me mad! I've tried to update it about 4 times and it keeps resetting. The last time I tried was about 4 days ago and after two attempts it finally seemed to take - updating it from the update in Dec last year. I checked on it over a couple of days and it seemed fine but now that I have looked again after Martin posted I can see that it seems to have reset again! Not back to the 2016 one but probably to my previous attempt in April.

I've tried again...

>470 M1nks: That might have been me. :(

Every time I update the wiki, I get an error message saying it didn't save and to try again. I updated it after reading Martin's post; maybe we were editing it at the same time and my edit overwrote yours? I dunno. Next time I'll take a screen shot of it before I edit and make sure to double check that my updates haven't changed other's information.

I don't think it could be simultaneous posting problems because this time I checked it over the course of several days and it stayed altered. Then it reversed back, i don't know why.

Someone should escalate this to the site owner. No use having a wiki if no one can use it...

... but judging by how clunky this site has been for a long time and is not getting any better, I'd say it won't be fixed and that it's an indication that our little playground's days are numbered.

I would like to be added!

99 so far http://www.librarything.com/topic/266475

Hey MeghanLeah, I have added you to the progress index wiki: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/1001_Progress_Index

Thanks!

Help - is it just me? I can't update the Wiki - just wondered if this is still active?

should be... what exactly happens when you try?

Just don't have an edit button. Was working fine previously. Will try again on my home PC this evening.

There's been a spam issue and the wikis are currently frozen. See: http://www.librarything.com/topic/273720 for details

Oh, that's why - I just discovered it and wanted to add the meager 2 books I've read since April 2016 and didn't find the edit button. :)
I'll do it later then, just please don't delete me, I've been inactive here for so long...

I don't think people really get deleted from the list unless they request it. Either way, no one's able to edit right now regardless, so you're fine. ;)

Aw, nuts, tried to update, but the edit isn't yet available. Anybody have any idea when this will be switched back on again?

Nope. In the aforementioned thread Lorannen posted on the 17th "Sorry for the delay, folks. We had one solution that we thought would work in place, but it fell through at the last minute. Sysadmin is working hard on getting the migration complete right now. While I don't have a specific ETA, it's on the order of a few days yet before it's done. Thanks so much for your patience."

You are all doing better than I....I can't locate the edit button. It says top right of "this page"...but the right and left of my page is blank????

>486 Tess_W: No, you are not doing any worse. When the Edit-option was shut down they removed the button. I looked a loooooong time for it, too!

>487 Henrik_Madsen: whew!

anyone can delete anything at all from the list. They can even delete the whole thing. That's the point of wiki - no restrictions on who can edit what.

So... no... don't delete anyone else and if you want to be removed, you'll have to do it yourself.

I finished another book, and I'd love to update, but the edit button is not yet available. Anyone know where we stand with that?

Anyone know what this means exactly?:

"This version of the LibraryThing wiki is disabled and will soon be going away.
The new version is available at wiki.librarything.com.
Read about this in the Talk discussion."

Going away to where? New version where? What happens to this page? What's the plan going forward? This is too much fun for this to be so crunked up!

Thank you.

See here for information on the new wiki site:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/277450

>491 Helenliz: Thank you!

I believe the 1001 Progress Index is now here:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/1001_Progress_Index

Aha, I think I understand what's going on.

Eliz_M, I went to the link above and successfully edited. I'm up to date, and escaped the cellar again.

Now, I guess, we just need the moderators to link the tippy-top link to the new link, and we're all good?

Much gratitude if we can get that going. I'm making progress!

Thank you!

the moderators?

been on LT for over a decade and don't think I've ever seen a moderator weigh in on anything. In fact, I think this site just runs itself...

...

...

that was mod bait just to see if my theory is true ;-)

Ummmm, okay, perhaps I misspoke. Instead of "moderators," let's use "The person or persons or entities who could fix the link alllll the way at the tippy-top of this post to the editable - and correct - link, which is here: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/1001_Progress_Index

Who might that be?

if anyone, it's going to be the guy who wrote the post. Where is JonnySaunders?

His thread hasn't been updated since Jan 1. Maybe it's time for a new thread? This one is getting pretty long anyway.

Is the wiki down again? It's asking me for verification details which I'm not too keen on inputting.

Er no, it was changed. Follow the link in >495 MartinBodek:.

Special moment (I had read this, honest) - thanks!