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Time Out 1000 Books to Change Your Life (Time Out Guides) by Time Out Guides Ltd (7-Jun-2007) Paperback
Excellent Book
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First published May 23, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 30, 2011
This book should be beaten with something heavy like a hammer until we're sure it's definitely dead. I bought it from Amazon for one penny (plus postage) so you may think I shouldn't get so cross, but this is about something more important than money, it's about respect. Leaving aside the what-were-they-thinking cover we find firstly that these Time Out editors appear to think they can adequately discuss the merits of 1000 books in the span of 280 pages. So that works out to about 3.57 books per page. I would argue that Proust, Joyce and even J R freaking R Tolkien deserve more than a third of a page each. But that's without factoring in the whole-page illustrations of authors AND - wait for it - the whole page adverts - yes! for Wagamama ("positive eating - positive living") and other Time Out products. A book with ads... no. No! Put your damned adverts in your magazine! I don't wanna be turning over page 20 in my new edition of Anna karenina and be faced with MACDONALDS - I'M LOVIN' IT!! Call me old fashioned, go on. But I say NO.
So this book is not a real guide at all, it's a bunch of articles about themes - the city, women in war, the generation gap ("Crossover books - novels that appeal to adults as much as to children - are the publishing phenomenon of the past decade") or books about sex ("If I say two words - Kama Sutra - what's the first thing you think about?" *). Then we get a sprinkling of half page boxes containing a few sentences on "The book that changed my life" by a bunch of people they could get on the phone on deadline day (Toby Litt on the poems of John Keats, etc). And then pages of Critics Choices - "Fights", "Rebellion", "Double Incontinence" (okay i made that one up) where they canter through ten or so titles on one page, so two or three sentences per book.
So I think that there SHOULD be as many guides to books as there are guides to movies because in my world, which clearly does not exactly co-incide with the actual world, books are at least as important as movies. And maybe just a leetle more although i hope such a subversive thought doesn't get me put on a list by a shadowy government department.
And I think there should be a good solid alternative to the dubious 1000 Books You Should Read Before You get Your Life Shattering Diagnosis And Can No Longer Concentrate.
And in my fantasy life, the part which is not concerning Juliette Binoche or Julie Delpy, I dream of a massive edition of the Goodreads Guide to Books - where we ourselves, us here, would unleash onto the world all of our brilliant observations - of which, as any cursory glance at this website will tell you, there are bucketfuls. Imagine - there would be entire sections on Proust, who seems to call forth major ejaculations of GR love-froth; all the great Twilight parodies; all the great one-star slam-down drag-outs; a top ten of ugly reader/author confrontations; man alive this would be one of the all time funniest and most loving and profound books ever. (And if they think where could they get an editor willing to plough through all of GR - I'll do it! Wouldn't take much to lure me away from my clinical trial databases!)
Let's do it. Let the inmates take over the asylum!
*Since you ask, it was the Bonzo Dog band song of the same name which goes
In position seventy-two
You were me and I was you
Kama kama kama sutra with me"
So this book is not a real guide at all, it's a bunch of articles about themes - the city, women in war, the generation gap ("Crossover books - novels that appeal to adults as much as to children - are the publishing phenomenon of the past decade") or books about sex ("If I say two words - Kama Sutra - what's the first thing you think about?" *). Then we get a sprinkling of half page boxes containing a few sentences on "The book that changed my life" by a bunch of people they could get on the phone on deadline day (Toby Litt on the poems of John Keats, etc). And then pages of Critics Choices - "Fights", "Rebellion", "Double Incontinence" (okay i made that one up) where they canter through ten or so titles on one page, so two or three sentences per book.
So I think that there SHOULD be as many guides to books as there are guides to movies because in my world, which clearly does not exactly co-incide with the actual world, books are at least as important as movies. And maybe just a leetle more although i hope such a subversive thought doesn't get me put on a list by a shadowy government department.
And I think there should be a good solid alternative to the dubious 1000 Books You Should Read Before You get Your Life Shattering Diagnosis And Can No Longer Concentrate.
And in my fantasy life, the part which is not concerning Juliette Binoche or Julie Delpy, I dream of a massive edition of the Goodreads Guide to Books - where we ourselves, us here, would unleash onto the world all of our brilliant observations - of which, as any cursory glance at this website will tell you, there are bucketfuls. Imagine - there would be entire sections on Proust, who seems to call forth major ejaculations of GR love-froth; all the great Twilight parodies; all the great one-star slam-down drag-outs; a top ten of ugly reader/author confrontations; man alive this would be one of the all time funniest and most loving and profound books ever. (And if they think where could they get an editor willing to plough through all of GR - I'll do it! Wouldn't take much to lure me away from my clinical trial databases!)
Let's do it. Let the inmates take over the asylum!
*Since you ask, it was the Bonzo Dog band song of the same name which goes
In position seventy-two
You were me and I was you
Kama kama kama sutra with me"
November 21, 2012
Imagine 1,000 books that can change one's life. Given that if we change, we only do that supposedly for the better. If there are 1,000 of these books, there must be so many bad things that one should discontinue if we are to believe this book. After reading all these thousand of literary works, one should end up as candidate to sainthood!
Seriously, I enjoy reading books because of the fact that they "change" my life. I used to frown on homosexuals. I used to worry on a lot of things. I used to think that poor people are lazy or intellectually-challenged. I used to think that single people are lonely. Those unjustified prejudices were rooted in my childhood beliefs basically stemming out from what I learned at home or in school during my formative years. Voracious reading in the last 3 years helped me drop all of those.
I love book lists: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Boxall's), 501 Must Read Books (Bloomsbury's), TIME Magazine's 100 Best Novels, Newsweek's Metalist 100, Pulitzer's, Booker's, Guardian's, Modern Library, etc. I have all those lists and they influence not only which book to buy but which book to pick next. Of course, I still listen to some of my friends whose taste on books I have come to respect. On top of all these, I listen to my brother who has been a voracious and discriminating reader ever since we were in high school. He was the one who made me the type of reader that I am today: insatiable, unquenchable and fearless. When he says that a certain book is good, I no longer care about its genre, thickness, era it was written, theme, etc. In short, if you are my friend and I believe in your taste, tell me to read a book and I will read it as long as it is in the language I can understand by reading.
The reason why I am saying all these is that my brother lent me this book and it has been one of my guides since 2009, the year I started reading seriously and the year I discovered Goodreads. So, I did not pay for this book because after my brother read this, he just passed this on to me. I have been consulting this book for three years now and since I've read many parts of it, I just read the other parts and viola, I can now transfer this to my read folder.
During this second reading, I have lined up in my mind the books that I have been missing during my what-to-read-next routine. Hence, I will definitely be reading these books in 2013:
What makes this book seemingly an authority? These were selected by known writers and their editors. So, they know the trade. They are also bibliophiles even before I became one. Besides, life is too short for a hit-and-miss way of selecting your next read. I suggest that you leave it to the experts. There is a bigger chance of hitting all the best books before you expire.
Seriously, I enjoy reading books because of the fact that they "change" my life. I used to frown on homosexuals. I used to worry on a lot of things. I used to think that poor people are lazy or intellectually-challenged. I used to think that single people are lonely. Those unjustified prejudices were rooted in my childhood beliefs basically stemming out from what I learned at home or in school during my formative years. Voracious reading in the last 3 years helped me drop all of those.
I love book lists: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Boxall's), 501 Must Read Books (Bloomsbury's), TIME Magazine's 100 Best Novels, Newsweek's Metalist 100, Pulitzer's, Booker's, Guardian's, Modern Library, etc. I have all those lists and they influence not only which book to buy but which book to pick next. Of course, I still listen to some of my friends whose taste on books I have come to respect. On top of all these, I listen to my brother who has been a voracious and discriminating reader ever since we were in high school. He was the one who made me the type of reader that I am today: insatiable, unquenchable and fearless. When he says that a certain book is good, I no longer care about its genre, thickness, era it was written, theme, etc. In short, if you are my friend and I believe in your taste, tell me to read a book and I will read it as long as it is in the language I can understand by reading.
The reason why I am saying all these is that my brother lent me this book and it has been one of my guides since 2009, the year I started reading seriously and the year I discovered Goodreads. So, I did not pay for this book because after my brother read this, he just passed this on to me. I have been consulting this book for three years now and since I've read many parts of it, I just read the other parts and viola, I can now transfer this to my read folder.
During this second reading, I have lined up in my mind the books that I have been missing during my what-to-read-next routine. Hence, I will definitely be reading these books in 2013:
1. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon - the book that changed the life of Hari KunzruEt cetera too many to list down.
2. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
3. The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
4. The Railway Children by E. S. Nesbit
5. Watership Down by Richard Adams
6. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding - the book that changed the life of Jonathan Coe
7. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
8. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
9. South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami - the book that changed the life of Julie Myerson
10. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
What makes this book seemingly an authority? These were selected by known writers and their editors. So, they know the trade. They are also bibliophiles even before I became one. Besides, life is too short for a hit-and-miss way of selecting your next read. I suggest that you leave it to the experts. There is a bigger chance of hitting all the best books before you expire.
November 17, 2008
Any regular readers of my blog, or anyone who knows me in the slightest, is aware of my list fixation – in fact, if you do, you probably take part of the gentle but constant teasing of the same. So when I saw this book, 1000 Books to Change Your Life, my fingers itched till it made its way to my shopping cart. It was not, however, what I had expected.
I expected something along the lines of 1000 Books You Must Read Before You Die – something that was, in essence, a list of 1000 books, perhaps with some contextual information and a bit of a blurb. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found.
1000 Books takes Shakespeare’s ‘Seven Ages of Man’ speech from As You Like It as it’s basic format, breaking the book up into seven main sections – birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, middle age, old age, and death. Within each of these sections are various essays, recommendations from known authors, and various suggestion lists based around a topic – ‘birth and motherhood’, ‘siblings’, ‘illicit liaisons’ and ‘mid-life crises’, just to name a few.
The book was an interestingly engaging read, suited to both a long perusal or picking it up for essay or two here or there. It was well written and the suggestions of books were fresh and wide-spread. A welcome contribution to any book collectors (or list collectors) shelf.
I expected something along the lines of 1000 Books You Must Read Before You Die – something that was, in essence, a list of 1000 books, perhaps with some contextual information and a bit of a blurb. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found.
1000 Books takes Shakespeare’s ‘Seven Ages of Man’ speech from As You Like It as it’s basic format, breaking the book up into seven main sections – birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, middle age, old age, and death. Within each of these sections are various essays, recommendations from known authors, and various suggestion lists based around a topic – ‘birth and motherhood’, ‘siblings’, ‘illicit liaisons’ and ‘mid-life crises’, just to name a few.
The book was an interestingly engaging read, suited to both a long perusal or picking it up for essay or two here or there. It was well written and the suggestions of books were fresh and wide-spread. A welcome contribution to any book collectors (or list collectors) shelf.
Read
September 15, 2024This book's title should be "1000 Books Mainly originally written in English", is a testimony to the difficulty to enlargen one's perspective when one (firmly) believes one inhabits the center of the world.
January 11, 2010
The title of this book is very misleading! It isn't one of those lists of 1,000 great books at all, but a series of short essays by a wide range of writers on all sorts of aspects of reading, looking at books about every stage of life from birth to old age and death, and at just about every genre from first picture books to learned philosophical tomes. I found it very enjoyable to dip into and read in bits and pieces over a number of weeks.
April 16, 2018
A semi-interesting collection of essays by contemporary authors about books concerning every stage of life: birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, middle age, old age and death.
In addition to the essays are smaller commentaries, also by contemporary authors, about the books that deal with these subjects and books that were turning points in their lives.
Each life stage has several topics underneath them such as: love, war, death, and the metaphysical, plus many more topics.
Personally I was not much interested in authors I am not familiar with and what they have to say about profound topics. I did not find their observations to be all that profound. Rather like someone told them to write about the angst of, say adolescence, in two thousand words and so the writer had to come up with something and waffled for the right number of words.
There were exceptions. Johnathan Derbyshire writes about how great philosophy can make great literature and describes the various philosophers whose books succeed. Brian Dillon writes on depression and how it has been a source of inspiration for many authors and John O'Connoll says the same about sickness and disease. Tim Newark explains how military histories have the power to change the way we think about war.
I did find the lists of books and their topics to be of value and for that reason will be keeping this book. Enough of the essays are good enough to make the entire book worth a read through.
In addition to the essays are smaller commentaries, also by contemporary authors, about the books that deal with these subjects and books that were turning points in their lives.
Each life stage has several topics underneath them such as: love, war, death, and the metaphysical, plus many more topics.
Personally I was not much interested in authors I am not familiar with and what they have to say about profound topics. I did not find their observations to be all that profound. Rather like someone told them to write about the angst of, say adolescence, in two thousand words and so the writer had to come up with something and waffled for the right number of words.
There were exceptions. Johnathan Derbyshire writes about how great philosophy can make great literature and describes the various philosophers whose books succeed. Brian Dillon writes on depression and how it has been a source of inspiration for many authors and John O'Connoll says the same about sickness and disease. Tim Newark explains how military histories have the power to change the way we think about war.
I did find the lists of books and their topics to be of value and for that reason will be keeping this book. Enough of the essays are good enough to make the entire book worth a read through.
January 4, 2022
Not so much a list as a collection of essays on different literary themes, arranged in a chronological fashion shadowing a human life, from birth to death. Pleasant enough reading at bedtime but I didn’t glean enough information to add significantly to my to-read list, as had been my initial intention.
October 6, 2007
Books about books, who could ask for anything more?
November 9, 2019
Informative enough, but not earth shattering.
January 19, 2015
Interesting book--chapters are laid out in the order of life, i.e. Birth, Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood, Middle Age, Old Age, and Death (gulp!). I received this as a gift and while it would have caught my eye in a bookstore, I hadn't yet heard of it. There are short essays included from a variety of authors, such as Jonathan Franzen and Philippa Gregory. (Even Nigella Lawson contributes.)
Published by Time Out Guides, Limited, London. You may have heard of the Time Out guides--my fave is Time Out New York. The book is a quick read, giving you the opportunity to learn more about titles you may be familiar with--Great Expectations,Madame Bovary--but perhaps haven't read. It made for a great winter weekend read!
Published by Time Out Guides, Limited, London. You may have heard of the Time Out guides--my fave is Time Out New York. The book is a quick read, giving you the opportunity to learn more about titles you may be familiar with--Great Expectations,Madame Bovary--but perhaps haven't read. It made for a great winter weekend read!
May 8, 2008
A very cute idea, and I could hardly wait to start it. Loved the "critics choice" sections, and also interesting to read "a book that changed my life" sections to see how others interpret this. The question is which book would I put as the one which most changed my life? Still working on this one.
September 27, 2013
An erudite reading guide that takes an interesting thematic approach to its book recommendations. The articles are thought provoking and you'll come across loads of books you never thought of reading, as well as familiar favourites.
May 29, 2015
I did find some interesting book ideas in here, but I think I could write my own book of one thousand
and not repeat any of them mentioned in this book. Still, I do like to read about books.
and not repeat any of them mentioned in this book. Still, I do like to read about books.
May 15, 2012
I always love good book suggestions, and this one has them :)
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August 7, 2012race to 1000
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