Short & Sweet Treats discussion

This was originally a thread to nominate a selection from 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, but the conversation was going so well, I wanted to keep it going.

How many have you read? Do you have a goal? What is your strategy?

This is our bookshelf of the 1001 books less than 250 pages. 1001 Bookshelf here.

Love in a Cold Climate

I would like to nominate The Yellow Wallpaper. Sounds twisted:)

Alicia wrote: "I'd like to nominate Jack Dawkins, from the Historical Fiction shelf. The author's blog says there's a follow-up book coming out for Christmas and everybody loves the Artful Dodger,..."

hey Alicia. The August category is a Short and Sweet book from Peter Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I didn't see Jack Dawkins on there. You can set up a side read if you like. let me know!

Ashley wrote: "I would like to nominate The Yellow Wallpaper. Sounds twisted:)"

it was twisted! nice pick!

I'll go with Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.

I'd like to nominate Cane by Jean Toomer.

I like to nominate the path to the spiders nest.

just out of curiosity, does anyone know how many of boxall's 1001 books they read?

LaLaLa Laura wrote: "just out of curiosity, does anyone know how many of boxall's 1001 books they read?"

I just went through and counted - as of today, I've read 162.

wow, Greg! that is really impressive. I have read 61 so far

LaLaLa Laura wrote: "wow, Greg! that is really impressive. I have read 61 so far"

Thanks Laura! That is over a very long time interval, and one of my two degrees was in English Lit. So in-class reading probably helped. Also, I saw this quote posted on the Milk & Bookies FB page a while ago: "In the case of good books, the point to see is not how many you can get through but how many can get through to you" -- Mortimer Adler. I like that! :)

Alicia wrote:"Oops! Sorry. Is there a list from the book somewhere? "
Here's the group bookshelf: https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

There's also a Goodreads group dedicated to these books, so anything shelved by them should be in one of the editions:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/970

LaLaLa Laura wrote: "just out of curiosity, does anyone know how many of boxall's 1001 books they read? "

Around 150-160, I think? Don't know the exact number, but I've been reading a lot of classics in the past few years. The Boxall book is fun to browse through - but it gives a TON of spoilers...



I'll nominate Angela Carter's Wise Children

By the way, LaLaLa Laura, I don't believe Doctor Faustus by Marlowe is on the 1,001 Books list, since it's a play and there aren't any plays on the list...

Okay, I did a quick browse through the group's bookshelves to see if there were any on the list that weren't tagged. These should all be on the 1,001 Books shelf.

Here's what I spotted off the top of my head:
The Golden Ass Apuleius, Lucius
Carmilla Fanu, Joseph Sheridan Le(Part of In a Glass darkly)
Lord of the Flies Golding, William
The Quiet American Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair Greene, Graham
The Third Man Greene, Graham
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Haddon, Mark
The Old Man and the Sea Hemingway, Ernest
The Bluest Eye Morrison, Toni
Sula Morrison, Toni

There might be more, of course, but these are just the ones I recognized straight away.

(and I double checked on Doctor Faustus. Marlowe's version isn't on the list but Thomas Mann's version about Germany is.)

Melanti wrote: "By the way, LaLaLa Laura, I don't believe Doctor Faustus by Marlowe is on the 1,001 Books list, since it's a play and there aren't any plays on the list..."

I noticed that too Melanti - very few plays .. and very few books of poetry as well. Some major classics missed there but still an interesting list. Didn't have Faust by Goethe either.

Melanti wrote: I'll nominate Angela Carter's ..."

Nice Melanti! My favorite by her is still The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, particularly "Tiger's Bride," but she's an interesting writer in general. Incredibly lush prose - such a unique style. I'd be glad to read her again.

Yep. It's supposed to be novels only, so no non-fiction, no plays, and no poetry.

But it does break its own self-imposed rules. Ovid's epic poem Metamorphosis is on there, as a couple of memoirs (Levi's If This is a Man and Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings). Though I don't recall ever seeing a play on there at all. Gothe's Faust is a play as well, isn't it?

I think the list is meant to be both a sampler of different literary styles/genres and a primer on literary history. If you opened it up to all written works, they'd need MUCH more than 1,001 Books!


I really liked Carter's short stories but have not ever tried one of her novels.

Melanti wrote: "Yep. It's supposed to be novels only, so no non-fiction, no plays, and no poetry.

But it does break its own self-imposed rules. Ovid's epic poem Metamorphosis is on there, as a couple of memoi..."

Yes, Faust is a play in poetic verse if I recall; so I guess it's double excluded. What you say on opening it up makes sense - it would need to be a lot longer!!

Like I said I love Carter's stories as well. I read a few of her story collections. I read only one of her novels though, The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, but I read the novel so long ago that I hardly remember anything about it.

thank you melanti! thank you everyone!

That really is a great book list. I wonder if the author or anyone has read all 1001?

There's a handful of books that haven't yet been translated into English, so I'd expect very few people have read the whole list.

There's one or two members in the group I linked to that are within a dozen or so books of finishing, but have been having a really difficult time finding the remaining few books from the list. Or that was the case the last time I saw him/her post a couple of months ago.

Boxall is more of an editor than an author and I really doubt he's read the whole list either. When you look at the actual book, there's several dozen contributors listed. There's definitely more info in there than I'd expect any single person to know! The book is great fun to browse through. There's a few paragraphs for each book explaining why they thought it was worthy -- e.g. created/popularized a genre, highly influential to later works, significant in pop culture, etc. Lots of spoilers, unfortunately, which is why I've never bought a copy of my own.

Julia wrote: "I'll go with Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse."

A good book Julia! :)

I taught Siddhartha for years, Greg--it's one of my "touchstone" books.

It's so slim that the students thought they were getting an "easy read" until we began discussing Brahmam-Atman and Hinduism. The time we spent on "Om" alone had them thinking at deeper levels.

Julia wrote: "I taught Siddhartha for years, Greg--it's one of my "touchstone" books.

It's so slim that the students thought they were getting an "easy read" until we began discussing Brahmam-Atma..."

That's great Julia - I'm sure they got a lot out of it! :) It's a beautifully written book and a wonderful story in addition to its religious significance. Narcissus and Goldmund was interesting too, but I loved Siddhartha!

I'd like to nominate At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien
I had it on my MTBR for over a year now XD

Melanti wrote: "Okay, I did a quick browse through the group's bookshelves to see if there were any on the list that weren't tagged. These should all be on the 1,001 Books shelf.

Here's what I spotted off the to..."

Thank you, again Melanti! You are fantastic! You have an eye for accuracy.

Hey, we have 668 members in this great group, and only 26 have voted! Chime in, everyone! :-)

I nominate the yellow wallpaper as well

Trae wrote: "I nominate the yellow wallpaper as well"

Hi Trae, to vote, click on "polls" to the upper right and then you can vote there.

thank you Greg! thanks Julia! :)

Yes, thank you Greg I missed that. I casted my vote via the poll. Have a good one!!!

Trae wrote: "Yes, thank you Greg I missed that. I casted my vote via the poll. Have a good one!!!"

My pleasure Trae :)

The Yellow Wallpaper wins!

I want to read about one per month from the 1001 list.

just curious. is anyone's goal to read all 1001 books?

Is that on listopia?

It's a book edited by Peter boxall. I have the link in the first post! check it out!

I think they do have some on Listopia, but I find listopia can be inaccurate since anybody is able to add to it.

There's been a few editions of Boxall's book and there were significant changes after the first edition so there's 1300 or so books in total. (The changes were to make the list more diverse with more non-European/non-Engilsh authors.)

There's a group here that has every book shelved and their bookshelf is accurate :
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/970

And there's a listopia here:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...
It isn't accurate, obviously, since anyone can add things, but the first few pages of it are generally good.


I'm not planning on reading the full list, but I do use it to broaden my literary horizons a bit and might take a chance on something I'm on the fence about if I know it's on the list. I do tend to read a book or two from it per month, on average but I've been reading a lot more than that this year. Probably 15-20 books so far.

how many total have you read from the list, Melanti?

I think I was at around 40-50 back when it was first published (2006-2007ish?). I'm around 160 now, give or take half a dozen but I haven't counted in awhile.

I read the first 40-50 in High School/College, and kind of got burnt out on Classics so I took a several year long break. Then I heard about the Boxall list right about the time I decided to try to get back into reading classics and got my Kindle shortly after that. And of course, most of the older (pre-1920s) classics are free in e-book form so that's even more incentive to keep pecking away at the list.


I've joined a couple of classics groups here, and there's a high degree of correlation between the classics chosen for group reads and Boxall's list. I'm not sure if it's by design or if it's just because Boxall's list is so extensive, but I'm not complaining. (That trend more or less holds up for this group too.)

I agree. I think we are a group of classic lovers here! :)

I notice too there are a lot of classics on the Boxall's list. I don't actively seek to read all 1300 (taking into account all editions), but I use the list as a reference when deciding what to read next. it gives the book more weight in my opinion.

One cannot read everything, but one can try.