Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

News just in from the publishers:

http://arukiyomi.com/?p=6545

Arukiyomi wrote: "News just in from the publishers:

http://arukiyomi.com/?p=6545"

Anybody 'literally shaking' from what's out and what's in?

Books out
Forever a Stranger
Hella Haasse

The Life of Insects
Victor Pelevin

Dirty Havana Trilogy
Pedro Juan Gutierrez

Soldiers of Salamis
Javier Cercas

The Successor
Ismail Kadare

Your Face Tomorrow
Javier Marías

The Blind Side of the Heart
Julia Franck

Kieron Smith, Boy
James Kelman

The Children’s Book
A. S. Byatt

There but for the
Ali Smith

Books in

Goldfinch
Donna Tartt

The Circle
Dave Eggers

Americanah
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Flamethrowers
Rachel Kushner

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing
Eimear McBride

The Story of the Lost Child
Elena Ferrante

H is for Hawk
Helen MacDonald

10:04
Ben Lerner

H(A)PPY
Nicola Barker

Winter
Ali Smith

I didn't care for Pelevin's Life of Insects (it was a dnf for me), so I don't mind that that's out, but I thought Cercas' Soldiers of Salamis was excellent--far better than some other selections I've read from the list.

I haven't read any of the 'ins'

I haven't read any of the out list, but two of my favourite authors, A.S. Byatt and Ali Smith are represented, so disappointed they have lost a book. As for the books added, I have read quite a few, and there are some great additions, as well as one or two puzzling ones.
The Goldfinch was a disappointing read, compared to Tartt's first book, The Secret History, which I think justly deserves it's place on the list.
A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing is an extraordinary novel, and should be on a list of 100 best novels, let alone 1001. It's one of a very few books I've given 5 stars to, so delighted it is on the list.
H is for Hawk is an excellent read, but is not a novel, so I struggle to see why this made the list.
I didn't care much for 10:04, but it has been well received by the critics, so I guess no surprise there.
H(A)PPY is a wonderfully strange book, winner of last year's Goldsmith's Prize, for imaginative fiction, which to my mind is the most consistently worthwhile of all the major prizes, so delighted to see two winners (this and A Girl Is a Half-formed thing added to the list, alongside Ali Smith's How to be both, which is already there.
And finally, Winter. I have said how much I enjoy Ali Smith, but I thought Autumn was one of her weaker novels, and haven't yet read Winter. Not having read either this or There but for the, can't say which I would rather keep.

As for the books I haven't read, I guess it was inevitable (given the critical accolades both have received) that one of Karl Ove Knausgård or Elena Ferrante would be included, and for the sake of gender balance, I am glad it is Ferrante. A slight puzzle as to why the last book in the series has been added, and not the first.

I note that four books by female writers have been removed, and 8 added, which is a good sign, but seven translated works have been removed and only one added, which is disappointing, given the already too anglophone nature of the list.

Of the new additons I‘ve only read The Goldfinch which I was a bit disappointed in. Like David I’m also surprised to see that H is for Hawk made it onto the list.

I‘m sad they removed Soldiers of Salamis and Your Face Tomorrow: Fever and Spear / Dance and Dream / Poison, Shadow, and Farewell. Both are outstanding novels and really should have remained, as should the Hella S. Haassee.

The Successor is an average work, it‘s ok that they removed it. I liked There but for the a lot better than Ali Smith‘s other list book, The Accidental (which I believe was removed to add There but for the to the list).

I‘m also surprised they added the final book of Elena Ferrante‘s series. I read her other list book and was somehow disappointed. I‘ve read mixed reviews of the Neapolitanian novels, so I‘m not sure if I like this addition of not.

The Circle is another book I‘m not sure why they added it. I haven‘t read it, I just watched the movie which was kind of disappointing. The book reviews are also mixed.

The Children's Book is one of the most amazing books I've read, I really can't understand why it's out.

Arukiyomi wrote: "News just in from the publishers:

http://arukiyomi.com/?p=6545"

Thanks for the info!

you're welcome!

Thanks, Arukiyomi!!! I'm looking forward to the app update!

I'll update the bookshelves for the 2018 edition and it will be used in our Group Reads for the last quarter of this year.

Would any one be interested in making a 2018-listopia list with ONLY the books in the 2018 edition? We need to be 10 people voting to do it. (Or make some extra profiles....)

I have started it off with the 10 new books:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

v6 of the spreadsheet is now available at

http://arukiyomi.com/?page_id=4230

if you have already purchased v5, email me at arukiyomi AT gmail DOT com and I'll send you over a free v6 (which has instructions to import your data). If you have your PayPal receipt or payment ID that would be very helpful.

I wondered if there was going to be another update. Mixed feelings about this! Since I'm doing the "full" pooled list, none of the "outs" are a wasted read, but I'm sad some of these won't appear in the official book anymore (I liked life of Insects and the Successor). And, as somebody else mentioned, the loss of more translated books is too bad. Considering there are some anglo authors with loads of books on there (Dickens, McEwan, Coetzee) that I think are a bit oversaturated on the list, I would have liked to have seen their selections pruned a little bit first.

Also very excited that most of the additions are by women, and that there's so more recent books for me to look into now. But, I did have a goal to finish half the combined list by the end of this year, so now I'll have to read 5 more than originally intended to get there.

Sometimes it just seems that the finish line gets further away as I try to reach the full (all the years) lists of both the 1001 books and movies and still live a productive life. Let's face it, I'd rather be reading. Thanks so much Arukiyomi for the fabulous app - I love it.

I suppose I'm not the first to "do the math" to see that only 1% of the books from the prior edition are being changed- I didn't even have to use a calculator! This is an amazingly minor update compared to some of the prior ones, which is nice for those trying to complete a high percentage of the total. None of the books I've read are being added or removed- I do have Americanah (IN) on my to-read list though, about a year out, and Dirty Havana Triology (OUT) as a possible.

Does anyone use Google Docs/Sheets? Is there a copy of it out there?

George wrote: "I suppose I'm not the first to "do the math" to see that only 1% of the books from the prior edition are being changed- I didn't even have to use a calculator! This is an amazingly minor update com..."

It's got to be hard to look at current titles and pick something that seems mandatory to read. I'm not even sure we can make those kinds of judgments on books published in the 90s, let alone today. I suspect they've got their pre-1900 list hashed out pretty well with the first couple updates, and now they are a little hesitant about adding books that haven't had a chance to stand the test of time.

I wish there were a handy list of all the books that have been booted from the list over the course of the updates.

I'm pretty pleased with these updates. Not read any of the removed but two of the new additions The Goldfinch and Americanah are books that I enjoyed and I have heard great things about Winter too.

Even though these books were all written in English I don't think they're too anglocentric as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is of Nigerian origin and her books are all strongly focused on Nigerian history and culture. Saying that, Americanah is set as much in America and Britain as it is in Nigeria so I would have prefered to see Half of a Yellow Sun on the list.

Half of a Yellow Sun is on the list, Jess!

@Bryan: the spreadsheet and app both tell you which books have been removed from the list over the four editions.

Not anglocentric? How? We've lost 10 books, out of which seventy percent are translated non-English works, exchanging them for ten books out of which only one is a work in translation. That's ridiculous and frankly kind of offensive, especially considering that at least one previous edit of the list (the 2nd) was made with the explicit intention of adding diversity. It seems like we're straight back onto the strange notion that the Man/Booker prize constitutes the most seminal area in the development of the novel of today.

Why not get rid of some of the three thousand books by Ian McEwan, John Banville, or some of the other multiple-entry writers? Surely I don't need to read almost every single one of their novels before I die in order to grasp the development of the novel and have a well-rounded understanding of literature?

Ellinor wrote: "The Circle is another book I‘m not sure why they added it...."

I read it. I liked it but couldn't honesty tell anyone they MUST read it before they die.

Will the app include the new additions? I'm doing the complete list. Based on your information the total is 1,325 correct?

Arukiyomi wrote: "Half of a Yellow Sun is on the list, Jess!

@Bryan: the spreadsheet and app both tell you which books have been removed from the list over the four editions."

Thanks for this message. I have the app and when I installed the update, the titles added in 2018 were added, but it no longer indicates which editions a book is part of. It doesn't look like the screenshots in the link.

The official app has never shown which editions the books are in. The screenshots in the app store are accurate. The spreadsheet shows the last edition each title was featured in. There are 1,325 books on the combined lists from all editions.

Arukiyomi wrote: "The official app has never shown which editions the books are in.

I don't know if it was an "official" version, but before the last update, the book view looked more like the screenshot on the Facebook cover photo. On the left column, second from the bottom, there is information about edition.

Arukiyomi wrote: The screenshots in the app store are accurate. The spreadsheet shows the last edition each title was featured in. There are 1,325 b..."
Thanks for confirming that. My Statistics page does not look like the one shown in the app store. I'll send you a screenshot. I hope you can help me fix this because this feature was quite helpful. Thanks in advance!

Ah, my mistake. It's been so long since I made that change that I'd forgotten I'd done it. I'm also sorry that I didn't update the screenshot to match the change. It would help if I had a working iPhone and used the app myself, but I don't!

So, to clarify, the app never showed what books were in each edition. The stats page used to show how much progress you had made in each edition, but obviously each edition had 1001 books in it. I removed this feature many moons ago because it was way too complex to keep track of, and impossible to implement in the 1001 movies app as that has a new edition every year. Instead, I now maintain the three lists explained in the help pages: Essential, Complete and Latest edition.

Sorry for any confusion.

I thought the new total was 1315 books, not 1325.

yep sorry 1315

it'll be 1325 by the time I finish it!

Dear all, the other day I was in my local bookstore, and saw the 1001 books revised edition book with unfamiliar covering. This one said to be also updated 2018 edition, it was printed in 2019 and has a pair of eyes at front cover.
I hardly managed to find the picture on the internet, here is the link:
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...

The last two books, after Happy (Nicola Barker) are: Tyll (Daniel Kehlmann) and Night Boat to Tangier (Kevin Barry). After scanning and comparing Titles and Authors index with this and Life of Pi 2018 edition, I find out that there are actually only two books being switched in this later edition: Life of Pi 2018 edition has Cain and 1Q84, while other 1001 book printed in 2019 has Tyll (Daniel Kehlmann) and Night Boat to Tangier (Kevin Barry). Everything else is the same, including ISBN code, which when scanned in Goodreads leads to the Life of Pi 2018 edition.
That makes two more books for me to include in the complete list ;(

Tatjana wrote: "Dear all, the other day I was in my local bookstore, and saw the 1001 books revised edition book with unfamiliar covering. This one said to be also updated 2018 edition, it was printed in 2019 and ..."

That's interesting! We just discovered one new book (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) and now you found two more. Maybe we should re-check all our editions?

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is indeed in this 'new' edition. But what has it replaced? Anyone know? Although I have the index of the new 2019 edition, I don't have the time nor my physical 2018 copy in order to compare them.

Arukiyomi wrote: "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is indeed in this 'new' edition. But what has it replaced? Anyone know? Although I have the index of the new 2019 edition, I don't have the time nor my physical 2018 copy i..."

I think it replaced The New World by Heruy Wolde Selassie.

Tatjana wrote: "That makes two more books for me to include in the complete list ;("

Thank goodness they are both short books!

I can confirm indeed that The New World is not in the 2019 edition.

That's a great relief to us all I'm sure... except for the Amharic readers among us ;-)

Tatjana wrote: "Dear all, the other day I was in my local bookstore, and saw the 1001 books revised edition book with unfamiliar covering. This one said to be also updated 2018 edition, it was printed in 2019 and ..."

The only IN or OUT books I've read is Americanah (IN) which I liked but didn't think amazing. I do have The Story of the Lost Child (IN) as number ten in my to-read list- I've read the other three books in Ferrante's Neopolitan series and liked them. Also have Winter (IN) by Ali Smith scheduled for next year.
I had never heard of Tyll before, just read the synopsis of it. Noticed Kehlmann has another book in the 1001 list already, Measuring the World, added in 2008. He is a fairly young writer it seems, listed as "German-Austrian".
I give a little more priority for reading books in the current 1001 edition vs those that have been dropped so I do pay some attention to that.

Measuring the World is good. Specially if you are a bit of a science nerd.

Humboldt is such a bad-ass hero. He's enthusiasm and his absolute need to measure every thing.... “Whenever things were frightening, it was a good idea to measure them.”.... I liked it.

Tatjana wrote: "I hardly managed to find the picture on the internet, here is the link:
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=..."

The cover for this edition is based on the cover of The Great Gatsby.

Tatjana wrote: "Dear all, the other day I was in my local bookstore, and saw the 1001 books revised edition book with unfamiliar covering. This one said to be also updated 2018 edition, it was printed in 2019 and ..."

Thank you, Tatjana for your excellent detective work. I had purchased that edition of the Boxall book when we were researching Gentlemen Prefer Blondes but did not need to review it at that time. You are absolutely correct -- Tyll and Night Boat to Tangier replace Cain and 1Q84. Two more books to add to the list!!!

FYI, new spreadsheet edition is available now from my blog at https://arukiyomi.com/?page_id=4230

v7 contains the changes mentioned in the thread above. For anyone who has already purchased a spreadsheet in the past, a free v7 is available for you to update. Just ping me an email via the address in the Help tab of your current spreadsheet.

Thank you Arukiyomi, the features on your spreadsheet now are amazing! I just got it, but I did notice that you don't seem to have included Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. So I have 1318 books vs your 1317.

I will update my Google Sheet to include the latest two new changes discovered by Tatjana, although I won't take anything new from Arukiyomi's spreadsheet, which offers a lot more for keeping your own records. And frankly I don't have the Excel skill to do what he has done there!

Rosemary wrote: "Thank you Arukiyomi, the features on your spreadsheet now are amazing! I just got it, but I did notice that you don't seem to have included Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. So I have 1318 books vs your 13..."

Thank you Rosemary!!

hmmm interesting. I've never had Gentlemen Prefer Blondes on any spreadsheet or even in the app as my massive data sheet doesn't include it. However, it wasn't in the 2012 edition but was in the 2018 edition. The New World was removed in 2018.

In other words, the publishers gave me the wrong info about what was in/out when I asked them back in August 2018. Yeesh. Good thing I'm not reliant on them anymore.

I'll get on with v7.1 then!

I'm glad I read this thread! I saw that my list was only 1317 books and I was a little worried about the inconsistency. Turns out I'm missing Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

It's also completely missing from Charity's lists on this group. I assume that's because she based it on my spreadsheet.

done.

v7.1 has all the books .... finally!

Arukiyomi wrote: "done.

v7.1 has all the books .... finally!"

You can find our complete research on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes here -- https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

It appears that the publisher (in 2 cases so far) revised an edition by removing and adding 1 or 2 books without releasing any info about the change.