Thursday 31st of May 2007, 11:08
Magna opera
I am keen to read all the great books before I die, not unlike my future father in law (shh, not yet official) is doing: last year he read the Bible from front to back. The list, which is of books that I would have to make a point of reading rather than would readily read, is in roughly chronological order and is so far thus:
- The Politics, Aristotle, 350 BC
- The Republic, Plato, 350 BC
- The Bible
- The Qur’an
- Magna Carta, 1215
- De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi (Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs), Nicolaus Copernicus, 1543
- Complete Works, Shakespeare
- Philosohiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), Isaac Newton, 1687
- Mechanica (Mechanics), Leonhard Euler, 1736 - 1737
- An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, 1776
- Theory of the Earth, James Hutton, 1795
- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, 1813
- Principles of Geology, Sir Charles Lyell, 1830 - 1833
- The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens, 1836
- David Copperfield, Charles Dickens, 1850
- On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Charles Darwin, 1859
- Great Expectations, Charles Dickens, 1861
- Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man, Sir Charles Lyell, 1863
- War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy, 1865 - 1869
- The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, Charles Darwin, 1871
- Middlemarch, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), 1871
- The Oxford English Dictionary
- Complete Works, Oscar Wilde
- Die Traumdeutung (The Interpretation of Dreams), Sigmund Freud, 1900
- Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse (A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis), Sigmund Freud, 1910
- The Meaning of Relativity, Albert Einstein, 1922
- The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, 1937
- Collected Shorter Poems 1927-1957, Wystan H. Auden, 1966
- Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien, 1954
I figure I might read one a year from the age of about forty five or more. Although given the benefit reading the dictionary would do me I am making that an exception by starting now but as it is dry reading I will read a letter at a time, like one or two a month.
What do you think of the list? What is missing?
Toodle pip.
What is missing? Your sanity. How about just reading for the love of it and for the sheer joy a book brings you on looking at the cover and reading the blurb! And what about acknowledging that in any time and space you have all of the information you need. When it arises, if it does, that you need to know specific info about Aristotle or the Bible or any other non-fiction book, then you go and read it up - if you really wnat to that is! Enjoy your list and I’m sure you will accomplish all you set out to do…
Love ya
C
Ah come on, these are some of the most historically significantly books which shaped our culture, society and thinking. And of course I will read books for leisure. Heading that list includes: Alice in Wonderland; Why I am so Wise; The Fifth Elephant; Atomised; All’s Well that Ends Well; and The Unbearable lightness of being.
Meh.
I feel that there is a lack of modern fiction in your list. I might be tempted to include 1984, The Catcher in the Rye, A Clockwork Orange, The Satanic Verses and Trainspotting to name but a few.
What about banned books? Lady Chatterly’s Lover or something by the Marquis de Sade?
Or if you want to really want to stir your brain up, The Satanic Bible by Anton LeVey, some of the many writings of Alistair Crowley or the Mallus Maleficarium.
I find writing lists of books depressing, as I know I will never read them. I have been meaning to read Crime and Punishment for years,
Well, and I realise you cannot read my mind, but Nineteen Eighty Four, The Catcher in the Rye are in my list of ‘will readily read.’ As I am not a fan of the films of A Clockwork Orange or Trainspotting I doubt I will read those.
Your point that “lists of books are depressing, as [you] know [you] will never read them” is exactly why I have this list. I live in hope that by actively making this list it will somehow get me to read at least some of them. Top of my list are Darwin, Newton, Adam Smith, Wilde.
Last night I started reading Aa in the dictionary. “Aargh!” is actually in the dictionary and not as ‘informal.’
Ooh, add some Marx and Greek mythology.
I would skip Nos. 1-8, give Nos 9-20 more than careful (and optimistic) intention, then skip to 25, 26, 27 leaving room in between for the recent, modern, highly recommended and plain unexpected.
And live for a good forty years after the age of forty-five!
The life and opinions of Tristam Shandy, Laurence Stern, 1759.
The Cantebury Tales, Geoff Chaucer, 1400(?)
Institutes of Christian religion, John Calvin, 1560.
…to name but a few!
Hey Pete!
I have not heard of 1 and 2 on your list so will look into those as and when. Chaucer I studied for GCSE and loathed it. With most of the texts in my list I would need some sort of translation (of which I see there are numerous available for some of them).
Anyway, good to see you on engtect and catch you later. I will be in Buro mid or end of July.