Dr. Peter Boxall's "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006 edition)"

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Each work of literature listed here is a seminal work key to understanding and appreciating the written word. These works have been handpicked by a team of international critics and literary luminaries, including Derek Attridge (world expert on James Joyce), Cedric Watts (renowned authority on Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene), Laura Marcus (noted Virginia Woolf expert), and David Mariott (poet and expert on African-American literature), among some twenty others. (Description from Amazon.com)

This is a community list. You can contribute, edit, or help maintain it by adding it to your lists. Please do not remove or add titles that will change this list from how it appears in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die edited by Peter Boxall with an introduction by Peter Ackroyd.

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  1. 151.
    Possessing the Secret of Joy
    by Alice Walker

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  2. 152.
    Indigo
    by Marina Warner

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  3. 153.
    The Crow Road
    by Iain Banks

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  4. 154.
    Written on the Body
    by Jeanette Winterson

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  5. 155.
    Jazz (Contemporary Fiction, Plume)
    by Toni Morrison

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  6. 156.
    The English Patient
    by Michael Ondaatje

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  7. 157.
    Smilla's Sense of Snow
    by Peter Hoeg

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  8. 158.
    The Butcher Boy
    by Patrick McCabe

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  9. 159.
    Black Water (Contemporary Fiction, Plume)
    by Joyce Carol Oates

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  10. 160.
    The Heather Blazing
    by Colm Toibin

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  11. 161.
    Asphodel
    by H. D. (Hilda Doolittle)

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  12. 162.
    Black Dogs: A Novel
    by Ian McEwan

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  13. 163.
    Hideous Kinky: A Novel
    by Esther Freud

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  14. 164.
    Arcadia
    by Jim Crace

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  15. 165.
    Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China
    by Jung Chang

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  16. 166.
    American Psycho
    by Bret Easton Ellis

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  17. 167.
    Time's Arrow
    by Martin Amis

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  18. 168.
    Mao II: A Novel
    by Don DeLillo

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  19. 169.
    Typical
    by Padgett Powell

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  20. 170.
    Regeneration
    by Pat Barker

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  21. 171.
    Downriver
    by Iain Sinclair

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  22. 172.
    Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord
    by Louis De Bernieres

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  23. 173.
    Wise Children
    by Angela Carter

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  24. 174.
    Get Shorty
    by Elmore Leonard

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  25. 175.
    Amongst Women
    by John McGahern

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  26. 176.
    Vineland (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
    by Thomas Pynchon

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  27. 177.
    Vertigo
    by Winfried Georg Sebald

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  28. 178.
    STONE JUNCTION
    by Jim Dodge

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  29. 179.
    The Music of Chance
    by Paul Auster

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  30. 180.
    The Things They Carried
    by Tim O'Brien

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  31. 181.
    A Home at the End of the World: A Novel
    by Michael Cunningham

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  32. 182.
    Like Life
    by Lorrie Moore

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  33. 183.
    Possession: A Romance
    by A.S. Byatt

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  34. 184.
    The Buddha of Suburbia
    by Hanif Kureishi

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  35. 185.
    The Midnight Examiner
    by William Kotzwinkle

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  36. 186.
    ?
    A Disaffection
    by James Kelman

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  37. 187.
    Sexing the Cherry
    by Jeanette Winterson

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  38. 188.
    Moon Palace
    by Paul Auster

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  39. 189.
    Billy Bathgate
    by E. L. Doctorow

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  40. 190.
    The Remains of the Day
    by Kazuo Ishiguro

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  41. 191.
    The Melancholy of Resistance
    by Laszlo Krasznahorkai

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  42. 192.
    The Temple of My Familiar
    by Alice Walker

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  43. 193.
    The Trick Is to Keep Breathing: A Novel
    by Janice Galloway

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  44. 194.
    The History of the Siege of Lisbon
    by Jose Saramago

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  45. 195.
    Like Water for Chocolate
    by Laura Esquivel

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  46. 196.
    A Prayer for Owen Meany
    by John Irving

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  47. 197.
    London Fields
    by Martin Amis

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  48. 198.
    The Book of Evidence
    by John Banville

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  49. 199.
    Cat's Eye
    by Margaret Atwood

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  50. 200.
    Foucault's Pendulum
    by Umberto Eco

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This is a community list. You can contribute, edit, or help maintain it by adding it to your lists.
Created by starlagurl on Mar 27, 2006.
 

Comments

Pages: Pages: 1 2 4 6 7 8 9 … 12 13

Wisconsin08
Wausau

From 2 to 3% — 1 year ago

It is not about the numbers. However, I started at one percent when I started the list in April. Now I jumped from 2 to 3 percent reading books including Confederacy of Dunces, The Old Man and the Sea, Robinson Crusoe, and Slaughter-House Five, which put me over the top. Almost 100% of the books on the list are excellent.

May 11, 07:30AM | 1 comment | Reply to this

Nickelini

Some people need to look up "definiitive" — 1 year ago

I just deleted book 1002, Barbara Kingsolver’s Bean Trees …, since it’s not on the Boxall list.

I’m starting to think that the people who are adding to and changing the list are doing it because they think they’re funny and they want to get a reaction. So amusing. Not.

May 07, 10:05AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

Inditra
Seattle

Untitled — 1 year ago

What the hell? Somebody took some books off! The list was fine. People need to leave it the hell alone.

Apr 28, 12:59PM | 0 comments | Reply to this

Wisconsin08
Wausau

Making Progress — 1 year ago

I started working on this list about 3 weeks ago and was at 1 percent. Now I am at 2 percent having read several books including Nortanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Things Fall Apart by Achibe, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Haddon, and the Time Machine by HG Wells, among others. If I read something a long time ago and could not remember it well I did not check it. So far every book has been very good.

Apr 27, 08:27PM | 0 comments | Reply to this

Kat
Gold Coast

Untitled — 1 year ago

New Edition?

Are we going to revamp this list, or recreate the list for the new edition?

There’s a new edition out in the UK now, and is likely to be released soon in the US.

Apr 27, 02:17AM | 4 comments | Reply to this

Mayhem17
Vancouver

Rechecking the list — 1 year ago

Every so often I find I have to go through the list and re check books which I’ve already done. Had to tick treasure island again. At the moment I’ve reached 35%. Still lots more to go.

Apr 17, 08:46PM | 0 comments | Reply to this

DanBull
Bromsgrove

Hey there chaps (and ladies too!) — 1 year ago

Anyone fancy reversing this list, book by book, so that it’s in chronological order, as opposed to reverse chronological order? “Lemme” know! He he!

Apr 03, 08:10AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

davecham55
Pekin

Halfway home! — 1 year ago

Ta-Da! I have now finished 50% of the List! (actually, a little more than 50% as I have finished the first four volumes of “Remembrance of Things Past”, which only counts as one book.) For the most part, the books have been worth the time spent reading them (I rate less than 10 of the 500 I’ve read “Not Worth Consuming”) By far, it’s the best list of recommendations I’ve ever found. Provided I can find all the books (Anyone know where you can get “Albigenses” or “Taebak Mountains?) I’ll keep going till I make 100%.

Apr 02, 06:45AM | 5 comments | Reply to this

elliebb
Springfield

list changing — 1 year ago

Love in the time of cholera IS on the list (or should be – some moron probably changed it).

I don’t understand why people keep changing this list, or arguing about what should or shouldn’t be on it. If you don’t like this one make or find one you do like, but please do not make changes to this one. Thank you.

Mar 18, 03:44AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

Nickelini

Thank you! — 1 year ago

I just wanted to say thank you to all those who are maintaining this list correctly (as it appears in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, edited by Peter Boxall). It is so frustrating how people keep messing with it. Either they don’t stop to read what this list is all about, or they don’t understand what the word “definitive” means. Anyway, thanks to you who have the patience to keep fixing it.

Mar 12, 11:34AM | 0 comments | Reply to this


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