Dr. Peter Boxall's "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2008 edition)"

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I have decided to take on the monumentally crazy task of entering the new version of the 1001 BYMR list. This list happens to go in chronological order, like the actual book, instead of reverse chronological.

There are 284 new books on the list – so this list is quite a bit different than the 2006 version. The entries tend to be more international, but also heavier on modern work. The pre-1700 and 1700s categories of the previous list have been lumped together into pre-1800.

Please please please do not make any changes unless it is to better follow the list source. Thanks!

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  1. 1.
    ?
    The Thousand and One Nights (complete collection)
    by Anonymous

    Drag me to re-order


  2. 2.
    The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
    by Yasunari Kawabata

    Drag me to re-order


  3. 3.
    The Tale of Genji
    by Murasaki Shikibu

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  5. 5.
    ?
    Water Margin
    by Shih-Nai an

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  6. 6.
  7. 7.
    ?
    Tirant Lo Blanc/ Tirant the White
    by Joanot Martorell

    Drag me to re-order


  8. 8.
    LA Celestina
    by fernando De Rojas

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  11. 11.
    Gargantua and Pantagruel (Penguin Classics)
    by Francois Rabelais

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  12. 12.
    The Lusiads (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Luis Vaz de Camoes

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  13. 13.
  14. 14.
    ?
    The Unfortunate Traveler/or The Life of Jack Wilton
    by Thomas Nashe

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  15. 15.
    ?
    Thomas of Reading or, The Fixe Worthy Yeomen Of The West
    by Thomas Deloney

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  16. 16.
    Don Quixote (P.S.)
    by Miguel de Cervantes

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  17. 17.
    ?
    The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda: A Northern Story
    by Miguel de Cervantes

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  18. 18.
    The Conquest of New Spain (Penguin Classics)
    by Bernal Diaz del Castillo

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  20. 20.
    The Princess of Cleves
    by Madame de Lafayette

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  21. 21.
    Oroonoko (Penguin Classics)
    by Aphra Behn

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  22. 22.
    Robinson Crusoe (Modern Library Classics)
    by Daniel Defoe

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  23. 23.
    Love in Excess
    by Eliza Haywood

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  24. 24.
    Moll Flanders (Wordsworth Classics) (Wordsworth Classics)
    by Daniel Defoe

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  25. 25.
    Gulliver's Travels (Penguin Classics)
    by Jonathan Swift

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  27. 27.
    Joseph Andrews (Dover Thrift Editions)
    by Henry Fielding

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  29. 29.
    Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Samuel Richardson

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  30. 30.
    Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (Penguin Classics)
    by Samuel Richardson

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  31. 31.
    Tom Jones (Modern Library Classics)
    by Henry Fielding

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  33. 33.
    The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
    by Tobias George Smollett

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  35. 35.
    Candide (Dover Thrift Editions)
    by Voltaire

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  38. 38.
    Emile (Everyman's Library (Paper))
    by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    Drag me to re-order


  39. 39.
    The Castle of Otranto (Dover Thrift Editions)
    by Horace Walpole

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  40. 40.
    The Vicar of Wakefield (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Oliver Goldsmith

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  41. 41.
    Tristram Shandy (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
    by LAURENCE STERNE

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  42. 42.
    A Sentimental Journey (Penguin Classics)
    by Laurence Sterne

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  43. 43.
    The Man of Feeling (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Henry Mackenzie

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  44. 44.
    Humphrey Clinker (Wordsworth Classics)
    by Tobias George Smollett

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  45. 45.
    The Sorrows of Young Werther
    by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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  46. 46.
    Evelina (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Frances Burney

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  48. 48.
    Dangerous Liaisons (Penguin Classics)
    by Pierre Ambroise Francois Choderlos de Laclos

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  49. 49.
    The Confessions (Penguin Classics)
    by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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  50. 50.
    The 120 Days Of Sodom
    by Marquis de Sade

    Drag me to re-order


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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 buocl on Jul 15, 2008.
 

Comments

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Wisconsin08
Wausau

From 9 to 10 Percent — 6 days ago

The books I read to go from 9 to 10% are, in order from most to least favorite: 1. The Invention of Curried Sausage, 2. A Clockwork Orange, 3. Lolita, 4. All the Pretty Horses, 5. The Enormous Room, 6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 7. Pricksongs and Descants, 8. The Sorrows of Young Werther, 9. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, and 10. Nightwood (the only one of these I would not recommend reading). This was a very strong list so that number seven, Pricksongs and Descants, for example, would have easily been a number two or three entry for other groups of ten books read. I say again, this was a very, very strong list of excellent books.

Nov 01, 06:32AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

Wisconsin08
Wausau

From 8 to 9 Percent — 6 days ago

The books I read, a while back, to go from 8 to 9 percent are ranked from most to least favorite: 1. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, 2. Schindler’s List, 3. The Handmaid’s Tale, 4. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, 5. The Sound of Waves, 6. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 7. Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, 8. Pnin 9. A Room With A View and 10. The Dictionary of the Khazars (the only one of the ten I could not recommend reading).

Nov 01, 06:24AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

Wisconsin08
Wausau

From 7 to 8 Percent — 21 weeks ago

The ten books I have read to go to 8% are, ranked from most to least favorite, 1. Silas Marner, 2. The Maltese Falcon, 3. The Things They Carried, 4. The Call of the Wild, 5. Around the World in 80 Days, 6. Their Eyes Were Watching God, 7. A Modest Proposal, 8. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, 9. Veronika Decides to Die, and 10. Kitchen. I would recommend every one of these books as worthwhile reads. This is rare as usually there is at least one or two that I would not recommend, but that was not the case this time.

Jun 12, 10:07AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

kayamalar

Starting at 5% — 31 weeks ago

Okay, I’m doing this list and the 2006 list and starting both at 5%. Just got to figure out what to read next.

Mar 31, 03:49PM | 0 comments | Reply to this

davecham55
Pekin

HALFWAY HOME. — 33 weeks ago

Ta-da! I have reached the 50% level of both this list and the original list (I lost a lot of books in the changeover). I intend to keep going until I have completed both lists (provided I can find the books).

Mar 18, 08:34AM | 6 comments | Reply to this

avidreader60
San Miguel De Allende

Red Badge of Courage — 35 weeks ago

Being British, Dr. Boxall, you forgot this seminal American novel in your first book. I expected you to correct this oversight in your revised book. Since many of the books listed are unavailable in English, couldn’t you have eliminated one of them to include “The Red Badge of Courage”? I encourage you to do so next time you revise.

Mar 06, 02:19PM | 0 comments | Reply to this

avidreader60
San Miguel De Allende

Fantomas, Who Are You? — 35 weeks ago

So who is Fantomas and how is he able to have read nearly every book on both lists?

Mar 03, 11:17AM | 3 comments | Reply to this

Wisconsin08
Wausau

From 6 to 7 Percent — 35 weeks ago

I increased from 6 to 7 percent reading The Lost Honor of Katharena Blum, Pippi Longstocking, and The Watchmen; all of which I highly recommend.

Mar 02, 09:05AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

avidreader60
San Miguel De Allende

Unavailable — 35 weeks ago

I guess I won’t finish this list because a number of titles are unavailable in English. I wish this list only included books I could actually read. (Of course I could learn to read Ukranian to consume “Cataract” by Mykhaylo Osadchy. Maybe next year.
—Gerry

Mar 01, 11:50AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

Wisconsin08
Wausau

Dropped from 8% to 6% — 36 weeks ago

I have decided to go with this new list over the older list (but I will keep an eye on the older list) and have therefore dropped from 8% to 6% complete and from 89 books read to 67 books read. This is a loss of 22 books but that’s ok, many of the 22 books lost were terrific reads! Now, when I started this I was at 1% and I had read alot of books but typically history and science fiction were the focuses of my reading.

Feb 24, 09:48AM | 0 comments | Reply to this


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