LibraryThing Unread Book Meme
Radegund recently posted a “book meme”, listing the 106 (no idea why that number, but hey) books most listed as “unread” by users on LibraryThing (a kind of book version of Last.fm). I hadn’t known about LibraryThing before, and it looks interesting. In any case the idea is to list how many of the 106 you’ve read, so I did that.
To be honest, I did it right away, as soon as I read her post… I’m clearly a little on the OCD side when it comes to books. The ones I’ve read are in bold, the ones I’ve started and not finished are italicized, and the ones I hated would have been listed in strikethrough if there were any on this list. The numbers represent the number of LibraryThing users who listed them as unread. This list is now a day or two old, so if you want a more recent list, check LibraryThing. Also, I’ve left the titles as they were presented in Radegund’s post.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (149)
Anna Karenina (132)
Crime and punishment (121)
Catch-22 (117)
One hundred years of solitude (115) [Amazing, amazing book.]
Wuthering Heights (110)
The Silmarillion (104) [A very long time ago, don't think I finished it, haven't had the urge to try again for a while.]
Life of Pi : a novel (94)
The name of the rose (91)
Don Quixote (91)
Moby Dick (86) [Can't remember how far I got—it's possible that I finished it.]
Ulysses (84) [Loved it through the first four chapters, put it down... and that was over 10 years ago]
Madame Bovary (83)
The Odyssey (83) [Can't remember how far I got—it's possible that I finished it.]
Pride and prejudice (83) [But I remember nothing of it.]
Jane Eyre (80)
A tale of two cities (80)
The brothers Karamazov (80)
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies (79)
War and peace (78) [A long, long time ago.]
Vanity fair (74)
The time traveler’s wife (73)
The Iliad (73)
Emma (73) [I remember nothing other than having to read it for school/colllege...]
The Blind Assassin (73) [I have it, but have never started it. I intend to read my copy this year or next.]
The kite runner (71)
Mrs. Dalloway (70)
Great expectations (70) [A long time ago, but I seem to remember not liking it.]
American gods (68)
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius (67)
Atlas shrugged (67) [Could never bring myself to go near it after reading it parodied in The Illuminatus! Trilogy as Telemachus Sneezed.]
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books (66)
Memoirs of a Geisha (66)
Middlesex (66)
Quicksilver (66)
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West (65)
The Canterbury tales (64)
The historian : a novel (63)
A portrait of the artist as a young man (63)
Love in the time of cholera (62)
Brave new world (61)
The Fountainhead (61) [Never started it, despite various urgings from others.]
Foucault’s pendulum (61)
Middlemarch (61)
Frankenstein (59)
The Count of Monte Cristo (59)
Dracula (59)
A clockwork orange (59)
Anansi boys (58)
The once and future king (57) [Meant to read it after reading The Mists of Avalon, which I loved, but haven't gotten around to it (almost a decade later).]
The grapes of wrath (57)
The poisonwood Bible : a novel (57)
1984 (57)
Angels & demons (56)
The inferno (56)
The satanic verses (55) [Don't remember it too well, though, apart from being unable to really comprehend its alleged offensiveness.]
Sense and sensibility (55)
The picture of Dorian Gray (55)
Mansfield Park (55)
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest (54)
To the lighthouse (54)
Tess of the D’Urbervilles (54)
Oliver Twist (54)
Gulliver’s travels (53)
Les misérables (53)
The corrections (53)
The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay (52)
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time (52)
Dune (51)
The prince (51)
The sound and the fury (51)
Angela’s ashes : a memoir (51) [Too many parodic descriptions from friends have put me off this.]
The god of small things (51)
A people’s history of the United States : 1492-present (51) [Absolutely a must-read, particularly for Americans.]
Cryptonomicon (50)
Neverwhere (50)
A confederacy of dunces (50)
A short history of nearly everything (50)
Dubliners (50)
The unbearable lightness of being(49)
Beloved (49)
Slaughterhouse-five (49)
The scarlet letter (48)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (48)
The mists of Avalon (47)
Oryx and Crake : a novel (47) [The first one on this list I had never heard of.]
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed (47)
Cloud atlas (47)
The confusion (46)
Lolita (46)
Persuasion (46)
Northanger abbey (46) [Unless I had to read it in college and don't remember...]
The catcher in the rye (46)
On the road (46)
The hunchback of Notre Dame (45)
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything (45) [I'm a little surprised I haven't read this yet.]
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance : an inquiry into values (45)
The Aeneid (45)
Watership Down (44)
Gravity’s rainbow (44)
The Hobbit (44)
In cold blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences (44)
White teeth (44) [The second book on this list I'd never heard of.]
Treasure Island (44)
David Copperfield (44) [Long, long ago, can barely remember it]
The three musketeers (44)
63 out of 106 read, 4 more started. Presumably the users of LibraryThing are less inclined to finish books than I am? Or I’m more likely to finish the “classic” books that people tend to buy? I’m not sure. There are a bunch of the books on this list that I intend to read, but there are also a significant number of pre-1900s works I’m not likely to ever get to.
This does remind me that I need to get a lot more reading done this year to reach my goal of 70 books. I have serious doubts about that target at this point. I’m currently at 34, which means I need to double what I’ve read all year… in three months. Ouch. Tough, but possible. Just over one book every three days would get me there. I read a lot on my last trip to Ireland, and then haven’t read much since.
This also reminds me that I need to write my book-tracking web application. LibraryThing is cool, but it doesn’t do some things I want, like list start and end dates for reading books. Also, I want to write an application of my own at the moment, and it’s not a bad one to go with.
More OCD—I can’t help but examine the crossover between Radegund’s list and mine:
We have the following 33 in common as books read:
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (149)
Crime and punishment (121)
Catch-22 (117)
One hundred years of solitude (115)
Wuthering Heights (110)
Don Quixote (91)
Pride and prejudice (83)
Jane Eyre (80)
The Iliad (73)
Emma (73)
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius (67)
A portrait of the artist as a young man (63)
Brave new world (61)
Foucault’s pendulum (61)
Frankenstein (59)
A clockwork orange (59)
1984 (57)
The picture of Dorian Gray (55)
To the lighthouse (54)
Dune (51)
Dubliners (50)
Beloved (49)
The scarlet letter (48)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (48)
The mists of Avalon (47)
Lolita (46)
The catcher in the rye (46)
On the road (46)
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance : an inquiry into values (45)
Watership Down (44)
The Hobbit (44)
Treasure Island (44)
The three musketeers (44)
We have the following two in common as started but unfinished:
The Silmarillion
Ulysses [Radegund notes that she might choose not to finish it, whereas I intend to do so at some point.]
Neither of us have started the following 17:
Anna Karenina (132)
A tale of two cities (80)
The brothers Karamazov (80)
Atlas shrugged (67)
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books (66)
Memoirs of a Geisha (66)
Middlesex (66)
The Fountainhead (61)
Anansi boys (58)
Angels & demons (56)
The inferno (56)
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time (52)
The sound and the fury (51)
A confederacy of dunces (50)
Oryx and Crake : a novel (47)
The Aeneid (45)
Gravity’s rainbow (44)
And she has read the following 18 that I haven’t started (several of which I think I’ll never read—those are marked with an asterisk):
Life of Pi : a novel (94)
Vanity fair * (74)
The time traveler’s wife (73)
The Blind Assassin (73)
Mrs. Dalloway (70)
Middlemarch (61)
The once and future king (57)
The poisonwood Bible : a novel (57)
Sense and sensibility * (55)
Mansfield Park * (55)
The corrections (53)
Angela’s ashes : a memoir (possibly deserves an asterisk, but I might read it for comedic value) (51)
The god of small things (51)
A short history of nearly everything (50)
Persuasion * (46)
Northanger abbey * (46)
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything (45)
White teeth * (44)
Time to go read a book, probably Michael Lewis’ The Blind Side.