Dr. Peter Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

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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.

(list source)

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 20 21

Never Let Me Go

by Kazuo Ishiguro

Saturday

by Ian McEwan

On Beauty

by Zadie Smith

Slow Man

by J.M. Coetzee

Adjunct: An Undigest

by Peter Manson

The Sea (Man Booker Prize)

by John Banville

The Red Queen

by Margaret Drabble

The Plot Against America

by Philip Roth

The Master: A Novel

by Colm Toibin

10.

Vanishing Point: A Novel

by David Markson

11.

The Lambs of London

by Peter Ackroyd

12.

Dining on Stones

by Iain Sinclair

13.

Cloud Atlas: A Novel

by David Mitchell

14.

Drop City

by T.C. Boyle

15.

The Colour: A Novel

by Rose Tremain

16.

Thursbitch

by Alan Garner

17.

The Light of Day

by Graham Swift

18.

What I Loved: A Novel

by Siri Hustvedt

19.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

by Mark Haddon

20.

Islands

by Dan Sleigh

21.

Elizabeth Costello

by J. M. Coetzee

22.

London Orbital

by Iain Sinclair

23.

Family Matters

by Rohinton Mistry

24.

Fingersmith

by Sarah Waters

25.

The Double

by Jose Saramago

26.

Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel

by Jonathan Safran Foer

27.

Unless: A Novel

by Carol Shields

28.

Kafka on the Shore

by Haruki Murakami

29.

The Story of Lucy Gault

by William Trevor

30.

That They May Face the Rising Sun

by John McGahern

31.

In the Forest: A Novel

by Edna O'Brien

32.

Shroud

by John Banville

33.

Middlesex: A Novel

by Jeffrey Eugenides

34.

Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II

by J. M. Coetzee

35.

Dead Air

by Iain Banks

36.

Nowhere Man

by Aleksandar Hemon

37.

The Book of Illusions: A Novel

by Paul Auster

38.

Gabriel's Gift: A Novel

by Hanif Kureishi

39.

Austerlitz (Modern Library Paperbacks)

by Winfried Georg Sebald

40.

Platform

by Michel Houellebecq

41.

Schooling

by Heather Mcgowan

42.

Atonement: A Novel

by Ian McEwan

43.

The Corrections

by Jonathan Franzen

44.

Don't Move

by Margaret Mazzantini

45.

The Body Artist: A Novel

by Don DeLillo

46.

Fury: A Novel (Modern Library Paperbacks)

by Salman Rushdie

47.

At Swim, Two Boys: A Novel

by Jamie O'Neill

48.

Choke

by Chuck Palahniuk

49.

Life of Pi

by Yann Martel

50.

The Feast of the Goat: A Novel

by Mario Vargas Llosa

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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 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Wisconsin08
Wausau

From 5 to 6% — 2 weeks ago

I thought I would rank the books I read from most to least favorite of the last 10 I read:
1. Summer by Edith Wharton: very good, pre-automobile New England. Reads like a fantasy novel but with groups of humans, not fantasy races. Great author. 2. Heart of Darkness: like an impressionist painting creating partial images with good lighting and texture and it has meanings on multiple levels. 3. Death of Ivan Ilych 4. Ethan Fromme by Edith Wharton again 5. Poisonwood Bible: good follow up to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness because it also takes place in the Congo in the 1960’s to 1980’s 6. The Kreutzer Sonata: also by Tolstoy like Ivan.. is. 7. The Fox: good 8. Invisible Man, HG Wells’ 9. The Last September: written with great art and subtlety and 10. Foe by Coetzee which was the only one I felt not worth consuming which is too bad because he is a very great author. The book fizzled for me but I almost recommended it too. Now I’m going to read some longer works like Anna Karenina. See yah!

Aug 13, 06:31PM | 0 comments | Reply to this

GabeGrey
Tucson

2006 version from source — 2 weeks ago

Here’s the 2006 version, with no changes, if anyone is interested.

http://www.listsofbests.com/list/55126

Aug 10, 02:12AM | 0 comments | Reply to this

buocl
Medina

In case anyone is looking for the 2008 version — 6 weeks ago

I am creating it now. I hope to be done by the end of the week, but no later than next week.

http://www.listsofbests.com/list/57568

Jul 17, 06:29AM | 1 comment | Reply to this

Wisconsin08
Wausau

From 4 to 5 Percent — 6 weeks ago

I read whatever strikes my fancy at the time from the list. I just went from 4 to 5 percent reading Watt by Samuel Beckett. This book was the only one of the last 10 not worth consuming as it was rambling, obsessive-compulsive rubbish in my view. However, with the passage of time I am enjoying it more now as I think about it more. I read some really awesome books to get to 5 percent including Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Lord of the Flies (a reread), Don Quixote, Disgrace, and To Kill a Mockingbird to name some. On the Road was a bit overrated but enjoyable and so was Stranger in a Strange Land. Happy Reading!

Jul 15, 08:53PM | 0 comments | Reply to this

Chuchotement
Baltimore

So, just out of curiosity.... — 6 weeks ago

...how is everyone going about reading through the list? Chronological order? Reverse chronological? Alphabetical? Whatever first strikes your fancy?

My methods are a bit more practical; I bought the books I stumbled upon at white elephant sales first. shrugs They were meant to be…ha.

Jul 12, 08:08PM | 4 comments | Reply to this

Mayhem17
Vancouver

The list — 9 weeks ago

Just gone through and sorted out the list, fortunately have a print out of the list which is in the correct order.
At the moment all 1001 books are there and in the right order

Jun 23, 08:35PM | 2 comments | Reply to this

Plekter

what happened — 9 weeks ago

err….what happened to the list?

Jun 23, 05:11AM | 1 comment | Reply to this

Thymus

Missing book — 10 weeks ago

I think the missing book is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë as number 902.
Could someone add it? I don’t know how to do it, afraid to make the list even more chaotic…
But the books 1-500 should be OK now.

Jun 17, 05:15AM | 1 comment | Reply to this

shootingstarr7
California

Another Removed — 10 weeks ago

It looks like another book has been removed from the list, but I couldn’t tell you which one (the current disorder near the top of the list makes it impossible to tell if a book is missing or just misplaced). Can anyone tell which it is?

Jun 16, 01:16PM | 2 comments | Reply to this

Inditra
Seattle

Untitled — 10 weeks ago

What the heck happened?! Somebody came in and moved EVERYTHING around! Someone is a big fat jerk.

I spent some time trying to get things back to the way they were but I just don’t have the time to do the whole thing. It looks like someone tried to put it in alphabetical order. Whoever did it is an idiot and should come clean up the mess they made.

Jun 15, 06:16PM | 1 comment | Reply to this

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