Two nights ago I saw and looked at the titles one by one. I used Post-it flags to mark many of them, each of the four colors having a specific meaning. In purple are the books I read long ago and found forgettable or just not to my liking. In pink are the books I have read more recently, along with the ones from school that I enjoyed the most. In yellow are the books I was supposed to read and never did, as well as books I want to read, but are not a priority. In blue are the books are the top of my priority list.
After this meticulous color coding I found that I have read 34 of the 1001 books listed. I suppose I could have counted the many books on which I read the Cliff's Notes, discussed in class and passed tests on thanks to my talent for bull-shitting my way through essays, but that would be cheating.
I should like to read all 1001 books, but it is a daunting task. Even if I read 50 books each year, it will take me nineteen years to read them all. That is quite a long project.
Many of the books included in the volume are titles I had expected to be there, but there are quite a few that surprised me. I hope to write something about the books as I read them, but knowing me I won't keep it up. I guess we'll see.
