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31 March 2014
Title
|
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
|
Author
| Peter Boxall |
Publisher
| Cassell Illustrated |
Publication Date
|
2006
|
Pages
| 960 |
Genre
|
Not so much a review, but rather I would like to introduce this book which is one of my favourite book compilations and a must for every bibliophile.
This book lists, as the title says, 1001 books which have been influential or stand out in any other way. The editor Peter Boxall is a Professor of English at Sussex University in the UK. The books are listed chronologically and start with Pre-1700 with Aesop's Fables (which I have actually read I can proudly announce!). The following 900 pages cover 1700's, 1800's, 1900's and 2000's. At the end, there is an author index and general index with a title index at the beginning for easy searching.
Each book is introduced with basic details (lifespan, first published when / by whom (if applicable), language of first publication, original title. Than, a brief synopsis (about 200 words) of each book and in some cases, the 'story' of how the came the book about. Not all of them, but some are drafted so as to not contain a spoiler. I have found some to contain spoilers which are not announced. While the main focus is on books from the English speaking countries, there are also many books from other (mainly European) cultures featured. In many cases, there is also a small accompanying picture - especially in the later centuries when we have pictures of authors and maybe movie posters available.T
This is wonderful collection of all the classics and modern classics and I could get lost in this compilation for ages. I admit that there are many books I've never heard of ...There is only one very obvious downside to this book. My book was published in 2006, and it of course stops with books published in 2005. The last book features in my compilation is actually Never Let Me go from Kazuro Ishiguro which is one of my favourite all-time stories. I know that there is now an updated version of the book available, but really I don't see the point for me now, as I presume that all the older books are the same?
This surely is the perfect present for any book lover, but make sure you make sure they don't have it yet… I would guess they do.
This is the updated version:
