A compulsion to read

Everyone that considers themselves a booklover will admit to having a compulsion to read. For me that compulsion, or need, stems from curiosity.

There is information contained in that text that other people have read that I am yet to discover.

But more than that, the consideration of that information is an experience others have had that I have not!

Flavorwire has recently compiled a list of The 50 Books Everyone Needs to Read, 1963-2013.

For each year, a single title released that year is chosen as the victor so to speak, and then a few other titles are listed as ‘Also Recommended’.

Let’s see how many of those listed I have read, or have on my ‘To Be Read’ pile… 

1964 : Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (also recommended)

1965: Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino (also recommended) – TBR

1967: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (also recommended)

1979: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (also recommended) and If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino (also recommended)

1982: The BFG by Roald Dahl (also recommended)

1988: Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (also recommended)

1995: Blindness by Josè Saramago (also recommended) – TBR

1997: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (also recommended)

2004: The Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (also recommended)

2006: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (also recommended)

2010: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (also recommended) – TBR

2011: The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht (also recommended)

So what does that mean? It seems I have not read any of the 50 titles considered ‘must-reads’ by the collator of this list, but a decent number of the runners-up.

Have you read any of the 50 titles considered ‘must reads’ from the last half-century of publishing?

WARNING 1: This exercise is sure to make your reading wishlist explode!

WARNING 2: It can also make you feel old, reflecting on the years past ;)