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.
Disclosure: If you click a link in this post and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.
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 ;)