Comments on: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

By: jameswharris

jameswharris — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:01:27 +0000

Thanks for the kind words Bob. I jumped over to your Visions of Paradise site and discovered I had a lot in common with you. Your “A” list books feature many of my favorite reads too, and we both have a life-long fascinating with science fiction.

I also thought it fascinating that you had your own alternative “Big Three” authors with Bradbury, Simak and Bester. I’m a big fan of those guys too, and they do represent a special kind of science fiction. It would be fun to think of other triples that represented various tributaries of science fiction, like Fredric Brown, Robert Sheckley and William Tenn. Or Roger Zelazny, Samual R. Delany and Ursula K. LeGuin.

How come your site doesn’t have an RSS button? And what are your other two sites?

Jim

By: Bob Sabella

Bob Sabella — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:36:06 +0000

i really like your “classics of science fiction” site. although i have several thousand sf books, and upteen lists myself, yours is still a valuable one.

as for the 1% challenge, it sounds worthwhile when i retire in a few years. right now i’m struggling just trying to keep up with sf books. but i would love to buy a copy of “1001 books”.

i love your blog, james, and read it faithfully. if only mine (or my 3 now that i’ve added a third for posting original fiction) was half as good.

bob

By: 3m

3m — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:35:22 +0000

Glad to have you on the 1% challenge! I’m a big fan of The Road as well.

Michelle
1morechapter.com

By: Carl V.

Carl V. — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:03:25 +0000

Lists like this will always generate controversy. You could put together a list of 1 Million Books to Read if You lived Forever and people would still find books missing from the list that they would be upset about. I have a strong enough self-image that I think there are books that I have read that are must reads that aren’t on that list…we all do…so no subjective list is ever going to be all things to all people.

There are not many books on the list that I’ve read, which doesn’t surprise me. There are many from the 1700’s that I want to read, especially the gothic fiction classics. I’ve read Castle of Otranto and enjoyed it. I saw Tom Jones on the list and oddly enough I have been wanting to re-read that. It is one of the first ‘classics’ that I picked up by choice, not because of some school requirement, and I really enjoyed it. I’d like to revisit it and see how I feel about it now.

Reading challenges are great, but I just cannot allow myself to get involved in an overwhelming number of them. Hosting the 3 I do every year is alot of work and beyond that I try to participate in a few that cross over into the ones I am hosting. I too don’t read as much as others and I love to be taken on whatever journey my whims take me on regarding reading and so I don’t like to overcommit to challenges. The best things about them though are that the bring people together and form a really great sense of community and you find recommendations for wonderful books that you might not have discovered otherwise.

By: Eva

Eva — Sun, 04 May 2008 23:52:00 +0000

Reading challenges are definitely addictive! hehe