I don't have the time right now to read through it, but I agree-"must-reads" should be reserved for text that could save a life.

I quit reading when I saw that Bridget Jones's Diary was included. Any "must read" list that includes chick lit probably isn't for me;-)

That they illustrate the piece with stills from movies makes suspect their credibility. Still, lists are fun. And I do love the Guardian's book section.

I glanced through the Science Fiction and Fantasy list. They included the book I consider the best science fiction novel, The Stars My Destination by Bester, but also included the lesser lights of some writers. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land while the most popular of his novels is, in my opinion, the least of his books. No Zelazny? On the list is Gaiman's American Gods, which I enjoyed greatly, is but a pale echo of Zelazny. Gaiman's graphic novels would have been a more appropriate choice.

First thoughts

Phew. That's a lot of books. I don't have time right now to read the whole list, but it looks interesting in its variety.

I will peruse it at leisure tonight when I am not on deadline.

Thanks for posting it.

Lots of wonderful books listed (lots of which I haven't read, of course), but I have to wonder at a list that puts Valley of the Dolls and Love Story in the same category as Gone with the Wind.

I didn't even look at this. And I'm a Guardian reader.

But it just annoyed me - it seems to be an attempt to go one better than everyone else. "Only the hundred best books? Ha! We've given the best thousand!"

I don't have enough time to read everything I want to read. I certainly don't have time to read what someone else thinks I ought to read.

So you are a Guardian Reader, eh Martin?

(I am a fervent fan of "Yes, Prime Minister.....)

I read the lists of two of the categories and thought them impressive. Of course, I love the fact that my all time favorite, "Le Grand Meaulnes" by Henri Alain-Fournier is at the very top of one of the lists! I do like The Guardian, for other reasons.

Kren, I think Bridget Jones's Diary is a bit more than chick lit. It really is very clever and witty and pokes a lot of fun at a particular section of society.
Having said that, I am surprised that not one of Christie's books made the crime list - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd surely deserves a place.

Five Christies are listed under the crime section including Roger Ackroyd.

That is really weird - I follow the link above, go to Crime and see parts 1, 2 and 3 with the authors alphabetically, and there is no Christie - it goes from Erskine Childer to Wilkie Collins. Am I missing something?

Go all the way down the column headed with the parts 1-3...she has a subset of her own-but I agree-it doesn't look as if she was included in the main list. I find this poorly arranged and hard to navigate.

Thanks Cece, I see it now, but you are right, it is not easy to navigate.

It's impossible to navigate. Someone on another message board was complaining that there was no Austen on the list--I'm sure she just didn't see the relevant section.

I posted the entire list on my blog so that I could come to better terms with it. At least that way I can run a search on a particular book or author if it's not listed in the area where I think it ought to be.

Pages, thanks for posting the entire list. Much easier to navigate.

I've only read, roughly, 135 of the 1000. Roughly because, frankly, my memory isn't great on some. Several have been read because of the recommendations on this forum. How do we count those we began but couldn't abide and gave up? I didn't count Proust because I only read 20 pages before the hate overwhelmed me. But what if I got half-way through before giving up?

In a few cases I thought I'd read all of a writer's oeuvre, but didn't remember the novel listed. I think I read all of Agatha Christie, but I don't remember some of the titles.

Also, I noticed that titles were sometimes slightly different from the book I read -- Smilla's Sense of Snow vs. Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow . I'm insulted that publishers pigeonhole us, then remember our discussion about "around" and "round" on the other thread. I guess the publishers do know what they are doing when they change titles to accomodate the market.

James Lee Burke is on the list, much to my delight. How silly that I take personally the ranking of a favorite author.

No, no, Chris. How else to judge the list if they don't include some of our favorite authors?

I love James Lee Burke's writing, too, and hope he doesn't get darker. You asked on another thread if I had similar thoughts as you about his last one. I'm embarrassed to say it never crossed my mind. I'm afraid mostly I just read for the story, which I did think was darker than usual even though he does write about bad stuff.

I attended one of his readings once. He is a teacher and lectured more than visited with the audience. Someone (as always) asked him what current authors he reads, and he said at the moment he was reading Shakespeare, that he doesn't read current stuff much, which I thought was pretty snooty since he certainly expects us regular folks to buy his books!