Tag Archives: Lists

100 Lists, Part 4 of 4

I looked at my books document the other day and realized I had exactly one hundred different lists of books.  Here are the last 25:

  1. T. C. dossier
  2. Literary mysteries
  3. 2008
  4. W. C. dossier
  5. E.’s books
  6. Cross genre classical authors
  7. Read before college
  8. Seen but not bought
  9. Plutarch
  10. Granny’s coffee table
  11. C. D. dossier
  12. To read again
  13. Mysteries
  14. Loebs to buy
  15. 2013
  16. Bookstores
  17. Before high school
  18. A. P. dossier
  19. Biographies
  20. J. F. dossier
  21. J. C. dossier
  22. Books that cannot be filmed
  23. Greek tragedy
  24. Extraordinary works
  25. Tony Hillerman

I’m surprised that there apparently isn’t another author on here like Tony Hillerman, whose Leaphorn and Chee mysteries I’ve read enough of, and in a random enough order, to need a list.  Unless he belongs in the company of Plutarch and Shakespeare.  Some of these lists barely got off the ground.  Some conflict and overlap.  They are all important to my sense of direction as a reader.

100 Lists of Books, Part 3

Here are twenty five more lists (at random) from the document I use to keep track of my reading:

  1. Important books not read
  2. For mathematical understanding
  3. Books I haven’t read
  4. Books for Boston
  5. To reread
  6. Political seminar
  7. A. C. dossier
  8. Books briefly seen
  9. Evil characters
  10. Bought for others
  11. Huge topics
  12. Books that confound the category of young adult literature
  13. Best books
  14. Shakespeare checklist
  15. Reference books
  16. Random books
  17. New list of great titles
  18. J. S. dossier
  19. 2012 best
  20. A. L. dossier
  21. Children’s books
  22. Music
  23. Loebs I own
  24. Read to my by Dad
  25. Bought for myself

It’s strange how long it took me to think of making a list of books I bought or a list like best reads of 2012.

100 Lists of Books, part two, and some answers

The next 25 (random) lists:

  1. Art books
  2. What I want to do
  3. Books to read
  4. French books
  5. My missing classical education
  6. 2006 reconstructed
  7. To read for contemporary effect
  8. Natural science
  9. For school
  10. Metafiction
  11. 2009 reconstructed
  12. Short readings
  13. Read to my by Mom
  14. 2011
  15. I. F. dossier
  16. To read for others
  17. J. C. dossier
  18. Current events
  19. Languages I’ve read from
  20. Diaries and diarists
  21. Books that cry for me to buy them
  22. November 2005
  23. Looked at while buying books
  24. War books
  25. E. G. dossier

And now to answer some questions:

I’m not sure I am remembering this quite right, but “Literary anomalies” was a list I started on when I was thinking about how fictional works could be true or false.  When we ask “What would such and such a character do?” does it have meaning?  The question is made more urgent when an author dies without finishing a work or a work is lost, but I think this particular list was intended to cover works where some perplexing problem was more internal to the work.  Did Conan Doyle intend to resurrect Holmes?  How much time goes by in the first two Aubrey and Maturin novels compared with the last twenty or so?  Does the change in tone across the Harry Potter series make sense?

“Humiliation” is a mean game described in Pierre Bayard’s How to Talk about Books You Haven’t Read, where you get a point for every person who has read a book you haven’t read.  Obviously it’s best played among certain kinds of book snobs.  My list still has Ulysses and Moby Dick; I get a point if you’ve read them, but I have to admit that I haven’t.

“Not a complete waste of time” is actually pretty exclusive, I think there are 60 some books there, and I filled it in pretty thoroughly, while I haven’t bothered much with the “mildly curious” list.

Finally, the dossiers are lists I’ve been making from what other people have told me they’ve read.  It sounds kind of secret police, which is not really how I intend it!  I really like discussing books with my friends, and I want to try to remember what they’ve told me and not waste their time.

100 Lists of Books, part one

I’ve put some effort into keeping track of what I read.  The system is constantly evolving; I like to think that it’s getting better.  I was just looking at one of the documents I use and realized that one thing that was missing was a list of the lists.

Do you keep lists of books read or to be read?  Here at random are 25/100

  1. Literary anomalies
  2. Bible
  3. Quasi-adult literature
  4. 2004 (retrospective)
  5. List of lists
  6. Not a complete waste of time
  7. 2012
  8. Program books to reread
  9. Humiliation
  10. Advanced math
  11. Program books reread
  12. 2010
  13. Seminar readings
  14. Summer 2005
  15. Great scenes
  16. L’enfer
  17. Glad to have read in between
  18. Authors I’ve waited on
  19. 2005 reconstructed
  20. 2007
  21. C. U. dossier
  22. Authors I’m merely curious about
  23. Philosophy of math
  24. J. P. dossier
  25. Movies to see

Yes, I keep a list of movies with my book list.