Have you noticed how most book-lovers are also list-lovers? Someone should look into it scientifically. My favorite lists are of course book lists: I’m a regular explorer of GoodReads’ Listopia universe and have others in the computer that I update regularly, like the seven below.
Some of them were put together by literary experts/critics/academics while others are the choice of the general public. Of the seven, my favorites, and the ones more trust-worthy as a source of recommendations, are BBC’s The Big Read and the 100 Favorite Novels of Librarians (they’re coincidentally the lists where I tick more boxes).
Do you also have book lists you update regularly? Send them my way! I can already imagine the happy times ahead going through them.
Read: 65/100
TBR: 6/100
In April 2003 the The Big Read and BBC began the search for the UK’s best-loved novels and then put together a list with the top 100 and top 200. It’s an old list (does anyone know if they plan to updated it?), but still the one of the best.
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2. The 100 Favorite Novels of Librarians
Read: 64/100
TBR: 9/100
Also an old list that deserves an update. Who knows better than librarians?!
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1001 Books to read before your die
Read: 123/1000
TBR: 16/1000
Probably the most famous best-books list around. I use the 2010 edition.
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Guardian’s 1000 novels everyone must read: the definitive list
Read: 149/1000
TBR: 23/1000
This is a 2003 list selected by the “Guardian’s Review team and a panel of expert judges”. It’s an interesting one because it’s divided into eight categories: love, crime, comedy, family and self, state of the nation, science fiction and fantasy, war and travel.
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Waterstones’ 100 Best 20th Century English Novels
Read: 40/100
TBR: 6/100
In 1997, Waterstones announced the results of its Books of the Century poll to find out what the public considered to be the 100 greatest books of the twentieth century. Over 25,000 people participated. It’s similar to the BBC and Librarians lists, but slightly more high-brown.
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Board’s List
Read: 17/100
TBR: 2/100
Readers’ List
Read: 25/100
TBR: 2/100
Although I only update the 100 Best Novels, Modern Library also has a Best 100 NonFiction list. For each they published the books chosen by a panel of experts and another by the general public. It’s interesting to compare both.
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Read: 22/100
TBR: 2/100
A 2005 list by TIME’s literary experts. It only includes English language novels published anywhere in the world since 1923, the year that TIME Magazine was created.
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Past Listopia posts
11 comments
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September 6, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Amateur Reader (Tom)
You might enjoy this long list of book lists.
September 6, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Joanna @ CreateYourWorld
Omg, I CANNOT wait to find the time to explore your lists and do a post of my own! And I agree, someone should look into loving both books and lists, there’s a scientific discovery in there somewhere!
September 6, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Arti
You’re right about the correlations bet. book lovers and list lovers. So true! Thanks for all these lists. The Modern Library I’m familiar with but not the others. Will definitely check them out. And, you know me, really interested in films from literary sources, so I’m fond of Books into Movies lists. Recently I posted a list of some upcoming promising film adaptations this fall. That makes a good book list too. 😉
September 6, 2012 at 9:50 pm
Sam (Tiny Library)
So many lists! I can foresee many hours in my future going through all of the lists you posted to find out my ‘scores’!
September 7, 2012 at 9:46 am
Ann
thanks
September 9, 2012 at 8:03 pm
Ti
I am a big user of GR and I have never heard of Listopia! Oh man, this is going to be bad. LOL.
September 10, 2012 at 4:54 am
nrlymrtl
1) 31
2) 20
3) 39
4) 44
5) 19
6) a. 8 b. 16
7) 9
There is a to of stuff out there that I have heard of, even had on my personal list to read, and have not.
Cool post.
September 10, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Jay
Hi Alex,
Thanks for keeping me humble. Across all these lists, you consistently have read half again as many as I have. :-(. It’s also humbling to see so many books I’ve never even heard of on these lists. Gotta go. Clearly I’ve got some reading to do… 🙂
-Jay
September 18, 2012 at 11:12 pm
Mady
I love love love lists as well 😛 However, other than keeping a list of all the books I’ve read for the past 20 years (about), I only really follow your 1001 Books to read before you die 😛 But maybe I should be more organized about my lists? 😉
September 19, 2012 at 8:42 pm
Melissa
A list of lists, I love it so much!
January 1, 2013 at 5:19 pm
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