On reviewing the list, divided into several categories, I find that my reading past is severely lacking.
In the Comedy category, I read Don Quixote when I was about 12. I didn't realize it was funny, though. I did read Bridget Jones's Diary, somewhat more recently, and The Wind in the Willows about a million years ago...seriously, was that one funny? I remember finding it kind of melancholy. I mean, Mr. Toad was amusing, but the whole going away on adventure and coming back to find everything changed (or was that The Hobbit?) made me wistful. I have read a good deal of P.G. Wodehouse, probably including the 6 titles listed here; they blend together a bit.
In Crime, I have read a fair amount of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, likely including the 5 and 3, respectively, that are listed. I also read The Moonstone, and Jurassic Park, although I wouldn't have classified that as 'crime,' and I think Michael Crichton is a rather dreadful writer. I read Crime and Punishment and The Name of the Rose. I read Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, although in my edition it was called Smilla's Sense of Snow, which actually flows a little better. I read The Crying of Lot 49, but I didn't get anything out of it and remember almost nothing. I read Gorky Park, and some Dorothy L. Sayers, but not the ones here.
In Family and Self, I read Little Women, Evelina, Howard's End, The Old Man and the Sea, Ulysses, Sons and Lovers, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 (entertaining!), Fathers and Sons, The Color Purple, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. So I apparently like family-and-self lit OK.
In Love...let's see how much I like love. I've read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, The Mill on the Floss, The Scarlet Letter, The Remains of the Day, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Women in Love (I had a course on D.H. Lawrence), Lolita (that's love?), Delta of Venus (I was about 13, so this was hot stuff), Doctor Zhivago, and Wide Sargasso Sea. So I feel sort of so-so about love.
I would be inclined to say I like Science Fiction and Fantasy, but let's see how my record supports this: I've read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Foundation, The Handmaid's Tale, Fahrenheit 451, A Clockwork Orange, Kindred , Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Childhood's End (although I can't really remember it), Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, American Gods, Lord of the Flies, The House of the Seven Gables, Stranger in a Strange Land, Dune, Brave New World, The Turning of the Screw (which I completely failed to find creepy), The Chronicles of Narnia (the last one was disappointing), Nineteen Eighty-Four, His Dark Materials, The Female Man, The Little Prince, Frankenstein, Hyperion (just recently), Snow Crash, Dracula, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and The Time Machine. So there's a lot on the list I haven't read, but I'm doing better in this category than in some of the others. Also, some of these are technically more than one book.
In State of the Nation: I have Things Fall Apart, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Middlemarch, Silas Marner, A Passage to India, and Animal Farm. Not too great a showing here. I do not seem to be fond of political material.
For War and Travel (interesting combination), I've read...let's see...The Kite Runner, The Call of the Wild, Moby-Dick, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Ivanhoe, Maus, Cryptonomicon, Kidnapped, War and Peace, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I don't appear to like war or travel either.
So out of the Guardian's 1,000 must-reads, I've read about 90. Obviously I've got a lot of work to do.
This raises the question, what have I been reading, if not these fine novels?
Well, a lot of non-fiction, of course. Also, some fiction that was complete bilge. But also, some fiction that I thought was good but that's not here.
I hope we've all learned something from this little exercise. I know I've learned that it's possible to spend way more time than you'd think looking at a list of novels and noting the few I've read.
I'm sure that will come in all kinds of handy.
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