My aim is to compile a list of all the important fictional books from history and read them in chronological sequence. The reason for this is that I would consider myself fairly well read, but I feel that what I choose to read has no structure, and Id like to have a goal, and just a better understanding of the history of the concepts that are repeatedly used and referred to.
Obviously this list could be infinitely long, so im looking for the most influential authors, and the most important of their works.
Im going to do the research and compile the list myself, but am wondering if anyone on here has attempted this before, or if there are any such lists already available that I havent yet found?
As a side note im looking to have around 250-300 works in the compilation.
http://sonic.net/~rteeter/grtbloom.html
>>7791208
Thats exactly what Im looking for, many thanks!
>>7791208
this is really beautiful. Thanks a ton OP.
>>7791208
/thread
to be frank everyone thinks of doing this but few do it
nor is there a real point to doing it unless you have some scholarly project in mind
but people have already undertaken such projects and they do so for the benefit of people like you
human life is too short to know everything or do everything even if you are the kind of person who has the drive to do so
we can only see further by building on the lifetimes of work done before us
>>7791213
eh, it may be a long shot to get to all of them-- but the beginning is a nice start into historical texts and whatnot. le "start with the greeks"
>>7791208
>the crucial work is the Koran...
Any idea what Bloom means by this, I am genuinely curious; why does he regard this as crucial after listing the Bible among the works of the Greeks?
>>7791213
I know its a huge undertaking, but the reasoning behind it makes it more possible.
As I said I read a lot, but there is no real structure to it, just whatever people recommend, authors that have won respectable awards, the classics etc... So although it does sound like a big undertaking, when you look at it from the perspective that Im planning on it taking quite a few years, and in that time I would be reading that amount of books anyway, I think it is an achievable goal.
>>7791208
Reminder not to take this too seriously.
>The list was not my idea. It was the idea of the publisher, the editor, and my agents. I fought it. I finally gave up. I hated it. I did it off the top of my head. I left out a lot of things that should be there and I probably put in a couple of things that I now would like to kick out. I kept it out of the Italian and the Swedish translations, but it’s in all the other translations—about 15 or 18 of them. I’m sick of the whole thing. All over the world, including here, people reviewed and attacked the list and didn’t read the book. So let’s agree right now, my dear. We will not mention the list.
>>7791560
if what you claim is true, is there no hope to read these works in order then? Why has no master come to fill the throne and plot out a must-read throughout the years?
>>7791244
To be Fair the entire quote reads:
>I would think that, of all the books that are in this first list, once the reader is conversant with the Bible, Homer, Plato, the Athenian dramatists, and Virgil, the crucial work is the Koran...
I would say that the Bible is the most crucial to read as it influences almost everything written by western scholars pre 1850's, and of course much more after. I dont have an answer to why he thinks the Koran is such an important work, just pointing out that he does state that it is not the most crucial.
>>7791560
OP here. Im still determined to compile my own list, it doesnt hurt to have list like this as a place to begin the research though.
>>7791208
>no gene wolfe
discarded :)
>>7791208
holy crap, the polish/hungarian/spanish lists are HORRENDOUS.
