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Written by Julie Hinds, KRT
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Wednesday, 05 July 2006 |
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Page 3 of 3
‘1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die’
Peter Boxall, 960 pages, $34.95
 The book is certainly packaged beautifully, and there’s no question that it’s a useful, far-from-stodgy reference work.
But, what gets me is the word “must.” I see that, and I feel guilty. I mean, I read a lot, but all I have to do is open this book, and I find hundreds of works whose covers I’ve never cracked.
“Roxana” by Daniel Defoe, “The Thinking Reed” by Rebecca West, “The Judge and His Hangman” by Friedrich Durrenmatt, “Blood and Guts in High School” by Kathy Acker — I’ve never even heard of these, much less read them.
Peter Boxall, the book’s editor, is a lecturer in English literature at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. And, ultimately, this is just a bunch of people coming up with a list of books they like.
Like Boxall, virtually all of those who wrote 300-word summaries of the 1,001 books were born or now live in the U.K.
No surprise, 39 percent of the books are by English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh writers. In addition, there are some guilty pleasures — “Casino Royale” by Ian Fleming, “Interview With a Vampire” by Anne Rice and “The Shining” by Stephen King, to name a few.
Patrick T. Reardon, Chicago Tribune
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