1,000 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Greetings Participating Reader

Welcome to the web project:
1,000 Books You Must Read Before You Die

I'm looking for the next 999 book recommendations.   They must be full length novels.   For example, I would include The Sign of Four by Sir A. Conan Doyle, but not his short story A Scandal in Bohemia.   The Great Book of Amber and Peter Pan fit the criteria, but so does War and Peace.   The Time Machine is a no-brainer.   Not only is it a great story, but it paved the way for time travel and forever changed the way we perceive (and screw around with) Time.

I am considering giving short stories, fairy tales, myths, and epics honorable mention.   After all, The Illiad is great literature, but it is also pseudo-historical epic poetry, with heavy religious overtones.   It is a good story, but it is not a novel.   Should you read The Illiad before you die?   Probably so.   In this light, Poe gets an honorable mention for writing the first ever time travel short story.

If you are not sure if a book meets my criteria, ask me.   If you have a good case, I'm willing to listen; and perhaps, I will make an exception.

The format for book recommendation submittals is:

Title
Author
Publication year
A short synopsis
Optional: The title of your favorite movie adaptation(s).

My expectations:
Please do not recommend a novel that you have not read!
Please write in complete sentences.
Please check your grammar, spelling, dates and facts.
Please include your reasoning for placing this book on the list.
Please recommend a translation for a foreign language book
Please check your movie credits at the Internet Movie Database.

If I receive more than one book recommendation submittal for the same book, I will accept submittals on a 'first come, first serve' basis.   This is the only fair method.   If you want to write the recommendation for your favorite book, you should "claim" it now by sending me a formal request with the title, author and a firm commitment to write the recommendation.   A Reader may "claim" as many as three books at any given time.   After that, I will expect at least one final write up before an additional title may be "claimed."   These are not spurious requests.   I want to avoid receiving five submittals for the LOTR.   And, I want to avoid having too many "claimed" book recommendations on the back burner.

Gentle Readers, I'm giving myself two years to compile a superlative site.   Submit your recommendations early, and often.   I propose that we make this a labor of love to create a work of art.

Please, take the time you need to do a fabulous job.   :)

Many thanks,

Reader #2
ariannx [at] lycos [dot] com

Libri tot, parum temporis....
So many books, so little time....