1001 books?

William Grimes wrote an essay for The New York Times, "Volumes to Go before You Die" (May 23, 2008) concerning 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, compiled by Peter Boxall (Sussex University) with the help of some 105 critics, editors and academics.

The list and surrounding discussion at www.liswtology.com reveal that the notion of canon is perpetually a thorny problem.

Perhaps the best way to respond is to begin your own personal list of 1001? Here's mine for 2008:

1. Geoffrey Hill, The Triumph of Love (1998)
2. Robert Penn Warren, All The King's Men (1946)
3. Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift (1975)
4. Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird (1960)
5. Ernest Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971)
6. William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (1929)
7. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
8. Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood (1952)
9. Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987)
10. Geoffrey Hill, Speech! Speech! (1999)
11. Charles Péguy, Notre Jeunesse (1910)
12. T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922)
13. Wendy Cope, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (1986)
14. Ezra Pound, The Cantos ( )
15. Jeffrey Wainwright, Selected Poems (1985)
16. Rosanna Warren, Departure (2003)
17. George Herbert, The Temple (1633)
18. Shakespeare, King Lear (1608)
19. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, A Coney Island of the Mind (1958)


(to be continued...)