The First 100 Books Read - LOOKING BACK

The road to complete 1001 literary books hit a critical milestone in April 2012, with my First 100 books read.  The journey began back in Sept 2009 with the completion of 'Don Quixote' after failing to finish it in two previous attempts. The First 100 milestone was reached with Vladimir Nabokov's still disturbing 'Lolita.'

The First 100 has taken me 32 months to complete.  At this rate I will be in my early my early 80s before I reach my target.  Thankfully, I have picked up the pace in the past year (a book a week) and should be done before I reach 70 years of age and still have my wits about me!

Looking at the distribution of ratings, excluding the the three '10' rating re-readings, the normalized curve is as strangely uniform in the following pattern:

%         Rating      Description
10%     10             Masterpiece
20%     9-9.5        Very Good
20%     8-8.5        Good
20%     7-7.5        Mixed
20%     6-6.5        Average
10%     5 or less    Poor

Therefore, only half the books read would qualify as worthy of recommendation!  Any book with a '10' rating in my opinion should be the first consideration in a choice of what to read, and I would personally draw from this list as a potential for re-reading in the future.

In addition, I have noted that fully 42 of the First 100 books were not written in English!  This speaks to the Global experience and enduring power of words, in whatever language.  But is does present the challenge of ensuring that the translation is modern, clear and relevant.
I have often been branded as a reader who focused exclusively on the 'classics.'  Well, a review of publication dates of the First 100 would deny that.  Fully 2/3 of all the books were from 1900 and later.  OK, many of these would be considered 'modern classics' but 1/5 are actually from the 2000s. Nonetheless, I do prefer the Russian, Victorian and early American masters.

I have been asked, how did Lit1001 come about?  The idea came to me after a chance meeting with Ben Cook in a work-related training session in the summer of 2009.  His background in Literature and subsequent encouragement was the impetus I needed to establish this current lofty goal of  reading 1001 literary works. At the same time, my wife Guylaine Plourde established the 4C&J Bookclub that created a disciplined approach to a diverse range of books. In addition, I  recently re-connected with a school buddy Santino Bellasario, now a Literature professor at a private school, who added a critical dimension that has been helpful.  It was only natural then that this blog should be created to communicate progress on a broad basis.  Thanks to my son Vincent for his technical computer capabilities in setting up this blog. 

Another interesting statistic is that fully 50% of  Lit1001 blog's pageviews (in the six months it has been established) are outside of Canada, providing exposure that I could not have imagined!  The pageview distribution is as follows:

50%   Canada

22%   US

12%   Russia

16%   UK/Germany/other

Finally, I want to thank all my personal friends and colleagues who have encouraged on this fantastic voyage!  You know who you all are!!!!

For a complete list of the First 100 Books Read by Date click on this link: The First 100 Books Read (by Date)
For a complete list of the First 100 Books Read by Rating click on this link: The First 100 Books Read (by Rating)