04.Jul.2008 The Updated 1001 Books

So apparently they changed the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. They took out and added not only a few books, but 284 books! That’s a whole lot of changes! Almost a third? So now we have the 2006 version and 2008 version. I wonder if they will change the list every couple of years.

I think I’m gonna keep track of both lists. I’m especially pissed that they took out Never Let Me Go. Not only because it’s a good book, but also because that’s the first one I read for my 10 out of 100 out of 1001 Challenge. This new list just makes things complicated. Especially that they took out a whole bunch of books from no 1 to 100. I’m of course still going to continue with the challenge, but I’m not so sure what to do after that. We’ll see.

Anyway, rather than bitching about the dropped out books, let me just point out a few interesting additions. The thing with the additions are that almost, if not all of them are by International authors (by International I mean non US non UK). I’m especially interested in addition of Japanese or Chinese writers.

Pre 1800
0003 : The Tale of Genji . Murasaki Shikibu
0004 : Romance of the Three Kingdoms . Luó Guànzhong
0005 : The Water Margin . Shi Nai’an & Luó Guànzhong
0013 : Monkey: A Journey to the West . Wú Chéng’en
0054 : A Dream of Red Mansions . Cao Xueqin

I’m not sure if I will ever read The Tale of Genji. I started Tale of Murasaki before (it’s about Murasaki, the author of Tale of Genji), and it was boring so I couldn’t finish it.
Romance of Three Kingdoms is GREAT addition. This is a book that my father claims is (should be?) a required reading in a lot of countries around the world, in schools and army.
I grew up with The Journey to the West. I read illustrated books and watched countless tv series about it. Also a great addition. Although I didn’t know that they actually have a real book on that. I thought it’s more like a myth or folktale, which got told over and over, brought over many generations over various forms of entertainment medium.

1800s
No Asian authors

1900s
0258 : Rashomon . Akutagawa Ryunosuke
0376 : Rickshaw Boy . Lao She
0480 : A Thousand Cranes . Yasunari Kawabata
0498 : The Sound of Waves . Yukio Mishima
0602 : Silence . Shusaku Endo
0666 : The Twilight Years . Sawako Ariyoshi
0700 : Almost Transparent Blue . Ryu Murakami
0738 : Leaden Wings . Zhang Jie
0782 : Half of Man is Woman . Zhang Xianliang
0819 : Kitchen . Banana Yoshimoto
0829 : Paradise of the Blind . Duong Thu Huong
0897 : Deep River . Shusaku Endo

I’m happy with the addition of Banana Yoshimoto, Shusaku Endo, Ryu Murakami, Yasunari Kawabata, and Yukio Mishima. I haven’t read any of their books, but would like to and have heard good things about them.

2000s
No Japanese or Chinese authors, a few Indians. These are the ones I have on my shelf:
0972 : The Namesake . Jhumpa Lahiri
0991 : A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian . Marina Lewycka
0996 : The Inheritance of Loss . Kiran Desai

I’m surprised that with these many additions, Gao Xingjian and Pearl S. Buck’s books are still not there. Both won Nobel Prize in Literature. (Buck is not Chinese, but she grew up in China)

Talking about Japanese authors, 2 of Haruki Murakami’s books have been dropped out: Sputnik Sweetheart and After the Quake. Kafka on the Shore and the Wind-up Bird Chronicle stay.

Curiously Sarah Waters’ books -2 of them- have been totally dropped out (one author that I’m actually interested in). I wonder which other authors that have been completely dropped out of the list too. I mean I understand if they took out some books from the authors that previously had multiple books in the list, to make rooms for other authors. But to completely drop all books by one author is kinda weird. It’s like saying today some of your books are so important that everybody must read them before they die, and the next day, well no, none of your books are important anymore.