Wow, I look pathetic...I've only read 2 from the woman's list and 4 from the man's list. I'm still in my 20's so I assume I have a little while to read more and to become a little more girly.
Side note: One of the books I've read on the man list is The Shining, which I loved. After I read the book I caught the end of the movie on TV. Stanley Kubrick owes me one giant explosion.
Unfortunately, of all the books I've read, I'd have to say at least 80% were Science Fiction and Fantasy. So where was 1984? Flowers for Algernon? Against the Fall of Night? Fahrenheit 451? Or even The Big Sleep?
Maybe someone should come up with sinilar lists for genres?
Lists are not a measure of anything but how well you match someone else's taste.
We should do our own list. ...
Number 1 on it should be Afred Cox's How I Avoided Appearing on Any List, or My Life in the Paris Underground During the Parlimentary Troubles and During the Resortation, Including my Brief Marriage to a French Princess and my Transformation into a German Peasant.
ALSO, the word verifications is "outers." EVERYONE knows that's wrong; it should be "innies." Pixies all have "innies."
I'm almost never really serious on here; most of you know that. I have a serious comment.
I have my reading preferences. I love history. I read a lot of SF and Fantasy. I like children’s books, especially forgotten ones from the late 19th and early 20th century. (Cruise of the Canoe Club; pre-1940 airplane fiction like The Red Signal or The Medowbrook Girls Aloft; Oz books, stuff.) I like crime fiction from the golden age: S. S. van Dine (bring a dictionary); “Manning Coles”; many others. Ever read a Father Brown mystery? How about Nurse Pinkerton stories?
If you read only what you like, your view narrows. Though a lot of historical research went into it, Pixie Warrior is full of things that come from genres other than my favorites. I think it's made the book rich in imagery. (Hey! I like my own book.) There is a bit in it where one of the main characters is sitting around a campfire telling stories. This comes from a real event found in a long forgotten book about pacific coast forests.
Read widely. Read at least parts of the awful, the boring and the different. And discuss it with anyone who will talk books with you. Visit your local thrift store, buy an arm load of things you don’t ordinarily read but which might spark a bit of interest. Expand your view.
A narrow reading focus hurts you. You don't have to find pleasure in what others read, but you should read widely and with curiosity.
There are some fine books in the men's list that tend to get overlooked, and I'm grateful for that. I thought I was the only one who loved Mark Helprin's WINTER'S TALE.
Books like these are the reason I chose to take psychology and French in university instead of English.
I'm starting to think that lists like these are created to make people feel inadequate. I haven't read most of the books on either list, and I have no intention of doing so.
14 for women 4 for men (3 of which I had to read in school!)
There were a few authors in the men's section that I'd read, but not those particular titles. I did pretty good for a YA writer/reader. I hardly read any adult stuff at all and never really have.
jwhit said: "Leave it to the 'men's' magazine to have to put up the covers and not just list the titles. What does that say?"
I think it says that there's a bit of a difference between a long-established magazine like Esquire and a little-known e-zine/blog like Jezebel. Money is probably the primary factor.
My numbers would have been hugely lower if I hadn't languished in grad school for years...and even so, while I had at least heard of every book on the women's list, I'd say I only recognized half of those on Esquire's. (I'm choosing to believe that's more a reflection of Esquire than me.)
I have one from each list sitting on my shelf to be read, and one of the 4 from the men's list was my least favorite book I ever read (Confederacy of Dunces). I man suggested it to me, go figure. :)
Ironically, if I had to pick a few more to read, I'd keep to the men's side. I seem to be a literary tomboy.
Still, as a fantasy nerd, not a lot of those titles really appealed to me. If you like the more modern classics this is the list, but otherwise... well, to each his own.
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Hmmmm. At least I feel like I'm in good company:
ReplyDeleteWomen's List - 18
Men's List - 12
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGulp.
ReplyDelete11, Women's list.
10, Men's list.
Not only am I illiterate, I'm effeminate too!
Women's list: 16.
ReplyDeleteMen's list: 22.
Wow, I look pathetic...I've only read 2 from the woman's list and 4 from the man's list. I'm still in my 20's so I assume I have a little while to read more and to become a little more girly.
ReplyDeleteSide note: One of the books I've read on the man list is The Shining, which I loved. After I read the book I caught the end of the movie on TV. Stanley Kubrick owes me one giant explosion.
Women's list: 5
ReplyDeleteMen's list: 7
Number of novels in my house (all read, of course): 3500+
The difference? Genre, genre, genre.
I read SF&F
Women: 21, although I didn't finish about ten
ReplyDeleteMen: 10, although I didn't finish three or four.
Interestingly, I read a number of *other* works by listed authors.
So much for my laughing about having 2 degrees in English and having managed to avoid reading most of the classics...
(I'd also like to know who compiled that list. No Ender's Game? Brave New World?)
Women's list: 8 (and Flaubert and DeBeauvoir in their original language)
ReplyDeleteMen's List: 5
It's a bizarre list to say the least- there are authors there whose other books I read and much prefer to those that made the list.
At least my feminine side was dominant. I suppose that's a relief.
8 from the women's list, and most of those were assigned.
ReplyDelete8 on the mens side, if I count Sophie's Choice again.
I'm not going to feel bad - I like reading cheerier novels :)
Womens 15
ReplyDeleteMens 14
with an English degree
Um, can I just watch the movie?
ReplyDeleteWomen: 11
ReplyDeleteMen: 4
And I read these mostly in school. Now my reading is all genre which isn't on that list.
yay for ruthless theft!!
ReplyDeleteWomen's list: 12
ReplyDeleteMen's list: 6
Wait, maybe I lied about having read The Shining. So maybe that's only 5 on the men's list.
I read a lot, but apparently not very much Important Literature.
3 from the women's list
ReplyDelete5 from the men's
Unfortunately, of all the books I've read, I'd have to say at least 80% were Science Fiction and Fantasy. So where was 1984? Flowers for Algernon? Against the Fall of Night? Fahrenheit 451? Or even The Big Sleep?
Maybe someone should come up with sinilar lists for genres?
Women's: 23
ReplyDeleteMen's: 15
An odd idea, to segregate the books by gender.
Women - 6
ReplyDeleteMen - 16
Women's list 13
ReplyDeleteMen's list 18
Degree of silliness in the lists: 87.5%
Lists are not a measure of anything but how well you match someone else's taste.
We should do our own list. ...
Number 1 on it should be Afred Cox's How I Avoided Appearing on Any List, or My Life in the Paris Underground During the Parlimentary Troubles and During the Resortation, Including my Brief Marriage to a French Princess and my Transformation into a German Peasant.
ALSO, the word verifications is "outers." EVERYONE knows that's wrong; it should be "innies." Pixies all have "innies."
Maybe two on each, if that.
ReplyDeleteI read mostly fantasy. Most of the books on these lists that I read I read because I had to in school.
17 on the woman's list
ReplyDelete13 on the man's
There are a few books on each list I have been meaning to read, and a few I would never touch.
I'm almost never really serious on here; most of you know that. I have a serious comment.
ReplyDeleteI have my reading preferences. I love history. I read a lot of SF and Fantasy. I like children’s books, especially forgotten ones from the late 19th and early 20th century. (Cruise of the Canoe Club; pre-1940 airplane fiction like The Red Signal or The Medowbrook Girls Aloft; Oz books, stuff.) I like crime fiction from the golden age: S. S. van Dine (bring a dictionary); “Manning Coles”; many others. Ever read a Father Brown mystery? How about Nurse Pinkerton stories?
If you read only what you like, your view narrows. Though a lot of historical research went into it, Pixie Warrior is full of things that come from genres other than my favorites. I think it's made the book rich in imagery. (Hey! I like my own book.) There is a bit in it where one of the main characters is sitting around a campfire telling stories. This comes from a real event found in a long forgotten book about pacific coast forests.
Read widely. Read at least parts of the awful, the boring and the different. And discuss it with anyone who will talk books with you. Visit your local thrift store, buy an arm load of things you don’t ordinarily read but which might spark a bit of interest. Expand your view.
A narrow reading focus hurts you. You don't have to find pleasure in what others read, but you should read widely and with curiosity.
Interesting lists. My time spent earning a degree in English came to my rescue here!
ReplyDeleteWomen's list: 28
Men's list: 14
Between the two lists.... I score 2. I fail.
ReplyDeleteMen's list: 28
ReplyDeleteWomen's list: 3
There are some fine books in the men's list that tend to get overlooked, and I'm grateful for that. I thought I was the only one who loved Mark Helprin's WINTER'S TALE.
Women's: 27
ReplyDeleteMen's: 19
My favorite book (Revolutionary Road)is on the men's list. Can't wait for the movie.
Women's List: 28
ReplyDeleteMen's List: 27
Urm...1 from the women's list, and 2 from the men's list. I guess my definition of must-read and theirs differs quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteUgh.
ReplyDelete16
ReplyDelete5
Books like these are the reason I chose to take psychology and French in university instead of English.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to think that lists like these are created to make people feel inadequate. I haven't read most of the books on either list, and I have no intention of doing so.
B
16 from the women's list
ReplyDelete20 from the men's list
Four of the books are in my TBR pile.
Ha. I have read 8 on the "women's list". I figured my tomboyish tendencies would come out loud and clear, but no, only 2 from that list!
ReplyDeleteWhat the heck have I been doing with my life? Reading horse books????
Lots of To Be Read projects on both lists though. 2009 is going to be a big year for reading. I mean, bigger than usual...
14 for women
ReplyDelete4 for men (3 of which I had to read in school!)
There were a few authors in the men's section that I'd read, but not those particular titles. I did pretty good for a YA writer/reader. I hardly read any adult stuff at all and never really have.
Men: 21
ReplyDeleteWomen: 4
I noticed Sophie's Choice was on both lists.
14 from the each list.
ReplyDeleteThe compilation is random. I'm not sure what they used as a selection process, but I bet the list would change daily.
Ray
Women's list: 10
ReplyDeleteMen's list: 9
There are, of course, many of these titles that I've intended to read for a long time. Maybe I should sit down with some.
On a side note: I just don't get why anyone would put CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES on their "top five books of all time" list.
11 womens's and that may be 9 or 10 in reality. Some of the titles are of those that I think I must have read, but given my memory, who knows?
ReplyDelete7 from the men's list.
Leave it to the 'men's' magazine to have to put up the covers and not just list the titles. What does that say?
women's list: 16
ReplyDeletemen's list: 7
and I have another dozen from the women's list (and maybe eight from the men's list) on my shelf to read, but haven't gotten to them yet.
still, over half the titles on both lists are books I have no intention of putting on my TBR list, ever.
jwhit said: "Leave it to the 'men's' magazine to have to put up the covers and not just list the titles. What does that say?"
ReplyDeleteI think it says that there's a bit of a difference between a long-established magazine like Esquire and a little-known e-zine/blog like Jezebel. Money is probably the primary factor.
Women: 32
ReplyDeleteMen: 15
My numbers would have been hugely lower if I hadn't languished in grad school for years...and even so, while I had at least heard of every book on the women's list, I'd say I only recognized half of those on Esquire's. (I'm choosing to believe that's more a reflection of Esquire than me.)
Women: 12
ReplyDeleteMen: 4
I have one from each list sitting on my shelf to be read, and one of the 4 from the men's list was my least favorite book I ever read (Confederacy of Dunces). I man suggested it to me, go figure. :)
Women's list: 17
ReplyDeleteMen's list: 12
Women's List - 7
ReplyDeleteMen's List - 14
Some very good selections, and needless to say, more of them should be on my TBR list.
Hmmm...
ReplyDelete7 and 7. Though there were two on the men's list that I had started and never finished.
Heinlein, Asimov and Niven were conspicuously absent from the list...
Woman's List: 3
ReplyDeleteMen's List: 7
Ironically, if I had to pick a few more to read, I'd keep to the men's side. I seem to be a literary tomboy.
Still, as a fantasy nerd, not a lot of those titles really appealed to me. If you like the more modern classics this is the list, but otherwise... well, to each his own.