1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Holy Crap a blog on Thursday. You may want to check outside your window to make sure the apocalypse isn't here. If it is then make a picnic because if you are going to go there is not better way than to go while on a picnic.

The real reason for this blog though is to introduce a little something new. I can do this because it is my blog and here I am God. Let's face it, this is the only power I have in the whole world as it is obvious that my own children don't listen to me.

After you read this, I invite you all to follow along with us.

Several Christmas's ago Uncle Bricksalesman gave my wife and I a book called 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.

We said ok. Hossmom and I have taken up the challenge and plan to read all 1001 books mentioned in this list. Why this particular list? Because it is the list that we have. We started our quest by going through the book and marking off each one we had read to get a beginning tally.

Hossmom's Books read: 56 out of 1001
Hossman's Books read: 39 out of 1001

Of course our goal is all 1001 books. But what kind of books are on this list. Well, a little bit of everything. From pre-1700 books such as Metamorphoses, written in 2-8 ad by Ovid?, to more mordern books such as The Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel and published in 2001, to everything in between.

You may notice that Hossmom appears to be kicking my ass. That is only because the list does not include comic books or erotic literature by Penthouse. As such, I have some catching up to do and I am on it. Let's update the tally, shall we?

Hossmom's Books read: 56 our of 1001
Hossman's Books read: 42 out of 1001

Suck on that, Hossmom! That's right, I have read 3 books to her none! Book dominance, that is what I am striving for although I have no idea why but things are more fun when they are a competition and there is a touchdown dance. (insert booty shaking here)

I started with the very first book on the list: Aesop's Fables. I read this to my daughter for her night time book. There's no reason not to make this fun. And even though it was the children's version, it still counts! From there I moved on to a book called Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee and published in 1999. After reading that I wanted to kill myself but soon got over it. I have just finished 1001 Arabian Nights, which I thought was way cool, and am moving on to my next book: Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho, published in 1998. Then I am sure I will want to kill myself as well and will head back to a good old Sherlock Holmes, which is also on the list and I have never read. Then I will be one step closer to catching up with the speed reading freak that is my wife.

But there are rules, there has to be. Let's be honest, I'm not going like every book and it may be a beat down. Have you ever tried reading War and Peace? I got about 20 pages in and never looked back. So here are the rules so you can follow along:

1. You have to try and read every book.
2. If it is a children's book, that still counts. No need getting picky with 1001.
3. If you can't make it through, you get the credit if you gave it a good college try. It goes down as a score with an Astrix. Like steroids in baseball, everyone needs a legal way to cheat.
4. If you can't make it through, you have to read the cliff notes.
5. Watching the movie DOES NOT COUNT! We are purists, sort of, if you don't count the cliff notes thing. So if you have seen the movie "The Great Gatsby", it doesn't count but to be honest if you have made it through all your education and haven't been forced to read this book I'll give you credit just for your dodging abilities.

That's it, those are the rules.

Now to further help you follow along I've added something to the blog. Look to all that stuff on the right of the blog. Scroll all the way down and you will see the box where we are currently keeping track and the cover art (if I can find it) of the book I am working on. See, now we are all one big book club. On occasion I may blog about the book on a Friday if I think I have some funny in me and it's a good break from the Friday Five when I don't have squat to talk about.

But hopefully I will be inspired by some of what I read for my own stories. For example, yesterdays blog was written as a fable in the vein of 1001 Arabian Nights. I'll be honest, that one makes me laugh hard.

You will also notice that I am not keeping Hossmom's stats. That's because I want to have the ability to lie when necessary for when she is kicking my ass.

Other than that, check back often and read with us if you want to. If you want to know if a book is on the list, post a comment and I'll get back to you. Or you could just buy the book but let's face it, we are all cheap.