I posted this link over in the "contemporary fiction" area as well, but I was excited to find this list on the internet yesterday.  I can't believe I didn't have it before, so I figured I'd share.  Some authors are severely overrepresented, and some of them are reading-for-reading's-sake (see i.e., Tristam Shandy, yech).  It's a good review of "English literature from the 1700's to 2005."  It does lack international diversity, but what can you do?  This list comes in a handy Excel spreadsheet format, so you can keep track of the number you've read.

johnandsheena.co.uk/books/

There's a group discussion of this list at goodreads:

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/970.1001_Books_You_Must_Read_Before_You_Die

The spreadsheet's neat.

The list, as you note, has some flaws. Any list does. Seeing on your link that it's supposed to represent the evolution of the novel, though, makes some sense. Otherwise, having "The Hitchhiker's Guide," but not The Koran, or the Book of Mormon, or Aristotle's Poetics, etc., is hard to defend.

I guess my comp and that list are not in the same format...I sure wish I had a list like that though. I read a lot of classics.

deborah

Tristam Shandy, yech

I loved Tristram Shandy!  So funny!