1001

   As you may know I have little resistance power when it comes to lists and "how many of these have you read/seen/etc" and "compare with your friends" and "if you've read more than them you are the winner" type things, so when I came across a "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" list I immediately grabbed a pencil and a piece of scrap paper and started tallying up. Also involved is the 1% Well Read challenge, in which people have to read 1% of this list of 1001 books. I was all "gurl, I have got this in the bag" only to find out that I have read a mere 45 of the 1001 books (which I realize is over 1% but I was thinking I'd be around 10% and so: disappointment).

   Actually, the number could vary anywhere between 45-48ish books because I don't know how many Jane Austen books I have read because they all blend together in my mind and here is one of the kickers of this post: WTH is up with Jane Austen mania? P&P is great, sure, and Northanger Abbey had me in stitches, buuuut why are there a gazillion of her books on the list of 1001 books I supposedly must read but The Iliad isn't? Also no Shakespeare? Or Grimm's Fairy Tales? And I get it, you are thinking, "you only want those things on the list because, heyo: favorite things. Also Shakespeare wrote plays so maybe they don't count." But so much of our cultural canon is based on Shakespeare and Homer and fairy/folk tales that if you haven't at least sampled them you've stuffed up badly, IMHO. Also: come on, three Toni Morrison books and no Beowulf?

   Not to mention that the Bible isn't on the list. I could go on and on about the value of reading widely when it comes to sacred texts (if you don't know what you don't believe then how do you know what you do believe?) but even if you look at it in a non-religious way then it is still super valuable. Even if you just read it as a What Is Up With Israel primer, you really ought to read it. While I believe that the Bible is God-breathed and useful for teaching and correcting, I get that you might not BUT no one can deny its cultural significance.

   Almost 70 books from the 2000s and only 13 from pre-1700???? WTH????  Krup that list. Make your own dang list. Read what you want to, just read. Read widely. Read from different eras. Read to learn, read to be entertained. Read words on a page, or on an ebook reader, or listen to an audiobook, just find the stories you want to hear and knowledge you want to have and ingest it somehow. Don't give me some clap-trap about not having time because if I can have a job and do school and binge-watch Once Upon a Time and hang out with palz and still make time to read then you can too. I believe in you or w/e.