morninggray's list

I've currently read 52 of the books on the list. I know this is an extremely small amount. I've been thinking, and since I have always been a big reader, I guess it's partly due to the fact that being from the Netherlands you read a lot of different books. This means I probably haven't read some of the books that are considered 'absolute classics' in the English-speaking world, such as "The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe".

When going through the list I noticed that I actually only read the Dutch authors on there (which to my surprise were more than are considered worthy of the 1001 books to read before you die list - not that I don't agree with that: I really like Dutch children's books and dislike, but really hate isn't too strong a term, the average Dutch literature book) & Roald Dahl & Astrid Lindgren as a child. Almost everything else (with the exception of the ages 0-5), I've only read when I was 11 or older.

I want to catch up though. Probably I'll go through the ages 8+ and 12+ first. Anyway, I'll keep a record of my progress in this topic.

Books I've read up to 12/29/2009:

0-3:
10. Miffy - Dick Bruna
13. The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle

3+:
43. The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter
44. The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher - Beatrix Potter
46. The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck - Beatrix Potter
49. Winnie-the-Pooh - A.A. Milne
68. A Bear Called Paddington - Michael Bond
84. Mr Tickle - Roger Hargreaves
85. Lotta's Bike - Astrid Lindgren
133. Frog in Winter - Max Velthuijs
138. Guess How Much I Love You - Sam McBratney

5+:
181. Just So Stories - Rudyard Kipling
207. Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren
222. Jip and Janneke - Annie M.G. Schmidt
266. Tow Truck Pluk - Annie M.G. Schmidt
297. The Enormous Crocodile - Roald Dahl
328. Matilda - Roald Dahl

8+:
390. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
395. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
402. Nobody's Boy - Hector Malot
412. The Happy Prince - Oscar Wilde
423. A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett
427. Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie
431. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
452: Little House in the Big Woods - Laura Ingalls Wilder
457: Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
480. Five on Treasure Island - Enid Blyton
481. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
508. Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis
540. Asterix the Gaul - Rene Goscinny
542. James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl
561. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
569. The King of Copper Mountain - Paul Biegel
571. The Magic Finger - Roald Dahl
585. The Little Captain - Paul Biegel
599. The Brothers Lionheart - Astrid Lindgren
600. Crusade in Jeans - Thea Beckman
623. Ronia the Robbers Daughter - Astrid Lindgren
624. The BFG - Roald Dahl
669. Almost Everyone Could Topple - Toon Tellegen
685. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling
697. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling
701. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling
711. Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
727. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne

12+:
745. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
825. The Letter for the King - Tonke Dragt
894. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole - Sue Townsend
971. I Am Polleke - Guus Kuijer
982. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
990. How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff
992. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

I'll do my list later but I agree that this list is much more culture-bound than the regular 1001 list: I recognize several English titles from the list through second-hand sources, through namedropping in other books, in conversations and such, but I have read very few of them.
In this sense it is nice to have a good selection of books from around the world (I haven't read all the finnish books though, as several of them are relatively new and thus came out after I ceased to be the target audience :) )

I also noticed when marking those books that it would probably be impossible for anyone to read them all, as that would require speaking several languages, not that many are translated into several languages...

I assumed that all the books in there have been translated to English, since all the titles seem to be in English. If that isn't the case than I can probably forget about reading them all (Not that I think that would've been a possibility). My German and French is okay-ish enough to read children's books probably, but anything outside English, Dutch, German or French will be impossible.

Apparently some of the titles are translated by the 1001 book author, though maybe being included in this list will boost up the chances for being translated.
My wild guess is that English+German+French+Spanish should cover about 98% of the list though. So I doubt running into lack of translations will be the limiting factor :)

Hehe, no Spanish for me though. I noticed some titles in other languages when I went over the list again, at least one in German. Whenever I go through the list again I see another book that I have actually read but didn't notice yet. So I went from 45 to 48 now. Wow. Haha.

5> I hope you're right that being on the list will make the titles more likely to be translated.

If they revise the list every couple of years like the other 1001 book has been, then maybe I'll be able to read 1001 off of the combined lists over my lifetime.

There probably are also some books which I don't recognize by name but if I saw the illustrations or something I would recognize them :)

Comparing our lists...I note you have read more of the classics, Peter Pans and Little Princes and such, but none of the comic books like Asterix or Tintin. Not a comic fan, or did you just happen to miss them?

I wasn't sure if Asterix was the comic book, I read those, or well the ones my mother used to have. My parents used to not really like comic books for their children. I never was a big fan of those, although I did read the Donald Duck weeklies when I was about 10. I don't think I've read Tintin, but I should look up the Dutch name for it. Ah, just did, I did read some of those, but I don't remember the one about the communist in particular, so I'm going to keep that one as unread.

With the books for 0-5 year olds, I think seeing the illustrations would help a lot.

The Tintin book selected for the list is the first, the rarest and the worst so it's no major loss if one hasn't read it (while some of the later albums are definitely worth reading).
Of the entries I recognized that one is definitely the most questionable pick and should there be a new edition, I hope it will be traded to Blue Lotus or something.

I read `When We Were Very Young´ by A.A. Milne yesterday. I didn´t expect to like a book of poems, but I did. Some I didn´t quite seem to understand, or just didn´t get the beauty of, but most made me smile. A kind of fond smile. I can´t explain it, really, it´s just something that touched me in a soft but cheerful way. I especially liked the poems that were about nature, or some of the longer ones, for example the ones about a bear that thinks he´s fat, or the one about the many things a chair can be for a child.