My arguement will be, most of the skills I now possess are self-taught. And the ability to read, which I began prior to any public eduction, I stick at the top. A number of these books have had a profound influence on my ability to make personal decisions. The #2 book, “The Great Gatsby” probably had the most impact on my life, helping end an obsession with a cocaine addicted woman, when I was young. And in a round about way changed my life.

I would continue to argue reading a number of the books on the list, therefore would influence the way I would tell someone about by life, or how I would tell a story. Many of the American author’s– Caldwell, Dreiser, Steinbeck, London– have help this uncultured fool, without much in family, and often penniless to define himself.

I believe this list to be a wonderfull starting point.

I agree with Susan above – the list presented in 1998 gave me the structure to work with. Today I have ordered from the bookshop ‘Studs Lonigan’ and it will complete the full set for me. Very few presented a real challenge and boredom was never an obstacle, though I am not afraid to say the James Joyce deposited me in a wilderness!

I recall at the time each of the panelists insisting that a great many of their own personal choices were sadly ‘traded off’ in order to get a concensus. So I’m sure that a good number of those books mentioned by your correspondents would have been in the minds of the panel when reaching their final list.

I congratulate them on their choice and thank them for introducing me to world I never knew was out there.

Some of the best, and most important books in American literature just so happen to have been written in another language initially, but this, in no way, should lessen or diminish the gravity of influence and enlightenment they’ve lent to American literature, the American reader, and books, period!

It’s been said before, our own lists’ would look quite different, and that’s the beauty of reading- what we take from it is often unique and individual.

I just feel not being more inclusive, i.e. diverse, does an injustice to the universality of literature.

jb says: It is fiction. That doesn’t make it any less true, in fact, it probably makes it more so.

jb says: Hi Robin, thanks for that. But Camus wasn’t born until 1913, so I guess most of his writings came after that. Kafka’s Metamorphosis was published in 1915, and his other novels later still. Proust published the first part of Remembrance of Things Past in 1913. And Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain appeared in 1924. So they do qualify for the list, but they still didn’t get on it.