Some years ago, the reader and former bookseller James Mustich asked himself: \u201cWhat if I had a bookstore that could hold only 1,000 volumes, and I wanted to ensure it held not only books for all time but also books for the moment, books to be savored or devoured in a night? A shop where any reading inclination \u2014 be it for thrillers or theology, or theological thrillers \u2014 might find reward.\u201d This, he concluded, would be \u201ca browser\u2019s version of paradise.\u201d It would also be an apt description of his deeply impressive\u00a0\u201c1,000 Books to Read Before You Die.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n I can legitimately say \u201cdeeply impressive\u201d because I\u2019ve read three-quarters of Mustich\u2019s chosen titles and because \u2014 shuffles feet modestly \u2014 I\u2019ve written my own (very different) guides to good reading in my essay collections\u00a0\u201cClassics for Pleasure\u201d<\/a>and\u00a0\u201cBound to Please,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0the latter generously described here under the category \u201cbooks on books.\u201d In the interests of what is usually called full disclosure, I should also add that I\u2019m quoted several times in these pages and have occasionally contributed essays about neglected classics to the online Barnes & Noble Review, which Mustich once edited.<\/p>\n What first strikes anyone who picks up \u201c1,000 Books to Read Before You Die\u201d is the freshness of what its subtitle calls this \u201clife-changing list.\u201d According to Oscar Wilde, only an auctioneer can appreciate all forms of art, but Mustich comes a close second. Who else would have included Madeleine Kamman\u2019s\u00a0\u201cWhen French Women Cook,\u201d<\/a>Eugen Herrigel\u2019s\u00a0\u201cZen in the Art of Archery\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and \u201cThe 9\/11 Commission Report\u201d?<\/p>\n [What\u2019s the worst novel ever? It might be this 19th-century train wreck.<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n There have been plenty of previous guides for readers, though these have generally concentrated on long-established authors and titles. Think of Charles W. Eliot\u2019s Harvard Classics, Clifton Fadiman\u2019s\u00a0\u201cThe Lifetime Reading Plan,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Mortimer J. Adler\u2019s often-mocked\u00a0\u201cGreat Books of the Western World\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and, confusingly,\u00a0\u201c1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0edited by Peter Boxall with the help of many contributors. More personal, and the better for it, are Martin Seymour-Smith\u2019s exceptionally lively\u00a0\u201cThe New Guide to Modern World Literature\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and eminent critic Harold Bloom\u2019s\u00a0\u201cThe Western Canon,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0while John Sutherland\u2019s\u00a0\u201cHow To Be Well Read\u201d<\/a>\u00a0risks becoming almost too breezy in its otherwise awe-inspiring familiarity with 500 great novels.<\/p>\n Still, Mustich\u2019s \u201c1,000 Books\u201d more than holds its own against these distinguished predecessors, largely because of its scope and diversity. Here one finds children\u2019s classics, such as William Steig\u2019s\u00a0\u201cAbel\u2019s Island\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and Ruth Krauss\u2019s\u00a0\u201cA Hole is to Dig,\u201d<\/a>masterpieces of science fiction (the novels of Philip K. Dick, Samuel R. Delany\u2019s\u00a0\u201cNova\u201d<\/a>), polemics by Jane Jacobs, Betty Friedan and Ta-Nehisi Coates, high spots of modern fantasy (Mervyn Peake\u2019s Gormenghast trilogy, Ursula K. Le Guin\u2019s\u00a0\u201cA Wizard of Earthsea,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0John Crowley\u2019s\u00a0\u201cLittle, Big\u201d<\/a>), science popularizations such as Paul de Kruif\u2019s\u00a0\u201cMicrobe Hunters\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and Stephen Jay Gould\u2019s\u00a0\u201cThe Panda\u2019s Thumb,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0intellectual and military histories (Elaine Pagels\u2019s\u00a0\u201cThe Gnostic Gospels,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Shelby Foote\u2019s \u201cThe Civil War,\u201d John Keegan\u2019s\u00a0\u201cThe Face of Battle\u201d<\/a>) and inimitable humor from James Thurber, S.J. Perelman and Dawn Powell.<\/p>\n Let me quickly stress, though, that Mustich doesn\u2019t neglect the usual golden oldies, such as Plato\u2019s dialogues, Shakespeare\u2019s plays and Jane Austen\u2019s novels. He does favor modern Anglo-American literature and certain once-trendy bestsellers, but he also celebrates dozens of idiosyncratic titles, among them some of my favorite books. For instance, he includes James Lees-Milne\u2019s hilarious autobiography, \u201cAnother Self,\u201d Cyril Connolly\u2019s reflections on the writing life, \u201cEnemies of Promise,\u201d Robert K. Merton\u2019s Tristam Shandyish history of the phrase \u201cOn the Shoulders of Giants,\u201d that great American novel about literary failure, Frederick Exley\u2019s \u201cA Fan\u2019s Notes\u201d and even the best of all comic mysteries, Edmund Crispin\u2019s \u201cThe Moving Toyshop.\u201d Most surprising of all, there\u2019s an entry on the six volumes of the addictive, deliciously bookish correspondence between retired Eton teacher George Lyttelton and publisher Rupert Hart-Davis.<\/p>\n Organized alphabetically by author\u2019s name and enlivened with numerous illustrations (author photos, jacket covers), \u201c1,000 Books to Read Before You Die\u201d devotes three or four paragraphs to describing each chosen title. Doubtless the desire to save space explains why so few of these mini-essays proffer quotations to illustrate a particular book\u2019s distinctive style or charm. What Mustich says is invariably intelligent, but one frequently yearns to hear an author\u2019s actual voice. Some entries could also use a bit more salt. Mustich occasionally resorts to the desperate reviewer\u2019s go-to epithets, \u201ccompelling,\u201d \u201cgripping\u201d and \u201cmesmerizing.\u201d<\/p>\n [The most romantic novel you\u2019ve never read<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n That said, most people will find that \u201c1,000 Books to Read Before You Die\u201d invites rapturous browsing even while eliciting, and expecting, argument. Wallace Stevens, W.H. Auden, Paul Val\u00e9ry, Elizabeth Bishop, Pablo Neruda and many other major poets somehow didn\u2019t make the cut. Nor did the inimitable comic fantasist Terry Pratchett. The critic Hugh Kenner is featured, but not the far more influential (and equally readable) William Empson and Northrop Frye. Shouldn\u2019t the magnificent Persian epic \u201cThe Shahnameh\u201d be among the elect? And isn\u2019t\u00a0\u201cThe Time Machine\u201d<\/a>\u00a0the H.G. Wells masterpiece to highlight rather than the structurally disjointed and tonally unstable\u00a0\u201cThe Invisible Man\u201d<\/a>? Surely Penelope Fitzgerald ought to be represented by\u00a0\u201cThe Blue Flower\u201d<\/a>\u00a0rather than\u00a0\u201cOffshore\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and W.G. Sebald by\u00a0\u201cAusterlitz\u201d<\/a>\u00a0instead of\u00a0\u201cThe Emigrants\u201d<\/a>?<\/p>\n Picky, picky \u2014 especially considering just how much is packed into these tightly filled pages. Each entry is even followed by a short list of additional titles by the same author or on the same subject.<\/p>\n All in all, the literate public \u2014 what novelist Robertson Davies dubbed the clerisy \u2014 can only be grateful for, and awed by, this product of 14 years of reading and research, most of it clearly undertaken by Mustich himself, though he did enlist some specialist advisors and the assistance of co-authors Margot\u00a0 Greenbaum Mustich, Thomas Meagher and Karen Templer.<\/p>\n Still, all that effort paid off: It\u2019s hard to imagine that such a massive compendium could have been done better or demonstrate a more supple and catholic taste.<\/p>\n Michael Dirda<\/b>\u00a0reviews books each Thursday in Style.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rosetta.vn\/short\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/09\/WBJVTUGA54I6REGJEP4WH3VCAQ.jpg?w=750&ssl=1\")
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\n\u201c1,000 Books to Read Before You Die,\u201d by James Mustich. (Workman)<\/span><\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rosetta.vn\/short\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/09\/WGGLEBWA54I6REGJEP4WH3VCAQ.jpg?w=750&ssl=1\")
\nThe author James Mustich. (Trisha Keeler Photography)<\/span><\/div>\n