A Lifetime's Reading: The World's 500 Greatest Books

In a sense, this may be the most influential book I've ever read. I was given it in 1985 and still refer to it frequently. I can't praise it enough, and agree with everything the previous reviewer has written. Philip Ward's breadth of knowledge, intellectual honesty, love of reading, and excitment at sharing his literary discoveries shine out from every page. Inevitably, this book has dated somewhat since being published in 1982: If an updated edition were to appear, Ward's recommendations concerning music, graphic art reproduction books, and secondary sources (e.g. biographies or Web sites) would surely be revised to account for developments since the early '80s. But these are relatively minor quibbles. The core of "A Lifetime's Reading" - its list of 500 great books & Ward's introductions to them - remains an invaluable and engrossing guide. And now I can use the Web to track down those books recommended in "A Lifetime's Reading" that were virtually impossible to find back in the '80s! This book remains the best introduction and guide to the world of literature that I know.

If you've ever realised that you can't read every book ever written, and wondered how to track down the best of the world's literature, this book was written for you. The book is broken up into 50 "years" of reading, with approximately one book each month. Of course, if you read more than one book a month, it will take you less than a lifetime to get through them all. Some years are devoted to reading the literature of a certain area (Year 9 focuses on Italy, for example), but as a knowledge of any language but English is not assumed, good English translations are listed. It is the only book of its kind that I've ever found that includes literature from all over the world, not just Western literature - from African poetry to Chinese history to French philosophy and still includes classic English literature (a warning - some of the books can be hard to track down but if you love searching for books as much as I do, this will actually add to your enjoyment). If you find a reading particularly enjoyable, other books by, or about, the same author are given. The best feature of this book is the references made to other books, music, art, even ballets, that may help you enjoy the readings, e.g. it recommends looking at a specific book of Japanese art while reading "The Tale of Genji" and listening to Verdi's Othello (it even includes CD catalogue numbers) while reading the tragedies of Shakespeare. This book is the product of the author's lifetime of studying literature, and is an absolute joy. I'd recommend it to any lover of literature.