November 27, 2004

Top books

Posted by Eszter

Since people on CT seem to enjoy book lists (of ones not read, favorites, ones every educated person should read, ones lesser-known) I thought I’d post a link to the OCLC Top 1000 list.

OCLC Research has compiled a list of the top 1000 titles owned by member libraries—the intellectual works that have been judged to be worth owning by the “purchase vote” of libraries around the globe.

The complete list page has links to top lists by genre. The site also features a page with fun facts about the list plus pointers to other top book lists.

Hat tip: Neat New Stuff.

Posted on November 27, 2004 04:10 AM UTC
Comments

#18 Garfield comic book?

Posted by rea · November 27, 2004 04:45 AM

Yeah, I noticed that, too. He outranks Macbeth. But this thread could be about other things besides the end of civilization. For instance, Shakespeare is clearly the most important author in the English language: I count 38 separate works of this (excluding film versions) in the full list, sixteen of which are in the Top 100. But who comes in second? It seems to be Dickens (15 or 16 on the list. After that the race tightens up. Steinbeck and Twain have nine entires apiece. Jane Austen has all six of her novels in the top 500. Toni Morrison (7) does very well, also. All of Joyce’s novels are there, too.

Overall, the main thing that strikes me about the list is its heterogeneity.

Posted by Kieran Healy · November 27, 2004 05:13 AM

From the “fun facts” section:

Which author has the most works on the OCLC Top 1000 list?

William Shakespeare (with 40 works). He is followed by Charles Dickens (16 works) and John Grisham (13 works).

Posted by Kevin Mulligan · November 27, 2004 05:32 AM

Garfield at #18 and Peanuts at only #70, that’s bad, though.

(It looks to me as though they bundled all anthologies of the same comic strip together, which would help account for Garfield’s high rank.)

Posted by Matt Weiner · November 27, 2004 06:16 AM

Too much good stuff here in one post. I’m bookmarking this exact post and coming back again and again!

Thanks.

Posted by DeAnn · November 27, 2004 06:58 AM

You’ll want to keep in mind that lots of OCLC libraries are public libraries which have a different mission and scope than academic or research libraries. Many research libraries belong to RLIN rather than OCLC, though I think some may belong to both. (I’ve worked at both OCLC and RLIN so I don’t think I’m especially biased one way or the other..)

MKK

Posted by Mary Kay · November 27, 2004 09:34 AM

My “best books” selection has just 60 titles on it - but then I’ve only reviewed 800 books!

Posted by Danny Yee · November 27, 2004 01:22 PM

Frankly, I’m amazed that the Critique of Pure Reason beat Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Posted by Erik · November 27, 2004 10:13 PM

For those interested in poetry, there are some glaring ommissions: Wordsworth, Keats, Dickinson, Frost, Eliot, Yeats. I suspect these libraries all have books by these folks, but the variety of editions evades the survey.

I nominate Lucretius for highest rated (#47) unread book.

Posted by Lawrence L. White · November 28, 2004 06:21 AM

I have a rough survey of the History and Asia books in the list here: http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/8733.html

Is it just me or is there an awful lot of 19th century novels on this list?

Posted by Jonathan Dresner · November 28, 2004 09:31 AM

Is it possible that the Garfield listing is a catch-all for all 40 (or however many) Garfield titles that are available? That would give it a pretty big boost.

It wouldn’t explain Garfield’s position relative to Peanuts, but that may be mostly a matter of tempus fugiting right along.

Posted by Doug · November 28, 2004 10:33 AM

Yah, I was awfully surprised to see Lucretius way up there. I’ve read it, but aside from my classmates, not a whole lot of folks I’ve known have. It deserves to be there, though.

Posted by Keith M Ellis · November 28, 2004 03:39 PM

Mind you, I don’t object to comics lke The Far Side or even Peanuts being on the list. There’s a certain amount of substance there, despite the pop culture format.

But Garfield?

Posted by rea · November 28, 2004 05:58 PM

I’ve read Lucretius, too, and have been planning to read him again, this time in English. Is there a good verse translation?

Posted by Tom · November 28, 2004 06:56 PM

I was surprised to see how much Robert Louis Stevenson there was up there. I believe four of the top 200 books.

Posted by Kenny Easwaran · November 29, 2004 10:51 AM

Over 10% (137) of the listings are music scores. Of them, a large proportion are operas, with vocal music in general outnumbering instrumental works (78 to 58). I have a post about this, as does Tim Rutherford-Johnson.

Posted by Scott Spiegelberg · November 29, 2004 06:06 PM

I think they’re collecting all editions together. Otherwise, the Bible would have been way ahead of the 2000 census.

Posted by Jeremy Pierce · November 29, 2004 09:34 PM
Followups

→ OCLC Top 1000 Books.
Excerpt: OCLC has a top 1000 of books in member libraries. I'm wondering why Lucretius is the highest philosophical work at #47. There's representation by Plato, Aristotle (in spades), Lucretius, Plotinus, Augustine, Boethius, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Kant, Rous...Read more at OrangePhilosophy

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.