Bibliophile Challenge: 1

So the challenge begins! I've looked at the list of 1000 books that everyone should read by everyone's favourite lefty rag and I have only read the following:

Categories are: Comedy; Crime; Family & Self; Love; Science Fiction; State of the Nation; and War & Travel

1. Lucky Jim by Martin Amis
2. Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
3. Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
4. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
5. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
6. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
7. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
8. The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan
9. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
10. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
11. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
12. Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
13. Les Enfants Terrible by Jean Cocteau
14. The Bell Jar by Silvia Plath
15. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
16. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
17. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
18. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (current)
19. Persuasion by Jane Austen
20. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
21. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
22. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
23. Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
24. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
25. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
26. Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan 
27. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
28. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
29. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
30. The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
31. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
32. The Man who was Thursday by G K Chesterton
33. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
34. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
35. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J K Rowling
36. The Hobbit by J R R Tolkein
37. The Lord of The Rings Trilogy by J R R Tolkein (I feel like I've been mugged of two extra here)
38. The Time Machine by H G Wells
39. When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs
40. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
41. Cold Mountain by Charles Fraser

It's pretty easy to see where my prejudices lie: feelings, farce and fantasy. I've not read a single State of the Nation selection. Although in my defence I have read 3/4 of Vanity Fair as a thirteen year old but that book is a beast of a doorstop. 

If my readings were to be the pillars of the English Language then I lack the columns to uphold the structure. There are a few books like Brideshead Revisted which I love and yet aren't featured. Props to the British education system though, as five of those were forced upon me at some point, in varying states of willingness.

So in short, 41 down 959 to go.