Is it time to give James Joyce, and his Ulysses, another try? (The Associated Press) I got out the calculator: if I was to read one of these books a week - in chronological order, the way they're listed in the book - I could have them all read in 19.25 years. Byatt's The Children's Book, published last year. A literary life listĪnyway, there I was, solidly on the side of the anti-bucketers, when I came across this terrific book: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Peter Boxall, ed., Universe Publishing).Īs the kids say, OMG! A thousand and one novels, beginning with The Thousand and One Nights, written around AD 850, and ending up almost a thousand pages later with A. So you're bound, at some point, to have the odd regret about "the path not taken" - even if you're pretty happy about the path you took. Life is about making decisions, and choosing to do one thing usually means choosing not to do something else. The thing about these bucket lists - or life lists, if you prefer - is that they're based on the premise that if you get to do all these things you'll go to your reward with no regrets, having done everything you wanted to do in what was a fulfilling, adventurous life. I'd also like a tattoo, but only if I could wash it off in the morning. Personally I'd like to make it through the night without having to get up to use the bathroom. Not as inspiring as seeing the great pyramids, I suppose, but perhaps as satisfying in the end (pun intended). One of the more realistic books is 50 Things to do When You Turn 50, which includes down-to-earth goals like paying off your mortgage and getting a colonoscopy. Off to the Serengeti." It sounds a little … obnoxious. I'm left with the sense there are all these people out there hustling from one destination to the next just so they can tick it off in their journals: "Great Wall of China - good - done that. Soaking up the sun in Cancun doesn't cut it anymore - you've got to be hiking Lake Titicaca or exploring the Glowworm Caves of New Zealand. Glowworm caves? CheckĪ lot of these lists have to do with getting off your butt and going somewhere - preferably somewhere far from home that involves a certain amount of discomfort. We're probably both better off if he sticks with Angie. I don't know what Brad looks like in the morning, but I need two cups of coffee and a shower before I can face the day.
Waking up next to Brad Pitt, for example, which would probably give both of us a shock. The suggestions range from the mundane-but-achievable - like walking barefoot on the grass or taking a new route to work - to the highly unlikely. Any day now someone's going to come up with 1,001 lists you must make before you die.
There are bucket list travel books, bucket list movie books and bucket list blogs that tell you how to create your own bucket list. That is when they're not volunteering at Romanian orphanages, kayaking down the Zambezi or parachuting out of airplanes.
The world is suddenly full of brave, ambitious souls planning to swim with the dolphins, climb the Eiffel Tower and see the great pyramids at sunrise. Now you can't go anywhere without someone asking about your bucket list - what's on your list? What do you want to do before you die? Like Jack Nicholson, left, and Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List, brave souls are checking items off their life to-do lists.