call me shallow (no, actually please don't!), but i was going through a list of '100 books to read before you die' and became quite ashamed as i realised how few of them i've actually read.
examples:
in search of lost time by marcel proust - no
tristram shandy by laurence sterne - nein
suite francaise by irène némirovsky - non
the glass bead game by herman hesse - seriously?
but then i looked at someone else's list, far less high-brow,
and discovered i have (pretty much) read them all.
i feel much better about myself now.
forget the books, i shall instead be more selective about
which lists i read in future.