1001 Books To Read Before You Die Spreadsheet -

Not all spreadsheets are created equal. A simple list of titles is useless. After analyzing dozens of public templates and power-user versions, here are the 12 essential columns for the ultimate 1001 books to read before you die spreadsheet.

The list is intimidating. Let’s be honest: some of the books on there are slogs. I’m looking at you, 800-page modernist stream-of-consciousness experimental fiction. 1001 books to read before you die spreadsheet

When I first looked at the list, I felt defeated. I had read maybe 50 of them. I had over 900 to go. Not all spreadsheets are created equal

But the spreadsheet changed my mindset. I set up a conditional formatting rule (a fancy way of saying I made the cells change color). When I mark a book as "Read," the line turns green. Tracking when you read a book adds a

Watching that sea of white rows slowly turn green has become addictive. It gamifies reading. It turns The Brothers Karamazov from a homework assignment into a quest objective.

| Title | Author | Year | Language | Country | Edition | Pages | Read | Date Finished | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| Don Quixote | Miguel de Cervantes | 1605 | Spanish | Spain | 1st (2006) | 928 | | | Robinson Crusoe | Daniel Defoe | 1719 | English | England | 1st (2006) | 320 | | | Gulliver’s Travels | Jonathan Swift | 1726 | English | Ireland | 1st (2006) | 306 | | | Tom Jones | Henry Fielding | 1749 | English | England | 1st (2006) | 817 | | | The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman | Laurence Sterne | 1759 | English | England | 1st (2006) | 640 | | | A Sentimental Journey | Laurence Sterne | 1768 | English | England | 1st (2006) | 160 | | | The Sorrows of Young Werther | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | 1774 | German | Germany | 1st (2006) | 150 | | | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain | 1884 | English | USA | 1st (2006) | 366 | | | The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde | Robert Louis Stevenson | 1886 | English | Scotland | 1st (2006) | 144 | | | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Oscar Wilde | 1890 | English | Ireland | 1st (2006) | 254 | | | Heart of Darkness | Joseph Conrad | 1899 | English | Poland/UK | 1st (2006) | 112 | | | The Call of the Wild | Jack London | 1903 | English | USA | 1st (2006) | 172 | | | The Metamorphosis | Franz Kafka | 1915 | German | Austria-Hungary | 1st (2006) | 201 | | | Ulysses | James Joyce | 1922 | English | Ireland | 1st (2006) | 730 | | | The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald | 1925 | English | USA | 1st (2006) | 180 | | | Mrs Dalloway | Virginia Woolf | 1925 | English | England | 1st (2006) | 194 | | | The Sun Also Rises | Ernest Hemingway | 1926 | English | USA | 1st (2006) | 256 | | | The Sound and the Fury | William Faulkner | 1929 | English | USA | 1st (2006) | 326 | | | Brave New World | Aldous Huxley | 1932 | English | England | 1st (2006) | 268 | | | Murder on the Orient Express | Agatha Christie | 1934 | English | England | 1st (2006) | 274 | | | At the Mountains of Madness | H.P. Lovecraft | 1936 | English | USA | 1st (2006) | 186 | | | The Hobbit | J.R.R. Tolkien | 1937 | English | England | 1st (2006) | 310 | | | The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck | 1939 | English | USA | 1st (2006) | 464 | | | Native Son | Richard Wright | 1940 | English | USA | 1st (2006) | 448 | | | Nineteen Eighty-Four | George Orwell | 1949 | English | England | 1st (2006) | 328 | | |

Tracking when you read a book adds a historical layer to your spreadsheet. In ten years, you’ll remember The Corrections by the summer you were stuck at the airport.