Because I feel an unbearable need to measure my literary inadequacy against useless lists ...

Of the 501 Must-Read Books, edited by Emma Beare, I've read ... thirty-eight. I wouldn't agree with the entire list of books (does anyone really need to read Stephen King's It, Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, or Patricia Cornwell's Unnatural Exposure? I didn't think so), but, more than anything, I was pleased to find some interesting books--mostly in the Modern Fiction section--that I probably wouldn't have found on my own: Italo Svevo's The Confessions of Zeno, Isaac Bashevis Singer's The Magician of Lublin, Sándor Márai's Embers, and Ismail Kadare's The File on H, among many others. As I like to say, it should be fun.

Now, if I can only find them ...