Over the last few months, I have added two new pages to the website and made significant changes to several others. Here are the updates:
Best Works of Civil Engineering
Best Works of Civil Engineering – Chronological
From the Great Pyramid of Giza to the International Space Station – with lots of buildings, bridges, waterworks, canals and tunnels in between: the greatest achievements in civil engineering. Plenty of diagrams and photos.
Best Short Stories of All Time – The Critics’ Picks
I have added links so that the full text of nearly every story on the list is now just a click away.
Best Works of Art of All Time – The Critics’ Picks, Part 1
Best Works of Art of All Time – The Critics’ Picks, Part 2
Art History 101 – Part I: The Prehistoric Era – 1399 CE
Art History 101 – Part IIA: 1400-1499
Art History 101 – Part IIB: 1500-1599
Art History 101 – Part III: 1600-1799
Art History 101 – Part IV: 1800 – Present
I increased the size of the images in many cases and added images in other cases. I also significantly revised or completely rewrote a number of the essays accompanying each work of art.
You are doing God’s work, my dear sir. You are amazing. I enjoy reading all of your lists. I am an avid list aficionado for anything culture related.
For your literature lists, you mention that you use twenty-five lists and aggregate the results to form one mega-list. May I ask what your sources are? I recently found a great resource for classic literature at http://sonic.net/~rteeter/greatbks.html. They aggregate a wide variety of “must read literature” into one concise list at the bottom of the page. I noted that some of the books mentioned in these lists, such as those noted by prominent literary historian Harold Bloom as essential to the Western Canon, were missing from your condensed list. Would it be possible to do an update and include these lists as part of your list?
I want to thank you for all your hard work in compiling these lists. All your classical music picks are on one playlist on Spotify and it is great to listen to for work or just relaxing. Your literature lists give me an idea on what book to read next, and your art lists engage me by enabling me to explore various pieces of artwork from different eras and movements. I also use your compilations for fun facts at dinner parties so I thank you for that!
I am also an aspiring author so I hope to one day see my name on one of your lists. Thank you so much for your work and please continue this great work.
-S
Thanks so much for the vote of confidence and your support of the website! I am so glad that the lists are of us to you – I certainly have a lot of fun making them. Thanks also for the R. Teeter page – it is a great resource. I already have included many of those lists in my meta-list of literature, including Bloom’s Western Canon, but I do update occasionally to catch any new resources out there and also to keep the meta-lists up-to-date. If my meta-list doesn’t contain a book that is on the Western Canon or one of the other lists, that is probably because the book is not on multiple lists. I have a rule that if a book is on only one of the “Best Books’ lists, I will not include it in my meta-list. If I began including items that were only listed on one list (or in some cases, only two lists), my meta-lists would become too long and their usefulness would decrease significantly.
Thanks for the swift reply!
I completely forgot that you only include books that are on three or more lists. Thanks for the clarification!
I refresh your site every couple of days or so and I am always on the lookout for new, exciting posts. Keep up the great work!