Books About Lists

Introduction

April, being National Poetry Month, is a great time to explore books about lists. Not very poetic, but so closely looking to verses.

I get most of the knowledge in my life from books. Some books write about lists. Perhaps the most famous book on topic, a whole manifesto to them, is not a book about lists itself, but the book about checklists. You might know it, it is “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right” [1].

I love diving into the topics, and I came across the following choices of titles, which I now plan to read or at least scan to know of the theoretical and practical sides of the issue. I hope you’ll enjoy the reading and add something to your favorites.

So, the List

1. The Book of Lists [2] of all colors and sizes (parts 1, 2, 3, Football, London, Star Trek, Kids, etc.),
2. Lists of Note [3],
3. Forms of List-Making [4],
4. Enlistment [5],
5. Literary Lists [6],
6. A Narratological Approach to Lists in Detective Fiction [7],
7. Le pouvoir des listes au Moyen Âge – I [8],
8. Le pouvoir des listes au Moyen Âge – II [9],
9. Le pouvoir des listes au Moyen Âge – III [10],
10. Synopses and Lists [11],
11. Lists [12],
12. Shopping Lists [13],
13. Ancient Greek Lists [14],
14. The Charm of a List [15],
15. The Infinity of Lists [16].

These books were not easy to find. Usually when you search for a book on topic on the internet, you discover a list. A list of books on the topic out of your interest. So these picked ones are among my personal favorites and come highly recommended.

A Few Words on Every Book

The first item in the list formed its own culture of writers and readers. To find a huge collection of these books please visit the dedicated blog post.

The second book is a nice collection of historical list-related artifacts. This site contains some of my favorites.

Titles from 3 to 10 are the core of the new science called Listology. You can also read about it in the dedicated article. Listology has a big focus on the history of phenomena.

I haven’t investigated yet titles from 11 to 14. However, their ISBN is below in the list of links so they can also become one of your choices.

The last book is especially interesting. Its author is the renowned Italian scientist Umberto Eco. In his interview to Spiegel, which accompanied the release of the book and an exhibition dedicated to books, the author stated the following: “That’s why we like all the things that we assume have no limits and, therefore, no end. It’s a way of escaping thoughts about death. We like lists because we don’t want to die.” [17]

Conclusion

It feels like the reading will be captivating for all readers. Although who would have thought that the most boring thing in the world, the list, would immediately turn from its such an unexpected side.

Teachers can use these books to engage students with the concept of lists in literature. Moreover there is a decent number of books for teachers.

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List of Links

[1] Atul Gawande “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right”, ISBN 978-0312430009
[2] “The Book of Lists” on Wikipedia
[3] Shaun Usher “Lists of Note: An Eclectic Collection Deserving of a Wider Audience”, ISBN 978-1452144573
[4] Roman Alexander Barton, Julia Böckling, Sarah Link, Anne Rüggemeier “Forms of List-Making: Epistemic Literary and Visual Enumeration” ISBN 978-3-030-76970-3
[5] Eva von Contzen, James Simpson “Enlistment: Lists in Medieval and Early Modern Literature” ISBN 978-0-8142-8220-5
[6] Roman Alexander Barton, Eva von Contzen, Anne Rüggemeier “Literary Lists: A Short History of Form and Function” ISBN 978-3-031-28372-7
[7] Sarah Link “A Narratological Approach to Lists in Detective Fiction” ISBN 978-3-031-33227-2
[8] Claire Angotti, Pierre Chastang, Vincent Debiais, Laura Kendrick “Le pouvoir des listes au Moyen Âge – I” ISBN 979-10-351-0317-0
[9] Étienne Anheim, Laurent Feller, Madeleine Jeay, Giuliano Milani “Le pouvoir des listes au Moyen Âge – II” ISBN 979-10-351-0574-7
[10] Éléonore Andrieu, Pierre Chastang, Fabrice Delivré, Joseph Morsel, Valérie Theis “Le pouvoir des listes au Moyen Âge – III” ISBN 979-10-351-0866-3
[11] Teresa Bernheimer, Ronny Vollandt “Synopses and Lists: Textual Practices in the Pre-Modern World” ISBN 978-1-80511-148-1
[12] Malcolm H. Goyns, Lists, ISBN 978-0-9926660-2-6
[13] Ingrid Swenson, Shopping Lists, ISBN 978-1800818132
[14] Athena Kirk, Ancient Greek Lists: Catalogue and Inventory Across Genres, ISBN 9781108841139
[15] Lucie Dolezalová, The Charm of a List: From the Sumerians to Computerised Data Processing, ISBN 9781443802376
[16] Umberto Eco, The Infinity of Lists: An Illustrated Essay, ISBN 978-0847832965
[17] “We Like Lists Because We Don’t Want to Die” on Spiegel