Fun Statistics!

Here's my 100 Must-Read Books: An Inclusive List

How did I come up with thelist?
 
GENERAL CALCULATIONS
 
Out of 898 books, 130 of them were mentioned in 3-10 of the 27 lists.

 
Then those were narrowed down to:
 
100 books total by 86 authors
 
39 books by female authors
 
36 books in translation (not originally written in English)
 
26 books by world authors
 
25 books written in English by white men
 

5 books in translation by female world authors:
 
23. The Tale of Genji (1012) by Murasaki Shikibu (Japanese, ~973-1031)
 
27. Like Water for Chocolate (1992) by Laura Esquivel (Mexican, 1950- )
 
51. The House of the Spirits (1982) by Isabel Allende (Chilean, 1942- )
 
66. So Long a Letter (1979) by Mariama Ba (Senegalese, 1929-1981)
 
98. Half a Lifelong Romance (1948) by Eileen Chang (Chinese-American, 1920-1995)
 
 
HIGHEST RANKED
 
Overall (by a female) – 1. Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley (English, 1797-1851)
 
By a world author (and in translation) – 4. One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) 

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombian, 1927-2014)
 
By a white man – 9. Ulysses (1922) by James Joyce (Irish, 1882-1941)
 
 
OLDEST vs. NEWEST
 
Oldest overall book (in translation) – 24. The Iliad (~725 BC) 

by Homer (Greek)
 
Oldest by a word author - 45. One Thousand and One Nights (~750) 

by Unknown Collection (Middle Eastern and South Asian)
 
Oldest by a female - 23. The Tale of Genji (~1008) 

by Murasaki Shikibu (Japanese, ~973-1031)
 
Oldest in (Middle) English - 89. The Canterbury Tales (1300s) 

by Geoffrey Chaucer (English, 1340s-1400)
 
 
Newest overall book (in English by world female) – 55. The God of Small Things 

(1997) by Arundhati Roy (Indian, 1961- )

 
Newest in translation - 27. Like Water for Chocolate (1992) 

by Laura Esquivel (Mexican, 1950- )
 
Newest by a white author - 60. The Secret History (1992) 

by Donna Tartt (American, 1963- )
 
Newest by a man -100.  Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1991) 

by Haruki Murakami (Japanese, 1949- )
 
 
MULTIPLE BOOKS BY SAME AUTHOR
 
There are 3 authors that have 3 books on the list:
 
Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian, 1821-1881) – ranked 10, 18, and 68
 
William Faulkner (American, 1897-1962) – ranked 63, 77, and 82
 
Virginia Woolf (English, 1882-1941) – ranked 3, 6, and 42
 
Dostoevsky and Woolf both had a 4^th book removed from the list in order to allow for the recognition of other authors.
 
 
There are 8 authors who have 2 books on the list:
 
Joseph Conrad (Polish-British, 1857-1924)
 
Charles Dickens (English, 1812-1870)
 
Homer (Greek, BC)
 
James Joyce (Irish, 1882-1941)
 
Franz Kafka (Czechoslovak, 1883-1924)
 
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombian, 1927-2014)
 
Toni Morrison (American, 1931-2019)
 
Leo Tolstoy (Russian, 1828-1910)
 
 
These 11 authors make up 25% of the entire list!
 
 
FEMALE POWER
 
Of the 100 books, 39 are by women – 39%
 
Of the top 30 books, 15 are by women – 50%
 
Of the top 15 books, 9 are by women – 60%
 
Of the top 10 books, 7 are by women – 70%
 
Of the top 5 books, 4 are by women – 80%
 
ALL OF THE TOP 3 BOOKS ARE BY WOMEN – 100%!
 
 
AM I SPEAKING YOUR LANGUAGE?

36 books in translation

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION (by author)

World Authors (24) (NOT White North American or European)	White Authors (62) (North American or European)
Basic Locations:	Basic Locations:
North American – 7	British / English – 20
South American – 5	North American – 16
Asian – 4	French – 7
African – 3	Irish – 6
South Asian / Middle Eastern – 3	Russian – 4
Australian – 2	Greek – 2
	Other European - 7
Detailed Locations:	Detailed Locations:
American (USA) – 7	American (USA) – 15
Argentine – 1	British / English – 16
Australian / South African-Australian - 2	British- Dominican / Indian /              Polish / Zimbabwean – 4
Chilean – 1	British-American-Indian - 1
Chinese – 1	Canadian – 1
Colombian – 1	Czechoslovak - 1
Indian / Middle Eastern / South Asian - 2	French / French-Algerian – 7
Japanese – 3	German - 1
Kenyan - 1	Greek - 2
Mexican - 1	Irish / Anglo-Irish / Irish-British – 6
Nigerian – 1	Italian – 1
Peruvian-Spanish - 1	Roman - 1
Senegalese – 1	Russian / Russian-American – 4
Sudanese - 1	Scottish - 1
	Spanish – 1

 
 
DATE NIGHT
 

Detailed Dates:
~725-24 BC (~700 years) – 4 books	1910-1919 (10 years) – 4 books
~750-1472 AD (~720 years) – 4 books	1920-1929 (10 years) – 8 books
~1600-1605 (~5 years) – 2 books	1930-1939 (10 years) – 9 books
1726-1759 (~35 years) – 2 books	1940-1949 (10 years) – 7 books
1800-1824 (25 years) – 3 books	1950-1959 (10 years) – 7 books
1825-1849 (25 years) – 5 books	1960-1969 (10 years) – 11 books
1850-1874 (25 years) – 10 books	1970-1979 (10 years) – 5 books
1875-1899 (25 years) – 4 books	1980-1989 (10 years) – 8 books
1900-1909 (10 years) – 3 books	1990-1999 (10 years) – 4 books