On his website, Garfunkel has kept track of every book he has read for the last 40 years. It’s more than 1,000 books, which really works out to just two a month, roughly. But by show biz standards, not to mention anally compuslive record-keeping standards, the guy deserves some props.

The full list is here.. It only runs through the end of 2007, and I couldn’t find any info on why it hasn’t been updated in six months.

So what does Art Garfunkel like to read? We finally have an answer to this eternal question. Pretty much everything. The early entries look like someone trying to improve himself: “Huckleberry Finn,” “The Brothers Karamazov,” “War and Peace.” In 1990 he read Balzac, Hemingway and Thomas Mann, but also Carrie Fisher’s “Surrender the Pink.” One of the last entries is “The DaVinci Code,” and I wondered if maybe he gave up reading after that one. Lord knows I was ready to give up after the first 100 pages.

I’m curious what the reaction is to Garfunkel’s list, both what’s on it and the listing process itself. Is there something about being an omnivorous reader that makes one want to keep a record?

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