Lists of Note
“Many of the lists offer advice that you will take to your grave. Some offer a snapshot of history previously unknown. Others are simply a joy to read. Each and every one, however, is certainly a list of note”
Available as eBook
The follow-up to the Sunday Times bestselling Letters of Note - this time editor Shaun Usher turns his hand to lists
Humans have been making lists for even longer than they’ve been writing letters. They are the shorthand for what really matters to us: our hopes and aspirations; likes and dislikes; rules for living and loving; records of our memories and reminders of the things we want to do before we die.
Just as he did with Letters of Note, Shaun Usher has trawled the world’s archives to produce a rich visual anthology that stretches from ancient times to present day. From Leonardo da Vinci’s to-do list to Charles Darwin on the pros and cons of marriage or Julia Child’s list of possible titles for what would later become an American cooking bible, Lists of Note is a constantly surprising A-Z of what makes us human. In its pages you’ll find 125 lists with facsimiles or illustrations, including:
1. A shopping list written by two ninth-century Tibetan monks
2. A handwritten list of the BFG’s favourite words by Roald Dahl
3. The 19 year-old Isaac Newton’s list of the 57 sins he’d already committed
4. Galileo’s list of the parts needed to build his telescope
5. Einstein’s punitive list of conditions imposed on his first wife
6. 29-year-old Marilyn Monroe’s inspirational set of New Year’s resolutions
7. Martin Luther King’s advice for black people starting to use buses
8. Johnny Cash’s list of ‘things to do today’
9. Michelangelo’s illustrated shopping list
10. Advice for ‘chick rockers’ by Chrissie Hynde
And many, many more…
“Beautiful and immensely satisfying”
Lauren Laverne
observer
See more reviews
”Lists of Note: 1. Splendid. 2. Addictive. 3. Sumptuously produced with interesting photos and facsimiles of actual list”
independent
“Dipping into it, with Usher’s interesting notes and asides an amiable companion, is fascinating”
observer
“Engrossing”
spectator
“A deeply moving book that uses its carefully selected details of the minutiae of human life to paint a panoramic mosaic of how we behave, how we hope, how we cope, care, hate, cry and love”
big Issue
Shaun Usher is a writer and sole custodian of the popular blogs www.lettersofnote.com and www.listsofnote.com. He has transformed both blogs into bestselling books, crowd-funded by Unbound and jointly published by Unbound and Canongate. He lives in Wilmslow with his wife Karina and their two sons. He is the author of the bestsellingLetters of Note, More Letters of Note and Lists of Note.
www.lettersofnote.com
www.shaunusher.com
Follow @LettersOfNote on Twitter
Lists of Note is a constantly surprising A-Z of what makes us human.
