Tachyon posted to Pyrzqxgl lists of "should-read" books. The lists were introduced with a message challenging Pyrzqxglites to "Take the RAT!" RAT stood for "Reading Aptitude Test." You scored one point for each book you had read. I scored abysmally. My abysmal score haunted me so much that I improved it!
My score also haunted me so much that I downloaded and saved a copy of the RAT, which is presented here. My loving restoration consisted of cutting and pasting. I vaguely recall that the list originally was compiled by some library association and that it contained no book published after 1960.
February 5, 1998: I discovered the source of the RAT, a publication called Timeless Classics, distributed by the US GSA's Consumer Information Center in Pueblo, Colorado.
February 2, 2009: the apparently-renamed Federal Citizen Information Center peddles a modern version of Timeless Classics called Summertime Favorites. Have fun figuring out what's in and what's out.
May 22, 2019: it seems the list at pueblo.gsa.gov is gone. (But see Summertime Favorites at the Internet Archive.) Web search turns up Summertime Favorites | National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), dated June 1, 2012. Also ERIC - ED292080 - Summertime Favorites., 1988-May-2 (via), a scan of what may be the original version in its typewritten glory. Justin case, we archived the PDF file and provide a direct link. Up next for me? Wuthering Heights
Created May 12, 1997.
Previously modified Monday, February 02, 2009.
Last modified
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
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