The Infinity of Lists

The Infinity of Lists is a book by Umberto Eco on the topic of lists . The title of the original Italian edition was La Vertigine della Lista . It was produced in collaboration with the Louvre.
The examples of lists in the work range from Hesiod's list of the progeny of gods to Rabelais's list of bottom wipes.

Reception

Financial Times writer Simon Schama described the book as a delight: "profuse, plethoric, prolix, plentiful, playful, populous, picaresque, picturesque; copious, cornucopian, congested, clotted; incontinent, infested, infectious; omnivorous, orgiastic, odd; abundant, redundant; multifarious, multitudinous; glutted, gargantuan, inclusive, elusive, and...exhaustive." However, Schama also described it as exasperating: "If its pleasures easily overwhelm its irritants, that's because the book has the charm of extreme greed."