The Infinity of Lists



The Infinity of Lists is a book by Umberto Eco on the topic of lists (2009) ISBN 978-0847832965. The title of the original Italian edition was La Vertigine della Lista (The Vertigo of Lists) (2009) ISBN 978-8845263453. 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 (in list form) 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."