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Ever since Patricia Schultz’s “1,000 Places to See Before You Die” became a publishing phenomenon in 2003, bookstores have been swamped with life-list variations.

Some of the titles read like Onion parodies, as rival publishers search for an angle — any angle — to cash in on Schultz’s (and Workman Publishing’s) success: “50 Fish to Catch,” “101 Places to Have Sex” and the one-of-a-kind “100 Things to Do Before You Die (Plus a Few to Do Afterwards).”

But “1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die,” by Tom Moon, a former Philadelphia Inquirer music critic and an NPR contributor who has been a professional musician, deserves special attention. It is the first such life-list book from Workman since Schultz’s “Places to See” and its sequel, “Places to See in the U.S. and Canada.”

As such, it’s no rip-off — it is well-written and well-researched. Moon spent five years on the project and really listened to all 1,000 of his chosen recordings, rather than farming parts out to contributors.

Probably the greatest challenge Moon took on was including all recordings in his project, classical as well as popular, jazz and world. He’s gambling that enough people still like music in general to want a book that features both Van Cliburn and Van Morrison; Olivier Messiaen and Metallica’s “Master of Puppets.”

And he’s also taking a chance that enough people still respond to record albums as a cohesive work of art — as opposed to single-song downloads — to make this book relevant. (He has some classic hit singles on his list, like Dion’s “The Wanderer” or Billy Paul’s “Me and Mrs. Jones.”)

This project has other risks, a crucial one being how to handle baby boomer-era rock ‘n’ roll. That age group, which has driven the explosion in music books, is also the natural one for life-list books, for obvious reasons. And the rock fans among boomers don’t need another tome to tell them to hear the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper” or Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde” or Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.” On the other hand, if Moon omits the obvious, the book loses its integrity.

But he can’t just stack his choices with the familiar rock icons. Indeed, “1,000 Recordings” is liable to attract as much attention for what it leaves out. (The Beatles fare best with six recordings.)

By paring down the perennial A-listers, he has included enough rock surprises and obscurities to tickle those who want something more. And he makes the writing, itself, a delight.

Reviewing the 1971 Baby Huey and the Babysitters R&B release “The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend,” he says: “. . .The massive four-hundred-plus pound singer had a voice built for shouting and a gift for crooning intimate soul confessions as well as belting hard rock.” Makes me curious.

Or about Carl Perkins’ 1958 release, “Dance Album”: “Perkins’s crisply articulated guitar lines formed the cool strut that came to be called ‘rockabilly,’ and the attitude he put into them made every track he played on explode.”

Really, when you’re including every recording ever made, narrowing it to a definitive thousand is an impossible task. But it is not meaningless, especially when as much care is put into the enterprise as Moon provides.

True, those extremely familiar with jazz, rock, opera, Broadway, etc., will not turn to this as a sole source for their favorite genres — they’re beyond it. But they should like it because it offers lucidly written suggestions for expanding their interests and tastes, whatever their age. And younger people who know only downloads of current hits will discover recorded music’s history.

Hip-hop? Among Moon’s 33 recommendations are 2Pac’s 1996 “All Eyez on Me,” N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton” and De La Soul’s “Three Feet High and Rising.” The 161 jazz selections (including five with Miles Davis as leader) constitute a well-marked pathway through that music’s history — from Louis Armstong’s “The Complete Hot Fives” and “Hot Sevens,” recorded 1925-27, through swing, bop, cool, 1960s avant-garde and fusion to today’s best work by jazz’s brightest lights, like Dave Douglas’ 1998 “Charms of the Night Sky.”

Is there plenty to fight about? Sure. But that’s half the value, since you know the book is worth the argument because Moon put so much thought into it.

Steven Rosen is a freelance writer in Cincinnati.

NONFICTION

1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die: A Listener’s Life List, by Tom Moon, $19.95, paperback