# Books that everyone should read **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 25, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989 "2004-10-25T03:40:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/21 "2004-10-25T14:44:29Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > Ditto Sagan’s “The Demon Haunted World.” > Also “The Lucifer Principle” by Howard Bloom. I’ve read the first, and I agree, but I haven’t read the second book you mentioned. A friend of mine is reading it, so I’m curious: What’s it about and why is it good (perhaps this will be answered by the first question)? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/22 "2004-10-25T15:00:47Z")
Any book will do. I’m a firm believer that it doesn’t matter what you read so long as you read something. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/23 "2004-10-25T15:03:36Z")
\*\*To Kill A Mockingbird \*\* by Harper Lee ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/24 "2004-10-25T15:25:59Z")
_Down and Out in Paris and London_ by George Orwell, as well as collections of his essays. _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_ by Victor Hugo. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/25 "2004-10-25T15:35:13Z")
> [@JoeSki](#): > > **Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy** by Douglas Adams And if you don’t like it, I’ll shoot you. What? Aren’t we talking about being Supreme Dictator of the World? You can dislike the sequels but if you don’t like the first one I’ll know you don’t have a sense of humor. And no citizens without a sense of humor in \*my \* country. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JoeSki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/26 "2004-10-25T16:13:06Z")
Agreed. I put the two other books in my list mainly so people can draw a comparison between the world descripted in 1984, and our schooling system. I feel we need a drastic change when it comes to public schooling, and we’re not going to get it untill become become aware of what the actual problems are. **Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy** was added just so the person reading will learn that reading _can be fun_. You wouldn’t believe how many people out there refuse to believe this. Yes, I think them reading a small, 200 page book could change the way many people see books in this country. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/27 "2004-10-25T16:20:19Z")
The Science of Discworld. It’s fiction and non-fiction. By three guys, one of which is Terry Pratchett. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/28 "2004-10-25T16:24:19Z")
Fiction _The Phantom Tollbooth Catch-22 Small Gods Witches Abroad Guards! Guards! The Hobbit Lord of the Rings Titus Groan Gormenghast The Grapes of Wrath Vanity Fair Emma David Copperfield Hamlet Macbeth Othello King Lear Twelth Night The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Ender’s Game Hyperion The Catcher in the Rye The Illiad The Odyssey_ Nonfiction _Guns, Germs, and Steel The Origin of Species The Big Bang The Prince Leviathan Second Treatise on Civil Government The Communist Manifesto The Lives of the Noble Greeks Knowledge and Social Imagery The Bible_ ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/29 "2004-10-25T16:36:01Z")
Another vote for **Demon Haunted World** Any collection of **Mencken** **I Know This Much is True** by Wally Lamb **A Book Of Five Rings** by Musashi **Jitterbug Perfume** - Tom Robbins ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/30 "2004-10-25T16:49:26Z")
I second _Night_ by Elie Wiesel and recommend _Five Chimneys_ by Olga Lengyel, \*Black Boy \* by Richard Wright, _Journey Into the Whirlwind_ by Eugenia Ginsberg, and _Darkness at Noon_ by Arthur Koestler. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/31 "2004-10-25T19:26:17Z")
_Animal Farm_, not just because of the social commentary, but also because it’s an enjoyable story. It’s layered, and I like that. I find that a lot of these social commentary lit-class books focus so much on their symbolism and such that the _story_ itself is kind of crappy, and that makes for a book that’s important, but not very good. This one, otoh, is both important and good. _To Kill a Mockingbird_, for a lot of the same reasons listed above. _The Enchanted Forest Chronicles_ by Patricia Wrede, mostly because they’re just a lot of fun, and I think it’s important for people to have fun reading. You’re never going to get people to look at a lot of the books on these lists as anything but a chore if they don’t enjoy reading. Besides, I think it’s a really good thing for people, especially kids and most especially young girls, to see a female protagonist who’s strong, smart, independent, and brave. ---
**Author:** ![Graycat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Graycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Graycat)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/32 "2004-10-25T20:43:06Z")
_Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds_ by Charles Mackay. First published 1841; shows the eternal human will to be stupid. A primer for basic skepticism. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/33 "2004-10-25T22:23:43Z")
I think it would be helpful if you wrote a paragraph or so why everyone should read the book you chose. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/34 "2004-10-25T23:34:27Z")
Well… If I was supreme dictator, I wouldn’t want anybody reading anything. They might get unhealthy ideas. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/35 "2004-10-26T00:21:59Z")
The Bible, or at least the Gospels. Obviously a must-read for anyone claiming to be a Christian or anyone claiming to have an opinion on Christ or Christianity. Something like _Little House on the Prairie_ that shows how people actually lived back before all our modern conveniences. Thoreau’s _Walden_ (+ “Civil Disobedience”) Carroll’s _Alice_, Milne’s _Pooh_, Baum’s _Oz_, Doyle’s _Sherlock Holmes_, Dickens’s _Christmas Carol_, Twain’s _Tom Sawyer_: go back and see the humor, joy, imagination, and fun in the originals, before they were dumbed down, Disneyfied, Hollywoodized, or diluted and dispersed throughout popular culture, ---
**Author:** ![ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c77e96/32.png) [@ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/36 "2004-10-26T03:36:48Z")
\*Blindness \* by José Saramago. It’s mindblowing. A statement about what it means to see and be seen, how it is we know we exist, and what happens when we feel like we no longer do. An epidemic of contagious blindness sweeps the world, leaving people reliant on each other, afraid of each other, hunting blindly for food and a place to sleep and a way to keep warm. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/37 "2004-10-26T03:44:48Z")
A Short History of a Small Place and Pride and Prejudice. Both are terrific character studies, with wonderful details. Both are also laugh-out-loud funny. I plan to read Short History aloud to my husband someday, so he can hear the Southern voice that Pearson captures so beautifully. Hey, maybe I should have him read Pride and Prejudice to me, so I can hear it in its proper accent. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/38 "2004-10-26T03:53:33Z")
[quote] **Ilsa** : Ilsa:Dubliners, A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake by James Joyce Ilsa! You have depth! (I bought a copy of _Ulysses_ from the bookstore that published it in Paris in the 1920’s – Shakespeare & Co – when I was there in April.) [quote] **Waccoe** : _The Sun Also Rises_ – The cafe where Hemingway wrote most of this book (and which serves as part of the setting) is still there in Paris too. I’m not sure that I’m spelling it right. I think it’s the Closerie de Lilas. I use photographs of it for bookmarks. (_Love_ the book too!) The book that I would most recommend for sheer amazing entertainment and genius of storytelling would be John Irving’s _A Prayer for Owen Meany_. My granddaughter made me read it and I will always be grateful. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/39 "2004-10-26T03:54:52Z")
Maybe I should also read **How to Code Good.** ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2004, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989/40 "2004-10-26T05:39:59Z")
I read _Guns, Germs and Steel_ twice so I’ve pretty much got it down(after the first read I wanted to dig into the details a bit more). I will state that without a doubt if you forced anyone to read this they would probably kill you. Forcing anyone to read about the migration of agriculture patterns would be frowned on. About the time the book gets cranking and the person has to read about squirrel competition for acorns and the long growth time of Oak Trees keeping humans from domesticating acorns, I would expect a knife in the back. After that bit of spurious commentary, I’ll say a good read is _The Goal_ by Goldratt. While it is a novel about manufacturing improvement, it has a lot to say about getting through life and getting what you want. Develop a goal and determine the steps needed in achieving that goal. A rather interesting read. Maybe not **everyone** should read it but I know many people who should. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-everyone-should-read/270989.md?page=3)