# Five books everyone should read before they die **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 5, 2007, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672 "2007-10-05T19:27:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/1 "2007-10-05T19:27:53Z")
…at least, according to you! I’m going to bypass such trivial works as _The Great Gatsby_ and _Moby Dick_ and go with: _A Prayer for Owen Meany_, by John Irving _Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates_, by Tom Robbins _The Blind Assassin_, by Margaret Atwood _Motherless Brooklyn_, by Jonathan Lethem _The Pigman_, by Paul Zindel This thread is also my sneaky way of compiling an interesting list for a new book-buying spree. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/2 "2007-10-05T19:58:49Z")
[QUOTE=TheMerchandise] This thread is also my sneaky way of compiling an interesting list for a new book-buying spree. [/QUOTE] You sneaky devil! None of my choices are anything like the books on your list but I’ll share them anyway. _The English Passengers_ by Matthew Kneale (historical) _Lonesome Dove_ by Larry McMurtry (western) _The Dollmaker_ by Harriett Arnow (Appalachian/WWII/family) _Fevre Dream_ by George R. R. Martin (vampire) _The Book of Joby_ by Mark Ferrari (coming of age/Arthurian) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/3 "2007-10-05T20:07:57Z")
Sure: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Anson Heinlein To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Silent Spring by Rachel Carson A Short History of the World by Herbert George Wells _(an excellent summary of world history up to around 1922)_ Jim ---
**Author:** ![NailBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@NailBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NailBunny)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/4 "2007-10-05T20:11:29Z")
_The Autobiography of Malcolm X_ - Alex Haley & Malcolm X _Another Roadside Attraction_ - Tom Robbins _Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas_ - Hunter S. Thompson _Perfume: the Story of a Murderer_ - Patrick Suskind _And the Ass Saw the Angel_ - Nick Cave The last four are just four very different examples of beautiful, invocative writing. The first is important for everyone to read, I feel. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/5 "2007-10-05T20:18:27Z")
There’s only one book in that category: _How to Live Forever._ Then you can take your time reading all the other ones. 🙂 OK, seriously: _On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection_ by Charles Darwin \*The Ancestor’s Tale \*by Richard Dawkins _On Human Nature_ by E. O. Wilson _The Feynman Lectures on Physics_ by Richard Feynman (Three Volumes) _An Enquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations_ by Adam Smith You didn’t say they had to be fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/6 "2007-10-05T20:33:25Z")
In no particular order: _The Unvanquished_ by William Faulkner _Mother Night_ by Kurt Vonnegut _We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families_ by Philip Gourevitch _A Confederacy of Dunces_ by John Kennedy Toole and… I can’t think of a fifth one, and I have to leave now. So, uh, the OED? ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/7 "2007-10-05T21:28:07Z")
A suggestion, tell us _why_ we should read those books before we die. Why are those five books on your list so important? What kind of meaning do they convey? Just making a list of books you like doesn’t really make me want to read them unless I think there’s something I could get out of them. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/8 "2007-10-05T21:38:16Z")
Just five? Shooting from the hip, I’d pick: _The Cry Of The Owl_ – Patricia Highsmith _Mildred Pierce_ – James M. Cain _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ – Mark Twain _The Art of Eating_ – M.L.K. Fisher _Zorba The Greek_ – Nikos Kazantzakis Come back tomorrow–or indeed, in eve a few minutes–and I’ll probably give you five more, like: _The Unbearable Lightness of Being_ – Milan Kundera _Keep the Aspidistra Flying_ – George Orwell _The Grifters_ – Jim Thompson _Euclid’s Elements_ – Euclid of Alexandria _The Gulag Archipelago_ – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn _Don Quijote de la Mancha_ – Miguel de Cervantes _Gulliver’s Travels_ – Jonathon Swift _The Spy Who Came In From The Cold_ – John le Carré …et cetera, ad nausum. Hell, the only proper way to answer this is that there are vastly more than five books you should read before you die. A coworker of mine once reported that her boyfriend/fiance had only read “for pleasure” four books in his life. That strikes me as being terribly sad. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/9 "2007-10-05T21:46:34Z")
Douglas Adams- Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency Robert Heinlein- Stranger in a Strange Land Orson Card -Ender’s Game Jerome Salinger- Catcher in the Rye Jane Austin- Pride and Prejudice ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/10 "2007-10-05T22:02:13Z")
Shakespeare - Complete Works Dickens - Complete Works Austen - Complete Works Feynman - Surely you’re joking, Mr Feynman? Tolkein - Complete Works (when it gets compiled into one volume). ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/11 "2007-10-05T22:14:02Z")
_Point of Impact_ - Stephen Hunter. Great action with cranky ol’ retired Marine sniper hunting down the guys that killed his dog. _Moonheart_ - Charles De Lint. Magic and mystery in the streets of Ottawa. Great escapism fantasy. _Time Enough for Love_ - Robert Heinlein. Because I couldn’t choose between all the great Heinlein novels _Band of Brothers_ - Stephen E. Ambrose. Miniseries on HBO (I think) based on this book. Follows 101st Airborne “E” company through Europe. _Neuromancer_ - William Gibson. Because this is _the_ cyberpunk novel and what I sometimes dream technology could become ---
**Author:** ![RMutt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@RMutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RMutt)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/12 "2007-10-05T22:22:24Z")
Catch 22 - Heller Lord of the Rings - Tolkein To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee Slaughterhouse 5 - Vonnegutt Candide - Voltaire I’m glad you kept it to five, but it’s a hard restriction to keep! How can I not mention Salinger, Roth, Updike, Darwin, Faulkner, so many more… ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/13 "2007-10-05T22:29:57Z")
_Flowers For Algernon_ - Daniel Keyes _Good Omens_ - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman _Cat’s Cradle_ - Kurt Vonnegut (other candidates: _Galapagos_, _Sirens of Titan_, _Player Piano_) _Othello_ - William Shakespeare (other candidates: _Macbeth_, _Romeo and Juliet_, _Much Ado About Nothing_, _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_) _The Demon-Haunted World_ - Carl Sagan (I haven’t actually read this one (not for want of trying), but if even half of what I’ve heard about it is true, it belongs on this list) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/14 "2007-10-05T22:32:56Z")
_The Sot-Weed Factorp_ by John Barth _Replay_ by Ken Grimwood _Gravity’s Rainbow_ by Thomas Pynchon _McTeague_ by Frank Norris _Catch-22_ by Joseph Heller. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/15 "2007-10-05T22:33:10Z")
_The Turner Diaries_, _Tommyknockers_, _Jonathan Livingston Seagull_, and any two of the _Left Behind_ books. That way, dying won’t seem so bad. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/16 "2007-10-05T22:43:03Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] _Replay_ by Ken Grimwood [/QUOTE] Oh sod it, how did I forget this one? Strike that Sagan book that I haven’t even read from my list, substitute _Replay_. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/17 "2007-10-05T22:48:48Z")
_A Million Little Pieces_, by James Frey _Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You To Know About_, by Kevin Trudeau _Find It, Fix It, Flip It!: Make Millions in Real Estate–One House at a Time_, by Michael Corbett _Godless: The Church of Liberalism_, by Anne Coulter _If I Did It_, by O.J. Simpson [spoiler]Okay, here the the real ones. At least one tragedy and one comedy by Shakespeare: _Hamlet_ and _As You Like It_ _All Quiet on the Western Front_ _To Kill a Mockingbird_ _Pride and Prejudice_ _A Soldier of the Great War_[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/18 "2007-10-05T22:50:13Z")
\*\*Miller, \*\*you forgot _Love Story._ **koeeoaddi,** you forgot the first edition of\* Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)\* (or as I called it, _The Big Golden Book of Lies)._ ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/19 "2007-10-05T22:53:07Z")
I believe “repressed” would be the more accurate term. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672/20 "2007-10-05T23:48:52Z")
I’m going to cheat and include one series: **The Oz Books** , by L. Frank Baum **Little Women** , Louisa May Alcott **Gone with the Wind** , Margaret Mitchell **Atlas Shrugged** , Ayn Rand **Gift of Fear** , Gavin de Becker [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-books-everyone-should-read-before-they-die/421672.md?page=2)