# What 10 books should all people peruse? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 11, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456 "2003-05-11T05:11:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/1 "2003-05-11T05:11:08Z")
I’m asking because yes, I DO intend to go read them, if there is any kind of consensus. I’m talking about fiction or nonfiction from almost any field of human endeavor: Art, History, Economics, Warfare, Poetry, etc., save one: Religion. Religion is a personal and very subjective thing, so please, nobody suggest the Bible, Koran, Talmud, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Jabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/2 "2003-05-11T11:42:22Z")
Since you requested it specifically, I shall not include The Bible. I shall only note that any such list that does not include The Bible has an air of futility about it. Non-fiction: The educated, well-informed person must know history and science, but the precise books vary. Read the most up-to-date ones ( and the ones recommended there). Finally, I shall restrict myself to books in the Western tradition, since I am not qualified to make recommendations from the Eastern one. 1. Plato, _The Republic_ 2. Sophocles, _The Theban Trilogy_ 3. Dante, _The Divine Comedy_ 4. William Shakespeare, Complete Works 5. John Milton, _Paradise Lost_ 6. _The Norton Anthology of Poetry_ 7. Leo Tolstoy, _Anna Karenina_ 8. Hermann Melville, _Moby-Dick_ 9. Charles Dickens, _Bleakl House_ 10. James Joyce, _Ulysses_ Of course, you can no more become well-read in ten books than you can learn General Relativity in an hour. If you want to do it [properly](http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/grtward.html), … ---
**Author:** ![Ravi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58956e/32.png) [@Ravi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravi)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/3 "2003-05-11T14:34:27Z")
#1 A Fly Went By…Mike McClintock #2 Goliath II a little golden book #3 Any Dave Barry Book #4 Any Isaac Asimov Book #5 through 10 Any Stephen King Book Who says I’m not a well rounded reader. rande… ---
**Author:** ![jeanster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc348/32.png) [@jeanster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeanster)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/4 "2003-05-11T16:42:34Z")
The Complete Robot, by Isaac Asimov (I’m currently reading this, so get your own copy) Watchers, by Dean Koontz (This is the one that got me hooked on Koontz) Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, by P G Wodehouse (or any of the Jeeves stories) The Liar, by Stephen Fry Mr. Bean’s Diary, by Robin Driscoll and Rowan Atkinson Blackadder : the Whole Damn Dynasty (contains the scripts of all four seasons) The Lord of the Rings, by Tolkien The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas The Complete Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame ---
**Author:** ![Liz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/liz/32/17737_2.png) [@Liz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liz)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/5 "2003-05-11T16:50:20Z")
I’m not going to include the old classics, as everyone else will, I think. Instead, I’ll give you ten that have been definitive in my life and reading experience. Belinda - Ann Rampling (aka Anne Rice) The Villagers: A Novel of Greenwich Village - Edward Field & Neil Derrick The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis Trilogy: A Boy’s Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, The Farewell Symphony - Edmund White Girls, Visions & Everything - Sarah Schulman The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas - Gertrude Stein The Complete Works - Anne Sexton Bastard Out Of Carolina - Dorothy Allison She’s Come Undone - Wally Lamb I think everyone should experience these at least once. Some of them I revisit time and time again. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cherry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cherry)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/6 "2003-05-11T16:52:29Z")
I have two The Prophet, Khalil Gibran The Art of War, Sun Tzu ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/7 "2003-05-11T17:08:07Z")
In no particular order, but numbered to keep it straight: \*\* 1. Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. 2. Hamlet by William Shakespeare 3. Brother’s Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 4. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 5. Dubliners by James Joyce. 6. Neverending Story by Michael Ende 7. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis 8. The Watchmen by Alan Moore ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/8 "2003-05-11T17:22:38Z")
Read widely. Read varied. Read deep. Read what speaks to you. Do not read lists compiled by others. Above all, read often. ---
**Author:** ![Slindorff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Slindorff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slindorff)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/9 "2003-05-11T17:47:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Exapno Mapcase \* > \*\*Read widely. Read varied. Read deep. Read what speaks to you. > > Do not read lists compiled by others. > > Above all, read often. \*\* Yep. Agreed, 100%. That said, here’s my list of favorites from my bookclub’s 10 year archive 🙂 _Handmaid’s Tale_ - Margaret Atwood _Yellow Wallpaper_ - Charlotte Perkins Gilman _Emma_ - Jane Austin _Wicked_ - Gregory Maguire _The Sparrow_ - Mary Doria Russel \*Neuromancer \* - William Gibson _To Kill A Mockingbird_ - Harper Lee _Possession_ - A.S. Byatt _The Red Tent_ - Anita Diamant \*A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana \* - Haven Kimmel \*The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay \* - Michael Chabon ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/10 "2003-05-11T18:03:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Exapno Mapcase \* > \*\*Read widely. Read varied. Read deep. Read what speaks to you. > > Do not read lists compiled by others. > > Above all, read often. \*\* C’mon, **Expano** , these lists are just suggestions to help **Lizard** avoid the mountains of wasted paper out there that are on a par with daytime television. Don’t kill the thread just because you can’t think of any! 😉 _Huckleberry Finn_ or any book by Mark Twain _The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll_ (in ten volumes…if you can find them) _Brave Men_ by Ernie Pyle _City Boy_ by Herman Wouk _Working_ by Studs Terkel _Unpopular Essays_\* by Bertrand Russell _Shogun_ or any book by James Clavell _It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It_ or any book by Robert Fulghum _The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam_ translated into English quatrains by Edward FitzGerald _The Grapes Of Wrath_ or any book by John Steinbeck ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/11 "2003-05-11T18:23:01Z")
Lots of excellent suggestions here, and doubtless a multitude of others just waiting to be mentioned. That said, I’ll just suggest the addition of: A really good unabridged dictionary. The story of words is always fascinating. An excellent world atlas. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/12 "2003-05-11T19:36:02Z")
Huckleberry Finn by Sam Clemens The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by Shirer The Moral Animal by Robert Wright The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking The Odyssey by Homer Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien The Bible by various authors ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/13 "2003-05-11T20:28:38Z")
I’m truly scared by some of the names here. If you’re wanting 10 books to read on a plane, I can understand Dean Koontz or Stephen King, but rather than snipe further, this is my list of works of genuine artistic and social importance in Western culture (apart from the Bible). I have avoided anthologies. Ulysses - James Joyce (the greatest experimental novel in the English Language, and great fun) Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman (defined American poetry up to the present day. Also awesomely beautiful) Moby-Dick - Herman Melville (the definitive novel about the development of capitalist America, a great adventure story and a big influence on the likes of Pynchon) Divine Comedy - Dante (a classic of imaginative literature whose influence is still felt today, and whose religion is always balanced by humanism and satire) Crime and Punishment - Feodor Dostoyevsky (the pinnacle both of the realist novel and the psychological novel) Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison (the point at which American black literature became more clever and inventive than white literature) Hamlet - William Shakespeare (great story, great jokes, great characters) Ariel - Sylvia Plath (Not just a great poet, but the supreme symbol of the artist in late-20th C society) Paradise Lost - John Milton (the most insanely ambitious work in English Literature, by arguably the greatest figure in English letters) The Trial - Franz Kafka (another work that absolutely defined the last century) ---
**Author:** ![Liz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/liz/32/17737_2.png) [@Liz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liz)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/14 "2003-05-11T21:02:03Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m truly scared by some of the names here. That’s pretty offensive, dude. I purposely listed books that _I_ found to be of great importance to _me_. Nowhere did I claim they were astounding works which the like we’ve never seen before. I listed things that truly made me think and reexamine my own life and thoughts. It would be easy to take a potshot and say that you’ve probably never read ninety percent of the books on your list, but I’m not going to. Hey, you probably have, and that’s great. So have I. They’re all incredible works of art, but everything need not be over a thousand pages long and written in obscure terminology to be of importance or value. I’m not trying to bust your balls, man. I’m just saying…don’t knock what’s important to other people simply because you may not agree. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/15 "2003-05-11T21:15:29Z")
_A Confederacy of Dunces_- John Kennedy Toole _Reflections on a Ravaged Century_- Robert Conquest _The Great Gatsby_- F. Scott Fitzgerald _Of Mice and Men_- John Steinbeck _Choke_- Chuck Pahlaniuk _To Kill a Mockingbird_- Harper Lee _The Genocides_- Thomas Disch _The Scarlet Letter_- Nathaniel Hawthorne _The Black Book of Communism_- Stephane Courtois, et. al _The Savage Wars of Peace_- Max Boot ---
**Author:** ![sivispacem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b19c9b/32.png) [@sivispacem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sivispacem)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/16 "2003-05-11T21:22:29Z")
The Little Prince The Phantom Toolbooth Both readable by just about any age, and both have all kinds of life lessons - regardless of background, age, etc. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@The\_Tof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tof)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/17 "2003-05-11T21:49:39Z")
I read at one time, Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton. He has an essay in there about why he wrote the novel. Essentially his friend taught a class called, “The Great Bores” or something like that. It basically taught the books that we are always told are great works of literature, but are long-winded, boring and generally tedious to get through. The class was intended to teach the book and its significance and its style without having to read the whole book. (Crichton wrote the book because Beowulf was included in the class, and he felt it shouldn’t have been, because it was far from boring. So he took up a bet to re-write it.) I bring this up, because some of these lists look like books that belong in this class. Either that or book snobbery. (For example- Moby Dick. Holy crap-- It probably took Melville 20 years to write, just from falling asleep at the typewriter all the time.) Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read a number of these books, and I understand their significance. Some of them are quite good. But like Queergeekgirl said, they had no bearing on me personally. I mention this not to insult anybody who listed those books, or who like them. But to explain my list. Also like Queergeek girl, these are books that affected me personally. Not necessarily “great” works of literature. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (this one is a kids book, but its the first ever book to really get to me.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@The\_Tof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tof)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/18 "2003-05-11T22:03:18Z")
poop… I posted my list before it was complete. grr… OK. Starting over: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls Enders Game by Orson Scott Card The Gunslinger by Stephen King The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (I don’t necessarily agree with her philosophy, but again its a book that made me consider things differently) Pretty much any Shakespeare. Thats all I can think of for now. I’m sure later tonight I’ll think of 10 more. ---
**Author:** ![Slindorff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Slindorff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slindorff)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/19 "2003-05-11T23:15:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Screeme \* > \*\* > > ------8\<----stuff snipped----8\<----- > > I bring this up, because some of these lists look like books that belong in this class. Either that or book snobbery. > > ----8\<----more stuff snipped----8\<----- > > \*\* I almost included _Les Miserables_ on my list…but really that was mostly a favorite because finishing that beast deserves an Endurance Award. Bits are fantastic…others (like, say the rant about Spanish Nuns or the whole bit about Parisian sewers) are tedious in the extreme. On a different note, I’m pleased to See _To Kill A Mockingbird_ showing up in so many lists. It’s always nice when other people also like one of your favorites. ---
**Author:** ![HelloKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456/20 "2003-05-11T23:28:12Z")
Here’s 10 that have influenced me greatly in life: _Charlotte’s Web_ - E. B. White _The Giving Tree_ - Shel Silverstein _A Wrinkle in Time_ - Madeline L’Engle _To Kill a Mockingbird_ - Harper Lee (seems like most of us are in agreement on this one!) _Seabiscuit_ - Laura Hillenbrand _Weaveworld_ - Clive Barker _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_ - Ken Kesey _Different Seasons_ - Stephen King (this book has the stories “The Body” and “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”, which I loved even before they became movies) _Cosmos_ - Carl Sagan Oh, yeah, and how about: _The Straight Dope_ - Cecil Adams (that book definitely changed my outlook on life…I read it when I was like in 8th grade!) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-10-books-should-all-people-peruse/174456.md?page=2)