Allow me a slight hijack on the Bible issue. It absolutely does not have to be read from any religious perspective, but I think should be read by everybody as a text which has profoundly influenced Western thought, history and art. I pick it up every few years and always find it interesting and always learn something I’m embarrassed I didn’t know before.
Anyway,
Moby Dick- Herman Melville
The Scarlet Letter- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Great Expectations- Charles Dickens
Vanity Fair- William Makepeace Thackeray
The Red and the Black - Stendhal
The Essays of George Orwell
The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson
The short stories of Jorge Luis Borges
Shakespeare’s Plays
Eugene O’Neil’s Plays
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller (This is the finest work of comic fiction ever.) The Runaway Jury by John Grisham (I will get hate mail for this one, but it is an amazing look into juries and how they can be manipulated.
Hmmm… just some random books that I think people should read, in no particular order:
Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien Ender’s Game by Orsen (sp?) Scott Card Paradise Lost by James Milton (Although many parts are truly skim-worthy)
The Bible To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond The Souls of Black Folks by WEB du Bois Roots by Alex Haley 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell The Gate to Women’s Country by Sherri S. Tepper The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (but don’t read it expecting sci-fi, cause you’ll be disappointed) Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
The poetry of John Keats
The poetry of Robert Frost A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess The Once and Future King by T. H. White Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White Shogun by James Clavell The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Anything by Jane Austen
This is an incomplete list.
Books/authors that should be read and discussed with others (IMHO):
Shakespeare
Ernest Hemingway The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
James Joyce
Toni Morrison The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Beowulf
This also is an undoubtedly incomplete list.
So basically, read lots of different stuff, often.
The parameters of your OP are a bit intimidating, I just don’t feel qualified to prescribe books. You might want to take a look at St. John’s “Great Books” list, their entire curriculum is based on them.
I do think these books provide interesting views of American life & would recommend them - they’re mostly of a lighter weight than previous suggestions, but I found them meaningful:
Frannie and Zooey, J.D. Salinger A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith Auntie Mame, Patrick Dennis (pseud. for Patrick Tannenbaum) Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry Roots, Alex Hayley The Cliff Walk, Don Snyder Different Seasons, Stephen King - yes, I know, but that kid & the Nazi are haunting, damnit!
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carrol
The Cat in The Hat - Dr Seuss
The Stinky Cheese man and other fairy tales
Where the wild things are
(dont know the author of the last two, but those 4 books got me through childhood)
Invisible Monsters - Chuck Pahlahnuik
American Pyscho - Brett Easton Ellis
The Beach - Alex Garland
American Gods - Neil Gaman
Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone (hell, why not!)
I agree entirely! And, as already mentioned, The Body and Shawshank Redemption are beautiful short stories. This book shouldn’t be dismissed as being “merely” popular fiction. (I have Issues about the turning up of noses at popular fiction).
I also agree with Jeanster that P.G. Wodehouse is a lot fun!
[hijack]Oooooh - don’t know if you guys are kidding, but now I wish I’d been more gutsy about listing my kid-book favorites:
Harriet the Spy & The Long Secret - Louise Fitzhugh
everything by Beverly Cleary
everything by E.B. White
the Henry Reed series by Keith Robertson
the Beany Malone series by Lenora Mattingly Weber
the Great Brain series (shades of Cecil!) by John D. Fitzgerald
(honestly, if you’re ever home sick from work on one of those nagging icky-itis days when what you really need is a comfort party, these are tasty & light, and more nourishing than Springer et al)
(ring ring…not that I ever skipped work a day in my life…ring…um, cough cough, I’m not feeling well, cough)
[/hijack]
As far as my personal favorites…I’ll have to get back w/ ya on that. My tastes are greatly varied. I’ll read practically anything if it keeps my interest. I read textbooks for fun.
Not too much fiction anymore but I’ve read many of the classics.
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra has to be included in any list of great novels IMHO.
Gulliver’s Travels
Moby Dick
Lord of the Flies
Robinson Crusoe
Lonesome Dove
Yeesh. Maybe the 10 books to read if you have insomnia (except some of shakespear and plato)
OP: This is impossible. we need to break it up into different sections, and you cannot become well read on a certain field by reading one book. What is the minimum number of fields we can divide into?
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy by Douglas Adams. (Comedy, and without a doubt, some of the greatest literary comedy ever)
The Age of Intelligent Machines, Ray Kurzweil
The Age of Spiritual Machines, Ray Kurzweil
Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
Hamlet, Will Shakespeare
The Hobbit, J.r.r Tolkien
Great suggestions all. Heads up on one “classic” to avoid is Moby Dick. If you’ve never heard of sailing ships or the sea, I mean never, this might not be a complete bore. The movie with Gregory Peck as Ahab is the superior telling. The latter mess with Patrick Stewart is just as boring as the book. Call me Ishmael.
Hamlet, MacBeth, King Lear, and Henry V, by William Shakespeare. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller. The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K LeGuin. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card.
We’ll have a consensus any minute now. Just you wait and see.
A quick search reveals “Jon Scieszka” for the first (which I haven’t read) and Where the Wild Things Are, (one of my fav books of all time) was written by Maurice Sendak.
Adding to the kid’s books (or read when feeling ill) list I offer: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and sequel The Moon of Gomrath by Allan Garner.
Well, when I first thought of this thread, I was thinking that people would reccomend Literature. I think Jabba’s recommendations come closest to what I was thinking. Although I think they’re good books, and I’ve read them all, I’m really surprised at the numbers of recommendations for “Ender’s Game,” various Stephen King books, et. al.
To me, those books are entertaining fiction, and no more. To meet the criteria I was thinking of (and, in truth, didn’t explain very well) fictional works should say something profound about the human condition to qualify as Literature. Otherwise, why should everyone read them? Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” is an example of what I mean. I’d say Asimov’s books such as “I, Robot” come close, since they are relevant to our day and age.
And I have to agree with japatigt about “Moby Dick.” What a yawn. The “greatness” of this work escapes me. I feel the same way about Toni Morrison.
Okay, one or two of these might have been mentioned, but here are my favorites (in no particular order)
-One Hundred Years of Solitude-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
-Love in the Time of Cholera-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
-The Satanic Verses-Salman Rushdie
-The Ground Beneath Her Feet-Salman Rushdie
-Haroun and the Sea of Stories-Salman Rushdie (childrens’ book)
-Never Cry Wolf-Farley Mowat
-The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be-Farley Mowat (childrens’ book)
-The Book of the Dun Cow-Walter Wangerin, Jr.
-Watership Down-Richard Adams
-Rabbit Run-John Updike
-Any of the Lad of Sunnybank stories by Albert Payson Terhune
-Catch-22-Joseph Heller (funniest book EVER)
-1984-George Orwell
