# What books should I have read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2004, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840 "2004-06-17T11:25:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tuco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuco)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/1 "2004-06-17T11:25:30Z")
I’m 22, and I’ve never been a big fan of reading books. So much so, that people act quite surprised when I tell them I haven’t read any of the famous books like Lord of the Rings, 1984, Sherlock Holmes, etc. So what are the famous books a 22 year old graduate should have read? Reccomendations please… ---
**Author:** ![Kymodoce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8797f3/32.png) [@Kymodoce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kymodoce)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/2 "2004-06-17T11:32:57Z")
I am not sure anyone can answer what you _should_ have read. You’re going to get a LOT of recommendations from people, based on their subjective judgements. Although I am an avid reader, I am going to limit myself to a dumb answer… you _should_ have started reading a whole lot younger 😃 OK, OK… try Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/3 "2004-06-17T13:34:10Z")
First of all, go grab a copy of _An Incomplete Education_. It’s essentially Cliff’s Notes for all the things you were “supposed to learn” but didn’t. It includes a bunch of useful history, art, and drama, and the literature section gets you through some of the “biggies”. Next, decide which kind of crowds you’re trying to please here–how well-read are they? What do they read for fun? _Lord of the Rings_ is a serious undertaking, and the books are marvelous. _1984_ is also a wonderful book. But many of the books that you’ll get shocked looks for not having read are not so much enjoyable as they are “important”. If you understand why they’re important, where they fit into the history of literature, you can probably skip them. For example, Dickens can be a lot of fun to read, but I found books like _Jane Eyre_ and _Pride and Prejudice_ tough to deal with; they poke fun at a society that no longer exists, so to me, the joke was lost if you didn’t live it or study it extensively in history class. Are you reading for pleasure, or to “check off the boxes”? If you’re just doing it because you feel you’re supposed to, your eyes are going to travel over each word in sequence, and hours later, you’ll set it aside and say “Hm. I guess that was okay.” That will almost certainly happen if you try to read Faulkner without preparing. If your goal is to read and appreciate the books, buy copies you can mark up, bring a highlighter or a pen, and be aggressive about marking them up as you read. “Looks like Sutpen is crazy” or “Keeps using the word HONOR” or “I think this character has a secret” and so forth. Read it once for plot and theme, and a second time to appreciate the foreshadowing and the structure of the book as a tool to convey the theme. To get a good selection, Google for “best book” lists or high school summer reading lists. Narrow it down to 20 titles that you’ve heard good things about, and since you’re just getting started, don’t focus too exclusively on one author. You may have to come back and ask SDMB questions like “okay, if I’m going to read ONLY ONE book by Vonnegut, which one should it be?” And if that’s not confusing enough, here’s my list, in no particular order: - _A Light In August_, _The Sound and the Fury_, or _Absalom! Absalom!_ - _1984_ and _Animal Farm_ - _Catch-22_ - _Heart of Darkness_ or _Victory_ - _Great Expectations_ - _Hamlet_ and then _Waiting for Godot_ and then _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead_ (it gets less depressing as you go!) - _The Lord of the Rings_ - _Lord of the Flies_ - _Ender’s Game_ - _The Great Gatsby_ - _The Catcher in the Rye_ - _Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas_ - _The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test_ or _The Right Stuff_ followed by _Bonfire of the Vanities_ or _A Man In Full_ - _The Watchmen_ - Any large collection of Roald Dahl’s short stories, and any two of his children’s books. And even if people really pound them home, I feel you can skip _Ethan Frome_, _Their Eyes Were Watching God_, and _Jane Eyre_, each of which I read twice and still failed to enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/59ef9b/32.png) [@Kaitlin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlin)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/4 "2004-06-17T13:50:20Z")
How about _To Kill a Mockingbird_? Even if you read it in junior high, I think it’s worth another read-through. I second _Ender’s Game_ for sci-fi, and _The Time Machine_ by Wells; with regards to fantasy, _The Last Unicorn_ and _The Neverending Story_ are obscure but wonderful. (Neither are, well, girly, and they’re both a lot more succinct than Tolkein.) I’ll be paying attention to this thread myself, since I’m woefully under-read. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/5 "2004-06-17T14:09:49Z")
> [@Tuco](#): > > I’m 22, and I’ve never been a big fan of reading books. So much so, that people act quite surprised when I tell them I haven’t read any of the famous books like Lord of the Rings, 1984, Sherlock Holmes, etc. > So what are the famous books a 22 year old graduate should have read? Reccomendations please… I haven’t read those books either, and I love reading. Really, is there a particular reason you want to read those books beyond “I shoulda done so?” Because as someone above pointed out, you’re not going to really get anything out of them if that’s the case. As much as I love to read (like many people, I have boxes and boxes of books that I’ve read, sometimes several times), I never liked having to read those “important” books in school, because they weren’t books I chose. If you want to read, start simple. _Harry Potter_, a John Grisham, or something equally popular. The more you read, the more you’ll desire to branch out. ---
**Author:** ![TwoTrouts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@TwoTrouts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoTrouts)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/6 "2004-06-17T14:33:01Z")
I agree with any and all of the choices above! My additions would include: “The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes” … or at least “The Sign of the Four” or “The Hound of the Baskervilles” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” Oh, there are just so many more!!! But, by all means read “To Kill a Mockingbird”! It will give you a good background before you tackle some of the earlier John Grisham novels. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/7 "2004-06-17T14:51:19Z")
> [@Jurph](#): > > - _Hamlet_ and then _Waiting for Godot_ and then \*Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. . . \* I was gonna chip in with **Shakespeare** but reading the plays is a bit odd, you really need to see them, The language makes much more sense when it’s spoken. I’m guessing **Tuco** that if you’re not the bookish type you’ve probably not got into Bill’s works. Top of the list would be Hamlet and Macbeth and then Richard III(not a sequel), The Tempest, Henry V(sort of a sequel), oops this list is getting a bit daunting. How about starting with some of Kenneth Branagh’s flicks, he’s done Hamlet, Henry V and some others. Honest watching these films is not a slog 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mithril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mithril/32/3517_2.png) [@Mithril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithril)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/8 "2004-06-17T14:54:31Z")
I’ve been working my way down this [list](http://members.tripod.com/lrmorano/booklist.html). Most of the books on there have been good, and they are accepted as classics. Just keep in mind that it’s a high school list. You’ll still get funny looks from avid readers if you finish the list but haven’t added _Lolita_, _The French Lieutenant’s Woman_, etc. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/9 "2004-06-17T15:43:36Z")
My two recommendations are **To Kill A Mockingbird** , which is a fun, entertaining read on the surface, but you can dig much deeper into it, and **Heart of Darkness** because it is still so commonly referred. You’ll even see movie scenes that take cues from Conrad. But it is not easy to read. ---
**Author:** ![YoudNeverGuess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a587f6/32.png) [@YoudNeverGuess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YoudNeverGuess)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/10 "2004-06-17T16:06:25Z")
I’ll second _Great Expectations_ (Charles Dickens) and add a few more: _Pride and Prejudice_ or _Emma_ or \* Sense and Sensibility\* - Jane Austen (yes they _are_ good and they are funny) Another vote for _Crime and Punishment_ - Dostoevsky _The Great Gatsby_ - F. Scott Fitzgerald _1984_ and _Animal Farm_ - George Orwell and _To Kill a Mocking Bird_ - Harper Lee Also: _The Grapes of Wrath_ - John Steinbeck _Anna Karenina_ - Tolstoy _Madame Bovary_ - Flaubert (though this is a little depressing) _A Confederacy of Dunces_ - John Kennedy Toole (have I got his surname right? :o ) and I know it’s long but it’s very commonly referred to and funny too: _Don Quixote_ - Cervantes I also enjoyed _A Man in Full_ more than _Bonfire of the Vanities_ (Tom Wolfe) but both are good. I loved _Bright Lights, Big City_ - Jay McInerney There are loads more. Something you could do is read two books at the same time - a long, old one and one or two short snappy modern ones for relief if the going gets tough, or alternate long, heavy books with shorter, lighter or more contemporary ones. Then eventually when you’ve done a fair bit of reading and if you’re starting to get into literature in a big way go ahead and tackle _Ulysses_ by James Joyce (well it was the Bloomsday centenary yesterday - I have to give it a plug 🙂 ). Though there are tough bits it’s well worth it and, I thought, a very uplifting and sweet book. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/11 "2004-06-17T17:44:24Z")
> [@Tuco](#): > > I’m 22, and I’ve never been a big fan of reading books. I’m of the view that reading is a skill just like most other things. If you start trying to read books with difficult phrasing, or ones written from another period, you may find yourself having no pleasure, all frustration, and no reason to continue on. Maybe you are one of those people who thrive on frustration and failure, but I’m definately not. With that in mind, I’d recommend Vonnegut’s novels. His books generally aren’t too big, and they are split into tiny sections with sometimes two major breaks on a page, so it is easy to go from section to section. He writes pretty simply, IMO, and in an easy, conversational tone. He is also fairly contemporary so that you don’t have to deal with archaic phrasing that can make some books a real chore. At the same time, he can be very deep and thought-provoking, and should be rightfully considered a major American author. Another author I’d recommend, just as much in fact, is Tom Robbins. His books _Even Cowgirls Get the Blues_ and _Another Roadside Attraction_ are two that I’d recommend right up front. I haven’t read his recent stuff, but his “older” books are great. He is another easy-to-read author who obtains some philosophical depth. Non-fiction-wise, I’d suggest _The Day the Universe Changed_ and _Connections_ both by James Burke. One book details a number of events that led to complete revolutions in the way we see the world, e.g. medicine before and after solving the cholera puzzle; the other is a number of histories of technological items, detailing the diverse and suprising _connections_ (get it?), and the obscure accidental observations, that made them possible. I didn’t start reading fairly seriously until I was twenty-three or so, and the two authors that I really delved into at first were Vonnegut & Robbins. If I had started with the Canon of Great Literature, then I would probably have given up fairly quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/12 "2004-06-17T18:21:47Z")
Henry Fielding, _[Tom Jones](http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/22/49/frameset.html)_. Nothing deep, but bawdy fun, a panoramic look at 18th century English society from high to low as the title hero gets by one scrape after another. It’s long but episodic; you can read the chapters as individual stories. Henry David Thoreau, _Walden_ and \*[Civil Disobedience](http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/civil/) \*. Walden is my favorite book, period. A timeless examination of values and spiritual quest vs. what modern society is doing to us. It seems to become only more relevant as time goes on. I strongly recommend the [annotated edition](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0395720427/qid=1087495133/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-0305937-5798561?v=glance&s=books), but you can still read the original text of Walden [online](http://eserver.org/thoreau/walden00.html). ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/13 "2004-06-17T19:13:08Z")
Sometimes I’ll read an anthology of short stories and if I enjoy a particular story, will then search out more by the author. And for someone who’s not a big reader, short stories are less of a committment than novels. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/14 "2004-06-17T19:25:28Z")
_Huckleberry Finn_ and anything else by Mark Twain. ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/15 "2004-06-17T19:36:59Z")
Making reading lists is fun! Some I haven’t seen suggested yet, or just want to second the suggestion already made: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, May Angelou The Color Purple, Alice Walker Flowers for Algernon, I can’t remember the first name Keyes Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ernest Gaines To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, D. Brown? The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank The Story of My Life, Helen Keller The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom Charlotte Jane Eyre, Brontë, Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper Catch 22, Joseph Heller A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/16 "2004-06-17T19:40:10Z")
I’ll third Ender’s Game (Don’t go on to the sequels for a while. It is a good sequence of books but they don’t necessarily follow the same themes and style). Classic Science Fiction: Dune (the first book, or the first three if you’re ambitious), Stranger in a Strange Land [Read the unabridged version first, compare with the 60’s edition (with 1/3 of the novel cut)]. I’m an unabashed Heinlein fan so any of the later books are good, save “The Number of the Beast” which has very flat characterization. Edgar Rice Burroughs is also a good place to start. Most of his work is very dated, but the stories are timeless swashbuckling good yarns. Character Driven Science Fiction: Try “The Dark Beyond The Stars” by Frank M. Robinson, a bit obscure but worth a read. “Steel Beach” and “Golden Globe” by John Varley are also worth a go: many references to Heinlein’s ideals as well as references to Shakespeare and the like. I’m also a fan of James Alan Gardner, YMMV Allusive [word coining alert] Science Fiction: Very dark, but try “The Gap” series by Stephen R. Donaldson based on “Der Ring des Nibelungen” Opera Cycle by Wagner. If you want a lighter start into Fantasy you might want to try David Eddings. Start with “The Redemption of Althalus” as it is a stand alone book. If you like the style, go for the Belgariad and Mallorean series. “The Hobbit” is a good intro to Tolkein. If you want to try John Grisham, I’d recommend “A Time To Kill”, his first book. It has it’s flaws but it is one of the few of his books I’ve been able to finish. Harry Potter is a good read, you might also want to venture into Philip Pullman’s “Dark Materials” trilogy (I’m suprised the rapid Anti-Harry fundamentalists aren’t in arms over this series!) Strangely enough, I haven’t read a lot of the “Classsics” that well read people are supposed to have gone through, I’m not culturally bereft because I’ve picked things up [cultural references] from other readings. The two main cultural sources that you will see over and over, especially in works from the earlier 20th century are the Bible and Shakespeare. I would suggest that rather than reading the plays, you go and catch a few: Hamlet is a must see (in a few different versions if you can [Mel Gibson’s Perfomance is typical, Kenneth Branagh’s is the complete text, see it live a time or two]). Romeo and Juliet is worth seeing (Personally I like the Baz Luhrman version, YMMV). There are a couple of other readily available movies of the plays: Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, both good. Modern Fiction: Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan books are good reads (political and action oriented), he has a gift for setting up disparate plot threads which tie together in the end. Start with “The Hunt For Read October” [if you want to see the movie, watch it first, then read (I’m still a fan of the movie and would likely not be if I’d read the book first]. David Morrel and Robert Ludlum are good for intrigue/thriller type books. Fluff, if you must: Clive Cussler’s a brutally easy read, his characters have a tendency to info-dump in their dialogue but his plots are fun. Michael Chrichton: good ideas but cops out in the end (most of his books could have the last two-three chapters ripped up and rewritten to finish the stories properly but they’re usually worth a read). Try “Airframe” to start. The “Classic Crichton” books are “The Terminal Man”, “The Andromeda Strain”, and “The Great Train Robbery”. Jurassic Park is worth a read, but there isn’t much more to it than what was in the movie. I’m sure many others can point out more general and/or classic literature choices, my specialty is genre fiction 🙂 In my “Must buy for Future Kids List”: Charlotte’s Web, Julie of the Wolves, Bridge to Terebithia, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM, Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Complete Roald Dahl Collection (thanks for the reminder **Jurph** ) and a few others (I will of course share my Harry Potter with them, if and when). Somebody’s bound to come up with a reading list including Edgar Allan Poe 🙂 -DF ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/17 "2004-06-17T20:40:07Z")
> [@AbbySthrnAccent](#): > > Flowers for Algernon, I can’t remember the first name Keyes That would be Daniel Keyes. _Childhood’s End_ by Arthur C Clarke Some thirty years ago I read somewhere that 50% of the adult U.S. population had never read a book in their lives, outside schoolwork. I was flabbergasted. I’ve seen regularly on the way to work a woman’s license plate frame: _So Many Books – So Little Time_. I instantly fell in love with her. DD ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/18 "2004-06-17T21:03:11Z")
The snob in me wants to point out St. John’s College’s[Great Books Program](http://www.sjca.edu/asp/main.aspx?page=1302) , but the slacker in me insists on mentioning that I’ve only read about five of the books on that list. I think every culturally literate adult should read some reasonably popular translation of the _Bible_, although whether you believe in it or not is entirely your affair. Angsty youths should read _On the Road_ by Jack Kerouac and _Catcher in the Rye_ by JD Salinger, just to see what the fuss is about. Every boy of a certain age should read the _Boy Scout Handbook_ just to see what basic skills he should have in life. There’s a set of children’s books called _Journeys Through Bookland_ that’s basically a survey course of western literature. Volume 1 is nursery rhymes and innocuous Bible stories, but the selections get progressively mature through the later volumes (some of them edited for brevity); Volume 10, the index, is the cribbed source of many term papers in my family. Oh, and some books that should be required reading at the high school level, but aren’t: _Parliament of Whores_ by PJ O’Rourke _On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft_ by Stephen King _Portnoy’s Complaint_ by Phillip Roth ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/19 "2004-06-17T21:07:36Z")
In addition to the above (sorry if I repeat something): James Clavell’s “King Rat” - it’s not very famous, but perhaps the most powerful book I’ve ever read. Bradbury’s “Martian Chronicles” and “Illustrated Man.” Huxley’s “Brave New World” Most stuff by Vonnegut - “Cat’s Cradle” and “Mother Night” are the best, and “Breakfast of Champions” is incredible after you’re acquainted with the author. “Atlas Shrugged” and “Anthem” by Ayn Rand. Fantastic narrative and philosophy coupled with some of the worst dialogue ever written. “The Fountainhead” is also supposedly good, but I haven’t been able to find a copy. The Autobiography of Malcolm X ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840/20 "2004-06-17T21:13:06Z")
If someone says they’ve nver cooked a meal before and want to know where to start, some of y’all would tell them to start with a delicate souffle, wouldn’t you? **js\_africanus** is right: reading IS a skill, and you’d no more start with the hard ones than you’d start learning to play fiddle by tackling Beethoven’s Ninth. Sure, those are great lists of books; but they’re not great lists of books for people unaccustomed to reading. **Tuck** what books have you read and liked? That’s a good indication of where to start. Daniel [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-should-i-have-read/250840.md?page=2)