# What is your list of ten "must-read" books?



## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Waaaay back in January 2002, I created the following list of books that I felt everyone should read, and posted it on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/2GFTKI477D5C4/ref=cm_pdp_lm_title_1

As you can see, I focused on stuff that involved being successful in life and understanding how the world works and how it got this way, since those were on my mind a lot at the time. If I made the list over again now, I'd make some changes, but most of these books would still be on the list. Your priorities may be different, you may be inclined to recommend profound fictional experiences or very hands-on books on things like being a fix-it wizard in home or garage.

Anyway, what are YOUR list of ten essential books everyone should read? you don't have to make an Amazon list, just post 'em here. (but if you want to make an amazon list and link to it, that would be cool also!)


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## BoomerSoonerOKU (Nov 22, 2009)

Wow!  This is definitely an ambitious thread.  I'm going to have to think a while before I commit to my list, so this is my placeholder.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

The more I think about it, the harder it will get. So I pulled 30 books I adore, read and re-read and sorted and re-sorted until I decided to stop. I'm sure if I did this exercise again tomorrow, it would be a different list.

1.	The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 
2.	A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
3.	The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling
4.	Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card
5.	Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler 
6.	Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice 
7.	Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank 
8.	I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
9.	The Collected Poetry of W.H. Auden
10.	Intervention by Julian May


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## Malweth (Oct 18, 2009)

I don't know if this is even possible for me.

There have to be 10 classics I think everyone should read. Most of us probably have read them -- in High School. I can't find myself qualified to write such a list, and cannot possibly try.

There may be 10 books that most define me or most define my "reading style." This list I could probably come up with, but I can't recommend the books to others unless they have a similar "reading personality" to mine. This is my list:


*1.* _Mastery_, George Leonard (Non-fiction)
*2.* _The Once & Future King_, T.H. White
*3.* _The Dark is Rising_, Susan Cooper
*4.* _The Hobbit_ & _The Lord of the Rings_, J.R.R. Tolkien
*5.* _Dragonsong_, _Dragonsinger_, & _Dragondrums_, Anne McCaffrey
*6.* _Rascal_, Sterling North
*7.* _The Count of Monte Cristo_, Alexandre Dumas
*8.* _Dune_, Frank Hebert
*9.* _The Wheel of Time_, Robert Jordan
*10.* My latest favorite book, currently _The Remains of the Day_, Kazuo Ishiguro

Disclaimer: 
This list subject to change without notification. This list is based on a poor memory and instantaneous whim of its creator. This list does not include certain books that could not be located (out of print and out of mind), but which should have made the list because of their personal influence. This list does include books I don't well remember, but whose influence was greater than most. Other books make the list due to the number of times I read them.


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## Malweth (Oct 18, 2009)

It seems like these lists can be written in many different ways. The problem being (my first point above) that it's difficult to define the list of books everyone _should_ read.

My list above contains some of the books most influential in my life. One could also provide a list of one's most recommended or recommendable books.

Is the aim the latter? My list would be significantly different.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

So subjective that it changes from minute to minute, but ones that made a big enough impression on me that I still recall them:


My Top Ten Essential Non-fiction books

1. Levels of Knowing and Existence - Harry L. Weinberg
2. The Manhood of Humanity - Alfred Korzybski
3. Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu
4. The Natural History of Nonsense - Bergen Evans
5. The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
6. Kicking the Sacred Cow - James P. Hogan
7. A Glimpse of Nothingness - Jan Van de Wetering
8. How We Know What Isn’t So - Thomas Gilovich
9. The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives - Leonard Mlodinow
10. Language in Thought and Action - S. I. Hayakawa

My Top Ten Essential Fiction books

1. The Hollow Man (The Third Coffin) - John Dickson Carr
2. The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle
3. Dune - Frank Herbert
4. The Guns of Avalon - Roger Zelazny
5. The Egyptian Cross - Ellery Queen
6. Way Station - Clifford D. Simak
7. The Doorbell Rang - Rex Stout
8. Citizen of the Galaxy - Robert Heinlein
9. The Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov
10. A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller 


Mike


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## Winter9 (Jan 19, 2010)

Okay this is just so hard!  (Some are series or more than one book as in the Bible, they count as one) My list is as follows:

- The Bible
- The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
- The Long Walk by Stephen King as Richard Bachman
- The Shack by William P. Young
- Constance Ring by Amalie Skram 
- The District Governor's Daughters by Camilla Collett
- Victoria by Knut Hamsun
- Watership Down by Richard Adams
- The Legend of the Ice People by Margit Sandemo
- The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

puh, that was hard!


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I'm going to treat some multi-volume books as single entries. I'm not sure how much this list "should" be read by others, but if they do read it, they'll probably have a better understanding of me. The order is in great doubt, other than I'm sure Zelazny's "Amber" series would always remain on top.

1. The original "Amber" series by Roger Zelazny (_Nine Princes in Amber, The Guns of Avalon, The Sign of the Unicorn, The Hand of Oberon,_ and _The Courts of Chaos_)
2. _Good Omens_ by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
3. _Lord of Light_ by Roger Zelazny
4. _Night Watch_ by Terry Pratchett
5. _The Lord of the Rings_ trilogy by J.R.R. Tolstein
6. _The Elegant Universe_ by Brian Greene
7. _Dune_ by Frank Herbert
8. _The God Particle_ by Leon Lederman
9. _Always Faithful_ by William Putney
9.5 _A Canticle for Leibowitz_ by Walter M. Miller (Had to squeeze this into the list somewhere  )
10. _The Longest Day_ by Cornelius Ryan (or _A Bridge Too Far_ - I'm not sure which of his I'd choose)


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

Quite a few of the items on other lists made it into my top 30 .... but this was hard - and subject to change at random.

At first I was going to put together a _*should*_ list but most of the books that we just HAD to read as a lit student didn't do much for me ... like Milton's_ Paradise Lost_ - such a snoozefest that I didn't even keep it like I did all my other college books.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Geoffrey said:


> Quite a few of the items on other lists made it into my top 30 .... but this was hard - and subject to change at random.
> 
> At first I was going to put together a _*should*_ list but most of the books that we just HAD to read as a lit student didn't do much for me ... like Milton's_ Paradise Lost_ - such a snoozefest that I didn't even keep it like I did all my other college books.


Oooh...I looked at your list again and realized I left _A Canticle for Leibowitz_ off of mine. Now the problem is deciding what to bump for it. Maybe I'll just make mine 11 long....


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## Thalia the Muse (Jan 20, 2010)

Essential Books (or at least, ones that had a major impact on me – your mileage will probably vary!)
Non-Fiction:

Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen
Gastronomical Me, M.F.K. Fisher
Shot in the Heart, Mikal Gilmore
The Orchid Thief, Susan Orleans
The Diary of Ann Frank
The Panda’s Thumb, Stephen Jay Gould
A Distant Mirror, Barbara Tuchman
The Shock of the New, Robert Hughes
The Serpent and the Rainbow, Wade Davis
The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell

Fiction:

Watership Down, Richard Adams
Possession, A.S. Byatt
The Leopard,  Giuseppe di Lampedusa
A Shower of Gold, Eudora Welty
Catch 22, Joseph Heller
The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson
A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
Claudine at School, Colette
Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
American Gods, Neil Gaiman

Poems:

Love Calls Us to the Things of This World, Richard Wilbur
The Second Coming, W. B. Yeats
The Duino Elegies (I can’t choose among them), Rainer Maria Rilke
Falling, James Dickey
Fern Hill, Dylan Thomas
Wild Swans, Edna St. Vincent Millay
Sonnet 73 (that time of year thou mayst …), Shakespeare
Wild Geese, Mary Oliver
Kubla Khan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Sunday Morning, Wallace Stevens


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

01. _The Stranger_ by Albert Camus
02. _The Trial_ by Franz Kafka
03. _Lolita_ by Vladimir Nabokov
04. A Collection Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
05. _Dune_ by Frank Herbert
06 _Waiting for Godot_ by Samuel Beckett
07. _Crime and Punishment_ by Fydor Dostoevsky
08. _A Confederacy of Dunces_ by John Kenndy Toole
09 _In Cold Blood_ by Truman Capote
10. _The Border Trilogy_ by Cormac McCarthy


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## Margaret (Jan 1, 2010)

1. _Tales from Shakespeare_ by Charles and Mary Lamb
2. _The Once and Future King_ by T.H. White
3. _The Caine Mutiny_ by Herman Wouke
4. _A Whole New Mind_ by Daniel Pink
5. _The Joy of Cooking_ by Erma Rohmbauer
6. _Anotated Classic Fairy Tales_ by Maria Tatar
7. _Pride and Prejudice_ By Jane Austen
8. _The Chosen_ by Chaim Potok
9. _The Poems of Gerard Manly Hopkins_ 
10._Huckleberry Finn_ by Mark Twain

These are the books I come back to again and again for various reasons. They are also books that i would replace without question if they disappeared from my personal collection.

I forgot _And then There Were None_ by Agatha Christie. That should probably be in there someplace.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

Wow, as with many people, this list is subject to change without notice or reason! 

Not in a top-ten order.

1. The Count of Monte Cirsto







by Alexandre Dumas
2. Pride and Prejudice







by Jane Austen
3. Crime and Punishment







by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
4. Howards End







by E.M. Forster
5. The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy
6. "The English Patient" by Michael Ondaatje
7. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd







by Agatha Christie
8. "Anna Karenina







by Leo Tolstoy
9. "The Painted Bird" by Jerzy Kozinski
10. "The House of Mirth







by Edith Wharton

And I must beg for an 11th.

11. Wuthering Heights







by Emily Bronte.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Thanks for all the great replies!  I'm surprised how many books on some of the list are also books I really like, even if they don't make my "top ten".  As for whether to do nonfiction or fiction, I think the choice people make between those fields is pretty interesting in itself.  I chose nonfiction for my books, but clearly many people feel differently (which is great).  So I'd say to go with whichever category (or mix of them) you choose!

Keep on posting, folks!


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## eldereno (Dec 27, 2009)

Geoffrey said:


> The more I think about it, the harder it will get. So I pulled 30 books I adore, read and re-read and sorted and re-sorted until I decided to stop. I'm sure if I did this exercise again tomorrow, it would be a different list.
> 
> 1.	The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
> 2.	A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
> ...


Since The Handmaid's Tale is #1 on your list, I may have to check out every other book there. I loved that book!!!!


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

eldereno said:


> Since The Handmaid's Tale is #1 on your list, I may have to check out every other book there. I loved that book!!!!


*blush*

Well, thank you for the vote of confidence. If you're going to try some, I suggest A Canticle for Leibowitz - unfortunately, it's not available for kindle yet. It's the story of a monastery in Colorado or somewhere about 500 years, 1000 years and 1500 years after a nuclear holocaust. I had to read it in high school and I've read it many times since then ...


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Geoffrey said:


> *blush*
> 
> Well, thank you for the vote of confidence. If you're going to try some, I suggest A Canticle for Leibowitz - unfortunately, it's not available for kindle yet. It's the story of a monastery in Colorado or somewhere about 500 years, 1000 years and 1500 years after a nuclear holocaust. I had to read it in high school and I've read it many times since then ...


I have it on my Kindle. It was a free download at Joshua Tallent's site last spring, during the International Week of the Ebook or whatever promotion was going on. Of course, I haven't read it yet, but I own it.

L


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## MConti (Jan 27, 2010)

1. _The Odyssey_, Homer
2. _Oedipus Rex_, Sophocles
3. _King Lear_, Shakespeare
4. _Othello,_ Shakespeare
5. _Jane Eyre_, Charlotte Bronte
6. _A Streetcar Named Desire_, Tennessee Williams
7. _The Unbearable Lightness of Being_, Milan Kundera
8. _Tropic of Cancer_, Henry Miller
9. _Post Office_, Charles Bukowski
10. _The Prophet_, Kahlil Gibran


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## TheSeagull (Oct 25, 2009)

Geoffrey said:


> *blush*
> 
> Well, thank you for the vote of confidence. If you're going to try some, I suggest A Canticle for Leibowitz - unfortunately, it's not available for kindle yet. It's the story of a monastery in Colorado or somewhere about 500 years, 1000 years and 1500 years after a nuclear holocaust. I had to read it in high school and I've read it many times since then ...


A Canticle for Leibowitz is available in an extra large print format here:
http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/title/canticle-for-leibowitz-in-extra-large-print-kindle-compatible-miller-ebooks.htm


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

TheSeagull said:


> A Canticle for Leibowitz is available in an extra large print format here:
> http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/title/canticle-for-leibowitz-in-extra-large-print-kindle-compatible-miller-ebooks.htm


Coolness. I was looking around after Leslie mentioned there was a version, but everywhere I looked had it listed as unavailable ...  .... a little worried about the large print though ....


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## summerteeth (Dec 23, 2009)

1. A Happy Death by Albert Camus
2. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Euginides
3. The Importance of Being Earnest
4. The Autobiography of Andy Warhol: from A to B and Back Again
5. White Oleander by Janet Fitch
6. Anthem by Ayn Rand
7. Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman
8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kasey
9. Sula by Toni Morrison
10. Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel


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## TheSeagull (Oct 25, 2009)

Geoffrey said:


> Coolness. I was looking around after Leslie mentioned there was a version, but everywhere I looked had it listed as unavailable ...  .... a little worried about the large print though ....


Well I'm pretty sure you could change the font size, through the Kindle itself or maybe Calibre.


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

Must reads for me would be:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (the whole series actually)
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (for some reason this story stuck with me in high school although at the time it wasn't an easy read)
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowlings (technically more than one books but I really think this is a great series)
The Diary of Anne Frank (such an important part of our worlds history that should not be forgotten)


That is all I can think of at the moment. I will edit this post when I think of more.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

As I mentioned in the OP, I wrote my Amazon list on this back in 2002. Now that time has passed, I think I'd still include the following books on my ten:

1. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, by Benjamin Franklin
2. Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787, by Christopher Collier _(I'll admit there are other books that would probably serve as well, but I think the topic is one US readers should be familiar with)_
3. In Search of the Light: Adventures of a Parapsychologist, by Susan Blackmore
4. Toxic Sludge is Good for you: Lies, Damn Lies, and the Public Relations Industry, by John C. Stauber _(he's published a "sequel" but I don't think it is as good)_
5. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond _(though I'll admit I'd consider substituting his later book, "Collapse")_
6. Say What You Mean, Get What You Want, by Linda McCallister
7. The Ten Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management, by Hyrum Smith _(I just reread this one a few months ago)_
8. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini
9. How to Lie With Statistics, by Darrell Huff

Actually, that means there's only one book I'd leave off! But I'm going to have to think about what I'd replace it with.


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## Basilius (Feb 20, 2010)

I don't know if I'll come up with 10 right now, but I can tell you one that's definitely on it that I haven't seen mentioned yet:

_Midnight's Children_ by Salman Rushdie. Not on the kindle, though. His best kindle book is probably _Grimus_. (I haven't read _The Enchantress of Florence_ yet, despite the dead-tree copy sitting behind me on the bookshelf.)

Shorter works that I think are must reads:

_A Boy and His Dog_ by Harlan Ellison and _The Persistence of Vision_ by John Varley. (The story itself, though the compilation it's in is overall quite good.)


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## DailyLunatic (Aug 4, 2009)

Man, this was a tough one. Thought it would be easier.

To me "Must Read" was something that I would 1] feel compelled to gift to another, 2] had moved me or learned from in some way, or 3] I could read over and over and still enjoy.

Had not considered Joy of Cooking until I saw it in another's list. Suddenly it jumped to No. 1 and bumped Mote to the 'also rans'. Seriously, I should buy stock in that one.

1]	*Joy of Cooking* - Irma S. Rombauer

2]	*The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant* _(Lord Foul's Bane, The Illearth War, The Power that Preserves)_ - Stephen R. Donaldson

3]	*The Lord of the Rings* _(The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King)_ - J. R. R. Tolkien

4]	*The Moon is a Harsh Mistress* - Robert A. Heinlein

5]	*The Hitchhiker's Guide the the Galaxy* - Douglas Adams

6]	*The Lords of Dûs* _(The Lure of the Basilisk, The Seven Altars of Dûsarra, The Sword of Bheleu, The Book of Silence)_ - Lawrence Watt-Evans

7]	*Ender's Game* - Orson Scott Card

8]	*The Book of Jhereg* _(Jhereg, Yendi and Teckla)_ - Steven Brust

9]	*20,000 Leagues Under the Sea* - Jules Verne

10]	*The Time Machine* - H G Wells

Also rans - 
*Neuromancer* - William Gibson
*The Mote in God's Eye* - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
*Dune* - Frank Herbert
*Dragon Riders of Pern Trilogy* _(Dragonflight, Dragonquest, The White Dragon)_ - Anne McCaffrey

Sterling
92.5% Pure


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## geniebeanie (Apr 23, 2009)

The Hobbit /JR Tolken
Lord Of The Rings triology/ JR Tolken
Dracula  /Stoker
The Scarlet Pimpernal /Orzy
Tale of Two Cities/ Dickens
War and Peace /Tolstoy
Gone With The Wind /Mitchell
In Cold Blood /Capote
10 Days That Shook The World /Brown
To Kill A Mockingbird / Lee


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## angel_b (Nov 18, 2009)

Geoffrey said:


> Coolness. I was looking around after Leslie mentioned there was a version, but everywhere I looked had it listed as unavailable ...  .... a little worried about the large print though ....


Geoffrey, from the website:


> The print in this version is equivalent to 20 point type. The largest print on the Kindle is ordinarily equivalent to 16 point type; the reader can reduce the size if desired.


After hearing so much about this book, I may even buy it myself.


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